Mission

Greyson loved to look at his flute after making it. In a way, it felt connected to him since he was the one who made it. The mana from the engraving connected the magic tool to his spirit as if a piece of him had been separated into it. By the time he had finished the flute, he forgot that the month was ending soon and threw the painting competition to the back of his mind.

He went to his other lessons and continued practicing his magic when the letter suddenly arrived. Once again, Lyle had picked it up and came running into the dorm. Greyson soon took the letter into his hands and saw the bold golden letters on the back written in pretty print 'Dalia Painting Association.' Heart in his throat, Greyson hand slightly shook as he slowly ripped open the letter. Unfolding the parchment, he paused for a moment, afraid to look. Feeling frustrated looking at him take so long, Lyle just grabbed the letter away to read it instead. His face lit up afterwards and he gave Greyson a hug.

"You did it! You got first! It says right here 'A Mother's Smile has placed first after much review.' I knew you could do it! They say you have to get to the capital 2 weeks later for the award and celebration." Greyson felt his genuine excitement and warmly smiled.

Without any effort, his win at the competition soon spread out to his teachers and he received a bunch of hearty congratulations. Seeing some of the small presents, he felt like he really had a family here. But, the more he felt their warmth, the more he missed the church and Sister Lily. He decided that after he came back from the capital he would visit the church and give Sister Lily his savings so she could fix up the church building.

...

In the midst of his preparations, Greyson was interrupted by an awkward looking Lyle. For an hour or so, Lyle had been coming up to him so say something but then thought against it and turned away. Watching him come back and forth soon frustrated Greyson, so he finally spoke out.

"Hey, Lyle, what is it? You can just tell me." Lyle paused for a second before taking a deep breath.

"Actually, Grey, I have a favor I wanted to ask of you. I'm just sure that it will make you upset, so I'm not certain I should ask."

"Well, you never know. Maybe I won't be angry, so why don't you just ask first."

"Uh, well, I was wondering if I could take advantage of your looks..."

"Hm?"

"So, I might need you to dress as a girl..." he mumbled.

"Huh?"

"I need you to dress as a girl!" He finally built up the courage to say.

"A girl? Why do you need me? Why don't you just ask a girl?" Trying to hold in his temper that was about to flare, he continued asking because he knew Lyle wouldn't ask for no reason.

"Well, you know about Academy missions, right, Grey?" Greyson nodded. The Academy missions were listed in one of the main buildings purely for missions. Usually they were local issues, but occasionally there would be huge missions that included a large area. Each mission had a point remuneration that could eventually be traded for magic items, herbs, tools, or spells. A lot of the students were not as relaxed and spoiled as Greyson, so they had to work hard for all their spells and magic tools, Lyle included. Lyle had actually fallen behind Greyson by just a little. He was at the intermediate level stage three, but he was close to breaking through the fourth stage.

"Well not everyone is like you and can have whatever spells they want." He complains rolling his eyes, "I have to earn points to get a spell that I want from the library. I don't want to spend to much time doing odd jobs to slowly build up the points, so I decided to take on a harder mission at the local Black Rock City. I read the description and felt compelled to take it. The mission is to take down a perverted murderer who targets pretty young girls under the age of ten. He has already killed 4 girls, but the locals cannot catch him because he is a wind element intermediate magician who specializes in escaping. They finally sent a request to the Academy hoping they could send somebody to help. When I read about what he did to those girls, I couldn't help but picture my own sisters. Grey, I really want to catch this guy, can you help me? I want to use you as the bait, I could ask a girl, but, first of all, I don't really talk to anyone and all the girls I know are weaker than you. I wanted someone I could rely on even if they are targeted. Plus, the city is straight on the way to the capital, so you will pass right by it anyways. We will just leave early and try to catch this guy as quickly as possible. From Black Rock to Dalia City is only a 7 days distance if you travel normally. 5 days if you use magic."

Greyson frowned in thought after hearing about the mission, "What does he do to the girls?"

Lyle suddenly looked as if he was going to be sick, "He tortures them... breaks their bones, stabs them, and leaves a trail of their organs to the corpse in order to let people find them. It's horrible..."

Greyson was suddenly filled with anger and extreme disgust towards the criminal. It overrode his previous hesitation at dressing as a girl. What would it matter anyways? This was to catch a terrible human being and save others. Making up his mind, he looked over at Lyle and nodded.

"Alright. I'll do it!"

...

Greyson had thought that he had prepared himself mentally for the task, but after he was given the dress he would wear, he suddenly felt a little regret.

"We couldn't find a girl and ask her to help? We could just secretly protect her..."

"Grey, you know that a million things could go wrong with that plan." Lyle rolled his eyes and convinced his friend for the umpteenth time, "don't worry, no one would be able to tell that you aren't actually a girl. If they don't know that you are pretending what is there to be embarrassed about?"

Although he understood his friend's intention to comfort him, Greyson actually felt even more annoyed by his words that 'no one would be able tell.' Thinking of their goal, however, he finally quieted down and just sulked by himself. Lucius continued looking on with a smirk of amusement that showed he taking pleasure in watching someone else's misfortunes.

"Fine, fine..." He grumbled. Grabbing the dress, he walked into his room and got dressed. At his prepubescent age, it really was difficult to tell that he was not a girl. As long as he acted correctly, then he should be able to trick the murderer easily. Letting his hair out of its braid, he let the platinum silver strands fall gracefully on his shoulders. Walking out of the room, he turned up his eyes to see a stunned Lyle and Lucius. Their jaws dropped to the floor in amazement as if they couldn't believe the sight in front of their eyes. The dress was a simple light purple. It was cute but plain so it would blend in and was paired with dainty black shoes. However, with Greyson's silver hair and purple eyes, he brought out the best of the clothes. Lyle's words were correct; no one would be able to tell he was a boy.

Greyson blushed and just grabbed his bags to run out to the front gate before anyone else saw him looking like this.

"Let's go! I thought you wanted to save those girls, well there will be another victim if we are this slow."

The both of them quickly made it to the front gate where they boarded a carriage they had requested for to take them to Black Rock. Looking at the city grow smaller, Greyson's excitement only grew. His first mission! How exciting! He couldn't wait to help Lyle finish it. His repetitive Academy life was peaceful and interesting in its own way, however, he could not help but love this feeling of adventure. Maybe he would start taking on missions as well? Just because he didn't need the point, didn't mean he could not do them for the experience.