image [https://i.imgur.com/5AbmBgi.png]

As mid day began to approach, Carmen was studying on her bed for her last written midterm exam. She flipped back and forth through the pages of her textbook, struggling to grasp the concepts presented. After a while, Carmen couldn’t take it anymore. She turned to Elise who was sitting at her desk and posed a question.

“Hey, want to go into town? I need some fresh air.” Carmen asked with a hopeful tone.

“No, I’m good. You can go ahea-.” Elise replied before having her arm grabbed.

“C’mon! We’ve been cooped up in this room all day. Let’s go!”

Carmen laughed as she pulled Elise out of her chair, guiding her towards the door.

Elise was incredibly annoyed by this untimely interruption, but she didn’t fight back against Carmen’s wishes. Elise simply snatched her arm from Carmen’s grasp and followed behind her, going down the steps and out into the chilly fall weather. The two made their way down the long cobblestone pathway towards the campus’ exit.

After walking for a few miles, the duo found themselves entering Loracia Town. The quaint little city had a very warm and inviting aesthetic to it. All of the buildings were made from reclaimed wood and the cabin style architecture had a great deal of texture to them. Strewn throughout the town were a multitude of pine trees, filling the air with an evergreen scent.

The main path that lead to the heart of the city was framed perfectly by the large, snow covered mountains looming in the distance. Needless to say, Loracia Town was very picturesque and filled with earthy charm.

The duo eventually entered a book store and perused for a short while. Carmen scanned the many shelves inside until she found the textbook she had been looking for. As she gripped the spine and pulled it down, she noticed Elise staring at a couple of books with great intrigue.

“Have you been wanting to read that or something?” Carmen questioned with a curious tone.

“Huh? Oh, not really. It’s just that my Grandma’s been wanting to add this book to her collection. She has the entire series except for this one.”

“Oh ok, does she read a lot of books like this one?”

Carmen leaned in to get a better look, making note of the dark red spine accented by thin, golden stripes racing around the edge. Elise simply nodded as she picked it up, flipping through the pages slowly.

“Yeah, and she also runs a bookstore in Olunas City. It’s not the best store by any means, but it’s something she cherishes quite a bit.”

Elise closed the book shut and gently placed it back on the shelf. Before she could walk away, Carmen reached out and picked the book up.

“Well if that’s the case, you should just get it for her. I’m sure she’ll love the gift!” Carmen said with a smile.

“What? That book is a special edition copy, there’s no way I could afford something like that.”

Elise pointed towards the price tag resting on the edge of the shelf, slightly shaking her head. Carmen looked over and shrugged at the price, not finding the number to be all that offensive.

“It’s fine, I’ll just get it.”

Carmen added the book to her stack and started to make her way to the checkout desk.

“Wait, you don’t have to do that. Put it bac-.” Elise said with a panicked cadence before getting cut off.

“Don’t worry, I got it. That’s what friends are for right?”

Elise had no rebuttal to give as Carmen placed down four golden coins with the Volaire crest on them, not phased at all by how much she was spending.

Once the receptionist wrapped and bagged her books, the two left the building. Elise looked over at Carmen with a concerned expression.

“Uh, thanks for the book. But, you do realize you could’ve bought a week’s worth of lodging at a nice Inn with that much money right?” Elise said, feeling bad that Carmen dropped that much money for a single gift.

“Oh, it’s no big deal. But hey, where do you want to go next? I hear they have some pretty good places to eat here.”

Carmen's tone was incredibly nonchalant, making it clear that such an expensive purchase was no big deal to her. Before Elise could reply, she spotted someone in the distance that caused her heart to plummet towards the ground.

Carmen noticed Elise freeze up and wondered what was going on. As she looked forward, Carmen saw a fairly unkempt man with short, black and messy black hair talking to someone. He seemed to be having a very pleasant conversation, seeing as how he kept belly laughing and grinning ear to ear.

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Moments later, his eyes glanced over in their direction and he immediately began to wave at Elise with a huge smile on his face. Elise remained still and quiet as the man started to approach quickly, still wearing that large smile.

“Elise!! What brings my darling and beautiful daughter to these parts? Is school finished for the day?” He asked with a kind smile.

Elise remained silent as she slowly looked up, her eyes incredibly indifferent and cold. The man quickly shifted his attention to Carmen and kindly grinned.

“Ah, and who might you be?”

His eyes glanced at her long silver hair as he awaited her reply, making note of her unique features.

“Oh, I’m Carmen Belouis, a friend of Elise’s at school.”

“Nice to meet you Carmen! I’m Eric Burton, Elise’s father. I can’t express to you how happy I am to hear that my girl has made such an amazing friend. I just hope she hasn’t given you too much trouble.” Eric chuckled as he clapped his hands together.

“Oh, she’s no problem at all! I’m glad to have met her.”

Carmen joined in on the laughter with a chuckle of her own, greatly enjoying the company of Elise’s father. They had a few more conversations until Elise finally spoke up from her irritated silence.

“C’mon Carmen, let’s get out here.” She said with a short tone, clearly wanting to end this encounter as quickly as possible.

“Huh? But, why? We should invite him to lunch with us. The more the merrier, right?”

Before Elise could refuse Carmen's desire to learn more about her father, Eric cleared his throat and began to speak up.

“Thanks for the invitation, but I’ll unfortunately have to decline this time around. But, I would like to talk with Elise in private for a second. Do you mind letting us chat for a bit?”

He sent Carmen a kind smile as he gently placed his hand on Elise’s shoulder. Carmen quickly nodded and told Elise she would be in a nearby shop, telling her to come inside once she was finished.

As Carmen left their line of sight, the man’s charming smile quickly shifted. Eric gripped Elise’s shoulder tightly as he looked down at her with the darkest smile she’d ever seen. Elise quickly shook his hand off of her and backed away, not wanting to be any closer to him.

“What the hell do you want from me this time? I said I didn’t want to see your face ever again.” Elise said with an irritated tone, not falling victim to his devious glare.

“Why else do you think I’ve shown myself again? I’ve got some debts to pay back and unfortunately, they’re a bit too large to overcome on my own this time.”

“And? I don’t care about your stupid money issues. It’s not my problem.”

Elise began to walk away until he stepped in front of her.

“Oh, but it is your problem…”

Eric reached into the pocket inside of his jacket and pulled out a sheet of folded parchment. He handed it to her and patiently waited as Elise glanced over its contents.

“What is this?”

“That’s the deed to my mother’s bookstore. I had to put it up as collateral in order to get this loan. If I don’t pay them back soon, that store goes bye bye.” He replied with a cheeky grin. Elise’s eyes went wide with shock and rage as she realized what he was saying.

“YOU DID WHAT!!?” She exclaimed, absolutely floored that he would do something so heinous to his own mother. He simply shrugged and snatched the paper back, tucking it into his jacket.

“Hey, I had to do what I had to do to survive. I’m sure you and my mother can understand.”

“You know how much Grandma loves that shop! How could you!?”

Elise stomped her foot into the ground as he continued to smile cheekily. His lack of concern made it abundantly clear that Eric enjoyed making Elise suffer.

“Well, if you want to prevent this from happening, all you’ve got to do is get the money for me. Should be easy, right?”

“Easy? There’s no way I can get that kind of money!” Elise replied, her heart racing as she tried to figure out a solution to this sudden bombshell thrust upon her.

“You sure about that? I bet your Belouis friend has plenty of money on hand to cover my debt.”

Eric's lips began to curl as he imagined the potential wealth he could obtain from someone of Carmen’s royal stature. The mere thought of it filled his face with glee.

“What!? Are you insane? I’m not going to ask her for money.”

Elise was fed up at this point and she wanted nothing more than to leave this place. However, the thought of her Grandmother losing her store weighed on Elise’s heart heavily.

“Who said anything about asking? Look, you either get the money or you don’t. I honestly don’t care how you do it, just make sure you bring the funds to the abandoned sawmill south from here. You’ve got two days, otherwise that bookstore is gone.”

He gave Elise one last cheeky smirk before walking away, leaving her alone to ponder his ridiculous request.

Elise looked back with a heavy scowl while gritting her teeth, seething with anger as her father got further down the path.

‘UGH! I can’t stand that bastard! How does he always find a way to weasel back into my life and ruin things? I’m so sick of it!’

She let out a deep, angered sigh before composing herself. After taking a brief moment to think, she eventually made her way to the shop that Carmen was at.

“Hey, where’d your dad go?” Carmen asked with a curious tone, glancing out the window.

“He had to go take care of something…” Elise replied, her voice fairly quiet and shaky.

“Ah, that’s unfortunate. I’d like to meet him again sometime, he was so nice!”

Carmen smiled as she continued to look around the store. Elise gave no response while her thoughts drifted off into space, still trying to process the conversation she had with her father.

After a few hours of spending time in Loracia Town, the two began to head back to LaVeda’s campus. As they walked, Carmen noticed something off about Elise. She hadn’t said much of anything ever since she met her dad and her overall mood seemed incredibly poor.

“Hey, are you alright?” Carmen asked with concern, keeping her voice fairly gentle.

“Yup…”

To her surprise, Elise quickened her pace and started walking ahead of Carmen.

‘What’s gotten into her now? I thought we were finally hitting things off. Did I do something to offend her?’

Carmen began to match Elise’s speed and posed another question to her.

“Are you sure? If something’s wrong, you can totally talk to me about it. I’m a pretty good liste-.”

Before Carmen could even finish her sentence, Elise looked over with an incredibly irritated expression. It was beyond clear that she did not want to be bothered. Carmen stopped in her tracks and allowed Elise to continue toward the school by herself, not digging any further.

‘Well then…’

Carmen sighed and looked up at the setting sun, wondering what she could do to cheer up her roommate.