An hour later, in the late morning, in Cycelia's room…

Crrreaak…

Straf enters, and right away walks to sit down on his bed.

「…Lia?」

He calls out, noticing Cycelia is seemingly not in the room. When he sits down, his suspicion is confirmed. Cycelia is out somewhere. A few minutes pass, and the door abruptly opens.

「Whew…」

She lets out a little fatigued sigh as she enters.

Crrreaaaaak…

「Ah. Straf, were you waiting for me?」

Cycelia notes Straf staring at her, and sits down on her bed as well.

「Yeah, but I just got back here. How come you left before me, but came back only just now?」

He asks, lying on his side with his head propped up on his hand.

「Ahh… Remember those two girls from the exam, Straf?」

「Nope.」

Straf bluntly replies with a shrug of his shoulders.

「Ah, well… It's Tisha and Neela. They invited me to the cafeteria to talk for a little while, and we lost track of time…」

Cycelia explains, gesturing with her dainty hands…

…

Earlier, after Aria's dueling classes…

As soon as Cycelia exits the classroom, two young girls roughly about her age draw near, and stare intently at her face. Cycelia quickly glances at both with an awkward grin on her face.

「Hey, you're that girl who made that huge ice mountain, right?」

The blue-eyed blonde asks, with a lock of braided hair at her bangs, diagonal above her brow.

「H- Huh? Yes, I am…」

Cycelia nods, and momentarily turns her head to the brown-haired girl by her other shoulder.

「Huuuuuuuh… I see. Are you some sort of a princess, or something? Why do you have a bodyguard with you here?」

The brown-haired girl asks Cycelia, looking at her pretty face with her brows inquisitively raised.

「Huh? You mean Straf?… I, um, er…」

Her emerald eyes jump between the two girls in panic as she quickly thinks of an excuse.

「I'm Tisha. This is Neela. You're Lia, right?」

The blonde-haired girl introduces herself and her friend with a pointed finger, then asks, tilting her head a little. Cycelia quickly nods back to escape the previous question.

「Yes… Yes. I am.」

She quickly replies, gauging for their reactions.

「Do you want to talk at the cafeteria for a little bit? We've been curious about you two since the exam.」

Neela asks as she leans forward a little, joining her hands behind her back.

「Huh? But I said I'll be back in my room…」

A little troubled, Cycelia lightly bites her lip.

「Oh, come ooooon. Are you two dating, or something? Are you inseparable?」

Tisha asks with a sardonic smirk, rolling her ice-blue eyes.

「Huh!? No, we're not!- I mean, I don't know if he-! I mean, I just-!」

Cycelia stumbles over her words as she struggles to form a coherent reply.

「It's just for a little bit, though! We just want to know a little more about you, and you can ask us stuff too! Right, Tisha?」

「Right!」

Neela bargains, glancing at Tisha from across Cycelia. They look at each other, then turn their eyes to Cycelia's flushed face.

「I… Um… Okay, for just a little bit…」

She shrugs, tapping her fingers together as she relents. Neela pumps her fist in satisfaction.

「Great! Let's go, then!」

Neela says, and grabs onto Cycelia's arm with a smug smile, pulling her towards the cafeteria…

…

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the trio arrives at the mostly empty cafeteria and they take a seat. The two girls immediately lean in towards Cycelia with huge grins on their faces.

「So, are you some kind of a princess?…」

Tisha repeats her previous question, grinning at her.

「…I am. I'm a daughter of a powerful jarl, and he's going to need his daughter to help him run the magic side of things one day.」

She proudly adds as she crosses her arms, with a smug self-satisfied smirk on her face.

「Jarl?…」

Cycelia tilts her head at the blonde girl, and Tisha reopens her eyes with her brows lightly elevated.

「Uh-huh. You southerners call them kings, I guess. I have a brother, but I'm the eldest, so that makes me the crown princess.」

Tisha nods her head, and shrugs her shoulders after explaining the succession rules.

「Southerners?… Wait, are you from the north?」

Cycelia momentarily furrows her brows at the blonde girl, before her emerald eyes widen in realization. Tisha smugly smiles in reply.

「Uh-huh. Bet you thought all northerners are stupid, huh? Surprise. I am going to be the most powerful mage of the north, and one day my dad is going to become a grand jarl and unite the northlands.」

With her arms still proudly crossed, she scoffs, and smugly grins at Cycelia.

「I'm not a princess like Tisha, but my father is an archduke, and holds a significant portion of our kingdom. It's almost the same thing.」

Neela explains, and Cycelia's emerald eyes snap to her instead.

「Nuh-uh, no it's not. Stop saying that, Neela.」

Tisha mockingly huffs out air, slowly shaking her head.

「Yes, it is! We're basically the same, the title is just a formality!」

「No it's not.」

「Yes it is!」

「No, it's not!」

Cycelia lets out a little troubled chuckle while they argue like children, silently allowing it to continue for a little while longer.

「…Everyone seems to know you two. Are you famous, or something? Did you attend the Academy before?」

She asks, and the argument abruptly grinds to a halt. Both Tisha and Neela glance aside with troubled expressions, while Cycelia blinks her emerald eyes at them both in confusion.

「We…」

「…Kinda…」

They say, slowly completing their sentence.

「…Kinda flunked the year…」「…Flunked the year…」

Tisha and Neela say at the same time, and their shoulders slump. All of the three girls let out a slight, quiet, discomforted groan.

「…What about you, Lia? Are you a princess? Is that why you have that handsome bodyguard with you?」

Tisha asks, propping her head up on her hands, while Neela silently leans in and awaits her answer.

「Um, I… I'm… 」

Cycelia mumbles, fiddling with her medallion. Neela leans in even closer, while Tisha tilts her head. She glances at them both, and looks down at the table.

「…Yes, I suppose you could say that I am.」

She nods, and shrugs her shoulders. Both of the girls grin.

「Which kingdom?」「Which kingdom?」

They ask in unison, and Cycelia fiddles with her medallion in silence for a few seconds.

「…Um, I'm not really allowed to say. It's a secret. Straf would be mad.」

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「Awwwwww…」「Aww, that makes sense, I guess…」

They both let out a disappointed sigh, and shrug their shoulders, simply accepting Cycelia's claim at face value.

「…It's not some tiny principality that no one has ever heard of, right?」

Tisha asks with he mouth aslant as she looks into Cycelia's emerald eyes.

「No! It's a really powerful kingdom! I'm certain you've heard of it! Absolutely certain!」

Cycelia clenches her fists as she insists, intensely staring back into her ice-blue eyes.

「Okay, if you say so…」

Tisha shrugs, grimacing a little.

「Say, what's the story with your bodyguard? Why is he so strong? I don't care that he cheated, he beat Aria at her own game.」

Neela asks, and Cycelia's gaze shifts to her while Tisha takes on a more passive role in the conversation.

「I… Don't really know. Straf is Straf, he just is like this. I can't explain it.」

Cycelia returns a helpless shrug, and follows up with a shrug of her hands.

「You're pretty good at magic yourself. Would you help us study?」

The brown haired girl asks, tilting her head.

「Help?- Ah, no, I'm not good. I can't help you with studying, but I'd love to study with you, so that we all can learn something new.」

Cycelia shakes her head and hands in front of herself, chuckling softly at the unexpected praise.

「Huuuh? But you had the headmaster so impressed, that he gave you special treatment. You need to stop being so humble.」

「No, I really mean it. I actually barely know the basics of magic. I'm not even sure how I casted that spell.」

Cycelia explains herself, briefly extending her index finger and gesturing with her hands.

「What? What do you mean, barely know the basics? What did you do, then? Did you not do that silent casting thing?」

Tisha chimes in with a question, tilting her head in her hands as well.

「No, I didn't. Like I said, I'm not even sure how I've casted it. Straf believed in me, and I guess I went with the flow, since I didn't want to disappoint him.」

「Huh?」「Huuuh?」

The girls utter out in unison, and glance at each other.

「What do you mean, went with the flow?」

Neela asks, leaning in even closer, almost bumping her shoulder into Cycelia.

「What I mean is, I just imagined an ice mountain, pictured it in my head, and then flowed mana into my hand… Then it just kind of happened.」

She replies, shrugging with her hands while she glances at both of them.

「Like I said, I'm not that good at magic, so I can't even explain it. I'd be grateful if you would actually help me get to your level.」

Cycelia adds, and her shoulders slump with a troubled exhale. Tisha and Neela look at each other, then shrug their shoulders.

「I guess we can study together, in that case. We both resolved ourselves to stop slacking off this time, and take things seriously.」

Tisha replies, shrugging her shoulders.

「Yes… The more the merrier, right?」

「Right…」

Neela says, and Tisha nods in agreement. A brief silence begins as the girls look for a new topic.

「…Why do you think we're not allowed to leave?」

The brown-haired girl asks a question directed at the both of them.

「I bet it's just the headmaster's stupid idea to try and get us to work harder. Not allowed to go to the city, so we're not distracted, or whatever…」

Tisha shrugs her shoulders with a disdainful scoff.

「I'm not sure… I have a lot of ideas, but none of them sound reasonable.」

Cycelia shrugs as well, turning her emerald eyes to Neela.

「Give us one.」

She encourages Cycelia with a nod of her head upward.

「Hmm… There's been a murder, and now they're searching for the perpetrator. They've banned us from leaving, so anyone who's desperate to leave is likely to be the murderer.」

She replies, and Tisha's mouth opens, ready to comment.

「Oh! It's like one of those mystery novels!-」

Tisha remarks, pointing her finger at Cycelia.

「…But wait, if there was a murder, where's the corpse? And why aren't the professors searching our rooms?」

She realizes an incongruity, and asks with her index finger raised.

「Maybe he was murdered with magic, so there is no murder tool?」

Neela replies, looking up as she thinks.

「…But then, what happened to the corpse? Where did the murder happen? Someone would have noticed something by this point already.」

Cycelia says, and elaborates her point further.

「Hmmm…」「Hmm. Good question…」

Both of the girls humm in unison, slowly nodding their heads. Another moment of silence begins.

「Tisha, Neela, listen… I have to go back to my room. Straf will be worried, and classes are starting soon, anyway. Let's study together sometime, okay?」

Cycelia declares, and stands up from the table while the two girls remain sitting, watching her rise.

「Okay. See you later, Lia.」

Tisha shrugs, bidding her farewell.

「Take care.」

Neela politely nods her head. Cycelia returns a light bow, and departs from the cafeteria….

…

Now, in Cycelia's room…

「…If I didn't forget anything, that is. I hope you're not mad at me for telling them I'm a princess.」

Cycelia finishes filling Straf in on what she was doing after they split.

「Hmmm… Nope. But you better cross your fingers they don't connect the very obvious dots, and find out that you're next in line for the Redwing throne.」

Straf shrugs while lying on his bed, listening to Cycelia talk.

「They won't! I'm being careful!」

She replies in a loud voice, leaning forward a little while sitting cross-legged on her bed.

「Well, I beg to differ… They obviously moved the corpse into cold storage while nobody was looking. Probably at night… But that's a fair point about someone noticing something. Hmm…」

Straf humms, rubbing his chin while staring at the ceiling.

「…Maybe it wasn't a murder after all?」

Cycelia hesitantly suggests.

「So why are we locked up in here, Lia? Murder makes the most sense. I mean, magic mines are the close second guess. Those gems have to come from somewhere, after all.」

Straf scoffs, shrugging his hands with a grin.

「…When do you think they'll let us leave, Straf? Surely we won't be stuck here for two whole months, right?」

「And even if we are, what difference does it make? Once the term is up, I'm kicking their stupid magic gate wide open if they try to keep us from going back to the palace.」

He nonchalantly declares, and Cycelia giggles softly.

「I could actually picture that happening, so I hope things will go back to normal soon.」

「Same. I wanted to look around the city a little. I'm sure there's some cliches I'm missing out on there… But one thing makes me wonder.」

Straf rubs his chin, and looks at her.

「What is it?」

「Why are they being so secretive with this? If there was a murder, just say it. Maybe someone knows something. If you have magic penalty mines, say it. The students will be more motivated…」

He briefly shrugs with his hand, before continuing his chin-rubbing.

「…If someone did something stupid, just say it. No need to drop the specifics. Just say someone did something really dumb, and you need to fix it first. Big deal.」

「Right. There's no reason for them to hide these things… But the headmaster said they have a good reason for it.」

Cycelia nods her head in reply, and reminds Straf.

「Yeah, and that can be fucking anything, Lia. The only reason they'd want to keep things secret is the zombie apocalypse, and the dark lord. Both to avoid panic-」

Gonggggggggg… Donggg… Gonggg…

The bell tolls again, rumbling the bedroom walls with its powerful noise.

「…But I suppose we'll find out later. Get your book this time, Lia. Even if you claim to be a princess, I'm not princess carrying you to class again.」

Straf says as he jumps up from his bed, and heads for the door. Cycelia looks aside with lightly blushed cheeks, pouting a little as she searches for the required tome…