"Hey, um Sir.." I was confused, and although I felt like he was a good teacher, it felt off to me. I couldn't shake off my confusion.
"Yes?" He twirled around, his hand clasping together as he got closer.
"I can't seem to remember your name.. I think I may have hit my head a little too hard!" I giggled, I felt suspicious of something, but why? He laughed in response, patting my hair with a weird smile.
"You're so silly, my name is obviously Hanise!" He pointed at himself, standing tall.
Hanise? Maybe I was too doubtful, maybe I should've let it go, maybe I should've ignored my gut feeling. But I couldn't shake off this uneasy feeling.
"I'm sorry, I just can't, are you really sure?"
"Of course! Why wouldn't I know my own name?"
"And.. Why are you so nice to me? I felt like you were different, are you sure you're positive-"
"Yes! Yes I am, why are you asking so many damn questions you mutt?!" His eyes narrowed, his nose wrinkled, and his eyebrows furrowed.
"It's me! I'm your instructor!" I was in complete shock, I didn't know how to react. He stepped back, shaking his head and his hands.
"No, I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. We'll stop here for today. I got a little heated, and I apologize sincerely Ophelia. And.. You're right, something did happen." His eyes appeared to look past me, his eyes constricting and becoming small. His hands trembled slightly by his side, and strode past me.
I was right, something did happen. But why did he continue to act normal? Why did he try to act like it was all fine?
Within my room, I meditated after dinner, secretly practicing every other element in my arsenal. I still didn't attempt to use black fire, whenever I looked at it, it always felt like my finger throbbed from when I touched it.
"Lia? Are you still awake?" The sound of dad's voice crept through the door, simultaneously as he knocked he opened the door slowly.
"Yeah." I sat by my bedside, I never recalled Dad ever staying up till midnight. Though, it may have been because I always slept before he did.
"You okay? Sorry I couldn't visit when you had a fever, the maids told me they had it covered." He sat beside me, leaning on his knees with his hands as support.
"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you? We haven't really been talking to each other lately. I thought you may have been busy Dad."
"Hm? I thought you were too busy for your amazing and awesome father.. The maids kept saying not to interrupt you anymore, and kept me preoccupied with training and idle talk." We looked at both of each other, confusion loomed over the both of us.
"That's weird.. I know I've been busy, but I have a free day every week on the same day. It wouldn't make sense to say that.." It was a little strange, why did the maids keep saying falsified things? Perhaps they were worried, or it was ordered by Lione.
"Hey dad, by any chance, do you know the maid who told you this?" I asked, everything was all out of place, besides my dad. I felt like I couldn't recall anything, or rather recall anything that felt real or was true to my gut. My stomach churned within, It was that uneasy sensation once again.
"Oh yeah, her name was Priscilla. She's mostly just watching me when I'm training or when we talk."
"So it was Priscilla.."
"Hm? Did you say something?" He asked.
"Huh what? Oh, no I didn't say anything." Did I mumble that aloud? Maybe I was going insane. Priscilla, I felt that she was suspicious, since last week she had been acting awfully mysterious in her actions.
Whenever I saw her, she'd be.. She'd be.. What would she do? My mind became blank, it was like, no I forgot completely. I couldn't remember, I couldn't remember what she was doing at all. Everything that related to her before last week was gone. Any time that I thought I may have saw her was gone, erased from my mind.
Where was she? Where would she go? What did she do? She was a maid right? A maid did maid things. So why didn't I see her doing those even on my rest day?
"Dad, could you tell me what she's said to you during those conversations?"
"Idle talk dear, just some random topics, like.. Random topics, I don't really remember because their just irrelevant?" Dad scratched his head, a confused look planted on his face.
"Not even one thing?"
Brief humming from him was let out, his hand on his chin. "No sorry Lia, I seemingly can't remember.." He stood up, grunting as he did so.
"Well, I think it's time for me to head out, good night Lia, train hard!" He clenched his fist up, smiling as he closed the door quietly.
Priscilla. She was the root of the problem, she was definitely suspicious and I couldn't let this go. If it wasn't just me that had forgotten what she was doing, than that meant something inexplicable that I couldn't think of happened.
Listening to anything outside. By using the information for the past week and today, I gathered that steps would normally occur half an hour after midnight. Currently, it was around quarter past midnight, and so I waited 20 minutes.
Waiting for any noise to occur, even with the 5 extra minutes, there were no footsteps, until, finally sounds of steps dulled by the walls. Fortunately, beforehand, I placed many orbs of sound Aether into my ears, enhancing my hearing.
The footsteps were slow and sporadic, like usual. Next, my door would open after a few seconds of the steps stopping. And thus it did, my eyes were shut closed and I pretended to sleep like always.
The door closed, and normally, they'd have gone, however, maybe they weren't. That was the problem, I didn't know whether or not they had left or not. I counted within my head, not allowing time to leave my mind.
20 seconds.
3 minutes.
12 minutes.
19 minutes.
26 minutes.. I heard no sounds or any footsteps. I remembered that the door had closed, but there were no sounds afterwards. It was likely they were still here.
29 minutes.
34 minutes.
39 minutes.
It was only now that sounds of steps headed to the door. But would it have been a trick?
41 minutes.
The sound of a door clicked once, before clicking again.
42 minutes.
43 minutes.
44 minutes.
It was fine right? It was fine to open my eyes, right?
My eyes twitched as I peeked through the tiniest amount of vision I let in. It didn't seem like anything was there. I let out a sigh of relief. 44 minutes, it took a long time but I was safe. Why did they wait for so long though?