Even though everybody already knows that Aviara is very big, to be honest, most students don't really find it difficult because most of their activities only go around the main area. The route is mostly just school buildings, dormitories, sports halls, then to school, and finally to the dorms again. Oh, and the canteen.
But after walking outside the main area like this, Alisa finally felt how large this school was. Especially when she has been turning right and left for almost half an hour and still hasn't found her destination.
"I'm definitely lost…" She sighed admitting.
If we need to describe it, walking on Aviara feels almost like walking in a very large dinosaur tourism park. Because other than the fact that most places were filled with trees, the medium-sized streets and circular turns felt very familiar.
Even the road signs at every turn almost look like the attraction signs. Turn right and you'll find the library, student council building, cleaning division, and so on. Then turn left to go to the main area, school buildings, dormitories, and so on.
Aria said to just follow the road signs. But even after Alisa made so many turns, she still can't find a sign that says 'magic control division'.
"Should I look from above?" She muttered while looking up.
Though as she was contemplating the idea while hugging a tree, she suddenly heard someone speaking. "What are you doing?" A girl's voice asked.
Surprised, Alisa immediately pushed the tree and turned around. And she found a girl there, who wore a black coat and a skull choker. She looked a bit unfriendly and had a blue tie--which means she was a third grader, so Alisa was a little nervous seeing her. "Um, n-nothing, I-I just…"
"Are you lost?"
"...!" Suddenly realized that this person might help, Alisa immediately felt relieved. "Yes!" She answered desperately. "I'm actually looking for the magic control division, but I can't find it anywhere…"
"Really?" She replied a little surprised. But after some time scanning Alisa from top to bottom, she just said, "Well, I'm actually going there too. Do you wanna come?"
"Yes! Thank you."
That senior was back being busy with her phone when they started walking together. But since Alisa couldn't help herself being restless, she finally spoke again. "I-I'm Alisa." She said nervously.
Alisa was worried she was going to ignore her, but fortunately she put her phone down and answered. "Oh, I'm Ruri." She said.
"Um, are you a member of the magic control division too?" Alisa asked carefully.
"You mean Hazel's division? Ha, fortunately no." Ruri answered with a chuckle. "What about you? Are you having trouble with your magic or something, that you were told to go there?" She asked.
She must be talking about one of the division's jobs, which is to help students that have problems with their magic. She didn't know Alisa, so she must've thought that she's going there as a customer.
"Ah, no. Actually I'm the new member." Alisa answered.
Looking surprised, Ruri suddenly stopped her steps. "Really…? Are you sure?"
"W-Why?" Alisa asked back with a confused tone too. "Is that weird?"
"Well, yes. Because I didn't know we're actually putting a new member there."
"..."
Crack! Crack! But in that silence, they suddenly heard a busy noise. Turned out they had already arrived near a hut.
The wooden house looked a bit big, but the courtyard looked wider and empty, where there was only a long wooden table in the middle.
And not far inside the fence, there was actually a boy standing in front of a fire. The voices must be coming from there.
"Is he burning trash or something?" Muttered Ruri while passing the fence.
Ruri was about to call the boy after approaching him. But they suddenly heard him speak by himself. "Nice! With this, that kid definitely can't find this place." He said while laughing devilishly. "Even I needed a whole day finding this place for the first time."
"..."
Somewhat surprised by the sentence they heard, both Alisa and Ruri went silent. Not burning trash, it turned out the boy was actually burning road signs with 'magic control division' written on it. The ones that Alisa had been looking for for more than half an hour.
"I did ask for a new member, but why did they give me a useless first grader with only one magic?" He still protested by himself. "They definitely want me to die this year."
"..." Ruri peeked at Alisa's face for a bit, but she just looked speechless. Maybe it's her first time seeing someone as rude as him.
"That fell into the 'destroying school facilities', you know." Said Ruri while sighing as she started getting bored with his whines.
"Ru-Ruri?!" The boy exclaimed in panic as he immediately turned around. He rushingly used his water magic to put out the fire. But because it didn't die quickly, he quickly used earth magic and immediately spilled a mountain of soil in the hole. "What are you doing here??"
Similar to his voice earlier, the boy had a grumpy look on his face. With slightly wavy black hair, the boy also had annoyed eyes and brows that were furrowed as if he always puts on that face daily.
"Hana sent me to see if you're working or not." Answered Ruri.
"..."
"I'm kidding." Added Ruri flatly. "I came because Heka called me. He said he has some kids with problems."
"Really? Why didn't he tell me first??"
"So that you didn't build a fortress here?"
"Grr…" The boy could only grumble when Ruri said that. But after some time, he finally noticed Alisa's figure beside her. "And who is she? Does she have problems too?"
"No. She's Alisa." Answered Ruri. "Your new member."
"..."
Ruri wasn't actually sure if Alisa was really a new member until a few seconds ago. But since Hazel knew about it, it must be true.
Ruri went to the table first to check her phone if she actually missed any messages--or nobody was actually telling her. But since she left, it made Alisa and Hazel in an awkward position.
But still, Alisa felt like it would be weird if she just left too, so she thought she should at least introduce herself again since that boy seemed to be her senior in this division. "I-I'm Alisa."
"...For the record, those signs were rotting anyway, so you probably couldn't read it even if--Anyway, I'll get drinks." And he just ran away like that.