A magic trick will only work if the audience believes.

“Winner Winner! Congratulations Sylvester Clearsight!” The headmaster’s voice kept repeating like the voice you hear in an automated voice machine, the words of praise slowly beginning to feel like a mockery with each repetition.

“This, this can’t be real. This can’t be real! This is another trick of yours isn’t it?” Letisia screamed in anger.

“Sadly no. Sound based trickery isn’t really my thing. I prefer the visual side of things.” Sylvester shrugged.

As Letisia wanted to continue lashing out, William suddenly cut into the conversation with a simple question.

“How?” Is all that he could say in his confused mind as an almost endless amount of questions flooded his mind. However all those could be neatly encapsulated in one tiny word.

“How?”

William asked again to which Sylvester faced him, but the mocking grin that was ever present on his face was gone, instead a gentle and amused smile greeted William’s eyes as he remembered one thing.

“So that was the “Showman” persona Mary mentioned way back.” William thought to himself.

“Magician’s don’t tell people how their tricks work, but since I kind of put you through a nasty ride I’ll give you special treatment.” Sylvester began to talk.

His words no longer had the anger inciting tone that he flaunted around during their fight, instead he sounded more like a like friend than a former foe.

“First let me ask you, what is a magician’s main trick, what is a magic trick?” He asked the pair.

“It’s your magic of course! What else would it be?” Letisia answered immediately, her voice still full of frustration.

“No, don’t think of me per se, think of the performing magicians known throughout the world. From people who use simple card tricks to those who place beautiful women inside boxes and then cut them apart.” Sylvester paused as he walked sideways.

“What do those people have in common? What is their main power? Because I assure you, most if not all of them don’t actually use magecraft or whatever.” Sylvster added.

William had an immediate epiphany as he understood what Sylvester was asking.

“Misdirection! Magician’s are good at misdirection.” He answered, while Letisia once again gave Sylvester a piece of her mind.

“Why does it matter? Those old coots are nothing more than charlatans anyway!” She declared, to which Sylvester only continued to smile.

“Both of you are correct, but at the same time you missed the mark.” He said as he took off his hat and dusted it.

“Misdirection is just a part of it, and as for you miss Letisia, everyone knows magic is a sham and yet why do people still seem to be so entranced by it?” He added.

“The answer is the ability to make people believe. The ability to make the audience lose their hold of rationality just for a second and believe in the spectacle unfolding in front of them.” Sylvester continued, as a soft expression showed on his face accompanied by an unreadable solemn emotion.

“And for just a second, they all forget their troubles, the weight on their shoulders is removed, sinking into a world of wonder. Even if it’s a farce, even if it’s fleeting, sometimes all that matters is just that one brief moment of magic.” Sylvester then paused and proceeded to give the two a warm smile.

“So, now let’s move on to our recent battle. The spell I used to cast an illusion is called “smoke and mirrors”, and unlike any generic illusion spell, it does not use mana to form an illusionary figure, but rather it allows me bend light to my will.” He explained.

“Bend light?” Letisia blurted out. After seeing experiencing the spell itself she had a realization of just how complicated the spell itself is.

“Yup. Its most basic application is to make things invisible by bending light around it. But, after a lot of experimenting I can create images that are transmitted directly into your eyes, and if I try hard enough, I can make you two see different things. I think at this point I have far exceeded what my father thought was possible when he made this spell.” Sylvester then paused.

"I guess this is what the Headmaster meant when he said make it your own back when he revealed the existence of the knowledge signs."

The more she thought about it, the more complicated it gets.

“It’s one thing if we were standing still, but we were fighting and moving around during the entire ordeal. Not to mention he was also using spells over and over. Was he changing what we saw on the fly?” Her mind was now racing, she couldn’t believe what she heard.

It was too much, too absurd. It’s too much effort when the same result can be achieved with a more advanced but straightforward illusion spell.

At same time William was also going through the same mental turmoil and their confused faces seemed to have amused Sylvester even more.

“So, were you maintaining a mental image while fighting us?” William asked

“Yup. I can’t really put into words how exactly I got the hang of it, but the simplest way I can say is that it feels like I’m dreaming while awake if that makes sense.”

“Oh and if you’re wondering about the people watching us, I simply found the device the academy used to spectate and created images for it.” He explained as he pointed above them. Soon they noticed a very faint outline of an eyeball floating and hovering over them.

“But, the illusion was just part of it.” Sylvester once again continued as he conjured another illusion in front of the two. This time he created a clone of himself with the arms raised side wards like a giant T.

“Now, I guess one of you realized that I use some kind of smoke in creating my illusions right? Smoke and mirrors are pretty much just very small lens-like particles that bend light in the same way you can bend a laser using prisms.” He said as he conjured a fire spell on his left hand.

“Admittedly this spell needs a lot of special factors to reach full effect. If more people are present it would be much more difficult to maintain a grand illusion like the one I just used. And before you ask, the audience are all grouped up into one point of view so it only counts as one!”

“Now for the trick that made you believe. There are two parts to it.” He added as he threw the flame on his hand towards the illusory T-posing Sylvester. Upon contact it created a small scale explosion.

William expected to see the same wavy smoke effect he saw before but to his horror, he witnessed no such thing. The illusory Sylvester suffered no damage whatsoever from that flame spell and continued to stand over them.

“Are you starting to understand?” Sylvester smiled.

“I first had to make you think that my illusions have a sort of weakness at the seams. I even went as far as to blow up your summoned beast just to illustrate if for you.” He added.

WIlliam and Letisia continued to stare at Sylvester in silence as they stopped questioning why Sylvester was even bothering to explain everything to them.

“And then once you thought you could affect my illusions using some sort of wind spell or whatever, I made sure you would see the effect. I did all this for the most important part of my trick.” Sylvester said as he pointed towards the clockpost.

“I needed to make you think I dispelled the illusion myself so that you would completely trust the clock over there, once it was done, all I needed to do was change one digit. All I needed was one very little lie.” Sylvester then dispelled the illusory T-posing Sylvester and let it fade into a puff of smoke.

Letisia then started laughing as she slumped down onto the floor with her face hung low.

“From the very beginning, you were toying with us. I can’t believe this.” She said as she continued to talk in a depressed tone.

“Nonsense! I was fully working myself to the bone. After all, what you perceived as “toying” is all part of the act. I need to make it fun for the audience. It was really stressful for me you know?” He added.

“Audience?” William asked.

“Yes, it seems that you have forgotten. We are being watched this entire event and as a magician, I simply took this opportunity to perform at a very large stage!” Sylvester declared in a loud and bombastic voice.

“So don’t think I look down upon you both. A performer needs to do a lot of preparation and 110% commitment to make a great show. If I didn’t take our battle seriously, it would simply become boring and repugnant.” He explained.

“But why?” Letisia questioned his motives. “Why go through all of this? Why do you need to enact such a convoluted and overly complicated plan just for the sake of a show?”

Sylvester was silent for a moment and then smiled.

“Have you ever had the feeling you were being watched?” He suddenly blurted out.

“What?” Letisia could ask in response, to which Sylvester immediately deflected.

“Oh nothing, it’s just me rambling.” He replied.

“And besides! It seemed that during our battle, the two of you have managed to somewhat break a few walls in between. So the narrative I was trying to push did come to fruition right?” Sylvester added.

Those words seemed to have struck a nerve, as William and Letisia suddenly got flustered and looked away from one another.

It’s true, before this event the two of them were at odds with each other to the point where they were almost spiteful. But once backed into a corner the two of them managed to put their pride aside and work for a common goal.

They may have lost, but at the very least, the two of them have earned the respect of one another.

Sylvester then shook his hat and soon the box came out with a thud. He then took one good look at it and smiled.

“Huh, it’s just now setting in.” He then twirled the box, placing one corner on his index finger and then spinning it around.

“We actually managed to win.” Sylvester smiled as his heart began to pound furiously inside his ears.

----

“That was quite the show!” Leonardo clapped ever so enthusiastically inside his messy office as he watched the event through his curious little box.

The rest of the campus however witnessed the event either through watching it through their IDs or through screens big and small scattered all over the campus. Streaming is the future, even in the world of magic.

“Still though, I know you’re happy about your victory mr Sylvester, but you should have remembered that you were still being watched after the announcement.” Leonardo said as he let out a little chuckle.

“Good thing I decided to cut the feed on your side or else the entire student body will know of your little tricks.” He added as he stood up to take away the little box that projected the image onto a wall.

“I know you’re extremely confident in your abilities but sometimes youthful exuberance can get in the way of common sense.” He then paused for a while as he prepared to step out of his office.

“At the very least. It’s great to see a young man getting in lost and having fun. Kids should enjoy being kids even for just a little while longer.” He said as he began to try and contact Mona Lisa via telepathy, his eyes longing for a time way past.

“My dear Mona Lisa, is everything ready?” Leonardo asked and soon a familiar female voice answered back.

“Yes headmaster. Should I summon the winner of the festival?” Mona Lisa replied.

“Yes my dear. It’s time to draw this merry event to a close.” Leonardo responded as his figure was slowly swallowed by a bright flash of light. But then, Leonardo suddenly remembered Sylvester's very curious words.

“A feeling of being watched huh?”