Solum (23.11.9978 AS)

‘Wait, wha-, what is, is he doing here? Why was he introduced as a classmate and not a new teacher?! Is he the same age as me? No! No, that is not possible! Someone like him, someone with so much magical knowledge can’t be the same age as me! I refuse, I refuse to believe it!’ Ai was glaring daggers at her new classmates, especially, Tristan as they introduced themselves.

“We just moved to this City here from Cef, a small city compared to Solum located in the Continent of Cevenpi. We are looking forward to be here in the same class as you, so please take good care of us!” Laura said she and Tristan bowed towards her new classmates, who started clapping to their introduction.

‘That voice, could it be? That’s the ‘Idiot’ who was calling for him, so it was his twin sister!’ Ai thought as she heard the end of their introductions. ‘Is she also as talented as he is? Yeah, probably, that’s why she was allowed to join this school; she also leaks extreme amounts of mana. Her pure purple mana is quite different to Tristan’s, but as intense as his...’

While Ai was still glaring at them the teacher assigned the twins their seats. “Look over there, on the last row, there are two free seats on each side of Ai, the red haired girl. Come on, hurry over there so we can continue with class, we have a lot to learn”

Tristan and Laura nodded to the teacher and walked to their assigned seats.

‘... If my ability didn’t fail me, than she might be as strong as he is... I guess, I won’t be competing for the top spot in class, but third place isn’t as bad is it? Who am I kidding?! If I want to be noticed by my parents, then there is no other way then being the very best, if I want a good job in the government in the future, I can’t comfort myself with being third. Yeah, I won’t give up and be the number one in class by the end of the semest-‘

“Hi is this seat free?”

“ End of semst- Eeehhh” Ai was taken by surprise by Tristan’s voice and forcefully brought back to reality. “Ermm, yeah, YES, it’s free.”

“Nice to meet you my name is Laura” Laura introduce herself trying to sound as nice as possible.

“Yeah, nice to meet you.”

“The world sure is small; I saved you yesterday and now we’re in the same class, talk about coincidences.” Tristan muttered while taking his place.

“Yeah, talk about coincidences; you are in the very same class as me, who would have guessed that a prodigy like you existed in this world.” Ai said a little annoyed.

“Trist, what did you do to her yesterday? Was it when you ran off after you left me and aunty carry all the stuff inside?”

“As if you carried something, you guys just told the people from the moving company where they should put the stuff, since you got carried away, I had no other choice but leave the house.” Tristan said while smiling as fake as possible.

“We’ll see what aunty says when I tell her you went out and tried to hit on cute girls.”

“You’re just jealous that she’s cuter than you.” Tristan replied with an earnest voice.

“You guys do realize that I’m sitting in between of you guys, right?” The blushing Ai added.

“Ohh, I’m sorry.” Tristan bowed to her.

“You there, you newbie stop talking too much or do you want to explain the class how our ancestors received the gift of magic from our one and only God: Fors?” The old teacher asked.

“I’m sorry, I was trying to figure out where we were. I was just trying to catch up so I asked her where in the book we were, right Ai?”

“No, he was trying to distract me from your class madam.” Ai said while grinning mischievously towards Tristan who had turned white.

After being ridiculed by the teacher in front of the teacher for not knowing anything related to the history of Terra Tristan walked back to his seat.

“You... M Y R E V E N G E will be sweet.”Tristan whispered to her with a hoarse voice.

***

“Don’t make much out of what my stupid brother says.” He likes to often talk big but in the end he doesn’t have the guts to back it off.” Laura reassured Ai, who had gone white since Tristan had threatened her.

‘Kyaaaaahhh, What if he uses the blue flame against me? I don’t know if I could survive something like that! Noooo, think rational, he would probably not kill; yeah he won’t commit a crime just to get it back to me. But what if he does? I don’t know him enough yet, to judge his character. Fors, what was I thinking when I ridiculed him in front of the whole class?’ This had been Ai’s ever since Tristan had whispered those words to her.

Right after the lunch break started she was approached by Laura, who asked her to show her the school and the best places to take her lunch. So the two girls were now eating their lunch together at the rooftop and enjoying some small talk.

Laura was giving her best to entertain Ai with girl talk. The past few days she had spent day and night trying to figure out what young humans girls liked, so she could interact more natural with her peers, especially her target: Ai.

“Did you make your lunch yourself? It looks really tasty.” She said with a bright smile. ‘Human girls’ lesson number 98, compliment your friends for their cooking skill. Booyaa, I’m totally gonna ace this mission and get my credibility in front of the teachers back.

“Yeah, at the orphanage we have to cook for ourselves, only the really young ones get their meals cooked for them, believe it or not, in spite the fact of most of us being the bastards of nobility, we don’t live in luxury, so I had to teach cooking to myself at the age of six.” Ai answered absent minded and stood up.

“I have to return this one back.” She took a book out of her school back.”I guess you can make it back to class by yourself?”

Laura nodded frozen in her smile. ‘Wait, wait what? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the answer I was supposed to get! No, no, not fair that was definitely not in my books! This stupid girl will be a harder nut to crack than I thought; I only wish Trist would help me out a little instead of threatening her and leaving us alone as soon as he gets a change!’

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

***

Ai had no intention to be rude to Laura; she just did say what was up in her mind. She really just wanted to bring back the books she had gotten from the library before the deadline ended, since she didn’t have time to bring them back after school. Actually, she didn’t even realize her actions might have offended Laura.

In contrary she really liked Laura’s mature way of showing friendliness, because she was the first person in this school that showed that kind of friendliness to her. Not that she had been bullied by her classmates, but she didn’t like to interact with them, because they were too childish for her. That feeling was mutual though, her classmates didn’t like to interact much with her because of her mature way of acting one could even say dry way of approaching things.

Thus, Ai had to spend most of her spare time in school in the rooftop reading books or the school’s library where she could lend out books and retreat to different fantastic worlds or learn about the secrets of magic.

So it wasn’t strange for her to walk into the library during lunch time, when most of her peers would be eating lunch in the cafeteria or playing with each other in the school’s yard.

Although, today had been a little strange, in a way that she had made a friend and gotten a threat from the guy sitting to her left in class, she didn’t expect much as she pushed the door of the library open and entered the broad room, that like usually smelled like lavender from the librarian’s perfume.

She had to stop in her tracks as she saw the boy walking from one bock shelf to the other in the section of magic theory and applied magic. The black haired boy would take one book out, browse through it and put it back with a sigh.

The stupefied Ai stood there for more of ten minutes watching Tristan browse through the books, rapidly losing interest in most of the books he took out of the shelf, just setting aside a few of them. Still a notable mountain of books had formed next to him.

‘Nice and I thought my day couldn’t get any worse and now I have this guy intruding my Fortress of Solitude...

Calm down girl, you just have to bring back the books and go back to class; but I want that book! The librarian told me that it would be here today! Yeah, but he’s here... what if he takes his revenge here? There is no one around here to save me! No didn’t Laura just say that he was too big of a good guy to do anything to anyone...’

Ai forcefully swallowed her saliva and walked forward towards where Tristan was, taking books in and out one after the other. She walked straight towards the ‘Fire Magic’ corner and started looking for the book she was looking for ever since the release date was announced.

‘What that can’t be! Why isn’t it here? The librarian promised me that the book would be here before lunch break, but why isn’t it here? No one comes here during lunch break! So why isn’t it here?!’

Ai’s big green eyes wandered searching from the shelf looking for a certain book, she first carefully examined the shelf the book was supposed to be and than her gaze started wandering over the other shelves, after a while her eyes finally landed on the big tower of books Tristan had put aside to read. She couldn’t help to grind her teeth as she found the book she was looking for under the mountain of books Tristan had set aside.

‘Should I give up? No, giving up now would mean admitting that he’s superior to me! That’s just like giving up on my dream! Also no one can read that many books in the four weeks you can lend them out! That’s impossible; I bet he’s just trying to show off.’

“Very optimistic of you to think that you could read all these books in the little time you get to lend them out” said Ai who had walked up to Tristan with a poisonous voice, looking towards the book she wanted.

Tristan continued browsing the books not even spending a glance towards Ai as he answered her. “Not really I’m used to more, but unfortunately this library doesn’t have any other good books, so I have to content myself with those.”

‘Why don’t his words face me, why is that I believe his words like they are facts written in the encyclopedia? Did his skills with fire magic really impress me so much?’

“What... why do you look so stupefied? Never seen someone that really loves the art of magic and reading?” Tristan sounded as annoyed as possible as he turned around towards Ai.

Ai, whose eyes were still fixated on the book she had wanted to lend out from the library was finally brought back to live. “Ehhh... Oh... no... not really I actually also love those two things it’s just that no matter how hard I try I would never be able to read that many books in fourth weeks.”

“That you can’t do it, doesn’t mean others can’t” Tristan answered while taking a book from under his tower of books. He reached it towards Ai. “Here you can have it for this week, it’s the book you wanted, right?”

Ai’s eyes glowed as she saw Tristan gesture. “Yes thank you!” she said reaching out for the book out in Tristan’s hands, but all she grabbed was empty air.

Tristan showed an evil smile. “You really are too easy; did you really think I would give you this book so easily?”

Ai’s expression turned dark. ‘Noooo what have I done! Now he has something he can use against me, what should I do?’

“Won’t you even ask what I want from you?” Tristan said waving his hands in front of the petrified Ai.

“Erm... what ... do... you... want from me?”

“That’s way better.” Tristan said with a smile only a real demon could show. “Nothing much, just an apology and you to be my tour guide through the city, I think those are things even someone like you could handle right?”

‘Wait that’s all he wants? I thought he was about to ask for something unreasonable.’

“I bet you thought I would ask for something unreasonable.” Tristan smiled.

‘Wait can he read my mind?’

“No, I can’t, but you are just too easy to read, at least try to make it more difficult for me, ok? And no I’m no villain like you’re trying to picture me, I’m just new to this city, have no friends here and my personality is a bit too much for some people. So I’m looking forward for your tour next Sunday.” Tristan said with a radiant smile and giving Ai the book she was searching.

“...” Ai took the book and embraced it as if it was her lifeline.

“Erm, th- ... thank you very much!” She finally stuttered. “Not only for the book, but also for saving my live yesterday night, I now know what I was trying to do yesterday was really foolish of me.” She bowed towards Tristan, tears in her eyes as the words left her lips.

“And also, ... I’m sorry for humiliating you in front of the whole class earlier this morning. In a spur of jealousy I just did it without thinking... I’m terribly sorry for what I did...” She continued trying to hide her crying face behind her small fingers.

‘Why am I even crying over this? I’m so stupid, crying over something like this... But... How could I be so patty about something as stupid as being the number one in class?! It’s not like only the number one gets a good job later on, and my grades are still more than good enough to get the position I’m aiming for! How could I let out my frustration on this poor boy who just has moved to this big scary city?’

Suddenly Ai felt Tristan’s hand on her head, he was petting her head.

“I’m also sorry, I shouldn’t have teased you so much, but I just couldn’t help since your reactions were so funny.” Tristan also bowed in front of Ai. “I’m truly sorry! I didn’t realize my teasing was weighing down on you so much.”

“Ehh?”

Ai’s big tear filled eyes stared Tristan who was bowing in front of her. She wiped the tears and tried to control the sobbing as she silently observed Tristan, not knowing how to react.

“It’s just that I sometimes like to treat the people around me like one of my magical experiments, I test different formulas on them to see how they react and behave during different situations. Actually, I get a kick out of it... it’s quite funny to see them struggling... Anyways, with you I went a little too far, so I’m terribly sorry.” Tristan said with a warm smile on his face.

“You... you are a demon do you know that?” said Ai puffing her rosy cheeks like a blowfish.

‘If she just knew, haahha’ Schattenklinge laughed merrily. And Tristan answered her with an awkward smile.

“You know, if you used your teasing to get a tour through the city from me... doesn’t that mean you owe me something? Maybe magic lessons? You know so that I don’t blow myself up next time I experiment with spells.” Ai asked with a meek smile, her eyes still red from earlier.

“Fors, why didn’t I realize earlier what kind of woman she is?!” Tristan sighed out loud with a sarcastic tone of voice. “Well, no matter what kind of woman she may be, but I can’t say no to someone who seeks magic knowledge!”

“Really?” Ai said as she hugged Tristan with a jump.

“Really, but only if you don’t crush me before our first meeting.” Tristan said with an over dramatic voice.

“Ohhh, I’m sorry... It’s just I couldn’t help to feel overjoyed when I heard someone as talented as you is gonna teach me!” Ai said, her cheeks turning redder than they already were.

“Well how about tomorrow evening in the same time and place we first met?”

“Sounds good.” Ai answered with a big smile.