Clockwork Maiden, Literally.

Time Stopping All The Way

--Meister's Projection Land, ???? hours--

“Good gracious, Gerald! That’s one deadly energy ball you release there!”

“Haah… haah… how cool was it…?”

“I give it a three,” the meister replied.

“W-Why?”

“Why you little f… ahem!” he stated funnily. I thought he’s going to say little fool for a moment there. “You should think of your surroundings before unleashing a big blow like that, Gerald! Not only that, the greater you power up your energy ball, indeed it will be more powerful but as the backfire, the speed of it will drop significantly as well! Plus, you’ll get exhausted by simply casting an energy ball if you power them up too much. Just look at yourself.”

“…hah… haah… I’m so sorry, teach.”

“As long as you’d understand, I forgive it. Take a seat and rest yourself.”

“Yes, sir.”

…

..

.

“Oookay… Eva, your turn.”

“Yes, sir-ee!”

I took a steady stance and focused my sights onto the distant scarecrow that just got recovered from decimation magically.

“Hey, um… teach?” I called him.

“Yes?”

“Is it okay if I…” I refrained myself from continuing asking. What was that I want to ask, you ask? Of course, will it be fine if I use my magecraft to support me.

“If you’re willing to use your magecraft, then go ahead,”

“Eh? I’m sorry, what?”

“You wanna use your magecraft to support you, right?”

“T-That’s not what I…”

“No need to avoid it, kiddo, everyone did that. But none of them ever done it correctly,”

Well, it’s set then. It appears everyone was thinking the same as I did, heh.

“Alright, then, here I go!”

Good thing I had my metal belt readied up on my waist. If not, the effects of my magecraft will become kiiind of unstable.

I held out my hand and tried firing a single energy ball. “Hyup!”

A sense of my hand being pulled slightly made me felt weird, followed by a slight heat inducing from my palm. Lastly, a tiny energy ball flung off from my palm into the distance. There’s a little recoil after I fired it.

Heheheh… I did it!

“Hah… Eva, my good dear student…”

I looked at the meister, he frowned his face. “Why are you firing off the course?” he asked blatantly.

“Uehehehe… I’m just giving it a small try, sir…” I rubbed my head. *tss… Yeouch! That burns?! Geez, I thought it’s just an imagination sense.

“Try again, this time onto the target.”

“Yes, sir!”

I took my silver gloves out of my pocket and wore it.

Alright, here goes nothing. I activated my metal belt and soon the illusion of clock ticking appeared in front of me. With both silver gloves in hand, I can easily control how I want to control this magecraft!

[Clockwork Phase Two – Time Stop !] *ZOOOOOoooooooooorrrrt…

The world’s time has stopped.

Even being watched like this, I wonder, did they even know I casted my magecraft in the first place… because nobody saw me doing so even back at Helmington City.

Anyway, let’s try firing three energy balls and make them look like being fired at the same time!

“Ha!” one out.

“Hya!” second out.

“HA!” third out! That’s it!

Each of them got frozen in the air as they leave my hand. Huh… took me fifteen seconds, if I calculate correctly… alright, now for the finishing…

[Clockwork – Continue !] *Fweeeeeeeeshhhh

The stopped timeline begins to move normally once again. So does the energy balls I casted earlier. After I continued the time, I noticed that my energy balls were red-colored, no wait… they’re crimson?

“Whoa!” the meister shouted followed by my fellow students.

*BOOBOOBOOM!

The energy balls directly hit the scarecrow and exploded in the same time.

“Wow! That’s so amazing!”

“That new kid can cast three energy balls in the same time?”

“That’s pure skill, right there.”

“Huh, I can do better than her, I’m just not giving it my best.”

…

..

.

“Eva… you can cast that fast?” the meister asked quickly.

“Aaahahaha… I guess that’s quite fast, huh?” I rubbed my head again. And again getting burned by the heat from my palm.

“That’s not just fast! That’s instant casting. You just started and made me amazed, very impressive, young lady,” he complimented me and smiled.

“But you’d best not to force yourself. Even so, I believe it’s tiring to cast three simultaneously.”

“Ahahaha… y-yes, sir,” See? I told you nobody noticed my magecraft activation. Even a member of the renowned Crimson Meister didn’t know.

“Very well, then. The next one, we’ll be studying about………”

…

..

.

--Rozenflame Academy, 1821 hours--

“That’s it for today, class. I hope you’ll do the task I gave to you properly. Good evening, everyone.”

“Evening, sir!”

…

“Huah… what a tiring day, don’t you think, Gerald?” I asked him.

“Hm. This is the longest time he ever taught us,” he replied lowly.

“Eh? Before this, how long he’d be teaching?” I asked again.

“That meister never went over 3 PM, you know?” one of the girls stated right in front of me, “it’s rare to see him being so excited today, maybe it’s because of you, huh?” she added.

“But you know… I’m pretty amazed to see a newcomer like you could stand his training lesson,” said Gerald kindly.

“T-Thank you, I guess…”

“He said it will be continued tomorrow, so I’d guess we better get a rest, lest we fell overly tired for the day tomorrow.”

“I agree.”

I packed my things and walked out of the academy with some of these students. They’re quite fun to talk with. I get to befriend most of them with little effort.

In front of the academy, they waved goodbye to me and they used an item called warp stone. Gerald stated that some students came from a far place and they wanted to stay in their homes while reaching the academy in an instant by using that item. I could stay in Helmington City while using those warp stones to get to the academy without hardship…! But nah, my parents would be saddened if I do that.

But still, though… talking about Helmington City… I missed granny, Mr. Archie, and Bella. It’s been awhile since I didn’t meet them.

Sigh…

But wait… I can write letters to them! OH! Why didn’t I think of it earlier?! Dammit, me…

In front of me, my dad’s waiting patiently for me. He greeted me and gave me a pat on the head, hee-hee, I felt my tiredness flowing away from me.

We rode back home and I decided to drop myself on the bed immediately because I’m frickin’ tired. I even skipped dinner and bath. Even so, my mom would come to my room and gave me a warm porridge and a glass of milk. She stated that I must eat. She doesn’t want me to get sick again or for the worst, hospitalized again. Nope, not gonna go into hospital again. Heh… thanks  mom… I mean it.

And in the next morning…

--Chronodia Household, 0636 hours--

I woke up realizing that my clothes have changed. A cold sweat runs down within me, I remember I didn’t change my clothes and immediately go to sleep. Even when mom woke me up midnight, I’m still in my dress. But now… it’s changed into simple white dress.

“O-Oookaaay… I just pretend I’ve slept-walking into changing my clothes.”

I was later told by Aria that my mom was the one who did it. That calms me down a bit.

Amidst breakfast, I decided to ask about the meister who taught us back at the academy to my dad.

“Um… dad?”

“Hm?” he looked at me.

“Yesterday, I was—

“—taught by a meister, yes?”

Just as I thought, he knew about the meister after all.

“Y-Yes… how did you know?” I asked,

“Heh! Simple! That meister was scheduled to teach there yesterday. I saw it on the roster,” he stated as he scoops the soup in front of him.

Heheh… yeah, right… that’s quite obvious, anyone can see the daily roster on the academy. That explains things. But even so, I’m still curious…

“I… see… but dad, did you know who he is?” I asked him again,

“Nope. I don’t even know how his face looks like,” dad waved his hands.

Alright, case closed. He didn’t know at all. I thought I’d get more information from him, sigh…

…

…

In my room, I went to my bed and then checked my surroundings.

“Umu, the coast is clear,” I said softly.

I checked under my bed where I found my suitcase. This suitcase was filled with my junks from Helmington and some clothes. Because of that, none of the maids or the butler ever touched the suitcase since it is considered my private stuffs. Guess what I’m looking for?

Obviously, it’s the red shiny brooch that belonged to the meister. I don’t know whether my mom or my dad had noticed about this thing or not… hopefully not, though. I took a quick examination of the brooch,

“Hmm… it’s still as it is. Still an insignia of the Crimson Meisters,” I twirled the brooch left and right slowly while having a thought about them.

The Crimson Meister, a multi-national organization that covers up all magicians in this nation. I read some books about them that stated they’ve existed since the middle ages. Their symbol is a winged medal with a circle that filled with red and black color. That’s true, that their signature brooches fly the symbol of the Crimson Meisters. And now… one of them is in my possession.

I landed my back on the comfy bed while raising the brooch above my head.

“Huh… I might get in serious trouble for having these…”

I put back the brooch hidden in my suitcase and put the suitcase back beneath my bed. While seated, I touched the Red Cross on my chest gently, “I hope they had any idea about this deadly cross, it is better I ask directly to him…”

…

…

--Rozenflame Academy, 1341 hours--

It’s just a couple minutes before the meister arrive. I’ve went through some lectures by Mrs. Arc from 9 AM until now. I’ve learned pretty much the theory basics. The meister will teach us about how to sense magecraft presences no matter how small. Owhoohohohow… that’s really interesting to study about.

Five minutes later…

Huh… no sign of him yet. Everyone in the class still patiently waiting; might as well join them, too.

Ten minutes later…

Everyone gets uneasy. Gerald, who’s beside me commented that the meister was known to be extremely disciplined and won’t be late even for a slight minute, huh… you should’ve said it way earlier. Huh… I just realized that the little girl, Nirva wasn’t available in class either.

An hour later…

Somehow, I felt uncomfortable. I decided to take a leap out of my class and find both the meister and Nirva.

“Whoa, where are you going, Eva?” Gerald asked while maintaining his arms as his head’s rest.

“Oh, I’m going to ask whether Mr. Teach would be coming or not…” I replied casually.

“Huh… allow me to come with ya, it gets too boring here,” he stood up quickly. As the uneasy rises, the class decided to take a recreation and spread out like how normal students do when there’s no teacher around.

On the dimly lighted hallway, we walk slowly with an extremely uncomfortable feeling crawling on our backs.

“Oi, Eva…” Gerald called out softly,

“Huh?” I looked to him,

“Don’t you think it’s odd…?” he asked with a frown.

“About what? The meister?” I asked,

“Well, who else would it be?”

“Oh… I think it doesn’t really—

“Hold up. Eva, stop talking and your move.” Gerald quickly stopped our movements and covered my mouth. “I can sense somebody’s close… it’s not the meister nor Madame Rozenflame… shite. Let’s be quiet. I fear an assailant might’ve appeared here,” he lets go of my mouth.

Holy molly, wait a sec, an assailant?! That’s crazy! An attacker to this place?

“Let’s go, but slowly and quietly,” he stated.

We went through the hallway step by step and went down the stairs. The situation rises into an extremely unnerving as green strobes lit up on the brick walls while we walked down the stairs. Both me and Gerald sweated hardly. He leered shortly at me, his pupils quickly shrunk all of sudden.

“HUH?! E-Eva, be-behind you!” he pointed. Instead of looking backwards, I decided to activate my magecraft without having my gloves worn.

[Clockwork Phase Two - Time Stop !] *Zoooooorrrrrrtttt

The world’s time has been stopped. This will last roughly 20 seconds. I then took a quick sight on what’s behind me, only to be shocked to see a ghoulish-like creature floating above me coming from upstairs.

It’s eyes flashing like a bright flashlight… h-huh? T-They are in emerald color?!

N-No way… it couldn’t be!