57: Day Seven

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Percival, please tell me what happened to you."

He turned to her, his expression basked in faint irritation. "I already told you, didn't I?"

She nodded. "But I doubt that's all there is to it."

"I was swarmed by lots. That's all there is to it."

She crossed her arms, her gaze wary. "I believe not. I've seen your capabilities throughout the years, the room in that tunnel isn't capable of holding the 'lots' you speak of either."

A muscle ticked his jaw. "Are you saying that I'm lying, Ms. Ardell?"

"Yes." she replied, her voice unwavering. "You're lying to me, it's not that hard to figure out."

He whirled away. "..I'm telling the truth."

With a hint of frustration in his voice, he walked away, his steps heavy.

She watched him until he turned a corner, a sigh escaping her mouth.

How could she get him to spit the truth?

Asking him directly failed. Maybe she had to bind him by ropes? No, that's no different from what he faced, he'll likely just stand more defiant.

…

Her red calculating eyes keenly observed the hanging board before her, with two contents pinned in-between a red string: Percival, Bandits, both of which were written elegantly.

The uncertainty running rent-free in her mind was strong. Although she couldn't prove it just yet, "There had to be a third-party." she glanced at his name. "What's making him shut his mouth?"

She unfolded her arms, reaching out for a small piece of paper and ink-filled quill.

In there she wrote: Sévir—yes, her so-called [nephew], Sévir van Doren. She wrote with uncertainty in a similar amount, grabbing a golden thumbtack and pinning his name to the bottom left of Percival's. 

There was no yarn, however. "Though, it's not like that kid's some big shot for the syndicate to target him."

There was an unmistakable glint of denial in her eyes, but the timing was lined up—Sévir was still absent on the day Percival disappeared.

But he wasn't the only one absent.

With another heavy hand, she wrote and pinned two pieces of paper beneath Sévir's: Minerva, Sanguinex.

Ardell was going to write every possible suspect, no matter how unassuming.

She ran a hand through her hair and sat on the table, a heavy sigh escaping her mouth. "..Please help me, [Ren]."

Her thoughts were interrupted as a knock from the other side erupted. She quickly ripped the three papers away and dropped them. "Enter."

The door creaked open as two familiar figures entered the room.

A brunette and a blondie, their differences were unmistakable; 5-2 Meredith, and 5-1 Lena.

"You two? What are you guys doing here?" Her voice was laced with confusion—she was well aware of the customs and traditions in the SCA, one being the utter isolationism of each class from each other, only interacting when necessary.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Ardell." Meredith greeted, followed by Lena.

"You both may sit."

They nodded and sat at the chairs opposing each other.

Ardell remained standing. "So?"

Lena held onto the handles. "Ms. Ardell, we want to team up."

Ardell raised a brow. "Team up, you say? That's.. Unusual."

Meredith spoke up. "The stakes are increasing. You've already heard of the deaths in 4-2, right?"

Ardell nodded, "..I have. The remains of Anna's team sacrificed so she could escape."

"That's my point," she declared confidently, "now that most of the Southern Districts are in enemy hands. the losses will pile up if we keep going in alone. We aren't some elite unit, we're just students"

Lena eyed Meredith in admiration.

"Okay, I'll allow it. Have you asked [Sir Ox] already?"

Meredith nodded. "He was eager to see some cross-section collaboration."

The former sat down. "Is that all? You may leave if we're done here."

Meredith glanced to her right. "The board—"

"I'm doing my own investigation, Galath is my student after all."

"I see."

The students stood and excused themselves, silently closing the door.

"Who are their members again?" she laid out her hands to count.

"Damon, Meredith, Ordin, and Roy for 5-2, then we have Lena, Mason, Axel, Percival, and.. Sévir."

Her eyes widened in surprise. It wasn't the imbalance, no, it was Sévir's inclusion.

"Right, he's part of the team." She smiled in amusement. "Oh, why Lena's team specifically, Galena~?" She giggled to herself.

…

She watched a silver-haired child and a giggling brunette his age run around, seemingly playing tag.

Her gaze shifted to the black-haired Dorevillian sitting in front of her. Her gentle smile was a sight to behold, and one to die for. "They're close."

"They really are. I can't recall a day Mary didn't come over to play with Sév.

"It would be the right move to engage the two eventually, wouldn't it?" Ardell's voice was laced with curiosity.

The woman tapped her chin. "I'd love to see that, but I don't know about Zigo. From how things are going, he might just approach Bernard and Faris to ask for Noelle's hand instead."

A muscle ticked her jaw. "Ren, you have to take control over future decisions a little more, you can't just let that jerk decide everything!"

She chuckled. "You really don't like your mentor."

She huffed and whirled away. "EX-mentor."

…

Her smile grew and heart soared. "It only feels like a year ago since that day."

She faced the small table mirror to her right.

"Nostalgia's one hell of a drug." She momentarily caught a glimpse of her past.

.

The snow crunched to her steps, each of which reminded her of the mistake of not buying a coat beforehand. It was quite impossible now that virtually all coats and the like were sold out. To add salt to the wound, the shops closed much earlier, usually during her lectures.

The relentless nagging of her body as it shivered and grew sensitive forced a frown. "Ugh, why didn't I think of buying a coat?"

She slapped her forehead. "I had all the time in the world."

It didn't help how she had no fancy heating spells imbued in her clothing, nor did the academy's elevation.

She glanced at the long stairs as she crossed the gate out of the academy. "No way."

Stepping foot at the circular stone platform beside her, its edges carved with various curves, it lit grey and engulfed her whole.

Despite not moving an inch, the sheer acceleration jolted through her body in less than a second. Her face was blank, a testament to her experience.

The grey light disappeared instantly, revealing the cobblestone road and houses ahead.

She stepped out of the platform, her hands clasped behind. "Why did they make those stairs if they were just going to make teleporters as well?" She shook her head, digressing.

Her body shivered less to the cold of winter, the day and night contrast prompting a sigh of relief.

She stopped by the left turn a few steps away from the teleporter, her gaze landing on the approaching girl.

The blonde girl wore a familiar outfit; black and blue with streaks of gold, it was no other than the Stepan uniform.

"Her Highness?" she raised a brow.

Noelle waved at her with a smile, her pace speeding up. "Ms. Myshart!"

"What are you doing here, Your Highness?"

She clasped her hands behind. "I was just taking a stroll."

"A stroll, huh? I suppose you wouldn't get entangled with the Knights, you're the princess after all."

"Precisely. What about you?"

Ardell glanced to her right. "I'm heading to a clothing store."

Noelle eyed her outfit. "It IS winter, yet you're wearing thin clothing, your shoulders are exposed at full might."

The former chuckled. "Right. I'll be taking my leave."

She nodded with a smile. "Have a safe walk!"

.

"Such a nice girl." she uttered as she pushed a wooden door open, the written texts in the middle being [Clothing Shop]. Very specific.

She couldn't recall an encounter where the princess acted snobby or just overall displeasing, she seemed to know her place as a student in the academy despite being the daughter of the emperor.

Her thoughts and gaze shifted to a black piece of clothing in the corner of her eye. She whirled and eyed it with longing. "There it is."

Her steps were silent but fast, as were her hands as she snatched the long coat.

She gently rubbed her fingers, feeling the smooth and supple leather that gave its appearance. "It feels nice."

The coat provided warmth as she tried it on. It hugged her curves nicely and hung down as it reached the knee area. She looked over her shoulders, tugged it down and twisted her body.

It didn't feel too tight nor too loose, it was perfect for her standards.

"Finally, I have a coat." She observed the area and noticed a lacklustre amount of coats. "Perhaps I came here at the perfect time."

She gazed at a nearby mirror, subtly smiling as her golden neckwear laced with ruby hid her shoulder within the coat, giving a warmer feeling.

With a decision set in stone, she walked to the counter, her gaze meeting a short middle-aged woman. "How much is this coat?"

The woman looked over to the corner she came from. "Seven Zinari."

She searched through her coin pouch attached to the back of her belt, then put down the Zinari. "Thanks."

She turned around and left the store.

From the tapping of planks, she returned to crunching snow.

The sun wasn't bright, it was clouded. She couldn't tell the time from there, so she grabbed her golden pocket watch beside her pouch.

Flicking it open, the hour hand pointed at XII and the minute hand at XI.

She sighed upon recollection. "Right, 3-2's history teacher's absent.. What was his name again?"

She couldn't bother to waste a neuron remembering his name, instead, she used them to recollect the supposed lesson for today.

"Mana Quantity, Mana Quality.." she perked up. "Ah right, they're still learning more about mana."

A hint of confusion lingered in her mind—she couldn't wrap her head around the slow pace of education, to the point where once they enter their sixth year, they're most likely to get overwhelmed by the sudden change in gear.

"It's a failure." The disappointment in her voice was unmistakable. She couldn't deny the quality of education was good, as it should be given its title as the most prestigious in the country, but it seemed to drag on certain topics a little too long.

She ran her fingers through her hair and huffed loudly. "The director's really getting old. What's the board doing?"

Her gaze landed on the tall mountain from a distance, it was where the academy resided. 

The academy certainly had loads of bull that she couldn't spend time finding its causes—she was a professor after all, not a board member.

.

Ardell kept caution so as to not to reveal any unnecessary thoughts as chalk glowed and floated, pressing itself against the giant blackboard.

The simple golden crown which housed a grey gem by her forehead was like a tight bandana, 

The chalk moved swiftly, wasting no time as it drew images of vein-like patterns and wrote texts big enough to be read from the very back.

The contents kept to only two things: [Mana Quantity] and [Mana Quality]—the topics she recalled earlier.

Even without looking, she could feel a certain weight on her shoulders that weren't pressuring, but reminded of the students' gazes glued either to her back or the board.

"You've already learned about this last year, haven't you all? Well, we'll be looking back at these topics anyways." She was aware there definitely were some new students who haven't received as much education beforehand—that was tradition, where children are usually kept from further education until they reached twelve, beginning official schooling elsewhere.

"Mana Quantity refers to the amount of mana in your body. Since this is already quite self-explanatory, we'll get back to this later for the [Hepha Scale Theory]."

She pointed her wand to the right side of the board.

"Mana Quality is the fineness of mana. There are multiple theories surrounding its properties and origins, such as the widely accepted [Element Count Theory] wherein the quality depends on the amount of [elements] within a single unit of mana."

She pointed beneath. "Elements on the other hand are, you guessed it—the [Six Elements]. While what they truly are is still unknown, we know that they have a correlation with mana potency."

She glanced up to feign reading as she yawned as silently as possible. She didn't need to read when she already memorised these topics from years of teaching, what she couldn't show were any hints of boredom, or else the students would do the same.

There was still a long way to go before the end of class.

*

Meredith could barely keep her heart afloat, threatening to leap out to the sky as they walked down the silent hallway.

Lena turned to her with curious eyes. "Your Grace, what's with the big smile?"

Her brows raised in surprise. "It's big?" she covered her mouth as she tried to suppress it. "It's nothing much."

Lena smiled. "You're thinking about a guy, right?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I just know it." she clasped her hands. "Could it be Sir Gertrude you've laid your eyes on??"

Meredith didn't fail to notice the dreaminess in her voice as she mentioned the Sixth Undefeated, Gertrude Segerson.

"I can't blame you, he's so strong and motivating, he always knows the right words to say to raise everyone's spirits."

She chuckled lightly. Suffice to say, Meredith wasn't the one who had eyes on Gertrude, but the silent Lena, who seemed to be quite fired up.

"You watched him in Man Against Beast, right? The way he got everyone to work together and the huge crack he made.. He even brought down the dragon."

"You seem to be the one interested in him."

Lena looked down with a blush.

"You know, I can definitely match you two up. He likes cute girls."

"R-Really? But I'm not cu—"

"Say it and I'll zap you."

She gulped and nodded feverishly.

"I'll match you up, only if you help me out."

Elena looked at her curiously. "What could you need help with?"

"You see, I've got a guy I'm into," that much wasn't surprising, "he's hot, tall, and certainly doesn't care about what others think of him." she described with pride.

"..Your Grace, a little more specific, please." she asked blankly.

Meredith rubbed her chin. "Well, he's hot."

"You already said that."

She leaned closer and whispered. "I'll just be forward with you—it's the Pariah Prince."

Silence. Lena's eyes widened in surprise and a mix of something else. "The.. Pariah Prince..? But why? Why him?"

Often, she asked herself the same question—why Sévir?.. Does it still need explanation though?

"Let's just say I've seen a side of him no one else had. So, will you help me? We'll both benefit from this."

Lena turned away for a moment, then turned back with a nod. "Okay."

"Sweet."

She stood straight and cleared her throat. "About the mission."

"Yes?"

"What's it about again? Sir Ox told me about the upcoming battle but didn't really get into detail with it."

Lena tapped her chin, a soft hum escaping her mouth. "As far as I heard, a spy handed the bandits' plans to attack Gran Planus."

Meredith raised a brow. "Gran Planus? That's in the east."

"There's no reports yet about them marching through the bridges. They're supposed to attack by midnight as per the spy, and we'll be at the central bridge."

Gran Planus.. A quick memory of the district flashed before her eyes—it was a blend of green grass, brown roads, and isolated stone houses—that was the south.

"This is a new offensive, it has to be big."

Lena nodded. "I'm sure it won't be just us, definitely more sections."

She couldn't deny a certain thrill running sparking to the thought of engaging in a massive battle, as much as the fear that sent shivers down her spine.

"Your Grace," she smiled with hope, "let's work hard and survive.

She smiled back. "Yeah, our lives are far from over."

"Well then, how about we grab our teams and introduce them to each other?"

Meredith perked up. "Good idea."

The excitement in her smile was uncontainable—she was going to see Sévir again, how could she not be excited? Despite the fact.. Well, their fated reunion wasn't as picture perfect as she hoped.

.

With the ringing of the bell and the dismissal of all classes, the seas of students merged as they left their classrooms on all floors.

The indistinct chatter was all Meredith could hear as she, Damon, Ordin, and Roy passed through everyone to reach a certain room.

Her hand gripped Damon's wrist tightly, who was walking behind her.

She needn't look back to see his deep frown. "Can you get your filthy hand off me?" he requested in resentment and disgust.

"No can do my dear brother, I can't be sure if you'll stray away and try to catch girls with your ogre-like charisma."

He clicked his tongue and much to her surprise, backed down.

The walk took a few more minutes until they finally reached a wooden door, its knob as shiny and golden as the rest.

Damon forcefully pulled his wrist away as she turned around and smiled deviously. "You look like garbage with that smile."

"Just thinking how much you'll love the surprise."

"What surprise?"

She pushed the door open and entered, him and the other two following.

Of course, he was going to love the surprise, she was sure of it, after all, he was meeting his "best friend" once again.

She turned to him, his sharp gaze fixated at one guy—Sévir van Doren.

"You never told me the Pariah Prince is part of the team."

"Right? That's part of the surprise!"

She turned to Sévir who looked elsewhere, not a single hint of acknowledgement for Damon's presence.

She held her laugh as best as she could—she was sure her younger twin was fuming inside.

"Let's–" Meredith chuckled, "take a seat."

They sat at the four vacant seats, facing the five 5-1 students sitting at the opposite side.

It was all smiles and giggles, but now that she was directly across Sévir, with Damon beside her no less, the light air tensed up.

She found herself at a loss of words, it didn't take a while until she could feel her forehead sweating. At the same time, she locked gazes with Lena, who nodded and shot a reassuring smile.

The latter cleared her throat and stood up. "Hello everyone, it's nice to see you all here."

Greetings were passed onto each other as per tradition. Sévir kept silent.

"I believe you've all been informed by your leader, Her Grace, that starting today, we'll be in one team. Allow me to introduce myself and everyone from my side."

She put her hand on her chest. "I'm [Lena Sofhart]." she pointed at the others. "This is [Mason Hughes], [Axel Axelsson II], Percival Galath, and Sévir van Doren."

Meredith stood up in turn. "I'm Meredith Galena." she pointed at her teammates. "This is my twin, Damon Galena, then we have the half-siblings, [Ordin and Roy Kingsley]."

The air seemed to have lightened.

"Well then, let's get to business. Look at the board on the wall."

They all turned to the blackboard, the drawing imitating a map.

"What we have there is the map of [Medulla Pontus], it's the bridge in-between [Occidens and Orientem Pontus]. If you don't know, they're the only bridges connecting Gran Planus and Eatsa."

She felt an odd sense of calmness as she walked to the board and faced them, perhaps it was the nature of leadership.

"The Trystan Knights were tipped off by a spy the bandit's second mass offensive. They said the attack will take place by midnight, and we'll be heading there after dinner."

She pointed at a rounded cone. "This is the hill of our camp, and we'll be taking turns on observation duty every two hours. Any objections?"

Lena and a few shook their heads. She took the opportunity to glance at Sévir, alas their gazes didn't lock.

As they went on discussing, her gazes darted towards everyone, but much to literally nobody's surprise, it was mostly to Sévir.

It's natural after all to steal a glance at the person you're interested in every now and then, just not 24/7, and she conformed to it religiously.

She talked and talked, yet her mind was on something else: How will she approach Sévir? He pushed her away once, and since then, she was rather hesitant on approaching him.

But not now.

While everyone fret about the rebellion, its possible effects and their involvement in shedding blood, Meredith fret about the ever growing distance between her and her fiancé.

How selfish, she thought. 

But she didn't mind.