Storming Spark

"Well, that's breakfast done and dusted." Helena said as they left the still excited inn, "Let's go explore the town! Hopefully, quite a bit has changed since I last came here!"

"It's only been like three months." Roland muttered, "How much could possibly have changed?"

"Oh look. Our favorite cafe is gone."

"What?! Dammit! I was going to go there when I had time later!"

Roko carefully mused over the information that the merchant had given him. He had a lead now but investigating would be rather difficult with his friends around. There had to be something he could do in the meantime.

"So what are you thinking about?" Roko's thoughts were interrupted as Helena poked her head into his view.

"Just trying to figure out where to go." He replied.

"Is that right?" Helena said, unconvinced, "Well, we should really decide together. Seeing as how we will all be going there and all."

"Have any recommendations?"

"Hmm..." Helena thought aloud, "Not particularly. I don't really know my own city that well."

"But it's your city."

"Yeah but I rarely left the castle until my term in Auspice started."

"Really? That doesn't seem right."

"That's what I said." Helena sighed, "So I tried sneaking out whenever I could but I could never go that far."

"She wouldn't always tell me either." Roland cut in, "Sometimes I went with her and sometimes I had to help find her."

"Hey, if it wasn't for my outings, I would never had found you again and I would never have made you my knight."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"How about we check on some of your favorite places as a start?" Roko suggested.

"Don't really got any." Helena replied.

"What about the cafe?"

"That's mostly Roland's thing."

…

"Roland, got anyplace you want to go?"

"Eh? I mean sure, I guess."

Helena and Roko followed Roland as he walked about Aporia showing off various small shops and what could loosely be defined as landmarks. These ranged from small parks to a few food stalls and occasionally window gazing at armors and swords. Roland continued to enthusiastically drag the pair along, showing off only things that he was interested in. Roko and Helena just went along silently as Roland stopped at another food stall and bought a meat skewer.

"And the food here is fantastic!" Roland grinned as he munched on his ninth snack that day, "Really can't go wrong with any of the food in this city. Oh, those swords look fancy!"

"This was a huge mistake." Helena muttered.

"At least someone is enjoying himself." Roko sighed as Roland gazed longing at the jewel studded swords and sheaths on display, "But his interests are really simple aren't they? He really could use a hobby."

"Please no." Helena rubbed her face as Roland ran off towards another food stall, "He slacks off enough as is. I don't need him having another hobby to distract him."

"Ohoho. Well what do we have here?"

Helena looked up as a fancy looking girl with a friendly looking knight walked up to her, "Oh. Hey Melia."

"I'm glad to see you here." Melia said with one of the most fake smile that Roko has ever seen, "Have you been home long?"

"Came in just last night actually."

"Is that so? Well I'm glad to see you well. I was worried that all the lessons might have been getting to you."

"Well, it's no different than what I was getting at home." Helena spoke tentatively, "Actually all those lessons probably kept me above the curve...at least at first."

"Oh?" Melia hid a slight smirk behind her hand fan, "Are you perhaps slacking off in your studies?"

"That's not what I said."

"I should hope not. Your dear parents have been working oh so hard so you can attend. Though I suppose they can't be working all that hard."

"And who's this?" Roko stepped in as he felt apprehensions rising.

"Oh. Roko." Helena said as as if just remembering he was there, "This is Melia. An...old friend of mine."

"A pleasure, I'm sure." Melia nodded.

"She's the daughter of a rather well known noble family. We've been friends since we were kids but uh...we haven't seen each other in a while."

"Far too long, my dear." Melia nodded, "I must apologize. It's just that I've been so busy."

"Yeah, I'd bet."

"Though I see your taste in company has dropped once again." Melia smirked openly this time, "First Roland, now this random peasant?"

"He's not a peasant!"

"I kinda am." Roko admitted.

"Roko!"

"Hey, I don't do anything noble, I just live there."

"See, even he ad-wait what did you say?"

"I'm not noble?"

"No, the other part."

"I...just live there."

"And by there you mean..."

"Memoria Auspice?"

Melia's fan snapped shut, her hand gripping it tightly as her face struggled to maintain a falsely friendly composure.

"Oh no." Helena gulped, "This isn't good."

"No no, everything is fine." Melia said, her face still twitching, "I'm sure there is a good reason why a man is attending Memoria Auspice. I just can't quite imagine it."

"Wait, you don't know?" Roko frowned.

"Don't know...what?"

Roko got the distinct impression to remain quiet.

"Don't know what?" Melia pressed, the struggle in her face calming down to express an intense, quiet anger.

"Well it's been nice seeing you again, Melia!" Helena rushed in to interrupt them, "But I think it's about time we return to our tour of the city. Only so much day left in the...day. So if you'll just excuse us-"

"Oh no you don't, Helena." Melia stated as she pointed her fan at the princess, "I will not be made a mockery of and then ignored."

"None of that was happening!"

"Then why are you trying to escape?"

"I'm just trying to give Roko a tour!"

"You have a full week to do so. I'm sure you can spare a few minutes to explain yourself."

"There's nothing to explain!"

"How can you say that a man in Memoria Auspice is nothing?"

"He's a knight?"

"Oh? Then perhaps he might enjoy a duel with my knight."

"I'm not a knight."

"Roko!"

"I'm not fighting a knight."

"You fought Roland!"

"And I lost."

"Well you've fought way worse than Roland by now."

"As far as you know, I've only fought some wolves and a fake basilisk."

"A fake basilisk you say?" Melia's smile was getting more and more seething, "Sounds like you've had quite the adventure at school, Helena."

"It was no adventure! One of my friends was kidnapped!"

"Making more friends at school are we?!"

"Why are you getting angry at that?!"

"You think you can come back here and just flaunt all the fun you were having in school in my face?!"

"It isn't nearly half as fun as you think it is!"

"That's not what it seems like!"

"Hey." Roland walked up to them nonchalantly, "I bought some samosas. Want any?"

"I'll take them." Helena said, quickly grabbing a bag from Roland's hands.

"You too, Lady Melia. I bought enough for everyone."

"Where's mine?" Roko asked.

"Everyone except Roko."

Melia took the bag of food from Roland with a slightly derisive sigh, "Well, I suppose it's only natural to make new friends at school."

"It is, isn't it?" Helena said as she munched on a samosa.

"Quite." Melia took a samosa out of the bag, "I must learn to keep my composure more often."

"You work on that."

"Oh but you do well at making others worry, Helena." Melia sighed, "You know so little and so rarely pay attention to the world. One can only wonder how you would fare as the queen of a country."

"I appreciate your concern." Helena ground her teeth, "But I'm in no position to run a country as is so it's not an actual problem."

"That lack of foresight is exactly what makes everyone worry about you."

"If I could see that far into the future, I wouldn't have to worry about anything."

"But it still would help if you could think of your station a bit more. A little foresight can go a long way. It's not like we're asking you to measure up to the Hero and all."

"The what?" Roko blinked.

"The Hero." Melia said, surprised, "You don't know about the Hero?"

"Oh, Roko's from another world." Roland replied automatically before he realized what he said and froze with a samosa hovering over his open mouth.

"Roland you goddamned idiot." Helena rubbed her eyes.

"Excuse me?" Melia's bad temper returned in full swing, "From another world?"

"It's not important, Melia, don't worry about it." Helena said hastily but Melia seemed to not be buying it.

"How long has he been here?"

"Umm..." Helena looked towards Roko, "About a month now?"

"And how come I was never informed of this?"

"Lots of people don't know about him. Look, don't worry-"

"How many people DO know about him?"

"Um...most royalties and..." Then in a quiet voice, Helena answered, "Most governmental nobles."

"I knew it!" Melia cried, outraged, "I wasn't told! Even though I'm a noble! Why is that?"

"I'm sure someone meant to tell you at some point but they just uh..."

"Forgot?! Is that it? Or am I just not important enough?!"

"That's not it..." Helena winced.

"Are we keeping secrets now?! Is that what we're doing?!"

"Everyone was just busy. Someone just appeared out of nowhere so-"

"Oh so now you're busy!" Melia snapped, "I don't remember seeing you doing anything in your free time! Found a hobby now have we?!"

"That's-"

"AAAAAHHH, I'm so sick of this! My family worked so hard to get where we are now and we get treated like this?!"

"Melia, calm down. This is an unusual situation and everyone's been working hard to sort things-"

"What do you know about work?! You were married into royalty! You never had to do actual work for a day in your life!"

"Now that's...not true. I've had to work too! It might have all been schoolwork but it's work noneth-"

"There it is!" Melia began stamping her foot, "Why did someone like you get into Memoria Auspice and I can't?! I'm a noble! We've worked hard to earn that title! I even got myself a knight! Roswell is a much better knight than Roland too!"

"Hey." Roswell smiled awkwardly everyone turned to look at him.

"Look, Roswell might be a good knight. Maybe even better than Roland."

"Thanks princess." Roland grumbled.

"But I don't have a say in who gets into Memoria Auspice. I don't know why and I can't do anything about how they keep rejecting you. Complaining to me won't change anything."

"Then why are you here?! Are you just here to taunt me?!"

"I'm just on vacation!"

"Why did you even bother coming back?! Why don't you just stay in your school until you graduate?!"

Helena bit her lip as a complex spiral of emotions spun about behind her eyes. Melia began huffing heavily as she took enough breaths to calm down somewhat.

"We're done here." Melia snapped her fan open as she tidied herself and straightened up, "I don't have the energy to deal with this all day. Come Roswell."

Roswell gave an apologetic shrug as he turned around and followed his charge away.

"So what was that?" Roko asked once Melia was out of earshot.

"Melia's...an emotional person." Helena gave a weak smile, "She can be a bit of a bomb so it's best to handle her with caution."

"She's quite irrational." Roland added, "Though I suppose you don't need us telling you that."

"No kidding. She lost it after finding out I was not from this world but didn't ask a single question about it."

"What are you sad you got ignored?" Helena smirked.

"If it would have taken some of that outburst away from you, I would have gladly faced her down."

"I appreciate it." Helena laughed softly, "But I dunno. You might end up hurting her more than I would."

"Maybe she just needs a good talking to."

"Maybe." Helena sighed, "At any rate, the day's getting late and I'm exhausted. Let's return to the castle for the day, alright?"