Narissa passed Shishen and sat near Mirai. She had a very serious face but that didn’t hide how tired she looked. It looked like she didn’t sleep for a week.

“Good morning, young lady. Your face tells me you have something important to tell me.” The principal said.

“Yes. First, here is a report of all our activities that I managed to compile.” Narissa said as she summoned a pile of papers from a magic ring.

“I will be taking those.” Mirai said as she took the stack of papers.

“You two probably wanted to hear that report but I can’t talk about what happened. I simply can’t.” Narissa said. Clearly forcing herself to be serious so she didn’t wallow in her own feelings.

“I know that this isn't all.” The principal said.

“Yes. It was my fault! On the battlefield I took command and any failures that happened should fall on me! Please don’t punish anyone else!” Narissa said, clearly afraid of something. She closed her eyes and just sat there for a minute, waiting for something.

“Like I said to everyone before you. It was a shame that what happened, happened but no one can do anything about the choices any of you made. It was an extreme situation that no amount of training could prepare you to deal with it.” The principal said after a minute.

“But the academy's rules, the military’s rules and the kingdom’s laws all say that we should be punished!” Narissa said more confused than anything else.

“...Miss Narissa. Sometimes, rules are not meant to be followed. If you are looking for punishment, do it in your free times, after lessons, in a way that won’t affect you later. Too many people are depending on you here.” The principal said, very seriously.

“I sacrificed a 10 year old girl! I need to be punished!” Narissa shouted emotionally.

“Narissa, why are you looking for some sort of punishment so much?” Mirai asked.

“Because I need my world to make sense again! Every time I close my eyes I either see those monsters playing with me in their twisted game or I see Mia broken and bloody protecting me. I try to think about something else, about how I could have done things differently but I always default to following the rules that were cramped into my head due to fear.” Narissa said angrily.

“Narissa, you…” Mirai tried to say something but was interrupted.

“I tried to talk with Mia’s family but I always flee before I reach them. There is always some law or rule that pops in my mind that ‘saves’ me and only when I return home it dawns on me what I did and the circle starts again. I always believed that if you did something wrong you should be punished for it. I don’t think I can live with myself due to what I did to Mia, especially because it was Mia!”

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“...Alright. Do you want to be punished? Then your first punishment is knowing that Mia will easily forgive you.” The principal said, seriously. Narissa looked very hurt hearing what he said.

“Principal, I don’t think…” Mirai once again tried to say something but was interrupted.

“Your second punishment is knowing that Mia thinks of you like you are her older sister. And she loves her family very much. She only stops talking about what she likes, when she is talking about something else she likes.”

“I…” Narissa tried to say something but was interrupted too.

“Your third punishment is a heavy one. It is knowing that what you are feeling right now will never go away. It might hurt less, you might even become numb to it, but it will never go away. And if you never do anything about it yourself, Mia will truly hate you.”

“Maximillian!” Mirai shouted as Narissa suddenly began to cry very heavily.

“This still is not the end. There are many things you still need to do, young miss. You need to rest and become presentable. You need to round up your colleagues to welcome Mia back. You need to do the same so all of you can explain your side of the story to her family. You need to live and become a better person so all her suffering wasn’t in vain!” The principal said in a commanding tone.

Narissa began to cry harder, holding her chest, almost as if trying to hold her heart. “Why? Even after everything we did, why did she sacrifice herself so much for us?”

“Because she loves you and love makes you do stupid things. I know I did.”

“I also love her but my fear won!”

“You see, that’s the part most people don’t understand. Not everyone feels fear like you. Mia probably didn’t say anything about her, even to you, but she didn’t have a perfect life by no means. This is just another tragedy she found herself in. I can say with certainty what Mia fears most is losing those she loves.”

“What do you mean? What happened to her?” Narissa asked with a mixture of fear and confusion.

“That is not for me to say. If you truly want to know, ask her family. They are the only people who can truly tell who Mia is as I don’t think even herself can tell you. All your colleagues, even if superficially, want to know how she does what she does so I suggest you all go at the same time if you go.”

“... Do you think I can prevent a situation from reaching this point again?” Narissa asked, a little more calm. Her words were somewhat lost as what she wanted to say and what came out weren’t exactly the same.

“That depends entirely on you. If you want to walk besides her, you better start running while she rests.” The principal said, understand the meaning of what she asked.

“I…I will do my best!” Narissa affirmed passionately. Soon left the room and left with Shishen.

“You are a terrible man, you know?” Mirai said to the principal.

“Why exactly?”

“You didn’t need to say all those things to her! Didn’t you see how bad she was already? You got lucky this time.”

“Excuse me but she was lucky she was a girl or I would have slapped her. Mirai, you need to learn more about people. I don’t like people and I know more than you.”

“I know enough about people.” She puffed.

“How a body is from the inside doesn’t really count. But that doesn’t matter now. After all of this is over we really need to change our curriculum somewhat. We trained them a little too well. In a panic they completely forget about themselves and just follow what they learned blindly.”

“I can’t say that this is all bad.”

“For them in specific it is. They are the best students we have in a while! They need to be able to do better than just following the rules! Now, you check that report as I have to talk with some old friends of mine.”

“Alright sir. Alright…”