The smell of coffee permeated throughout the room. It was nice, Eliza thought, she knew that the latest GemBean coffee machines were worth it. Her left hand continued to write away with her stylus, taking down extra notes as her right hand slowly slithered towards the cup of coffee beside her desk. Lifting it up, she took a sip of it, feeling the vapours fog up her glasses.

“You look like you’re enjoying that a little too much,” a voice called out across the room, approaching. Eliza gulped down the coffee, slamming the cup down as she looked towards the voice.

Chloé Agnes-Vistar, Vice President of Sarimba University’s Student Exec. Her sharp cyan eyes pierced Eliza as always, along with her dirty blonde hair, tied up in a ponytail.

Her pale face was adorned with two lines beneath her eye, painted on to signify her seniority in age. Theonari seniority face marks.

“Care for some?” asked Eliza, gesturing towards the new coffee machine in the corner of the office, on a small table along the wall beside the Executive storage lockers. All but one was ready for usage, highlighted by a green holographic display that projected up from its surface… The sight of it gave Eliza some dismay.

“Coffee? Sure, it ain’t booze but it’ll work,” Chloé said, slinking off towards the corner, her holographic ID card shining the same red as Eliza’s. As she approached the table, she took one of the spare cups and glanced towards the locker. “Oh yeah, you should have chased Kaz up for his key.”

“Uh… it slipped my mind,” lied Eliza. She scratched her left cheek with her right hand. Chloé simply gave her a stare, before rolling her eyes. “You really shouldn’t be drinking this early, though.”

“Yeah, yeah, everyone says but that but it’s like five somewhere in the galaxy,” Chloé remarked. “We should have had the locker door removed when the news came in. But Barclay didn’t allow it, dunno why…”

“Well, considering who Kazuki turned out to be, I think Barclay was being pragmatic about not opening up his locker,” said Eliza.

Her head scanned across the carpeted floor, its intricate patterns detailing the history of the Long Crusade and the Dark Ages before. Her eyes landed towards the lounge area opposite the lockers. Her desk was in the middle-back of the room, opposing an ornate double door that served as the entry into this prestigious office.

“Rodriguez! Think you can bust down the door?” Chloé shouted across the room at the Treasurer, Rodriguez.

His head bopped up from one of the sofas, peering over the backrest. He had Yamikoi markings across his face, reminding Eliza of Martinez’s similar tattoos, though Rodriguez’s were a bright violet colour, translating to “Energetic” - quite ironic, she thought.

“Ugh… I’m too tired…” he said. Chloé sighed and grumbled with growing frustration.

“How the hell did I lose twice!” she grumbled, “I just had to be unlucky enough to go to uni with you and Barclay.”

“Ha…” Eliza scratched the back of her head, trying to laugh her rant off as a joke. “Just bad luck, I guess? Well, we all got into the Kallender Group, so there’s that silver lining.”

“Ugh, touché, touché.”

She finished making her coffee, putting a metric-load of artificial sugar into it as Eliza spoke up. “Ah, you’re not planning to go into overdrive again, are you?”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“Well, between a Treasurer that sleeps all the time, a missing secretary, a relations officer that spends all her time playing sports and you… I kinda have to pick up the slack,” explained Chloé, sipping onto her hot coffee, before trying to blow air into her mouth.

“Oh… I should have told you, it’s quite bitter. Maricea beans from Kasté, I thought about splurging out a little, you know?” Eliza was still taking notes during all of this, a massive pile of completed data-pads and reports necessary for the exec’s running to her left, whilst a much smaller pile of work-to-be-done was on her left.

“Ugh… After this afternoon’s lecture, I’m going back home…” she trailed off, “Barclay’s left me on read AGAIN.”

“I’m sure he has his reasons! Starting up a business far away from the galactic core is quite hard, especially with communications.” Eliza tried her best to explain the absence of the previous Student Exec President, someone that was somehow able to get lucky enough to have both her and Kazuki on his side.

“Still…” Chloé sighed, placing her cup down on the small table as she twisted over towards her locker. She opened up her’s, an inquisitive glance caught Eliza’s attention as there was a small box within it, separated from the rest of her stuff… Everyone knew what was in it, even Barclay. “Maybe I…”

“You’re doing fine, Chloé, really… Think about it, Barclay probably just wants to make your happy, and he knows that dragging you down with him won’t,” Eliza suggested, once again stepping in for him. What was she doing? Eliza paused for a moment, before continuing, “Sorry, I just thought that—”

“—No, no, you’re right… My parents would kill me if they learnt I was gonna try and marry the guy,” said Chloé. Her head twisted back over towards the sofas. “Rodriguez! You finished with this month’s spreadsheet?”

“Huh?” His head popped up once again. “Yeah. I did everything. Come on, you really think I’d actually slack off before finishing all my work? Relaax, it’ll just be a… few day nap.”

“UGH! Eliza, you’re the President, you gotta get a new secretary…” Chloé pointed at Eliza, as she pinned a brooch onto her jacket, closing the locker and turning towards her. Her green flower brooch shone against Eliza’s pink and red. “Kaz isn’t coming back, especially with everything that had just happened.”

“I… I—ye—he’ll be back… Trust me on that, the rebellion is over, he doesn’t need to fight anymore…” Eliza trailed.

But did Kazuki really want to come back? Her own personal popularity was probably the only reason why people haven’t asked her to remove Kazuki as the secretary - probably because it’d be quite rude. But thinking even deeper, Kazuki had known only murder for ten whole years, who's to say that he’d want to leave…

“Uh huh, well, it just means more work for the rest of us, but that isn’t much of an issue. But he’s not coming back… Barclay nor Kaz will come back, the galaxy’s too large for that.”

The mood was quickly getting more depressing, Eliza thought. Both of their worries were rearing their ugly heads. Though Eliza knew that Chloé’s concerns were far more greater in importance to her’s. Barclay was just him. He IS him, and he’s gone with the galactic winds. But Kazuki? He’s back, she knows he’ll return, right? He has to, right? Right? She asked herself the same question so many times that she felt as if she was back during those sleepless nights…

Memories bled forward for her, remembering how pathetic she felt after the incident, both of them - all of them. How she always had to be bailed out by others… she hated it. But what can she do? She doesn’t have Archius’ social skills, nor Kazuki’s combat prowess.

“But you’re probably the most determined learner I know,” said Chloé, snapping Eliza back to reality.

“Huh?” Eliza’s head rose to look up at Chloé, standing right in front of her desk.

“You really gotta stop muttering to yourself, kinda creepy, you know? Muttering about your friends like that.” Chloé laughed it off, prodding Eliza on her shoulder. “You wanna get something to eat for lunch? You finished your work load, right? Right?”

Eliza smiled. “Sure, preferably someplace quiet…”

“What? Allergic to the high-street?” Chloé joked openly.

“Well… yeah? Just a matter of preference,” said Eliza, unwilling to tell Chloé about the THREE TIMES that she’s nearly died whilst eating out. But she’s on the surface, and it’s during the day! She’ll be fine, she thought. Standing up, she felt her legs ache from being sat down for so long… “Oof…”

“Get Hannah to teach you yoga or something.” Chloé japed, turning and walking towards the exit. Eliza quickly followed after her, ignoring the aching in her legs.