1 CHAPTER N

It was a spacious hall with walls of dark stone blocks, over several centuries overgrown with fluffy cobwebs and covered with the roots of creeping plants. The floor was paved with granite slabs, and antique furniture made of black oak. Everyone who turned out to visit the Witch Academy felt alienated and forgotten. Traditions have always stood in the way of progress and modernization: rooms, corridors, clothes of students and teachers, everything was supposed to bring horror, oblivion, and isolation. Therefore, the interior of the academy was executed in dark colors, and students wore strict monochrome dresses and pointed hats with wide brims. Of the accessories, they could only afford jewelry and hairpins with the image of pumpkins, skulls, cats, and wolves.

About thirty girls were sitting in the hall. They were waiting for the arrival of the lecturer, who was delayed for unknown reasons. Many of them talked to each other to pass the time, while others frantically copied missed lectures or did homework.

"Lulu, what happened to you?" There was a whisper in the back row.

It was a young student with red hair pulled into a bun at the back of her head. Her gray eyes gleamed happily in the light of the magic lamps and looked at the sleepy face of Lulu sitting next to her.

"Nothing," she replied.

Unlike her red-haired friend, she had wheat-colored hair that spread like a cloak over her shoulders. Unruly curly curls stuck out here and there. And they did not want to obey their mistress at all, and in fact, she diligently combed her hair in the mornings and evenings, like a cat licking her fur, but everything was in vain. And no matter how much this young student named Lulu tried to look more mature, there were still childish features in her thick eyebrows, snub nose, and plump lips with rounded contours of her face. But the lush breasts, which even a spacious robe could not hide, somehow did not fit with everything else.

The girl with red hair nudged Lulu with her elbow and asked quietly:

"Who turned you down this time?"

She sighed heavily and lowered her head as if she was embarrassed to tell her friend the truth.

"Anastasia refused me," Lulu finally replied. "Because of this, I couldn't sleep."

"What?! Have you confessed your love to the most popular senior?" her friend gasped. "I'm sorry for you, Lulu, but there are mostly normal girls studying at the Witch Academy."

"Nana, I've already figured that out. And, apparently, I had to go to the Royal Academy and become a sorceress. "

"Ha, Mrs. Krivda won't let you go just like that," Nana shook her head. "You're a model freshman. You study well, you know a lot, and you're not bad looking. A real elegant witch with big…"

She bit her tongue.

"And you too!" Lulu puffed out her cheeks. "Do you know that they are quite uncomfortable? They are always getting in the way, sweating and tormenting me in every possible way."

"Of course, but thanks to them, you can seduce any knight, dragon, or even demon. They will serve you, and also help in all sorts of secret rituals of their own free will. "

"Yes, I will gladly give them to you! Tell me quickly how to do it?" Lulu sighed in annoyance.

"Alas, there is no such spell in the world to swap body parts," Nana said sadly. "And by the way, when are you going to invite your best friend to a concert? I've already missed your violin playing."

"First of all, I want to wait for a gift from my parents. They promised me to buy a Sacrilegious-Immortal violin if I studied well. "

"It's worth a lot of money!" Nana exclaimed and added, "Is your old violin broken?"

"No, I just need a little bit of love. I don't want to play without it at all."

Suddenly, a teacher entered the classroom. Her mantle was decorated with purple ribbons, and at the end of a pointed hat was a small pumpkin with carved eyes that glowed in the dark with scarlet tones.

"I'm sorry, girls, for being late, but today I have to cancel the lecture," the teacher apologized.

It was Madame Cassandra, the master of curses and dark magic. Her gray hair was braided into a braid, and her empty eyes always looked somewhere in the distance, as if they could see through objects or walls.

"Mrs. Cassandra! Why? We really wanted to hear your lecture!" the students were indignant.

"Silence!" she wagged her finger. "When you reach my age, then you will ask questions!"

Without wasting a second, Cassandra immediately left, leaving behind her thirteen students.

Nana put her arm around Lulu's neck and exclaimed contentedly:

"Hurrah! Still a whole hour and a half before the next lesson! What'll we do?"

"I don't know."

"Cheer up! Life is beautiful, someday you will find your love and happiness," Nana encouraged.

"I wish I could believe it," Lulu sighed and got up from the bench. "I'll meet you in the living room, and now I have to go somewhere."

"Great! " Nana was delighted. "Let's play board games with you then. You don't mind, do you?"

Lulu nodded back and headed for the exit. She wanted to go to the bathroom wildly, as she had drunk a lot of sedatives last night.

Lulu ran through the corridors, covered with torn carpets. Painted vases with dried plants and statues of mythical animals stood against the walls. There were marble manticores, miniature dragons, and werewolves with their enemies, vampires. The sculptors did their best because all their creations were repeated in the smallest details of the originals. Because of the poor lighting from the magic lamps, it was possible to wander through the endless labyrinths of the academy for a long time. But Lulu knew the way, so she chose the passages she needed to get to the cherished place as soon as possible. Stopping in front of a stone gargoyle statue, she pulled on its wing to open a secret door.

"Oh, these useless rules," Lulu muttered. "Why hide the door to a regular toilet?"

Entering the bathroom, she began to break into the first stall, but that was already occupied by someone. So she had to go to the next one. At the end of the business, Lulu wanted to go to the living quarters, but she heard a quiet crying.

"Are you all right?" she was always ready to help those in need. But there was no response from the stall where the crying came from.

"I know you're there. Is there anything I can help you with?" Lulu knocked on the door.

"No," said a small voice. "Leave me alone."

"I definitely won't be able to leave now. You better accept my help in a good way, otherwise, I can kick this door down!"

"You're annoying! I don't need your help!"

"Yeah, you sure do," Lulu disagreed with her. "I'm on my way to you."

She slammed her shoulder into the door to stir up the "crybaby".

"Wait! Don't do that!"

"Good. So how can I help you?"

"Okay… Well… I need a panacea," the girl replied through tears.

"Do you have pain? Can I call a doctor?"

"No, I just need a panacea. And I would be very grateful if you could get it for me."

"Lulu will find a panacea for you! She's already rushing to the rescue!"

Since witches studied dangerous spells, sometimes they had to fight with creatures from other worlds. And in any battle, it was always possible to get wounded or lose an entire part of the body, so the head of the academy did not skimp on funding a place where students could be bandaged, cured of some otherworldly ailment, or sew something on. The infirmary was run by an "Angel" in a white coat, and her name was Helga. When Lulu came running to the infirmary, the "Angel" was sitting in her favorite chair and doing paperwork.

"Has Lulu come to us again?" sneered Helga. "I suppose she came back for a sedative?"

Tired of running for a long time, Lulu was breathing hard and fast, and her heart was beating nervously in her chest and seemed about to jump out. After catching her breath a little, she asked:

"Do you have a panacea?"

"A panacea? This is a very expensive medicine. And what did you need it for?"

"You see, there's someone sitting in the toilet and crying. She doesn't let anyone in and doesn't come out herself. She urgently needs a panacea. Maybe she's dying there!" Lulu rattled off.

"Calm down," Helga with a disgruntled grin on her face got up and went to the far corner of the room.

The infirmary was lined with beds for patients, and cabinets with all kinds of medicines, tinctures, and antidotes. After all, poisons were required for potion-making classes, and they had to be obtained from quite live snakes and spiders. And these creatures did not like it when the last juices were squeezed out of them, so they fiercely defended themselves and could bite the unlucky student.

It was also probably the only room with a cheerful atmosphere. There was a yellow spot on the blue ceiling in the middle, from which rays radiated in different directions. This peculiar sun, bright walls, and tiled floor in green tones were supposed to encourage patients and instill hope in their hearts for a favorable outcome. Only now, looking at the jars and bottles in which the parts of the animals were floating, it became somehow uncomfortable, so all the positive atmosphere immediately disappeared somewhere. And the sadistic tendencies of the "Angel" in a white coat finally put a fat cross on hope, forcing patients to recover faster, just to leave this "cheerful" room as soon as possible.

Taking a bottle of cloudy liquid out of the closet, Helga handed it to Lulu:

"Here you go, but don't break it on the way. I hope your friend knows what to do with it."

"Thanks. I'm glad we have such a wonderful nurse!"

"You mean a witch doctor with sadistic tendencies?" Helga didn't appreciate her teasing. "You little sycophant, get out of here and don't let your foot be here anymore!"

"All right, my Angel!" Lulu giggled.

She carefully took the medicine and examined it from all sides. The murky liquid changed its color depending on which side to look at it from, from blue to bright red. After bowing to Helga as a sign of gratitude, Lulu set off on her way back.

When she returned to the toilet and found that the mysterious stranger was still crying quietly in her stall.

"Open up, I've brought you a panacea," Lulu told her the good news.

"I can't."

"Then I will kick down this door and give you a panacea!"

"I have another idea."

The stranger without further ado stuck her hand out from under the door. Her skin was so pale that it seemed to belong to a dead man. Lulu gave her the cherished bottle and casually ran her fingers over her palm. The skin was smooth and tender, but very cold.

After a minute or two, an unknown person finally came out. She was a petite girl with raven-black hair. They covered her shoulders, and back and grew up to her waist. On her pointed face, reddened from prolonged crying, there were two wide-open eyes, a straight nose, and a small mouth with pink lips. The stranger was a full head shorter than Lulu.

Wiping her tears with the sleeve of her robe, she bowed and thanked:

"Thank you for your help."

Lulu gave her an ear-to-ear smile:

"Wow, what a cutie!"

She could not resist making a dash forward and, hugging the rescued girl tightly with both hands, clinging to her:

"Are you new? When did you arrive? And from where?"

"Let me go immediately!" she squeaked plaintively, but she did not have enough strength to escape from the embrace."

When Lulu quenched her thirst for "hugs", she loosened her grip and apologized:

"I'm sorry, but it's your fault that you're so cute!"

"I'm not cute and I have a name! Sophie!" having gained her freedom, she began to shake off her mantle, like a cat after being stroked by an outsider. "And I urgently need to get into the administration."

"It's very nice to meet you. My name is Lulu. Let's be friends!" Lulu held out her hand.

Sophie looked at her hand warily, as if her interlocutor's palm was stained with something, but in the end, decided to shake hands.

"Great! I have a new girlfriend! And she's so cute!" Lulu beamed with happiness. " So where did you come from?"

"I don't have time for this. Take me to the administration immediately!" Sophie said in a commanding tone.

" You're stroppy," Lulu muttered. "Very well, as you wish, my lady.

"And I'm not your mistress!" The petite Sophie blushed a little.

"Take me there, then drag me here!" Only pompous rich women or spoiled princesses say that," Lulu remarked. "Can you at least tell me what happened to you and why you needed a panacea?"

"Perhaps someday I will tell you, but only if you do my request.

"Then I will look forward to it!"

Lulu escorted Sophie to the administration, where, to her surprise, there was no one.

"It's a strange day today. The lecture was canceled, and now there is no one here. Even Mrs. Krivda disappeared, and she certainly should have been sitting in her office late," Lulu mused aloud.

"Then I'll wait here," Sophie frowned and then thanked her rescuer once again:

"I am very grateful to you. Thanks."

"Always happy to help!" Lulu smiled.

"You're strange."

"You too! And now can you tell me about what happened to you? Lulu was burning with curiosity."

"No, I'll tell you some other time," Sophie shook her head.

"Uh, you're so nasty."

"What I am, I will be. It's not up to you to decide," Sophia hissed.

Lulu's eyes noticed a wall clock, the hands of which indicated the early start of the next lesson. It turned out that she had spent all her free time-saving Sophie. And now it's time to hurry to the study room. The dissatisfied face of the teacher immediately popped up in her head, and then how Lulu would have to apologize and explain the reason for being late.

After saying goodbye to Sophie, Lulu went to a potion-making class.

"Hurrah!" she exclaimed when she got to the room and found only her peers there.

Taking a seat next to Nana, Lulu put her head on the table and began to think about the mysterious Sophie, trying to figure out for herself the reason why she was crying in the toilet.

"Is she suffering from unrequited love?" Lulu's thoughts were popping up in her head. "Or maybe she was forced to enroll in this terrible academy? Is she suffering from some incurable, deadly disease?"

From her tense face, Nana immediately realized that another story had happened to Lulu:

"Why didn't you come?! I've been waiting for you and I've been waiting for a very long time! Then I began to think that a troll had kidnapped you!"

"I'm sorry. I met a person in need of help and could not pass by."

"So I understand that this someone turned out to be a girl, and you accidentally fell in love with her," sighed Nana.

"I don't know, but she's pretty. I just want to squeeze her like a stuffed toy," Lulu giggled.

"Yesterday you confessed your love to Anastasia, and today you have already found another one," Nana said accusingly. "When will you grow up?"

"That's right, I need to grow up!" Lulu raised her head." I used to just write letters and invite a girl to a meeting. Now I will fight for love!"

"It looks like you misunderstood me," Nana was taken aback, but Lulu was no longer listening to her.

At that moment, uninvited guests entered the study room. The first to appear was an elderly woman in a spacious black and red robe, painted with magical signs. Her hair was not covered with a hat, since the head of the academy did not need to wear hats. It was Mrs. Krivda, and she was walking with a limp and leaning on a carved wooden staff. A black cat, the Marquis, followed her everywhere. He was created with the help of magic, so he served his mistress faithfully, as her familiar.

All the students immediately stood up and bowed to those who entered.

"Sit down, children. I decided to personally introduce you to a new teacher," said Krivda in her authoritative voice.

Standing next to her was a small girl with long black hair that blended into her dark attire.

"I'm Sophie Mandragora," she bowed. "From today I will teach you how to brew potions."

Lulu couldn't believe her eyes that her new friend turned out to be a teacher…