Rob stood at the door leading inside their house, peering into the living room with bored eyes. He yawned as he brushed back his straight black hair. It was a bit long and would cover his eyes from time to time, but it was bearable. If not for the fact he has access to a few nifty spells like Blow Wind and could modify it to be hot to act as a makeshift blow dryer, he’d have to go out of his way to buy a magical device to blow his hair dry.
Just as he was about to blank out completely from waiting for too long, loud and erratic footsteps rang in his ear as he shifted his gaze back to the living room. A few moments later, a girl came running towards him wearing a white buttoned-up shirt, a black robe placed on top, an elegant black skirt, and a golden necktie placed around her neck.
When he saw her messy appearance, Rob snorted and activated another spell - Mirror. As she came to a pause, mana gathered from the tips of his fingers and blasted out into the air, forming a reflective surface near the wall.
“Thanks,” she said as she stared at herself in the mirror. She fixed her damp hair and made sure her clothes were prim and proper, before finally heaving a sigh of relief and smiling in delight.
“Here,” Rob said while he threw her shoes at her.
“Rude,” she responded with a yawn. She never realized just how tight the schedule really was for Rob’s morning, but now that she was experiencing it herself, it was definitely not an enjoyable experience.
She slid her feet into her shoes, stood up from the ground, and patted her skirt. Elaine then walked up to the door, and raised her arm into the sky with an excited grin, “Let’s go!”
“How naive…” Rob wore an amused smile as he closed the door behind him. Hovering to his side were two black bags, one belonging to him and the other to Elaine. After forming his Mana Heart and successfully becoming a Mage, he has enough mana reserves for this little quality-of-life spell.
“Naive?” Elaine snorted and turned to look back at Rob. “It’s my first time going to school, okay? Can’t you let me enjoy the joy of studying?”
“Joy in studying? Yeah, right.” Rob didn’t believe her one bit. “You’d be agonizing over school work by the time the week ends, but you’re lucky you have a genius right here as a guide.”
“Pfft!” Elaine laughed. “Genius? Oh my god, I didn’t know my brother is such a genius.”
“Laugh all you want, you’d be surprised by how amazing I am,” said Rob. Doubt all she liked, he wasn’t that petty to not help her out when the time came for it, but she definitely needs to do a little apology before she can receive his help later.
“Sure, sure,” said Elaine.
The two then glossed over multiple topics along the way to school, hopping from one problem to another regarding her sudden enrollment in the academy. It was a stupid reason, really - the reason why she was attending now, rather than later, is because the lessons they had learned were pretty easy to learn and easy to catch up on, the only problem regarding her enrollment was her lacking skills in magic.
They could have spent a year of self-teaching before Elaine had to attend the academy, but Christopher Laum insisted - begged, for her parents and Elaine to attend now because time waited for no man. It might also be because she’s already 15 and would turn 16 later, which would make her miss out on the prime time for training in magic if she were to learn all by herself.
Ignoring the various problems that had brought, Elaine had to suffer for one day and two nights, without getting a wink of sleep - which was solved by Rob’s potions - and learned a month’s worth of knowledge, and all of the general info she should know by now as a student of the academy, like what is mana, or how to control mana.
Luckily for her, perhaps because of the potions she drank or due to her own natural talent, she managed to learn everything Rob had thought her and turned it into a sort of intuition, like something she had known for years by now and would never forget even if she tried to. It’s like knowing one plus one is equal to two. It was a magical feeling that left her in a daze when thinking about the absurdity of the situation.
Just as she was about to ask Rob another question regarding the bizarre speed of her learning, the two paused and found themselves a little distance away from the entrance of the academy. Compared to when they attended back on Saturday, the two siblings could feel more prying eyes directed at them.
Rob can feel their bewilderment, surprise, envy, jealousy, malice, awe, and interest; it was obvious why this happened. They were practically two strangers wearing the same uniform as them, attending the same school, and yet they didn’t know who they were even with their shockingly good looks.
Information, rumors, and news spread within the school like wildfire most of the time, partially due to the existence of the magical School Board, and partially due to the numerous nosy students that are attentive to whatever new is happening.
And, if Rob isn’t being modest, he can easily say that he’s undeniably attractive, perhaps with dashing good looks on par with the innate beauty of elves and vampires. Elaine was the same, and her boyish charm was something exotic and unique compared to the reserved and elegant noble ladies attending the school.
All in all, they were a strange anomaly who just appeared out of nowhere.
“Ugh, maybe I should wear glasses next time,” Elaine murmured in slight annoyance.
“Naive indeed. Nerdy girls have their own charm, you know?” Rob snickered and grabbed his bag. He then gave Elaine’s bag back to her and said, “Grab it, a levitation spell like that would be too eye-catching, right?”
Elaine silently rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag, slightly surprised by how light it was. She eyed Rob, suspicious of this strange phenomenon.
“It’s just a simple enchantment, nothing too fancy,” Rob wore an amused smile. “What? Surprised by how kind your brother is?”
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“Maybe…” she rolled her eyes at his directness, and the two continued on with their way, ignoring the numerous eyes staring at them. Alchemy and enchantment, just how much is this guy trying to learn?
…
Elaine rhythmically tapped her pen on her notebook, her eyes drooping down in drowsiness. She was bored. She was alone. She had no friends - she really wanted friends.
She placed her head on her desk, causing a barely audible thud to be heard in her ears. She didn’t know how this even happened in the first place. You’d think living for over three decades, essentially - two from her past life, and one and a half in this new life - would allow her social skills to soar like a dragon, but it seems like her introverted nature still persisted in this new life of hers.
Now, she was left in a daze by a sudden realization. Perhaps… perhaps the closest thing she could a friend was Rob Fortune. No… That can’t be true, right?
Friends with Rob Fortune? That would almost cause her to tremble on the spot if that was the case. They’re just close acquaintances, yes, close acquaintances that bicker and argue from time to time.
The second person that came to mind was Melvin Dolton, but her relationship with that boy was even less close than Rob’s.
How did this even happen? Anna furrowed her brows and began to think. Think. Where did this problem begin? Wait a damn minute…
She moved her gaze to the seats beside her, they were all empty and belonged to no one else except Rob. It was all because of this! If she instead had another person seating beside her, then through time, she’d naturally have a new friend! But nope! Rob came in and ruined her budding school life and spat on it with no remorse.
He was an eccentric brick wall with a hard-to-get-along attitude. He wasn’t necessarily a bad person, it’s just that he was annoying to deal with - for Anna, at least. Perhaps it was because of the first impression he gave to her, but she could still vividly remember the way he slept in classes, through combat training, his irritating arrogance, and his indifference to mostly everything else that didn’t catch his interest.
He’s definitely hard-working, she could tell that much. He’s also not an asshole and would treat his customers with a smile - no, he’s just an insufferable bastard with talent and smarts to back it up. Worst of all, there were very few people who would know just how… whatever he is!
“If only the one who walked through that door wasn’t him… if only the person who sat beside me wasn’t Rob…”
Rob was ugly, he was fat, and he was way too talented and arrogant. At an overall glance, he’s not even that bad of a guy in terms of character, but his constant everything had ingrained negativity into her heart just by thinking about that guy.
Just as she was about to continue her cursing, the door slammed wide open and broke her out of her thoughts. A girl came running in and hurriedly closed the door behind her. Anna recognized who that girl was, she was Maricel Sors, a well-known gossiper and rumor spreader within the class.
This time, it seems like something big had happened and she was just unable to wait and share it with her friends. At least she has friends… Argh!
Maricel’s face was flushed red, her breathing rough and erratic. She took a deep breath as her friends asked in worry, “What is it? Why do you look like you just saw the man of your dreams or something and ran away after confessing?”
“It’s because I did!” she shouted, paused, and corrected herself, “Not that confession part. It’s because I just saw this super duper fucking mega cute couple outside the hallway. It’s like they came out of those romance shows airing on TV!”
“Woah, calm down girl.”
“What are you even saying? Who are they? Are they part of the list?”
The list, the mystical list full of lists. The one Maricel’s friend referred to was the list of the most handsome boys and most beautiful girls in the academy, ranking them in one big convoluted list with the rankings being determined by anonymous votes.
That list must have contributed a lot to the tradition the school had with its spread of rumors and gossip like wildfire.
“That’s the strange thing, they’re not on the list! In fact, nobody even knows who the two are!” she quickly explained. “But you guys should have seen the two! They could easily land themselves in the top ten!”
Hearing their not-so-quiet talk, Anna silently listened in with a bewildered mind - there’s nothing like this in the game. Was it because she acted as some sort of catalyst for change, like some sort of butterfly effect?
This caused her heart to skip a beat. A lot of things had definitely changed, but there was nothing like this in the game, she was sure of that.
“Who are they? Do I check it out?” Anna murmured. Knowledge was her greatest asset in this world. The things she knew acted as a sort of guide for her future actions, for her plans in the following years to survive the Demon Lord’s descent.
Just as she was about to stand up and walk out of the door, hoping to still find the cute couple she was referring to with seemingly no identity, the door suddenly slid open.
Her eyes widened as a strong gust of wind rushed against her face. Sakura blossoms fell from the sky as her whole world turned into a blank white canvas, leaving only her, and the man that walked through the door.
He was impossibly beautiful, with sharp dark brown eyes, thick eyebrows, luscious black hair parted from the middle, a slim and athletic build that bulged out of his tight-fitting shirt, and his juicy legs - it was as if she had found herself stuck, frozen in time, unable to bring her eyes away from this majestic specimen.
But, she quickly got out of her dazed state when another person walked in - she was a girl, as impossibly beautiful as the previous man. She had crimson eyes, long raven black hair, snow-white skin, a slim build, and a boyish vibe…
Anna almost leaped back in shock as memories surged into her mind - a traumatic memory. On a grand pool of blood, inside a holy church, the five male leads were scattered across the floor, a lone woman stood in the middle with crimson eyes and bloody lips. As the fire raged on from the background, the girl disappeared from her view and the game over screen occupied the entire monitor, as if mocking her for her defeat.
She was the mysterious and insanely powerful assassin sent out to kill Holly Lavestine, a person with strength unrivaled beneath the level of Archmages and Archknights. She was the mage who specializes in the very rare element of time, giving her terrifying lethality that could kill anyone in the blink of an eye.
She was the person who would push forward the chaos and destruction the devilish organization known as Grim Hallow pursued. She led an entire army to launch a terrifying attack on the academy, almost successfully killing Holly in the process if not for the principal, Christopher Laum, arriving to save the day.
So why was that nameless assassin who she had to fight against over and over in the game for hours on end, the person who could kill any of her party members in less than a second if she wasn’t careful, was here?
The boy whispered something to the girl as he pointed at Anna. W-What? Do they know I’ve reincarnated into this world? Are they here to kill me? D-Do I run? No, I can’t even do that, I can’t do anything! She’ll just stop time and kill me!
Just as she felt the suffocating pressure of death weigh down on her, the boy walked up to her, ignored her entirely, and sat down on the seat beside her. On the last remaining seat of their shared desk, the girl sat down and placed her bag beneath her chair, just like the boy…
Anna unknowingly stared at them as if the two were ghosts, with wide eyes and dilated pupils.
The boy turned to look at her, confused by her bewildered gaze, and asked in a voice that almost broke her brain into two, “Uh… You okay? Oh, you must be wondering who she is. She’s my sister, Elaine.”
“Hi!” the girl known as Elaine leaned in from the side, wearing a foxy grin.
“You’re sister…?” Anna whispered. “So… you’re Rob…”
I must be going crazy! He’s fucking Rob and that’s his sister?! Has the world gone mad?! Anna thought with an amicable grin.
Shit just went down the drain, and her plans are fucked.
Just before her mind turned completely blank, she bid one last farewell to the beautiful story called Life, Sayonara, my plans for the incoming three years.