Agnes could hardly believe it. They were brought by force to the Tower to be abandoned. That wasn't possible. She also noticed Eizan had been very busy as of late; did he really think he had a chance to shine? She flashed an irritated look at the nurses, whom she almost terrified to death, and they cowered immediately. Coming to the Tower was a good thing for her anyway; if it wasn't, Meredith wouldn't have been able to bring her away even if she grew two heads and a pair of wings.
"It was unexpected that your family allowed you to be brought in so easily," Meredith said behind her, talking of the devil. She glanced at the nurses, and they heaved a sigh of relief as they scurried away. She was mostly shunned and scorned by all at the Tower, but now she was suddenly a saving grace to them. What a turn of events! "The infirmary is not your dorm; stop hindering the nurses from doing their work."
"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Agnes asked with contempt. Her throat tightened, and she was slammed against the wall. As she tried hard to breathe, she discovered that Meredith hadn't moved an inch.
"You are my senior," stated Meredith, "but I am not here to ridicule you but to offer you a chance as an apology. My master placed a task in the quest hall; don't you want to check it out?"
Agnes scoffed. Did she think she was that naive? Her master's infamy had spread across the four kingdoms, although her family wouldn't care who she learned under if she was a priority. She cared, and she wasn't going to fall into an obvious trap. "It does not interest me; you can go on your little way now," she dismissed, but a smile blossomed on her face. Strange. There must be something the older girl was withholding. "When you change your mind, you know how to find me," she said as she disappeared into thin air while she dropped to the floor, gasping for air.
Agnes threw on the Tower's robes and quickly found her way to the quest hall. As expected, it was bustling with people; she didn't fancy crowded places. With an objective in mind, she quickly browsed through the available tasks for the one Meredith brought up and found it at the bottom rung; it offered a lot of academic points for a lower-grade task. Her eyes constricted—what?! She was expected to work on a farm! "Ha ha ha!" she burst into mad laughter, attracting a few curious stares.
The audacity! Agnes flung the task roll away in anger, but being a magical item, it vanished before it hit the ground and appeared in its previous position. She stormed out of the quest hall brimming with righteous anger; she was from a noble family only under the royal family of Atlath! Even they would hesitate before asking her to do menial labour. Work on a farm! Preposterous!
"Mmm? Agnes?" Someone called out her name as she stood outside the quest hall fanning herself; all that anger made her sweat a little. "You are here for a quest?" Eizan asked, and her eyes immediately went to the person glued to his back. Both were carrying baskets and farm tools, but the person behind him wanted to avoid being seen with them. Her eyes slid back to him before she replied, "You chose the farm task?"
Eizan shrugged: "It has the highest academic point reward." As if that were enough reason to pick a demeaning task, then again, he was a servant. He turned to the person glued to him who tried to turn with him and said, "Let's go." The boy nodded unabashedly, but his head swung in every direction, looking for possible spectators. His eyes met hers, and she was surprised to find strong enmity in his eyes.
Agnes racked her brain, trying to remember when she must have met such an unimportant figure. There was only one set of people who were in conflict with them, the bordering villages and towns of Dluugotha, but he didn't look like a country bumpkin. Having found no answer, she tossed the matter aside; she hadn't forgotten her original objective. Meredith must pay for ridiculing her!