Four months passed after the duel, Eris apologized to the pink girl who finally introduced herself as Muria, a girl that wants to become a great mage in the future.
At this time Muria, Alice, Eris and Beatrice became great friends, Eris even bought Beatrice a matching hair pin they both always wear.
By this time the three of them became more skilled on magic, except Beatrice, she couldn't understand well the cantos that were more complex and she always fumbled her casts.
"You could just not use cantos you know" Eris told Beatrice while she put down her tea cup.
Everyone was having some tea while Beatrice was practicing her magic after classes.
"No" Beatrice shook her head and started to get ready to cast again "if I cast my magic with my hands I won't be able to use my sword one day, so I need to use cantos"
Eris giggled a bit
"Yes but if you just do cantos everyday you will just lose your voice before you even step into the battlefield"
Cantos or verbal casting as some people know them, they strain the vocal cords whenever you use them, that's why people barely practice their magic, if you practice too much cantos you will just kill your magic earlier so it's better to get to a certain level and stop, but for someone who can't even finish a canto they usually end up wasting their voice on this kind of trainings
"You're right Eris " she took a seat beside her "it's just frustrating, everyone is doing cantos and even you already have your own cantos"
As Beatrice said, a mage can make their version of a canto, to either make it faster or more powerful.
"Well why don't you try and make your own cantos instead of learning one that you don't understand" said Eris before taking another sip of her tea.
Beatrice was thinking that this may be the answer she was looking for, but where should she start.
"Anyways!" Muria interrupted them out of nowhere "have you heard the news?"
Everyone looked at her a bit confused
"Oh come on, don't tell me you haven't heard about the guy that is transferring from Ixtali soon?"
Everyone was surprised, after all Ixtali might be an ally of Vridyan but they're also famous for being a country with a lot of mercenaries, and those aren't tied to their country and aren't bound by the rules of the treaties with the other countries.
"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Alice said "after all I've heard there's been a lot of disappearances around here, they might be involved on this"
"Well that could be true or false" said Eris after finishing her cup of tea "we don't know what kind of person they might be, so we can't say for sure until we meet them"
Eris was pretty sure about what she said, after her duel with Beatrice she changed a lot, but for some reason the way she expressed herself was a bit over the top.
"Eris is right, we should just wait and see, and even if he tries anything, he's coming to the écoile, he won't be able to do anything against some of the best mages and swordsmen of the country"
Beatrice was confident that no one was so stupid to try and attack a school this strong.
They kept talking about how the transfer student might be for a while until they just forgot about the topic, after all something else was on the mind of Beatrice who looked a bit sad.
"Beatrice, is something wrong?" Eris said while tapping her shoulder.
"Well it's just, I've been thinking about Feyr, I never expected we wouldn't be seeing him after he was transferred to the runic classes"
Since Feyr was transferred to the runic classes, he was prohibited to leave the tower where he takes them, after all he needs an even more rough training and he was isolated from the other students so he could focus, or at least that's what the teachers say.
"Well you don't have to worry about him, you will see him on the graduation day"
Eris tried to cheer her up but Beatrice was still a bit sad, after all she lost her only sparring partner, Eris won't dare to do it just like Alice, and Muria tried once but got so scared she never will try it again.
"Well maybe the Ixtali guy will accept to become my sparring partner"
With that Beatrice got a bit cheered up.
Everyone laughed at Beatrice for just thinking of training all the time.
Nighttime came, Eris and Beatrice were sleeping in their room when they heard some noises outside the dorm.
"Beatrice? I told you to be careful with the door"
Said Eris while yawning
"This time is not me" Beatrice stretched herself.
Both of them were curious about the noise they got near the window to look outside . when they saw it, there was a man with a hood and black robes.
"Who the hell is that?" Eris said " and what is he even doing outside the girls dorm?"
Eris was getting her catalysts out but Beatrice stopped her
"Wait, something weird is happening"
That's when they saw how some girl approached the hooded guy
"Oh so it's only a night meeting" said Eris "dear God this young ones are in heat" she did a facepalm after the realization
"In heat?" Beatrice was confused at what Eris said "I think it's pretty cold outside"
Eris just tapped her shoulder "one day I will explain what that means" Beatrice couldn't quite get what she meant but she just nodded
"Well anyways let's go to sleep, the next part is something we shouldn't see" Beatrice nodded and went back to sleep.
Both of them fell asleep almost immediately after all it was really early in the morning even for Beatrice.
After classes the four of them were talking while taking a small walk to the dorm, and they saw some people gathered around the dorm, everyone was making a lot of noise and somewhere pushing people around.
"What the hell is happening over here?" Eris tried to make everyone scatter and then she saw it.
"Wait, that is…"
She covered her mouth with her hand, her face turned pale out of nowhere, in front of her lay a lifeless body, and one she recognized easily it was the body of the girl she saw today in the morning.
"Beatrice come with me"
Eris brought herself back to reality and dragged Beatrice to their room, leaving the other two confused on what was happening.
They arrived to their room where Eris locked the door
"Beatrice this is horrible, the girl we saw today early in the morning is dead"
Beatrice looked a bit confused on how Eris knew this
"Are you sure it was her?"
"Yes, as a princess is important to learn a face and a name"
"I see" Beatrice sat on her bed "but what could we do?"
"Obviously" Eris sat down at Beatrice's side "we should investigate this, we're the only ones that "saw" the killer, so we should be the best choice for this job "
Beatrice shook her head "this should be something the teachers need to solve"
Eris tapped her shoulder "are you feeling ok?" She felt that her friend was behaving different from the usual
"Sorry it's just.." Beatrice lowered her head "I know I usually say how I'm ready to kill someone, but seeing a lifeless body for the first time shocked me too much"
Eris hugged her, letting Beatrice rest on her chest.
"I understand that, after all no one is ready to see that specially an ally, but if we don't help there'll be more victims and we don't know how long the teachers will take"
Beatrice nodded "you're right we should do as much as we can, but can you let me go? Your chest is too big and I can't breathe properly "
Eris let her go and with a smug grin looked at Beatrice
"Oh you don't have to be humble, I know you enjoyed yourself a lot there~"
Beatrice looked away and just shook her head, she then cleared her throat and changed the topic.
"Well what is the plan for this investigation?"
Eris just shrugged
"To be honest I'm not that smart I'll leave that to you"
Beatrice sighed "I'm more of a girl that stabs and slashes too you know, I guess we can ask Muria for help, she's more of a bookworm than both of us"
They both agreed to go for Muria tomorrow, right now they had something else to do, which was a extra lesson on magic for Beatrice, for the past 3 months Eris has been giving Beatrice some extra pointers on how to use cantos, but despite all of her efforts she kept fumbling her casts.
Next day in the morning, the students had an off day due to the teachers leading the investigation, that was the perfect time for them to start their own investigation
"Ok so Muria" said Eris while trying to keep eating her cake slice "tell us how we should proceed"
They were trying to have a conversation with Muria but it was like she was in another dimension, not even her favorite dessert the macarons were able to break this trance.
"You won't get her back soon" said Alice while she sighed "she's been like this since the kid from Ixtali approached her"
Beatrice and Eris were surprised
"You're telling me the girl that can barely talk with the male teachers held a conversation with a guy?" Eris was dumbfounded, she couldn't believe what she was hearing
Alice nodded.
"Believe it or not she also smiled a lot while she was talking"
The girl that always looks like she could cry out of nowhere was smiling for a guy?
This was a bit too suspicious for both Beatrice and Eris
"By any chance did he tell you what were their element affinities?" Asked Beatrice
"Miss" Alice sighed "I know you're not interested in love right now but you don't go and ask that to anyone you meet, or at least you don't go asking that just to someone you just met"
Beatrice looked a bit confused, Alice was looking at her with so much disappointment that she got embarrassed and just hid behind Eris
"And why do you want to know that? Are you suspicious of him?"
Both Eris and Beatrice nodded, after all it was too suspicious that this happened the same day he transferred.
Alice flicked both of them on the forehead "listen you two, these incidents have been happening for 2 months right now, but the teachers never said anything because the bodies were found in less crowded places, it's just a coincidence they left the corpse here this time"
Even after all that noise they were making they realized that Muria was still in that trance.
"She's either braindead or lovesick then" said Eris "I'd like to bet 1 gold piece for the braindead"
"Bet taken" said Alice, she then flicked Muria's forehead which finally brought her back.
"Wait what, we're having tea time?"
Muria shook her head and then took a macaron from the dessert pile
"Well here you have your gold piece greedy maid" Eris handed Alice a piece of gold while looking at Muria finally ready to ask her some questions.
"Ok Muria it's time for some questions" Muria started to shake scared of Eris, after all she looked really serious and kind of annoyed. "You know, you made me lose 1 gold piece so be ready to answer everything I ask"
The interrogation for the poor girl dragged on for too long, in the end, Eris finally squeezed all of the details she needed but Muria ended up crying and being comforted by Alice.
"Oh come on don't cry, I only asked you some questions"
Eris sipped on her tea after finishing the interrogation "anyways, to go even as far as to say his element, and some weird ones at that, water and fire that's an uncommon combination"
Eris then stood up from her seat to then go behind Beatrice and lay her chin down on top of Beatrice's head.
"Eris, what are you doing?" Said Beatrice, a little bit confused by her actions.
"Well you know, I need to think about what to do with this information right now"
"And what you're doing right now is necessary?"
"More than what you think"
Beatrice was still a bit confused, but she didn't make any other remarks.
Eris was still thinking about all of the info she got from Muria, apparently the Ixtali guy name was Alonso, he's really tall for his age, he's tanned and has black eyes and hair, pretty normal for the people of Ixtali, but nothing that could point him out to be suspicious, after all the body of the girl didn't have any bruises or burns, it was just a lifeless body.
"Well that only leaves me with one suspect"
Everyone looked at her confused, she deducted that with only that much info on that guy?
"The corpse was lifeless, so the only one that could do it would be a runic user, with that said only one guy could've done it, and that would be Feyr"
Later that day, at night Beatrice and Eris sneaked out of the dorm, to investigate around the school and near the special tower where Feyr was taking their classes.
"I still think he's not the culprit you know" said Beatrice while following Eris closely.
"Well his teacher could also be the culprit but the guy we're looking for is not as tall as the teacher who is as tall as a tower you know"
Beatrice nodded at her remark, after all she's seen the teacher before and he was so tall he needed to lower his head to go enter and exit the classrooms.
After some minutes of walking they finally arrived at the tower, getting there was the easy part, getting inside well…
"Ok so I know this place has a lock" said Beatrice "how are we going to open it?"
Eris just puffed her chest proudly
"Of course there's two ways of doing this, but the second one is a surprise" Eris the stretch her arms and to then point the lock with her index finger "more than flames the magma answers to me, melt the object in front of me post haste" as Eris finished her canto spitting magma from her finger against the lock on the door, but it was futile
Beatrice clapped impressed at her new canto "great spell too bad it didn't work"
Eris blushed a bit "well to be honest I just wanted to show off a bit, now let's get inside by climbing that window" she pointed to a window which was really low for an unknown reason.
Both of them climbed through the window to find a weird kind of kitchen, maybe the window was really low so the smoke could be vented from there?
But that didn't matter at that time, they continued to sneak around the place looking for any clues on the murders.
Two hours passed and they realized something, the tower was too tall, the place had like 20 floors with only like 2 rooms
"Who was the dumbass who designed this place?" Said Eris while catching her breath sitting on the stairs
"I told you, you should be exercising a bit more you know, you will get fat too since you eat all of that cake" said Beatrice waiting for Eris to catch her breath
"Don't worry" she gave a thumbs up to Beatrice "my mother told me all of the desserts go directly to my chest so I can eat as much as I want"
Beatrice gave her a stare that felt like she was being stabbed by needle again, sending Eris shivers down her spine.
"If you have energy to joke around we can keep going then"
Beatrice started to go up the stairs again, Eris started to follow her trying to not lose sight of her.
The final floor was in front of them, finally the investigation will end soon, both of them thought.
"Can't believe these guys climb this stupid tower everyday, these are their rooms after all"
Eris was wiping her sweat from her forehead with her napkin.
"Maybe they do it to stay in shape since they can't go outside?" Said Beatrice waiting for Eris to catch her breath again.
Both of them looked at each other.
"Well…" Eris broke the silence " this is as far as we go, they're sleeping inside of those rooms, or are they?"
Eris opened each door slowly just to find that both of them were sound asleep in their rooms, the investigation came up with nothing.
A little bit after their investigation they finally got back to their room.
"Can't believe my lead was wrong" said Alice while changing to her pajamas
"It would be too easy if the culprit was the first suspect you know," said Beatrice, who was polishing her needle before going to sleep.
"Well, they were technically the second suspect, but well, the first one was just a shot in the dark" said Eris expecting a laugh from the way she phrased it and looked at Beatrice.
"I think you need to work on your jokes, especially if you're going to be racist…" Beatrice just put needle on its box and laid on her bed after that.
"Oh come on, just admit it, it made you laugh a bit…" At that time Eris was interrupted by a big sound, like something was cracking outside "wait, did you hear that?" Eris put her catalysts and shoes on "quick get needle and your shoes we need to be swift" she took off as fast as she could.
Eris finally made it outside catching her breath and looking around after just mere moments Beatrice joined her.
"Did you see anything?" Said Beatrice, who had her needle ready for anything.
"Unfortunately nothing, but let's look around they must be around" they split up Eris taking the left side of the dorm.
After some minutes she saw someone she could recognize in a crowd easily. Muria was there, she was in her uniform and was laughing a lot, that's when she saw him, the Ixtali guy was with her.
"So she does like the foreign meat huh?" Eris was just weirded out watching this scene and was about to leave when she realized something, the guy was using a weird robe that for some reason had some burn marks on the sleeves and looking at him from another angle, he also had a hood on those robes.
"So my deduction was on point, I need to bring Beatrice here right now"
But when Eris was about to leave she saw the guy holding Muria in his arms and saw him starting to cast with his hands, she needed to act fast.
"Bastard!flames eat him!" She extended her arm making flames strike the hand of the guy "Muria run, he was trying to cast something on you" Eris tried to warn her but it was a bit too late, whatever he casted was already dealing damage to her.
Muria fell to the ground convulsing on the floor, that's when Eris realized there was no time to waste, she got in stance ready to fight.
"So you pull weak girls to put a curse on them? You're sick"
Eris looked at him with disgust
"Oh so you admit this plan is well thought?" He said as he got in stance for the fight, clapping before putting his hands at his sides hiding them inside his sleeves.
"I think you don't understand proper language monkey, I'll be dealing with you in a second"
There was a small pause between them, the tension in the air could be cut with a knife at that point, that's when the guy started to run towards Eris just out of nowhere.
"You're slow, more than flames magma answers to me, magma blows a hole on this monkey" a stream of magma then flowed from her hand burning everything on its way, the guy could barely dodge the magma, he was too slow to react.
"Didn't expect you to cast something like that, you have 2 elements then" he took of his robe that was starting to get burned by the magma that barely touched him
"So you realized huh? Impressive for a monkey too bad you won't live to get that information out" Eris got ready to cast
"I'm sorry but I'll be leaving now, your smoke is starting to get some attention I don't need"
He tried to run away from the scene but he then realized he was already surrounded by the magma. The only way to run would be if he could jump more than 10 meters.
"I think this is a checkmate dear monkey you better stay still or I will kill you on the spot, I hope you're ready to melt if you try to move" Eris was smiling smugly, but she forgot something.
"Nice try but I'm getting out of here one way or another" he then started to move his hands molding the mana around him to cast a rain.
"Silent spellcasting feels better than using your mouth you should try it instead of crossing your hands like that"
The rain was too wild and strong, after just a moment the magma turned into obsidian where he then started to run.
"I'll show why I cross my hands" she then started casting again "magma arrow pierce this monkey" out of nowhere a small crossbow of fire formed on her hand with her hands ready to just pull the mechanism, letting the arrow fly off almost as soon as she casted it.
The arrow flew off hitting the guy on his ankle making him fall to the ground.
"This is my win, you monkey" Eris stomped on his ankle marking her victory over him."I'm going to kill you, you bastard" he was still eager to go even after all that just happened.
"Oh and tell me what are you going to do now when your hands are twitching that much? Are you going to cast like that?"
Eris was trying to keep her laughter to herself, after all the teachers and Beatrice will arrive soon but she was still mocking his enemy as much as she could.
"Don't worry I can still do something else"
"Huh?" Then Eris jumped back as if something told her to dodge
"Nice reflexes, too bad I couldn't take you with me to hell, but I prefer dying than answering any questions" he then started to rapidly glow on a purple glow to then implode into a ball of pure mana leaving nothing but a hole of a fair size where he was laying.
"That bastard, didn't even let me enjoy my victory" Eris then remembered the reason she came "Muria!" She ran to Muria, who was still laying on the floor, she hadn't moved at all since the battle started "please you dumb crybaby don't die on me" she checked her pulse "still alive…" she gave a sigh of relief "really what are we going to do with you?" She smiled and finally sat down while waiting for the teachers and Beatrice, "they are taking their sweet time, it's been almost 5 minutes and they couldn't come faster?"
After some moments the teachers finally arrived at the scene Beatrice guided them here, apparently they took that long because they were waiting for the arcane mage teacher.
"Maybe next time don't make that tower so fucking tall?"
After that Eris was asked to report her fight to the teachers, Muria was sent to the nursery and Beatrice simply was sent back to her room where she waited for Eris to come back, the three of them were excused from having to take classes the next day.
Six in the morning, Beatrice was getting ready for her morning routine, but that's when she heard the door
"I'm finally home" it was Eris, still in her pajamas and sleepy as she could be, her red hair was shining with the sun at this point in the morning.
"It's so weird seeing you up so early" Beatrice chuckled a bit looking at her sleepy roommate.
"Shut up, you know I need my 8 hours of sleep and now thanks to that suicide monkey I'm losing an entire day of sleep" she was trying to not yawn but it was impossible, she was sleepy after being up for almost 24 hours "worst part of this is everyone saw me wearing my pajamas, why didn't any of the teachers bring my uniform?" She finally laid down on her bed "seriously those guys are all… a bunch of… re…" She fell asleep while trying to badmouth the teachers.
"Go to sleep Eris you deserve it after all you did" Beatrice tucked Eris in bed and kissed her forehead before leaving for her morning routine.
"Seriously…" Eris moved again pressing her now red face into her pillow "you already know I wake up from anything dummy" Eris was as red as she could be, almost the same tone of her hair, she could hide it well when the four of them were together, but when she was by herself she couldn't hold back her feelings "I hope you never realize how much I care for you" Eris was in love with Beatrice, but decided to just keep those feelings to herself since she was a princess.
Beatrice got to her usual training grounds where she found Alice.
"Oh Alice, a bit early today"
"Of course I'm early, you took a little bit too much time, what were you doing" Alice was a bit mad after all she wasn't included on the investigation at all, and Muria also didn't tell her where she was going at night so she felt left out
"Sorry I was tucking the sleeping beauty on her bed" she then started her usual routine, stabs and slashes, until she felt exhausted and as fast as she could.
"Just answer her feelings already…" said Alice under her breath.
Beatrice stopped for a second "did you say something Alice?"
"Nothing miss please keep going, you have a long day today" for Alice it was obvious how the princess Eris felt but she knew her mistress was too dense and battle crazed to realize after all for her, ending the war was her priority.