Under the watchful eyes of her classmates, Aayla slowly stood up. What could she say? She had never studied under Ramona at all. Aayla worried that magical lie detection wasn't a skill limited to powerful wizards like Headmaster Marin. Her classmates were magical elites from all over the country after all. The professor could probably see-through serious lies, but the truth was definitely not a good option either. Darn it. She wanted to stay as low key as possible.
There were still several minutes left in the class. Aayla's eyes brightened. As long as she stalls for enough time, class will end and she can leave. Hehehe, she just so happened to pick up some time-wasting techniques during high school that should work on this quarrelsome bunch.
"Hello, my name is Aayla Glowery, and I'm here on a work-study program offered by the university. If any of you are residing at Nafriton Residence Hall on the outskirts of campus, I'll be your head resident advisor for this school year. My latest work with Deputy Heston is helping her run the residence hall, but I'm sure that's not what you all are interested in. What are you all the most interested in?"
"Oh, what's it like to work with the Deputy Headmaster?"
"What is Deputy Heston working on now? Is she accepting any assistants?"
"No! Me first! Where's the coolest place that you went with the Deputy Headmaster?"
"Francis, put your hand down! Your major has nothing to do with ancient history, and all of your questions are boring anyways."
"Says who? So what my is fire elemental magic? I can ask whatever questions that I want!"
"Says me! You should make way for the rest of us that actually have the brains to understand complicated stuff."
As the class began to excitedly quarrel amongst themselves, a few clicked their tongues and disdained from asking any questions. What can a person without any mana learn? Besides, even we in the upper classes haven't heard anything about this girl working with Deputy Heston. Their parents had friends in the world of ancient historical research. If Aayla Glowery was actually important, we would have heard about her by now. So excited over nothing, hmph!
Aayla seriously nodded and pretended like she was trying to quickly answer all of the questions with some decent thought. In reality, Aayla was trying to give good answers, but she wasn't exactly telling the whole truth. She rambled and tried to steer the conversation away from her past.
"Well, the Deputy Headmaster can tune out anything when she's seriously working…"
"The last time that I checked, Deputy Heston was particularly interested in the culture of a Terran empire called "Rome" and its integration with the culture of the Ferreus Empire…"
"She has been to many amazing places, but sadly my parents didn't let me go too far away from them at the time…"
"I can't really talk about that right now. Deputy Heston has strict confidentiality requirements."
"My parents have always had a hard time sending their baby girl off on adventures. Even with Deputy Heston. Speaking of which, what did you hear about that time that she…"
Aayla silently cried in her heart. Some answers were technically not lies, but were very close. Fortunately, Ramona loved to talk about her research. Aayla should have enough tidbits to stitch a couple of convincing answers together. She also kept the students talking as much as possible so she could speak less.
Professor Hartaris nodded his head slightly as class continued. He was pleased that Aayla was taking questions from several students and not giving short, half-hearted answers. This was far more than the few terse responses that he was expecting. Deputy Heston kept her work highly confidential and didn't like answering certain types of questions even after her work was published. Her student appears to be much more sociable. He will definitely ask Aayla more questions in the future.
Aayla secretly checked her watch. Her heart felt like it would burst out of her chest. Just a couple more minutes to go. Could time move any more slowly?!
At long last, the bell rang and class was dismissed. Her next two classes were both labs. Aayla was dreading them all day. Practical magic lessons would be difficult without magic.
Fortunately, the theoretical lesson was the most stressful part of the day. In this world, labs were still just busy work and the teaching assistants were just as bored as they are on Tellus. Even then, most students had to devote all of their focus onto controlling their mana and were exhausted afterwards.
Aayla stayed in the back and pretended to work. Confidence is key. She snuck out of the room as soon as the TA left early. She was a working girl and had to return to her job you know? She absolutely wasn't fleeing from curious students.
The walk back to the residence hall was a bit long. Aayla slipped through the bustling crowds until she finally reached the outskirts of campus. With the students on campus, an empty dormitory greeted her when she got back. Aayla clenched her fists with determination. It was time to decorate! The first event had to be a success. Ramona was getting enough pressure from the other higher ups. The very first item on her list was to distract those pesky gremlins!
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Unknown to Aayla, rumors about Ramona Heston's goddaughter and student flew about the country. Chinebarians had a fondness for gossip no matter their class. Wizards were especially fond of comparing the latest wild stories that they heard. News about the notoriously unsociable star of history and archaeology that wasn't related to her work was rare. Even rarer was Aayla's medical condition and acceptance into Nafriton University.
Far away in the majestic port city of Halcyon, a messenger arrived at the residence of the City Lord, Innello Forolan. With his children and nephew off at school, the residence was fairly quiet. Though he would often meet with the city's officials at Halcyon City Hall, today City Lord Forolan was working peacefully from home. Brief knocks on the door of his office broke Innello's concentration.
"My Lord, there's another message from Christopher."
"Enter."
A well-dressed man with blonde hair entered. Innello took the letter from his hand and began to read it. A pensive look appeared on his face. The blond-haired man silently left the room while his master was busy. A pair of delicate arms wrapped around Innello's chest and a gentle face peered over his shoulder. Innello gently kissed the woman's cheek.
"I'm working, my love. Could you please not distract me?"
"Hmm… who's really working? The one reading while drinking tea or the one who served the tea and brought the letters?"
"It's not all fun and games. Christopher has been doing extremely thorough work these days. You should see his father's smug look."
Rebecca Forolan hummed in response then finished reading over the letter with her husband.
"So, Ramona really does have a goddaughter. I always assumed that she simply created an excuse to stop people from begging to be her godchild, assistant, student or whatever else they're scheming these days."
"Mmhmm."
"There's so little information about her. Sir Vear might be getting overconfident in his son's abilities. Does she really have no mana at all?"
"Our informants in Forest Waypoint confirmed that Miss Glowery appears to have absolutely no mana at all. Headmaster Marin also confirmed that personally, and that she helped the boys escape from the city during that True Order attack."
"So she's the one that Daren's been interested in lately."
Rebecca put her hand on her cheek in thought. Her thin brows scrunched together.
"Still, without magic, that's just… I know that our Daren has never shown real interest in any woman, but as his aunt and Lady of Halcyon I can't just let him be with anyone."
"Becca, relax. According to Christopher, he's not interested in her as a woman, but as a magical anomaly. Daren is as dense as ever when it comes to emotions like love. In any case, Miss Glowery is an interesting person and Ramona's relative. Christopher has arranged for one of his friends to keep an eye on her while she's at Nafriton."
His wife simply nodded and started grumbling about finding Daren a good match. He needs someone to help keep him focused and healthy. Someone that can bring color to his grey life. There are some things that Christopher simply can't do as a retainer.
Absolutely none of the girls in Halcyon are any good. They're all either too timid, too vain, too greedy or too imperfect in some other way. Maybe the girls in other cities are better if they're not already taken. It's so hard being a matchmaker these days.
A look of pity passed through Innello's eyes. Daren's going to have more portraits and profiles to look through when he's back. There's no stopping Rebecca when she gets this determined. At this point Innello will approve of almost anyone as long as she makes Daren happy and is not like his sister-in-law.