Chapter 021

Lizards and Frogs

Alevier was not having a great day. Firstly, he was almost killed by a crazy Mist Moth, then he was paired with Lueirby - an arrogant hag who had bullied him much. And lastly, he bumped into Fobas and his friends who definitely wanted to flay him as slowly as possible.

If Alevier had to describe his relationship with Fobas, it would be summed up in, ‘Profanity at first glance’. He had met him in his first-year during his General Spellcraft lesson where Alevier had yelled at him for complaining too much about how Theoretical Exams were unfair. Well, both of them were sent out of the class for it. But that did not stop them from arguing and soon enough, that verbal argument degraded into a fistfight. Alevier inevitably lost because of his lesser physical strength - that loss provided some real motivation for him to research on glues, stink bombs and lubricants to make school life a metaphorical hell for Fobas.

Then Fobas began teaming up with others and really gave Alevier a run for his pranks. That basically resulted in a lot of hospital episodes in his first-year.

So being cornered by him felt a little nostalgic to Alevier.

“Can we do this some other time?” said Alevier as he turned towards Fobas and took a step back.

“Oh! Did you take us for fools?” said Fobas with an evil grin. Rettre and Vymer slowly walked out of the shadows holding up a weapon each.

“No,” said Alevier, he could not outrun the lizard, he needed to find another way to escape. “I mean to say that we have a Guardian right over there, now you would not want to wake it up, right?”

“Don’t worry, we will just cripple you really bad,” laughed Fobas. “Then we will use you as a bait for the Guardian while we pass from the Checkpoint.”

“But-”

“Silence!” he snapped.

“Commoners and talentless people like you should not belong in this school, much less enter the Student’s Council,” said Vymer as he held up his wand. “What made you think that you can compete with us?”

Alevier took another step back.

“However,” said Fobas as he got off the lizard and stretched his body before looking back at Alevier. “If you beg us for forgiveness, we might let you off with a normal beating.”

“Grovel before us and cry for mercy,” scorned Vymer.

“Lick my boots and yield all your belongings to me!” hummed Rettre.

Oh, these rotten eggs. Alevier would never do such a thing. Yeah, his self-respect was the size of a marble but hell, they were going too far.

As he took another step back, he bumped into Lueirby’s shoulder.

God! He had forgotten about her! If she were to team up with these three, he was done for. But he had helped her - he was sure that she had a little bit of gratefulness for him. Or was she going to be the scum that he had known since meeting her?

Can things not go wrong for a change?

“Who is that?” asked Fobas. Maybe she was not properly visible in the dim light or maybe the three were too focused on Alevier to care about her.

“I think… that is Lueirby?” said Vymer.

“What?” Fobas was shocked. Lueirby was the last person who would accompany perdant according to him. Then suddenly, his face contorted into anger. “What are you doing with him?” he said in a low dangerous tone.

Alevier was a little puzzled with this sudden change in his attitude. He seemed genuinely pissed off at the moment. Then suddenly his memories put back pieces together and remembered that Fobas was - however strange it may sound - from the noble house of Serout, and the noble house of Serout was pretty close to the noble house of Edeye. So yeah they could be called family friends. But it did not end there, during his second year, if the rumours were true, Fobas had a crush on Lueirby and as a result of that, he had tried to woo her sometime in the middle of the session.

Alevier sighed in his heart.

One particularly nasty thing mutual to the two houses was that both had a loathing for common people and held the purity of their noble blood in very high regard. But Alevier’s knowledge ended there - he never had a great interest in politics so he did not know if something was going on between the two of them. All he cared about right now was how to get out of this darn situation.

“Tell me!” yelled Fobas, a vein bulged on his forehead. “What are you doing with perdant?”

Lueirby said nothing and hung her head low. Her unresponsiveness made him even angrier and Alevier felt the misunderstanding between them grow. Things would get terribly nasty for him if Fobas loses his temper and does something stupid.

“S-she was terribly injured so I healed her and helped her out. After that I protected her until we reached here,” said Alevier. Choosing to clear things up seemed like the only way out. He saved her so they should return the favour, right?

“Nonsense!” snapped Rettre. “You protecting her? What kind of joke is thi-”

“Shut up, Rettre,” snapped Fobas in a low tone. Rettre was stunned for a moment but complied to his orders and stopped talking. “Tell me Lueirby, is he speaking the truth?”

Lueirby did not reply and she continued to look at the ground. Alevier saw her clench her fists but could not see her expressions.

“Yeah! I am speaking the truth!” said Alevier, he really wanted to avoid fighting here. “Tell them Lueirby, tell them that I help you!”

Alevier tried to check on her but his hand was rebuked back before it touched her shoulder. She shook a little and said, “Yes, he helped me.”

Alevier’s joy made it to his face and he smiled. “See? Can you leave me no-”

“OH, YOU DAMN WHORE!” roared Fobas as he stomped his feet. “You dare show your face in front of me after taking his help? A piece of useless shit saved your ass? You have no right to be a noble-born. A shame! That is what you are! Being carried around by a commoner of all people! You should be disowned. I will talk to your father about this once I make minced meat out of you and that damn perdant!”

What the hell? What the hell is wrong with these people?

Alevier quickly grabbed Lueirby’s wrists and pulled her with him.

“Wha-”

“Shut up! If you don’t want to fail then follow my lead,” said Alevier as they rushed towards the tunnel.

“You aren’t getting away!” yelled Fobas. “Chu! Go after them!”

Alevier did not look back, he was busy dragging Lueirby with him and chanting a spell. The sound of heavy thumps closed in and he immediately knew that the green lizard was after them. Now, lizards are quick creatures and they can climb smooth surfaces - this gives them a lot of mobility so trying to run away from one was a stupid idea since they would catch up to you.

But there was a reason that Alevier was running towards the tunnel. They jumped in the tunnel and the lizard followed behind. The green monster was about to catch up to the two but suddenly a mana shield appeared in front of it. And due to the suddenness, it slammed into it.

The shield cracked from the lizard’s momentum.

“You won’t get away!” yelled Fobas as he broke down the shield with some powerful spells.

The tunnels were interconnected and it was only by Alevier’s careful navigation and a bit of luck that they had reached the cave but at the moment he did not have time to gauge the change in mana and so he was running at random and blocking the traversed path with mana shields.

For some reason, he wondered that of all the things that Fobas had said, why had he not mentioned the duel in which he defeated her?

But that question could be answered some other time, right now, his top priority was to escape. He was not in his top shape nor did the lizard look easy to take down so he was not entirely confident that he could take on Fobas and co. head-on. The best option, here, was to run.

But god! He was tired of running, something in his consciousness bugged him again.

“Fine!” he snapped as he suddenly stopped in his tracks and pulled back Lueirby by her wrist.

“What?” she said as she halted.

“We are doing something new!” announced Alevier.

* * *

Lueirby’s face twitched in frustration as she squatted in the darkness. Alevier brought his forefinger to his lips and gestured her to stay silent. At the moment, both of them were around six feet under the ground - in one of the pitfalls to be exact.

As for what they were doing in this pit? Well, they were hiding. Alevier’s plan had been quite simple, he had used some of his potions and mana shields to act as decoys and confused Fobas. It was a bit tricky since the lizard could sense heat but Alevier had potions for that too.

Anyway, once they lost the trail of their pursuers, Alevier looked for a pitfall he was elated when he found one after a short search. He immediately tossed Lueirby in the pit before jumping after her. Then he used some levitation magic to collect dirt and conjured a hovering disc to cover the hole. He was able to shake the disc so the dirt was evenly spread over it.

Well, all the tunnels had a brick road running through them but most of it was hidden under soil and dust. Guess Waelecia did not have enough time to clean them up.

Whatever the case, it provided a suitable cover for Alevier.

The duo had hardly settled in when they heard the sound of heavy thumps and the panting of people.

“Find them! They should have not gone far,” yelled Fobas.

“C-can we rest for a moment?” wheezed Rettre.

“And let them run away? No!”

“But-”

“Shut up for a moment,” Fobas cut him off. “Chu can sense something.”

Alevier looked at Lueirby who stared back at him with terror in her eyes. They were done for if they are found. But it was a novel experience for Alevier who was used to running. Despite that, he was regretting not camouflaging the disc properly.

There was another thump and the disc suddenly got heavier, and something above them hissed. Alevier had to pour in more mana to keep the disc levitating but it was alright, it did not consume that much mana. However, if that lizard found them out, all of this would be for nought.

There was a tense silence. Alevier and Lueirby held their breaths and prepared for the worst. They looked into each other’s eyes and knew that this would be the end if they are discovered.

Then without any warning, they heard an ear-piercing squeak. It was unlike any other Alevier had ever heard but it carried with it a deadly tone and meaning. He knew that the lizard had made this sound yet, it felt more terrifying than it should have.

Instinctively he jumped a little and Lueirby was about to shriek in response but the boy quickly lunged at her and covered her mouth with his hand. He once again gestured her to remain quiet.

“Did you hear that?” said Fobas from above. “I think I heard a muffled sound.”

Alevier and Lueirby froze. Neither of them dared to breathe but the sound of their hearts beat made Alevier worried.

“I heard nothing,” said Rettre. “Maybe my ears were damaged because of your lizard.”

“I think you are growing too conscious about this,” said Vymer. “Let’s look for them somewhere else, I think your lizard might have attracted some unwanted company.”

“Ah, those darn Sonic Bats,” sighed Rettre. “Let’s move.”

“Fine,” grunted Fobas. And the weight on the disc suddenly disappeared. They had left but Alevier waited for a little bit before retreating back to his position.

That was a close call. He hoped that he will not have to deal with similar situations again. Alevier refocused himself and began planning. He speculated that the whole of this underground network of tunnels was probably closed and the only way out was through the checkpoint. So he could not avoid not going out.

Well, he was not very confident in his hiding abilities either. If Fobas were to cast some divination spells, he would be found out in no time. But those spells were difficult to cast, he reckoned that they would only be able to cast one if the trio of fools worked together - which was entirely possible.

Therefore, Alevier dispelled the disc and got out of the pit after showering in some dust. Hasty decisions lead to hasty ends. He pulled up a coughing Lueirby.

“Sorry for that,” he apologized. “Let’s go back to the checkpoint.”

“Wha-Why?” she asked.

“To escape this place. If you have a better plan, go ahead, tell me.”

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She remained silent. Alevier smugly motioned her to follow as he marched forward. He had the basic idea of which tunnels he should take.

* * *

It took them some ten-odd minutes to return to the cavern. Everything seemed the way they had left it. The Earth Toad was peacefully sleeping next to the pillar and showed no signs of waking up any time soon. Now, all Alevier had to do was to simply walk across the chamber and get the hell out of this place.

So seeing his goal so close to him, he could not help but walk with an elated bounce in his gait. As he neared the pillar, he felt the mana concentration rise exponentially with every step. Just out of sheer curiosity and his inborn indecisiveness, he stopped and slowly changed his course towards the pillar. He felt his mana reserves fill up faster, he was sure that if he stood still in his spot for fifteen more minutes, he would be brimming with mana again.

However, he was cautious of two things. Firstly, of the obviously sleeping Earth Frog which looked menacing even in its sleep. As far as Alevier could tell, that frog had curled up into a ball and was enjoying a deep sleep next to the pillar. Secondly, he was cautious about mana poisoning.

Mana poisoning occurs when there is a huge influx of mana and the body and the soul are unable to adapt to this change. Mana poisoning causes dizziness, nausea and temporary inability to use magic, and in extreme cases, it renders one unconscious. It usually occurs around mana wells in Dungeons and Alevier has heard from Hunters that it can cause cardiac arrests pretty often. And even in his magical world, there is no way to make a dead heart beat again - unless one is an illegal Necromancer, but that is another story altogether. In the end, life and death were not things mortals could play with.

So Alevier braced himself and took another step and suddenly there was a dull flash of light. He heard two beeps - one from the dented badge on his chest and one from behind him. He jumped on his feet and turned and saw that Lueirby was following him. But his main concern at the moment was the sound and the flash.

“What was that?” he asked.

“The badge flashed and some sound came from it,” replied Lueirby as she stared at the now dark badge pinned above her bosom. Alevier took a look at his too. It was dented from the attack by the Matriarch, it was quite terrifying that how clean a cone-shaped dent was made by her claws. Alevier shuddered; if this Earth Frog was on the same level as her, he was in deep trouble.

But the Frog was still asleep so now was the best time to escape this hellhole. He made a dash for the exit but from the corner of his eye, he saw something which resembled a glass flask with some yellow-red glowing liquid fly towards the exit.

One did not need to be an Alchemist to realize those glowing yellow-red liquids were dangerous, especially so in a glass flask which was thrown skilfully towards the exit. However, Alevier, being an Alchemist and a Mage, stopped and quickly chanted a mana shield.

He knew Lueirby was following him - which was as weird as it was new since she usually clobbered him upfront giving him no chances of running - so he stretched out his arm and stopped Lueirby who crashed into his arm.

He heard the sound of glass breaking at the exit and after a second’s delay, its contents exploded into a fiery mess. Alevier was able to erect a mana shield just in time to prevent the flames and the hot air from scorching him. But that was not the worst part, the contents of the flask had not yet combusted entirely so glowing liquid splattered far and wide due to the explosion and selfishly, without anyone’s consent, exploded.

And that was what a damn flask labelled napalm could do. Alevier had recognized it after the initial explosion and so he had erected mana shields around him with all haste. But they could not put up with all of this moronic napalm which had an insane ambition to burn up.

Thankfully, when the shields shattered, Alevier and Lueirby had to only deal with a short gust of hot air. No serious damage was done.

Alevier quickly glanced at the Earth Frog. The lazy bastard had not even nudged from this. Then he looked at the rascals who had done such a stupid thing.

And speaking of stupid, the rascals included Fobas.

“There is no escape for degenerates,” laughed Fobas. “Go Chu, get them for me!”

The giant green lizard immediately rushed towards Alevier. He crushed and shot a translucent mana missile at the lizard - he had become pretty good at mana missiles.

But the lizard narrowly dodged the spell. So Alevier grabbed Lueirby and rushed towards the periphery of the chamber and dived right into the tall stalagmites which were a little taller than a man. Alevier wiggled his way through the gaps between these sharp rocks, trying his best to avoid threatening edges and slippery rocks.

The stupid lizard crashed into the columns resulting in some broken rocks and a mildly injured lizard. But Fobas and co. were not standing idle, they were making it rain spells and explosives to drive the two out.

“You can’t get away,” snickered Vymer as he threw a gas bomb into the rocks.

“Stupid shits!” yelled Fobas as he cast a spell which blasted a large part of the stalagmites, making way for his lizard.

Now, Alevier was not having a good time. He was forced to cast multiple mana shield and continuously run around between columns of rocks while it rained hell. Oh, and a giant lizard was chasing him while screeching and squeaking in anger. Death was certain if things went on like this. Absolutely lovely.

He occasionally stopped to fire an offensive ice spell at the lizard to stop its advance but it was not helping. And it especially did not help when Lueirby tried to attack it with an ember bullet which only made it angrier and destroyed the rocks in front of it thus, clearing its way.

Alevier was enraged by it. She was being a burden. A darn burden whom he owed nothing. Why must he help her?

She cast another fire-type spell which completely defrosted the lizard’s head. And Alevier snapped, he had spent quite some effort and mana to freeze that reptile’s head and make it sluggish but this brat was ruining it all.

While she was in the middle of spellcasting, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her aside.

“Will you stop that?” he barked.

“Wha-”

“Don’t what me freeloader,” he said grinding his teeth in anger. “If you can’t help then don’t! But don’t make things worse for me! If you are going to dwindle my chances of survival then I won’t protect you anymore!”

“Pro-”

“Now shut up and hide,” he cut her off once again. “Let me do this alone and for the sake of heaven, do not interfere. I do not need your help.” With that, he pushed her into a corner and fired at mana missile at the lizard to attract its attention. The lizard hissed and followed him, paying no heed to the girl who hid between the rocks.

Alevier began running towards the centre of the cavern as he prepared an ice pike spell. It was a miracle how bad Fobas and his friends were at predicting his route so most of their spells and potions missed their mark. The lizard, on the other hand, could see him and was following him by jumping and wiggling through rock. But because of its large size, it was having a hard time.

As an ice pike floated beside him, he prepared to overload the spell. He was close to the edge of the rocky area now and he knew that as soon as he stepped out, he would be confronted with some nasty spells. So he had one shot and he needed to be quick.

He stopped in his tracks and glanced at the lizard which was crashing its way through the columns. Then he turned away and took a deep breath. He felt that it was funny how he had a knack for making suicidal plans. With that thought in his mind, he dashed forward and jumped out of the stalagmite area.

His eyes met Fobas’s which were filled with disdain.

“You can scratch or bruise me, but you can’t defeat me,” he said in a low tone as he prepared some sort of spell. “Begone eyesore!”

A red coloured wave burst out of his hands and advanced toward Alevier.

Just then, he heard the sound of the lizard scrapping its way out of the rocks. Vymer aimed an ember bullet at him while Rettre threw some explosive.

Maybe it was his natural instinct to live because of which he reacted quicker than he thought he would and immediately dived to his side. The lizard pounced on him and its jaws almost snapped the diving boy leg apart in mid-air but its long body was hit by the spells that he had narrowly dodged.

The lizard opened its mouth in pain as its body was knocked away by the deadly combination of spells. The spells did not kill it of course. But what Alevier was about to do would definitely will.

Alevier hit the ground and without bothering to pick himself up, he overloaded the ice pike spell and it began glowing white just before he fired it.

The ice pike whizzed through the air and hit the Earth Frog squarely in the back. It punctured its skin through the dirt which covered it and left a frosty hole in its soft flesh. But looking at the size of the hole and comparing it to the size of the Frog, Alevier doubted he did much damage unless he hit a vital spot. But whatever the case, the Frog churned and groaned.

“Arrr...” a deep voice came from the Frog as it moved and uncurled itself, shaking the very ground with its movements and revealing its obvious frog-like features.

“Wod was dat?” came a voice from it.

To Alevier, the Earth Frog looked like a giant toad clad in dirt armour while having mana circuits running across its belly and neck. But it despite his interpretation, it was not funny. It moved on its muscular brown legs and adjusted itself to sit in an ever menacing squat blowing dust and dirt into the air.

Its giant head turned and looked at the gang of troublemakers with its bright yellow eyes. “Huuu… duman dulren. Is it dat dime yet?”

Fobas and co. were frozen in fear while Alevier was contemplating a good excuse for waking the Frog up. The lizard, on the other hand, sensed the gaze of the Frog and quickly tried to scurry away, but the giant boulder had already noticed it.

“Huuu… dinner!” it croaked.

Then suddenly a long tongue shot out of its mouth and crashed on the head of the hurrying lizard. Alevier heard a cracking sound as the lizard was slammed on the ground blowing pieces of rock, scales and blood all around it.

Did that tongue crack the lizard’s skull? But it did not matter since the tongue retreated with the lizard into the Frog's mouth.

“Nicee...” it said as it slurped the lizard away.

“CHU!” yelled Fobas.

“Huuu… So you are dallenging me?” said Frog as it scratched its back with its froggy hand. “I bon’t addack you unless you dallenge me.”

“Yeah! You doofus,” said Rettre clearly motivated by Fobas’s anger and unable to process the information. “Give Chu back else-”

He did not have the time to complete his sentence because a giant tongue crashed upon him and he disappeared with a crackle and a blue flash.

“So, doose next?” yawned the Frog. “I am not allowed to douch you if you don’t dallenge me.”

Fobas gritted his teeth then suddenly out of the corner of his he saw a blue flash. Vymer was gone! He turned to the cause of al this - Alevier.

He was standing there with a grin and a floating grimoire. His plan had worked - well, partially since Fobas was still there. He had thought that the Frog would take care of them all but alas! Things don’t always work out the way he wants them to.

Fobas roared in anger. “You shameless cumbag! I will beat you into a meat paste.”

Alevier had intended to take out Fobas first but Vymer had intercepted his ice pike. However, he could win against Fobas too, only that it was a bit more difficult.

“Huu… I am doe-ing back to sleep,” said the Frog as it curled back into a ball.

Great, that was one variable out of the way. Alevier wiped the sweat off his brow as he prepared to battle.

Fobas flung a spell at him which was intercepted by his mana shield. Alevier tried to counter it by throwing an ice ball spell at him. Fobas was by no means a newbie at combat, he immediately erected a shield instead of dodging the ice ball which exploded into ice shard and almost shattered his shield.

Alevier took a step back and cast a mana missile at him which was quickly dispelled by his opponent. The other boy began chanting a dangerous-looking spell but Alevier quickly fished out a flask of a glowing liquid and threw it at him.

Fobas jumped away and stopped his spell to create a quick shield instead. The flask crashed on the ground and broke splattering the glowing liquid everywhere.

The alchemist smiled as he shot a snowball at the puzzled Fobas who quickly erected another shield but the snowball missed its mark and flew right past him. He sensed that something was wrong.

Alevier, on the other hand, was rather relaxed, it was great that people were wary of glowing liquids flung at them so glowing water acted as a very good decoy. He created an ice pike and immediately fired it.

Fobas grumpily erected a stronger shield which could deal with an ice pike but suddenly something cold exploded on his back, almost half freezing him and messing up his shield by frosting it. Even worse, the frost had caused his legs to go almost numb, he could not dodge or defend now.

And with the sound of the shield shattering, the ice pike pierced Fobas splattering blood all over the place.

“Per- dan-” he disappeared in a flash of blue light.

“So long idiot,” said Alevier. After making sure that Fobas was really gone, he fished out an energy shake and chugged it down. He was quite exhausted at the moment, all that running and planning was difficult. He wiped the sweat of his brow. And sat on the floor.

For some reason, he did not feel at ease. He had a gut feeling that he should get out of here. So after a moment’s rest, he got up and walked towards the exit. But… was he forgetting something? Oh, yeah.

He turned and headed towards the stalagmite area. After a short search, he found Lueirby sitting in a fetal position in a corner with her staff placed next to a rock. She looked troubled and her eyes had no light in them.

“Cheer up,” he said as he approached her. “I took care of them. It was great that you did not interfere else I would have been dead.” He laughed and leaned forward as he stretched out his hand towards her. “Come on now, I will help you out for listening to me.”

She looked at him with her listless eyes and then at his hand. Then she lifted her palm and fire kindled above it.

”Hey, what are you doing?” he asked, wary if she will hurt him. But instead of attacking him, she brought the flame to her face clearly intending to burn herself.

“What?” Alevier was confused. “Hey! Don't burn yourself.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled it away before she had the chance to burn herself.

“Let me go,” she said in a lonely tone.

“Why are you burning yourself?” he asked.

“Let me go,” she repeated.

“I asked you-”

“I WANT TO BLOODY KILL MYSELF!,” she yelled in anger, her eyes radiated lunacy and desperation as she tried to yank away her hand. “LET ME END MY PATHETIC LIFE! LET ME GO.”

It took a moment for Alevier to register what she said. “I don’t think I am going to let you do that.”

Even if she would be teleported out now and be treated medically, he did not know what she would do afterwards. He did imagine a scenario where Lueirby had killed herself, almost immediately, he felt a pang of guilt throb in his heart. His revenge-hungry, sociopathic part which hated her got no say in this, he knew what he needed to do.

“Lueirby,” he said calmly. “Tell me, what is the matter? I am sure I can help you out.”

Alevier saw her cringe at the word ‘help’. Then abruptly, her face twisted from angry to sorrow and her eyes teared up. She hid her face away and punched him. Maybe because she was physically weakened, her punch was rather weak and did not hurt him much.

“Hey, it is alright,” he said.

“IT IS NOT ALRIGHT! ALL OF THIS IS BECAUSE OF YOU!” she screamed as she tried to break free but Alevier’s grip was firm. For the first time, he felt that he was stronger than someone else, but at the same time, he realized how dangerous strength was. She struggled and bashed her head on his chest and kicked him. He stubbornly bore the blows.

“I DIDN’T NEED YOUR HELP! I NEVER ASKED FOR IT! I DID NOT NEED TO BE RESCUED OR PROTECTED! I AM NOT WEAK THEN WHY ARE YOU HELPING ME?” her voice broke. “I am stronger than you… I am better than you! But then why was I-I humiliated in the duel, why was I so p-pitiful to be at your mercy? Why have I b-been failing in everything ever since then even when I tried so hard?!”

She threw a punch at his face. “I am... not... weak, don’t you look down at me… don't." Her blows lost their power but she continued to hit him.

"But why… why are you better than me? I-I can’t live like this - as a failure. I can’t. It is over. It is all over. I can never escape this incompetence - why am I like this? WHY!”

Tears rolled down her face as she continued to struggle. Alevier remained silent, carefully choosing his next words.

“Lueirby, look here. You are great at many things,” said he. “Maybe it was because of the circumstances that I was able to win, you had been injured during your fight with Jaysaun. You are a great fighter, believe me. Besides that, you are smarter than most people, and unlike stupid people like Fobas, your life is much more important. Cherish it - you have a beautiful life. Think of all the wonderful people around you, think about your friends and your family - think about your parents.”

“You won’t understand, it is not l-like that - it is nothing like that! Everyone hates me - everything I do falls back on me. Nothing is right! You won’t understand.”

“Tell me Lueirby,” said Alevier. “I will try my best-”

"No-"

"THEN I CAN DO NOTHING TO HELP YOU!" he yelled back at her face and she flinched back. "Tell me Lueirby, and I swear I will help you out."

“My parents...” she sobbed. “They n-never wanted me.” Her muscles loosened and her struggle ended. “They w-wanted a better child who would carry on the name of the family - someone who was not called physically challenged without the family's Ritual Enchantment. But they got me, an awfully inadequate girl who could not uphold their past glory. I had tried my best and I was proud of my effort and talent which was keeping up with their expectations b-but suddenly I am worse than the weakest person I knew and I can do nothing right. I have no powers, no brains, no luck, no friends, no dreams - what reason do I have to live?”

“Who said that you are weak?” asked Alevier. “You are strong enough to break my bones on multiple occasions.”

“You don’t understand!” she began crying. “M-my grandpa told me this quite clearly that they will disown me - strip me of my status and Ritual Enchantment if they got the report that I am falling behind. A-and if Fobas tells them that you carried me till here and how terribly I performed, I… I will have no place to go, no way to survive, no right to be...”

“You can come to my place if you like,” said Alevier calmly. “We have got a few rooms free. I don’t think that my house can match a nobleman’s but it should be close.”

He lifted her face and looked directly into her moist green eyes.

“There are times when things go wrong and there is nothing we can do about it yet it feels like our fault. But it is alright, you are a child of the universe and just like those bright stars, and those bright sparkling rivers, and the lush green trees, you have a right to be here. And the world is unfolding as it should; after the dark gloomy winters come the lovely spring. You just need to keep yourself warm until then and what's better than a friend to keep you warm?” he smiled at her. “Let’s forget our old grudges and become friends, Lueirby.”