A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

Every year towards the end of October, Princewood Academy and all the other Alchemy schools host their own Halloween Festival. An ancient holiday for tricks and treats, now celebrated as a horrific and pleasing experience all through the dark hours of the night.

Every school hosts there festival at their own designated locations, chosen by the Grandmaster of the school. Princewood reforges about 75% of the school into theme based decorations according to the year. Halls would be torched with endless ornaments to frighten those who passed by. The food plaza would be filled with stands of fun games to challenge one another, as well as mysterious food items that looked disgusting, but pleasing to taste. The lore would usually be occupied by a zone of pure terror, only those brave enough to enter would see its true depths of darkness.

Everyone would have lots of fun during this festival, it was a place to meet new friends and discover more and more about the school's past history. Those who chose not to participate would usually find themselves out of school grounds or locked in their rooms to not be disturbed by the cheerful screams and chatter that echoed through the school.

Princewood would usually locks the area after 10pm, forging an invisible barrier over the school grounds for unwanted trespassers and students who were trying to leave.

Rina decided to let Laena and Faibel in on the plan. Laena was a crucial part to the plan, given the fact Faibel was the one who created it in the first place. The four of them met up a day before the festival to go over the final details of what's to happen the following day.

"Okay so you're saying that there's a 28% chance that the paper will still be in his office while Laena is distracting him during the festival?" Rina examined the plan that was drawn on a large poster in front of them. They were all sitting in one of the dark rooms of the school's library. These rooms weren't necessarily dark in light, but rather called the dark rooms due to their two way mirror planted from the inside to not be disturbed by any commotion going on outside of the room.

Faibel adjusted his glasses while looking down to prevent them from falling on the table, "Through certain calculations I would hope that is correct indeed," He pointed at the circle representing Calvin's office, "However, that's too small of a chance to rely on, and we don't know when our next opportunity might happen."

Laena was afraid to interrupt anyone, but after everyone couldn't think of what to say next, she surprisingly gave an unusual answer, "I can probably try to… Accidentally steal it?"

The three gazed at her in thought, thinking that it could possibly work if she was certain she would be able too. Laena reassured them by telling them about her catastrophic childhood, "When I was a kid. Believe it or not, me and my family always had to nag others for a way to survive being almost homeless," She noticed everyone staring at her without any intention of stopping her. Therefore, she continued, "After my father disappeared, my mother, me and my brother were forced out of our home to live with either friends, or the streets." She started to tear up a bit, getting embarrassed in the process and trying to wrap things up as quickly as possible, "Anyway, I can steal the paper, It shouldn't be too hard."

Rina walked over to her, hugging her as tightly as possible due to the fact she was the first friend she made at this school. Rina whispered in her ear, "It'll be okay. That's in the past, you have a new family now."

Rina knew her backstory from an earlier conversation they had a month ago. She also knew how her mother and brother died as well, and it was immense grief she had to live with for the rest of her life.

"I guess that settles it then?" Atlas dragged the attention of the room onto him, a little skeptical on whether or not he should of broke the moment of silence with that particular remark. However, Everyone agreed, including Laena.

The plan involved Laena grabbing Calvin at 10pm from his office and asking him to show her around the school, due to the start of the festival. She would then notice on whether or not he put on his usual jacket with the piece of paper in it. At 10:15, Faibel would walk by secretly at the food plaza for them not to notice, and Laena would either show one, or two fingers indicating on whether the paper was in his jacket or not. Three fingers meant she didn't know and would try to steal anyways. Faibel would report back to Rina as quickly as possible for them to sneak into his office once more and look at the paper.

If by any chance she puts up one or three fingers, Atlas would have to find them and distract Calvin while Laena searches his pockets as quickly as possible. This was the plan that would hopefully work without any interruptions.

They had no intentions of telling anyone else about the plan, for reasons that someone might screw it up. They most likely would not have told Atlas either but since he already knew and had Rina's trust there was no other choice for them to take.

The following day, Atlas and Cartuja headed off to their usual class with Professor Zelle. Since Atlas was curious he decided to ask a question Zelle was not expecting to hear.

"Excuse me professor?"

"Yes, Mr. Bright"

"What happened here 24 years ago?"

As soon as those words left his lips, Zelle's face went as pale as the other side of it. Although he only had one side of his face to give expression, absolute shock was painted on it like an open canvas.

The class first turned to Atlas for asking such an unusual question, but quickly turned to the professor to find out an answer they didn't know existed.

"How do you know about this?"

Before Atlas could speak, Trey surprisingly butted in, "Know about what? What's Shitpiss talking about?!"

Atlas was pretty used to trey's same insults over and over again by now. In fact, he actually found them funny sometimes.

Professor Zelle looked at him, then at Atlas one more time before saying, "I'm not sure what you're talking about."

The lie was easily smeared in his voice as it traveled across the room. Almost everyone could tell, leaving the class with whispers between classmates, and rumors that would soon spread like wildfire.

Even Rina looked at him suspiciously, signaling him he shouldn't have said anything that might be linked to the paper. He apologized but they both knew that they needed answers, and with a large audience they might scramble out something beneath the minds of the professors of the school.

Zelle continued his lecture on magic particles and how they connect to one another to produce certain spells for the rest of the class. As the class ended, Zelle called out for Atlas to stay after class for a moment. Rina planned to stay as well despite not being called upon.

Trey walked passed Atlas's desk and shoved a few of his papers on the ground, making it look like an accident. Atlas could easily see he did it on purpose with that annoying laugh him and his friends shared as they walked away.

The class quickly became inhabited by only three people as the rest walked off. Zelle stood at his desk in the front of the room, covered in random drawings and scribbles no one bothered to ask about. Rina and Atlas walked up to him, hoping to get some answers or clues on their questions earlier.

Instead, Zelle started with, "Ms. Ambrose, I'm afraid I didn't ask you to stay. However, I shall allow it because you seem curious as well on what exactly happened 24 years ago."

Rina drew a polite expression in his response, "Thank you very much professor."

"Now then, what exactly happened 24 years ago?" Zelle asked Atlas and Rina as if he were the curious one.

Atlas looked puzzled, "What do you mean? That's what we asked you?"

"I am aware. And that is my answer. I simply do not know."

He wasn't lying, not even the slightest smirk or twitch gave anything away. It blatantly looked as if he was actually telling the whole hearted truth.

"Don't you have any sort of idea on how or what is happening?" Rina asked again, hoping to get a different response.

"We currently have multiple professors investigating on certain events that appeared after the death of one of the students here. However, only two professors have an actual lead. And even that lead could be as dangerous as losing one's life. Therefore, no one has truly questioned this strange phenomenon and gone along with the flow."

Zelle seemed so oblivious for such a significant matter as he stated his remarks, "My only concern lies in the fact that two first year students know about this just after a couple months of school. Have one of you had anything happen to your magic by any chance?"

Rina knew there would be no point of lying, "No. How bad or good is the situation if let's say, I unlocked my so called potential?"

"Good? Perhaps. Bad? Perhaps." He paused for a moment to recollect his thoughts, "Unlocking one's potential so early may not be as good as you think. Now you have no guide, only practice and research on answers you may never get." He smirked as he realized Rina had gone grim from his replies.

"On the other hand, Look at professor Pride. Never had a guide, no equipment or mentors to guide him, and yet one of the 12 zodiacs."

Rina and Atlas both looked at each other to confirm neither one knew what he was talking about. Zelle could easily tell they had no clue, "I'm quite surprised you don't know. The fact that he's your Guild advisor... I would of thought he told you by now."

Atlas was eager to get an answer, "What do you mean the zodiacs? What are you talking about?!"

"Unfortunately if professor Pride himself hasn't told you by now there is a good reason for it. Therefore, I will let him decide on the answer to that question. Now then, unless there is something else I can help you with, you are dismissed."

Unfortunately, they had nothing and exited the class with their books and left in strenuous thought. As they were walking down the halls Rina looked at Atlas, pulling him by the shoulder to the side of one of the walls so no one else could hear their conversation.

The halls were crowded with kids anywhere from first to third years, and not a lot of room to stop dead center of the hall.

Before Rina could start the explanation on why she pulled Atlas over, he already knew what she was going to say.

"You were right. Seems like Calvin has a lot more secrets he hasn't told us."

Rina nodded, "Do you think we should tell the others?-"

"No. We need to confront him face to face. After the plan."

They both nodded in agreement, got back to the center of the hall to flow with the direction of all the other kids, ready for what's to happen at the Halloween Festival.