This time, a lot of thoughts were coursing through Cail's mind. No need to analyze them one by one because they all circled around the same thing.
'What do you call a person who can jinx things just by their thoughts? An upgraded version of a crow mouth. Probably a crow mind right?'
Cail felt that he should stop his brain from wandering sometimes, because the moment he thought of "as long as they didn't ask him to demonstrate anything." They really are now asking him to demonstrate.
His most hated person now, Hal, suddenly opened his mouth the moment Neris finished explaining his artifact.
"Sir... To be fair, why don't you show us your artifact? In that way, our artifact briefing will be more meaningful with a real-life example," Hal said innocently. It wasn't convincing at all, at least in Cail's perspective.
Cail narrowed his eyes. Whether that question was intentional or not, he hated this guy. Actually, he hated all of them, but this one really struck a nerve. Probably because he resembled the eldest of his step-siblings?
No matter what the reason was, he hates rich kids who seemed to have won the lottery jackpot the moment they were born. Unfair.
Cail tilted his head, his body bending forward towards Hal, attempting to provoke him,said, "Obviously... But I won't show it to you. So what are you gonna do about it? Cry to your parents?"
Cail isn't the smartest, but he's very good at reading social cues and analyzing behavior. This group of students acted like they were treading on thin ice around him. Cail concluded that the temper of those teachers in that school wasn't the best.
Hal looked at Cail that was asking for beating and almost choked from frustration, seeing that the young master's face is turning bad, Idris pinched him on his side.
Hal got Idris signal, he took a deep breath to calmed himself down.
"Sir, Hal is just curious, there wasn't any hidden connotation. Please don't take any offense," Idris said as he looked at Cail cautiously.
Inside his mask, Cail smiled. Idris' behavior just reinforced his guess that the teachers in their so-called school are probably ill-tempered bastards.
The silent Bram suddenly spoke, "Sir, maybe you can just tell us the type or classification of your artifact if you don't want to show it?"
"Oh?" Cail's attention was now on the unassuming Bram.
Bram continued, "Miss Cassia and Sir Quill will ask us what we learned from this briefing. What you asked, Sir, is something we already know. I would like to learn something new from you."
Cail clicked his tongue, "You're a sharp tongue huh. You guys are really that insistent to learn something?"
All five of them became silent. Cail narrowed his eyes, he was a bit unsure, is this a resistance directed at their teachers or was he already being suspected?
Either way, he didn't panic. Life works in mysterious ways. For some reason, the moment Cail received that box, it seemed that everything is starting to fit together like a puzzle.
Neris passed a note to Bram. Looking at his idiotic behavior, Bram got second-hand embarrassment. Did Neris really think that he could hide his behavior of passing this note in plain sight?
Although Bram had an urge to stuff the paper into Neris' mouth, he still read it.
[Fuck you Bram. Why did you have to provoke our instructor? Yes, what if he'll teach us but we will be the demonstration dummy just like what Instructor Rafe did to us! Getting hit by an artifact attack is different from getting hit by a fist!]
Yeah, I should just shove this note into that idiot's mouth.
Bram felt a phantom pain when he thought of Instructor Rafe, but he still held his ground.
Bram wasn't just messing around for the sake of making things difficult for the instructor. He knew that Miss Cassia and Sir Quill will really ask them what they learned from this briefing, but this teacher seemed to treat them lightly and isn't planning on teaching them anything. It's a dead end and a guaranteed beating.
Although the proud Hal was a bit provocative a while ago, he probably understood the concept, but he still let his emotions win at the end.
They need to learn something. They only have two choices. Option 1 is get beaten by this instructor, Option 2 is to get beaten by Mr Quill and Miss Cassia.
Practical Bram chose the less beating.
Cail didn't know the context, but Bram seemed to be very tough at letting him demonstrate something.
Cail thought for a moment, "Since I don't know much about artifact, I should just show them one!" Although Cail doesn't know if the trinkets that he brought are the same as those artifact, he already had an excuse if they weren't.
Cail suddenly clapped. All five of the students flinched. Cail pointed at Bram, "Hey kid, what's your name?"
"Bram Ilse."
Cail opened the bag beside him. He didn't bring the box but he brought some of those 'artifacts'. What props should he use?
His eyes suddenly caught the broken compass.
He pulled the broken compass out of his bag. His gloved fingers traced the numbers on the chain, it's 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 and after that is a weird circle with a star symbol on the center. He didn't have any deeper thoughts of choosing this compass. He just thinks it looked cooler than the rest.
He beckoned Bram to come close.
From the students' perspective, after the instructor asked for Bram's name, he suddenly went silent and took something out of his bag.
It was a broken compass.
They couldn't see anything special about it, but they felt uneasy. It felt like the calm before the storm.
Bram braced himself and walked towards the instructor. The instructor placed the compass on Bram's palm.
"Look, doesn't it look exquisite? Although it's broken, it still retains its former beauty!"
Bram looked at the compass and nodded. He is starting to feel more and more uneasy.
The instructor continued, "That's a very special compass that I found in... Well it's a secret where I found it. But I guarantee, It's a very rare artifact. Don't look down on it just because it's rusty."
"Besides, It's still a good decorative piece if you don't wanna use it. Or maybe you could play with it!" The instructor pointed at the compass in Bram's hand. "Look, that compass actually had hidden secrets."
Looking very suspicious, the instructor asked Bram, "Twist the surface of the compass as if you're opening a bottle of soda. The moment you feel the click, that's where the surprise begins."
Bram looked at the instructor. He felt very uneasy and scared. Is this an artifact? What does he mean playing with an atifact?
What's going on? What does he want?
"Go ahead! You want to learn something about artifacts right?"
Looking at the instructor that was staring at him like a hawk, Bram had no choice but to do it.
Just like what the instructor said, Bram felt a click the moment he twisted the surface of the compass.
And before he could think of what it was, he suddenly felt a huge force bursting out of the compass.
He saw that everything went blur. He looked around and saw the panicked face of his teammates and the instructor attempting to grab on him.
He saw the bastion (defense) artifact that his family gave him shattered. He then realized that he was flying like a kite.
Was he really being used as a dummy as Neris said?
His eyes widen, he screamed, "Instructor! You're is too much!"
Then with a boom, he blacked out.