I woke up to the scent of roses and cherries. If I had known any better, I would think myself to be dead and in heaven. Though a creature like me doesn't deserve any semblance of a paradise in the afterlife. Though, I digress. The sight in front of me when I woke up was beautiful.
The bed was the most comfortable bed I have slept on in my entire life. There were flowers blooming by the windowsill. Strangely, they shouldn't be. It was the middle of winter, December 25th, and they didn't seem to be the type to bloom during this cold season.
I groggily stood up from my bed and approached it. I felt its petals with my fingertips, they were lilies and roses in separate pots. I noticed behind the windowsill was a balcony where more flowers were potted. I know now that the flowers were real, and whoever took care of them seemed to have a special knack in eternal blooming.
"Quite impressive, isn't it?" A voice spoke behind me, it wasn't from anyone I knew of in this city, it was feminine, so I turned around to look at her. It was a girl in a kimono. Fiery orange hair that went down to her legs yet tied up neatly in a ponytail. If she were to tie it all up, would it be like a giant ball over her head? I suppressed a giggle at the thought, luckily, she didn't seem to notice. What I noticed however was her vixen ears that twitched momentarily. She approached me, "Laida's the one responsible for these flowers. She said it's best to give flowers to investors as a show of faith, and to give them something beautiful. Though for me, she's just selfish. This was always her hobby."
She leaned in front of the flowers and gently sniffed it. That's when I noticed the tail. It seemed that I mistook her tail as a portion of her hair, it was the same color, though it had a tuft of white at the very tip, something that I failed to notice earlier. Those seemed to be the only animalistic parts of her body, the rest were human, "Do I…" No, I think I'm saying the wrong thing here. I don't know her, but rather, "Do you also work here?"
"Hm? Why of course! I apologize for rudely coming in with no proper introductions, I am Alexandrina Artorias von Kaiser, third of the Great Artorian Sisters, and Dean of the Northern Takamagahara School of Sorcery." She proclaimed her achievements with the same pride and gravitas as Yuki does.
And yet, "Are all these true?"
"I've no reason to lie to you, no? You are a new colleague; you deserve to know as much!"
I shrugged. I had no reason not to trust her, and she had no reason to lie to me, so I took what she said as truth, but in that case, "You seem to carry quite an influence to the city and to education if what you say is true."
"Oh, not quite. The Kaiser Lineage has long since been nobles, but we've lost significant influence following the Great Democratic Revolution. We still carry some undue bitterness towards Yuki's father in that regard, but not me though."
Wait, what? "What about Yuki's father?"
"Oh, right. You're new here. I suppose I shall give you a crash course on Takamagahara's history, no?" She giggles before sitting down by the windowsill. With a snap of her fingers, a wall to her left flips over to reveal a whiteboard, "Then I, the great Dean, shall teach you!"
Glazing over the whiteboard, I reluctantly agreed. I sat on my bed and watched as she drew diagrams after diagrams, then, she started her lecture, "As you might be aware, on this day, Christmas, fifty years ago, a bright line shone over the city of Lily. I don't know what happened in the outside world after, as we only ever get brief glimpses of their history from the people thrown in here. But what happened here was, to put it mildly, chaos."
She drew pictures of dragons, serpents, mythical creatures emerging from the ground, from everywhere, "--The order of society quickly collapsed. Magic wasn't as prolific back then as it is now, so only the strongest could ever hope to protect the weak. Quicker still was the formation of new groups of people. Humans tend to stick close to each other, so do other races. But they all wanted the same thing, peaceful coexistence until they could get their bearings in order. Thus came the uneasy decade."
The diagrams now showed walled cities filled by a homogenous race population. Humans with humans, elves with elves, dwarves with dwarves, "It's not as if it was a peaceful era. It was, as its title suggested, uneasy. Especially amongst the human population. They started to have a… shall we say, racial fervor. They were the primary instigators for much of the conflict during the uneasy decade, but it wasn't their actions that caused the powder keg to explode…"
"It was the elves, it was the dwarves, the foxes, the dragons. It was everyone. It was the uneasy decade for a reason, barely anything got written down, so everybody blamed everybody. But we knew one objective fact, and it's that my father eventually came and fixed everything." Her lecture was rudely interrupted by Yuki, who stood by the doorway, arms crossed over her chest, "Ms. Kaiser, please stop bothering my dear assistant."
Alexandrina simply wore a smug grin, "Aye! Aye!~ I suppose little Ms. Yuki here could teach you the rest, no? Well, I shall be off." She hopped off the windowsill and quickly exited the room. But before she could, she was stopped by Yuki.
"Dean, would it not be better to focus on maintaining the sanctity of NTSS?"
Piercing gazes were thrown towards each other, followed by, "Perhaps it would be better if we had additional funding. Trying to resurrect a dying school is difficult, you know? Why don't you ask your father?"
"My father's business isn't yours."
"My school's business isn't yours either."
Sharper glares. The air remained still, as if any moment anything in the world could collapse, and they would start killing each other. Then, Yuki laughed a hearty laugh, followed by Alexandrina, "Oh… Perhaps my father wouldn't be so reluctant if he didn't feel so dead all the time."
"Then perhaps Mr. Tsuki needs a better manufacturer for his tea?" Replied the fox.
"Perhaps so, I should ask him next time we meet. Thank you, Rina."
"My pleasure, lady Yuki. Oh, and…" Alexandrina turned towards me, "Please come see me after your conversations with the lady, you may need more of that history lesson."
I nodded, as the fox left and left me alone with Yuki, "Uhm. Are you two friends?"
"Great ones! She's my most trusted confidant. Please don't mind that minor banter." Minor banter, she says, as if they weren't close to killing each other over that squabble, "That said! If you needed a history lesson you could've just come to me! Do you not realize that I, as the greatest witness to this city's history, am the most qualified to relay its story to you?"
"I apologize, great witch. I didn't know much about you to ask. But then again, it felt weird to hear such banter from two supposed great friends. What's up with that?" My curiosity was definitely piqued.
"Hm? We are just comfortable with each other, is all. People seem to think that because of our families we'd hate each other, but it was specifically that expectation that allowed us to see more of each other and come to be great friends!" She spoke about Rina with some unfiltered respect, far more than whenever she spoke to me, "Then I should ask you as well, no?"
I didn't know we were playing twenty questions, but then again, I started it, "Ask away!"
"Why do you choose to hide your abilities?" Her voice turned serious, and she glared at me. Straight into my soul.
"Why should I tell it to you?"
"Because you're my partner?"
"Aren't I your assistant?"
She pouted, "Not if you keep hiding that potential of yours. So, tell me now, knife boy. Why?"
"Asceticism. Think of it as me trying not to try so hard. Trying hard is what got me into this mess anyway." I know deeply that that was not the truth, but I suppose such an excuse helps for now.
"Right. And I don't suppose you think we won't get into more trouble if you keep on holding back, right?"
"I'll be sure to not use less than necessary for our missions, madame."
She glared more, and eventually sighed, as if to concede any further arguments, "Fine. So long as you're not directly compromising us because of your so-called asceticism then I suppose it's fine. But you do know that--"
"--People value power? I do. I've seen that a lot." I've seen it far too often than necessary, "Believe it or not, that can be advantageous!"
She shrugged, "Whatever you say, knife boy. Come on, breakfast is ready and we're missing a butter knife in the kitchen so help us out."
"Aye! Aye!" She walked away and I followed her down the office's kitchen.