Did something happen between them? Aeri frowned as this phrase rang in her head.

Then how do you know she was the one who attacked first? Her fists clenched.

There could have been a misunderstanding. She started gritting her teeth.

…misunderstanding… This word kept echoing in her head as her teeth felt more pressure and nails started sinking into the skin of her palms.

“Misunderstanding my ass!”

As she shouted, her fist slammed the desk she sat at, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room, which took her a few seconds to realise.

Before she could make an apology, a remark came her way.

“Aeri…”

A woman with a book in her hand stood by a chalkboard. Wearing a white-edged short black jacket and a skirt, her light-rose hair was a bright spot with a black chalkboard behind. She sighed before continuing.

“…we understand you are going through a difficult time. But, please, address your emotional problem. There are people you can talk to if you need help.”

“I’m sorry, teacher. You’re right…”

The teacher exhaled in a relief as she brought the hand with the book up and was about to resume the lesson when Aeri got up from her place and marched towards the classroom door.

“I do need to talk to someone to address this problem.”

“That’s not—”

Her words bounced off the door, reaching it the moment it shut.

“I didn’t mean right now.”

She sighed yet again.

“What a troublesome girl.”

****

Orena took a sip from a mildly warm cup of tea, sitting alone under a shaded bar desk. A bartender with long bowing moustache and a beard was carefully polishing a glass in his hands. He briefly looked at Orena, noticing a drop of sweat appear on her forehead.

“You’ve been coming here in hot weather ever since I opened the spot last year, young lady. I have always wondered why you favour tea over cold drinks, unlike most other people, even more so as a sorceress. If I may ask, of course.”

“Ah… yes. Naturally, as a sorceress, I can freely control the flow of air to cool myself. That is what my peers usually do. But they often catch cold because of that, so I deal with the heat the usual way. And I find herbal tea much more refreshing than any cool drink.”

“I see. You are very clever for your young age.”

He gave her a cheerful smile, which hit her unexpectedly along with the compliment, causing confusion as she thought how to respond.

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Though she said that, being engaged in a conversation all of a sudden left her in an awkward spot. She didn’t know whether to say something or to end it right there. The answer came from the academy’s tower bells, which signalled that there were only ten minutes left of the afternoon break.

“I must excuse myself. Thank you, as always.”

A cup landed on a plate with a quiet ring as she stood up from a seat and gently bowed before taking a leave.

She waited for a tram to run down the street before crossing it. Just as she reached the other side, a feeling hit her as if somebody had been watching her. She looked all around finding no eyes drawn to her and continued her way.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

As Orena was about to enter an alley, the same feeling hit her again, but this time there was even no one around.

Through the alley she entered into a yard enclosed within two-storeyed houses. With every step she took down the stone-paved trail, she felt the uneasiness grow. As she neared the exit, the feeling climaxed. Orena instinctively turned around, extending her hand.

Her guts did not deceive her: on the other side of the trail, near the entrance, stood her unwanted acquaintance, Aeri. For a few seconds, she was silent and motionless, yet when she opened her mouth, her speech reached Orena as a distorted, indiscernible echo. Seeing no response from Orena, she became visibly angrier, saying something again, now in a scream.

Something was off about her. She looked hostile, but her stance didn’t imply she intended to attack. Even her weapon freely hung from her shoulder behind her back.

Cautiously, Orena lowered her hand, observing how her opponent would react. With no action following, she finally spoke.

“What do you want?”

First came a little confusion, succeeded by an angry response.

“Are you mocking me? Was anything I have said not clear?”

“I couldn’t hear you because of the barrier.”

“Why did you assault my friend?”

“What are you playing here? It was you who assaulted me.”

“I am not talking about us three. Harin. Short girl, orange hair, blue eyes, same uniform.”

It took her some time to piece the picture together. She could not recall anyone like that, but hearing Aeri saying ‘assault’ helped her mind in restoring the image. The events that had transpired that day had been a blur, but now it started coming back.

“Well?”

“The answer is the same: she attacked me.”

“Liar!”

Aeri saw this outburst causing Orena to tense. Despite the surge of emotions, she found it in her to overcome them. She had not come here to fight, but to have answers.

“Harin would never attack unprovoked. And there is no thing that can provoke her.”

“She might have been upset over me destroying her arcane contraption.”

“What? What nonsense are you spewing? She doesn’t wield anything besides Chimera. And how exactly would you destroy it?”

“Not her own contraption. Something that supposedly belonged to her family. It exploded when I attempted to dismantle it.”

“Her family? What are you even talking about? How would you even have it?”

“I found it.”

“Found it? You want me to believe you just found an arcane contraption lying around?”

Orena fell silent. What she was about to say might trigger Aeri, but she had already engaged in this conversation, so there was no turning back.

“I overheard a conversation between two students of your academy. They were discussing something about legacy works. They had— they didn’t know where it was exactly, only some pointers. But I recognized the place by description. So I followed and found a contraption there before they found the place.”

“Before they found the place? So you actually met them there?”

“Yes.”

“And they just let you go even though you supposedly had a piece of heritage work.”

“They did.”

Aeri’s eyes narrowed as her brows formed a crease, making her face render a high degree of a doubt.

“Suppose it is what you say. What does this story have to do with Harin?”

“She approached me a day after and asked me if I had found a contraption. She said that it belonged to her family. I told her that it was destroyed and that must have provoked her.”

“This is horseshite. She would never attack anyone over such a trivial thing. Not Harin. The dead will rise before she attacks anyone.”

A blurry image of the girl emerged in Orena’s mind. Whatever fragments of that encounter she could recall would produce an image of a harmless girl. But even with her memory being riddled with blanks of what had followed that meeting, there were a few clear pictures, and one of them showed Harin attacking her.

“That was what I thought and let my guard down.”

“Well, maybe your memory isn’t that good.”

“Or maybe you don’t know your friend as well as you think.”

Aeri’s face became one expression of anger. Even more hateful than the day she had clashed with Orena. It felt as if she would explode any second.

Orena slowly raised her left arm, while her right hand reaching for the opposite wrist. It looked as if she was getting ready to engage, but instead she unbuttoned a sleeve and pulled it up, showing her bare arm to Aeri.

Aeri’s anger got displaced by confusion as she saw a red line cross Orena’s hand with a pink area surrounding it in stark contrast with her light skin. There could be no mistaking it: this was a mark left behind by Harin’s invocation.

“Do I need to show the rest?”

Her confusion would not last long. She frowned again, getting angrier with each second. Yet when it seemed as if she was near the boiling point, making Orena assume a defensive stance, Aeri just turned around and hastily parted, leaving confusion to her opponent.