Sunrise washed over the windows, coloring the walls, tables, chairs and people with a dim orange glow.

Inside the usual classroom, which was still one of the few fully furnished and clean rooms in the espionage block, all... well most of the class were listening to their tutor's last words of the week, before sending the student off to celebrate their well-deserved weekend.

However, in contrast to the relaxed happenings of the week, the words the tutor said scared those who actually listened with mentions of the 'E' word, "So, as some teachers might have mentioned, you will have exams in most of your lessons in a months time. This was also stated in the student handbook, though I doubt many people here would've read it."

The tutor, previously standing stationary, bent his back and slammed his hands on the table.

Ignoring Silence, he glared one-by-one at everyone in the room, afterward exclaiming, "Revise! Just revise, if not a lot, at least a little bit. The freedoms of traveling out of school during weekends, joining and going to clubs and most breaks are only for those who succeed in their tests. Fail, and they get removed and me, and the other teachers teaching you, will get hassled over this too. No one's expecting perfect results, but if you drop one point below 50 marks on any test this year, the removal of these freedoms and a general hassle will occur. So, just revise and don't leave me with piles of damn paperwork over the holidays!"

He relaxed his posture, took his hands off the desk and took a deep breath, then concluded his lesson as thus, "In good news, because of this there will be no homework in the subjects having them for this whole month, so with adequate revision of your subjects, I solemnly hope that you will all at least pass these tests. Now then, dismissed!"

Silence, taking her view off the teacher and onto the door, timed her exit so that she'd avoid the inevitable rush for fresh air. Usually, this took five or so minutes for the queue to be tamed and disperse, which synced up with the timings for all the necessary hallways to be deserted, but with panic from the mention of upcoming exams, she knew it would take longer so read a random book from her bag.

A head soon popped into the room from the door, scowling the seats for a certain person. When the girl's bright blue eyes focused said person, a body emerged from under it and promptly walked towards the back.

Waving her hand towards Silence, there was no response. Therefore she broke the blissful atmosphere and softly asked, "Hello... Silence?"

She was shockingly met by nothing once more, so crept closer and asked once more, louder this time, "Silence!?"

Not a single flinch. The teacher glanced over, a strained smile plastered on his face.

The visitor acknowledged this with her own awkward expression, stepping further towards the statue of a girl and flicked the side of her hair lightly.

With no delay, Silence bluntly asked, "Yes?"

The other girl returned the question with a gesture Silence couldn't yet see.

After arduously trying, she eventually managed to turn her neck enough to see the visitor, immediately realizing it was Blaze.

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"Do you do this even in lessons, or are you just rude to your tutor?" Blaze queried.

Silence tilted her head and countered, "I know everything covered this year already. There's no problem with ignoring teachers as long as I can prove this in exams, no?"

Shaking her head in disapproval, Blaze murmured, "Aren't you cocky..."

Upon hearing the murmur, Silence declared a challenge, "Go ahead and ask me a question if you don't believe me."

Playing along, Blaze replied, "Okay, three questions. One, what is Halloween?"

As if quoting from a textbook, Silence gave a lengthy answer, "A history question, huh? Well, Halloween is a holiday on the 31st of October, celebrating the abolishment of witch trials on the day in 300ad. This introduced mages the gene pool and into high culture caused it. It also celebrates Harvest in some rural cultures... Why they weren't before I don't really know or care about, but that's not the point."

Surprised, Blaze froze for a minute, later sighing and moved on, "Ha... Well then, onto alchemy. What are the trinity of principles?"

Sighing herself, Silence bluntly listed the answers, "Salt, mercury, and sulphur."

Blaze nodded, soon speaking her final question, "Here is a hard maths one, if 'Y' equals 'X' squared minus nine, what would 'X' be when 'Y' is zero?"

Immediately Silence correctly answered, "Three or minus three. Yeah, no. My sister teaches me sometimes and I read textbooks when I'm bored in lessons... which happens quite a lot by the way."

Drooping her shoulders, Blaze sighed once more, then declared, "You win..."

Interrupting the sudden break in the conversation, Silence abruptly asked, "So, why are you here anyway?"

Neatening her posture in the blink of an eye, Blaze grabbed a piece of paper, plopping it in front of Silence as she elaborated, "Oh yeah... read this then sign it if you agree."

Silences eyes darted back and forth, quickly skimming over the document before stopping at the line 'You will also wear the clothes provided by Blaze during every round until you're actually required'. She pointed to the line, facing a questioning glare at Blaze at the same time.

Struck by the glare, she rashly made her defense, "Oh, you wear boy's uniforms all the time, so I thought it would be funny..."

When her mental fatigue finally wore her down, Silence begrudgingly accepted, "Give me the ability to veto anything too stupid and we have a deal..."

Seeing the sparks in her eyes, she subconsciously remarked in her mind, 'Note to self, ask Root about her real motives. I don't understand this at all...'

Grabbing a pen from her bag, Silence signed on the necessary line then left for the dorm.

-

In her locked and silenced room, Silence wielded a console in her hands and focused on the screen with all the seriousness in the world. However, before the game inserted even loaded, the ringtone of her phone suddenly interrupted her.

Equipped with a sour face, she pried her gaze off the screen, detached the console from her grip and waddled over to her bag to retrieve her phone.

The anger in her face dissipated once the voice on the other side greeted her, "Hey Mel."

Realizing this, she inquired, "Oh, sis. Why are you calling now?"

Helen countered with a rhetorical question, "Don't you remember? Our school has a big meet up this weekend, so does yours."

Not knowing the consequences, Silence answered without a pause, "I'm not going, besides, you didn't say you had one too."

The conversation suddenly froze, Helen mumbled, "That's a pity..." which only cooled the atmosphere further.

Silence tilted her head, reflectively looking down when she realized, "Huh? Oh."

Losing her excited tone, Helen continued the conversation with a dreary monotone, "Yeah... Anyway, the meet-up's at sixth high so I don't know if I can call tomorrow. I mean, I'll still call then if I can. But, I was really looking forwards to meeting you there..."

Feeling the blow, Silence mimicked her tone and apologized, "Sorry... I can't really change things now, though."

Panicking, her sister softly replied, "Nah, I'm sorry too. Judging by your ability, I can understand your school's decision so I'm not blaming you. Anyway, I'll talk to you next week if I can't tomorrow. Bye."

With that, the call end. Silence paused for a moment, before shrugging it off and absorbing herself in her game once more.