Maze Running Competition

The entire campus was swept up into a happy buzz when the Student Council announced their plans for a competition through the trial grounds. The university promoted the competition as much as they could. This was the best news that students heard in a very long time. They were itching for some action after duels were banned.

Over the past few weeks, the research staff had been hard at work figuring out how to control the trial grounds, now officially named the Outer Gardens. There were many different types of competitions. The most basic were individual, team and class year, and then speed based and score-based trials. Even professors had their own competitions.

The university offered some serious rewards for high performers, like the equivalent of a magical Ferrari good. Spaces were limited, especially for first-years. A raffle was held to determine who gets a spot to compete. The Disciplinary Committee busily monitored raffle ticket trades and stopped raffle ticket thefts all day long.

For one week, the Student Council closed off the rear courtyard and lounge to non-competitors. Only staff members and competitors could enter. Competitor exclusive food and drinks were provided in the dining hall free of charge.

Tents for the residents were set up on the front lawn with display artifacts to show the progress of various competitors. Similar stations were set up across campus. Anyone could watch current and previous performances at any time of day no matter if they were students or professors.

A festive atmosphere lifted the spirits of all those on campus. The more enterprising students even set up stalls for food, drinks, games and betting. For the week of the competition only, the Student Council pretended to not notice the stalls.

The first day of trials started with a bang. The preliminary trial runs for the individual events started with a bang. If they weren't in class, then the students and professors were glued to the screens. The favorite competitions by far were the professor level ones.

The professors rarely had ways to properly battle each other, so everyone wanted to watch. Aayla had never seen such feats of magic. Aayla also never knew that the mazes could be so insane. Were they trying to kill their professors?!

Aayla didn't have much time to watch. She busily supervised the residence hall as many more people rushed in and out all day. There was no time for the gremlins to cause trouble. After checking the competitor only buffet for the fifth time that hour, she was on her way to solve another issue.

**********

A young lady kept her head down as she slipped inside the dining hall. This time she wore a simple dress, no jewelry and had dyed her hair and eyes into common colors with magic. Unless she spoke, most would realize that this plain young lady was Vanessa Landrienne, the obnoxious calamity of the Landrienne family.

She forced herself to eat the free food of the dining hall. For most it was of an excellent quality, but the meal was practically prison food for the girl who only had the best of everything. Vanessa coldly glanced around the dining hall.

Today, she came with a mission. Vanessa disguised herself as a regular commoner student for the past few days to avoid detection. Sure enough, no one recognized or really paid attention to her after she was quiet for a couple of days.

"Hey everyone! The next trial runs feature a team of professors! It's starting in less than a minute, so hurry up and grab a spot!"

The dining hall suddenly started to empty out. Students quickly choked down the rest of their food. There was no way that they could miss this. Vanessa waited until most of the students were already crowding around the trash cans and dish drop off carts to make her move.

A small vial rolled around in her pocket when she stood up to clean up her plate. Vanessa carefully patted the pocket to make sure that the vial didn't fallout. She definitely couldn't lose it at this stage. Even that stupid artifact spirit would notice if she so obviously dropped it on the ground.

Her knuckles turned white as she clutched her tray. Since that vixen stole her man, she should expect retaliation. Vanessa decided to do things herself this time. Enid was too obvious, but she had no one else that she could trust.

She reached into her pocket and opened the vial. A few small pills found their way into her hand. As soon as she passed by the competitor drink station, Vanessa pretended to be pushed into them. While pretending to stabilize herself, she stuck those pills into the spigots of the dispensers.

The pills instantly stuck to the metal thanks to the moisture lingering on them. No one would notice them. Vanessa smiled. Things were going well, but she didn't dare to stay for too long. Vanessa quickly dropped off her plates and walked outside to watch the competition.

She smiled grandly as she sat down in the back of a tent outside. Those pills were common poisons used to incapacitate but not kill. They would cause a severe fever, muscle cramps and stomach aches. Their most common use was to temporarily take opponents out of the way but look like a natural sickness or food poisoning.

Of course, there would be an investigation. All Vanessa had to do was find the perfect opportunity to place the pills in that vixen's bag or something. Then, the one blamed for poisoning the competitors should be that vixen. She cackled evilly. Since they stole her love, then she would rescue him and pay them back one hundred times over.

Unknown to her, several gazes watched Vanessa like a hawk when she pulled her little stunt. Several gremlins crawled out of the woodworks and suddenly decided to swim in the drink dispensers. Several students immediately found Aayla, who promptly scolded the gremlins and cleaned up their mess.

Dormi had much better surveillance than most realized, it just never revealed this. The gremlins had also been placed on security for this event. Dormi started employing them more often after seeing how Aayla spied on Vanessa and her associates.

(￣A￣) =3 -- That stupid hooman bothers this king. --

A bright pink gremlin coldly watched as Vanessa happily stepped into the tent outside. Her 'subtle' actions were not that subtle in the eyes of others. In fact, Vanessa's acting was obvious and atrocious. No one noticed due to the crowd and their desperation to get out of the dining hall quickly. The pills that she placed in the spigots were now in its hands.

< (￣-￣#) > -- Our turf! Only gremlins pranks! No one else! --

A curtain gently patted the grumpy pink gremlin on the back then rippled from side to side like a snake. Mayhem would get its chance, but not now. What Mayhem should do now was to preserve the evidence. No matter what, Mayhem would get his sweets.

< (￣o￣) > -- Yeah, yeah. Give to dis-eh-plin-aree hooman. Know. Don't let bully this king's hoomans. --

The pink gremlin hopped away. Dormi wanted to see what Vanessa would do first. If she went too far, then Dormi could get involved. Many had become too complacent and looked down on the artifact spirit since Dormi rarely acted. The windows solemnly gazed at the vengeful girl in the tent. It was time to issue a little reminder.

**********

Several hours later, Vanessa was highly anxious. The competition had ended for the day, but none of the competitors seemed to be sick. She had even checked the medical tents several times. There should be results by now. The poison that she bought should be fast acting.

Vanessa frowned as she walked around the departing crowd. Were they just acting, or was something wrong with the poison? That scummy vendor must have cheated her. She would deal with him later. Vanessa felt the pills and bottle in her pocket. Maybe the dose wasn't enough for everyone. However, at least a few should have gotten seriously ill.

She snuck into the woods. With no one watching, Vanessa used magic to change her eye and hair color back to normal. Elaborate embroidery appeared on her dress when mana ran through the threads. She pulled out jewelry wrapped in a cloak out from a tree. They were second hand goods, but they would have to do for now.

Vanessa pulled the hood over her face and walked back into the residence hall. She angrily pushed people aside as she entered. Ah, it was so nice not having to pretend to actually care about or respect the commoner trash anymore.

Tomorrow's efforts would need to be stepped up. This competition had to be ruined, and it had to be Aayla Glowery's fault. This would be only the beginning of her revenge. The vixen and those who supported her would pay dearly. A deadly fire burned in Vanessa's eyes. Daren Forolan was hers for all of eternity, and she would make everyone remember that.