Its hard to make new friends

I was sitting inside a travel cabin of an airship along with two of the teachers who will be supervising the expedition and an escort, the same creepy person who handed me the invitation from Grandmaster Edenwood.

I wasn't aware of it but the airship was supposed to receive me from my home.

I sat alone on the window seat from the empty seats allocated to the students while the teachers and that weird escort sat at the front.

(A/N: Airships have four main floors and the middle two are used by the passengers. The top floor is the control room and the captain's cabin along with the treasure room. The second floor is divided into two parts the passenger's living cabin and observation decks or meeting room decks. (the one they are at now.) The third is the pantry, diner, and crew sleeping cabins and the fourth is the engine room and storage.)

I was quite irritated at the weird escort who kept peeking at me and every time our eyes met he greets me with a creepy smile on his face.

In this uncomfortable situation, I was reminded of the time before I left for the academy. I was visited by many of the townsfolks and they first congratulated me for promoting and then wished me a safe journey. Some of them even gave me snacks to share with my friends on this journey. Only if they knew how hated I am. The snacks that I received were something I liked especially the ones brought by the waitress from Bogwood tavern.

I thank them before entering the air carriage flown by Mr. Jonathan. Now that he owns the Hawk, he named Harpy, he happily gave me a free ride. He said it was his way of thanking me for winning him a large amount of money.

Like usual Mr. Jonathan dropped me at the Landing ports of Island Orion and before I could leave he handed me a heavy leather pouch. I didn't need to open it know what it was, he was handing me money for my travels. I refused to take it but he forced it upon me.

He said that he is only being kind to me since now that I am an Archeologist I will become a respectable person and I will soon start making big money and when that happens he wants my favor. This is his way of investing a small sum of money in me which he is sure he will get back with large interest.

If you didn't know Mr. Jonathan you would think of him as a selfish man who only helps people believing that he will be receiving a huge profit from them in the future and to some people that might appear to be true on the surface. But after spending a lot of time with him I only thought this behavior of him as a facade he keeps. A facade that keeps the people he helped away from feeling in debt to him.

Knowing him he would not allow me to leave unless I take this pouch with me so I reluctantly agreed.

Before I left the landing ports I gave Mr. Jonathan a tight hug and thank him for taking care of me all this time. Tears dripped down my eyes at which he started patting my back. I kept thanking him and he replied with, "I was only kind to you because someday I hoped when you started earning a lot of money, I get to leech off your achievements."

"I don't believe you." He said between my sniffles.

"I don't care what you believe." He hugged me tighter before he let go of me.

I smiled and started heading towards the academy while using a handkerchief to wipe my tears and snot. I did peek behind and I saw him wiping his eye.

'I guess his tough acts are something he cannot maintain forever.'

"Hey Andrew," He called after climbing the air carriage.

"Yes, Mr. Jonathan."

"Be successful." He quickly left the ports before I can thank him.

...

While I was smiling instinctively thinking about my times with Mr. Jonathan that was when I heard the doors for the cabin open and inside came a female student. She was guided by an airship staff.

I looked at her uniform and I deduced her to be someone from the Magical arts department. I looked outside the window, the airship was still parked and I saw a small mansion. She must have been a child of small noble without any domain judging from the people who were there to farewell her.

Among the people who came to drop her were her parents I assume, her siblings, and her servants. They were expecting her to come to the window.

The girl greeted the teachers when she entered and they told her to sit.

"Please take a seat there," they pointed at empty chairs in the cabin.

She then went to the windows and started waving at her family and servants I presume.

The airship took off smoothly with her still waving, but even with the airship rising, I did not felt any inertia. After lifting up to a safe height it started moving which was only indicated by the changing scenery outside the window.

The girl awkwardly came to me and asked if she could sit next to me. I didn't plan on using that seat so I agreed.

"Thank you." She thanked me and sat next to while awkwardly jittering and pinching her skirt.

I ignored her and kept looking outside the window. The scenery of floating lands was something quite admirable but for someone like me who was raised at a small island surrounded by large and medium islands, it was just an unseen view of something similar.

My home Island Hermes is located close to the center of the Island cluster Udan. This made it so that we can see the floating islands all day round. Some of our townsfolk also complained about how the Islands that are 10 times bigger than ours sometimes block the sun on cold days.

The girl watched the view with admiration which was understandable considering that the islands she came from, Opera, was large, located higher, and its lands were covered in huge mountains. She must rarely see something like this.

"My name... My name is Lisandra." The girl forcefully introduced herself when the airship flew above the clouds.

We have been flying above clouds for a long time so she must have been deciding either she wanted to have a conversation with me.

"My name is Andrew." I too introduced myself.

"How should I address you?" She asked with her hands clutched between her chest.

"You can call me Andrew or Will both names apply to me," I explained.

In Nephealis or any other country in the world having two names is considered a privilege because having two names indicate that your ancestors were respected thus allowing them to pass down their names, which is why you should always address others with their family name if you wanted to be polite.

However, in Nephealis this restriction was changed from those belonging to respected families were allowed to pass down their family names to every Nephealians are allowed to pass down their family name.

When Nephealians fled the original Nephealis after losing the war against the demons, the King of Nephealis allowed everyone to have two names as a reward for their services to the country.

The population was extremely thinned out which meant that the developments of the new Nephealis would be hindered if they remained in the old class-based system.

Those who didn't have any family names were allowed to pass down their current family head's names as their family names. However, orphans or people without parents such as me were given a given name and a church name which they could use interchangeably as they seemed fit.

Lisandra who didn't manage to understand me replied, "Then please keep calling me Lisandra, I would like you to do that."

I found it weird because the only people who are allowed to call you by your given name are either your parents or close friends. Did she not know that?

I tried to figure out why would she allow me to call her by her given name that is when I realized that both her given name and her family name might be the same, which was common for many families. This happens when a family head passes down their name as their family name and parents decide to name their children after their ancestors.

"Thank you, Miss Lisandra, it is nice to make you my acquaintance." I politely answered.

She seemed a little unhappy from my reply so I rephrased myself. "I hope we can establish a friendly relationship from now owns."

She smiled when she heard me add those words and excitedly shook my hand.

"I hope we can be good friends." She excitedly said.

We talked for a while after which I was informed that Lisandra was a first-year student. That explains why she wasn't aware of my reputation. She appeared to be a socially awkward person at first but after talking to her for some time I realize she was just someone who was scared to start conversations with strangers.

After considering that many people came to greet her farewell meant that she was someone who was loved by others.

"So you are a first-year student?" I asked.

"Yes," She confirmed, we have been talking for an hour and it appears that she became less conserved towards me but that begs the question why didn't she had any friends.

From our conversation so far I was informed that she did not have any friends in her class and her parents were worried about it. This was also the reason why she approached me first, she promised her parents that she would make a few friends on this trip.

However this was soon answered, when other students started to join us, Lisandra became quiet and did not speak a word. She completely stopped talking to me nor did she approach other students too and silently sat at her seat.

I saw her face tightly packed between her shoulders, her legs were shaking and her hands jittered. This was when I realized that she had Agoraphobia. I held her hands and whispered to her,

"We will talk more when we are alone," I assured her.

At which she smiled at me and nodded.

...

The cabin started to fill and soon Emil got into the airship and before I could greet her she painfully flicked my forehead.

"What?" I asked.

"Your face it's gloating right now. I just saved you from other's resentment." She said with a straight face.

Sometimes it is hard to understand why she she is so violent.