They Were Roommates

  "It's alright. I will come with you," Anna said upon seeing the nervous expression on Eirin's face. She opened the door and led the teenage girl inside the humongous office. Eirin blinked her eyes thousands of times as she could not help but look around as they entered the room. The walls were made of stone, and there were tons of windows, and a lantern-like chandelier brightened the whole room. As Eirin continued looking around, she noticed that the furniture was still made of wood, but the flooring was made from glass, causing her to tiptoe towards the center where the school director's desk was. 

There was a visible contrast between the wall and the floor of the room, but Eirin could not bother herself with that as she stood in front of the wooden desk that looked like it had been coated with lacquer with how shiny it appeared. 

  "You may sit." 

Anna signaled Eirin to sit on the sofa in front of the school director's desk, and Eirin complied. As soon as she sat, Eirin could feel the softness of the sofa and described it as if sitting on fluffy clouds. Her eyes soon landed on the woman sitting on the old swivel chair. The teenage girl froze as she watched the woman tuck her stunning ash-blonde hair behind her ears and sipped from her cup of tea with those pinkish and plump lips. The woman looked up to see Eirin and the teenage girl witnessed how gorgeous of an azure color the woman's eyes were. 

Anna cleared her throat and said, "Miss Luxfield, this is our school director and Her Majesty, the Queen, Regina Virelli." 

The woman whose name was Regina smiled, almost blinding Eirin's eye with how beautiful and regal she looked wearing that simple yet sophisticated peach evening gown, complimenting her pale white complexion. 

  "No need for such formality since I am meeting you right now as Madam Eleanor's student," Regina said with a calming tone. Her voice sounded so feminine, befitting her beautiful appearance. 

  "My grandmother?" Eirin balled her fists. "If it's not rude to ask, where is she? She said she'll be following us, but I haven't seen her yet." 

Regina's smile brightened as she placed her teacup back on the table. "Madam Eleanor already arrived, but she said that she won't be meeting you for a while." 

  "Why? Why didn't she come and tell me that?" Eirin could not stop her habit of biting her fingernails. "That's not like my grandma." Silence surrounded them as Eirin felt more anxious. 

  "Please do not worry too much," Regina said as she stood and reached out her hand to Eirin. The teenage girl felt the warmth of Regina's soft and pale hands. "Madam Eleanor must keep a low profile for a while which is why she is preventing herself from meeting you." 

  'Why is that? Why would she do that? For what reason? Why must she keep a low profile? Is she in danger?' Tons of questions filled Eirin's head, but the only one she could ask was, "Was she safe?" 

Regina caressed Eirin's hand. "Of course. She will be staying in the accommodation I prepared. Worry not." She then looked at Anna. "Do explain everything to Eirin and lead her to her room." 

  "Yes, Your Majesty." Anna turned to Eirin. "Now, if you will, please come with me, Miss Luxfield." 

Eirin stood up from her seat but was conflicted to leave just like that. 'What do I do? Should I bow or something?' she thought. 

  "Fret not, you will meet Her Majesty again on a sooner date, but for now, she must tend to some important works." 

They walked back into the empty and quiet hallway. "I shall tell Miss Luxfield the rules of the academy that you must abide by," Anna said. "First, as a new student, you must never skip your classes, especially your first class with Mr. Blade," she said while fixing her glasses. "Mr. Blade is one of the well-loved teachers in this academia. He was at the top of his class and graduated with great credentials. Despite being young, he is a great professor who will help you learn what your class is." 

  "Class?" 

Anna cleared her throat. "In the Senerra Academy, the first step to becoming a full-fledged student is to learn what your class is. If you're a flair user or a wizard or sorcerer. The first type of flair is the kinetic type, these are the abilities that revolve around elements and sub-elements. Students who have the kinetic type of flair are Shade Cromwell and Calixta Winters," she said. "They are human children that wield the powers of the element of fire and ice." 

Eirin's forehead creased as she tried to take all the information she heard into her brain. "Then, am I someone that could use magic like they do?" 

Anna glanced at Eirin in disbelief. "Absolutely. This academia is only for the flair users, wizards, and ligmas." 

Eirin stopped with her forehead furrowed even further. "Ligmas? What is that? Sounds like a made-up word that circulated on the internet," she said, making Anna tilt her head. 

  "I might not be well-versed in what you have just said, but ligmas are creatures that are not human. They are born innate with magic and can wield different kinds of elements as their bodies are like an endless jar of mana. Mana is the energy being used to create magic. If you are low in mana, you might not be able to wield magic. People of Infirmus only have little amounts of mana in their bodies, and they are not suitable to wield any sort of magic." 

  "This is why ligmas could control elements with no effort. Meanwhile, human bodies have limitations when it comes to storing mana. This is the reason why human children born with immense mana gain an ability called flair." 

Seeing how confused Eirin was made Anna clear her throat once again. "You might not be able to understand it at first since you were living in the world of the inops." 

    'I remember hearing that word from somewhere,' Eirin thought and said, "Inops?" 

  "It is what we call normal human beings who cannot use mana. They do not bear any abilities," Anna said as they went through an open passage near a small garden. "By the way, this garden is in between the dorms. The building we just passed by was the male dorm, and we will be entering the female dormitories." 

Eirin could hear the voices of children as they continued walking. "The Senerra Academy also nurtures children who lost their homes or were abandoned at a very young age. Some of them often had a hard time controlling their flairs as they have immense mana in their bodies," Anna added. Even though Eirin could not understand everything, she did not hate the appearance of the place, but her heart wouldn't calm down at all. 

The academia gave a sense of nostalgia that Eirin could not understand. As they toured around, Eirin noticed the vintage style of decorations everywhere. Making her remember what she saw from that magical window back in the auditorium's storage room which also reminded her of the incident with Shade Cromwell. 

  "Your roommate will be explaining more of the things here, and you will also learn of it in one of your classes so do not worry too much," Anna said upon arrival on the third floor of the female dormitory building. She stood in front of a door and opened it. "This will be your room." 

It had the number 307 on the door, and when Eirin peeked inside, she saw two beds on the opposite sides of the room. One side was decorated with all sorts of pastel pink and purple stuff and even the wall was painted with a bright pink color and decorated with purple bunny patterns. There were also pink and purple bunny stuffed toys lying on the bed with a pink bed sheet and bunnies-designed purple pillows. 

  'What a bright decoration,' was what Eirin thought as it reminded her of her dearest friend, Ava. When she looked to the other side, the bed was empty with plain white bed sheets and pillows. The total opposite of the bright pink and purple side of the room. 

  "This will be your side," Anna said while pointing to the plain part of the room. "Do you have any preferences? What kind of designs do you like? Any colors you would like to paint the walls with?" 

Eirin thought that it would be too much of a hassle to decorate it herself and it was embarrassing to ask other people for help as she doesn't know any of them yet. "I-I think I'll just take it as it is," she said, but Anna frowned. "Are you perhaps... mad at me?" 

Anna quickly fixed her glasses and cleared her throat. "Not at all, Miss Luxfield." Her tone sounded insincere. "But it is quite vexing to see another student who would want such plain decoration for their room," she said and sighed. 

  'Another?' 

Eirin could not bear the look in Anna's eyes. "T-Then, I would like to paint the walls blue," the teenage girl said as she didn't want anyone to get annoyed by her words. "I love looking at the clouds so maybe... I could get those patterns on the ceiling," she said, despite not wanting to do anything for now. 

Anna smiled so brightly that it was shocking to see, and she flicked her fingers in excitement. "I shall do my utmost best!" she said, and all of a sudden, the pink and blue mist appeared in the room and swirled around the plain side. The one plain bed twirled into the air and changed. Pastel blue bed sheets with white cloud designs and soft-fluffy white pillows with cloud shapes landed on the bed. 

Eirin could not believe her eyes as she saw a paintbrush and a bucket of paint appearing out of nowhere and started painting the walls blue. It turned into the color of the sky with clouds entering the room through the open window not far from the bed. It floated around and even encircled Eirin before getting into the wall and became a design. 

  "Wow," Eirin could not stop herself from feeling amazed at what she saw. But it did not stop there. A huge sparkling white cabinet appeared behind Eirin, and it started walking towards the wall on the right side of the bed. 

  "H-How are you doing this?" 

Anna's once stoic face was replaced with a joyful expression. "It is my ability," Anna said and patted Eirin's back. "This is now your room." She turned around. "And your roommate has just arrived." 

Eirin turned around and instantly froze as she saw those dubious winter gray eyes staring at her. "You two might already have introduced yourselves earlier, but just for the formalities, this here is Miss Coleen McGuffin." 

Eirin gulped and thought, 'She's not even hiding her hostility towards me.' While looking at those glares, she forced a smile. 

  "Now that your roommate is here, I shall now take my leave." 

  "Wait—" 

Eirin reached out her hand, but the door was already closed, leaving just the two of them inside. 

  'I don't feel so good about this.'