Some time later, in the early evening…

Straf and Cycelia return to their room. They sit down on their beds, and Cycelia sets her adjusted shirt down. While Straf is looking around the room to take in just how badly she cluttered it with a single baggage, Cycelia gazes at him.

《Do I just change in front of him?… It wouldn't be that bad, right? I mean… I have my underwear on-》

She thinks, looking intently at his face.

《No no no! I can't! What am I even thinking!? I'm so shameless!…》

Cycelia covers her face with her hands.

《…But it's Straf that's making me feel like this.》

She peeks through her fingers, only to see him staring at her with his brows raised.

「Eh?」

「You alright, Lia?」

Straf asks, sounding somewhat concerned.

「Ah!- Yes! I'm just… Tired!」

Cycelia flaps her hands in front of herself, red faced.

「Yeah, I know that feeling…」

Straf sighs, and plops down on his bed with his arms behind his head.

「…Actually, the ride to here was pretty long, so it'd make sense if you were physically tired. Want to call it a day early, then?」

He shrugs, and glances at her.

「Well… I'm a little hungry. I haven't eaten since the time we've stopped.」

「Ah. Now that you mention it… Want to go get outraged at the cafeteria prices?」

Straf asks with a sardonic smirk.

「Yes- Well, no! I want to eat something!」

Cycelia exclaims as Straf jumps up from his bed with a grunt.

「Why not both? Let's go.」

Crrrreaak.

He says over his shoulder, and opens the door. Cycelia rushes to follow, leaving her uniform shirt on the bed.

Creaaaaak.

Straf shuts the door behind them, and Cycelia locks it with her key. They proceed towards the stairs.

「Straf… You need to not be mean to people.」

She meekly says while they walk through the empty hallway side by side.

「So I'm forced to be nice now?」

He asks with his brows raised in an incredulous expression.

「I'm not forcing you to be nice… I just want you to not be mean to people who don't deserve it. Leila is nice, don't call her… That.」

Cycelia searches for the appropriate wording, but gives up.

「Knife ears?」

「Straf!… Yes!」

She angrily crosses her arms, squeezing her breasts further in her blazer.

「Fiiiine. For your sake, I will keep the racial epithets to a minimum. But if someone gets in my way, I'm not going to bend over backwards to be nice for them.」

Straf yields and throws his hands up, before placing them back in his pockets.

「Good. You're better than that, Straf.」

Pleased, she nods her head with a smile and uncrosses her arms. A student arrives at their floor at the same time as Straf is about to enter the stairwell, and by chance, it is the same student as before.

「Outta my fuckin' way, nerd.」

Straf rams his shoulder into the student, sending him flying aside into the hallway.

Thud!

「Oof!」

They casually descend down the stairs, ignoring the reeling young man…

…

A little under half an hour later, at the cafeteria…

After buying food for Cycelia, Straf looks all around the cafeteria for free seats. Though previously somewhat empty, the room is now completely chock-full of students and noisy chatter.

「…There's nowhere to sit at?」

Cycelia asks with a disappointed voice, holding onto her wooden tray full of food.

「That's what overcrowding gets you… Ah, there's some space.」

Straf announces, staring through the dense crowd at empty seats on one of the benches. He rushes directly to them. Cycelia cautiously follows, making sure to not bump her tray into anything, or anyone. Just as Straf arrives at the empty seats, a student walks up and begins sitting down on it, already one leg over the bench.

「Seat's taken! Fuck off!」

Straf loudly announces, and yanks the student out of the seat by his blazer collar.

「Ugh!」

Thud-clank!

He tumbles over backwards, spilling the food all over himself, and the floor.

「Agh… You're going to pay for that!」

He shouts, pointing his finger at Straf as he sits down where the student was intending to. The nearby students look on with concern over their shoulders.

「Huuuuh? You really want to do it like this?」

Straf growls, glaring at the student on the floor.

「Straf, what happened?」

Cycelia arrives after navigating the dense labyrinth of students. She looks down at the young man picking himself up off the floor, covered in vegetables and some kind of liquid.

「This little shit tried to steal the seat from us.」

Straf nods his head at the angry young man.

「That's not true! I was here first, and he just threw me to the floor! The headmaster will hear of this!」

The student angrily exclaims, pointing his finger at Straf while he's grinning back at him.

「The headmaster will hear of this!」

Straf echoes the student's threat in a mocking tone, with a snide grin on his face.

「Well, that's not nice! We're trying to eat, too! You shouldn't steal someone's seat!」

Cycelia chides the student as she sets her tray down on the table next to Straf. The student grits his teeth, and stomps away in fury.

「The nerve of some people…」

She shakes her head as she sits down. The other students at their table look on with a mixture of troubled expressions, and glance at each other in silence before resuming their meals.

「I know, right?」

Straf says, quickly glancing at each student at the table. One of them chokes on his food, causing another to forcefully pat him on his back until he can breathe again.

「…How much did you pay for this in drakes, Straf? Om.」

Cycelia asks as she forks a piece of carrot into her mouth, starting her meal with the side of salad.

「It doesn't matter, Lia. I don't want you to go to sleep hungry.」

Straf nonchalantly replies, crossing his arms at the table.

《It literally doesn't matter. Infinite money trick is nice.》

He grins to himself, chuckling.

「…Are you sure you don't want to get anything to eat, Straf?」

She asks, looking at his face with her brows furrowed.

「Ah, no, I have hot dogs.」

「Hot dogs?… Nom.」

Cycelia tilts her head, and nibbles on the tip of her sausage.

「Yeah. Don't worry about me, Lia, focus on having a good time yourself.」

Straf shrugs his hands, smiling a little at her.

「Okay, but-」

「No buts, Lia. Let the good times roll, and let someone else pay for it.」

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

「Okay… Numnumumu…」

Shrugging her shoulders, Cycelia relents, and nibbles some more on her sausage…

…

A little over an hour later, Cycelia finishes her meal at a leisurely pace. The cafeteria is beginning to clear out of students, and they are returning the wooden trays back to the cooks, leaving massive stacks behind as they depart.

「Nnnnnnhmmm… That was pretty tasty.」

Cycelia stretches out, letting out a contented little groan and forcing her blazer's buttons to fight for their life.

「If you enjoyed it, it was well worth the taxpayers' money. Do you want to head back, then?」

Straf asks, nodding his head towards the exit.

「Yes… I've got hit with a sudden wave of drowsiness… Hnnaaaaaaaahh…」

Cycelia yawns, covering her mouth, then stands up. She reaches for the wooden tray on the table.

「Leave it. Let them earn their pay.」

Straf says as he grabs her hand.

「Huh? But-」

Cycelia looks over her shoulder at the large stacks of trays at the kitchen area.

「Leave it, Lia. Do you clean up for your maids, too?」

Straf asks, standing up and placing his hands back in his pockets.

「…No, but-」

「Come on.」

Straf walks off towards the exit, and Cycelia reluctantly follows, yawning. They leave the cafeteria, and follow the same route as always back to their room.

「The term hasn't even properly started yet, and I feel like a lot has happened already…」

Cycelia remarks, as they walk into the Cursefire Brazier hallway.

「Yeah, the world isn't waiting for you to move, Lia. There's stuff happening behind the scenes all the time, and so on, and so on…」

Straf shrugs, walking side by side with her through the dimly lit hall.

「…Isn't that kind of scary?」

She asks, looking at Straf. The purple light of the Cursefire briefly reflects off her emerald eyes, before they emerge out of the dark hall into the student-filled one.

「Why?」

「I mean… If you don't keep up, you'll be left behind. Or worse… I didn't pay attention to politics, and look how it turned out.」

Cycelia shrugs, fidgeting with her medallion as she looks down at her feet.

「Well, Lia, there's a saying… Even if you don't care about politics, politics care about you.」

Straf says, glancing at her with bored eyes and a tight-lipped grimace.

「…I wish I knew it before I was blindsided- …Forget it, I don't want to think about it.」

She shakes her head, dismissing the heavy thought.

「There is no better place for escapism than a magic school, Lia. Just focus on having fun.」

Straf shrugs, encouraging Cycelia while they navigate through the manageable crowd of students. Straf stops when he notices peculiar signs on two doors they were about to pass by.

「Straf?」

「Go on ahead, I want to check something. I'll be there in a moment.」

Straf waves Cycelia off, and opens one of the doors.

「Huh? Okay.」

She nods, and merges with the crowd, continuing towards the girls' dormitories. Meanwhile, Straf enters through the door.

He walks in, and the first thing he notices is the tiled flooring.

「No shit…」

He walks in further, and around the corner, there are stalls just like contemporary bathroom ones.

「No shit.」

Straf looks at the mirrors and the sinks beneath them. He approaches, inspecting them closer. There's no knobs, only bare pipes to supposedly lead water into the sink through them.

「…Did someone rip them off?- Wait…」

He notices a small, complex, circular, dark rune on the shiny metal pipe, right where the knob to control the flow with would be.

「…Is this?…」

Straf moves his fingers to touch it, and just before he does…

Spliiiishhhhhh!

The rune lights up in a blue glow, and water shoots out of the pipe beneath his hand in a steady stream. He moves his hand into it.

「Huh. It's even pleasantly warm.」

He rubs his wet fngers, furrowing his brows while the water flows freely.

Ssssspluusshhhhh!

A loud noise, exactly the same as a flushing toilet comes from one of the stalls behind Straf. A young student emerges and approaches the sinks beside Straf. He flicks his fingers over the rune on the pipe and quickly rinses his hands, before moving his hand over the rune again. While leaving, the student looks over his shoulder at Straf, visibly confused with his brows furrowed. Straf turns around, and approaches one of the stalls. He opens it, and looks inside.

「Huh. No shit. Does this work the way I think it does?」

He says, looking at the quite regular porcelain toilet and the dark rune on the wall above it. He moves closer, and reaches his hand for the rune.

Ssssspluuuuuushhhhhh!

Before his hand makes contact with it, it glow blue. Water materializes within the toilet in a powerful swirl, and flushes it.

「Heh. This place has a lot of first world countries beat on hygiene… 」

Straf steps out of the stall, placing his hands in his pockets. He chuckles and exits the bathroom, leaving the water running…

…

A few minutes later, in Cycelia and Straf's room…

Cycelia buttons up her newly fitted shirt, with her Academy blazer lying on the bed.

Crrrrr-creaaaaak…

「Straf. Good grief… You need to use the bathroom at the weirdest times…」

She says as Straf walks in and closes the door behind himself.

「Yeah, well, what can you do?… They have some really nice ones here.」

Straf shrugs, and jumps onto his bed with his back, resting his head on his arms.

「…Is your shirt fine now?」

He asks, looking at Cycelia finish buttoning up.

「Yes! It's perfect! I need to thank Leila later, she did a really great job!」

She pats her shirt down, tugging at it a little, and minutely adjusting it with a smile.

「Look! I can even tug the bottom into my skirt now!」

Cycelia says, and tucks the bottom edge away into her skirt's rim for a neat and clean schoolgirl look.

「You couldn't do that before?」

Straf asks, raising his furrowed brows.

「No! It was hanging off my… My you-know-what.」

She looks down at her breasts, now well wrapped by the shirt.

「…Boobs?」

With his mouth aslant, Straf nonchalantly asks.

「Straf!… Yes.」

Cycelia pouts, tapping her fingers together as she sits down and reluctantly replies.

「Well, I'm sure some other girls wish they had your problems, Lia…」

Straf shrugs with his hands, and Cycelia yawns again.

「Haahhh… I think I'm going to sleep, if you don't mind.」

She lowers her hand from her mouth. Cycelia then unlaces her boots, slipping them off, and covers herself with the blanket.

「Go ahead. I guess I'll find a way to keep myself occupied.」

「Mhm… Good night, Straf.」

「G'night, Lia. Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite-」

「Bedbugs!?」

She exclaims, and starts combing through her bed. She finds nothing, and looks at Straf.

「…Are they really here?」

Cycelia's confused, sleepy emerald eyes blink at Straf.

「I sure hope not.」

He throws his hands up, and they pat back down onto his toned stomach. Cycelia nods her chestnut head, and wiggles herself underneath her blanket…

…

A mere moment earlier, in the uniform storage…

Wilfrey and Leila are sitting at the desk, idly staring at the door.

「Ah… Achoo!」

Leila abruptly sneezes, then sniffles a few times.

「Uh-huh. The plague.」

Wilfrey jests with his brows raised and furrowed.

「Shut up. Something tickled my nose.」

She sniffles some more, and rubs her small nose with the back of her finger.

「I'm just joking, relax. What put you into such a sour mood? You were fine earlier today.」

「None of your business. Shut up.」

Leila barks back, and hides her face in her forearms on the desk. She lets out a large, tired sigh.

「…Okay? But maybe if you'd talk about it, it'd be a weight off your chest-」

「Shut up!」

She yells back, angrily hammering the desk with her fist while keeping her face sunken in her arms.

「Okay! I was just trying to help!…」

Wilfrey throws his hands up in surrender, then defensively crosses his arms. He aimlessly stares at the door, while Leila remains slumped over the desk…