"Miss! Miss Adeleine, wait up!" Lavin huffed out frantically as he tried to keep up.
"What is it?"
Her voice came out flat. She couldn't help it. She was hurrying over to her next class: private tutoring that's supposed to be with Kellie.
She still has to meet her new master.
Affinity Mastery would have been fine. She let out an annoyed puff.
"How are you? I heard about the assault."
"Yeah, the whole school now knows."
Lavin bit his lip when he saw her reaction—no emotion, just plain cold. He could guess it was to be expected. She was assaulted by Adhelians, after all. She wouldn't be particularly enthusiastic talking to one of them right now.
He doesn't know the details, but he assumed, it was enough for her to build high walls.
He noticed her hair. "Oh, your..." he hesitantly pointed at her hair. Adeleine understood what he meant.
"Oh this?" She combed a few strands, giving it a blank look. "I fixed it."
Lavin grimaced. The length was short above her shoulders. Other than that, the trim was also unrefined and shaggy, like it was unprofessionally cut by a sword.
To see a Letherian with short hair was such a rare sight. And heartbreaking.
It was like witnessing a human, broken and beaten; a warrior, defeated and enslaved.
Lavin let out an awkward long breath as he ran his hand through his quite lengthy locks. Some elders were bothered that they would constantly remind him of grooming it, even the librarian told him to wash his hair.
"In that case, we match," he cracked a small smile, lifting the few strands that grazed the base of his neck.
Adeleine squinted her eyes. "It's covered in soot."
"The natural occurrence to an object stocked in a library."
Adeleine amusedly huffed out a laugh. "Just say that you spent all your time reading a book that you forgot to take a bath." She reached out to dust out a little from his hair. "It's really thick—"
He stopped her hand. "Actually, a shelf-filled books fell on me a while ago. It was a secluded section so inevitably, it became the candy for dust."
But Adeleine stood there, frozen. "Oh, my apologies, I shouldn't have grabbed you like that," he calmly said and let go, noticing her staring at her wrist.
Adeleine's eyes lingered between his face and back to her wrist. Her expression—indescribable. He felt bad. It was like in the line of horrified and traumatized, but also shocked and dumbstruck.
He couldn't tell; he had a hard time reading faces. He used to be thankful for that since it would keep him from empathizing with people too much. As far as he knows, attachments would only hinder the pursuit of his goals. There are still too many things to uncover, secrets buried hidden, knowledge waiting to be known or relearn.
But understanding the subject would also lead him close to yielding results, so what now?
"I'll be careful next time," he added, only for Adeleine to remain stunned.
Concerned by her lack of response, the awkward wall of silence continued to thicken that he had to break it.
He cleared his throat. "As a token of my sincerest apologies, please allow me to treat for lunch. I insist."
"Ah, yeah, sure."
Adeleine absentmindedly nodded as she snapped out from her brief disconnection with reality. And listening to his voice wasn't helping. She almost fell asleep in the middle of it.
What were they talking about again?
She exhaled between a yawn and a sigh. Her eyes felt like heavy strained bags hung for centuries, dry and weary. She forcefully pinched herself.
"Then I can't wait," he said.
He left while Adeleine tried to ransack her brain of their recent conversation. What did he mean by I can't wait? What did she agree on doing?
She can't have possibly nodded to something she didn't know she was going to do, right? Right?!
She pulled out her hair, trying to remember the bits and pieces of what he said. A groan escaped her lips as she sighed in frustration.
Just what in Nirvana...
She couldn't even remember the time, the date, or the place. NONE AT ALL!
"Student alert! Student alert! Hooonk!"
Oh, no, not the patrols.
Her soul almost jumped out of her skin. The manta flapped around her like a pesky bird. Its sound was blaring through her eardrums.
"Nuh-ah-ah, five demerits for not being in class." The teacher playfully wiggled his finger at her as he petted his spirit beast. "Name?"
Adeleine was too awestruck to speak. Right in front of her was an incomparable pretty face.
He perked up when he saw her. "Oh? The new face. You're quite notorious in these parts, Miss Adeleine la Liga Kleis-Saoir."
He slightly tipped forward to level with her height. There was a slight tease in his voice but instead of a normal blush, Adeleine seemed to snap out of her daze. Her head slowly turned towards him, eyes wide and unblinking. It was almost as if her neck could snap.
Master Rei would be lying if he said that didn't creep him out.
"Did I say something wrong?"
That name...
There's so much that happened during these past weeks that she could barely remember it all, let alone breathe. She knew she forgot something really really important.
How could she forget? Someone added nobility-crap name on her! And one of the four royal family names, no less! And there's only one person who has the audacity to do it.
What is he up to?
"Little Miss Luna, please don't look at me like that. At least, say something." He booped her nose, pulling Adeleine once again out of her inner monologue. "Unless, you would want an additional five demerits for refusal to go to classes."
Adeleine shook her head—as a response but also to clear her thoughts.
"Um, no, master. I was just about to go to my next class."
"What is it?" He tilted his head, so did the manta with its little non-existent snout.
"A private class with Kel— I mean, Master Kellie."
"Kellie... Kellie, hmmm..." he seemed to think for a while as the manta ray circled around his headspace, lazily floating around. Then it occurred to him, "Ah, Marchioness Kellindrea la Eska. Is that her?"
"Marchio Kellie what?" Adeleine blubbered confusedly.
"You know, the female Eska. The heloire with skin dark as night and hair shimmering like a radiant, polished pearl. There's none other like her, so I'm pretty sure you know who I'm talking about."
"Marchioness?" If only it was drawn, Adeleine would have so many question marks around her head right now.
"Yes?"
Master Rei didn't know whether she was genuinely shocked or appalled. Many still were taken aback by how the King graciously gave the former ruler of the Heska clan a high status. However, it was cut short when his manta slapped Adeleine's face with its tail, chanting, "Go back to class, go back to class."
He had to urge the student to continue on her way before it goes on any longer. "Ah, yes, yes, precious pearl, go to class now or that will be five more demerits!"
Seriously, this was the reason why students avoided him at all cost, lest they wanted to end up having zero merits at the end of the semester. All he ever talks about was demerits.
"Off you go now, toodle-oo!"
Despite that, however, he was an undeniably good master, especially in History. Plus, he's very communicative with the students, and that made him very much everyone's favorite... unless they were talking about demerits.
Right, Adeleine should go to their private training session now. She still needed to meet her new instructor. She only hoped they're someone with whom she could get along.
~~
She kicked the grass under her soles. How long was the substitute going to take? She thought they'd be a little reliable since Kellie had faith in them.
Talk about tardiness. This should be ten demerits. Master Rei would be so disappointed at them, much more coming from a fellow master.
The shame.
Adeleine held the sword once more, assuming a stance before delivering quick but messy slashes. Her performance did improve, however, in hindsight, she was barely scraping the surface level.
She already knew she had no talent in it at all. It was a celestial's pity that she even managed to make it out alive in the duel, much more to defeat Hera.
She puffed out a few heavy breaths as she wiped the sweat off her chin. Her shirt soaked on her back, but she kept pushing.
She should have been doing defensive maneuvers right now, but Kellie, who was her usual sparring partner, wasn't here. She sighed as she dropped the sword; her hands were numbed from splinters.
Should she just leave? It felt like she's only wasting her time waiting for something to never show up.
As soon as Kellie gets back, Adeleine swore she's going to complain about them to her.
Let's wait a little more... She told herself, but after this, she's heading straight to the dorms.
She picked the blade once more and tried to position it comfortably in her hands. It was still a little too heavy for her to wield. Kellie said she'll soon get used to it but it doesn't feel it's going to be that soon.
She made two consecutive slashes at the front before thrusting it with a lower stance, earning herself the proper balance to sweep the floor in one full round swing as the finish. The pattern made her fluid compared to the other forms Kellie taught.
The movements resembled each of the element's themes. Of course, water, being flexible in nature, was easiest for her to imitate the motions, albeit, lackluster to other people's performances.
On the bright side, it's better than nothing.
"Wipe that smirk off your lips. If you think you should be proud of that performance, its essence lacked the general versatility it should have."
The girl jumped out of her skin. She whipped her head up to the voice's direction and saw a boy propped on a tree branch, throwing her the most sarcastic upturn of his brow.
"Last time I heard, sneaking up on someone is unethical." She returned the same venomous glare.
"Your stance was too weak, your swing lacks conviction. You're only swinging it because you're only swinging it—that's your mistake. Every attack needs to have your intent, not aimlessly made."
"Ugh, I don't need help coming from you. Why are you even here? Go back to your class, child," she glowered.
Clandes mirrored her fervor. He's not even that short! "I'm just as tall as you. If there's anyone called here a child, it's you."
Adeleine gasped, offended. "Pardon me?"
"Someone as petty and as short-fused as you could not even be considered as a lady."
Petty? PETTY? "That's rich coming from someone who threw me off the window all because of a simple misunderstood mistake."
"Did I lie though?" He raised his brow.
"Of course! That garbage fell over on its own! I had nothing to do with it."
Clandes took one good look at her before murmuring, "Fallacy."
"What?! I- ugh..." Adeleine threw her head back in frustration, running her hand over her face. "I can't- I don't even know what to do with you. Why are you even here?"
The boy jumped down from the branch and gracefully landed in front of her; his fluffy silver hair bouncing under the flecks of the peeking sunlight but his eyes always glared in her direction. He placed a hand on his hips and huffed, which irritated her as he made it seem like she's the tiresome one.
Her eyes went wide as realization of the possibility dawned on her. Then he spoke the words that Adeleine expected but dreaded to hear.
"I'm your master."