It was another peaceful day at Sanctuary Academy. Two weeks went by after Ava’s enrolment and word of a rare half-elf has long since spread throughout the school. The commotion that was present when she was first seen had died out more or less. People were still pointing and whispering at her whenever she appeared before them, but it was nothing more than that. Discrimination was severely frown upon, so no one went out of their way to harass her… Most of the time.

“…?” [Ava]

Inside the classroom where the next lesson was about to start, Ava was the only one standing as she tilted her head. Her classmates were already seated and ready for when the teacher arrived. They were staring her way with either a puzzled or amused look on their faces. The reason for that was quite simple: her desk was missing.

“Alright, class is in session. Everyone quiet down and… What are you doing?” [Teacher]

As the sound of a bell rung out in the air, the balding old man arrived in class nearly at the same time. When he saw Ava, he stopped walking and quizzically stared at her before he noticed the problem himself.

“Now we all know what’ll happen if you harass someone. Forget detention, you’ll most likely be expelled.” [Teacher]

He said as he looked at every one of his students. Although he didn’t show it, the teacher was trying hard to fight back a headache. Every year, there was always someone that didn’t take heed of the many warnings the school gave. When that happened, they would be suitably punished for breaking the rules. However, in some cases, these individuals would only get a scolding and nothing else. The academy was neutral, but money and power were still a great influence.

“Maybe she made her desk disappear with elf magic.” [Student]

A boy said in a mocking voice and the class burst into laughter. The teacher angrily told them to quiet down and warn the young human to not say anything unnecessary. Some snickers arose here and there as they tried to keep silent.

“Actually, I’m feeling a bit sick. Can I go to the infirmary?” [Ava]

Ava raised her hand and asked the old man in charge of her class. Her lazy expression told everyone that she wasn’t ill and probably just planned to go sleep. This annoyed a few since it seemed that she wasn’t fazed at all by the prank pulled on her.

“*Sigh* Alright then. Go ahead and rest. But, be back for next class.” [Teacher]

Sighing, the teacher decided to cut her a break and gave her his permission. With her bag on her back, she walked through the row towards the front of the room. The same boy who had made the earlier comment put his leg in front of her right as she was next to him. He planned on tripping the half-breed to get one last laugh, but she stopped right before it and stood still.

“… Why is there a short leg in my way?” [Ava]

Staring at his leg, she asked while tilting her head, prompting the teacher who was flipping through the pages of his book to see what was going on.

“Cormund, move your leg!” [Teacher]

The smirk fell off his face as Cormund put his leg back under his desk. He glared at the half-elf, but she splendidly ignored him from beginning to end, never once making eye contact. He was being treated like a minor annoyance. As for the teacher who had to deal with this every day, he heavily sighed once again.

“*Sigh* I’m getting too old for this.” [Teacher]

“*Sigh* Me too. But, brats will be brats.” [Ava]

As if copying him, Ava sighed and talked like an old lady which sounded rather realistic because of the genuine tired note in her voice. Her comments also flared up her classmates, especially Cormund who felt like he was being specifically made fun of and went red in the face. While pretending to be oblivious to the hostile glares, Ava walked out of the door and strolled down the hallway.

She had memorized the structure of the middle school building during her time here. As such, she knew where the infirmary was. However, she took a route leading to a different destination. Before going to take a nap, she was going to retrieve some personal items from one of her secret stashes around school.

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“Come on, we need some extra money. Share it with us.” [Student]

Three male students were sneering at the person that was on the ground in front of them. He was twelve years old and of the human race just like them. With bright red hair and grey eyes, he was a meek looking boy that had a slender body under his clothes. He wore a black jacket with red trimmings over a white work shirt and beige white pants.

“Come on, Allen! We’re friends! Right?!” [Student]

Although he was slowly getting up, Allen got kicked in the stomach and fell down again. The four of them were behind the school which was a pretty good blind spot. The middle school building was the one that was the furthest back and behind it was a sea of trees. No one would be able to see them unless they came here or opened up one of the windows from above and peeked out. That was why he knew that it was unlikely any help would be coming.

“Hey, can you hear us? We’re talking to you?!” [Student]

Letting out a short grunt of pain, Allen got kicked again and squirmed on the ground. The school was called Sanctuary Academy, but it was no perfect heaven. Because the criteria for enrolment were rather low and the place was quite big, a few bad seeds would sprout out here and there.

“What’s that?” [Student]

“It’s pretty, let me have a look.” [Student]

During the beating, his necklace fell out of his shirt and dangled around his neck, visible for everyone to see.

“Don’t touch it!” [Allen]

Yelling with a mix of fury and desperation, Allen grabbed it with both hands and curled up like a turtle, hiding it with his whole body.

“What? Don’t be stingy! Let us see!” [Student]

“Yeah! Show it to us!” [Student]

“Come on, you weakling! Show us the necklace!” [Student]

The three guys crowded around him and started pulling him to turn him on his back.

“N-no!” [Allen]

The helpless red-haired kid struggled in their grip, but he wasn’t raised for fighting and couldn’t deal with three opponents at once. He was sheltered and well educated all his life, so he didn’t know how to deal with this situation and simply gave in to them when they first targeted him.

“Let go!” [Student]

“Ugh! No!” [Allen]

But, even so, he fought back with all his might and tightly clenched his necklace in his two hands. With every hit, strength left him and just as he was about to lose his grip, an unexpected person showed up.

“Excuse me.” [Ava]

The voice of a young girl sounded out and despite the throbbing pain, Allen could clearly hear it.

“Huh? Who are you?!” [Student]

“Yeah! What does… A half-elf? Hey, it’s the half-elf.” [Student]

“*Chuckle* The half-breed?” [Student]

In his slightly hazy vision, he could see a black-haired elf in a pure white dress appearing from around the corner. What stunned him the most were her differently colored eyes. He was being bullied and beaten up by three people, but her eyes held not a shred of caution, indignation, fear or shock. She watched them with bored, tired eyes.

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“Could you all leave for a second?” [Ava]

She nonchalantly walked towards them, ignoring the tense atmosphere and what they were doing.

“What? This is our spot! Get lost!” [Student]

One of the bullies angrily closed in on her and strongly pushed her shoulder. The girl took a step back from the force of the push. She raised both her hands with her palms facing him as if to calm him down.

“Whoa, easy. I’m not looking for trouble. I’m not here to sell you guys a fight.” [Ava]

“Then, in that case…” [Student]

Hearing her words, he gently spoke to her.

“GET LOST!!” [Student]

Then, he angrily yelled at her and proceeded to push her away by the shoulder again with his right hand. However, the half-elf stepped to the side and dodged his taunt. Afterwards, she grabbed his wrist as his arm was extended and put her other hand on his elbow. Before he could realize the precarious situation he was in, she pulled him towards her, bent his arm behind his back and made him spin around until they were facing his friends.

“Owowowow!” [Student]

“Ah, but I’ll buy any fight you sell me.” [Ava]

With her hostage shouting in pain, Ava stared at the remaining two boys with her sleepy-looking eyes. These three were taller than her, but it didn’t necessarily mean that they were stronger. She had been working out and keeping in shape ever since she was locked away. She had taken out one blind enemy in a death fight. It was time to see how her body would fare against three opponents in a brawl.

“What do you think you’re doing, half-breed?!” [Student]

“You’re messing with US?! Let him go!” [Student]

“Don’t wanna.” [Ava]

Her instant and carefree response made them furious and the two pals charged straight at her to save their other friend. Ava let her captive go and kicked his butt, sending him tumbling towards his two rescuers.

“You rotten, worthless, half-breed of a-!” [Student]

They caught him by reflex and as he angrily mumbled insults while turning around, she was already right in front of him. A swift palm strike to the chin shook him up and he lost strength in his legs.

“Ethan! Damn half-breed!” [Student]

After that shout of outrage, a punch came at her in retaliation. Ava stepped to the side to dodge it by a paper-thin margin, but it lightly brushed her cheek. The other student that was supporting the fallen Ethan also unleashed his fist. She hurriedly avoided it only to get tackled by the previous attacker. She couldn’t evade his body blow in time and fell on her back with him on top of her.

He pinned her right hand down and reeled back his fist to pommel her face, striking her two times. The black-haired girl raised her legs and hit his lower back with her knees. Losing his balance, he leaned forward and she took this chance to grab his collar with her free hand. Pulling him towards her, she delivered a headbutt to his nose.

The remaining enemy, seeing him in trouble, quickly went to his help to deal with the half-elf. Just as Ava kicked the one atop of her away and got on one knee, he went behind her and grabbed her hair. He was going to toss her around like a doll as she yelled in pain. However, with just a short grunt, she tightly held onto her hair so that he wouldn’t pull them out. Then, she pulled him closer and kicked him between the legs.

“Orrgh…!” [Student]

The pain turned his face pale and her hair slipped from his fingers. As he fell on his knees with his hands covering his groin, she hit his chin and he fell on his side.

“I’ve got you!” [Student]

The last opponent rushed her with his arms spread, intending on pushing her to the ground. Meeting the attack head-on, Ava spun around and knocked him away with a roundhouse kick on the chest. Catching her breath, the victor observed her surroundings to confirm that nobody was getting up again. Everyone was writhing on the grassy earth, except for one person.

Having been forgotten during the commotion, Allen saw the fight from beginning to end. Before his eyes, the half-elf took down three guys by herself in a fistfight, something that was impossible for him. She was smaller than them and looked like a sleepy, harmless girl, but she actually won. Her dress was dirty and her cheek was bruised, but to the weak him, she was shining.

A breeze blew between them, causing her hair to gently flutter in the wind. The red-haired boy stared at her with wide eyes. His face was filled with pure admiration.

“Haa, haa… So, do you guys mind leaving now?” [Ava]

Her three defeated foes squirmed about as they got on their feet, supported each other and stumbled out of there while groaning in pain. A faint “We’ll get you for this” was heard, but Ava ignored it and checked her condition. She was dissatisfied from her poor performance, but it wasn’t out of her expectations. She didn’t do any serious training after all.

“Um…” [Allen]

Allen stood up and hid his necklace under his shirt. Hesitantly, he tried to talk to her.

“Thank you for saving me.” [Allen]

He said and bowed politely.

“Huh? Saving?” [Ava]

Ava asked as she rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand.

“From them. Thank you very much.” [Allen]

Allen pointed at the three fallen bullies and gave her his thanks once more.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I was just picking a fight with them to exercise.” [Ava]

 “E-exercise?” [Allen]

“Yeah, but the results were horrible. My body’s not reacting fast enough. It’s too slow and punching hurts.” [Ava]

She started complaining while rubbing her aching right fist with her left hand.

“Not fast enough? You won against three guys!” [Allen]

“Against three, untrained, twelve years old guys. And I got hit a few times too. Like I thought, just having experience isn’t enough. Well, taking on one, agitated, blind guy was pretty easy thanks to it. But, I can’t deal with multiple targets like this and my stamina is lacking too. I need to seriously train this body and fight in live combat. Ahhh damn it, this is embarrassing.” [Ava]

Allen only heard the first sentence because she mumbled the rest under her breath. Although she saved him, he couldn’t help but think that her savior was weird. For some reason, she also sounded older than him, but she didn’t exactly give off a mature feeling.

“S-still, you did save me. So, thank you.” [Allen]

“Well, sure, no problem I guess.” [Ava]

She lightheartedly accepted his gratitude which could be considered rude, but he didn’t mind.

“I’m Allen. It’s nice to meet you.” [Allen]

Smiling happily, he introduced himself to the girl with the white, right eye.

“That so? I’m…” [Ava]

In return, she lazily gave him her name as she scratched her head.

“Ava.” [Ava]

That was how these two met in Sanctuary Academy.