Deborah knocked on the door with the dragon-face door knockers in front of the Headmaster’s office. Despite the little strength she invested, the sound made by the door knockers was still awfully loud. When permission from the person inside had been granted, Deborah opened the door and entered to the room.

The mountains of books hadn’t had any noticeable change ever since Deborah’s last visit to this room. It was still as messy and chaotic as ever. One might drop their jaw to the ground if she told them this was the office belonged to the Head of an Academy. Honestly, this was one of the reason why Deborah never bothered enough to visit the Headmaster unless she has to, which unfortunately, was today.

With a room like this, no wonder that woman hasn’t got herself a husband yet.

After she found her way to escape the maze of tomes and books, Deborah came face to face with the Headmaster. The woman was still leisurely sitting behind her desk as she did paperworks but not without a cup of tea nearby. The sweet fragrance filled the air around with the aroma of high-class tea.

“You summoned me, Headmaster?”

“Sure sure. Take a seat and wait for a bit. As you can see, I still have some unfinished paperwork left.”

Deborah looked around. There were no chairs for her to sit in this room. Of course, the only places left to sit and take a rest were the piles of tomes that populated this room.

“I’m fine with standing, thank you.”

The Headmaster didn’t answer back however. She was still checking the papers on her desk. After a quick glance, Deborah could see that these papers were reports about the frontier. It was about the supplies and preparations for the upcoming annual winter defense exercise, but people near the frontier knew better. It was just an occasion for the two rivals armies to show off their forces in front of each other under the cold before returning.

“Annnd done.”

After she was done checking, the Headmaster quickly gave her consent for these papers by stamping them with her seal. Then, she put those papers away to clean the desk before getting into business. Which made it pretty ironic that the only thing in this mess of a room that remotely has some sense of order was the Headmaster’s working desk.

“Sorry for the wait.”

The Headmaster cheerfully spoke. Deborah however did not answer back yet.

“Now now, why the long face?”

The woman put out a smiles on her gray lips.

“What did you call me here for?”

“I just want to have a talk, really. Can’t a guardian has a chat with her ward sometime?”

“…”

Right, Deborah almost forgot that this Headmaster, Nilrem Erramun, was also her legal guardian tasked with the job to oversee her for the time she spends studying here. But despite being called her guardian, Deborah’s interaction with the Headmaster was next to none. Unless emergency problems came up, like the thing with Akuma, Deborah herself would not voluntarily sought her out for anything.

“So, what would you like to talk about?”

Deborah asked.

“Let see, let see.”

The woman clad in grey took a sip of tea before continue.

“How’s your health lately? Do you still got that strange feeling?”

“No, not exactly.”

“I see. A good thing, isn’t it?”

Deborah nodded. She began to remember the day she earned herself the Flame Dragon moniker. The first time she had the “feeling” that the Headmaster just spoke of.

It was a crowded day. Of course it was, since it was the first day of a new school year. Before enrolling here, students had already chosen their department of choice and went to their respective departments for the new semester meeting by the time they arrived. The Magic Arts’s meeting place was the main hall of the school, just near the entrance of the castle and has a chapel one floor underneath. During the meeting, the teachers decided to make a small test to find out the elemental origin of the students. Strangely, the Headmaster herself also attended this class for some reason.

The device used to test the elemental origin was a crystal orb. When a new student put their hand on the orb, it would show images to indicate that person’s elemental origin. Like a person with Water element will see a dance of the sea inside the orb. Deborah herself was also excited. However, when her turn came up, just before she walked to the orb, Deborah suddenly felt strange. Like her heart was pierced by iron spears and swords. It wasn’t serious, but a pleasant feeling it was not. Despite that, she still took up on the test, and touched the crystal orb in order to find out her elemental origin.

Fire. A small fire was what Deborah and the others around saw from the orb. Suddenly, before she knew, that little fire burst into a large, uncontrollable flame. The crystal orb began to crack and shatter. From inside of the orb, that tremendous flame burst out from its shell and began to burn everything around it to ashes. Strangely, it didn’t burn Deborah herself, but everything around her were not spared from its wrath. The whole main hall was burned down by that flame, and it brought fear and panic to the students that luckily managed to escape.

The flame was putted to an end by sorceries of the famed Archsage Nilrem, who was there in person just before the flame spread out farther than the main hall. Deborah could not help but wonder if the Headmaster herself knew this would happen. However, it was a good thing no one died that day, thanks to Nilrem’s intervention.

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“Deborah, is something matter?”

The voice of the women in question brought Deborah out from her fragments of memories.

“Oh…Sorry, I just had some nostalgia.”

“Hmm. Why does this look so strangely familiar? Ah right, that Familiar of yours also has your strange habit of wandering deep in thought.”

The women seemed amused with the new trivia information she just learned. She took her reward by the mean of another sip from her tea cup.

“People always said Familiars share many similar traits with their master.”

Said Deborah.

“Haha. But then again, that kid is anything but similar to you.”

The women silently laugh to herself.

“So, another question. Do you still have those nightmares lately? Or those sound-proof walls have finally worked as intended?”

Deborah had not answer yet. She was doubting whether or not she should tell the headmaster these information, but then proceeded to do what her guts told her and let the headmaster knows anyway. While Deborah was still in distrust with the Headmaster, Nilrem was the only one she has that resembles a “family” right now.

“No. I haven’t got any nightmares since several weeks ago.”

Those nightmares, while Deborah no longer have any memory of them, they still haunted her everytime she tried to go to sleep. But that was before, as of now, they had all disappeared for strange reasons. Her sleep has never been better before.

“I see. It is good then. But several weeks ago…wasn’t that around the time you summoned Akuma?”

Deborah just nodded. However, the Headmaster’s words had finally made her noticed. There is a chance that….

“Do you think he is related to the disappearance of those nightmares?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Deborah answered. While the guy she summoned was a bag of mystery and the time matched, it was still far too soon to conclude that he was the reason for the end of her nightmares. Well, from a certain point of view, one could say her nightmares didn’t disappear, they just took on a physical form and called themselves Akuma.

However, put that aside, the more questions the Headmaster asked, the more she made it clear that her objective for this conversation wasn’t about Deborah but the young familiar. Tired of her charade, Deborah loudly spoke out.

“What business do you want to do with Akuma?”

Surprised, the Headmaster just gave out a laugh as if she wanted to confirm Deborah’s speculation herself.

“You catch on quick. I’ll give you my praise for that.”

Deborah felt uneasy. Sweats started dropping from her cheeks. For every of her meeting with the Headmaster, Deborah came to conclusion that when she wanted to talk about something, it usually won’t be good. Deep inside, Deborah hoped that her premonition was wrong for once, especially this time.

“Do you know of the Familiar competition, Deborah?”

“Yes. An event exclusive to members of the Magic Art only.”

According to what Deborah heard, the Familiar competition was an event where a master banded with his or her Familiar of choice to form a party, and together they would have to fulfill a request made by the organizers in order to win. The request was different each year, but there was one common point that would always stay the same: Combat between familiars on the path to complete the request. The real competitors of this contest were the familiars. The masters could only act as supporters for their familiars and were forbid from directly taking offensive actions. There were no runner ups, and there could be only one winner. All of this for the sake of extra grades for the semester’s final. But strangely, this competition was rather popular with students from other departments, since it was free for spectators to observe.

But then again, Deborah had zero intention to be an attention seeker to join that contest.

“What do you want me to do?”

“It’s simple. I want your familiar, Akuma, to enter this competition.”

Deborah had a hunch she’d say something like that, but to think it had come true…

“But he’s not a member of the Magic Arts.”

“I don’t ask him to enter as a master, I ask him to enter as a familiar.”

Deborah knew full well coming here was a bad idea. If what that woman want was for Akuma to enter this contest, didn’t that mean she – Deborah – also has to enter as well ?

“I refuse.”

“Of course, you are free to refuse. I don’t remember asking you to enter, I want you to ask Akuma to enter instead.”

But in order for Akuma to enter the contest, he needed his master – Deborah – to enter as well. The Headmaster just gave Deborah a deadlock that she was trapped into. A harsh and cruel dilemma.

“What if I don’t want him to join?”

Like she had already anticipated this question of hers, the Headmaster subtly smirked and gave out her answer.

“I will expel Akuma.”

“Who gave you the rights!? How could you call yourself a Headmaster if you threaten to expel people just because they won’t bend to your will!?”

Deborah shouted. However, the women’s reaction was still the same, unfazed by the loud voice coming from the girl in front of her.

“I see he hasn’t tell you this yet.”

“Tell me what?”

Deborah clenched her fists in confusion.

“You do know that I was the one who allowed him to enroll here, right? The fee for his tuition was paid by me. However, that money came from the fortune you inherited, but it was currently managed by me as per will of your parents until you become an adult.”

While Deborah did know about the fortune she will inherit, the part about Akuma’s tuition fee coming from her pocket was new to her, though she already had some speculations about that before, knowing who allowed him to enroll here to begin with.

“And?”

“When he choose to enroll here, I gave him two conditions: One is about his tution fee, he will need to pay for his second and third year, and he needs to repay the first in the future. Two…”

The Headmaster gave her sentence a pause, as if she’s trying to increase the tension.

“Two is that he needs to provide good results during his school year in order to prolong his “scholarship”.”

Deborah could already see where this was going, however, she still kept her silent in hopelessness.

“This is the time I want him to provide that good results I just spoke of. Let me sum it up for you: Either Akuma enters the Familiar competition, or he’ll get expelled.”

“You can’t do that!”

Deborah slammed on the desk with her hands, making the papers on top of it splatter everywhere.

“Actually, I can. And I will, if he does not enters.”

The sheer thought of someone abusing her rights of managing Deborah’s money to put pressure on Deborah herself angered her. But still, Deborah could not do anything in response. She clenched her fists to the point of bleeding herself. Her blood dropped bit by bit onto the white papers across the desk.

Yet, the Headmaster still kept her unchanging smile without batting an eye.

“Of course, you can pay for his tuition after you graduated, since you’ll have full access of your inheritance by then. But until that time, for two years, Akuma can’t stay in this castle. He will be sent to the wild out there. Let’s hope he survives until the time comes.”

“Why…why do you want me to do this ? To ask me to tell him…”

Deborah averted her eyes to the ground, to the small pool of blood that had yet to stop dropping from her hand.

“Because you are his master. It’s natural, isn’t it, to ask for permission from a master?”

“…”

Deborah didn’t answer. She just turned her back to the Headmaster, before letting out a voice.

“Do you still need anything from me?”

“No. You are free to go now.”

The girl didn’t bid her goodbye. A loud slam could be heard at the entrance after Deborah walked out of this office. The room returned to the silence it once had.

Nilrem yet again took another sip of tea.

The tea today tasted more bitter for some reason.