Life is hard

In the cover of night, I was sitting on top of one of the five castle pillars, my only light being the starry sky. Using my wings as two shields from the wind, it wasn't too cold for me to enjoy my little break.

Thinking back, so much had already happened during the time I had spent on Tella, a lot of which I had spent with the people I wanted to call friends.

Still, I didn't regret my decision to refuse whatever it was that Sophie wanted to do, even on the slim chance that I might get the chance to go back to how it was. Why did I not want that? Because it was all a façade.

'How ironic...'

Who could have known that a mask was what I needed to finally show who I truly was?

The fact was that even if I enjoyed the people around me at the academy, I wasn't happy with myself. It wasn't like I didn't feel like I could have lived a pretty decent life under those circumstances, but I would have never felt like I was truly living.

Gazing up at the stars, I allowed myself to be human for a moment, one moment to fully feel all the emotions that I knew I would have to repress after this again. Even if I knew that I was doing the right thing for myself, it still hurt a lot to have to give up on the ones I wanted to hold close.

'Life is hard, huh?'

To even have these feelings in the first place was completely foreign to me, to miss the company of others. To miss someone to share the night sky with.

Even worse was that I was still naively holding on to hope, knowing about the conversation between Sarah and Ezral. Wishing that Sarah might give up on Mensch for me.

But she still didn't know what the words of Ezral implied, that she would literally give up her humanity if she accepted the proposal.

Throwing me out of my thoughts was someone who had found me on top of the castle, now standing right behind me.

"Are you sure about this, James? The choices that you have made?"

Without turning around, there was no way to mistake the gentle female voice that rang out, still fully surging with worry and care.

"I'm not sure if you're asking the right question, Ms. Turner. In fact, shouldn't you skip the questions and apprehend me in the name of your country?"

The demons at the Goblin Lands had been speaking the truth, her senses truly were uncannily sharp to find me even though I had no mana signature.

Standing up and turning around, I took a second to appreciate the form of my former teacher, now dressed in a dark blue coat.

Shaking her head, she didn't seem to agree with my words, "No, because I don't believe that the truth is that simple. Sometimes things happen that are out of one's control, and sometimes people get judged not by their actions but by their reputation."

"Like how you don't want to be judged because you come from a hidden house?"

Although she only flinched for a split second, it didn't go unnoticed by my gaze, and it didn't take long before she verbally confirmed my little theory as well.

"I see, you found out... But then you should understand. If I got another chance, then you might get one too."

Even if I had no idea about her specific background, I knew that her logic was inherently flawed.

Taking off my mask, I allowed her to see my newly acquired blue eyes, "In the eyes of Mensch, I am now a demon. Now, do you believe that a demon would get another chance in the nation of humans? Do you think Aldon would accept me? Or do you think even Kurat would find a place for me?"

Before she managed to open her mouth, I kept on speaking, making sure that I controlled the flow of the conversation.

"Ms. Turner... No, Jessica, I appreciate your care, but in ýour eyes, I am a demon. If not, you are committing treason against your nation by disregarding the words of your king."

Steeling herself, it didn't take long for her to understand what I was saying. It wasn't about the truth, nor was it about what was right or wrong. It was all a matter of circumstances.

Circumstances had brought me into this position, and circumstances would force us to move forward with these roles.

She as a teacher and honorable citizen of Mensch, and me as a demon, the enemy of her nation.

"I understand..."

*CRACKLE!*

Suddenly, she raised her arms, and red, electric energy started to coil around them, illuminating her blue coat, "Then I will take you in right now!"

Putting up my hand like a stop sign, I truly wasn't in the mood to die right now, "Sorry, Jessica, but I don't think that's a good idea. I'm afraid that the consequences may be quite dire if you follow through."

With her forehead creasing a bit, confused by my ambiguous words, she couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean?"

Putting up my index finger, I made sure to tell her just how ignorant her actions would have been.

"It's simple, really. People are sleeping, you know? You wouldn't want to wake them up in the middle of the night. People hate that."

"...what..."

*Poff!*

=======

'Guess it's time to go...'

Having found just enough time to send sub-me away from the capital, I had managed to escape from the teacher without a hitch.

Sadly, this meant that I couldn't return to Kuur anymore, as I had no doubts that there would be troops searching for me in the near future.

Even if Sophie, Sebastian, and Sarah kept their mouths shut, I had no way of knowing if Arthur or Ms. Turner would do the same.

Luckily, I had already done what I needed to do here for now, and it was time to move on to warmer latitudes.

'I wonder how the country of elves is...'

****

[Adriana's Pov]

Sitting on one of the armchairs placed in our room, I felt a slight headache as I thought about the week that had gone by.

"Haaa... What a mess..."

The final excursion had ended in a fiasco, being canceled because Sebastian and Arthur somehow disappeared when we entered the dungeon.

In the end, they had come out a bit roughed up and told us about how they had been forced to battle some monster to exit.

"What are you sighing about?"

Bellatrix came out from the bathroom, only wearing a white towel that seemed to struggle a bit to hold her curves.

Looking down for a second, I couldn't help but feel slightly jealous. Bellatrix, Sophie, and Ms. Turner all had chests that created impossible standards.

Shaking my head to throw away my silly thoughts, I gave her a curt answer, making sure to wear my polite smile, "I was just thinking it was a shame that we didn't get to complete our dives."

Bellatrix's face turned skeptical, as she didn't necessarily share my sentiment, "Isn't it fine? I mean with this, we didn't have to spend more time around Peter and Sebastian. Man, why can't guys just be normal?"

She did have a point. Most of the guys around us were pretty weird in their own ways, and those two weren't any exceptions, with Peter being by far the more obvious one.

At a first glance, Sebastian might just seem like the stereotypical, cold man who rarely spoke, but after having spent some time around him, he almost seemed manic about his performance. I wasn't a stranger to wanting to prove myself, but the purple-haired man was on another level.

Then we had Brad and Bradley, who both were just... muscle-heads and way too upfront about showing their interest when they liked someone. Mike and John were noble scum, and then we had the pretty boy Arthur who was now Sophie's loyal dog.

The only reasonable man around was Bellatrix's brother, Adam, but as I had no interest in romance anyway, it didn't matter much. Even more so as I wasn't too keen on the thought of getting together with a human.

"I guess so. Humans sure are weird, huh?"

Raising a brow, she tried to dispute my claim, "What do you mean humans? Are you saying that your male elves aren't?"

Leaning back, I held myself with confidence, "Our men are all gentlemen who know how to carry themselves around a woman, that's for sure."

Bella took a second to think, before she proposed something I never would have thought, "Then take me with you during the break. Show me just how good these men are."

'A bit on the nose, aren't we...'

There was no way she didn't have something else in mind that I didn't know of, but after spending some time with the girl, I wasn't exactly opposed to bringing her with me. Of all the humans I had met, she was the one who resonated with me the best.

"Alright, let's go together after we return to Mensch then."