Time passed. Petra was sat on the roof of Poppy's Potions, reading a book.
Below, Rose and Lira had returned, and they were currently reporting their findings to Mell. Petra listened, nodded a few times, and turned the page before rocking back and forth. She raised her head, then looked out over the surroundings. Most of the people who could leave the forest had left, and those who already had were already gone.
The field was mostly empty, which told Petra that it was almost time to leave as well.
Looking up, the sky had started to darken, and the day was nearing its end.
Petra stood up, stretched, then called out, "You two, let's have dinner, then go…"
Rose and Lira looked up, caught sight of Petra, and then agreed wholeheartedly.
Swoosh!
Petra jumped down, then swaggered inside, followed by Mell, Wind, Rose, and Lira.
After finding a place to sit, Petra had them summarize what they had experienced in the highlands. Just as she had suspected, there was another large pillar, and this pillar seemed to represent another trial.
When Rose and Lira arrived, there were already many people surrounding it, but instead of seeing any trials or tests, they all just stood there, looking like they had lost their souls.
Petra understood that this was an illusion-type trial. As for injuring these people while they were mesmerized, that seemed possible, as long as you did it from a distance.
After knowing this, Petra made a special note because she didn't want to be caught with her guard down in the near future, that is, if she really did end up challenging one of the trials. She still had to figure out if each person needed to pass all three trials, or if only one person needed to pass each of the three trials.
Throwing that to the back of her mind, Petra took a plate of stew from Mell, then sat down and started eating. She looked to the side and seeing that the four little girls were all eating happily, she turned away. The ant avatars were not much different than real people, only with an extra brain that one could connect to in order to enter pilot mode. This meant that they also had to eat, but because they didn't have human taste buds, and also because they were a little twisted, Petra had no idea what they liked and disliked.
Rose and Lira fought over the same large bowl, while Wind was eating elegantly, like the young lady she had been raised to be. As for Mell, she slowly walked over, sat beside Petra, then helped her wipe a spot of oil from her face before starting to eat herself.
The meal continued.
After some time, Petra asked, "Have any of you heard about the Amaranda Academy?" Her words slurred as she chewed, eliciting a bonk on the head.
Rose and Lira shook their heads, but Mell and Wind looked over before nodding.
Seeing that two of them actually knew, Petra asked again, "Do you know about the requirements for enrolling? I don't really want to go, but from the looks of it, a large part of the future might revolve around it. Maybe we can try to sneak in, or… just find a place close by?"
This was a consideration Petra needed to have, not because she looked forward to an academy arc, instead, there were many hints pointing towards that place as a future location.
Wind clicked her tongue. "Is the Amaranda Academy a place that you can just sneak into?"
Mell awkwardly nodded. "She's right. For once, sneaking in is actually not an option. Probably…"
Petra rolled her eyes. "Why is that? You guys seem to know more than me!"
In fact, Petra didn't know much more than the name…
Rose and Lira looked over, also interested. It wasn't that they really wanted to go to school, but seeing Petra back off so easily was very strange.
Mell lowered her head, while Wind began to explain, "The Amaranda Academy is one of the three leading forces from the Cellistan Continent. Although we don't really get any news about it here on the Cross Continent, because I grew up in the Gallon Family, I occasionally heard some small things." It was also the same for Mell.
"Like what?" Petra asked with a bit more interest.
Wind looked at her, a bit annoyed, her ears twitched up, appearing eager to explain, then as if realizing that she was too eager, they drooped in a way that was clearly intentionally done. Her shoulders sank, but to mask it she quickly opened her mouth, saying, "Like the fact that getting into that school is both incredibly easy, but also incredibly hard! For starters, if you want to attend as a resident of the Cross Continent, aside from a few opportunities in the east that you can't use, there's only one spot for the Royal Family, one spot from the Royal Academy of Magic, and one spot related to the Four Great Families. The one from the Four Great Families is decided through a large competition, but that's already passed. These spots open up once every ten years, and these ten years also just so happen to align with the ten-year expeditions. If I'm not wrong, that's why they timed it like that too."
Petra listened with interest.
"What kind of academy is it? What do they do?" Lira asked, her swaying tail betraying her curiosity.
Rose looked over as well, also interested. She had never gone to school, so unlike Petra, who inherently had a dislike for educational institutions, she wanted to know more.
"Anyways, with the Third Calamity approaching, who knows what will happen. I think that the ten-year expedition was also cancelled, right?" Petra said casually.
"Hm, yeah, it was. They announced that shortly before we entered the secret realm." Mell confirmed.
"Then what should we do? How are we going to enroll now?"
"Pfft! Who said we need to be students?"
"She's right. We don't necessarily have to attend as students…"
"No, that's not what I—"
"We can apply for a teaching position, or even as an assistant or support staff." Wind cut her off, giving Petra a vengeful glance filled with playfulness.
Petra: (ง'̀-'́)ง
Mell looked toward Petra, then asked, "Do you know if Levy has anything to do with the Amaranda Academy? Why do I feel as if she should? This seems like the kind of thing she would do…"
None of them knew much about Levy and what she had been doing before Petra met her in Sevensen. Perhaps Elena knew a bit, but aside from that, none of them knew where she had come from or how she had gotten from Earth to Pillomal without reincarnating. There was a huge gap here, one that all the girls were too scared to ask about.
In fact, if they just asked, it was very likely that Levy would tell them something, but it never came up…
Petra perked up, then after putting down her bowl and placing her hands between her legs, she leaned back and forth, thinking. "Mm, now that you mention it, I feel as if Levy had mentioned something about that before. Yeah, if I'm not wrong, she's—"
Lira's little voice cut through, "Hay, hay, hay! I asked what kind of school it is! Don't ignore me! Nya!"
Petra puffed out her cheeks, refusing to respond.
Wind and Mell both chuckled, but Rose looked like she also wanted to really know.
Unfortunately, they never got their answer…
Petra rolled her eyes. "In the end, who won the spot from the four great families?"
Wind looked over, wondering if Petra had any bad ideas. "It should have gone to the Dimebeck family—or more specifically, that guy you scammed two days ago..."
Petra's eyes turned to the side.
'Is that so…!'
She remembered…
Petra quickly thought back to that pile of junk, making sure that there were no special tokens aside from the one representing the young master status. After making sure that there weren't, she relaxed. That meant she wasn't targeted by some transcendental fate that just so happened to hand her what she didn't want in advance to pre prepare her for something in the future.
Good, good! If that had really happened, she wouldn't know how to feel!
Petra still didn't know what she wanted to do, and going to school again was indeed an option, but Petra felt as if there were 'other ways' to attend if she was going to take that route.
Anyways, those were questions for later!
For now, she finished her food, then tossed the bowl to Mell before jumping away…
* * *
Later that night…
Petra had just finished doing something on the second floor and descended the stairs. She looked around, finding the first floor relatively empty. Looking ahead, Petra could see through the front door that many of their supplies had been moved out, clearing the interior like one would while moving.
She skipped ahead, reaching the door, then leaned out curiously with her hands still on the doorframe.
While poking her head outside, her eyes turned left and right, playfully scanning the piles of things that were scattered across the front lawn. There were products from the store, food that had been hunted, and a bunch of treasures that were gathered during Rose and Lira's two little outings. In total, there were at least one hundred boxes of random stuff.
Petra watched as Rose, Lira, and the four little girls followed Mell's instructions to sort and stack everything into seven neat piles, preparing it for Petra to take away.
"Mm~!"
Petra left the doorframe and jumped up and down, slowly making her way through the mess.
After reaching Mell, she looked up with her big black eyes, then smiled when Mell met her gaze.
After a quick and surprisingly satisfying headpat, Petra shook her head and looked around, already reaching her arms over her head to pull the fat frog from her hood.
Seeing this, all the others took a step back.
A few seconds later, with one large ribbit, Petra pointed the big blob toward all the supplies. Following a vortex-like suction, the wind whipped up, and a strong pressure swept out. Standing to the side, Mell and Wind watched as Petra used the frog to suck up all the boxes and store them in the fat frog's stomach. After a few seconds had passed, the previous mess was now clean and clear, with not a sign of the previous chaotic clutter.
Petra looked around. While putting the slightly tired frog back in her hood, her eyes swept past the large and inexplicable two-story building that had previously just appeared in the story without an explanation.
She snapped her fingers, and—
Woomp!
The earth rumbled, and the two-story building that appeared to have been built from wood began to darken at a visible speed. It trembled, then rocked up and down. Eventually, within seconds, the walls had turned a sleek black, and a few more seconds after that, the whole building began to almost melt as it distorted and reshaped.
Petra watched with the others as the whole building suddenly grew eight long legs, then began to squish down, slowly taking the shape of a massive spider.
Woomp!
A few seconds after that, the same large spider began to also distort and melt, until it eventually shrunk to the size of a small spider, the same as Petra's other beast companions, at least while they were projecting themselves through the technique Levy had taught them!
Indeed, this whole building was one of the beasts' projections the whole time!
Although it was only the spider so far, it had actually advanced this technique a level, allowing it to not only change shape, but also change color. With its existing experience, it mimicked its form from when it was the Tower Spider, replicating a smaller version of the tower that they had previously traveled in.
Not a single customer had even the faintest clue!
Petra had to give it props for this, because even she was surprised at just how skilled it was!
Petra stretched, then looked around.
After making sure that everyone was here, it was time to move on.
The sky was dark, and the moon hung low. There was not a cloud in the sky, giving the night an almost ethereal glow. A faint breeze blew, causing Petra's hair to flutter. Her hat blew off, but the small snake nesting in her hair caught it and pulled it back.
With a chuckle, the party moved on…
Petra left down the path, followed by four maidservants, three small children, one frog, one snake, and silently disappeared into the distance…
* * *