Rescue Mission

The academy consists of multiple floors.

The first floor is used by the first-years, the second floor by the second-years and the third floor by the third-years.

On the floors above the third, the rooms and offices were for teachers and other staff members of the academy.

Ophelia Ross, the teacher of the first-year black class, was currently busy with paperwork in her office on the fourth floor.

She had a stern look as she read a certain document.

"Rostanta, huh..." she sighed as she leaned back on her chair.

Ophelia stared at the ceiling.

Her mind was blank until she heard loud footsteps.

And without even knocking first, the door was slammed open.

"Is this how you uninvited walk into someone's office, Mika?" she asked in a bored tone with her eyes still glued on the ceiling.

"Give me permission to leave the academy for a few days!"

Mika, who forced himself into her office, appeared impatient.

"And what exactly is your reason?"

Neither did her tone change nor did she avert her eyes from the soothing ceiling.

"My friend's team went on a quest and didn't return yet. And it's been two weeks already!"

"I see."

Ophelia fixed her posture and proceeded to sign the documents on her table.

"Well, just wait for the authorities to handle this situation." she responded calmly.

"But-"

"This is the academy Loogam. Nothing is easy here. Students will face life-threatening situations here. But that's normal. Students will grow and learn from that experience. And that's why we send the students out on quests."

"If they die, then that's it. People, who enroll here, should be aware of that possibility." she added.

"..."

Mika clenched his fists tightly.

"Please give me permission to leave the academy!" he asked again.

"Jeez, give it a rest already. I understand your worry for your friends, but let the authorities handle it. In the first place, what do you intend to do with that permission? Rescue them on your own?"

"Yes."

"Why did I even bother asking..."

She looked him in the eyes for the first time.

His sharp eyes, which were usually the epitome of sloth, brimmed with determination.

"You sure like to work me to the bone..." she heaved another sigh.

Then, she opened a drawer and took out a sheet of paper.

"Here." she said as she stretched out her arm with the sheet of paper in her hand.

Silently, Mika accepted the document and read it.

"..."

"We planned on pinning it on the blackboard tomorrow, but even if I said that you couldn't have waited, right?" she shrugged her shoulders.

In his hand was a quest.

"Find and rescue the following students..." Mika began reading the quest quietly.

"Adin Aveg, Gerard Armwright, Judi Rein and Ron Bellk..."

Surprised, he looked up to Ophelia.

"Keep in mind that this is an A-rank quest. Therefore, your team mustn't have an S-rank student." Ophelia remarked.

As long as one went through the necessary procedures, changing teams was possible.

However, Mika already planned to take on the next quest together again.

"What will you do now?" she asked with a smirk.

"I... I will accept this quest!"

"So be it then. Prepare your things because we will leave tomorrow morning."

"Huh? We?"

Mika tilted his head.

"You and me will do this quest. Any problems?"

"W-w-wait! Why are you coming with me?"

"It's not like I trust you. It's just mandatory for us teachers to come along on rescue missions. As soon as someone is willing to do that quest, the teacher assigned to this quest will decide when to depart. In this case, said teacher is me."

"And I just decided that we will depart tomorrow. Any problem with that?"

A smile crept onto Mika's face.

"No, not at all!"

"Good. The sooner the better, right?"

Ophelia also wore a genuine smile on her face now.

"Ehm... Could I ask for another favor?" Mika asked awkwardly.

"Hm? What is it this time?"

"Well..."

The next day.

While waiting for Mika, Ophelia was loading the carriage.

"Why did they assign me for this..." she complained silently in a slightly gloomy tone.

Normally, she would not complain about the jobs given to her, however, even she had certain things she wanted to avoid if possible.

One of those things would be setting foot in Rostanta again.

She sighed.

"What am I thinking? This is not the time to be stressing over that. Furthermore, it's just the border. It should be fine..."

"..."

She stared daggers at the backpack she was holding.

"Maybe I should pick up a disguise before leaving..."

"Yeah, let's do that. Mika isn't here-"

"Good morning, Ms. Ross."

Disappointed, she turned around to Mika, who was greeting her.

"Morning..."

"Are you alright? You seem down."

"It's nothing. Now put your things in there." she replied exhausted as she waved her hand up and down at the carriage.

Without saying anything back, he did what he was told to.

It took him only a short time until everything was done.

"I guess, we're set to go now." Ophelia stated as she sent a signal to the driver.

"Yeah."

Mika looked back to the academy one last time.

"Did you hand it over to her?" he asked.

"Don't worry. I did it yesterday."

"Thanks."

"Anything else you want to do before we leave?"

"No. Let's go."

Thus, Ophelia and Mika entered the carriage and departed from Loogam.

In the meantime, Lily and Sylvia were walking together to the academy.

On any other day, the two would happily chat over trivial things, but during the last couple of days, the mood was tense.

"You and Mika seem worried about something. What happened?" Sylvia asked.

"Well... It's just..."

She tried to find the right words.

"Our friends still haven't returned from their quest and it's been two weeks already..." Lily answered downheartedly.

Sylvia looked at Lily, whose gaze was directed to the ground, with sympathy.

"If it's been so long already, then the authorities will surely handle this matter soon." she tried to cheer her up.

"Yeah..." she softly nodded her head.

The two girls almost arrived at the academy's entrance, when they saw a silhouette from afar waiting.

"Isn't that..."

"Ms. Werensten?" Lily wondered surprised.

Standing there was the blonde teacher with a fair figure, Cindy Werensten.

"Good morning, girls..." Cindy greeted them with droopy eyes.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, Ms. Werensten. What are you doing here so early?" Lily asked.

"Usually, you would show up as the latest for class." she added.

Cindy yawned.

"And I was planning on doing that today, too..."

"Is she really a teacher...?" Sylvia whispered to herself astonished.

Then, Cindy proceeded to dig something out of her pocket.

"Where was it again... Here? No, wait... Ah, here it is!"

She handed them a crumpled letter.

"?"

They took the letter and tried to identify its content, which was now harder due to the wrinkles.

'It's me, Mika. I hope that Ms. Werensten was able to hand this letter over to you properly.'

"..."

The two glimpsed at the tired Cindy in disbelief before they continued reading.

'Anyways, if you're reading this, then Ms. Ross and I are most likely on our way to Rostanta's border. We're there to find and rescue Gerard and the others, who went missing. It is a quest, which I accepted. As it is an A-rank quest, I decided to do it on my own, therefore I apologize to you. I don't want to restrict the two of you, thus you can take on a quest without thinking about me. For now, I can't tell you, when we will return, but I can assure you that we will definitely return. After all, I have Ms. Ross with me. See you then. - Mika'

"Is he crazy?"

Sylvia was heaving a sigh as she massaged her forehead, whereas Lily was giggling happily.

"Well, I suppose we don't have to worry about your friends anymore." Sylvia added.

"Yeah, that's right!"

Lily cheered up again after reading the letter.

"Hey, Lily..." Sylvia whispered into her ear.

Meanwhile, other students started to pass them by as they went to their classes.

"Ophelia is such a meanie for using me to deliver just a letter so early in the morning~" Cindy complained while yawning again.

She looked over to the two girls, who happened to look at her, too.

"H-hey, Lily... Why is that girl there grinning at me so devilish...?" she asked anxiously.

"Haha, well..."

Sylvia closed the distance between her and Cindy.

"Dear Ms. Werensten, sadly, our quest guide and a team member left us even though we intended to do a quest shortly." Sylvia acted heartbroken.

"What bad acting..." Lily commented quietly with a wry smile.

"Therefore, we wanted to ask you, if you want to be our team's guide for the time being." Sylvia clasped her hands together and tried looking at Cindy with puppy-like eyes.

"W-why me? Why not ask Mr.-"

"Because you're right in front of us." Sylvia cut her off with a smile.

"W-well, as much as I'd like to be your guide, you're only two and the rule is-"

"But what about Mika? H's going on a quest alone with Ms. Ross." she interrupted Cindy again.

"Ehm, well..."

She was backed into a corner.

However, she quickly gave in.

"Fine, fine..."

"You have my gratitude."

"So when do you want to depart for your quest?"

Sylvia's devilish grin returned.

"Today."