So far, I’ve managed to explore all of the significant locations laid out on the map, excluding the circular building I saw when I first stepped on the premises. The only place left was the large square that made up… it’s hard to approximate at a glance, but I believe this mysterious square makes up around 40 to 60 percent of the entire school building’s layout.

  It made me more curious about what the purpose of this area was, and what it looked like, when a lot of the school’s interior already looked extremely luxurious. Even the hospital felt as fancy as a low-end luxury hotel.

  I walked down more halls and turned more corners, keeping track of my position on the miniature map.

  The hallways widened drastically, decorated with red carpet nearly as wide as the hall’s width, accented with golden tassels. It had a very royal feel, almost like I’m about to enter a king’s chamber.

  At the end of the red carpet was a large set of double doors.

  I wonder how they open?

  I’ve seen lots of doors, but the only doors I’ve ever opened were ones that can fit around the average human height, maybe a little extra to account for the taller outliers. Larger doors, from my understanding, use their hinges to place their weight on the frame so that it’s less strenuous for a single person to open them, maybe place the door on a track if the structure itself can’t handle the weight because of the material it’s made of.

  Is magic used to open these, or is there some engineering ingenuity?

  I looked behind me, making sure I wasn’t being followed. After checking, I pushed on the handle and carefully leaned on the door, feeling that it was heavier than it looked.

  The door slowly opened as I continued leaning on it. Despite its size, it was silent.

  I checked behind me once more before entering the room.

  Inside was a well-lit room with a square surrounded by walls with a height reaching just below my waist. Similar to the garden I stumbled across, there were gaps between the walls aligned with the center of the square.

  Beneath me was the ground made of packed sand, similar to the running track I used to run on in high school. Whatever this room was, I had a feeling it wasn’t there for decoration.

  Around me were simple wooden walls, opposite to the fancy white walls I saw on the outside. The lack of decorations also stuck out to me. My initial impression of the school teetered between looking fancy to borderline ostentatious. Not too many decorations to feel in-your-face and overcompensating, but just enough to feel prestigious.

  I looked up, wanting to see the source of the room’s lighting. There were some twin scones lining the walls, but I doubted that they alone provided the amount of lighting I saw. I didn’t see a shadow here the shorter walls, or by my feet.

  That was when I noticed something odd.

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  It was hard to tell at first with the dark wooden interior, but after shifting my position to change viewing angles by the smallest of degrees, I noticed a light refraction. It was subtle, but noticeable. I looked to my right, and saw the phenomenon wasn’t concentrated to a single spot.

  I walked around the perimeter of the short walls, and was able to find more spots where light refracted. It consistently occurred above the short walls.

  Then a thought occurred to me.

  What if I waved my hand over the wall?

  I moved my hand toward the gap between the wall and the refractions, but stopped myself. If I’m gonna test something I don’t know, I should at least reduce the risk of me losing my limbs when acting out of curiosity.

  I moved a few steps back away from the wall until my back touched the dark wooden walls, then conjured a wooden rod with a length greater than the gap between the small walls and wooden walls. Then I took the rod and slowly moved the end away from me toward the gap between the refraction and the short wall.

  Suddenly, the end of the rod was pushed away, like magnetic repulsion. No matter how hard I tried to force the end of the rod toward a specific spot, a force pushed it away.

  I used my power to cut a chunk of the rod that would fit in the palm of my hand and threw it toward a spot above the short wall. It levitated in the air for a split second before being repelled backward.

  Interesting.

  I dissipated the rod, then picked up the section I had cut off and moved toward the gap aligned with the center of the square, and tossed it toward the entrance. This time, the rod went through, into the square.

  I tested it again, making a simple smaller rod and using it as a cane, poking through the entrance into the square. After confirming no repulsive force would repel me, I stepped through the entrance into the square.

  Something about that felt… grand, as if the square was the stage for some unknown ceremony or legendary moment in history.

  I should probably leave.

  When I suddenly realized the sanctity of this place, it felt like I was trespassing on the boundaries defined by stanchions in a museum. As if every movement I made further distorted what the place meant to those people.

  I backed up, not wanting to tread further on a ceremonial location.

  I didn’t disturb too much, right?

  All I did was poke at and throw a rod at a weird barrier that repels whatever comes at it, and stepped into the square surrounded by the barrier.

  I looked own, and saw my footsteps leading to and from the square.

  As I was thinking about how to clean up my footprints, the giant door slammed open.

  Two people stormed in, a boy and a girl, judging by their clothing, shouting syllables.

  I stood there frozen in shock, like a deer caught in the headlights.

  Thoughts of panic raced through my mind as I thought about what to do next.

  As I watched them, I realized their syllables are directed at each other. There were even flippant, exaggerated gestures I’ve seen before being directed at the other person.

  I stood still, silently observing their altercation. Even though I didn’t understand a word, their movements were humorous. Their exchange reminded me of those slapstick silent films.

  My amusement became concern when vines suddenly grew from the ground around the other person. I could tell from their movements who the vines belonged to.

  The girl jumped backward into the square.

  More vines appeared, soaring toward the fleeing girl. When running wasn’t enough, she performed odd movements, deflecting or cutting the incoming vines.

  It wasn’t until one of their movements was directed towards the ground, blowing a dust cloud as it stopped more vines, did I realized the nature of their power, wind magic.

  The vine conjuring aggressor stepped into the square, continuing his assault. They summoned vines behind, under, or in front of the wind dancer. The wind dancer was able to fend off their attacks for a good few seconds, but became distracted by a vine grabbing their leg. In an instant, they were dangling in the air.

  Despite her predicament, she only shouted at the vine conjurer.

  This started another exchange of either name-calling or banter. Either way, the brief battle only seemed to spur out of pettiness.