Liona Saphira Jems Nightmare entered the giant double doors that were made of gold and are glittering madly when the light was shone to them. Everything inside was placed inside a glass container. These glass containers contain a barrier-type element to prevent the thing they are guarding from getting stolen. Inside the glasses were precious objects that are under the care of the museum, Land Museum.
She hid behind the statue of Cassiopeia Cladmere, the very last huntress. She was planning to ambush the thief that stoles various gemstones from the slaying grounds on the land people's domain. She had to prove that slayers from schools that are built on the Normal Realm are good enough to be called equal to those slayers that attend schools on Slearth. Just remembering for her the conversation she had with the person who made the request, made her blood boil with anger.
"And who are you and where are you from?" the curator of the museum, Mr. Smith asked her when she arrived.
"Good morning, Mr. Smith! I am Liona Saphira Jems Nightmare from North Element School." Saphira cheerfully answered the man.
"Ah, is that so?" Mr. Smith acted with a hint of disappointment. "Well then, as you had read on the request poster that I sent, you had to catch the thief that is going to attack tonight at this museum. The thief is interested in the Lady Blue that we had and tried to steal it last night but failed. The management is anxious that the thief will manage to steal the highlight of the museum so you must absolutely have to protect it at all cost and catch the thief so that the Lady Blue will be safe." he added.
"I fully understand," Saphira responded.
Back at the museum, the moon is already out and shadows are enveloping the area. Saphira is waiting patiently hiding behind the statue of Cassiopeia Cladmere and is thoroughly checking for the slightest hint of movement while hiding her presence and mana. Silence is killing her patience but she had to endure for the sake of fulfilling the mission and for her pride.
Then, out of nowhere, her eye caught a very weird movement. Something is moving on the shadows—or rather, the shadow is moving. This startled her a little. The small shadow continues to move towards the glass case of Lady Blue. A few centimeters away from the glass case, the shadow change shape and a head emerged from it.
A human head?! She thought that this must be the thief that she'd been waiting for hours. Silvery-white spiky hair with turquoise eye color. She nodded inside her head, he fits all the description. She smiled, wait—the face is somewhat familiar to her.
The person's body slowly surfaced and another head resurfaced. "Thanks a lot, partner!" the silvery-white haired boy told the other. "Anytime, partner. Good luck to catching the thief~" the other boy told his companion and the shadows slowly eat him. These shadows quickly moved to the direction of the door and vanished in the dim.
Silvery-white haired boy with turquoise eye color and another boy that she can't distinguish the hair and eye color because of the dim. Silvery-white haired—something came to her mind and she quickly gets up and pointed a finger at the boy.
"What the heck are you doing here, Toshiro?!" she exclaimed. The boy was startled and turned to her. The shock came to the boy and he exclaimed, "Sis Liona?!"
Saphira quickly walked towards the boy and twist his ear. "What do you think you're doing here? And you even came here with the help of Axl, meaning you came here secretly through the shadows. What are you thinking? There is a thief lurking around here somewhere, this place is dangerous. And what's more, you emerged in front of his target!" she scolded him.
"Ow, ow, ow. It hurts Sis Liona. Let go! Let go, please." the boy, Toshiro pleased with almost teary eyes.
Saphira let go of his ear, "Quickly, get out of here! You're going to get in my way here." she said while pointing her hand at the door.
"I don't want to. I want to stay here. I want to catch the thief and prove to everyone that us being chosen by PSYCHE University is not a mistake. I want to prove that even though we're orphans and maybe peasants to the eyes of those Slearth residents, it is not a mistake." Toshiro burst out, Saphira was shocked to know what his dear little brother was feeling. "It is not a mistake, I knew it wasn't a mistake. Because... because I know Sis Liona isn't weak. She's... you, you are strong enough to beat those nobles. I have to—" she cut him off, "I know." she whispered to his ears and gave him a tight hug.
"It seems like the little cry baby of the orphanage isn't what he used to be," she added and hid a smile.
Then suddenly, she felt a human presence. She dragged Toshiro back at her hiding place, the statue of the very last huntress and motioned him to keep quiet.
Toshiro nodded to her and covered his own mouth with his hands.
Saphira peeked a little and found a cracked on the fabric of space in front of the Lady Blue glass case. More cracks appeared and like a mirror slowly breaking, the shards broke to tiny pieces that the naked eye cannot see.
'A space manipulator, maybe?' she thought.
What once see as a very peaceful place now had a hole inside its fabric of space.
The hole was easy to be seen because of the color it had, a mixture of white and gray that can never combine.
A hand emerged from within the hole and moments after, the body follows.
'This is the thief I'm after,' Saphira thought, 'He fits all the description.'
The figure was wearing a black cloak with its hood over his head. He is also wearing a white mask that covers his whole face and white gloves for his hands. He started moving his forefinger in a circle atop the glass case and said, "Open." Two small holes appeared one on the top of the glass case and the other, on the top of the Lady Blue inside the glass case.
"Sis Liona, we have to move now," Toshiro whispered to her. "I know," she whispered back at him.
When Saphira was about to make a move, she suddenly felt a very strong presence. She looked to where this presence was and found a girl of her age standing with a grin on her face. "Not so fast, Lady Blue thief," she said.
The girl was wearing a white uniform with white and gold linings and on the left side of her uniform, the logo of the most famous slayer-school, Sky High Academy was to be found. She has big, bright azure-colored eyes and has long blonde, wavy hair that reaches her hips. Around her left and right side of her head, two short, emerald green colored clothes were hanging on her hair and it seems to dance with the wind that blows through the night. She is also wearing an amulet with the same color as her eyes and on her right hand, she holds a Chinese-styled fan with a tree embroidery in gold threads.
The newly arrived girl opens her fan and said, "Snap, Raize!" The fan on her hand emitted blue lights as it became bigger and the edges sharper. The wooden part of that fan then turns into a straight pole. Then she suddenly seemed to disappear for a moment, and before everyone knows what's happening, she's in front of the thief and gave him a slash.
The thief managed to grasp what was happening just in time of the slash. He jumped backward and landed on a glass case. By doing so, he avoids a critical hit and only had a shallow wound on his right arm. "Right back at you, brat." he retorted back. But then, landing on the glass case triggered the alarm and all lights were turned on. "Tch."
The thief then gets a dagger from within his cloak, "Multiply, Sliff!" The dagger emitted purple light, and he waved it once in the air. With that wave, ten daggers or so Saphira had counted appeared in the air just above the thief. He motioned his hand toward the student of Sky High Academy and the daggers were sent towards her.
It seems like the student hadn't expected him to have such a weapon and so caught her off guard. Just then, a voice is heard, "The 3rd Flame, Wall of the Seven Fire Dragons!" Saphira put her hands on the ground and flames spurt from her hand and moves towards in front of the student and rise a few feet tall defending her from the daggers thrown at her.
The daggers were turned to ashes. The student from Sky High Academy was shocked to see such a powerful technique in the Normal Realm. She looked towards the person who shot the technique with wide eyes.
A girl around her age with bright scarlet eyes that seems like it's burning. Her dark brown hair with red tips are flying and it looks like that of a lioness, giving off a sense of superiority and pride.
"Who are you?" the student asked with awe.
"Set the introductions for later! The thief is escaping!" Saphira shouted at her. This snapped her back to reality, she grasped her weapon tightly and pointed it at the escaping thief, "Snap!"
Water appeared from the edges of her fan and flows to the middle forming a big ball of circling water. "Now!" she shouted at Saphira. Saphira lowered her wall of flames and the student shot her circling water. But they were already too late. The thief already broke another hole from the fabric of dimension. Inches away from the water attack, the thief jumps towards the hole. The circling water exploded when it reached the wall.
Both the thief and his hole disappeared from sight.
"This is all because you're too slow to lower your wall of flames!" the student pointed the blame at Saphira.
"Huh?" Saphira looked at her with small eyes, irritation is coming to her.
"This is all because you meddled, I would have caught the thief if it weren't for your flames! This is all because of you!" the student continued to point the blame at her. Saphira's eye is dimming every moment that passed. "Damn it! My pride, my family's pride, my school's pride, I can see them going downwards. Such a small mission such as this one and all is going out of hand. Damn it! All because of a peasant... all because of—" her tantrum is cut off by Saphira.
Saphira grabbed her by the collar of her uniform and retorted, "Who are you to say those things? Why are you pointing all the blame at me? In the first place, I was the one who accepted this request but you just had to appear and ruined everything from the very start! Your pride? All because of that stupid pride of yours, you're looking down at us?! What right do you have to belittle us? You stupid lump of pride?! Huh?!"
The student slapped away Saphira's hand. She touched her chest and stand with pride, "I'm Azule Xylene Amnalia, a student of the prestigious and most famous slayer-school on Slearth. I'm the next heiress of the Amnalia family. I'm a noble, you peasant!"
"Huh?! Well then, you asked earlier who I am. I'm Liona Saphira Jems Nightmare, just a peasant attending a lower-rank slayer school. And I'm the one who's gonna kick you noble's asses!"
"You two ladies, stop. He's already gone." Toshiro commented, "We failed." he told the two of them with a bored face, his hands inside his pockets and is already walking towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Saphira and Azule both asked at the same time. They turned to each other.
"Don't copy me, stupid noble!"
"Don't copy me, bottom-ranked peasant!"
They glared at each other. Toshiro shook his head, "What are you, five? Instead of bickering at each other why don't you just catch the thief?"
"That's it! Let's see who can catch that thief first." Azule told Saphira with a grin.
Saphira grinned back, "You took the words out of my mouth. Let's compete!"
Azule shrugged. "Just saying though, never did a peasant beat a noble. Never, ever," she said and flipped her blond hair before walking away.
"She left, Sis Liona. What are you going to do?" Toshiro asked Saphira, "Let me guess, you're going to win, right?"
Saphira looked to Toshiro, "You hit the nail on the head."
***
[Three Weeks Later]
"Finally caught you!" Saphira and Azule both shouted in agreement.
The thief was trapped inside a cage made of water, and a rope made of flames is enveloping his whole body preventing him from escaping.
"We should inform the curator and turn him to the authorities. With that, our mission will finally come to an end." Saphira told Azule with a tired face. She was drenched in water and her clothes were completely wet.
"I already know that, don't go ordering me around." Azule retorted with irritation. She rolled her eyes, "I only agreed to cooperate with you because I already have enough of this stupid thief. In the first place, if only you didn't meddle with every single attempt of mine to catch this stupid thief, I would already have finished this mission a long time ago."
Saphira rolled her eyes back, "Huh?" she tried to annoy Azule. "Isn't it you who always meddled with every single attempt of mine to catch this thief? If only you didn't appear, I would have caught this thief the first night I tried to catch him. But whatever, they said the more you bark, the weaker you are." Saphira said with a grin.
Azule raised an eyebrow, "Are you telling that to yourself? Well, it suits you. And anyway, the saying goes the weaker you are, the louder you bark. Anyone could tell that between you and my majestic self, you had the louder bark. It explains the reason why you are so weak. I guess lower-class slayer will never understand the difference in power. Let me explain it to you, the difference between you and I is the same as the gap between heaven and earth. Listen, no matter what you do, you'll never stand next to me. You'll never be my equal and you'll never be the same level as me." she snapped.
Sapira and Azule raised their flags against each other. They would have started a fight if it wasn't for Toshiro who appeared at the scene with Axl.
"Hey Toshiro, who are these two old hags in front of us?" Axl asked Toshiro innocently.
"Shut the hell up!" Saphira and Azule both shouted at Axl at the same time. Axl didn't know how to react. He's thinking that he didn't say anything wrong so he didn't know why the two is snickering at him. "Why?" Axl asked, scared of the two of them. Toshiro tapped him by the shoulder, "Loosen up, they do not eat people and you didn't say anything wrong. The hags are just angry because you slapped them the truth they think that didn't exist." he told him.
"The truth?! Are you brats blind or what? The goddess called me is so ashamed of brats who didn't know the meaning of beauty." Azule retorted to Toshiro.
"Will you shut up for a minute?" Saphira asked Azule. She turned to Axl, "Have you forgotten me? Duh, it's me, Liona. And a warning, don't compare me to this noble narcissist." she told him.
"N-narcissist? Excuse me! I'm just telling the truth." Azule retorted. Saphira waved her off.
"Toshiro, will you inform the requestor and the Empire Knights?" Saphira asked him. "No problem," Toshiro answered and walked meters away from them.
"S-Sis Liona? I'm sorry I didn't recognize you. Err, you're drenched in water and covered with dust. I can't tell it's you, I'm sorry." Axl apologized. Saphira just offered him a smile.
"Hmph!" Azule turns away from them. She is already too tired physically and mentally. All she wants is a hot bath and a whole day of rest.
Saphira and Azule stopped their bickering and went silent. Both too exhausted to fight each other with words. An hour later, the Empire Knights arrived. Toshiro told them the details and let the two girls talked with the requestor themselves.
"Took you long enough for me to request another slayer! Tch, now I had to cancel the request, so much unnecessary trouble." the curator, Mr. Smith said.
"We are sorry to show you such poor performance. The blame lies on us, we truly asked for your understanding." Azule apologized to him.
Saphira thought that she knew well how to talk with people. "Just what you would expect from a noble..." she whispered to herself.
"Are you saying something, Ms. Nightmare?" the curator turned to him.
Saphira snapped back, "Eh? Err, nothing." she answered. The curator raised an eyebrow to her, "Then what can you say about the outcome of your mission? Ms. Amnalia does all the talking so why don't you say something? After all, the two of you finished the mission. It isn't right for her to do all the talking. You had your own mouth, don't you?" Mr. Smith asked continuously.
"Ah? Yes, you're right. Ms. Amnalia is just so detailed that I don't have anything left to say." Saphira answered formally.
"Hmph! Well, I have something left to say. You showed poor performance on your mission. Completing it isn't enough compensation. The museum will be taking your reward money and used it to fix the rooms and things that you wrecked in exchange for not filing a complaint to your schools. Is that acceptable?"
"Yes, thank you for your understanding!" the two thanked him and bowed.
***
Saphira and Liona separated ways. They are running late for the opening ceremony of PYSCHE University. Saphira went back home to the orphanage along with Toshiro.
The orphanage was pretty much old, moss practically covering almost all the walls outside the first floor. It is made in red bricks and is two-story high. The second floor was covered in windows and a single door was placed in the left part of the house. The doorsteps were covered in mud and moss, Saphira had to watch her every step to not slip.
She opened the door and both she and Toshiro entered. The orphanage was covered in dark and the moonlight is their only light source.
"How much time do I have for the opening ceremony, Toshiro?" Saphira asked Toshiro. "You have a whole night to pack your things and travel in the dawn just to make it in time for the opening ceremony," he answered.
"Then I have no time to spare!" Saphira sighed. "This is so frustrating! I want to eat! I want a hot bath! I want to rest! I want to sleep! And yet because of that noble narcissist, I can't do any of them." she sighed once again.
"You sure you have time to whine? Well, good luck to you. See you in the morning, good night." Toshiro said and walked up to the stairs.
Saphira took hours to pack her things that it was almost midnight when she was finished. She had little sleep when dawn came but she had to get off the bed to prepare for their morning trip. She and Toshiro had a silent breakfast and when it was time to go, the woman who manages the orphanage came to see them off. She took care of them like a mother would do to her children but her attitude is that of a grandmother, strict and a perfectionist.
"Be sure to eat right on time. Listen to your teachers and seniors. Be friendly with everyone especially you, Liona. Don't get in trouble and mind your speech. Toshiro, be Saphira's brain and conscience. You know this kid doesn't have a brain, always resorts to violence and doesn't spare a time to think. Really, the most troublesome brats of the orphanage, from today, for a whole year, will attend the most famous university on Slearth..." the woman, Mrs. Laike said. "I'm proud of you brats. Now go or you'll be late for the first batch of teleport-elevator," she told them both and gave them a tight hug.
"You're not being yourself, Mrs. Old-Witch Laike." Saphira retorted. She was given a smack on the head by Mrs. Laike. "And that's so like you," she told Saphira.
Toshiro chuckled, "Two old hags, a witch and a monster." he whispered. "Sis Liona, we'll be late. It's time to go..."