This chapter is a little shorter, but hey it's not thatreally hate the rrl editor, since I write on Google Docs and paste it here. I have to go through the crappy reformatting process, where unexpected things happens for reasons unknown in this editor. And of course the colour palette doesn't have the proper shades of black for some god forsaken reason, and gives you every other colour that you'll probably not use 99% of the time. Well that's my rant, and as always, if you have any suggestions or thoughts about the new format or the story, please write it down :D

Nonetheless, thank you and please enjoy the chapter.

~ Artemis University, Main School Building

“Alright, steady. Looks like he hasn’t noticed us yet. Let’s keep going.”

Ed nods as I peek over the corner of the hallway to see Earth walking to the exit, as I had expected.

Ed still have that worried and guilty look on his face. “Should we really be stalking him? I am curious, but still…“

“We are not stalking him, we’re following him, just without prior notice. And what’s important is that you’re curious right? We’re also here to make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble; he may be a genius, but we still know more about the school than him.”, I explained to Ed.

Ed looks a little bit more convinced and no longer has any more comments, so we continue to stal- follow Earth.

We waited for Earth to exit the building, then after a bit, we quickly moved through the final hallway and out of the building, and hid in a nearby bush to stay out of his sight.

We moved from tree to bush, bush to tree, and long after I have lost count of how many times we have moved, we finally followed Earth to the training grounds with the huge stadium in the middle. Of course, he hasn’t noticed us yet.

At this time, the main classes are still going on, so the training grounds are completely empty right now, but the cool breeze and rustle of the leaves are really quite relaxing in this sunny weather. We watched Earth as we took cover under a cool shade behind some bushes.

*Pant*

*Pant*

*Pant*

“Can… can we rest for a while?”, Ed requests.

“It’s not even that far and you are already exhausted? What kind of ogre are you, even my grandmother can do better than you! Wait, looks like he’s moving again! Looks like he’s heading towards the stadium!”

I thought for sure he was going into the stadium itself, but he just stood outside of the stadium, trying to take something out of his bag? What is he taking out?

Something brown and big came out of his small bag… it’s a sack! But a sack for what? Why do you need a sack here? Ed looks equally confused as I am.

Earth placed the sack beside him and just stood there, silent, as if concentrating on something. Just a moment later, fist-sized rocks from all around the stadium and training grounds started to float towards him at a fast speed.

We looked on the magic show as the rocks lined themselves up in a coil around him. As far as I can see, there are about twenty to thirty of these rocks lined up. They went into the huge sack one by one until there’s none left, and the sack looks barely filled, if at all.

When the rocks were all collected, he continued to move, this time with the bag floating along with him.

Rocks that size are everywhere, so why is he collecting these specific ones? I suspect this might be more than what it looks.

We continued to move tree to tree, bush to bush, and sometimes while he was walking more of those rocks would float into the bag. At this point the calculations class is probably over and general magics class have already started, but Earth seems to be walking around the school compound collecting these rocks with absolutely no care in the world.

We were supposed to be in the class the same, but Earth’s safety is more important, right? We have the responsibility to look after him as his seniors, so he doesn’t get hurt or into trouble.

I can see Ed still worried about stal- following Earth and that we’re skipping classes, so I gave him a smile and a thumbs up to show that everything will be fine. It somehow worked.

We followed Earth as he moved from place to place, including the principal’s building and some other facilities, collecting these specific rocks. Ed was struggling to keep up, and sometimes I even had to drag him along to make sure he was out of sight from Earth.

We were taken for a tour around the entire campus, visited every place of interest, and watched the sack slowly filled up to its brim. Now all that’s left is the last stop, which we were sure is the dormitory. It is the only place left. We took a shortcut across the school instead of the usual path, so that we can reach there earlier and take a good rest.

After walking through grass fields after grass fields, we finally made it to the dormitory, and found a good hiding spot under a tree to rest.

We thought we would know something useful about Earth’s motives if we had followed him all the way, but instead we got even more questions instead.

I looked around and found one of those fist-sized rock that Earth was trying collecting for reasons unknown. Even after seeing him collecting the same thing for so long, it still took a bit for me to find one of those rocks; they blended in with the environment really well, and normally one wouldn’t even notice them.

I picked up and examined the rock back under the hiding spot. It looks exactly like a rock, feels exactly like a rock, but is it really just a rock? There must be something about these rocks that makes Earth want to collect them. Maybe I had just picked up the wrong rock…

*Ding dong*

*Ding dong*

*Ding dong*

The loud, deep chimes of the central clock tower resonated through the air, signifying the end of the main classes.

There he stood at the bottom end of the dormitory. He managed to get through the whole campus collecting these rocks in just a few hours, which was pretty impressive, considering the large area of the campus. Of course the most impressive was still me and Ed, we somehow managed to follow him all the way without him noticing… probably.

However, this time he seems to be concentrating a little harder than before, and even needing to stretch his hands out, palms facing down. I could feel some kind of force that enveloped my entire body and the surroundings. The breeze stopped blowing and the leaves stopped rustling, as if time itself has been put to a halt.

Somehow, I could feel that at the right moment, he flipped his hands around, and started to lift his arms… and also the entire area including the entire stretch of the dormitory. Even my body felt a little lighter, grass blades stood straight and sharp, rocks from the dirt ground started to float in the air.

The rock in my hand started to float too, and move into a long line of even more fist-sized rocks towards Earth. The rocks went into the sack, but as it was overflowing, the rest of the rocks were left floating along with the sack. Now I know the rock that I found was the right one, but are they really just normal rocks?

When he finished collecting, he put his arms down, and the rocks on the dirt ground fell back down, the grass and trees swayed again in the gentle breeze. Everything was back to normal… except us…

“Ahh is it over? Wait, why am I still feeling that uncomfortable feeling? D-d-does this mean that we’ve been found out?! W-w-what do we do now? He is going to be so angry at us!”

“Calm down Ed, did I not say this before? We’re just following him for his safety. It’ll be fine, leave it to me.”

Suddenly the force became even stronger and we’re now floating… somewhere? And where did Earth go? Though… floating like this doesn’t feel too bad, it’s kind of soft and comfortable now, like being carried while in my bed. I hate magic, but I’ll make this an exception… mhmmh…

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