Fists and Roses, Part Two

{Rin}

"Thanks a lot, Triss!" Gwen waved happily at her, as her other arm was wrapped around Sylvia.

"Thank you," Sylvia bowed.

"No problem," Rin said. "Tell your friends! If you're interested in the same again, you know where to find me."

With that, she walked away from them, putting the golden varols they'd given to her in her purse.

Four in total. The mark of a job well-done, as she'd said before.

[That was something,] Rin thought as she began making her way back to the academy. [Really productive night, though!] She'd need to wait for this spell to wear off before she could walk indoors though.

It was currently five days after the team mission had taken place, and in between all of her training, Rin had been excited for this night to happen. If the clinking of those coins in her purse was anything to go by, it didn't disappoint.

Now, she needed to keep getting better, grow as an adventurer, and things would be fine from here into the future, as long as things kept going as they were right now.

Once the hair color change wore off, Rin made her way back to her room, where she found that Elisa was already asleep. Carefully, she moved to the back, took her clothes off, and jumped into her bed, with a satisfied little smile on her face.

With that grin plastered onto her portrait, her day came to a close.

---

The next morning, on Saturday, Rin woke up on her own as the sunlight hit her face.

"Ugh," she groaned a little, forcing herself to sit up. Today being Saturday, she was mostly just going to train, and she wanted to get to it already.

As she opened her eyes, she saw that Elisa wasn't there. She could guess the other adventurer was already hard at work, which was admirable.

[May as well get to it on my own, too,] Rin thought, standing up to go get ready for the day.

A while later, she was fully dressed in the loose white shirt and black pants that she often employed for her training sessions, and was walking out of her room, with a few things on her mind. Of course, one was her training, but another was what happened with Xhez on the team mission. As Maria had made it clear to her that Xhez was special, in that she wasn't a monster like most sprites, she wanted to investigate that.

[The library,] Rin thought. [Maybe Harriton would-]

She turned to the right, about to start walking, and ran into someone. It felt like she'd moved straight into a wall.

"Aghk," Rin took a step back, trying not to fall down.

The person she'd run into was Seth.

"Tk," her classmate clicked his tongue with annoyance, and then walked away, without so much as offering a simple apology.

[Motherf... Ah,] Rin thought, watching him walk away. She noticed, then, that he was carrying that same large bag on his back that Rin had seen him use before. [Oh, is he on his way to that one place?]

She could faintly remember where it was.

[Hm. Whatever.]

On that note, she began walking up the stairs and went straight to the library. The smell of the library always hit a little strangely, as there was nothing quite like the dusty, but also strangely over-perfumed room.

Inside, she found just two people. One was Alea, who was at the back of the room, studying from a book of sorts. The other was Harriton, who was sitting at his desk with his feet kicked up on the table.

"Oh, Rin," he greeted her. "Good morning."

"Morning," she replied to her teacher, before heading over to him. "Hey, can I ask about something?"

"Yeah, lay it on me."

She noticed Alea shooting her a slightly annoyed glance before looking back at her book. She didn't pay any attention to it, though.

"So... About monsters, like, uh, water sprites, for example," she stated, "is it possible for them to... I don't know, evolve?"

"In what sense?"

"Like, ehm, growing claws all of a sudden, or getting bigger and wider."

"Well," Harriton shrugged. "I'm sure some are more powerful than others. Some are probably a little scarier-looking too."

"No, I mean, like," Rin pressed, "could they end up looking completely different somehow? I don't know, could they end up looking human, maybe?"

"..." Harriton stroked his chin. "Rin, um... Are you feeling alright?" He asked.

"Huh?"

"I mean, did Varyn do anything to make you uncomfortable? Is that why you're asking me this?"

"..." Rin blinked.

[What?]

"If you want to know more about Varyn and his kind, you can just ask him, you know? He's your classmate."

"What- no, Harriton, where did you even- why...? What are you talking about?"

As genuinely confused as Rin looked, Harriton raised a brow.

"Oh, you're not talking about him?"

"No, why would I be?"

"I thought for sure this was some convoluted way of asking how beastborn could end up turning into werewolves. You had me a little worried all of a sudden," he chuckled.

"No, I didn't even... Is that something that can happen?" Rin was taken aback.

"Eh... Yes, but, it's not likely," he quickly added. "You don't have to be scared of Varyn, but, yes. It can happen."

"What do you mean?"

"... Did you never learn about this in history class, growing up?" Harriton raised a brow. "That's weird. You really have no idea?"

"None."

"Damn. Well, alright then," he shrugged. "Tell me, how much do you know about the Split?"

Hearing that get brought up was curious. But, Rin answered.

"It was, uh, the event where like, 70% of humanity just disappeared, right? The end of the Old World?"

"Yes," Harriton nodded. "For us."

"... What?" Rin asked.

"For us. As in," he continued, "for humanity, 70% of people went missing. For beastborn, half-humans like Varyn, 70% of them turned into ravenous monsters."

"..."

Rin was so shocked, she couldn't say anything for a while.

"Same thing happened to fairies, actually," Harriton added, turning his eyes back to his book for a moment, as it looked like he was getting a little bored in the middle of his explanation. "Beastborn became rabbit monsters and werewolves, fairies became spriggans. It was why humanity went to war with beastborn and fairies a few times, before eventually subjugating them, and later treating them as, you know, 'regular' people," he said, making quotation signs. "On occasion, some beastborn would turn into monsters. Some fairies would too. But, yeah. It's not terribly likely, but it can happen."

"..." She just blinked.

She couldn't find anything to say.

"But, yeah. Point is, the Split had some weird effects on the world. Effects that are still being felt today. Sorry if I didn't answer your question well, but yeah, don't worry about your non-human classmates. They'll be fine, as long as they don't interact too much with Corrupted Essence."

"Corrupted Essence? Like what turns people undead?"

"Yes," Harriton told her. "Corrupted Essence is like... A wind storming through a forest, with magical properties. It's unpredictable, unstable, and, to put it simply, does whatever it wants."

"I... Uh, t-thanks," Rin quickly replied, before jogging out of the room.

[I need to ask Eve about this,] Rin decided.

Running down the stairs, she quickly located Eve's room and tapped her knuckles against the wooden door. Some quiet feet shuffled behind it, and quickly, the door was opened.

Sara was looking back at Rin, then.

It was jarring, seeing her without that black armor like this, in regular sleepwear.

"..." Sara blinked. "Hello."

"Hey, uh, is Eve here?" Rin tried to peek over her shoulder.

"No."

Sara remained quiet.

Rin blinked.

"Uhm... Could you tell me where she is?"

"Yes," Sara nodded. "She is... Uh..." She looked away, trying to remember. "Shopping."

"Oh, okay, at the markets? I'll check, thanks!" Rin replied before running off.

She walked in a hurry, as she felt like she'd just heard something very important. In the process, she nearly ran into Cara, who was walking into the Academy on her own.

"Sorry!" Rin called out to her.

"H-Hey, be careful!" Cara called out after her, but Rin did not slow down. Ignoring the curious eyes of everyone around her, and the uncomfortable way her boobs bounced as she ran, she cut through various streets, on her way to Libera's northwestern parts, where all those restaurants could be found.

Once she was there, she went looking from one building to another, running through crowds of locals, determined to try to find her fairy classmate. It took a lot of searching, and a lot of failed attempts, but eventually, she found Eve at a general goods store.

The fairy was flying next to Lisa, who was inspecting some novels.

Rin opened the door in a hurry, pausing to catch her breath as Eve looked over at her.

"R-Rin?" Eve asked, flying over to her. "Uh, are you okay?"

"Eve!" Rin said. "The Split!"

"What?" Eve raised a brow, as Lisa approached.

"Are you okay?" Lisa quickly asked, with that kind voice of hers.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, I just," Rin tried to regain her composure. "I just had some questions I wanted to ask."

"Me?" Eve raised a brow.

"Yes!"

"And, these questions couldn't wait until I got back to the Academy?" She asked with a smirk.

"Uh..." Rin paused. "Yeah, but, I was excited!"

"Pfft," Eve laughed. "Okay. What's your question?"

"Right, sorry, the Split," Rin continued. "What were its effects?"

"Uh... On who?" She asked, raising a brow.

"On fairies, and on the beastborn."

"Huh? That's... a little out of nowhere," Eve said, looking at her strangely. "Well, I can tell you about fairies, but I'm not too sure about all of the effects it had on the beastborn. Still, do you wanna hear?"

"Yeah!" She nodded eagerly.

"Well, alright then," Eve shrugged, as though the topic was of little importance to her.