I Sold My Soul for Chocolate

Chapter 6

“Please, enter through the front door. Everyone is waiting for you, as you are the last to arrive,” he said. I sent him a confused glance.

“But there’s still fifteen minutes left till six!”

He smiled. “You will soon learn that some people have a different perception of punctuality. Hurry along now, you don’t want to keep them waiting.”

I decided to ignore the sinister undertone of his statement as I hurried along the pebble path. I took deep breaths only, attempting to calm down before my inevitable demise.

I stopped before the giant, elegant door before pushing it open.

A giant room was revealed instantly. An entirely empty, giant room. It looked like it could fit a thousand people if they huddled together a bit.

On the far right, leaning onto a wall covered by red tapestries, stood a boy who seemed to be entirely clueless, with wild ginger hair and terrified green eyes which had darted towards me as soon as I had pushed the door open.

However, it wasn’t him who made my heartbeat stop and my legs freeze. It was the person standing on the left, the person who seemed to be discussing something with a tall man with a white beard who I recognized as the headmaster (who happened to be the most powerful mage in existence).

It was the person wearing a black suit and red tie, with black hair and red eyes which pierced right through my soul.

It was Raum, and this time, he wasn’t contained within a circle.

The gaze he sent me said a lot, but his eyes lingered on me for no more than a second, and his stern expression didn’t break.

“You must be Kay!” The headmaster called out, forcing me to stop staring at the demon and turn towards him. His friendly tone made my anxiety lessen. “I’ll be right with you, I apologise for the inconvenience.”

I wasn’t aware that the headmaster himself would be there. “It’s not a problem, sir,” I said, sending a smile in reply to his grin, and began walking towards the opposite side of the room, deliberately doing it very slowly so that I would hear what Raum was saying. My anxiety was going through the roof. Why was Raum there?

“I understand that your situation is dire, but I still can’t let you intrude upon the Academy. No matter how high ranking you are. Your power means nothing here. You know what would happen if you tried to defy that.” The headmaster’s words were clear and sharp, but not condescending. I dared to sneak a look towards them, hoping to catch Raum’s reaction, and hoping he got angry. But I was disappointed to see him remain stoic.

“I must get into the academy. Is there really no way?”

The headmaster chuckled. “Of course there’s a way! You can get in like everyone else. You weren’t sent a letter, but I will gladly make an exception and allow you to participate in the entrance exam. If you pass, you will become an official student of the academy, gaining all the rights and responsibilities of one.”

Raum let out the sound of a sneer. “I thought you didn’t accept demons.”

“We do, we do! But very few pass the entrance exam, and those who do mostly drop out by the end of the first month. In my experience, demons dislike being treated as equal rather than superior. If your goal is as important as you make it seem, I have no doubt that you will be able to let go of the safety and superiority your rank provides and endure the student life as nothing more than that - a student.”

“Very well. I will entertain you. Once my investigation is over, I will disappear.” He made a short pause. “I will be right back, please excuse me for a second.”

I was almost at the opposite side when Raum said that, and I dared to cast a glance his way again. I saw him shake the headmaster’s hand and then cast a quick glance towards me. With his other gloved hand, he motioned for me to follow him, and then disappeared through the front door.

“Ah!” I said, frantically touching my pockets. That got me the attention of both the headmaster and the unknown boy. “I dropped my phone! I’m so sorry, I’ll be back in a minute!”

“Of course! Let me know if you need help finding it!” The headmaster said after me, and I smiled at him before leaving through the door again, my heart beating wildly.

I didn’t expect Raum to be waiting right outside, and nearly yelped in surprise as the door closed behind me. I carefully took several steps back away from him, but I couldn’t avoid his gaze.

“My plans may have changed, but my plans regarding you remain the same.” He took off the white glove of his left hand, revealing the same star symbol which sat on my own wrist. “For now, your goal will be to pass the entrance exam. For any part of it where we are allowed to team up, you will go with me. I will give you more information afterwards. Now, give me your hand.”

The fear made me obey his order without hesitation. I felt absolutely powerless. The raw power which radiated off of Raum was intense and terrifying, and I wanted nothing more than to be as far away from him as possible.

I expect to be jolted by electricity when he grabbed my hand, but there was no pain aside from his tight squeeze.

“You were shocked because of the magic barrier. So was I.” I looked back at his eyes in surprise. He smirked. “But there’s no magic barrier now, human. One wrong step from you, and you’ll be gone.” He looked down at our hands, leaving traces of terror along the way.

“I am going to give you access to my power. Figure out how to use it yourself. If you’re unable to do that without my help, then you are useless to me, anyways. This will hurt.”

Without a second warning, he whispered something in a foreign language, and I felt a sharp sting on my star symbol. The sting soon became scorching pain, and I unwillingly attempted to jerk my hand away, but Raum held it in a deadly grip.

The pain was gone as suddenly as it came. I felt no different, however.

“If they ask you for what kind of mage you are, tell them you suspect you are a Voxomancer,” he said. I looked at him in confusion. A voxomancer?

“Another word for a wizard. Wizards-”

”-Utilise words of power through which they channel their magic, and by knowing and understanding said words, they can produce any and all types of magic,” I interrupted, allowing myself to even smirk at him.

He just huffed and nodded. “Precisely. Even a rotting corpse knows what a wizard is.” Ouch.  “I will give you another hint - you are not a wizard, and you do not need to know any words in order to use my power. Use too much, and it will consume you and kill you. That is all.” He finally let go of my hand, and I instantly rubbed the star with my other hand, remembering the pain which it had endured. Raum was looking right at me, and I felt helpless.

But I wasn’t that helpless anymore. I had access to his power now. I was finally magic.

It made me smile.

“Get inside, your excuse was shady as it is,” he said, and I nodded, breaking eye contact and going back through the door.

As soon as it closed behind me, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I turned into a useless rabbit whenever I was near the demon. I assumed it was only natural, as demons were definitely higher than humans on the power scale. In fact, demons were the strongest beings, apart from maybe angels, but I knew even less about angels than I did about demons. And I got involved with one of the most powerful of all. Who was going to attend the academy as a student in order to investigate something. The rebellion? I just wasn’t sure what the Academy had to do with it. Or what I had to do with it. How could I help him with that? Me, a regular human, who now came into possession of a demon’s powers?

“I got the phone, I’m so sorry for making you wait!” I announced, smiling at both the kind headmaster and the other kid.

The headmaster nodded, running a hand through his long beard. “Not to worry, child. I have already spoken to Jeff, so I may speak to you now. Come here.” I nodded at the headmaster and made my way over to him, feeling a lot more confident that I expected myself to feel. I would’ve probably been trembling if my last interaction had not been with a demon.

“Tell me about yourself, Kay,” the headmaster said when I got within a few steps of him.

“I’m Kay Frost. When I was young, a witch named Zehna took me in from the streets, and I was raised as an aware human. I had no idea I possessed any sorts of power until I got the invitation. If I had to guess, I’d guess I was a Voxologist. Vexomancer. Wizard. Nothing else I tried worked, except chanting words of power I managed to find online.” A deep blush enveloped my face, and my confidence disappeared altogether.

The headmaster raised both bushy white eyebrows in surprise. “Is that so? Very intriguing. You see, Jeff here didn’t know that the supernatural world even existed. He’s an elementalist, and a quite skilled pyromancer. It is rare that we receive people who are aware and yet unaware of their own magic. But I guess today is the day of impossibilities, as we have Raum himself as a candidate. You’ve heard of him, I suppose?”

I nodded and gulped. “I have. If I may ask, what is he doing here?”

The headmaster smiled. “Unfortunately, I cannot tell you. I’d tell you to ask him yourself, but I advise against it. Until he is a full-fledged student, I will not be able to avenge your death properly.”

I had no idea how to reply to that, so I nodded. The headmaster’s smile didn’t weaver as he reached inside the pocket of his robe, and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper.

“This here is a list of some basic spells for wizards. If you are worthy of attending our Academy, you will be able to make do with this.” I took the paper from his hands and inspected it. There was around twenty words written in a writing I could not read or understand. It was not only another language, but another script.

“Ah, thank you,” I said, pretending the information was useful to me. The headmaster gave me a nod full of pride.

“Excellent! As much as I’d love to continue chatting, dear, I have to ask you to join Jeff, as other candidates will be arriving shortly. Make yourself comfortable, and stay sharp!”

I nodded. “Understood, sir. Thank you very much.” With those words, I walked over to Jeff, who was looking around the room quizzically. He turned towards me once he heard me approach, and smiled sadly.

“Hey, I’m Kay,” I said awkwardly, extending my hand. He took it, his gaze lingering on the scar, and making me frown. I had to cover it up. Its existence was beginning to mentally bother me.

“I’m Jeff.” He looked back at my face, and smiled with a bit more sincerity. “So, you know about all this stuff? Can you please tell me something more?”

I tried to suppress a sigh of annoyance. I really needed some alone time with my thoughts to figure out how to use Raum’s powers. But Jeff’s pleading eyes reminded me of my own cluelessness and vulnerability, so I gave him a smile and a nod instead.

“Of course.”