It was a peculiar reaction.

Iris Ofashe felt her curiosity rising as the peppy girl in front of her remained in her seat, unfazed by her comments. Normally the reaction people had to her was them threatening her or them leaving her alone. The latter was generally more preferable as she liked to be left alone. But here was an anomaly, a person who took what she said and didn’t think much of it. It had never happened to her before.

“...my story.” She finally replied, musing about the question Miieie had asked her point blank.

How could she answer such a question?

She was a commoner. Unlike the nobles that made up 90% of the school’s clientele she didn’t have any great story to tell. By the moon and the stars, she didn’t even have anything in common with the commoners in schools like Minerva’s. She didn’t have a legacy to upkeep like a noble heir would nor did she have the expectations to become great to uplift her menial family from poverty like most of the commoners accepted into imperial academies did. Her family didn’t even want her here. She wanted to be here. It was her choice.

“Why?”

The girl slid her food to the side of her. “Just wanna get to know you.”

She sighed, “I don’t have a story.”

“C’mon. Everyone’s got a story.”

Miieie was certainly persistent and strange. Even accounting for someone being out of their element, for the entire day there had been nobody willing to sit with her either here or in the study hall for longer than a few minutes. That was the intention. Keeping people at distance was something of a skill Iris had curated for years. If you kept people from being close to you they couldn’t bother you. She had no intention of changing how guarded she was now, not even for a moment.

“I was born and now I am a student. That is my story. Are you happy now?”

The girl was unfazed, which given her need to overstay her welcome did not surprise her.

“Yeah, but like, where are you from?”

“Here.” She curtly responded, “Rosenfel. It’s not important.”

It was a little nugget of information. Her life in Rosenfel hadn’t been incredibly interesting nor did she care to wax on about her entire life; her parents, why she wanted to go to school, or any of the things between either. She had convinced herself that it was all irrelevant to the path she chose to embark on going forward, so she didn’t need someone else pretending it was interesting.

The girl grinned widely as she seemed to finally drag something of use out of her. How annoying. “Wow, so you’re a bonafide local. Do you know Endimi Bakery?”

Yes. She knew of one of the most prolific bakeries in the Trade District. What did that have to do with anything?

“I got some of these tiny, cute cake things on my way here and they were super good.” She smiled, “You wanna go get something?”

“Sure.”

Iris wasn’t used to acclimating to someone else, but if it got the green-haired girl off her back she was fine with it. Plus, she didn’t particularly enjoy the school’s chosen diet for her, so having something better to eat felt like a cool plan before setting off for the dorms. Besides, she was done writing down her notes, so it wasn’t like Miieie was wasting her time.

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“Awesome! Let’s get goin’!” The taller girl shouted, almost like a celebration.

It didn’t take long for the two girls to stand up from their seats and dispose of their food trays before setting off for the bakery. Unsurprisingly, Miieie decided to use the time to talk about herself and Iris found some relief in not having to answer a bunch of awkward questions about Rosenfel or her exact experience with her hometown. Instead the topic diverted to Miieie’s experiences and things started to make a little more sense for the blue-haired girl.

“So, I’m from Skilma. It’s pretty different.”

“Yep.” Iris remarked, recollecting the cartographical data she had studied, “It’s a five day voyage to the south.”

“Wow. Yeah, that’s how long it took!” Miieie exclaimed, “How’d you know that?”

“I can do math.”

As her remark sent Miieie into giggles, Iris retreated into her head.

Given her particular lack of physical aptitude, Iris had always prided herself on her knowledge. When she wasn’t forced to be home she was at the library, learning new things, studying as hard as she could to get into the academy. She didn’t have the resources to do much else, so if it came down to knowing things she was sure she would come out on top. She still wasn’t sure how well she did on the exams–what percentile she ranked in–but she didn’t care about being on top. The goal had always been to get into the academy and use it to make her life better.

She looked closely at Miieie, the way she carried herself and the way she talked; there couldn’t have been more of a difference between them. Despite both of them being born to nothing, they really looked and felt like opposites. Iris was from the city and was enamored with knowledge; Miieie was from the middle of nowhere and looked like she was allergic to books.

“How well did you think you did?” Iris asked.

“On the test?” Miieie seemed to contemplate it for a moment, putting her hand up to her lips, “Um… well I got in, so it couldn’t have been that bad.”

“Well, the results will likely be mentioned in class tomorrow.”

The green-haired girl nodded, “Right.”

“Gotta admit, I’m really nervous.”

It made sense, Iris supposed. Even with all of her confidence, she was pretty far from home. A big city, a giant prestigious academy, a load of expectations. However, what didn’t make sense was what the girl would tell her next, so much it sent her into pause.

Miieie turned to look at her, with a big toothy grin as she scratched the back of her head. “I don’t wanna get expelled for falling asleep in class. Got in trouble for that a lot back home, ehehehe.”

What?

What?