Chapter 13: Back to the Academy
So… should I go over there?
After hesitating for a moment, I finally lifted my foot and made my way through the sparse crowd, heading towards Sarah and Daisy.
Say something…
“Sarah, you guys… are alright, right?”
They looked fine, just a bit wet from the rain, hair sticking to their faces, looking a little worse for wear.
Sarah had a small bump on her forehead, but she didn’t seem to mind. After all, she was a knight’s daughter. Her face looked much better compared to earlier, seeming to have recovered, while Daisy was crying quite a bit, wiping her tears constantly. Normally, she’d be the one comforting Sarah, but the roles had flipped. Sarah was gently patting Daisy’s back, saying, “Stop crying, stop crying,” while glancing over at me.
“We’re fine…” She said, forcing a smile at me, “We just had to get out of the academy for a bit. It’s too stuffy in there. Then we ended up in this mess… what bad luck…”
Yeah, a bit unlucky…
At least they were safe. That Lord Neil and his guards didn’t seem to want anyone dead. Otherwise, with all those people around, even if I was the greatest hero ever, who knows if I could have saved Sarah in time without harm befalling the rest.
“Pei…”
Sarah tried to call my name, but maybe she suddenly remembered what I said earlier, pulling back and glancing at the gathering crowd before gently shaking her head: “So… are you planning to head back to the academy today?”
“Yeah…”
“Then, let’s go back together, shall we?”
“…Alright.”
People were still staring at me…
Grab the food and let’s get out of here.
“But I just bought some venison pies…”
“Venison pies?”
“Yup, let me grab them.”
I turned around and headed back to the stall. As I walked through, people instinctively moved aside for me, their whispers loud and clear in my ears.
“Isn’t that a little girl…”
“Even the Arbitration Bureau treats her with respect…”
“Did you see her release frost earlier? Right over there, white mist and everything… so amazing…”
“What kind of person is she…”
“Where did this young lady come from…”
“She looks really young… frost… could it be…”
“Miss Silvya…”
“No way…”
“Probably an outstanding student from the Royal Academy…”
Oh no…
Gotta get out of here fast before it turns into another awkward scene…
I felt a little anxious and quickened my pace to the stall. The young couple was still there, since it was far away, their stand looked safe and sound, unharmed by the chaos.
“Little sister, I saw everything! Those two moves were so smooth, ‘swish, swish, swish’ – it was over before you knew it! Absolutely incredible…”
The young man was rather excited, flailing his arms while asking, “Are you a student of the Royal Academy?”
“Yup.”
I gave a vague response, paid, and urged them to hurry up with my order. The man’s wife was quick, swiftly wrapping up the black goose meat and ten venison pies for me. I took them, stuffed them into my bag until it was bulging, gave it a satisfactory pat, waved goodbye to Sarah and the others, and with my head down, hurried away toward the academy.
Are Sarah and the others following me?
After leaving the street, I couldn’t resist the urge to look back. I saw them not far behind, with Daisy still sniffling, and Sarah saying something to comfort her. There were still plenty of people, but fewer were paying attention to me, so I stopped and waited by the sidewalk for the two girls to catch up.
When they saw me waiting, they quickened their pace.
“I’m sorry, Sarah… I’m so sorry… I was so scared, I couldn’t… I just couldn’t go over…”
A few steps away, I heard Daisy sobbing her apologies, and Sarah was there to comfort her.
“It’s fine, Daisy… It was really dangerous back there… that person had the Power of Order. If you had rushed over, I would have been the one really angry…”
“But…”
“No buts, stop crying…”
“But I also have the Power of Order, yet I was too scared to use it…”
“We haven’t mastered it yet. How can we compare to someone like that? Look at me; I can’t even use my flame properly… When you panic, you forget everything… Against those battle-hardened folks, we don’t stand a chance…”
“But…”
“Ugh! No more buts… Daisy, are you hungry?”
“N-no, I’m not hungry…”
Finally, the two reached me.
“Peilo…”
When Daisy saw me, her lips quivered, and tears almost spilled over again: “You’re so amazing… How come you’re so strong… I-I didn’t know you could be this strong… W-where have you been all these days…”
Her eyes were red, voice shaky, trying hard not to cry, making me feel all mushy inside.
“Um…”
I scratched my cheek.
Even if you say that…
“What? It’s common knowledge that Peilo is awesome! You think anyone can skip our body refinement classes?” Sarah patted Daisy’s shoulder with a grin.
“But she doesn’t even fear anything… She’s younger than us and has the Power of Order… it’s so impressive…”
“Why? Daisy, don’t you get it…?”
The bustling street passed by, people swarming around us.
Standing in front of me, Sarah let her hand drop from Daisy’s shoulder and slicked back her damp bangs, looking very serious at me.
…She probably knows, right?
I felt a surge of panic, about to stop Sarah from revealing anything here. But then I suddenly saw the girl wink at me.
“Because she’s the nose bridge terminator!”
She said, a teasing smirk on her adorable face.
What the…
I sighed with relief in my heart.
“Pffft! W-what?!”
Daisy suddenly burst into laughter, and seeing that, Sarah laughed too.
“Let’s go, let’s go. We can talk more later. What a lucky coincidence to run into Peilo today. I’d be at a loss if I hadn’t… I almost had a heart attack earlier, my soul nearly flew away…” She patted her chest, letting out a long sigh, looking terrified, “The Royal City has been way too unsafe lately, remember just the other day, there was trouble on Curie Street?”
“Then why are you out here…”
“Staying in the academy is just too boring…”
“I think it’s fine… We can read…”
“Daisy, you really can withstand boredom!”
“Can I…?”
“But Peilo, you didn’t go smashing anyone’s nose today…”
“Pff—, don’t bring that up…”
“Sarah…”
On the way back to the academy, we chatted and laughed, the atmosphere surprisingly nice.
After not seeing them for a while, neither of the girls changed much. We didn’t mention what happened earlier again, and they didn’t pester me with questions like I thought they would. But that was all thanks to Sarah, who would always interrupt Daisy whenever she wanted to ask something with jokes, redirecting the conversation elsewhere.
It was as if she could see my slightly anxious heart.
The academy was still as it always was, the high tower towering majestically, with students wandering around. During the rest period, even the nearby streets regained their liveliness, the Royal City’s night lights were dazzling, as if the earlier disaster had happened in another world.
“Oh man, I’m dead tired… Am I a survivor from a major disaster today?”
As soon as we returned to the dormitory, Sarah collapsed onto Daisy’s bed, limbs sprawled out as if to make a star shape. Daisy’s eyes went wide at the sight.
“Sarah! You’re still wet from the rain! So dirty!”
“What does it matter…”
“No way, get up!” Daisy tugged ruthlessly at Sarah’s arm, pulling her up from the bed. “Go wash up!”
“Just give me a minute…”
The two started to tussle. I placed my umbrella by the door, peeled off my raincoat, hanging it on a hook, brushed my skirt, walked to the table, and took the venison pies out of my bag.
The paper was a bit wet…
I need to eat these quickly.
Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of the newspaper on the table, and the page facing up had my rather conspicuous portrait on it.
