Alice went to pick up her uniform from the tailoring room. She knocked on the doors and came in. But this time it wasn't an academy staff member that waited for her. It was a short boy. He looked no older than 15.
"H-hello my name is Jasper..." he bowed "And I work for the tailoring club... we were tasked to make your uniform at such a short notice that we barely finished it" He showed Alice a package.
"You look very young. How old are you ?" Alice asked curious. It was the youngest person she has seen at the academy.
"I am 21..." He looked sad that Alice thought he is a child.
"Oh I thought you were 19 !!!" Sweat forming on her forehead as she didnt want to make him feel sad at all. It wasn't her goal at all. "Which course are you at ?" She tried changing the topic.
"Really ? I look 19 ? I knew I'm getting manlier lately !" He ran around the room super excited. Tripping over his oversized robe and falling on the ground. Before he could hit it though Alice used her air magic to prevent his fall.
"Are you okay ?" She brought her face closer to him to see if there are any bruises from the fall. Luckily she was so fast at saving him that his head didn't even touch the ground.
"Y-yes thank you so much ma'am" He curled up embarassed from someone saving him. "Also to your previous question im in the course related to gizmos and equipment. Anything related to tinkering really" He swirled his fingers.
"Oh that's impressive. Can I try the uniform on right now ?" She pointed at the package on the table.
"W-wait... right here ?? You can't !!!" Jasper was getting restless. Not understanding what's happening.
"..." She looked at him with judgmental eyes "Right there" She pointed at a changing booth in the room.
"Oh...." He went fully red because of this situation.
Alice went to the booth and changed. Her uniform was very similiar to Tania's as they both had similiar build and powers now from what the academy knew. She felt very good to have her own clothes on herself and not borrowed ones. As she left the booth and was about to leave she looked at Jasper. "Thank you for making it. It fits perfectly" She smiled.
"N-No problem !! Also I'm sorry for earlier..." He looked down "I'm not a pervert"
"I know. I was jsut teasing you. I hope we will get to talk again some time soon. See you Jasper" She waved him goodbyes.
"Bye Alice !" He also waved, but his waves were way more energetic than hers.
...
Tania waited for Alice in front of the academy to go back home together.
"Sorry to keep you waiting Tania" Alice said as she finally arrived. "What do you think ?" She span around to give the dryad a quick look.
"You look just like me ! But with different hair color" Tania giggled.
"Like sisters!" Alice hugged her. "I can't wait to shock master with how much I've changed in just a day" She chuckled mischievously.
On their way to the mansion Alice forced Tania to keep practicing Air.
"Yes just like that. Keep the element flowing as you walk." Both of them walked with air flowing from the palms of their hands. Whenever Tania lost focus they stopped.
"Ahh its so annoying. Whenever I try to pull the mana out I lose focus and forget to turn it into air" The dryad felt very bad because of her many mistakes.
"Its okay. You are doing even better than me for your first day" Alice kept praising her. She knew that the best way to motivate someone was to point out the parts that they did good instead of the ones they did badly.
"Why can't we just use mana itself as an element ?" Tania asked.
"Because it disapears into the air the moment it gets out of our bodies. Look" Alice demonstrated by pushing mana itself out. Making it spread to the air around them.
"Wow the air is glittering!" Because of manas properties it reflected light making it look like glitter was spread around them two.
Now wait and look at this. Alice wanted to show off a little so she prepared a massive amount of mana to pump into the air. She condensed it as small as possible and pushed it out of her hand with the help of her main rend. The amount was so big and difficult to control that she barely did it. As the ball of condensed mana popped out on her hand she could see a blue marble of glittering fluid for a second before...
BOOM!
Instead of disapearing into the air, the condensed mana exploded. Pushing Alice's arm to the ground "Ouch !" She screamed.
"Are you all right ? What was taht ?" Tania ran to Alice to check up on her.
"I'm fine. I don't know what that was but it was interesting" She stood up and dusted herself off. "Let me try again while you try to keep the air to work. Okay ?" Alice smiled. She decided to turn it into a learning opportunity for them both.
"Yes okay !" Tania nodded.
...
By the time they got to the mansion Tania finally understood how to move with air magic not stopping and Alice figured out what that explosion was.
"So basically the mana being condensed so tightly meant that it couldn't disapear into the air. So it exploded because of the tightness like a granade" She thought to herself. She realized that the only reason it worked was her mana manipulation rend supporting the precise condensation.
"Alice you walk in first!" Tania said. "We will spook miss Monika !" She also wanted to play a prank on her.
"Thats a great idea" Alice said.
Tania hid behind the bushes and Alice walked towards the mansion. She opened the doors and saw her master in front of her.
"Hello miss Monika. Alice had to stay behind" Alice did her best to maintain a poker face.
"Oh okay. Its weird to see you away from her though. You didn't leave her for even a step since you two came back from that mission~" She giggled.
"I was pretty home sick... Anyway i gotta go" Alice ran up the stairs leaving Monika puzzled.
"What a weird girl" She said under her nose. Then she heard knocks on the door. When she opened them there was.... Tania in front of her.
"Hello miss Monika. Alice had to stay behind" Tania said.
Monika started at her. Then back up the stairs. Then back at her. "What ??"