It happened so suddenly that Antoine Martin instinctively tried to step back, only for his entire foot to slip out of his shoe.
He hurriedly tried to plant his foot and steady himself, but stepped right on the hem of his robe.
"Strange? My shoes and clothes... what's going on?" The question suddenly flashed through his mind.
What he was wearing was a standard-issue robe distributed by Saint Landry. Under normal circumstances, its hem should not have suddenly grown longer.
No sooner had the doubt arisen than he felt a force tug at his feet—as if someone behind him had grabbed the hem of his robe and given it a fierce pull.
Caught off guard, he completely lost his balance and crashed heavily to the floor.
"What happened?" Antoine Martin let out a pained grunt and struggled to get up.
But before he could regain his footing, another change struck.
His entire body suddenly tightened. His once well-fitting robe seemed to have abruptly shrunk, constricting him so tightly that even breathing became difficult.
"Ghk..." He laboriously raised a hand and desperately tugged at his collar, seeking only the slightest gap to catch his breath.
His struggle lasted only a few seconds. Yet in that brief time, the curtains, hospital bed, pillow, and even the robe and shoes on his body... everything around him had returned to normal.
Antoine Martin seemed to realize something. He abruptly looked toward Laurence, who had now returned to normal, as an utterly mad thought that completely overturned everything he knew burst into his mind:
Every abnormal phenomenon that had appeared in the ward had been caused by Laurence—what wizards usually called a "magical outburst"!
Generally speaking, only wizards who had not yet entered a magic school would experience an abnormal phenomenon like a "magical outburst."