The library is huge. I mean, I got a hint when I saw the double doors (huge, intricately carved oak), but it’s a truly impressive size.

I wander in, glancing around to take in the vast amount of books. As expected, there are guards in front of the stairs leading to the second level, all the way across the room from the door.

I meander around the library, checking the different sections of books, but Forest and Wisteria were right when they said that there was nothing that could help us on the first floor.

I sigh, and pick up a picture book from the tiny shelf dedicated to them. I wonder if there’s a baby royal somewhere?

There are plenty of tables and chairs, so I find one of the more comfortable chairs to curl up on and read.

Being honest, it’s the most disturbing picture book I’ve ever read. Not that disturbing is usually a word associated with picture books, but still.

It’s essentially teaching children to hate the demon race. Not, I suppose, that it’s that surprising, given why we were summoned here.

But still, reading it puts me off enough that I get up and shove it back in its place and leave the library.

No wonder the war has been going on for so long; their children are being fed hatred as bedtime stories.

I wonder if it’s the same on the demons side.

Ugh, what a useless reason to be summoned to another world.

I’m fuming, my face set in a frown and my walking pace way too agitated to even pretend I’m not angry.

And why the hell aren’t there legitimate books about demons anyways? If you only feed people bullshit propaganda, there’s no way they’ll be able to strategize in a war. Although I guess it’s natural that most people would get fed propaganda. After all, if the public hates and fears demons, it’s not that hard to convince them that war is the correct action.

I suppose the top acting people will have better information. There are probably proper books that they haven’t given us access to.

The second floor of the library seems more appealing by the second. The only problem is bypassing the guards.

I consider it, but no matter which way you look at it, those guys are ready to kill for their duty. Much harder to get past than most security guards.

I wonder if I can get the magician to teach me invisibility magic? Well, I probably won’t be able to use at my current level even if I did find a way to ask without seeming suspicious.

They’re doing a pretty good job of keeping us in a cage, gilded though it is.

I sigh, the last of my anger dribbling away. I don’t have the mental energy to be angry right now, and besides, there are more important things to think about.

Frankly, because of what Wisteria and Forest told me, I didn’t really have high hopes, but still, the absence of anything helpful is depressing.

I’ve already mapped the palace, or at least the parts I’ve been given access to, and the library was a bust, so I decide to go back to my room to mull some things over.

If I think about it, I haven’t properly sat down and thought this whole situation out yet.

I’m a bit distracted as I walk down the hall, immersed in my thoughts, so I don’t see Sanda until I nearly run into her.

I manage to move away in time, but it was close. I’m beginning to doubt whether I’m really more athletic than before.

After we exchange greetings, I look at her in thought. “Sanda, how do you feel about demons?” I ask, though I hadn’t meant to blurt it out.

Oh well.

Her face twists in fear and hate. Not to a great degree, but the word, or perhaps the context, certainly has an impact on her. “I hate them. They-”

“It’s okay, I got it.” I smile awkwardly. Like I thought, they’re completely thought of as the villains. I now thoroughly regret letting my mouth get ahead of me.

I mean, it’s possible that the people here have it right; I’ve never actually had any interactions with demons, so I wouldn’t know. I sincerely doubt it, however.

In any case, I’m going to have to make sure no one finds out about my real status. Well, Wisteria already did, but no one other than her.

My acting must be terrible if she picked it up that quickly though.

If my real status gets shown to anyone else, I’m screwed. Since they have such a hatred for demons, I hate to think of what they’ll feel about a corrupted human. Whatever the hell that is.

Actually, since the demons are a humanoid species, then there are probably others as well. I wonder what our relationship with the other races is like.

“Umm…” Sanda says, hesitantly, her face back to normal, and I realize that I’ve spaced out in the middle of our conversation.

“Sorry, I zoned out.”

“Zoned…out?” Sanda asks. I guess this is another untranslated colloquialism.

“Lost concentration.” I explain.

“Oh.” She says. I wait for her to speak, but she seems to be waiting for me to say something.

“You were going to say?” I prompt.

She looks confused. “Umm, I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Oh.” Now that I think about it, she’s acting way less afraid than she was when I first met her. I’m glad.

“Sanda, are there other humanoid species?” I ask. I assume that since she’s a denizen of this world, she has some basic knowledge of it.

Then my brain lights up like a firecracker. Who needs to visit a library to research common sense? I probably shouldn’t ask too much, or make it obvious, but just a bit should be fine.

I’m getting excited now. Why didn’t I think of this before?

“Umm, well, there are a lot of different humanoid species.” Sanda’s voice pulls me back from my thoughts. Again.

“A lot?” I ask, curious.

“There are many different species that are secluded, so I’m not really sure I can list them off of the top of my head…there is an encyclopaedia of the species,” then her eyes go wide and she covers her mouth, “Oh!” looking distressed.

“Well, if you could just tell me the major ones, that’s all I really need,” I say, pretending I didn’t understand what that was about.

Actually, I don’t really understand what it’s about. It looks like she’s not supposed to mention books to us, but it’s not like they’ll go away even if they don’t get mentioned, and we even have access to the first floor of the library. I mean, Wisteria, Forest, and I have already been looking in the library.

Although, now that I think about it, how many of our classmates have? Maybe not bringing it up is working.

“Right,” she says. “Umm, I think the major humanoid species would be elves, and dwarves. There are other species, like the Fae, but they don’t really interact with humans very much. Well, actually, dwarves and elves don’t really interact with humans much either, but once in a while there will be a merchant selling elven or dwarf made things, so…”

“So basically, the only humanoid species humans actually interact with are the demons, whom we’re at war with.” I say.

“Umm…yes,” Sanda says, her face twitching almost imperceptibly at the word demons.

To elicit such a reaction from someone who seems so…timid, the hatred for them really is well rooted.

I thank her and walk back to my room slowly.

I can’t say I was really expecting anything, but this is pretty sad, isn’t it…even though I’m in another world, none of the other humanoid species get near humans.

Well, honestly, I can’t really blame them.

Although I suppose it’s possible that all of the species are secluded from each other. I’ve got a feeling that’s not quite the case though.

I also have a feeling that my faith in the human race is being drained away slowly as I stay here.

Ah, well, I’ll be away soon.

I reach my room and unlock it. As soon as I get in, I push the door shut and unlace my boots, leaving them knocked over on the floor. I dump my key on the table beside the bed and flop down on my back, sprawling across the duvet.

I’m so tired. This palace atmosphere is poisonous. I like reading about conspiracies and plots by royalty, but I’ve never wished it on myself.

Though in the first place, my wishes haven’t exactly been taken into consideration throughout this whole situation anyways.

I sigh. I said I was going to think, but what is it that I’m supposed to be thinking about anyways? What can help us in this situation? I can’t imagine a plan that would allow us access to the library’s second floor, or a plan that would allow us to leave. When I approached the main doors to the palace, or the back doors, the guards visibly tensed.

Well, I say visibly, but I only really noticed because I was looking.

It looks like the only chance for escape is if they take us on an outing, or if we can find a way to leave through the kitchen doors. But even if we managed to leave the physical building, it’s hard to imagine getting past the gate, though I’d have to look around outside before being sure.

It’s the same with the library. I just can’t imagine the guards leaving their post, and the stairs are the only way to get there.

Unless I go through the window or something.

I spend a few minutes musing on this idea, turning it over, but no matter how I look at it, any situation wherein I would be able to get to the second floor is implausible.

“Ugh,” I groan, shifting over to lie on my side. I should go map the outside grounds of the palace, if I can. I definitely won’t be allowed out the gate, but perhaps the outer grounds aren’t too much to hope for. The guards probably won’t outright stop me, even if they don’t like it. It seems to me that they’re trying to create a sort of home like atmosphere, to increase our goodwill toward them, so I doubt they’ll overreact.

They’ll keep an eye on me though.

As I’m thinking this, my mental exhaustion creeps up on me, aided by the comfortable bed on which I’m lying. I yawn.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The next thing I know, I’m awakened to Wisteria shaking me.

“Uhh?” I groggily sit up. Awakened?

I swipe at my eyes with my hands, as they feel kind of crusty.

Opening my eyes, the first thing I notice is the lack of noon light that was definitely there before. Then I notice Wisteria, who has long since taken her hands off my shoulders, and Forest, who’s leaning on the wall by the open door, just in the room.

Blinking a couple of times, I frown in confusion. “Wha,” My throat rasps, and I cough a couple of times to clear my voice.

“What are you guys doing?” I ask. This…is my room, right? Why are Wisteria and Forest here?

I move slowly, sitting up further on my bed and sliding my legs further toward me, making myself more compact.

Wisteria frowns a bit, and Forest looks a bit nonplussed.

“We’re here to get you for dinner.” Wisteria says.

“Dinner?” My frown deepens, mirroring my confusion.

“It’s dinnertime. We thought you might be in here, but you didn’t answer when we knocked.” She says.

Dinner? Awakened? I rub the back of my wrist over my eyebrow.

Awakened…dinner….

Wasn’t I going to go for lunch?

It takes a few more moments for my brain to wake up and the gears to click in place.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Fuck. I fell asleep.

Wisteria and Forest are watching me as I sit on the bed, waking up from my daze of confusion.

Wisteria looks a tiny bit worried, and the crease between Forest’s eyebrows is noticeable.

I rub my face with my hands. “Shit!” I pick up a pillow from behind me and whip it at the wall. So much for checking out the outside of the palace. And the magician said this was the last break day I was going to get for a while.

Then I get up from the bed. I’m not moving slowly anymore, but I’m not moving quickly either.

Wisteria and Forest look at each other, their frowns deepening. Probably because I threw the pillow.

I lace up my boots in silence, standing up and moving to the door.

“Amaranthe…” Wisteria says, and I look back at her. “Go look in the bathroom.”

I pause for a second, remembering the crusty feeling around my eyes.

I trudge to the bathroom, the mage light coming to life with a gentle glow after I grope around for the panel in the dark. It’s just like electricity, really.

Looking in the mirror, my eyes are indeed red and puffy, tear tracks all across my face.

I don’t remember crying, but then, I didn’t remember that I had been asleep right after I woke up. The tears are dry, so I probably cried a while ago while I was asleep.

“Fuck.”

I grab a facecloth and soak it in cold water, pressing it to my eyes, washing away the tear tracks and attempting to reduce the redness and swelling. I stay with my face buried in the cloth for a few more minutes, and then I toss it in the sink and go back to join Wisteria and Forest.

We’re silent as we walk. Given that I walked straight past them out the door, saying nothing, it’s not surprising that they’re holding their words. In the first place, neither of them are chatty people.

It was Wisteria who picked up my key and locked my door after Forest shut it. She put the key in her pocket, probably sensing that now was not the time to give it to me.

Thankfully, the class is already immersed in the meal, so no one really looks up as we come in and sit at the end of the table, serving ourselves and eating in silence. I barely taste the meal, chicken and rice and vegetables. It’s probably good, but I’m just eating mechanically, going on the faint idea that my body needs food.

While everyone around us is chattering, we are sitting in graveyard silence. Until Forest’s admirer, whose name I can’t remember, walks over. As soon as she gets close to his chair, he growls, “Fuck off.”

I’m vaguely surprised, the emotion cutting, just a bit, through the fog of my bad mood. She’s shocked, but she leaves quickly. Wisteria looks at him passively.

It seems my mood rubbed off on him.

“…I take it your date didn’t go well then.”

He glares at me but lets me off, snapping, “What date?”

“This morning,” I say, as the worst of my temper leaves me. Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it.

“You could have helped me there.” He complains.

I snort. “As if.” We sit in silence for a few more minutes, though this silence is more natural.

“So,” Wisteria says, “what was that about?”

It seems that even if Forest is giving me a reprieve, Wisteria has no intention of doing so.

I sigh. “It seems I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” Even I’m not too clear about why my emotions were out of whack.

“Not that.” She says.

I frown in confusion.

“You were…disorientated. When you woke up.” Both of them are watching me with little frowns, the worry subtle but there.

I fake wipe tears from my eyes. “To think you cared so much!” I say, acting choked up.

“Amaranthe.” Wisteria says as Forest’s frown suddenly gets much bigger, less worried and more annoyed.

“Yeah, I know.” I sigh. “It happens sometimes, I think. I’m not really sure about it, but I think it’s happened before.”

Both of their faces are pretty funny right now. Not shocked, but more like, ‘huh?’.

“It happens a lot?” Wisteria asks.

“Most people get a bit disorientated if they fall asleep in the middle of the day.” I point out. “Anyways, what happened is probably pretty normal, so don’t worry about it.”

“…And the tears?” She asks.

I frown, a bit of my irritation coming back. “Hell if I know.”

She nods, apparently satisfied with her interrogation.

We sit in silence again, but this time it’s more relaxed, the heavy shroud of my bad mood gone.

I’m reflecting on my behaviour. I won’t apologize for it; I’m not really sorry. But in the first place, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. I also shouldn’t have let Wisteria and Forest see me like that.

Actually… “Why were you guys in my room?”

“We came in when you didn’t answer, remember?” Wisteria says, tilting her head.

“Yes, so why did you come in?” I say

“To wake you up.”

“Stop playing around.” I frown.

She shrugs. “Well, it was open.”

Forest at least has the grace to look a bit guilty.

I stare at her. “I know you said that I was different than you first thought, but I feel like you’re the more surprising one.”

She smiles slightly. “What did you think I was like?”

“Gentle.” I say, a bit embarrassed by how off the mark I was.

She smiles a bit more. “I did it because I was worried though.”

“That may be true, but most people would hesitate a little bit.”

She shrugs her right shoulder, just barely moving it, and says, “If I’m going to do it anyways, I might as well do it.”

…She’s not wrong, exactly, but…well, I’ll just let it be.

I sigh and lean back on the chair. “By the way,” I say, “Did the princess announce anything at last nights dinner?”

“No, nothing of importance.” Wisteria says.

“Hmmm…I’m gonna go have a bath.” I say, my chair scraping slightly as I stand up.

“I’ll come as well.” Wisteria announces, standing with much more grace than I did.

I look at her in confusion, then suddenly remember our earlier conversation about my status. Damn, but she’s clever. I was the one who brought up the bath, and this way, it seems natural that we’re talking without Forest.

Forest looks at us, a bit surprised and a tiny bit irritated. Then he gets up, not even bothering to slide the chair back, just letting it clatter and scrape out of his way. “I guess I’ll go have a bath too.”

Maybe, rather than irritated, it’s frustrated? It’s true that he’s on his own when we go off together.

We leave the dining hall, making our way back to our rooms to grab clothing. Since I fell asleep earlier, I have that gross feeling you get when you sleep in your clothes, and I’m really looking forward to washing.

“I wonder if there are bathrobes in the closet…” I idly muse, not able to recall if there was one in amongst the closet full of clothes I pawed through earlier.

“Bathrobes?” Forest asks.

“Well, wearing dirty clothes right after you get out of a bath is gross, I don’t want to wear my pyjamas outside my room, and wearing a full set of clean clothes just to get from the bath to my room is a pain.”

Forest doesn’t reply.

Thankfully, when we get to our room, we discover that along with sandals, there are bathrobes in the closet. They’re silk though. What’s more, they’re thick, high-grade, embroidered silk. Seriously, I feel like apologizing to all the taxpayers in this kingdom.

We walk to the baths in a comfortable silence and split up to go into the respective baths.

Wisteria and I strip in the change room, grab various bath supplies and have showers. It’s only when we’re settled into the bath part that Wisteria brings up the status.

“What, you couldn’t have let me sit for a few more minutes?” I say in mock irritation.

“I’m not a patient person.” Wisteria says, smiling.

That’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one.

I bring up my status screen and switch it back to its natural display. Since I’m going this far anyways, I decide to show Wisteria my sub skills as well.

“…” Wisteria is silent a good few minutes after I show her, sitting with her head tilted, obviously working it out in her mind.

“I take it that you having multiple sub skills is a result of the corruption?” She finally breaks the silence.

“Yeah.” I nod.

“Why files though?”

I shrug, and we sit in silence for a few more minutes. Finally, I summarize what I’ve experienced so far with regards to my status. When they say silence is the best way to get someone to talk, they’re not kidding.

Wisteria frowns a bit after hearing my account. “It doesn’t seem very safe.”

“Well, I don’t really have much of a choice.” I respond wryly.

“That's true. By the way, none of what you told us about meditation or magic was what I learned today.”

“Oh yeah…apparently it has to do with my skill or something, so I’m not going the normal route.” I say, recalling what the magician told me.

“Enhanced Processing?”

“Yeah. You were taught skills, right?”

“Yes, though I’ll refrain from demonstrating.”

“That’s probably wise, considering where we are.”

We stay in the bath long after our fingers and toes have become wrinkled, discussing various things.

“Now that I think about it, are we going to be okay getting stuff like tampons and pads?” I ask. It hadn’t occurred to me before now.

“They have those, though obviously the technology is lacking compared to Earth,” Wisteria says, glancing at me, “Did you not get some? There was a box in my closet.”

“Ah. I probably have it.” Most likely, it slipped my notice. I was pretty busy gawking at the extravagant display of misplaced wealth in the closet.

“When I think about it, there are a lot of inconveniences, huh.” I say, still missing my music.

Wisteria makes a sound of agreement.

“Did I miss anything from lunch or after it?” I ask.

“No, we would have told you if you did.”

“I figured I’d ask anyways.”

“Are you going to show Forest your status?” Wisteria asks, tilting her head.

“Eventually, I suppose. I wasn’t exactly planning to show you in the first place.”

“That’s true.” She acknowledges, “I wouldn’t show anyone in your situation either, but Forest should be fine.”

“Well, if it comes up, I’ll explain it to him.” I yawn. Apparently my sleeping away the whole day hasn’t screwed up my internal clock.

I stand up, getting out of the bath and grabbing a towel. After I thoroughly dry myself and slip into the bathrobe, which is admittedly very comfortable, Wisteria comes out of the bath, and we head out to meet Forest.

He’s once again standing a little bit away from the door, but this time he’s standing with a few other people, talking.

Though as we hear more of the conversation, it seems like he’s trying to extricate himself from it.

It’s Forest’s admirer and her friends. Sometimes you really have to marvel at coincidences.

I suppose having the baths to ourselves these few times were already unlikely, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to talk by ourselves like that again.

We walk up to the conversation, and Forest excuses himself to go back with us.

“By the way,” I say once we’re far enough away from the baths, “didn’t you tell her to fuck off earlier?”

“Yeah.”

“But she still went to talk to you?” I ask, confused. “Did you apologize?”

“Why would I apologize?”

I’m not really sure what to say to that, but since I took my bad mood out on them earlier and didn’t apologize, I don’t have much room to talk. Well, I wasn’t as overtly hostile to them as Forest was to her, though.

“It was that guy who started talking to me.”

“That guy?”

“The blonde one.”

“Uh-huh…” I have no real recollection of the people who were talking to him, so my response is a bit lackluster, to say the least.

“Did you two have your talk?” he asks, turning to look at us. I didn’t think he was that sharp…I was pretty sure the whole thing was orchestrated naturally too. Well, it wasn’t exactly orchestrated in the first place, which means he’s really sharp, or he’s taking a shot in the dark.

“I didn’t realize you had such an interest in tampons, Forest.” Wisteria says calmly.

She’s pretty good at bluffing, huh. And she changed the subject naturally, too.

I kind of feel like I’ve unwittingly surrounded myself with amazing people.

We automatically head for Wisteria’s room, which seems to have become our de facto base.

I only remember the dirty clothes when we’re actually in her room. “Oh yeah, what do we do with our dirty clothes?”

“Laundry chute.” Wisteria says, walking to the corner of the room where it’s located.

“Huh.” Forest and I follow her, dumping our clothes down the chute. I stare down after them, though all I can see is blackness. “I’m a bit scared of getting used to such luxuries.”

“Don’t.” Forest says.

“I don’t intend to.” I say back.

We all sit on the floor in a circle, still wearing our bathrobes, meaning we sit in a more restrained way than usual. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure that walking around the palace in bathrobes is any better than walking around in pyjamas.

“So, what did you do today? You missed lunch, and almost missed dinner.” Wisteria turns her gaze towards me.

“Oh, yeah. The magician said that since we had a lesson yesterday, I might as well take today off, since it’s the last break I’m likely to get anytime soon. I checked out the library, which was useless. I also asked Sanda a few things, but mostly I just slept.” I say, disgruntled as I remember my wasted afternoon.

“Sanda? The maid?” Wisteria asks.

“Yeah, she said that for the most part, the only interaction humans have with the other humanoid species are warring with the demons, and occasionally buying elven or dwarven wares from merchants.”

“So there are other species.”

“Yeah, apparently there are quite a lot, actually.”

“Did you do anything else?” Forest asks.

I yawn. “I mapped the inside of the palace, but I couldn’t get outside. Or more like, I fell asleep before I could try.”

“You mapped the palace?” Forest asks, a slight hint of incredulity in his tone.

“Just the inside, and I wasn’t allowed into a lot of it.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

We’re silent for a moment, and I think that maybe the progress I made today isn’t so bad after all. Too bad the library was a bust.

Then I sit straight up. Though since I was already sitting straight to begin with, it’s more like a stiffening of the spine. “Picture books!”

“What?” Forest asks.

“The library has picture books! Since they’re often used to teach children, maybe we can find some of this world’s common sense in them!” I say, excited now.

Forest isn’t so enthused. “…That seems like it would take a long time.”

“That’s true.” Wisteria says.

“But it’s not like we have other options.” I argue.

Wisteria tilts her head. “Could we ask Sanda?”

“We could,” I say doubtfully, “but she freaked out when she accidentally mentioned the library to me, so I think it’s better not to.”

“I see.” Wisteria says, “I suppose we could look tomorrow after dinner.”

Forest and I nod.

“By the way,” I turn to Forest, “Wisteria learned skills, but what did you learn?”

“The proper stance and footwork.”

“So no skills?”

“No, the teacher told me that it’s better to start with the basics.”

“Well, that makes sense.” I say, musing on the differences between the magic and weapons training. Or rather, we’re all being taught way differently, even though Wisteria and I are both learning magic. I now fully understand why the magician taught only me yesterday.

Also, is it just me, or is Forest talking a lot more than he was originally? Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter anyways, but still. Maybe he’s opening up or something?

“By the way, what type of sword style are you learning?” I ask, somewhat interested.

“A Japanese sword style. The sword is a katana, but I don’t know the name of the actual style.”

Huh. “So that was your sub skill?”

“Yeah, katana mastery.” He turns to Wisteria. “You were learning Earth magic, right?”

She nods. They start in on a conversation about the skills, and I listen and watch, as I’ve already asked all the questions I wanted of Wisteria in the baths.

Actually, I feel like most of the conversations we’ve had so far involve two of us talking while one of us listens. It’s kind of a weird group dynamic.

I yawn, raising my hand belatedly to cover my mouth.

Wisteria and Forest look at each other, then stand up.

“Hmmm?” I ask, confused.

“You look like you’re tired, so we can talk tomorrow.” Wisteria says.

“We don’t have to stop, and it’s not like you can’t continue talking if I leave.”

“It’s late anyways.” Forest says.

I’m not entirely convinced. In the first place, it seems like I’m always the one who starts yawning. But it’s not bad for me anyways, so I just accept it.

Forest and I walk to the door, Forest opening it and Wisteria shutting it behind us. I wave my hand a bit, attempt to stifle another yawn, and trudge to my room.

Once I’ve changed into my nightgown and brushed my teeth, I’m fighting to stay awake. This time, however, I close the blinds, resolving to sleep an extra hour.

I crash into the bed, asleep less than five minutes after I lay down.

……………………………………………………………………………………………...

Since I closed the blinds, I wake up to one of the maids who are going around knocking on doors.

I slither crash out of the bed, yelling “Thanks” in the general direction of the door.

I have a lot less time to get ready this morning, but a quick shower is easy, and I already found the part of the closet that houses the more exercise-y clothes. The only thing left is to brush and re-braid my hair, which I do with quickly.

As such, I actually get to the dining room at the same time as everyone else.

I grab the mini-pie Wisteria had yesterday, a mug of the all-important coffee, and slide into place beside Forest, who’s sitting on the end this morning.

I eat slowly, casually observing my surroundings. It looks like the princess is making a point to eat with everyone, since she’s with a different group today.

“You know, since we don’t have television anymore, conversation topics are going to be scarce.” I say without thinking.

Wisteria and Forest look like they’re not sure how to respond, but eventually Wisteria makes the leap. “…Did you watch a lot of television?”

“No, not really.”

“So why did you bring it up?” She asks, tilting her head.

“I was trying to remember what I usually talked about.”

“And?”

I shrug. “I can’t remember anything specific to myself. You guys are the same, right? But I feel like a lot of it was about books and music that we don’t have here, so I was wondering what to talk about instead.”

“It’s true we haven’t talked about much.” Wisteria nods.

“I mean, this doesn’t feel as forced as amnesia, but that’s what it is in the end. I suppose that since our memories only date a few days back, it’s not that weird we don’t have much to talk about.” I take a casual sip of my coffee, thinking about what to do after we leave the palace. It would be kind of sad if we spent all our time working. People need to relax, after all.

Although I should really be thinking about how to get out of here. I’m already planning how to spend the prize money before I even enter my submission into the contest.

But I really can’t think of a way to get out of here. Ah, I’m so frustrated. I sigh and take a sip of my coffee, glancing at Wisteria and Forest. Who are both staring at me. “What?”

“You seem to space out a lot.” Wisteria says, a slight smile on her face.

“Oh, yeah…” I can’t really deny that. “Well anyways,” I say, changing the topic, “what are you guys learning today?”

“The same thing as yesterday…?” Forest says.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” I deflate a bit inside. The topic has changed, but the transition wasn’t smooth at all.

“Are you doing something different?” Wisteria asks, picking up my slack.

“The magician told me that I’d be learning combat today. Something about practical experience?” I say, wondering what exactly he meant by combat. Hand to hand? Swords? Blasting targets with air blades?

“I see.” She responds. “Where are you meeting your teacher?”

“He didn’t say.” I’m not too concerned about this, since he seems to pop up by himself anyways.

“Your teacher seems…interesting.” Forest says, raising his eyebrow.

“Yes, lucky me.” I roll my eyes back at him. I’m mostly sarcastic, but I do think I’m kind of lucky, since he seems to be teaching me properly at least.

We part ways after breakfast, Forest and Wisteria going to their teachers’ specified meeting spots.

I wander over to the plain courtyard where we were yesterday, taking my time, but there are other people in it, so I turn around and wander a bit more.

For someone who said I wouldn’t have many breaks, he’s pretty lax with the scheduling thing.

“Are you done playing around?”

“I resent the implications of that. You’re the one who failed to specify a meeting place.” I say. Once again, he randomly showed up, though this time in front of me. Maybe because of my comment last time about how he always appears from behind?

He raises an eyebrow, turning and walking away. “Let’s go.”

This guy really irritates me.

We end up in some sort of underground training room that I did not find in my search of the palace. Mostly, I assume, because we accessed it through a secret passage in one of the palace rooms.

I can’t believe I overlooked the potential of secret passages. Well, snooping around to that extent would be cause for suspicions though. Still, there may be hope yet for the second floor of the library.

I look around with interest. It looks kind of like a really big dojo crossed with an armoury.

“So are you teaching me magic, or …are those throwing stars?” I get side tracked by the shiny ninja weapons.

“Yes.”

“This doesn’t seem like a place for practising magic.” I say, still studying the various weapons.

“I told you yesterday, today is combat training.”

“I’m a mage though,” I point out, “should I really be spending time learning close combat?” Not that I don’t want to, but I’d like to know his motivations for such a weird teaching style.

“Do you want to die?” Aannndd the eyebrow goes up.

“Obviously not. On the other hand, no one else seems to be learning opposite to their skill, and I’m pretty sure they don’t want to die.” This is purely an assumption, as Wisteria and Forest are the only people I talk to.

Wow, that sounded sad.

He sighs. “You’re different because of your skill.”

Well, pushing too hard wouldn’t be good, so I’ll content myself with that shitty explanation for now.

“Fifty laps.”

“Around this…place?”

“Yes.”

I shrug and start running. You would think that our overwhelming cheats would negate the need for conditioning though…

“Oh yeah. How are we able to act so normally after our strength increased so much?” I ask, remembering a question I had earlier.

“I don’t know, but I would guess that since it is strength you suddenly acquired from an external source, you can only use it when you consciously exert strength. You’ll need to learn how to use it naturally and control it on it’s own, assimilate it into your natural strength.” He says, standing in the middle of the room, watching me run laps.

It’s very boring. I’m on my fifth lap, and the magician is still standing in the centre, fiddling with a throwing knife.

Seeing a person casually twirling a knife around their fingers is actually pretty disturbing.

I sigh with boredom, and suddenly I feel an overwhelming pressure crushing me, as if the air just got way denser. “What?” I gasp, squeezing air into my lungs with difficulty.

The magician looks at me. “Fifty laps.”

“What is this?”

“A type of air magic.”

I know I was complaining about it being boring earlier, but this is not what I wanted.

Though as I continue running, I feel a grudging respect for him. The pressure is barely brushing my limits; that is to say, it’s calculated perfectly for my improvement.

It’s grudging though.

When the fifty laps are done, I collapse onto the floor, lying down and panting. Then I get up and walk, because it helps, even though wading through this pressure is uncomfortable.

“Good. Now push-ups.”

“How many?” I ask, feeling a faint premonition of something bad about to happen.

“Until I say stop.”

I lose count somewhere after three hundred, and it’s not until my arms buckle under my own weight and the pressure that he says stop.

Next are crunches, then squats, and so on.

Only after all of the muscles in my body have been thoroughly liquefied is he satisfied. Or rather, I didn’t know that there were that many different ways to build that many muscles.

“Isn’t…indiscriminately…building muscle…bad?” I ask between breaths.

The magician shakes his head. “Normally it would be, but theoretically, your increase in strength is uniform across your whole body. Think of it like compressing your muscles instead of building them.”

“Does…that…even count…as human…anymore?” I ask. To my knowledge, that is not how building muscle works.

“Don’t worry about the details.” He dismisses it.

“That’s…kind of…an important…detail.”

“You’re still human.” He says.

It’s the future I’m worried about though. Well, I guess it doesn’t matter that much in this case anyways.  

“Now’s time for stretching.”

The ominous feeling is back.

He demonstrates various stretches with a degree of flexibility that surprises me, if not amazes me.

“Now you.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………....

…Suffice to say, it was hell.

I don’t think it’s possible for my body to hurt more right now. What makes it worse is that I know what it will be like in the morning.

“We’ll do this again tomorrow. Do you remember the way down?” The magician asks, not an ounce of compassion in his eyes.

I nod.

“Tomorrow you’ll also start learning actual combat. This took more time than I thought. Get here an hour earlier.”

I nod again, resigning myself to the loss of sleep.

Seriously, can I just switch teachers?