When Mo Yin awoke the next morning, there was a fragrant smell wafting through her room. Sitting up, she blinked her eyes sleepily as she scratched her hair.
"Ah, good morning!"
Mo Yin turned her voice towards the voice.
"You're still here?"
The golden-haired boy from yesterday had taken the liberty to set up a breakfast table on the desk. He made a lot of effort to bring back plates with different dishes on them from the institute's cafeteria. Various breakfast food was displayed on the desk creating an appealing visage.
The golden-haired boy had thought things through last night. There was a week's period to increase his own strength, compare to doing it on his own, wouldn't it be better to seek the help of an expert?
That's right, even though Mo Yon looked no older than himself, the golden-haired boy already firmly regarded Mo Yin as someone to look up to.
The golden-haired boy rubbed his nose, "I didn't know what you like so I got a bit of everything…"
"..."
Mo Yin didn't bother asking the boy why he was sticking onto her. She got up from the bed and headed towards the bathroom. There was the sound of running water which stopped after a few minutes. When Mo Yin came out of the bathroom, she directly sat down on the only chair in the room and grabbed a piece of buttery biscuit off the desk.
She looked at the boy and motioned her hand.
"You're not going to eat?"
The golden-haired boy was surprised by her invitation. But after a few seconds, he recovered and enthusiastically picked up a dish to eat.
As he ate, he would occasionally peek up to looks at Mo Yin. Wanting to take this chance to get closer to Mo Yin, he blurted out, "Um, my name's Chance. If possible, can we be friends from now on?"
Right after saying it, the golden-haired boy—now known as Chance, lowered his head again.
There was no response from Mo Yin. She didn't seem to have even heard him and just continued to eat her biscuit.
Chance bit his lips. Was he too assertive and made her feel uncomfortable? He carefully thought over what he had just said.
Ah, his big brother had once told him that when making friends, you shouldn't have hidden ulterior moves…
Chance's face paled. He actually made such a big mistake.
"A-actually what I said before, um I'm actually having trouble adjusting to my ability and I thought that you were really strong so if you don't mind… would you please help me out?"
"Done eating?"
Mo Yin pointed to the empty plate in his hands. Chance looked at the empty plate in his hand and then glanced at the table that was now cleared of food.
When he was lost in his thoughts, he had actually unknowingly eaten all the food…
"If you're done then follow me."
Mo Yin got up and began to head towards the door. Hearing Mo Yin's words, Chance obediently followed after her.
"Bye."
When Chance had walked sufficiently out of her room, Mo Yin slammed the door shut.
Chance who had just been led out of the room foolishly: "..."
Now that Mo Yin was finally alone in her room again, she decided what her plan for today was. Her main point for coming to Fiver Year Institute was to awaken her ability and to take the institute's resources. Ability, she had ready gotten and there don't be anything worth doing here for another week.
By the time she opened up the door again, Chance had already left. There wasn't anything planned particularly for today so she thought she should check up on her mission target.
Students of the institute can leave the school ground whenever as long as they don't have class.
There was a barrier around the school ground and you can only leave and enter it if you have the institute's ID card on you. Every entering and leaving of the barrier would be recorded down in the system by institute staffs who take turn watching over any changes in the barrier.
The Meilleur Academy that Shen Xiaotong had enrolled in was several cities over from Five Year Institute. If you travel there by normal means it would take at least a full day to reach.
Chirp chirp.
Mo Yin took out with her a little bird artifact or 'Wind Carrier' as Emerald Corp. had named it. When Mo Yin it in the first place, she never really thought to give her artifact a name. Thus Emerald Corp had asked her what her artifact was called, she just decided to give them the naming rights as part of the contract.
The Wind Carrier chirped lively as it was held cupped in Mo Yin's palm. Mo Yin lowered her palms slightly and the Wind Carrier jumped off from her hands to the ground. It pecked at the dirt all lifelike as if it was really looking for insects to eat.
Mo Yin used her ability to shrink herself to be on tenth the size of the little bird. Her ability, although she had some trouble shrinking living creatures that aren't herself, shrinking herself was extremely easy.
"Hup." Mo Yin heaved herself onto the back of the Wind Carrier. Now that she was only a tenth of the bird's size, its back was actually quite commodious. She nestles herself securely among the bird's realistic feathers. The metal feather was actually sharp and brittle, not nice to sit on at all but Mo Yin padded the excess fabric of her clothes underneath her to create a cushion.
After Mo Yin settled herself in comfortably, she gave a command and immediately, the Wind Carrier flapped its pair of wings before soaring into the sky.
Back then when she had made the first five Wind Carriers, she had actually made six cores. Cores are what give the Wind Carrier artifact their ability to recognize their master as well as the designated recipients. The first drop of blood allows the Wind Carrier to realize that person as their owner and the rest of the blood that it comes in contact with later on will automatically be registered on its core as 'list of possible recipients'.
Back then she only had five because there were limited materials at hand, there were enough materials to make six cores but there wasn't enough to build bodies for all six of them.
Recently she had gotten her hands on enough material to make more Wind Carriers so she used the sixth core to make one for herself.
Before she and Shen Xiaotong had parted ways, she had secretly collected a drop of blood from Shen Xiaotong when he was still sleeping.
Placing that drop of blood in her own Wind Carrier, it will be able to accurately find Shen Xiaotong's location to deliver a 'message'.
The breeze blew gently by Mo Yin as she was carried through the air by the bird. The feeling of being high up in the sky among the aloof drifting cloud was quite relaxing. Although the Wind Carrier was moving very fast, Mo Yin wasn't affected by the speed at all. She activated the artifacts barrier function to block the wind that formed as they crossed through the sky. It was a leisurely trip, Mo Yin yawned with comfort.
In the span of an hour, Mo Yin had crossed several cities before reaching Sun City. As a city that hosts one of the best academies in the world, Sun City naturally wouldn't be any small backwater place. Sun city was prosperous with a booming economy, it could be considered the capital city of the continent.
"Chirp!"
As Sun City reached within view, the Wind Carrier ducked out of the altitude of clouds and blended in with the common flying critters of the city. It didn't look at all out of place nor did it arose anyone's attention as it flew through the busy homes and streets that were filled with pedestrians.
Meilleur Academy does its reputation justice as one of the best academies in the world. Soon after Mo Yin had entered the city, Mo Yin saw the shining silver gate that marked off the academy's property from the rest of the city.
Lush and well-clipped bushes could be seen in the large garden that was visible through the gate. The healthy green vegetation was accompanied by artistically built fountains that spewed forth glistening and pure water.
The academy building itself was incredibly grand. It lacked not ornaments made of precious materials just on the exterior of the building alone. It wasn't just the grandiose academy building that was amazing, the overall size of the academy's territory was enough to make up half of the Sun City on the map.
There was a barrier protecting the entrance of the academy. Mo Yin has yet to come up with a way to avoid the detection of various barriers so she couldn't directly enter the academy ground. She controlled the bird to land down onto the ground in an inconspicuous corner of an alley before turning herself big again.
Mo Yin shrunk the Wind Carrier to a carriable size before tucking it into her pocket. She then walked out of the alley and head towards the Meilleur Academy gate.
Behind the gate was a booth with glass panels. Sitting inside of the booth doing paperwork was a woman with red lipsticks and dark brows.
There was also a doorbell and a speaker installed by the gate. Mo Yin pressed the speaker button and spoke into it.
"I'm here to visit a friend."
The woman inside the booth looked up slightly as she received Mo Yin's message through an earpiece. She moved her lips and a reply came through the speaker.
"May I ask your name and who you are looking for?"
Before she could let anyone in, she had to confirm the person's identity with the name student first.
Mo Yin though about it. Come to think of it, did she ever tell Shen Xiaotong her name?
"I'm looking for someone by the name of Shen Xiaotong. Er, tell him that his bird savior is here to see him."
Mo Yin directly combined the two most related topic that connects her to Shen Xiaotong. One was saving him and the other was giving him Wind Carrier. Mo Yin felt like it was obvious enough and Shen Xiaotong should have no problem realizing who she was.
"One moment please."
The woman in the both made a call.
Each student of Meilleur Academy was issued a badge pin that essentially had the same function as the Five Year Academy's ID card. A student can be directly reached through the badge pin because of a tiny crystal embedded into it that is connected to a parent crystal. The parent crystal is under the school's control and it is used to contact students as well as to store information.
"Student Shen, can you hear me?"
Around this time of the day, Shen Xiaotong was attending a physical class. It was a class where students are given a chance to learn sets of martial art first. Meilleur Academy looked importantly upon the appliances of martial arts. Afterall a more fit person means a stronger ability user and all academies wished to cultivate great talents.
Shen Xiaotong heard the communication through his badge pin and paused. He signaled his sparring partner that he has something to take care of and headed out of the sparring ground first.
"Mrs. Mcknight, what is it?"
"There's someone at the gate for you. A young girl…"
Shen Xiatong's heart skipped a small beat when he heard that it was a young girl.
Did she come to find him?
The woman continued to talk on the other side, "The young lady called herself bird savior? Do you know her?"
"Heh…" Shen Xiaotong couldn't help but let out a soft laugh when he heard the ridiculous-sounding alias.
It should be her there's no doubt about it.
Shen Xiaotong answered back to Mrs. Mcknight, "Yes, I know her. I'll head to the gate right now."
"Hey, Shen Xiaotong, you finished yet?" The boy that was Shen Xiaotong's sparring partner called out to him. He had light blue hair and blue eyes and held himself in a very confident way despite being a child.
"Sorry, something came up. Find someone else to spar with."
The blue-haired and blue-eyed child wrinkled his eyebrows. He was displeased and wanted to say something. But considering this was someone that he wanted to make friends with, he decided to swallow down his complaints. He humphed and then turned around to look for a new sparring partner.
Shen Xiaotong broke into a light jog as he made his way towards the academy's front gate. To be honest, he had thought about sending a message to this mysterious girl on the second day that they had parted ways. But after toying around with the idea, he still decided not to.
What if he appeared too clingy…? In the end, he had decided to wait for the girl to contact him first instead.
Even if that person is not here, he would often find himself thinking of her. Shen Xiaotong had never felt like this before. Towards this mysterious girl, he held not only gratitude but also a lot of fascination.