Viscount Starlight has been busy all day. When the fact that he bought all of the Kroma herb out became known, everyone suddenly became interested in meeting and talking to him.

Even though he is a noble, he has never received this kind of attention before. Everything feels unreal, especially the reason why this is happening in the first place.

To address this problem, he is already calling her back home; the one responsible, her own daughter, Aurora Starlight.

"This can't be a coincidence," he murmured to himself, while waiting in his office.

Once? Sure. You could say she was just lucky. But twice? And not only that, causing this much of a ruckus all over the kingdom?

No, something is wrong.

He heard the sound of a horse-drawn carriage and immediately stood up to look out the window.

It's been what? A few weeks? A month? Since he saw his daughter. All these problems have made him forget how much he misses her.

The sight of her blue hair immediately caught his eye as she walked gracefully, followed by her personal maid, Lyra.

After he couldn't see her figure anymore, obscured by the wall, he quickly made his way back to his chair. He straightened his tie and waited.

Soon, there was a knock on the door.

"Father," Aurora said. "It's me."

He cleared his throat. "Yes, please come in."

The door opened and she walked in. She had a calm expression on her face as she made her way inside.

"Long time no see, father," she smiled.

"Yes, how has the magic academy been? I hope you're enjoying your time there," he asked.

"I am, quite a lot," she replied.

He nodded. "Okay, let's sit down first. I need to talk to you about something important."

Aurora sat down and said, "It's about the herb, right?"

Their eyes met. "It's not just that. It's about the mine too. It's not a coincidence, I assume?"

"Yes," Aurora said hesitantly. "I'm not sure how I should tell you about this. The first time it happened, I thought it was just my imagination. Just a coincidence. But the more it kept happening, the more I knew that it wasn't just my imagination."

Aurora recited her prepared speech, lying through her teeth without skipping a beat.

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"I think I have a power to see the future," Aurora said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Her father gulped. "Clairvoyance?"

Aurora nodded. "Something like that."

The viscount tried to calm himself down.

A light magic user and then clairvoyance? That's too much, he thought.

"Have you told anyone about it?" he asked.

"No," Aurora said.

"Not even Lyra? Or your friends?"

"I didn't tell anyone," Aurora said. "I'm aware of the danger."

"That's... That's good," her father said, trying to process the information.

"Is that all? Can I go now? I'm kinda tired," Aurora asked.

"No, wait," her father said. "Even if you're getting imagery from the future, why did you decide to buy that mine and these herbs?"

"It's...important for my safety," Aurora said, choosing her words carefully.

"What do you mean?" her father pressed.

"I can't really tell you the details," Aurora said. "It's not like what I saw is a perfect image. But according to my vision, this needs to be done."

"I see," her father said, still trying to make sense of it all.

"I'm sorry," Aurora said, trying to smile. "I should have told you everything from the beginning."

"No, it's fine," her father said. "It's something unbelievable anyway. It's not like I would have believed it easily."

Aurora nodded.

"Anyway, why don't you go and rest?" her father suggested. "We can continue this discussion later."

"Alright, thank you father," Aurora said, standing up and walking toward the door. But before she reached the door handle, she paused and looked back.

"Ah, one more thing," she said. "Please don't sell the Kroma herb to anyone but Nicholas Wolf. Not even the Magic Association. Make him our exclusive merchant."

***

Ruby had been eagerly looking forward to spending the day with Aurora. She had planned out all sorts of fun activities, but things never go as planned.

Now she sits alone in her classroom, feeling let down.

Everything fell apart when Aurora suddenly had to go home. It seems like something big is happening with her family, something about a stupid herb or something, she doesn't care. All she wants is Aurora by her side.

It sucks.

Especially because yesterday everything just great. She still feel giddy thinking about it.

For the past few days, Ruby has been avoiding Aurora. Aurora thinks she's angry, but that's not it at all. Ruby is embarrassed.

She's been thinking about her feelings a lot and she's finally come to admit the truth: she's in love with Aurora.

It's embarrassing to fall in love with your friend, but the most embarrassing thing is how easily she break down and then easily moves on.

Every time she remembers about it, she just wants to hide her head somewhere.

How embarrassing.

She let out a long sigh.

Maybe this is some sort of punishment. The way Ruby has been avoiding Aurora for the past few days must have hurt her, even if it didn't seem to affect her much. And now, when Ruby wants nothing more than to spend time with Aurora, her wish is denied.

"I don't have the right to complain then," she whispers to herself.

She touches the ruby necklace she's wearing around her neck. Usually, she doesn't like wearing gems, she just likes collecting and admiring them. But this necklace is special.

Probably because of her name, she likes red. But recently she thinks blue is not bad either. That stupid blue girl.

A white-haired girl walked into the classroom, looking around for a moment until her eyes landed on Ruby.

"Hey," she said. "You're Ruby, right?"

Ruby nodded. "Do you need something?" she said. "Potion genius."

The white-haired girl's face flushed red, "Eh, I'm not good enough to be called a genius."

"I didn't mean to praise you," Ruby said. "Whatever. So what do you want, Marina?"

"I saw you're close with Aurora," the white-haired girl, Marina said.

"Well, I guess," Ruby said, blushing. "So what about that?"

"I would love to talk to her directly, but alas, she's absent. So I thought I could talk to you instead," Marina said.

"What are you talking about?" Ruby asked.

"Ah, sorry. I thought everyone already knew. But I guess you didn't really care about it?" Marina said.

"Just get to the point. What do you want?" Ruby said, her patience wearing thin.

"Okay, okay. You see, Aurora's family has been collecting a huge amount of herbs that everyone needs right now. So I thought you might be able to put in a word for me with her. Right now in the market, it's just too expensive. So if you could..." she said, trailing off.

"So basically, you're asking me for a favor?" Ruby said.

"Yes," Marina said.

"Hm..." Ruby is trying to think about it. She can try to help her, but why would she? There's no real reason, except...

"What do you think about Nova?" Ruby asked.

"Nova Wilder?" Marina said. "Well, we barely interact directly, so this is a one-sided opinion from an outsider's perspective."

"And?" Ruby asked impatiently.

"I'm going to admit, I don't really like her," Marina said. "Especially because Oliver said she is the reason he keeps chasing potion making, yet she doesn't seem to care about potions."

"Alright, you pass. We can be allies. I mean, friends," Ruby said.

"Does that mean... you'll help me?" Marina asked.

"I get it," Ruby said. "I'll try to talk to Aurora about it later."

"Wah, thank you!" Marina said, smiling widely. She trying to hug Ruby, but that small girl reject it.

"It's fine," Ruby said. "And we're fellow Nova haters anyway."

"Ri-Right," Marina said, not feeling too comfortable forming a friendship based on hating, but she couldn't be picky at the moment. It was for her research.

Behind the door, Oliver was peeking. "That's unfair, Marina," he grumbled. "You know I'm not good with girls."

***