The morning light shone in the between spaces of the sole tree of the Basford Home of the Unwanted backyard. Despite the orphanages critical financial situation and overall lack of yearly stability, the land at which the orphanage was built—and owned—was much larger than any building or housing establishment had. A beautiful expanse of lush green that stretched all the way to the horizon
Okay, well, I guess that's a bit of a stretch, Lieren thought as he flipped a page, his eyes scanning the book he was holding.
Lieren liked where he was, the solidarity, the isolation, and, Lieren thought idly, the silence. He entrusted his back on the rough bark of the large oak tree behind him, laying peacefully and quietly. A satisfied sigh escaped Lieren's lips.
"This is the life." The orphanage was currently taking a break from all industrial and work-related activities to process all of the children's Adornments; all of the Adorned children were currently undergoing a test—both magical and literary—to examine the possible career paths now open to them. Lieren, of course, is not part of said examination.
"I'm just an Insig, after all." Lieren muttered to himself, sucking in a big breath and heaving yet another big sigh, this time, however, filled with self resignation and loathing. "If only I could have been Adorned like the others…" He let the thought trail off, going back to hid book.
A few minutes passed, the sunlight shifting slightly west. A dark shadow loomed over Lieren's head from a familiar head of black hair.
"Good morning, or should I say noon? Lieren." Minasaki chirped with a teasing gleeful voice.
"Hello, O great powerful mage. What compels thee to bother this lowly creature on this bright sunny day." Lieren muttered grandly, his gaze not leaving the worn-out pages of his book. His voice sounded somewhat…scornful, maybe angry, or even furious. Either way, he is clearly not in the right state of mind to deal with this, nor does he plan to.
"…What?" Minasaki raised both brows, yes widening and mouth hanging. She was about 10 years old; they both were.
"Never mind." Lieren responded (gave up) and flipped a page.
Minasaki snatched the book from him, hiding it behind her. Lieren tried pull back, of course, but found himself giving up midway and letting Minasaki take the book, falling to his knees, then face.
"Why do I even try?" He said to himself. To Minasaki, he looked like a sack of rotten potatoes trying to ripen itself somehow.
Minasaki crouched beside him, holding the book to her chest. "Are you worried about the result of the Adornment?" She muttered quietly, her words drifting in the cool breeze.
Lieren suddenly stood up. "Worried?" He stared at Minasaki intently. "You think WORRIED even begins to describe the state I'm in right now?!" Minasaki leaned back but did not look away from Lieren's furious eyes. "I' mortified! Horrified, even. This was it. This was the only chance I had, the one thing I was supposed to do right. The one contribution I was gonna make to the orphanage—the only home that I've ever known!"
Lieren pivoted out of the shade, his scrawny face catching the morning light. He hung his head down. "I'm not good at manual labor. I' not good at calculations. Heck, I'm not even good at reading. It's like Lady Barett always said; I'm slow. I'm weak, and I'm pathetic. She would always follow it up with some on-the-spot impromptu made-up reason to try and convince me, but you know what?! She's right. I'm all of those and worse. Much worse. I think highly of myself. I rely on others for everything, but act like I'm the one that did all the work. I think of others as below me. My arms are essentially noodles stuck to my torso, and I always think I know better, even if others say I don't." The broken boy sputtered rapidly, each insult broke a piece of him like a shattered mirror.
Lieren looked straight into Minasaki's eyes. "I'm just a fraud."
The world was silent after that, nothing but the natural swish of the wind on the half a foot-long grass.
Lieren turned around. "And now I can't even use magic." He muttered in a low, gravely voice on the edge of tears.
"Lieren…" The broken boy could only guess what Minasaki's face looked like now. Pity, disgusted, and offended. It had to be one of those—two at best, Lieren thought, a single tear dripped from his left eye.
There was rustling behind him, but he cared not for it. Not my problem now, he thought, trying and failing to be tough. If she hates me, the so be it, Lieren closed his eyes, she wouldn't be the first one.
Lieren prepared himself to be slapped, smacked, pushed, pulled, punched, and whacked, refusing to dodge the blow certain to come. He clenched his fists tight and grit his teeth.
A few seconds passed, nothing; a few more, still, nothing.
Lieren whipped around, his brows furrowed. "Well, are you gonna hit me or no—" Just as Lieren was about to start an outburst, two small arms reached for his sides, then past, wrapping around him in a bear-like hug.
"Hng~" Minasaki squeezed tight, bending slightly backwards. Between her literal childish physique and Lieren's lesser than figure, she managed to lift Lieren's feet off the ground with her hug.
Lieren's eyes grew wide, his mouth flapping unintelligible words. "W-W-W-Wyuh… Wabayuhdawa…?!"
Minasaki let him down, letting his bare feet touch the grass. She squeezed tighter. A low crack permeated Lieren's back.
That's not good, Lieren thought, tears of a different emotion dripping from his eyes. "H-hey…" He barely squeezed out through endured pain.
"I have a name." The bear girl muttered in a low, somewhat shy voice, the tips of her ears were blushing red. For a second, Lieren could imagine her pouting face, cute and petite.
Lieren sucked in a breath. "MiAhN—?!" The bear girl squeezed even tighter.
"Properly!" She commanded, her words sounding like a drill sergeant's.
"Min—" Lieren sucked in once, taking as much of a breath as he could. A moment of pure calm befell him.
"Minasaki." And with that, he was free once again.
Lieren fell on his butt, his back still assaulted by phantom pain. The bear girl, Minasaki, smiled, the sun shining brightly behind her.
"See? It isn't that hard to forget your problems, isn't it?" Her smile turned into a wry grin.
The boy smiled as well. It would seem that, unbeknown to Lieren, Minasaki was much more observant and perceptive than he thought.
A warm feeling, like a piece of his shattered heart had just been melded back, emanated from Lieren's chest. "Yeah…it would seem so." A soft smile unconsciously formed on his face.
A moment of bliss fell between the two.
"Miiiiiinnnaaaassssaaaakkkiiiii—!!" A long-winded shout pierced the atmosphere, knocking them both out of their trance.
Minasaki was red like a tomato. "Y-Yes…?" She barely sputtered out. Her gaze was swimming.
A lean, well-balanced lady took large strides, pinching the hems of her skirt. "Lady Berett…?" Now, both of the kids were blushing.
Minasaki eyed Lady Barett warily, stepping in between her and Lieren. "…What is it?" Her eyes were like a ferocious tiger's.
"I told you we'd be meeting important academic and military personnel today, did I not? They've been waiting for a while now. Come." She urged Minasaki with a wave. "We still need to give you a bath."
"Another one?" Minasaki complained, shrugging to the side and glancing at Lieren, raising and lowering her brows repeatedly.
"What are you doing?" He asked plainly, raising his brow as well, albeit only one.
Minasaki's shoulders fell. "I wanna cash in on that free hit." Her eyes, soft and mellow just a second ago, are now burning with intense fury.
Lieren immediately backed away, taking a step back, neither running nor showing any signs of retreating.
Just as Minasaki was cracking her shoulders, a thin—but incredibly strong—hand fell on the hand atop her shoulders. Her face fell immediately. "B-Barett…?" She asked meekly, turning around to find Lady Barett's barely-contained rage and fury.
Pinching Minasaki's ear with a lightning-fast hold, she whispered directly to her ear. "That's LADY Barett to you, young miss." A cold chill ran up Minasaki's spine, making her jump, her ear still pinched and sending piercing pain to the side of her head.
The two bickered for a minute—with Minasaki reasoning the value of freedom, and Lady Barett ignoring her entirely—until Minasaki was practically heaving like a bear, her chest rising up and down as she gasped for breath. Sweat flowed down her cheeks freely.
Lieren watched all this unfold, his foot still pivoted backwards. A gust of wind whipped suddenly, silencing them all.
"Come on. I really can't waste any more time here." Lady Barett gripped Minasaki's wrist tight, yanking her. She barely spared a glance in Lieren's direction.
"U-umm…!!" Lieren said suddenly, making the two girls, Minasaki and Lady Barett, whip their heads, the latter did so begrudgingly.
"What?" Lady Barett snapped, her voice cold and indifferent. That was fine, as long as Lieren was concerned; he ignored the faint trace of annoyance as well.
"…" Lieren suddenly fell short, his voice refusing to coming out, the words he had prepared, the emotions that he head bottled up…all gone, distant and unknown to him. There was an invisible lump in his throat, preventing anything to come out; Lieren could not speak.
Lady Berett turned around, indifferent. Her face looked somewhat bored, as far as Lieren could tell. As strode away, Minasaki kept staring at him, just until he was out of sight.
The two of them left, leaving Lieren all alone.
◇◆◇◆◇
Barett tapped her foot repeatedly, waiting outside of a wooden door. Light was seeping out from under it, a light Barett knew well.
Plan A failed, she thought bitterly, creases forming on her forehead. However, a wondrous opportunity has presented itself, one bigger and grander than I ever could have imagined, a sinister smiled crept up her face, but she suppressed it. Brannen always said to be careful of your smile; it told much more than you would think, the phrase repeated itself in her mind. It was like her old mentor was just beside her again. But, no, she reminded herself. After all…
The light dimmed, signaling the end of the procedure. Barett barged in as soon as it did, practically kicking the door down.
Minasaki looked up at her with a stiff smile, gripping the seat of her stool like a frightened cat. "I-I told you to stay outside!" She yelled, more of a scream, really.
Barett pushed on one examiner, stepping in between a military official and an academic scholar; the former grunted and the latter yelped. She raised one brow to Minasaki. "I did, but now I'm not. That's how time works, and there's nothing you and I can do about that."
"…What?" Minasaki, once again, tilted her head at one of Barett's sassy quips. This has been a common occurrence lately, ever since her Adornment. She seemed…odd, she felt natural—even pure, in a way. Minasaki tried to compare her now to when she was just new, but immediately found—or more like unfound—that she had next to no interactions with her, aside from the barest essentials.
Minasaki remembers introducing herself to the sassy caretaker, even asking a mild question once, but, other than that? Nada.
Minasaki questioned her own memory.
An examiner far in the back, behind a wall of aptitude measuring instruments, spoke up, completely ignoring the tension in the room. "This is amazing! The magical energy and the amount present in this little lady is much higher—possibly even more potent—than that of an 4th level mage, and that's only at her infant stage. If this talent—something that can only be found once in 50 million—were to be cultivated or tapped into, why, it could cause a shift in power amongst the nobility. This kind of magical talent has only ever been heard of in the royal family or famed heroes and some legends. Once the Academy hears of this, I'm sure that researchers and noble houses will practically jump at the chance to recruit her, maybe even adopt her, if the chance presents itself. Though I doubt it'll be that easy with the all the competition…" The examiner continued on, but Minasaki tuned him out, trying and failing to slip out of the room.
Barett gripped her arm tight, making her wince in pain for a brief moment. The other people in the room—a soldier, a government official, a government official, an academic scholar, and the dense examiner—all ignored her, unnaturally so, from what Minasaki could tell.
A thin line of lime threads spread out from Barett's fingertips, all the way to, well, everybody in the room, excluding Minasaki herself.
Minasaki eyed the lime threads, watching intensely as the threads blinked in and out every time her gaze drifts away from it. She kept staring, he heart thumping wild with the occasional ringing in her ears. She's doing something, Minasaki thought, eyes narrowing.
Barett raised a brow, then clicked her tongue in apparent annoyance. Her eyes lit bright green, and the lime threads disappeared in a near instance. Akin to the snap of a finger, all the people around her, excluding Minasaki herself, all formed confused expressions—blinking rapidly, brows scrunched.
The soldier scowled at Barett, having recovered first, then shot her a threatening glare that sent shivers to Minasaki's spine, even though she wasn't the main target of such fury.
Minasaki tried to free herself, but found the grip on her shoulder preventing her from moving any farther. A bead of sweat poured down her cheeks.
"What did you just do?" The soldier barked, his body covered in low vibrating winds that Minasaki could see through squinted eyes.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Barett smirked, black markings creeping up her covered neck, coalescing around her lips. The green tint of her eyes grew brighter, more prominent.
In a flash, the soldier was upon her, his outstretched hand just few inches away.
If only it was so easy.
"Slumber." Barett's mana-infused voice echoed in the room, phasing through the doors, and throughout the entire orphanage. It was said like a whisper, intended as an order, and executed as a spell.
Mana traveled in waves, with Barett as the epicenter, reaching far and wide, all the way outside of the orphanage and into the lush landscape outside, sending ripples through the grass.
Various thumps of people toppling over—sinking into a deep sleep, echoed throughout the Basford Home of the Unwanted.
"Hmm….so you can resist that, huh?" Barett spared a glance to Minasaki her throat parched and gravely; a lick of blood dripped from her mouth.
Minasaki could barely keep her eyes open, the lids seemingly pulling themselves down. There was an unknown force inside of her, churning, fighting, and unraveling. She felt…alive, almost euphoric. The unknown, powerful substance inside of her enhanced her senses, unraveling Barett's spell and countering it, albeit incomplete and crudely. Still, it was enough for her to keep her eyes open, though not without significant effort on her part.
Minasaki, the child barely above a decade in age, bit her lip, sending pain to her brain, resisting the spell and sharpening her senses.
Barett smirked gleefully. "A feisty one, I see. I like that, it'll make things much more interesting." She wiped the blood off her lip, lowering her stance and raising one hand while keeping the other behind her back.
Minasaki's form was sloppy and slow, but was nevertheless made. Her gaze grew seemingly cold and fiery at the same time as she glared intently at the enemy in front of her.
"Show me what you've got, little girl."
◇◆◇◆◇
A wave of unfamiliar energy swept the foot-long grass, sending a brief ripple that, Lieren estimated, came from the orphanage. Lieren's heart was thumping wildly, his heartbeat loud in the midst of the grassy landscape.
Something id wrong, Lieren thought, rushing to the orphanage. Still, Lieren was but a young boy; it took him quite a while to get back to orphanage.
Lieren arrived at the orphanage, his breathing ragged and his clothes covered in dirt. As soon as he did, his eyes widened in belated shock.
People—orphans, staff, and a couple of unfamiliar faces pay throughout the halls and rooms, laying on the floor or leaning on the walls and furniture.
Lieren immediately checked one corpse, bottling his anxiety the best that he could. "He's still alive." Lieren muttered, checking another corpse. "They all are. It seems like they're just unconscious, but as to why…" Lieren trailed off. Another ripple of unknown energy emanated from somewhere.
Lieren closed his eyes, feeling the wave of malicious intent wash over him. "Upstairs." He muttered, argus-eyed. He headed up the stairs, take each step quietly and precisely, making as little noise as possible.
Bright flashes of energy, familiar yet distant to Lieren, emanated from one rooms on the right side of the second floor. He crept along the walls, sticking close to it.
A scream tore from the flashing room.
Lieren bit his tongue, trying to ignore it. No, it couldn't be, he thought, trying to make as much sense of the current situation as possible. It couldn't be her.
Lieren closed his eyes…and waited.
It was too much. This was too much. Why did this have to happen? Are Insigs really that bad? Am I the problem? Of course I am! I'm an Insig, after all. Everything I do is a mistake, everything that I am is a mistake.
Lieren crouched down, hands on his mouth. She was right there.
Lime green eyes illuminated in the darkness. It was almost night, the sun almost setting in the west. Lieren laid perfectly hidden in sight as he crouched down between two large ornaments.
Holding the unconscious body of a bruised and bloodied hamahan girl by the back of her shirt, was Lady Barett—Lieren's idol and first ever friend. Even in the darkness, Lieren could see the blood dripping from her knuckles, dying the floorboards red.
Minasaki was there, her face was bloodied, her features hidden behind a veil of blood and a dozen bruises. Her arms, legs, and neck were covered with innumerable wounds and cuts. Her body was limp and unconscious, and Lieren noticed, as much as he tried to ignore it, that the hamahan girl wasn't breathing.
Lieren suppressed the need to scream and cry, trying to make himself as little as possible.
A piece of Lieren's mind shattered, his sanity with it.
With another ripple of magic, Lady Barett—a wicked smile on her face—muttered with the nonchalance of taking a morning greeting.
"Die."