Lucia had a gentle smile resting on her face as she walked through the halls of the school. Her miss-matched eyes fluttered from side to side, offering a relatively kind, albeit still icy gaze to those who met her eyes.

  Resting on her shoulder was a rather peculiar sight—The glacially colored hawk, Glacia. She was a magical beast that Lucia had been given as a part of one of her classes. Almost every student in the school gave Lucia, and any other students who had these same magical pets dubious looks.

  She couldn’t even blame them either. It was an absurd thought that they were raising magical beasts, feral creatures that were known to raze entire towns when left unmanaged.

  And yet, here she was. A girl with no family name, given a chance to attend a magnificent school and thrown into the experiment of some scatterbrained teacher.

  But, she didn’t find herself complaining too much. Not when Glacia always proved to have her back when it was needed. As if the elemental hawk knew Lucia was thinking of her, Glacia leant over and gave Lucia a curious gaze

  “Don’t give me that look.” Lucia scoffed out with a roll of her eyes. She only received a gentle huff in return from the avian.

  It was still early in the morning, the mid-dawn rays of sunlight only just beginning to trickle into the school in order to overcome the soft glow of the enchanted stone embedded within the walls.

  Lucia was just on her way to breakfast—In fact, most students were currently heading to receive their morning meals. With classes not yet scheduled to start for nearly two hours it gave most of the students the time to relax and get ready for their days.

  Just when Lucia entered into the grand dining hall she heard her voice called out, echoing through the halls in an overpowering tone that caught the attention of many.

  “Hey Lucia! Over here!” Erick called out to her. His golden-blonde hair shone under the brilliant light cascading, accented by his fiery orange eyes that bore into her.

  She brought a smile to her face as she met Erick’s gaze. Erick was already sitting with a handful of other students—She only recognized one out of the half dozen; Kendrick Armester. Kendrick’s broad, toned frame made him stand out almost as much as his brilliant golden eyes. A trait so defining that only the Armester family had ever been born with that golden affliction.

  With a slow inhale Lucia raised her hand, signaling to Erick that she had heard him and was on her way over. The last thing she wanted was to have half the room staring at her because Erick couldn’t shut up.

  “Morning,” Lucia greeted calmly as she approached their table. Amongst the gathered group it seemed that only Kendrick, Erick and herself were victors of the previous day's trial—Albeit, that was hardly a surprise when she thought about how few had actually beaten the Golem. “How are you both doing?” She asked as she took a seat on the table’s bench, giving a satisfactory amount of space between herself and Erick.

  “I’m doing fi—” Erick began just to be cut off by Kendrick.

  “Fine enough. Congratulations on winning that trial yesterday,” Kendrick’s tone was balanced, devoid of any telling emotions that could have described how he felt. “That was some rather skilled swordsmanship you showed.”

  “I-it really wasn’t that special!” Lucia sputtered out. She soon felt her face growing rather hot from the unexpected praise originating from Kendrick of all people.

  “No need to get so flustered,” Kendrick chuckled softly. A smile slowly made its way onto his face as he spoke. “You were far more impressive than Vulender was.”

  “I know right!” Erick added to Kendrick’s words with nothing substantive to speak of. “You were awesome Lucia, not even just against the Golem—You saved all of our asses when those Ghouls attacked us.”

  “Her name is Kirin,” Lucia corrected them both once a moment of silence arose. “And her and Princess Tulip are the only reason we survived that battle, not me.”

  She couldn’t help but shrink back from the glare that Kendrick settled onto her. Even if he was shorter than Erick, someone who she was more than confident to fight if needed, Kendrick was easily three times Erick’s weight in raw muscle alone.

  Which meant that when Kendrick settled his golden glare onto Lucia’s face, her already pale complexion grew that much paler.

  “Take credit.” Kendrick stated—His tone was steely, terrifying in its absoluteness. A boulder without emotion as he proclaimed his demand.

  “I…” Lucia began, gulping hard as she cut herself off. Erick settled a similarly steeled gaze to Kendrick’s on her, forcing the much, much smaller girl to shy away some.

  “I can’t…” She whimpered out as barely more than a whisper.

  “Why can’t you take credit for what you’ve done?” Kendrick asked with an unnerving calm.

  “You know why, Kendrick.” Lucia hissed out almost reflexively.

  “No, I really don’t,” He commented. Crossing his arms together he continued. “Why don’t you enlighten us, hm? You can’t be telling me that you’d actually rather be friends with the Vulender? The epitome of sin in our great era of peace? Would you rather befriend that?”

  “The Princess chose to be friends with her.” Lucia bit back. But… she couldn’t quite figure out why she was defending Kirin—Hadn’t she just been someone who hated her? She easily remembered the first classes she had with Kirin, how she spoke to the girl… Why did she care now?

  “The Princess is blinded by idiotic idealism,” Kendrick Scoffed, rolling his eyes. “She’s looking past the obvious truth to pursue a truth that doesn’t exist to anyone but those who can’t read history.”

  “Just take the credit Lucy,” Erick spoke in a hushed whisper. “It’s just easier that way. Besides, don’t you want what she has?” Erick was barely a few inches away from her, leaning right beside her head.

  “What’s wrong with you Erick?!” Lucia spat out, shoving him away from her.

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  “What’s wrong with me? Ask yourself that first! Are you sure you didn’t get hit in the head by that Golem?” Erick retorted with a snarl in his voice.

  “Lucia,” Kendrick spoke with eerie calm, bringing both of them to a stop. “Don’t forget who put you both here.”

  The threat hung in the air, it was a rope that awaited to tighten around her neck. Of course Kendrick would bring that up… it only made sense, didn’t it? The church had taken Lucia and Erick in from the streets. Two abandoned children, wandering the wastes of the outer edge of Arcadia, just to be given a chance within the embrace of the Golden God.

  Yet, her gaze was torn away—Dragged to the doors by a pair of new arrivals. Two girls that looked almost similar at a quick glance. A taller maiden, fair in all her proportions bearing decorations the color of rubies for eyes. Her head topped with a field of near white hair that held only the faintest sheen of silver.

  Beside her was a shorter girl, almost looking like a young woman. Her shoulders were broader, her eyes instead of rubies looked like twin lakes of blood. Her head instead of snow was the steely silver of a blade.

  The two girls walked with grins on their faces. The Princess had a disbelieving, albeit joyous look on her face while Kirin kept rambling, her words so fast that Lucia couldn’t catch a single one before they had walked past her table.

  “Make your decision,” Kendrick spoke as the two girls walked past them. The room hadn’t fallen silent—Only those in the direct path of the Princess fell silent out of respect, but the overwhelming chatter of the room kept its deafening cacophony all the same.

  She watched the pair take their seats after weaving their way into the back of the room. It was a lone table, filled only by the two of them and the pre-prepared feast that decorated nearly every table in the hall.

  Lucia didn’t say anything. She let her actions speak as she stood up, words didn’t leave her lips, not until Erick grabbed her wrist.

  “What are you doing Lucia?” He demanded, no, pleaded to her. His desperation was plain on his face, it was a familiar desperation too.

  She remembered when they were younger, he never had done anything without her—Nor she without him. Inseparable by circumstance, because even when abandoned they found each other.

  With her eyes closed tightly, Lucia spoke with ice on her tongue.

  “I’m making a decision for myself for once.” She pulled her hand away from Erick. As she walked away she left nothing but the clicking of her boots against the ground, mirroring the sound of Erick’s teeth as his jaw opened and closed behind her.

  —

  Tulip and I walked with grins on our faces. The jovial chatter that fluttered between us filled the air, bouncing off of the walls with each syllable we uttered.

  “Do you have any idea how absurd of a claim that is to make Kirin?” Tulip asked again. Of course, she was talking about the proclamation I reaffirmed to more than just Carmine just over an hour ago.

  “Not really,” I gave a nervous chuckle as I spoke. “But I’m aiming for it anyways.” I added a moment later.

  Of course, fresh on my mind was the statement that felt far more world shaking than my proclaimed goal: I knew I heard my mother’s voice when lost in the world of mana. It was a fact that I was trying to understand, but still couldn’t quite comprehend.

  “Perhaps it’s your lost memories coming back?” Carmine had offered it as a solution to the peculiar fact. And, maybe she was right—Ever since I began training my magic things had become less foggy, at least in some areas.

  I still couldn’t think of the faces of my parents, but… now they had voices. They had personalities, they were people and not just idealistic thoughts.

  “But beyond that… there is so much black in your measurements—I’ve never seen, or heard of something like this before.” Carmine had been far more intrigued by the peculiarities of my measurements than my presumed memories. Which, to me, felt like her priorities were backwards.

  “Kirin, are you even listening?” Tulip’s words dragged me out of my thoughts. With a series of rapid blinks I looked around, offering a sheepish smile.

  “Uuhmmm… maybe?” I offered with a sheepish smile.

  Tulip’s gaze hardened into a deep frown, her rubellite eyes narrowing as a sigh escaped her lips.

  “I said that you shouldn’t go around proclaiming that so haphazardly,” Tulip restated. “It’s borderline blasphemy at worst and screams ignorance and self-importance at best.” She furthered her statement—Only falling silent as she finished gathering some food together onto her plate.

  “I know,” I grumbled out. “But it still stands—It’s just about the only way I can get what I really want, so, it’s what I’ll do.” I had some determination in my voice. Even against the absolute absurdity of the goal I set for myself, I knew I could try and ascend for it. After all, the worst that could happen was that I’d fail, right?

  I didn’t however have much time to think on the consequences of failure, not when a voice sheepishly spoke out.

  “Uhm… excuse me but, is this seat taken?”

  I looked up to see a familiar girl, one with miss-matched blue and red hair. Inverted underneath those perfect splits in coloration where her eyes, blue underneath her red hair and red underneath her blue hair.

  “Lucia?” Tulip and I both asked at the same time.

  “I… I can go if you want.” She offered near immediately. Her head was hung low, her arms crossed together before her with her fingers intertwined within each other.

  “Why would—”

  “Is something wrong?” I quickly asked, cutting Tulip off as I did so. Tulip’s jaw closed with an audible click, but I let the question hang in the air all the same.

  “Just, want a change of scenery I guess?” Lucia sounded like she was questioning herself more than answering my question. But she soon elaborated before Tulip or I could ask any further questions. “And—I just want some space from Erick and Kendrick. They’re trying to make me take credit for what the two of you did in the village a month ago.”

  “Why should we believe you?” Tulip asked with narrowed eyes.

  I was surprised by Tulip’s tone, she sounded almost hostile towards the heterochromatic girl. If anything I should have been the one annoyed at Lucia after how she treated me, but I wasn’t.

  Lucia just stood there, her mouth agape as she stared at the princess. There was desperation in her eyes, a pleading look that left an aura that I could vaguely feel. It was… anxiety and guilt?

  “I’m… I’m sorry, your Highness,” Lucia muttered out shyly, letting her head hang low. “I’ll take my leave then, if that’s what you wish.”

  “I don’t see any problem in letting you sit with us,” I spoke quickly, giving Tulip a look. She didn’t quite meet my gaze, but she did give a soft, albeit reluctant sigh. “Come on,” I offered Lucia a smile as her head poked back up, gesturing to the bench beside me.

  “Are you sure?—” Lucia asked nervously. Her eyes shifted between me and Tulip uncertainly. But, when Tulip gave an affirming shrug Lucia slowly moved to my side of the table and sat down.

  “Thank you.” Lucia spoke softly once she sat.

  After only a few moments conversations resumed—And while they weren’t as important now that Lucia had arrived, Tulip was quick to warm up to her presence at least a little bit. Meanwhile Lucia’s familiar, the icy hawk named Glacia had fluttered over to Akemi and Topaz.

  The three of them sat on the edge of the table, each of them releasing their own distinctly indistinct chatter that sounded almost like a conversation.

  “So… what’s your plan for the rest of the day?” Tulip eventually asked, turning her gaze towards me.

  “After the rest of my classes I have more training with Carmine,” I sighed out, resting my head forwards onto my arms. “She wants extra training time today… something about her having to leave for something important happening in Ferilis.”

  “Do you know why she’s leaving?” Lucia asked quickly.

  “I think she said it was because of that Unspeakable,” I answered. “She said it was heading towards Ferilis—And that she had to help handle the situation now because of it.”

  Tulip opened her mouth to reply, but the tolling of the bell soon cut her off. The resounding chime brought all conversations to a halt, declaring the soon-to-be starting of the first classes of the day.

  With an audible click Tulip closed her jaw, releasing a sigh not a moment later.

  “Well, I’ll see you tonight then Kirin.” Tulip said as she stood up. Without any other courtesies she began walking away, leaving Topaz to furiously flutter his wings in order to catch up with her.

  “Guess we’re off to Geography?” Lucia asked.

  “Guess we are.” I answered with a shrug.

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