Inna saw the way Ulima was looking at her and she felt greatly offended because she knew immediately what he was thinking.
"Okay fine, I was scared but that doesn't mean that I wasn't planning on beating her up! What if I was just having... a warm up behind the door, you know."
Ulima snorted at her lame excuse but said nothing further. Meanwhile, Inna just huffed as she tried to change the subject to the one that was actually more important.
"So, why is she HERE of all places?"
Ulima knew it was going to be another long story so he decided to sit on the side of the bed and made himself comfy with it.
And so, with his eyes checking any movement from May, he spoke.
"So, I told you how she was allowed to enter this Academy. And just like how you did, she also attended the proper ceremony of being a freshman. And she was admitted into the Anemone class, the lower class for Mages because of her power ranking. And so, it was supposed to be that she would attend the preliminary class meeting and then pick a room in her dorm."
Ulima laughed sarcastically as he reminisced.
"But this little runt sneaked out as soon as her meeting ended to visit the Lily dorms, which was quite near in comparison to the other dorms. And she went to disturb me, who by the way had no proper rest for a month."
"When she arrived, she started talking about having a dream that she should be occupying the room at the end of the corridor on the second floor of the lily dorms to practice for her spells. Actually, I would've just treated it as one of her random 'dream' ramblings again since her mom and I were sort of used to her 'gift' but the way she described and maneuvered her way towards the second floor as though she knew the entire layout of the house was truthfully disconcerting. But that still didn't make me believe into her words much."
"I mean, for all I know, she must've asked from her mother what the layout was. That's because my sister used to be a physician in this Academy and she was one of the rare ones who would secretly help the Lily class students."
Then, still seeing no sign of consciousness, Ulima steered his gaze away from May and towards Inna.
"And so, when you decided on that same room, I didn't protest much because I was thinking that May was probably just joking. But then the next day, while you were in class, this runt sneaked into your room during her break to practice magic."
"Actually, I'm surprised it took you this long to notice it. The amount of leftover magical particles in this room is crazy."
But then Ulima paused as he realized something.
"Oh wait, I just remembered you're in starter rank. You can't even recognize concentrations yet."
He coughed awkwardly as he tried to ignore Inna's annoyed look.
"Well, thankfully, your class schedule and her class schedule didn't overlap or else this girl would've been found out immediately. But actually, I tried to tell her to practice somewhere else, like for example her dorm room, but she just said that the rest of the rooms here were haunted, which was quite surprising by the way because I never ever told her about these stories because I feared that she would be too scared to come visit me."
"And she also said that if she did practice outside or in her own room, she figured that she would get too nervous and anxious on whether someone would see her or hear her so she'd surely mess up her spells all the time."
Inna scrunched up her face as she found one thing confusing.
"And she's not anxious that I might HEAR or SEE her given the fact that it is MY room?"
Ulima sighed.
"I don't know the reason why or how but she's somehow okay with you so she didn't really mind the fact that she was practicing in your room."
"But still, to think that she would be found out this way."
Ulima sighed again, this time his shoulder sadly slumped as he gently patted May who started stirring. Then, he stared at Inna with tired eyes as he spoke.
"Although it is quite shameful of me to ask of this, but please just forgive this stupid niece of mine. She's using this room as a sort of comfort place where she could express herself because ever since she was young, she just couldn't figure out how to get along well with people. And somehow it led to her being closed-off and afraid of them."
"Besides, she's just occupying the room whenever you're gone just to practice her magic. Well, except today. But that's because she came to her dorms late only to find that there's no longer any meal leftover for her so she figured to go to me for food. "
Inna was about to speak when the sound of a very soft voice suddenly echoed.
"S-sorry."
May whimpered as she peered at Inna with sad eyes. It seems like she just woke up and she must've heard a bit of what Ulima had said.
Seeing May on her bed, whimpering and down, Inna got reminded of a cute little kitten shivering alone in the cold when she looked at May. So she couldn't help but feel her heart squeeze when she heard her speak.
In fact, whatever Inna was supposed to say got lost into the void of her mind as she tried to appease the sad May.
"Oh nononononono, gurl, it's okayyyy."
She cooed, hoping it would help ease the sadness in May's eyes.
But instead, it made May grab onto Ulima as she tried to rub off the tears that were forming involuntarily.
"I-I'm s-sorry. I… will l-leave n-now."
May sat up slowly as she tried to get off the bed but with the sudden action, she became dizzy and she couldn't help but flop back to the bed.
Ulima hurriedly asked her what was wrong but May just timidly told him that she just felt dizzy.
Seeing their exchange, Inna couldn't help but sigh. She truly felt bad for making that little munchkin sad.
In actuality, she didn't really have a problem with May being in her room. But the least they could've done was inform her about it.
She almost had a fucking heart attack when she thought that a ghost was inside her room so it's only reasonable that she's mad, right?
So, with that thought, she approached May with a friendly smile.
"Don't worry, May. I'm not mad or angry at you. Oh no, not at all. I'm just angry at your uncle for not informing me of something as crucial as this."
The irritation in her tone was practically dripping.
"But I'm really not mad at you. It's actually just the shock that was taking control. After all, who wouldn't be shocked when they wake up and find a stranger in the dark, right?"
"And, actually, I'm okay with you being in my room to practice and such since it didn't really bother me much. But please refrain from sneaking up on me like that. It's really not good for my heart in the long run."
May nodded slowly as she loosened her grip from Ulima.
"I'll just… I'll be more careful about it."
Seeing that her stuttering disappeared, Inna couldn't help but smile in relief.
"And if you can, tell your uncle whenever you're here so that I can know as well, okay?"
She looked reluctant as she peered at Ulima but she nodded obediently after a second.
Seeing that his niece was okay, Ulima patted her head affectionately while he spoke to Inna.
"I'll be sending this little troublemaker back to her dorms now. It's way past lights out and she still has early classes tomorrow."
Inna nodded as she picked up the plates and the food on her desk.
"Yeah, you do that while I clean these up. And, I'll be doing some homework after this so can you keep the spell running? I'm too weak to cast a good illumination spell."
Ulima nodded and after casting a teleportation spell, he disappeared along with May, leaving Inna's room suddenly cold and silent.