We sat crossed leg across each other on my bed, which was the top bunk. The old tome was brown in color and had a weird symbol and strange patterns on its binder. This spread throughout the entire book and the front book cover which had no title, had a small pocket watch embedded into the book. At least it looked expensive.
I moved my gaze up from the front of the book to Elena who was in front of me, staring at me as if her eyes were saying, "Hurry up now I don't have all day."
Understanding her impatience I moved my gaze back to the book and turned it to the first page.
"It's just a table of contents theres.. holy crap 200 chapters?? At this rate I'll never finish this book.." I exclaimed before sighing at the realization. I never liked reading lengthy books I could never finish them due to my boredom. The only books I ever finished were those of about magic and common knowledge about this world.
The goverment funded orphanages but they also sent lots of books for the caretaker(s) to home school the children. It was also up to the people teaching the children on how they want to test them, there were no mandatory test.
Luckily Ms. Clare is a genius at teaching, heck I don't even know why she's here stuck caring for us and the children when she probably could've been a renowned professor.
Speaking of other children, a small creak sounded at our door and we both turned towards it. Looking through the gap, a girl who was aged seven, stared at us. She quickly noticed our gazes and yelped before running off.
"Gah! What does Vei want now.." Elena complained about the possible consequences of ignoring the child. She looked at me before jumping off the bed to find the child. Not before turning around though.
"You better read properly and explain what that book says!"
"Yeah yeah.. I gotcha hurry up and leave." I said with some amusement.
She quickly left not before giving me a glare though. Yeah I'll definitely gain a immunity to those glares at this rate, huh..
***
Elena
That troublemaker.. him and Vei I swear they're plotting against me. Seriously, ugh what bad timing. My personal time with him is totally gone now. Looking around the hallway outside of our room I could see Vei peaking out of the hall before swiftly running away. Seeing that I quickly chased her.
The orphanage itself is pretty huge. There were seven main sections of the place. The living quarters was where all of the children slept in and where my room is also at. Our room was the previous master room of Ms. Clare but due to our growing size she forfeited the room for us and decided to sleep in one of the smaller rooms made for the children. This also allowed her to oversee the children better as well.
The small cafeteria is where most if not, all of the children eat at. Although Ms. Clare is undoubtedly the best caretaker, even she can't cook, care, and basically do everything for over 10 children. That's why she hired a line of cooks to help her cook food for the children. They also sometimes help her with menial tasks as well.
Although the orphanage was big, with all of the children playing inside, no doubt there would be accidents so in mind of that, this orphanage was built with a playground in its backyard. The playground was pretty standard with slides, monkey bars, and soft texturing ground to rid of falling or rough playing.
Next was Ms. Clare's office. Although it takes up a pretty insignificant amount of room, its no doubt that it's important as all of its documents are taken place there and where most adoptions are agreed upon.
There was also a living room in the orphanage where one can sit and wait until being acknowledged by a staff member. This was mainly used by parents who wish to adopt a child as the living room was placed right in front of the front door, so as soon as you came in, you were given the scene of it.
Finally there was the meeting room. This room was used purely by staff members underneath the caretaker and used by the caretaker themselves. They normally discuss stuff about food and how much they should be feeding the children. The subjects they teach to us and the orphanages budget.
Although Ms. Clare can probably take care of us all by herself she wouldn't want to worry us with her stress so she sometimes hire part timers to play with the children and take care of them. While only the fully staffed members really talk about budget and stuff. Ms. Clare is the only one that teaches us though, which is great as she's a really good teacher. I learnt how to use my magic because of her afterall!
"Vei! Where are you?" I yelled out randomly. Suddenly I heard a slight yelp at the direction of the playground. She suddenly ran outside and I quickly chased her. There I could see a boy with a bruised knee and his nose was also bleeding.
I quickly rushed over and shooed the children that surrounded him with worried looks and some were even crying.
"Big sister Elena.. please heal him!" Vei exclaimed with a hopeful expression on her face.
'Sigh, how did this even happen anyways? No matter I'll just heal him and go back to my room.'
Unlike Grey I have a talent in magic. When I first started teaching him I was really confused why he didn't understand such a simple concept of magic. He would make it out to be more complicated than it is when all you had to do was say the word and order it. It was only then that Ms. Clare enlightened me that he probably didn't understand because his talent was lackluster. Heh, the look on his face after she said that, truly one of despair. I'll make sure to bother him about it later.
'Repair.' I commanded and ordered as I held my hand on the boy's chest. A green glow appeared on his nose and knee as the blood vessels quickly repaired the injury at a speed where you can see it with your bare eyes.
The boy's mouth, which was wide open at the shock of my magic suddenly moved. "Thank you big sister!"
He quickly ran off to talk to his friends and play again.
"Sigh,"
"What are you sighing about?"
"EEK!"
I quickly scurried away from the sudden voice before realizing that, Grey who sneaked up behind me and scared me, was looking at me with his playful expression.
'Ugh this weirdo..' I inwardly complained.
Glaring at him, I quickly composed myself from my earlier fright. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be reading that book?"
As I asked that question he had a look of guilt written all over his face. Something definitely went wrong!
***
Grey
18 minutes earlier
'Well now that she's gone, I can look at the more important part of this book, the pocket watch. Hehe imagine how much this would sell for!' I thought with a smirk while looking at the pocket watch embedded in the book.
'First, how do I even get it out?' I wondered as I kept staring at it. I tried to claw it out but it wasn't possible with just my fingernails. I would need to have a sturdier and stronger pokey thing.. a knife. But there was no way in hell that Ms. Clare would let me borrow a knife or even see one. She has too little faith in me afterall..
As I was pondering how to get out of this current situation. My eyes closed, suddenly snapped open as the book started trembling by itself. The pocket watch's hands were moving wildly and without reason in it and the most strange thing was that the watch was glowing green. Like a.. magic spell.
'Oh crap..'
CLICK
'Oh that wasn't that bad.' I thought as I let out a "phew" filled with relief that it didn't explode or something. The object, or should I say, the pocket watch was fully out of the book now. It was floating in front of my face. It had strange carvings on the side and the hands in the watch that was previously moving wildly came to a stop. Well not really, it was actually slowly moving.
That was when I realized the watch was probably actually a watch now, showing the time. As I realized that, the watch made a sudden movement that made me flinch and unable to react. It shot towards my right hand and placed itself on top of my wrist. Then suddenly, it started changing. The pocket watch grew legs that had a sleek metallic look to it and it wrapped itself around my wrist. While the watch itself became silver in color and grew more width to it.
The first thought I had was, 'the fuck?' second thought I had was 'Oh shit' then my final action was to try to pry off the watch from my wrist. It wouldn't budge. Then suddenly remember the book, I turned to see it, luckily it seemed fine even after all of that ordeal.
'Shit how am I going to explain this to Elena.. it's probably fine she won't notice anyways.'
After that thought I tried to read through the book but it kept saying some nonsense about Yggdrasil so I let my impatience get the hold of me and I went looking for Elena, she was gone for too long after all.
That brings us to the present. Elena who was still glaring me suddenly had a look of realization as she stared at my wrist. I quickly hid it behind my back and started whistling.
"Grey, show me your hand." She ordered with a cold tone.
"Haha right here.." I said as I waved my left hand at her. She definitely got angry as she started walking towards me.
'Maybe I should run away.. but that would make me look guilty! But who cares about looking guilty if I can survive with my life!'
As I was contemplating my choices she was already in front of my face, her face was of amusement, anger and.. embarrassment? Strange but I didn't really care enough to pay attention to it.
"Show me your right hand." She ordered once again.
"Elena.. shouldn't it be the other way around if we were to get married? I should be putting the ring on your hand." I said this with a bashful smile that hid my fearful expression, hoping she'll get flustered enough to storm off.
Luckily it seemed to have work as her face turned bright red and her humorous gaze that was previously enjoying her power trip, became a glare that seemed to cause the world into a ice age once again.
"Fine if you don't want to share, I'll force it out of you." She declared with a smirk, her face still beet red. She quickly grabbed the wrist of my left arm and dragged me to our room.
As we walked towards there my left wrist being bruised by her small hand somehow, I could hear the children snickering at me.
"Hehe, looks like big brother Grey made big sister mad again!"
"I heard from Ms. Allie that big brother Grey and big sister Elena get into fights because they're a couple!"
"What's a couple, Alex?"
"It's like being a parent! There's a dad and a mom!"
"Woww.." Multiple children exclaimed at once.
Although the conversation was humorous, it was still embarrassing. And it seemed like Elena also heard the words from the children's mouth as she glared at them before storming off to our room faster. Her ears even got red as well!
As we entered our room, she quickly dragged me up on my bed and sat across me, obviously demanding an answer. Knowing that I couldn't escape now, I decided to just tell her.
5 minutes later
"So, you're telling me that the watch you have on your right hand, came from the old book and you can't take it off?" She asked with a suspicious expression.
"Uhh yeah I guess.." I responded slightly fearful. Closing my eyes instinctively as if expecting to gain a few more bruises, I snapped them open when I heard her.
"Hmmm, okay I'll believe you for now. Let's just move onto the book, now it's really piqued my interest!" She exclaimed with excitement.
A sigh escaped my mouth as relief filled my body as my body also eased up. Grabbing the book I began to turn to the first page again.
"Huh,"
"What?"
"T-This.. the front page is different!"