Just like that, three days went by, and the freshmen's first nightmare had ended. The practical exams were left but only after a month. But the one-month winter vacation was taking a lot off from their mind.

The students formed groups, making plans together for the vacation. Some wanted to just visit their families and train for the upcoming test, while others wanted to spend some time with their friends as well.

"So, I was planning on going to Barl?"

Eliza said, as she looked at her friends walking beside her.

"Then, what? Do you need a medal for that?"

Flynn mocked her and immediately got a roundhouse kick from her.

"I didn't ask you."

She then looked at Rose and Irene and both shook their heads.

"Sorry. The coronation ceremony is near and I don't think my father will approve of me leaving the capital for now."

Rose, being the second born and the only princess of the kingdom, had an important role, mainly to manage some events, go to tea parties and maintain her image as the beautiful, loving, and sweet princess.

"I will pass on the offer. The guild wants me to take on some work and I want to be fully prepared for the test. Maybe next time and I promise to go wherever you want."

Irene felt bad for rejecting Eliza because she had done this for the third time in a row. The guild needed her, but not desperately so she could skip, but the results from the exam would rearrange their ranking.

Irene wasn't obsessed with being No.1, though losing her No.4 spot would feel bitter. But the main reason was she wanted to be even stronger, not than Flynn and Blake but the person she was on that day.

Irene didn't want to get left behind and maybe in the future stand alongside rather than behind his back, helpless and a coward.

"Don't worry, I am not angry towards you guys."

Eliza understood their situation because she herself was facing some of her own. The only difference was she wanted to run away from it.

It had been four months since her mother's disappearance and everyone, including her father had lost all hope. The more he searched, the less he felt confident. He had to be strong and the best way he found it was to accept the fact that the love of his life had left him.

The Lions were about to organize a funeral for Eliza's mother during that time, which Eliza didn't want. She believed somewhere out there, her mother was finding and fighting her way out of whatever mud she was getting stuck in.

Stopping searching for her and losing all hope, felt like cutting the rope she held on to get out. However, deep inside, even she could feel the glimmer of flames start to die down.

She felt Irene grab her hand and Rose patted her head.

'Everything is going to be fine.'

Their gestures said, 'cause they knew what she had to cope with and had been doing so for a while. Flynn also knew that is why he didn't tease her anymore, but it did feel awkward to be the only boy in the group.

As he thought that, he saw his best friend, just outside right at the corridor outside their canteen, talking with someone who he wasn't quite fond of...even he didn't know why.

Harper, Gabriel, and Levi stood in front of the cafeteria. It seemed they were talking, until Levi noticed the group, from the corner of his eyes. He said something and Harper looked at his friends with a smile.

For some reason, everyone in the group just stopped in their tracks, forgetting they had to go to the cafeteria and just glanced at the three boys. Soon Levi said his goodbye to Harper and walked away with Gabriel, who had been wanting to move for a long time.

"You seemed quite close with those two?"

Flynn said like a jealous housewife, and he wondered why he asked that.

'I wanted to ask him about how he did on today's test, but my mind-' His mind and heart's communication didn't match up.

"I wouldn't say close but I guess I feel comfortable talking with Levi." Harper and Levi being teammates, they needed to communicate with each other. Unlike his other teammates Jack and Yuki, communicating with Levi was easy.

"But Gabriel, he doesn't like talking with me."

Harper looked at his friends,

"Or any of us."

These five, Gabriel and Blake, had been studying in the same institution since their childhood, but never had Gabriel tried being friends with them. Blake also didn't seem to care either.

"He had always been like that."

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Rose said, as she always used to see Gabriel alone and not interested in them or anyone at all. Nor did she care. Though her curiosity about Levi increased daily.

At first, she only thought of him as a handsome dude and later on a good archer, seeing how well he performed on practical lessons and now-

Each time Irene and Eliza would see Levi, there would be a subtle change in their demeanor, trying to hide it, which made it even more obvious for Rose, but now Flynn too.

"So what were you talking about with Levi?"

Rose was being nosy, the three thought, though they deep down wanted to know the same.

Harper, innocent, didn't mind the question.

"The practical exams are after a month and our team is well... except Levi, I don't have any sort of chemistry with the other two. Our teamwork is bad so, just to compensate for that, I thought maybe me and Levi should train together. you know so, we can be ready."

Though the contents of the exam hadn't been decided yet, the students had a general idea of what would happen from past experience.

"And did he agree?"

Rose asked further.

"Yeah, we decided at the last week of our vacation. I wanted to train for the whole month, but I didn't take that into account, he already had his plans."

Harper was optimistic and eager to train with Levi, mainly because he knew Levi's talent and wanted to learn the calmness he showcased in the team battles.

"What plans does he have?"

Rose asked again and even Harper could tell, she was being a bit too nosy.

"I don't know."

He shrugged her off.

"He didn't tell me and he didn't ask me. It probably would be just taking simple breaks or training or maybe meeting his family." Many students did the same, so maybe Levi also would do that.

Rose didn't ask any further nor did anybody else as they walked into the cafeteria, talking about how they did on their exams.

But on the back of the mind, everyone questioned one thing- Levi and his plans.

******

"He looks miserable."

"Not just looks, he is miserable."

Rika said, sitting on Levi's shoulder, opposite to the central eye glaring at her, for taking its spot.

Levi shook his head, as he watched Jack under the same table, in the same room, a lot messier and destroyed, since the last time he came here. And he almost didn't recognize Jack.

Overgrown beard, hollow cheeks and the same tainted clothes, he had been wearing for the last month. His face smeared with food and dozens of whiskey bottles beside him and also a plastic bag, with his used adult diapers. And it made the room smell so bad, it reminded Levi of time, when he fell into a monster's dung.

Jack, hearing ruckus, turned his head

and looked at Levi. His dead fish eyes showed a glimmer of light as he clasped his hands,

"God? Finally you have responded to my wishes. Take me away from this cruel world and rip this curse out from my soul."

Drunk and mentally exhausted, John hallucinated. Being in such a state for such a long time and no response from the only hope to save him, really deteriorated his mind.

Levi walked, pinching his nose and then slapped the lights out of John. The force behind the slap almost made him lose his consciousness, but the drunkenness in his eyes started to clear away.

Rika, shocked, would have probably started speaking to someone else if they did it, but it was Levi. She had never seen his power, and had no wish of seeing it.

John squinted his eyes.

"Levi"

And touched his swollen cheek,

"I thought you wouldn't return, after the bullshit plan you made."

Though ridiculous, all his hope relied on that plan and the boy who promised to execute it. He had been waiting under the table, counting every second, for any message or news but not even a single word reached his ears and he started doubting if he really could survive this curse.

He again looked at Levi, who had a brown trekking backpack, a brown hat, wearing some black t-shirt and blue trousers. Only odd thing was, Levi wore the most expensive spatial ring, John himself had bought in an auction and planned to sell for 100 million Dale.

It meant-

"Are you heading to the mermaids?"

John asked as Levi and Rika both nodded.

For the journey, Levi needed a lot of items and artifacts for it, well maybe only 90% of what he bought, the other remaining, he just bought for himself.

And it wasn't buying, he just listed the item to Rika who had control over John's business. Nobody would question her taking anything and she stored all of it in the 100 million Dale spatial ring, and Levi gladly accepted.

But John didn't like Rika nodding,

"Why did you nod too?"

"I am going as well" S

he said in a squeaky but at the same commanding voice, filled with resolution.

John's face went bleak. His precious pet and best friend leaving him added more misery to his already depressing life.

He hurried out from the table, hitting his head on it and gently grabbed Rika.

"What? When did you-we decide this? And I don't think there is any reason for you to go? Right?"

He looked at Levi, who just walked out of the room.

"I have to go. The relic in my eye, if I take it out and give it to Levi, the curse will spread to him as well. Levi said I was some sort of "glitch" keeping the effect of the curse only to you but not in a devastating way yet and the curse hasn't reached me yet because of you."

Rika and John both were glitches holding the curse, else if somebody else, they would have already met their end, but their glitch would end soon and John would pay the price first.

The parrot didn't want that, its owner and savior dying, because of its mistake.

Before John could say something again, Rika rubbed her head on his fingers. Her endearing behavior made John's lips quiver.

"If the plan doesn't work, both of us are going to die either way and one of us has to go. You can't, not in this state."

John did understand her need to travel with Levi, cause he couldn't.

If he did the curse would follow him, indirectly affecting their adventure, adding further problems to it. Letting a young boy like Levi go made him a coward but he had no choice but his heart didn't want to let Rika go.

"You have to believe John and I need to as well. I am scared. Dying, the thought of separation like this doesn't feel nice and I want to defy it." Rika didn't want her life to end, holed up in a room, blaming herself for her mistakes. She wanted to make amends and now had a chance.

"And I believe in that boy, in Levi."

Levi never once, when he talked about the plans with her, showed fear nor wavered. She couldn't tell, he wasn't hiding it. He simply didn't feel it.

However, Rika saw the ray of belief, absolute belief in himself that he could do this.

"Levi could have walked away easily, but instead he got in this mess, to fix it. I don't know why and maybe he does have some ulterior motive. But still- if someone whose fate wasn't aligned to do this, was ready to do so, then why do we the fated ones have to turn away?"

Rika's words lit a flame in John's heart and putting a stone to his heart, he hugged Rika and rubbed his cheek on hers.

"If you need anything, don't be shy to empty the store, but promise me to be safe."

"Aye- Aye captain."

Rika screamed just like in the old days, bridging a chuckle out of John.

"And like the old days, show what the mighty bird of the Pirate of Rivera can do. Conquer the water, the flow of sea, the scary ocean is heaven for me"

"But my heart shall not waver, because defeat is appealing to me."

Rika finished the sentence as they hugged for a few minutes. John then let go of Rika, as he watched her sneak in through a hole in the door, leaving for the journey to change both of their lives forever.