Chapter 141: Thirty Credit Points

Elara:

For one heartbeat, nobody moved. The classroom was filled with absolute silence as everyone struggled to process what had just happened.

I turned toward Aria, watching as her eyes went wide in shock and confusion. I didn’t give her time to recover. I raised my hand, reached into the remnants of her own magic, and twisted it.

The classroom disappeared around her, and within seconds, she was in an entirely different place and setting.

For a few seconds, I simply stood there and watched Aria tremble inside the illusion I had created. The realization of how quickly I had done it was almost as surprising to me as it must have been to everyone else.

Aria had been so confident about winning this practical exam that she hadn’t even bothered raising a mental shield before beginning her attack. She had assumed I would be too overwhelmed by whatever nightmare she created to fight back, and that arrogance had given me exactly the opening I needed.

The moment her illusion broke, I had reached into the lingering threads of her magic and turned them against her before she could even understand what I was doing. There hadn’t been enough time for her to defend herself. One moment she had been standing proudly in front of me, and the next, she had been trapped inside a world I controlled.

And unlike Aria, I knew exactly what frightened her. I had spent nearly four months at Moonveil Academy watching people. I might not have understood all the politics yet, and I certainly didn’t know every noble family in Starfall, but I had learned something important about Liliana and the people surrounding her.

Not everyone in Liliana’s circle was powerful. Not everyone stood beside her because they were her equals. Some of them followed her because they needed her. Some because they feared her. And some because their families depended on Liliana’s family to maintain their position.

Aria belonged to that last category, and I had noticed it long before today. She laughed the loudest whenever Liliana spoke, agreed with her even when she clearly didn’t want to, and seemed to become visibly uncomfortable whenever Liliana’s attention turned toward her.

She might have spent every day pretending to be one of Liliana’s closest companions, but she had never carried herself like someone who believed she could stand against Liliana. That was the weakness I had seen, and now I had turned it into a weapon.

The illusion around Aria shifted again. She was standing in what appeared to be one of the academy’s grand halls, except it was filled with students. Liliana stood at the center, dressed perfectly, her expression colder than I had ever seen it. Aria seemed confused for only a second before Liliana’s voice cut through the crowd.

"Who exactly do you think you are?" she demanded, and the illusion was so convincing that Aria flinched before she could even remember that none of this was real.

Liliana stepped closer, her eyes sweeping over Aria with open contempt. "You seem to have forgotten that you aren’t noble enough to stand above anyone. Your family has survived for years because of the protection and influence of my family. So you should stop behaving as though you have somehow earned a place beside me."

Every word struck exactly where it needed to, and Aria’s face grew paler with every sentence.

I watched silently as the illusion continued to tighten around her mind. Liliana told her that people like Aria were replaceable, that her family could be cut off whenever Liliana’s family became tired of supporting them, and that all it would take was one decision for everything Aria’s parents had built to disappear.

"You should remember your place," illusion-Liliana said coldly, while the crowd around them watched. "You exist here because my family allows yours to exist here. Don’t mistake proximity for equality."

Aria’s lips began trembling. She looked around desperately, searching for someone who might defend her, but every face in the crowd remained turned toward her. No one moved. No one helped. That was when the fear truly took hold.

"No, please," she whispered, shaking her head violently. "I didn’t mean anything by it. Please don’t be angry with me."

Her breathing became faster as Liliana stepped closer, and within seconds the confident girl who had entered the practical looking certain of victory had become a crying mess.

"Please don’t hurt my family. I swear I’ll never do anything to upset you again. Please, Liliana."

She was begging now, tears streaming down her face as she desperately tried to appease someone who wasn’t even really there.

The entire classroom was silent. Even I could feel the shift in the atmosphere as everyone realized exactly what had happened. This wasn’t just a successful counterattack. I had taken Aria’s greatest fear, built it into an illusion, and made her experience it so completely that she had forgotten to question whether it was real.

"Winner - Eleanora Argentis," Professor Stroll finally announced, her voice breaking through the silence. "Thirty credit points."

I immediately released the illusion. The grand hall vanished, Liliana disappeared, and Aria stumbled backward in the classroom as reality slammed back into place.

For a moment, even Professor Stroll looked almost as stunned as everyone else. Then her expression softened into something that looked suspiciously like pride. She glanced at me and gave a small nod, and I realized she hadn’t expected this either.

I hadn’t simply survived the practical. I had demonstrated exactly what months of training could accomplish. Thirty points. The maximum. After having my entire credit balance reduced to zero, seeing that number added to my record felt almost unreal.

The students seemed to need a few seconds longer to process it. Nobody spoke at first, but then Violet started clapping. She didn’t hesitate or care about looking dramatic, she simply stood there with the biggest grin on her face and applauded as if she had been waiting for this moment all along.

That finally broke the spell over everyone else, and scattered claps quickly spread through the classroom until the room filled with applause.

I couldn’t stop the small smile that appeared on my face. My eyes briefly met Violet’s, and the pride shining there warmed something inside me. She had been worried when Aria started her attack. Now she looked like she wanted to drag me outside and celebrate immediately.

Aria, however, clearly didn’t share the enthusiasm.