“Aida, what are you doing?” Levi asked warily.
“You said the beetle is under the influence of something that makes it aggressive, right? That means normally it wouldn’t attack humans.” Aida turned to Levi. Bathed in the light of the fireflies, which had finally settled down to their original languid speed after being so violently disturbed by the prior action, Levi was outlined in a green halo; his natural coloring glowed in the ethereal light.
Levi nodded slowly, still keeping a vigilant eye on the slumbering creature. “Correct. It’s only dangerous because it’s basically a boulder. Getting whacked by its wings is like crashing into the side of a mountain at terminal velocity. If you get rammed by it at its full speed you can expect survival only if there’s a team of healers ready to act.”
“If we heal its antenna, then it won’t have a reason to come after us once it wakes up, right? The sleep spores you doused it with might counteract the aggression spores…and it looked like it wanted to attack us because it was in pain in the first place.”
Levi bit his lip, clearly frustrated. “Fine, you can try healing its antenna. But no matter what happens after, we have to leave.”
Aida nodded, gathering herself as she turned back towards the beetle. She raised her wand and pointed it at the inert insect.
Heal. Different parts of the beetle lit up in Aida’s vision, almost like an infrared overlay: angry red areas indicated severe damage, spanning to a soft green color that indicated good health. The joint the antenna was bent at was heavily inflamed, while some of the softer flesh beneath the shell that she managed to strike at were yellow. Prioritizing the bright red bend, Aida slowly pushed her mana out, forcing the soft flesh beneath the shelled segments to straighten. She carefully unknotted the kinks, repaired the crushed portions of the segments.
Aida released her mana after the antenna turned back to a tender green shade. She still had a little bit of mana remaining, since she didn’t heal the slightly wounded yellow areas…this would have to do. She estimated she could probably fire three more (small) Mana Blasts if she had to. She stepped back towards Levi. “Okay, I’m ready to go.”
Levi grabbed her wrist, his long fingers wrapping completely around her, dragging her after him without another word. Aida didn’t resist; she picked up her pace so they could move faster.
His fingers encircling her wrist were so warm. He had her in a firm grip, but it didn’t hurt; if she were the main female love interest, Levi’s rough actions would probably be driven by concern for her. He’d be worried that she would separate from him somehow, her attention caught by some small injured woodland creature that needed help, and thus a target ripe for ambush. Aida cracked a smile at the ridiculous thought.
Levi finally released her when they reached the edge of the woods, the Academy’s walls showing through the trees. He looked down at her, holding an arm out to bar her way. A strip of moonlight fell across the side of his face, highlighting his cheekbones and glimmering eyes. “Don’t tell anybody what happened.”
“Pardon?” Aida stared at him.
“Don’t mention anything about the beetle, or that we spied on Suelina and Ezra. We can just say that we ran into each other on the way back to school.” Levi curved one corner of his mouth up, clearly trying to charm her.
“But why? Shouldn’t we report to the school that there’s an overgrowth of Stimflowers?” Aida asked, unimpressed.
He laughed awkwardly, scratching a cheek with his forefinger. “About that…I’m actually the one in charge of the underclassmen’s growth practices, so alerting the faculty would just add more pressure on me. Aida,” Levi leaned in, backing Aida up until she bumped against a tree trunk, his breath brushing over her eyelashes, “you wouldn’t put me in such an awkward position, would you?”
Aida glanced past his figure, nervous that someone would spot them in such an intimate position - not nervous because of the intimate position. “Fine, I won’t say anything, as long as you actually take care of the overgrowth.”
Levi stepped back immediately, beaming at her as if she were his best friend. “You’re so dependable, Aida. I owe you one.” Raising a hand in farewell, Levi headed back towards the school without a backwards glance.
Aida stared after him, simultaneously affronted and resigned. She knew she wasn’t the female lead, and therefore had no right to any of the male leads’ attentions, but being literally left in the dark (even though it was a generally safe location) still stung. Wrapping her arms around herself - the chilliness of the evening was suddenly extremely obvious - Aida slowly made her way back to her room.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The rest of the week - star cycle, Aida corrected herself - was uneventful. Aida attended classes, read old notebooks and textbooks, and practiced her exercises (both magical and physical) in her free time. Sue floated around Aida, keeping her company in the library and during meals, cheerfully oblivious to Aida’s minimal enthusiasm for participating in social gossip. Aida had to admit there was an upside to being a side character: the main character would just keep doing what she wanted to do and wouldn’t notice any oddities about her best friend.
Aida’s study was fruitful. She finally learned the fundamentals of the five elements’ interactions with each other. In addition to the more straightforward protections in having full elemental pools, the elements also supported (and in extreme cases, harmed) each other. A robust Water level contributed to faster replenishment of the Wood element (and subsequent protection against draining Wood too quickly). Wood supported Fire, Fire supported Earth, Earth supported Metal, and Metal in turn supported Water; with all five elements at healthy and high levels, mana practitioners were reportedly able to survive catastrophic levels of damage.
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However, the texts gravely warned the reader not to neglect a single element in favor of increasing only one element at a time. If one’s Fire level was too high, it would quickly consume the Wood mana pool, to the point where Wood would not be able to replenish itself quickly enough to sustain Fire’s burn rate; eventually, Wood’s overdraft of Water would result in overdrawing from Metal, which would overdraw from Earth, which would then cause the cycle to peter out because Earth wouldn’t be able to draw from the overproduction of Fire fast enough. The end result would be a sickly mage, one who would need to take elemental-balancing brews constantly in order to not be bedridden.
Aida also kept an eye on Sue’s interactions with the other bachelors—by her count, she had already witnessed one romance flag per love interest, which meant the story had already kicked off. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Sue wasn’t really going out of her way to progress the story. The same was true on the male counterparts’ side: other than Levi joining them during meals and flirting uselessly with Sue, none of the boys gave any indication they were going to make a move on Sue. Aida was tempted to ask Sue about her feelings for the boys, but her paranoia made her worry that the moment Sue actually thought about her romantic prospects was the moment that Aida would lose all control of her side-character life. If Sue progressed the main story, then would Aida be helplessly dragged along to fulfill every scheme that would help bring Sue and the boys closer? Or would she still be able to focus on building herself a respectable life outside of the machinations focused on creating drama and intrigue for a small group of people she wasn’t allowed to be a part of?
Aida was at her favorite desk in the corner of the library (a massive, sparsely populated structure with an unreal number of comfy chairs and cozy nooks) reading a theory book discussing the balance between the different elemental manas when she was distracted by a gentle tapping on the edge of the desk.
Blinking her eyes, Aida gazed up at Ezra, who had rested his delicate fingertips right next to her elbow. His other hand was draped casually in his pocket, his slouched form emphasizing instead of diminishing his height. “Yes?”
Silver scanned the text Aida was reading. “Hard at work on a Loam night?”
“Just trying to better understand the underlying principles of the elements,” Aida said lightly, resting her elbows on the pages. She propped her chin on her fists, looking up at Ezra through her lashes. “Can I help you?”
Silence stretched as Ezra pierced Aida with serious eyes, one sophisticated eyebrow neatly quirked. Aida gazed back at him, expression neutral. A ghost of a smile finally crossed his lips. “If only you could.” Aida rolled her eyes, but barely managed to put a lid on it before adopting a sweet smile.
“So what pleases Lord Ezra to seek out the lowly Aida Loreh in the most unlikely of locations?”
“Lord Ezra is here to remind Miss Aida of her appointment tomorrow morning,” Ezra returned monotonously. “And to make sure she understands and appreciates his generosity in volunteering his time so early on a restday morning.”
In one smooth motion, Aida pushed her chair back and caught her skirt in her fingers, dipping into a shallow curtsy. “Your loyal subject Aida can do nothing but proffer the greatest gratitude for His Lordship’s generosity, with no promises that she can even come close to matching his magnanimity in a future favor.” Aida kept her head bowed until she felt a hard poke on her forehead, pushing her upright. “Ouch!”
“I don’t expect you to pay me back for my time,” Ezra said, keeping his finger on Aida’s forehead. He dipped his head lower, making sure her eyes followed his silvery pools. “Just don’t make me waste it.”
Aida nodded cautiously, struggling not to bite her lip. Maybe she had misread the situation. She thought he wasn’t sensitive about their differences in status, but maybe he really did get upset at her overly exaggerated performance–
“Get some rest tonight,” Ezra said, finally letting out a small smile as he lowered his finger. “Tomorrow is sure to be interesting.”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
“Aida,” Sue sang as Aida opened her door moments after she had returned to her room. “What are you doing tomorrow? Do you want to go to town with me?”
“Oh,” Aida started awkwardly. “I actually made plans for tomorrow already…”
Sue’s face fell. “Well…I guess there’s nothing to be done about it then.” Sue fidgeted, twirling a lock of hair around her finger and avoiding Aida’s gaze.
“Um…was there something you wanted to do? Maybe we can do something on Moon’s day?” Aida offered. She felt a little guilty about not even trying to be Sue’s friend; after all, Sue hadn’t done anything cruel to Aida.
Sue smiled, perking up as soon as Aida’s words left her lips. “Moon’s day would be great! I was going to procrastinate on my errands tomorrow, but I’ll get them done instead!”
Sue skipped back to her room with a cheerful wave, and Aida slowly shut the door. Leaning her back against the door, Aida took a deep breath. Such is the life of a side character. Opening her eyes, Aida checked over her progress from the past star cycle.
Character Profile: Aida Loreh
Elemental Affinity: Water
Class Rank: 30/30
RP: 26
Character Stats
STR: 3 - 65% to next level.
FOC: 5 - 70% to next level.
INT: 4 - 40% to next level.
DEX: 2 - 0% to next level.
VIT: 4 - 85% to next level.
Skill List
Heal (Lv2) 20% to next level.
Mana Blast (Lv1) 40% to next level.
Mana Cycling (Lv2) (Passive) 60% to next level.
Water Manipulation (Lv1) 0% to next level.
Aida allowed herself a small smile. Even though her stats were still abysmal, and she would likely lose in a fight against Pritchard again, the fact that her time and effort translated into tangible improvements was a soothing balm.