Pretending To Be Gilead's Prince and Master Wizard

{This chapter is dedicated to Icefire_Everburn for that wonderful review you've given me weeks ago! I really appreciated it very much! And I decided to start updating now since the premium date for this story starts on December 31. Yey! Please continue to support this novel until then. :D }

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What in the world is this? My mentor is also one of the members of the panel here?

Well, funny, since he is the captain of the Magic Army, I should expect this one coming. And for that, I'll give myself a good smack in the forehead.

"Krisella! Come on! What are you standing there for?"

I didn't notice Ariella turning around and seeing me frozen in my place, but that also made me snap off my thoughts and run my way towards them. I hadn't expected they already went far from me!

I could feel my heart beating so fast I think it would explode at any minute! How could I compose myself now?!

Maggie may have seen me jittering around here since she plastered a reassuring smile on her face while saying, "Relax, our panel won't eat you alive, alright?"

Too dumbfounded to even make a comprehensible word right now, I just slowly nodded my head and looked like a total idiot.

Once we arrived backstage, Mr.Pumpkin once again turned to look at each one of us as he reminded us once again of the mechanics for the execution part.

"Again ladies and gentlemen, you should…. Or you must execute three spells for each difficulty perfectly if you wish to pass this exam. Because in this school, we don't tolerate poor performance around here and always want the best performances from our beloved students. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Pumpkin." we all said in unison.

The teacher proudly grinned at us. "Well, I wish you all good luck."

After his last statement, he once again turned his back on us and proceeded to go out of this small room that he brought us in-- which serves as our waiting room at the moment and proceeded on the stage as our emcee for this event.

The students would be called out alphabetically, and thank goodness for my parents who have the letter 'L' as the first letter of our family surname, hence I won't have to worry about being the first one.

"Ambrosia, Maggie." Our adviser called out as soon as he is officially done with his lengthy introductory statement earlier.

"Oh, goodness… I so hate my last name right now!" I heard my friend Maggie spat these words under her breath before forcing herself to go out of this room and went up the stage.

I could see my friend's body tense as she finally went up the stage and showed herself to this crowd who are anticipating what they will be seeing from us-- err also may be waiting for something embarrassing to watch, I suppose.

Yet Maggie was extremely brilliant and talented out there! We all watched in awe as she all did the spells that the panel mentioned for her to do with ease. Even the panel members looked astonished at the performance she is putting up today.

I wish I could be that good as well once I lay my feet on that stage…

After Maggie was able to perform all those spells, she ended it with a courteous bow and exited herself from there, and came running giddily towards us.

"Once again, that is a spectacular performance from one of my best students Maggie Ambrosia."

"Did I do okay up there?" Maggie asked, who didn't pay attention to what Mr. Pumpkin had said earlier about her.

"Are you kidding?" I smiled widely. "Mr. Pumpkin just said your performance is spectacular! We are all thinking the same way too."

"Aww, that is so sweet for you to say, Krisella. Thank you so much." Maggie said and gave Ariella and me a big hug.

"If you ask me, that is one heck of a sloppy performance to me. " The class president suddenly chimed in and crashed the happy mood between us three.

"Hey! What is wrong with you?" Ariella snapped, pulled away from the hug, and pointed a finger at our air-headed class president.

"Want some real performance? Watch and learn from me later on." That Wilford guy winked at us before merrily went his way out of here.

I was still watching his back moving away here when I said, "Wow, that is one air-headed classmate we have there."

"Yeah… tell me about it." Ariella seconded.

Later on, as my classmates are being called one by one to perform on stage in front of these people, the bigger is the anxiety I am feeling right now.

Some of my classmates were able to go out of the stage very happy because they were able to execute those spells perfectly and passed the exam.

But there are a few unlucky ones, who either are too nervous to not get some of the spells right or too absorbed in their own thoughts to do the correct spell according to what the panel member just said.

That could be my downfall right there…

The last one to perform was my other close friend Ariella, whose last name is Lambert just next to mine. And she was also able to give out a brilliant performance earlier that dazzled the crowd and the panel members.

I gasped. You know what that means.

It is so hard to absorb when the performer or that genius classmate of yours right before you just did a marvelous job… since you are also expected to give out that same amount of effort or even went higher than that.

The pressure is real guys, I swear.

"Krisella Lancaster… you're up next!" Mr. Pumpkin enthusiastically announced, like that's a good thing when clearly it is not.

Okay, Krisella, you can do this! I know you can! You have practiced so hard for this one.

Break a leg!

As my wobbly feet take me up to the stage to face the panel members and the audience, I also forced myself to plaster a fake half-hearted smile on my face to make it look like I am not about to leak in my pants here.

Once I am on the stage, the first thing that I did was to avoid my mentor's intimidating gaze and instead focused on finding a panel member that is not intimidating to look at... but only found none so I just randomly chose which one to look at.

"Ms. Lancaster…"

Wow…. Fate must be enjoying playing with me now for making that jerk the first one to speak out of all the panel members available here.

Amazing…