After a loud, exuberant game of Flying Needle where the girls won by a narrow margin, Class 2 trooped back into the dining hall as the sun began to set. The girls were hoarse, rubbing their victory into the boys’ brooding faces.
“Could you believe Pritchard missed that final shot?” Tera cackled as she nearly choked Aida in her one-armed hug. “How did you get so good at mana penetration?”
Aida gave her a sly smile. “Believe it or not, Adventurer Kuri helped me a lot with that.” The secret was that Crit Up was a lot more versatile than she had first thought. The more she trained her Crit Up ability, the more refined her overlay of the skill became. Where before all she could see was obvious markings of a potential chink in armor like with the beetle, now her target’s mana flow displayed a gradient, allowing her to anticipate any changes in mana resistance.
“I bet Aida’s going to place really high in the end of year rankings if she keeps up her training,” Natalie said enthusiastically. Aida shuddered.
“Don’t set me up for failure.”
“Aida’s positioning herself as harmless so none of us will take her seriously,” Shon muttered from behind.
Aida hid behind all this banter as they stood in line to place their dinner orders, pretending she was unbothered by the fact that she now seemed to be closer to her classmates than people she thought were her friends.
It stung even more that they weren’t even icing out Lara anymore; the five of them had already gotten their trays, and were seated at one of the smaller tables that didn’t allow them room for more people. If Lara was forcing her presence upon them, Aida would have expected sullen expressions on the other four faces, but there was nothing signaling they were annoyed or feeling put-upon by having her at their table. They were somber, and weren’t smiling and joking like Aida was with Class 2, but…Aida felt a tinge of jealousy swell up. It’s like they are their own group now.
Without glancing over at their table, Aida followed her classmates to one of the longer tables, taking a seat facing away from them so that she didn’t inadvertently ruin the mood by being distracted by what Class 1 was doing.
Dev seated himself next to her, scraping his chair along the marble floor obnoxiously loudly.
“Not worried that Havi’s going to reprimand you for damaging school property?” Aida asked offhandedly, spooning at her soup glumly.
“Pritchard can fix it.” Dev elegantly took a bite of his fish and rice. “You really shouldn’t worry so much about them.”
Aida glanced sharply at him, but he didn’t elaborate as he continued eating. Somehow, Aida was certain he was talking about the chilly reception he must have seen her receive when she tried to sit with Sue and the boys during lunch, despite giving no indication that he was referring to the group sitting behind them.
Following his cue, she ate her meal in silence, unable to taste anything.
“If we may have your attention, please.” Aida glanced up at the line of professors who were standing at the front of the dining hall, all with grim expressions on their faces. Once the dining hall’s conversations settled, Professor Bruce cleared his throat in that way he did before he passed on information he considered dire; usually when he warned them of what would happen if they didn’t practice their meditation exercises during every waking moment.
“First of all, we would like to thank our third years for their exemplary service in assisting with the rebuilding efforts of various villages during this past star cycle.” Bruce paused as the first and second years clapped enthusiastically, while Classes 2 and 3 clapped with significantly less energy, waiting for the but that was hiding behind Bruce’s praise.
“However, we regret to inform everybody that work is not the last of it.” Bruce’s warning voice took on an even grimmer tone. “We debated whether we should even let the younger students hear this next piece of information, but in the end we decided everybody must be on guard. As students at Maglica Academy, you all must be prepared for what comes next, regardless of your youth. For that, we regret that we must color your experience at Maglica with this unfortunate departure from tradition.”
Get to the point! Aida’s stomach tightened with anxiety as she screamed internally at Bruce’s penchant for flowery language.
“…however, during Class 1’s assignment alongside renowned adventurers, they discovered some unsettling information that…may have something to do with the surge of monster activity we have seen these past few moon cycles.” Murmurs began spreading across the dining hall as several students gasped or leaned towards their friends to mutter about Bruce’s words. He raised his voice to speak over the rumblings, quieting everyone down as they tried to catch his words. Aida turned in her chair to look over at Sue’s table, to see a stony-faced Lara, Ezra, Levi, and Caleb looking to Professor Bruce as he gave his speech. Sue had her elbows on the table and her head pressed in her hands, slumping over the table.
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“We have only received some preliminary details, and we will be in discussions with the Strongholds and other Adventurers to coordinate a plan. In the meantime, we…expect there to be some disruptions to the school schedule.” The tension in the dining hall congealed, gripping everybody by the throat. “First: for the third years, we will be revising the sponsorship assignment criteria a bit. We will lift the restrictions that say you cannot meet with the same sponsor every consecutive cycle; the original intent of the restriction was so you would take that opportunity to broaden your horizons and meet and learn from a different Affiliate each cycle. However, with several of our Affiliates having to be called away occasionally, and a new emphasis on focusing on a specialty, we will allow you to sign up for an assignment with whichever Affiliate you’d like, provided they have the availability to take you on.”
This was supposed to be good news, but the students didn’t take it as such. The third years started glancing uneasily at each other; they had all complained before about how the restriction didn’t make sense - because they already knew roughly what they wanted to do, and being told to “broaden their horizons” was just a waste of time - but now that the restriction was lifted, it felt like a trap. It kind of is a trap though…we get this freedom at the cost of some sort of external threat.
Class 1 were like statues; none of the boys met Aida’s probing eyes, and Sue remained in her crumpled form. Her mana was withdrawn, so Aida couldn’t even get a good sense of how she was feeling.
“As far as classes go, we will strive to keep the class schedules for all students as they are. However, we will be asking the third years to take on an instructor’s assistant role with the first and second years during free periods when - if - there are no Affiliates or instructors present.”
This last proclamation renewed the rumblings in the dining hall as all the students turned to their neighbors to hiss about the ominous warning.
If no instructors are present? Aida finally turned away from Class 1, gauging the mood among the rest of the student body. The first and second years, mostly insulated from what had been happening outside of the school, were finally starting to take on the grim fear that the majority of third years were exuding.
“These are the overarching changes to the remainder of the school year. If anybody has any questions or concerns, please feel free to approach any of the instructors.” Immediately, several of the bolder students crowded around the clump of professors, all talking over each other. Aida stood up as well, though she headed directly to Class 1’s table instead.
“What happened out there?” Aida demanded, stopping in front of them. They all looked warily at her, except for Sue, who kept her head lowered. “What did you see out there? What happened to Sue?”
Lara stood up, edging Aida away from the table, her arms spread as if to hide Sue and the boys behind her - like she was protecting them. From me?
“Calm down,” Lara said quietly, her soothing tone doing nothing to slow Aida’s heartbeat. It was almost like she couldn’t hear Lara’s words, with how loud the blood rushing through her ears was. “We’re all okay - Suelina is fine, she just needs some time to recover.”
“From what?” Aida demanded more loudly, trying to scoot around Lara to get to Sue, but Lara matched her movement to rebuff her, actually having the gall to put her hands on Aida’s shoulders. “Get off of me!”
Sue finally looked up at Aida’s shout, though the blank expression on her face frightened Aida enough to cease her struggles against the stronger girl. As soon as Sue saw Aida though, it was like her original personality flickered back across her face, recognition lighting the dead eyes. “Aida! It’s okay! I’m fine!”
Lara finally released Aida as Sue stood up, allowing her to go to her best friend.
“Are you sure?” Aida asked anxiously, taking Sue by the shoulders and peering into her now-lively lilac eyes. “You seemed so out of it for a while.”
“Yeah,” Sue winced, brushing Aida’s hair out of her face. “I was…tired. It’s been a long cycle. But you’re okay?” Sue examined Aida back, putting her own hands on Aida’s shoulders and turning her this way and that. “Woah, it seems like Loded Peaks was good to you! Your mana feels so much stronger than before.”
“It could have been worse,” Aida replied, relaxing slightly as Sue seemed to have returned to her usual cheery form. But the pit in her stomach hadn’t totally gone away; she couldn’t forget the stiff mask-like expression on Sue’s face. Perfect and beautiful still, but cold and…missing. “…what happened to you?”
“Oo, it was awful,” Sue moaned. “I mean, it was great at first, we were with Kuri just blasting through monsters in the deep Western Woods, but then…” Sue tapered off, gazing over Aida’s head. After a brief pause, Aida cleared her throat, which was enough to snap Sue out of her reverie. “Uh…we got separated,” Sue said lamely. “But at least I survived!” She spun in place with her arms spread, her confident cheeky smile back on her face.
Aida looked uncertainly at the other members of Class 1, and they all had pinched, cautious expressions on their faces. Levi finally stepped forward, reaching his hand out towards Aida as he gently pulled her away from Sue. “I’ll fill Aida in on what happened,” he told the rest of them, to Caleb and Lara’s evident relief. Ezra’s head was ducked, and Sue was looking off into the distance again.
“Let’s talk in your room,” Levi said quietly, ushering her up the stairs. “I think you’re going to want some privacy for this.”
Aida bit her lip, unable to stop her mind from racing at all the potential developments that caused Sue and Class 1 to act so oddly. Do they know I’m not Aida?
That one seemed unlikely; they didn’t look at her with suspicion, they just seemed distracted and worried, overall. Everyone else’s personalities seemed the same, for the most part - except for Sue. Something must have happened to her.
That was the only thing that made sense. But it’s not because she knows I’m not Aida, right?