Chapter 10: Click

"The countries of the South are a collection of small nations and kingdoms that are in constant discussion with each other. Some of them rise and fall within a life of commoners. It doesn't make sense to try to create a lasting treaty with them ."

"It is questionable whether your situation is your own fault, or simply the natural state of things. We don't know if the Nict drive is just confirmed by the Portals, or a result of our favorable geographic location."

-Natum Tinn, Emissary of Nict.

***Free City of Nict State, Nict***

*** Azir ***

Another week passed and there was no more confusion. It seems that the group that attacked me consisted of the main perpetrators behind the bad rumors about Stella. I have not even heard a word from her about her stuff disappearing.

My special friend of hers, Lulu, is making a big circle around me and bends over her when I pass her in the hallway. The same goes for your friends.

But there's another problem. Starting today, all of our work will be conducted within a group of five people. It's to teach us how to work as a team.

"Like this? Now your refusal to stay away from me will eventually lead to your downfall."

Stella gumbles in her seat next to me.

"The whole group will receive an overall score. Since I am who I am and you are in the same group as me. For sure, we're going to get the worst teammates that no one else wants to team up with. They' re going to lower our score."

I smile and nod.

"But only if we don't look for suitable teammates first. It's still early in the morning and class won't start for another twenty minutes."

Stella bangs her head on her desk.

"And how are we going to persuade someone to join our group?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

I smile and Stella cries a little at the unexpected contact.

"Using my authority!"

I stand up and walk over to a certain girl who is talking to a boy. She has dark brown hair and looks a little skinny. The boy next to you has blond hair and is of normal build.

"Zaitus?"

The girl looks at me like I'm a ghost. The Zaitu are a family of branches that belong to my clan. Everyone with a direct blood relationship to the head of the clan has the name Zait. Relatives with a more distant relationship have an additional syllable behind their family name. Thus, the longer your family name is, the further down it will be in the hierarchy order.

This means that even though I'm a guy, I can still boss around members of my clan's branch families however I want.

"Yes?"

The girl responds stiffly.

I decided to explain the situation to him.

"I need you for the next group assignment. Then you will join us. Luckily there are more than enough free places around us. Then you can immediately pack your things and eat."

"Because it should..."

"Is your name Zaitus?"

"Yes, but..."

"What do your parents do when Zait invites..."

"I've already promised Karsen to work with him."

She grabs the boy's arm.

"Perfect, he can eat too."

The girl begins to tug on Karsen's arm. He doesn't seem too pleased.

"Hey, I don't want to be pulled into this!"

She grabs her backpack while still grumbling.

"I'm not going alone! You will follow me into exile!"

I turn and walk in the middle of the classroom while ignoring the prying eyes around me. Hmm. One more person. Unfortunately there are no more members of my clan here. No one I could command. So I'm going to have to bully somebody. That's actually a little bit hard to do in front of the whole class. I don't want bad rumors about me.

Unless... my eyes wander to a certain Siorda girl.

"Lulu!"

Lulu ignores me as she sits with her back to me and talks to one of her servants.

"Lulu!"

I slap her on the back of the head and she finally takes notice of me, turning pale.

"Lulu. We need one last member for our group. You're going to fill that place."

I point to Stella who is being accompanied by Taila and Karsen. They're taking the seats in front of her.

Lulu pants twice.

"Why should I? AND MY NAME ISN'T LULU!"

"Oh, does that mean you refuse? And her name is Lulu until I decide otherwise."

I try to make my voice as intimidating as possible, which is not easy at my age.

"Do you want another training session?"

Lulu grabs her bag and runs to Stella's corner, sitting down to my right. I nod and go back to my seat and sit down.

All eyes in the group are looking at me and I smile to defuse the situation.

"My name is Azir Zait, nice to meet you. I hope we can work together from now on."

I point to Taila.

"Your turn."

"Talia Zaitus, nice to meet you."

Talia answers.

My eyes wander to Karsen.

"Karsen Anja, Hi."

Karsen grumbles.

I point to Lulu.

"And that's Lulu."

"I'm Louise Siorda!"

I furrowed my brows.

"...but Lulu is my nickname. Call me what you will."

I smile at Stella who looked at the scene as her forehead had more and more wrinkles added to it with each spoken word.

She finally decides to come forward.

"My name is Stella Sable. Thank you for working with me."

I clap my hands.

"And now that the tense introductions have been made, we can finally work on the real purpose of this group and become friends!"

***

I jump in as I'm on my way back to my carriage through one of the school's hallways. My people skills are just fantastic. Who would have thought it was so easy to find three people for my group.

Our work with each other also went well. I didn't care much about his skills because I thought randomly picking people is better than ending up with a few leftovers.

"Azir!"

Someone rushes to my side, but the voice alone is enough to recognize her.

I try to free myself as Annice continues to hold my arm from her.

"Stop it! What do you want?"

She won't let me go, even though I have her hand on her cheek and push with all my might.

"But we haven't seen each other in so long and you keep avoiding me."

Finally she lets me go.

"I don't know what you're talking about. And I'm not interested in that kind of relationship."

I keep walking.

"But my mom said it's better to start early."

She follows me.

"We have five years! Learn some common sense!"

This is really ridiculous.

"What did your mother teach you?"

"That some men can be acquired with a command and others have to be conquered."

She responds in a sweet voice.

I shake my head.

"Look. I don't know how you came up with that idea..."

"You were the first man who contradicted me."

She plays with her index fingertips as she looks away.

I grumble.

"That's not hard! I doubt you've had any contact with men other than me until now."

Annice blinks.

"That's really a valid point. I have to eliminate this deficiency from my life."

She turns and leaves.

I watch her disappear around a corner while I'm confused. What is this girl going to do to increase her experience with men? What did I do? What if...

NO!

It's none of my business!

I continue on my way without looking back.