The Trip Part-2

"Keep your IDs with you," Robert instructed as we entered the halls of the academy. We had to take special lessons on spells. After that, we were free to explore the city.

"The basic origin of the personal spell comes from the user itself." the professor explained. He was a young man, with a little chubby body. He wore glasses and had combed but curly hair. He was older than Robert and had several hairs turning white probably due to stress. "Even if we use a simple non-elemental spell, each person is going to get different results. Let's have a demonstration."

He called out two people and told them to repeat a spell after him. When they did, the two had different reactions, as the professor told us earlier. one got surrounded by a vortex, the other one got up as his footing rose up by one meter.

"This is a defensive spell. it acts according to the user's element as well as their primary survival response." Professor continued explaining, "fight or flight, it is mainly divided into these categories. For example, if you tend to fight, a wall will be formed and give time for a counter-attack. if you tend towards flight, an escape route will be created for you."

This lesson went on for an hour. Prof. taught us various spells, but I was able to learn only one of them, the defensive spell. Well, I did have a limit for learning spells anyway. When I used the spell, dust was spread all over. The entire room was covered with dust after I used it.

"it is always unpredictable when a person with no affinity uses this spell." Prof. was clearing out the dust as he explained, "while elements have fixed properties and can be predicted to some extent, your usage of this spell can have different results each time. keep that in mind when you use this spell. you can get back to your seat now."

I got a random result each time I used the spell, while the people with lighter mana get to choose to some extent. I looked at Rose using different elements in front of the class, and I felt a little defeated. I crossed my arms and felt something in my pocket, it was the dagger dad gave me yesterday. {What for?}

"Alright students, this is enough for today. nice teaching some young minds once in a while. See you tomorrow." The lesson ended.

"Hey!" I called out to her, "Rose, are you free Wednesday?"

"um," she excused herself from her friends and walked over to me, "What's up Ray?"

"I am going to buy my phone. Would you like to come with me?"

"Okay." she agreed, much to my relief. "I'll meet you in the common room around four."

"Sounds good. see you then."

***

I got ready as soon as I could. face cleaned, hair done, clothes checked, I got to the common room before four. I had kind of outdone myself here, but the plan was in action.

"Oh. you're already here," rose arrived. She was in a skirt and top, with a jacket and a small bag to go with it. I was so surprised that words flew out of my mouth, "you look good."

"Thanks." she replied awkwardly, "you too." and we turned our faces away. it was getting awkward, I regained my composure. "Let's go, we need some time to find the shop."

"Okay."

We took a cab to the electronic market. There were small cars here used as cabs. There was a place only for two people to sit. It took us about forty minutes to find the shops. We explored the place and checked different phones.

"This one." Rose picked up the phone she wanted, "I'll take this."

"Okay." The shopkeeper removed other phones. She picked up a nice model. the keeper asked me, "and for you sir?"

"I want the same model, does it come in blue?"

"Yes."

"Good." I heard a chuckle from outside the shop, "get that one please."

we saved our contact details on our phones. As we were paying for them at the register, I confirmed that the noises of people following us were coming from the same place.

"I am done," Rose said. "Let's head back."

"Alright." I looked at the door before getting to the register. We saved our contact details on our phones and got into the cab.

As the cab moved, I spotted two cabs behind ours. I had the driver take different roads, and the cabs still followed us. Rose looked a little worried, but I was not going to tell her yet. We reached the market area and I stopped the ride there.

"That should be enough. thank you." I paid the driver and saw the same cab a little further away from us.

"The hotel is still far from here." Rose said, "We could have dropped off there."

"I wanted to show you something." I took her to a shop that I had checked out earlier. It was a snack bar, with places to sit properly. I got us a seat for two and ordered some food.

"Why are you wasting money here?" Rose complained, even though she looked like she enjoyed this. "We could have gotten food from the hotel."

"Well, what I wanted to show you will just enter this place." I pointed at the door. Soon after, three sets of people entered the shop. an adult couple, a group of girls, and a single guy. They all took different tables, but our table should be visible from each of them.

"Are you talking about those people who just entered?" Rose asked, she looked concerned. "They look… weird."

"No need to worry." I handed her a coffee, "they all are the people we know."

"What? who?"

"That couple, well, is supposed to be our class's escorts." Rose looked surprised, I continued before she asked any questions "act normal. I'll explain, we have a lot of time." our snacks arrived, I explained as I ate.

"My dad asked the teachers to keep an eye on the two of us. When I asked you today, they decided to follow us. Tom followed them. the girls probably followed us on our date." Rose visibly flinched on the word 'date' but didn't say anything about it.

"When did you notice they were following us?" Rose asked, sipping her coffee. "And why is Tom following the teachers?"

"I told him to follow them since they were following us from the beginning."

"What?"

"He wants to keep tabs on their progress."

"What progress?"

"Oh right. I didn't tell you." I leaned in closer "Isabella and Robert are engaged."

"Wha-" I stopped her from shouting. I forced a nugget into her mouth. "Now now, keep your voice down. Tom told me yesterday after the couple incident happened. I wanted to ask you on a date anyway, so I let him on this plan." Rose turned to the girl group with a nervous look, "who are they?"

"I thought you'd know." I finished the food on my plate, "you're friends with them after all."

"Wait." Rose finally put her foot down, "is that Sarah?"

"Maybe," I pulled her along to the register, "let's check it out." I paid for the food and we exited the shop. "here." I pulled her to the side of the building. "Look, they're coming out."

I pulled out the dagger handle from my pocket, "you ready tom?"

"Where did you get this from?" Rose asked.

"Dad gave it to me." I answered and turned to the door again, "Tom come in."

" Yes, I am in." the voice came from the hilt.