Chapter 4

Ariella's POV

As a newcomer, my mind was a complete mess. Dragged along by Maeve, I ran toward the playground, gasping for breath.

At the same time, I felt a strange sense of discord.

Maeve's excitement was like she was watching some international superstar perform.

Was fighting this common here?

By the time we arrived, quite a crowd had already gathered on the playground. Some were standing on tiptoes on benches, others were riding broomsticks and looking down.

Sharp laughter mixed with Maeve's repeated "Excuse me, excuse me" made my ears hurt.

In no time, she pulled me to the front and said proudly, "Space House wizards are naturally good at squeezing through gaps!"

I covered my ears and looked up to see three people surrounding a boy in the center of the lawn.

They all wore dark blue robes, with badges at their collars that seemed more complex than Maeve's—probably higher-grade students.

The girl in front was a head taller than me, with dark red hair curled behind her head, delicate yet stern features, and a condescending smile at the corner of her mouth.

Behind her, a boy and a girl—one had terrifying flame tattoos on his neck, the other was twirling a wand that glowed blue.

The boy they had surrounded was so thin and frail he looked like a sapling that would topple in the wind.

He was curled up on the grass, gasping for breath. His wand lay several meters away, pinned under the foot of a stocky boy named John Davis.

"Want it back?" The red-haired girl looked down at him mockingly, her tone light and airy. "Then make it fly back to you!"

The blonde girl, Emma Stone, covered her face with the back of her hand, shaking with laughter. "You forgot—Botany House can't even perform a decent summoning spell!"

Laughter erupted around us.

Maeve beside me laughed heartily too—but she quickly saw me and stopped.

The boy was crying from pain, his voice so weak it was barely audible, struggling to speak: "Please... give me back my wand..."

Emma kicked his shoulder with the tip of her shoe. "Go ahead and reach for it yourself."

As if granted permission, the boy struggled to prop up his upper body, trembling constantly.

But the moment his hand reached out, Emma stomped on it, even cruelly grinding her shoe!

"Ah!"

He let out a suppressed scream.

"Haha, he believed it!"

"A bunch of weaklings shouldn't even exist!"

Instantly, my chest filled with nameless rage. I let go of Maeve's arm.

This feeling...

Ever since I was little, whenever teachers called me out, when my parents looked at me with disappointed and disgusted eyes, when Lilia mocked me mercilessly...

Everyone around me was just like them, looking down on me, the weak one, from their high positions!

Something exploded in my chest. I let go of Maeve's arm.

"Let him go."

My voice wasn't loud, but the surroundings instantly fell silent.

The red-haired girl turned around, looked me up and down, and sneered.

Emma mimicked my tone and rolled her eyes. "'Let him go!' Look at this—this year's freshmen are so brave, all wanting to play hero!"

Maeve tugged at my sleeve from behind, her voice urgent: "Ariella, don't mess with them!"

"The leader is Cara Simmons, a fourth-year from Flame House. Her dad's on the Board of Governors—you can't afford to cross her!"

Hearing Maeve's words, Cara's smile deepened.

She crossed her arms and walked up to me, lowering her head. Her dark red eyes were extremely aggressive in the sunlight. "Your friend is smart, but unfortunately, you don't seem to understand human speech."

Emma used her toe to flip over the barely conscious boy and kicked his knee.

"Say it! Say it loud: 'Botany House are all trash,' and we'll let you go!"

The boy finally cried out.

His voice was piercing, completely igniting the fury in my heart.

And as that fire boiled in my chest, I suddenly had a feeling I'd never experienced before.

Like an electric current flowing through my limbs, turning into invisible threads extending in all directions.

My senses suddenly became much clearer.

The grass beneath my feet, the poplar tree beside me, even the school's ancient oak tree—they all seemed to be responding to my rage!

"Move your foot!" I tried to accept this bizarre perception and issued a final warning.

"Why should I?" Emma lifted her chin dismissively.

The moment she finished speaking, the ground beneath her feet suddenly cracked!

A thick tree root from the oak burst through the earth, covered in wet black mud, and struck her calf hard!

Before she could react, she was knocked flying by the brutal force, rolled twice on the ground, and her wand hit Cara on the head.

Everyone on the playground froze.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing—that root had extended from beneath my feet. Did I do that?!

Cara, who had been so proud, clutched the back of her head, looking at me in terror.

But her expression quickly turned to fury.

She raised both hands, and brilliant flames ignited in her palms, dancing vividly and reflecting my somewhat pale face.

The crowd quickly retreated, eyes wide as saucers—they'd probably never seen a freak like me.

But I was more worried about becoming a freak than they were.

My hands and legs wouldn't stop shaking, even my teeth were chattering, and that surging power inside me kept flowing.

Maeve told me that using magic required spells or wands, endless practice day and night, but I hadn't done anything. I didn't even have a wand.

I hadn't even summoned them—instead, they were responding to me.

Right now, I was like a child who had just learned to walk, hastily pushed onto a battlefield.

And I couldn't show weakness.

Because that boy was looking at me with tear-filled eyes.

Never before had anyone looked up at me with such eyes—like I was their savior.

I tried my hardest to activate a second branch to counterattack, but the vine in my hand seemed out of control, wrapping around John's ankle and yanking him hard to the ground!

Caught off guard, he fell, his fingers clawing at the grass, screaming in fear.

Did this vine have a mind of its own?

Or was my power too weak to control it?

The ground trembled slightly, as if more branches were lurking below, ready to move.

I breathed rapidly, my vision darkening, but I still maintained my attacking posture, stubbornly glaring at Cara.

Someone discussed in panic: "Oh my god... she's from Botany House?! Impossible! Botany House can't possibly have this kind of power!"

Cara narrowed her eyes dangerously, as if judging whether I still had the ability to fight.

Finally, she asked through gritted teeth, "What's your name?"

I answered, forcing myself to stay calm: "Ariella."

"Ariella..." She repeated my name word by word, as if chewing it like a bone before spitting it out viciously. "You just wait."

She extinguished the flames, bent down to pull up the crying Emma, left John behind, and walked toward the castle without looking back.

"Outside of school rules, I have plenty of ways to make you regret this!"

I no longer had the energy to process Cara's threat. I walked somewhat unsteadily to the boy and bent down, extending my hand.

"What's your name?"

He grabbed my hand, still in shock: "Te... Teddy."

In the distance, the oak tree quietly withdrew its underground branches, the roots fell back into slumber, and the ground closed up again.

Only the moist fresh soil proved that everything just now wasn't an illusion.

This was the first time I'd confronted someone's malice head-on. While my stamina was nearly exhausted, a surge of excitement rose in my heart.

Bring it on.

I said to myself.

Even if I'm weak, I'll never beg for mercy again.

I helped him up and looked around. Everyone was watching me.

Among those gazes mixed with shock, curiosity, and fear, I noticed a boy in a black robe.

He stood in the crowd with his hood pulled very low—I couldn't see his face clearly, but I could feel that the way he looked at me was different from the others.

Who was he?