Once the bright light disappeared from their line of sight, they saw what they did before the Battle Test: the auditorium.
"So, the Test is over…" Shu thought out loud as he looked around the auditorium. He saw everyone who was there from the beginning of the test.
"Brother!" Shu heard that all too familiar voice call him. He turned around and saw his dear sister, Kaede. She looked in pristine condition.
"Hey! So, how did you do?" Shu asked her.
"I passed! Well, at least I beat my opponent. Did you win, as well?" She responded and asked her brother back.
"Yeah, but very barely. I mean, it was sort of scary, if I'm being honest."
They both looked around them at the same time and saw that around half of the people who took the test looked…perfectly fine.
"Welcome back, everyone." Akio started talking. "The Battle Test has officially ended." He took a sip of the glass of wine he still had in his hand.
"For those of you who made it, congratulations! There's now only one more step to officially enroll into Rose Academy!"
The Makahoushi siblings both looked excited. They'd both passed, so they were both happy because of that.
"For those of you who didn't pass, I am sorry that you lost your chance. You can try next year, though, so do not worry about that. Also, as all you can possibly tell, you have all been healed. We were originally supposed to have healers around when you guys returned so you could head, but we ended up activating a spell instead that would allow you to heal automatically just to make it more convenient for everyone."
Akio was correct. Everyone was on perfect condition.
"Well, that marks the end of the Battle Test. For those of you who made it, you were the final group to do so, so be glad that you made it!"
"Oh, there were more groups? This really is a big school, huh?" Kaede said to herself.
"Now, for everyone who made it past this Test, tomorrow, the day before the school year begins, will be the day in which you get to choose your dorm and some of your classes. Thank you for your time, and we hope you have a good day!"
After a few minutes of Akio's final words, everyone was walking out of the auditorium back to its entrance that connected to the school's main building. Shu and Kaede were no exception, obviously, making their way towards the same entrance as everyone else.
"Phew. We finally made it past that point…" Kaede acknowledged.
"Yeah…but at least we made it past the hardest part!"
Shu and Kaede stopped walking for a second and high fived each other. Then, they kept walking.
Once they fully exited the hallway towards the auditorium's entrance, they started walking a certain direction until out of nowhere…
Crash!
Someone was running very fast towards the siblings and ended up crashing into Shu and Kaede.
"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't see you." Shu said, apologizing to the person that crashed into him in front of the other students.
"Ow…please watch where you're going next time…" Kaede said as she was rubbing her head due to pain she felt.
"Oh, it's okay. It's my fault. I wasn't loo-" the person who had crashed into Shu suddenly stopped talking and looked towards him. Shu did the same when she went silent, and their eyes met. Kaede also looked towards that same person.
Shu and Kaede were shocked. This wasn't a stranger. This was someone they knew!
"Sa-Sasha?" Shu asked with a slightly confused tone.
"Oh Shu! It's you! I've been looking for you!" The girl named Sasha replied to him.
"Sasha! It's been so long!" Kaede joined the conversation.
"Oh, Kaede, hey! Yeah, it sure has, huh?"
Shu, Kaede, and Sasha all stood up and walked near each other. Of course, they hadn't seen each other in forever, so talking to each other was the obvious thing to do.
"It's so surprising to see you here. I didn't know you were enrolling in Rose Academy as well." Shu said towards his childhood friend.
Her name is Sasha Sonomari. She's someone who was very close to Shu and Kaede due to being their childhood friend. She was the same age as Shu, making her 2 years older than Kaede. She had beautiful dark green hair and the same color eyes. She was also relatively tall for a girl, albeit not as tall as Shu, but taller than Kaede. She also had relatively large assets.
"Yeah...I'm surprised too." Sasha responded to him.
"I'm surprised too, but you do realize that you missed the Battle Test, right?" Kaede told Sasha.
"Oh no I know. I already took it a few days back. I was with another group."
"Oh okay. So does that mean that you finished the whole admission process?"
"Yes, I did. I'm officially a student at Rose."
"Well, congratulations!" Kaede told her.
As they were talking, Shu realized something specific.
"Now that I think about it…" Shu started. "When you ran into me, you said "I've been looking for you!". Why did you say that?"
Sasha responded after he finished. "Oh right…about that…"
She started once again. "I knew you we going to be enrolling here at Rose." Sasha told the siblings.
"Huh?!" Shu exclaimed. "H-how did you know that?!"
"Your grandfather told me. He's the reason I enrolled here."
"Um…why exactly?" Shu asked.
"Because of the contract." Sasha said back at him.
"Huh…? Contract?" Shu asked once more. As of right now, he had no idea what she meant.
"Yeah, brother. Don't you remember? Your contract." Kaede told him.
Shu tried to think about what Sasha meant, but he couldn't think of anything. He put his left hand over half of his face as he attempted to understand what she really meant by "contract."
"I'm sorry…but I don't remember."
"What?! Are you serious?!" Sasha exclaimed at him.
"Yeah…I'm sorry…"
Sasha put her right arm over her head. "You've got to be kidding me." She lowered her hand. "Our contract, Shu! The contract between our families!"
Once she said this, Shu finally realized.
"Oh! That! I'm terribly sorry. I couldn't remember for some reason…" he said while putting his other hand over his head, disappointed at himself.
"At least you remember. That's all that matters." Sasha said with a sigh and smile of relief.
"So, it's finally time for that to happen, huh?" Kaede asked Sasha.
Sasha looked at her to answer her question. "Yeah. Your grandfather told me that the day is getting closer and closer and due to that, he made me come all the way to the Magic Side and basically leave behind my school and all my friends."
"Yeah, we basically did the same." The siblings responded at the same time, looking at each other and giggling afterwards.
"So, because of these reasons…"
Sasha walked a few feet away from Shu and Kaede. She turned around and stood perfectly straight and gave a very formal bow, pointed towards Shu, specifically, while having her hands one on top of the other over the skirt she was currently wearing.
"From this day forward, I will be working alongside you as your maid." Sasha said while she was still in a bowing position.
Shu was embarrassed at her saying this, especially since this was all happening while there were still people around their vicinity.
"Y-yeah, got it. You can stop now..." he said out of embarrassment.
Sasha walked back towards the siblings. "So, now that it's been said, what will be your first orders for me, Shu?"
Shu obviously knew about the contract that he would have to eventually "sign", but he was not ready at all for it. He always thought something along the lines of "that will never happen!" or "it'll take a long time for that to happen!" The fact that they were currently talking about it didn't feel right to him.
"Oh, uh…ugh fine." He started, trying his hardest to think of his maid's first order, until he finally got something. "…your first order of business is that you will treat my sister the same as me. You will treat her as you other…" he tried to think of another word, but just couldn't and ended up saying a word he hated being called: "Master…or M-mistress, in this case."
"Alright then. You will both be treated as my equal masters." Sasha bowed once again, albeit her motion being floppier than her previous.
People were still looking, but at some point, they somehow stopped caring and walked away.
"Y-yeah okay, that's enough…" he finally told her.
Sasha came back up from her bow.
"The second reason I've been sent here this early is because they told me that I need to train how to be a great servant towards you, Shu."
"Y-yeah…sorry. I'm not prepared for this yet…"
Shu, Kaede, and Sasha started walking from the auditorium's main entrance. They talked a bit more as they exited the academy and planned to take a stroll around the area around it. But something happened that no one was expecting.
Out of nowhere, Kaede fell to the floor on her knees and started coughing uncontrollably in the main entrance.
Shu saw her sister in pain and quickly ran towards her. She was walking behind both him and Sasha, for whatever reason.
"Kaede! Are you ok?!" Shu said to her sister who out of nowhere, looked very ill.
"I'm…fine…Out of nowhere, I just-" she started coughing again, putting her hand over her mouth as she did so. Once she stopped coughing, she uncovered her mouth and instinctively looker at her hand. There was…blood over it.
"What the…" Kaede stared at her hand with a face that showed fear. She couldn't comprehend what was going on.
Sasha stared with a worried face as she lightly ran towards Kaede.
"What's going on?" Sasha asked both siblings that were currently on their knees on the ground.
"I don't know myself, Sasha. I felt extreme pain within me for a second, and the very next one…well, you saw what happened." She responded with a low voice. Once again, she felt extreme pain within her body but this time, she put one of her hands over her stomach and one on her head.
"What could be causing thi-" Shu stared at Kaede for a second as he realized what the cause of her sudden pain could've been. "Could it be that the Neutralizing Serum still in effect?" Right when he said this, both Kaede and Sasha's facial expressions became shocked.
"Neutralizing Serum…? I completely forgot about-" she coughed again as she had a hand over her head.
"Neutralizing Serum?!" exclaimed from behind him the childhood friend. "Why would you be messing around with such a dangerous item?!"
"We weren't messing around with it." Shu said with a serious tone as he looked at her. "My grandfather summoned us to a new SR mission that required taking care of Nefarious, and the mission led to Kaede getting hit by the serum because she covered me. I was distracted so she defended me. It's my fault she's like this…"
Shu felt something over his hand. "Don't say that brother. I covered you because I felt that I needed to. It's not your fault…" Her sister said while she held his hand.
"Thank you, but…what are we supposed to do about that?" Shu attempted to think about a what they could do to make her feel better but couldn't get any good ideas.
"Um…actually, there might be something you can do." Sasha told them.
"Th-there is?" Shu responded to her.
Sasha nodded while she said "Mhm." "In case you don't know, there's a forest behind Rose Academy, and if I recall correctly, there's a hit spring somewhere within the forest."
"Huh? Thanks for the offer, Sasha, but I don't think it's time to take a bath."
After Shu retorted with this comment by fully realizing what she said, she responded back: "oh no it's not for you." She let out a small giggle. "This is a special hot spring that's usually called a "Purification Spring."
"A…Purification Spring?" Kaede had to ask.
"Yes. From what I've heard people say, this spring has the ability to heal and cure a vast number of illnesses. I think it might help you feel good again, Kaede."
"Oh really? Now that I think about it, that sounds pretty familiar." She didn't know where she heard it from, but something about what Sasha was explaining gave Kaede a strange sense of déjà vu.
"In fact, you can probably go right now. The outer entrance to the forest is still open. It's only 12:45 pm, so you should have plenty of time to find it. The forest is big, but it's not as big as you might think. I would love to take you there, but I have something I have to attend, so my apologies." She bowed once again.
"P-please stop bowing so much…it's a bit uncomfortable." Shu told Sasha. Wait, did I just give her an order?
She returned to her original standing position. "My apologies. I'll try my best to refrain from committing said act."
"You know, you can just talk to us as your friends, right?" Kaede now told Sasha another order. I just gave her an order…it's weird to give orders to someone older than me.
"Is this "forest" even safe?"
"Yeah, you should be fine. It's mostly used for specific classes in Rose, so there isn't much to worry about."
"Alright then. Well in that case, please tell us where the entrance is because I don't know where to go from here." He gave Sasha her last "order" for the time being. Of course, this wasn't so much an "order", but more "asking your childhood friend a small favor", as you do.
Shu could just tell Sasha to do whatever he wanted for himself, but something about having your childhood friend be your servant just felt…embarrassing. Of course, Sasha also felt embarrassed due to the situation. But it was an inevitable situation for the both of them. They did have to eventually fulfill their contract, after all.