Friendly?

-----Yui's POV

We entered lunch break as met with everyone else in the cafeteria. We did have another training session, with Kendal sparring with each and every one of us. Like Kaede said, I held back the use of trying to use magic until we get further information from Mai, but even still, I think I did pretty well against Kendal. His technique is flawless though, but at least I managed to get him to sweat just a little bit. Makes me think how he would do if he fought against Alice.

As we all take our seats, I take some time to look around for Gabriella. She seems to be near one of the windows amongst many of her friends, including Leon surprisingly. I still wonder if Leon knows about how his father, the king plans to wed him off to me.

Mark: "Hah~"

Once Mark sits down, he slumps onto the table, completely exhausted. I don't blame him.

Kaede: "How you feeling?"

Yui: "Good. We all had to spar against our teacher. What about you?"

Kaede: "We're beginning to learn how to summon other things."

Collin: "A bird to be precise."

I honestly feel a bit jealous of Kaede's class. Being able to summon things sounds so cool. But with the state of my vessel, I think the knights class is the safest option.

Luna: "So cool~ I still want to know how to summon my familiar though!

Violet: "It can be tricky for beginners. there's still a couple people in our class that still can't do that."

George: "Really? After all this time we've been here?"

Violet: "Mhmm. But I understand. Summoning magic is quite taxing since it requires a lot of concentration and mana to pull off. If you don't have the mana reserves then you won't be able to summon anything."

Just like I thought, I wouldn't be able to do anything in the summoning class even if I want to.

Mark: "That's me out then. I can only use a little bit of magic before I feel drained."

Kaede: "I can show you sometime if you like, Luna. Maybe after our classes finish?"

Luna: "Sure!"

Violet: "Oh. I thought you'd be coming with us?"

Kaede: "Ah. So you were talking about today?"

Violet: "Mhmm!"

Yui: "What's this?"

Collin: "We invited Kaede to our place after classes are done for today."

What?! Kaede is already setting up her plan? And here I am still struggling with getting closer with George and Mark. Well, with George it might be easier since his father is now dead, but I have to at least pull my own weight.

Kaede: "Could Yui- I mean, Ellen come as well?"

Violet: "Pfft. You call her Yui quite a lot I've noticed."

Yui: "It's my adventure name."

Collin: "Oh? You do adventure work?"

Yui: "Here and there, yeah."

Kaede: "Please?"

Violet: "Well... I guess it wouldn't hurt. But our father might not like it."

I had a feeling back when we were fighting in the tournament that Violet had a slight distaste towards me. But maybe it stems from her father instead.

Yui: "Does he not like me?"

Violet: "Not you, no. But our father and your father don't get along."

Well this just makes things harder. If our families won't get along, then how are we suppose to bring them onto our side when the time comes?

Yui: "Well I'll make sure he likes me at least!"

Collin: "Haha. We'll see. I'm surprised though sis, I figured you'd only want to bring Kaede along."

Violet: "Well, Ellen is Kaede's friend, so I thought it'd be okay."

I do like how Violet is more talkative now. But what I've noticed is that Violet seems to hold some power over Collin. My only guess is that Violet was born before Collin? I'm not sure.

George: "If we're visiting each other's places, then Luna, would you like to visit mine?"

Luna: "Depends. Ellen, will you be coming back to the dorms?"

Yui: "Yeah. I don't think we'll be staying the night."

Collin: "We do have a couple spare rooms, but okay."

Luna: "Then sorry George. I'd like to stay behind to prepare dinner."

George: "I see..."

Hmm. Maybe it would be better for Luna to visit George's place. He lost his father and I'm aware that he is interested in Luna.

Violet: "If you're worried about dinner, Ellen and Kaede could just have dinner at our place?"

Nice save Violet!

Yui: "Yeah. If you'd like to go to George's Luna, then we can just have dinner at Violet's place."

Luna: "Hmmm. Okay. Did you want to come as well, Olivia?"

Olivia: "Eh? Uhm. I was thinking of trying to talk with Gabriella again."

Mark: "I'll come!"

George: "Sweet! My mother's mansion isn't too far from here."

Sweet. Seems like everyone has their own plans. Maybe I'll talk with Luna after we come back and ask how George's mother is so I can better prepare myself for when I have to face her.

-----Mai's POV

You know... At first I thought this was a good idea, but this has got to be one of the most boring part of my existence. Lilith has it easy as she's now completely fine with the idea of me carrying her with flight magic. I don't mind it, but I still have to be the one making progress.

The mountain where the wyvern's nest lay was quite a chore, forcing us to go around and wasting even more time. But at least now we're back on a somewhat straight path, and actually we're now getting close to what I think is a small town or village.

Mai: "We're approaching a village or something."

Lilith: "Does that mean we're getting close?"

Mai: "Not sure, but at least it's something."

Lilith: "Are we going to go check it out?"

Mai: "Sure. I'd like a break from walking for all these days."

Before I got bound to Kaede, I viewed this world in it's entirety and not really knowing the subtleties. So even though I'm aware where the city of Yarene is, I don't know which towns or cities belong to the Yarene kingdom. 

Lilith: "How far?"

Mai: "About an hour away."

Lilith: "Your senses are amazing. It's like when you spotted those wyverns before we even got near them."

Mai: "When you've been in this world for centuries, you get a good grasp on-"

Suddenly, I felt an intense amount of mana coming straight for us. I erect a barrier just in time as it intercepts what felt like wind magic.

Lilith: "M-Mai?!"

Strange. I could only detect that village from an hour away, but I didn't detect any other sources of mana until just now. Plus whoever attacked us can somehow see through our invisibility magic. That or they guessed our location from us talking. Either way, I have to figure this out.

I choose to reveal myself, but leave Lilith hidden, floating behind me.

Mai: "Who's there?"

...

I put all my focus to detect any kind of mana sources nearby but still, I couldn't sense anything.

?: "Impressive. Being able to stop my attack like that."

Coming from behind a tree in front of me, stood a figure, clad in dark robe and a mask. Even when they're right in front of me, I still can't detect any mana from them. My only guess is that robe or mask has some kind of effect that hides one's own mana.

Mai: "Are you a civilian of the nearby town up ahead?"

?: "And what business would you have there?"

There's no real point in lying is there?

Mai: "We've come all the way from the Inasdale kingdom."

?: "We? So I did hear a second person."

Damn. Slip of the tongue. The cover's blown so I choose to reveal Lilith who's still floating above me.

?: "W-wait. Is that... Flight magic?"

Mai: "Yes."

Lilith: "H-hi."

?: "Now why are a couple of women from Inasdale coming all the way out here?"

Now this, I shouldn't talk about. I don't even know who I'm speaking to, so it'd be foolish to reveal information to-

Lilith: "We've come seeking refuge."

?: "Refuge?"

Lilith: "Yes-"

What are you doing Lilith? Just stop talking!

Mai: "My friend here is an escaped slave. She paid me solemnly to escort her to Yarene."

?: "If she's a slave then how could she have paid you?"

Fuck! I thought I could try to lie, but even for my first time, I still fucked it up. I guess I'll have to work with what I got now.

Mai: "Well, she pays me in, 'other' means."

?: "...Alright."

Lilith: "Please, we just want to pass through. We mean no harm."

Actually, that may be a good thing to bring up since we aren't carrying any weapons at all.

?: "I would've believed that if this one didn't block my attack just before."

Mai: "Why did you suddenly attack then?"

?: "Why were you invisible?"

Mai: "I can say the same thing to you. Even now I still can't sense any mana coming from you."

?: "So that's how you spotted my attack. You have keen senses."

Mai: "Thank you."

?: "...Alright. I'll escort you the rest of the way to the town."

He quickly whistles in a sharp but short tone before suddenly, 4 other masked individuals came out from the trees to our sides. I guess if our talk didn't go well I might've had to deal with all 5 of them. I let out a sigh of relief, but I'll know for next time for when we come close to a town or city, I'll ask Lilith to quiet down so we can avoid something like this happening again. Now that I'm looking at the other masked individuals, they all wore the same robe, or cloak, but the person who was talking with us seems to have a special ornament attacked to it unlike the others.

?: "Come on."