The feeling of being watched only began to slowly eb away once I followed Tulip into the main building. She kept walking without a word uttered or even a single glance thrown back towards me while we walked.

The silence continued to hang in the air like a weight between the two of us—A weight that I felt pressing on me incessantly until I spoke.

“So… are you going to tell me anything more about those two, Tulip?” I spoke in a lowered tone once the last vestiges of uneasiness wore away from me. My gaze gradually moved towards Tulip as she slowed for a moment so that we could walk side by side.

“That was Kendrick Armester, and his mother Lushia Armester. Their family leads the Church of the Golden God—The church that worships the War Mage,” Tulip answered with venom at the mention of their names. “Lushia is the current sitting High Priestess of the Church… she is also my Father’s most trusted assistant.”

“Most trusted assistant?” I asked with a raised brow.

“It’s… a long story, one that I’m not sure of all the details for. It’s been a thing for as long as I’ve been alive practically, but she is my Father’s chief advisor. Nothing my Father does happens without her having an input, and, quite frankly, she’s insufferable.” Tulip lowered her voice further, her gaze locking directly ahead.

“And why do they hate me so much? I mean, I get it, people are going to hate me here… but I wasn’t expecting to be openly threatened like that.” I shuttered a little at just the memory of Kendrick’s words. Even the guards at the prison never held that much murderous intent, so palpable that I could feel it like an aura—Or if they did I was just a lot more sensitive to it now.

“That, I honestly have no idea about. I know that the Church was highly involved in the manhunt for your father… but, that was something else entirely.” Tulip glanced at me with just as much confusion and trepidation as I had.

“So they hate me for no obvious reason… great.” I sighed, glancing away from Tulip towards the walls of the room. The more I thought about Lushia, even for the moment I saw her, I couldn’t help but feel like she looked familiar. But I had absolutely no idea where I could have seen her before now.

Silence once again permeated between Tulip and myself as we continued walking. Although now it was a less oppressive silence and a more accepted one—One that was soon chased away once Tulip pushed open a massive pair of doors. The scent of fresh food hit my nostrils with such intensity that my mouth immediately began watering,

The Mess Hall of the school was massive. From the doorway in which I entered alongside Tulip it would have been over three hundred paces to reach the far wall, and likely another two hundred to reach either of the side walls from there.

Hundreds of benches and tables sat around the room, dozens of them were filled by students and faculty alike—Only a handful bothered to glance at the two new arrivals in the room. I couldn’t recognize anyone inside of the Lunch hall among the crowds from my cursory glance.

There were three other doors to enter and leave the Lunch Hall through. Most of the tables already had food set out for students to simply sit down and eat, workers from the kitchen were bustling about to ready the tables for the breakfast rush while a handful of tables remained entirely empty for those who wished to pick and choose what they wanted to eat a bit more.

“Anything you fancy today?” Tulip inquired with a glance back towards me as she walked into the room.

“Food is food, I’ll eat pretty much anything.” I was far from a picky eater after the years of eating nothing but slop while jailed—Anything was better than that, even my stomach roared with its agreement, forcing a shallow blush to my face.

Tulip giggled a little to my response, shaking her head softly as she began walking to the area with the least people around. It was one of the empty tables near the back of the room, which was enough of a walk that it took a few moments to even reach it.

“This work then?” Tulip offered as she sat down—Not even giving me a chance to reply as I was forced to sit across from her.

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“Not like I have a choice—So do we grab food from another table?... Or do we wait for it to be brought out? How does this work?” I asked rapidly, my gaze moved around the room with uncertainty.

“I’ll go and grab us something. Just, sit here and relax a little. You’ve looked on edge since earlier, which is honestly fair… but still.” Tulip’s voice was rather soft as she spoke. She spent only a handful of moments extracting herself from her seat before walking to other empty tables in the Mess Hall.

I let out a reluctant sigh as I watched her go, my back was facing a wall with no seat behind me. Not even any doors sat on that wall so I wasn’t worried about checking over my shoulders, however, I could feel people watching me already.

Some of them were from the gathered crowd just earlier, the other members of the audience for Kendrick and Erick’s sparring match. Others were completely new faces to me… most of those new faces appeared to be much older as well, easily into the late teens and early twenties with a number of them.

I slowly resigned my gaze down to the table, my arms resting one over another. I leaned forwards to rest my head between my arms, doing my best to ignore the itching feeling of dozens of eyes digging into my skin—I only felt comfortable letting the world be closed off to me because I was rather certain that no one was near, or approaching me.

“Is this seat taken?” My eyes snapped open as I heard a new voice. My heart immediately began racing as I looked up and blinked with surprise when I vaguely recognized the face behind the voice.

The voice originated from a girl not much older than me. She could have only been two years older at most, purple hair sat tightly wrapped into a ponytail behind her head. Deep, violet eyes sat in her skull, peering at me curiously. I couldn’t even begin to remember her name, but I knew I had momentarily met her immediately after my trial.

“N-No… It’s not. But where did you come from?—I could have sworn nobody was over here…” I muttered in a low tone as the purple-haired girl sat down across from me.

“People don’t usually notice my presence, so don’t worry,” She answered with a warm smile. “I’m Anestesia by the way—I’d guess you probably don’t remember me given everything that happened with you and Princess Tulip.”

“Uhm, yeah. Kirin by the way—But you probably already knew that.” I glanced around rather uncomfortably. I desperately moved my gaze to search for Tulip but I came back with nothing, I couldn’t find a glimpse of her in the massive room.

“Soooo…” Anesetesia began. “Anything really interesting happen to you two?—I heard some rumors saying you two were dragged to the far north beyond the Elven wall? Is that true? What about the people you met? I heard someone say you even met revolutionaries amongst the Elves?! Please! I need some answers!” Anestesia’s barrage of questions came rapidly. I couldn’t even begin to register one question or think of an answer before the next one landed in my lap.

“Woah, slow down please—I don’t even know how to answer some of that. What’s the Elven wall?” I spoke with pleading exasperation for Anestesia to slow down, to which she finally did.

“Sorry, sorry. I get ahead of myself sometimes,” Anestesia sight a little before continuing. “So no to the Elven Wall, but it’s a giant wall they built in a valley to block the only passage into the far north. No one knows why they built it, at least not anyone outside of Elligorse.”

“Weird, but no, we weren’t there. We were just kidnapped by slavers—Supposedly some infamous ones in the Elven lands. I guess we met revolutionaries? I mean there was someone who called herself ‘The Winds of Revolution,’ but they were out to kill me and Tulip,” I shuddered at the memory of Tyrosa, Geldin, Markus, and Andrew. Everything that happened left a stain in my mind that I couldn’t quite shake. “I’d honestly rather not talk about that more, if I can avoid it.”

Anestesia deflated with my last remark, but she gave an understanding nod and a pleading gaze that steeled itself away after a few moments.

“Alright, I get that. I’m sure there’s a bunch that happened… I’ve never seen the Princess so, out of it I guess. I was curious because of that, and, well… you’re more likely to give me answers than she is.” Anestesia spoke as she brought a hand to the back of her head with an awkward smile.

“You know Tulip?” I asked with a surprised tone.

“I don’t know her, but we’ve interacted before. I’m from a Noble family, so it’s a given—Anyways, I should get going. Thanks for the chat!” Anestesia stood up, and then…. disappeared?!

She was just gone, there was no sound, no shadow, no trace of her left once she had stood up. It was like she had just never been across from me in the first place—I had an utterly baffled look on my face all the way until Tulip set a plate down in front of me.

“Something wrong?” Tulip asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“N-Nothing… just a bit confused is all, but that’s a given I guess.” I sighed with resignation. My thoughts however quickly returned to the present, primarily to the large plate of food that sat in front of me. Half of it was filled with things I had never even seen before, but everything smelled and looked incredible.

“If it’s nothing then just eat up, I’m not sure how long we have left until Levi will come and find us.” Tulip passed a set of silverware over to me once she finished speaking. And I took that possible time constraint as a challenge—I was determined to try as much of this food as possible.