by Dixon, TJ
“I was told you may be able to remove my curse and free my mother’s soul from this stone.” I say showing her my ring.
“If I wasn’t cursed I could probably remove that curse. It is a strange one so I can’t be sure, but I could probably do it with brute force. Freeing your mother’s soul is beyond even my full power.” Lucy says shattering my hopes.
“I can do both.” Dairon says. I blink and look up at him.
“You can?” I ask unsure if I heard him correctly.
“Yes, if it is my master’s wish.” He says looking at Peter.
“How much power would it use?” Lucy asks him cautiously.
“I would be fully recovered by the morning.” He says.
“What do we get?” Lucy asks. I figured it would come down to this but I had expected Peter would be the one to ask that question.
“Would our services for your current mission be sufficient?” I ask.
“It seems someone has revealed too much. If she were still under my command I would punish that foolish captain.” Lucy says with a frown.
“Under your command? That would make you a former High Commander of the Old Guard.” I say in shock.
“She wasn’t Captain Highwood back then.” Lucy says shaking her head.
“Regardless, I am sure I can be of assistance on your mission.” I say more confident now.
“Mercury of the Silver Flow would be a valuable ally but even she would be useless on this mission.” Lucy says shaking her head.
“So what do you want from me?” I ask nervously. Her words angered me but I need to remain calm.
“It’s boring but I guess we should just have the brats join your club and company, unless you want to make her your wife.” Lucy tells Peter. I gulp at her last words.
“What is a wife?” Peter asks and already embarrassed my face goes red. Lucy answers him with an amused smile.
“Well normally they own the man, but if you make her the lower partner you basically own her, though you don’t have quite the same rights as a woman over a man.” Lucy explains.
“That sounds like a slave. As you know I hate slavery, so no thanks.” Peter says. I am both relieved and secretly indignant that he so carelessly rejected the idea. Mostly of course I am relieved. “So will you join my club and on graduation my company?”
“So if I want a future I have to give it to you. Yes, since I don’t really have a choice. Emi has to obey me so she will too.” I say resigned to my future under his command. I’m not very happy about it though.
“You’d be a valuable ally but I don’t want to force you like this.” Peter says with a frown.
“Why not?” I ask suspicious.
“I just don’t. It doesn’t feel right. Dairon will do what you asked for, but I’m not going to ask for anything in return.” Peter says and I blink in shock.
“Are you an idiot?” I ask Peter at the same time Lucy does. Lucy glances my way at the same time I glance at her.
“You can think that if you want.” Peter says with a shrug.
“You made the people you beat in the tournament join your club.” I say staring him in the eye.
“They weren’t exactly against it though.” He says trying to excuse his actions.
“They had no choice. It was that or slavery.” I remind him. He looks uncomfortable. “So why am I different?”
“Do you want to join my company?” Peter asks and I realise my anger got the better of me.
“No.” I admit.
“So accept my help before I change my mind.” Peter says sounding serious.
“Ok, thank you.” I say with a sigh. To think I’m going to be in this boy’s debt. At least it is better than joining his company. It is also much better than being his wife as a lower partner, or at all for that matter.
Chapter 9 (Multiple)
(Yu Kii)
It has certainly been an eventful trip. Parts have been fun but I am relieved to soon be heading back to the academy. I am worried for Ara Kii and everyone at the temple but there is nothing I can do to help them.
I have my little sister with me now though. It is amusing to watch her sitting there wolfing down the food. I still recall what it was like living as a miko and I have no idea how much Captain Highwood fed her, but I know exactly why she looks like she expects the food to be taken from her. If I had been given a huge meal like this when I first arrived at the academy I would have felt a little like her. Even the food I did have seemed like a feast.
“Emma.” Sor says and I look up from my breakfast in surprise. “Your room, alone, now.”
Sor ports away and Emma quickly follows her port. I look at a confused Rin and ask. “What do you think that’s about?”
“No idea.” Rin says shaking her head just as confused as I am. Emma looks like she has recovered but I am sure she is still feeling really bad inside, even if it is just from being betrayed. I don’t think Sor is a bad person but she can be very difficult. I’m worried about Emma but I can’t intrude on them. That would only make things worse. Then Emma ports back.
“That was quick.” Hermes says.
“So what did she want?” Rin asks.
“Nothing important.” Emma says with a shrug. “It would be rude to tell you exactly what though, after she went to the trouble of talking to me in private.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Rin says but she clearly isn’t satisfied by the answer any more than I am. It is true that it would be rude though so it can’t be helped.
“You have twenty minutes to get ready!” Professor Schwarz calls out to all of us. Other guests look at her in amusement but it reminds us that we don’t have that long before we need to leave. The few possessions we have with us are all packed so we don’t need to rush our breakfast. We finish and take one last look at the food. It may have been a bit expensive but it was a really nice treat to eat like this each morning.
“Excuse me little girl, but you can’t take food from the breakfast area.” The guard tells Haru Kii as we leave. Poor Haru Kii looks really scared. She takes a half-eaten white bread roll out of her pocket and goes to hand it back to the guard. The guard looks at it and laughs. “Never mind, I’ll drop the enchantment for that, so you can keep it. Don’t do it again though, because you’ll trigger the anti-theft enchantment. It’s a good thing you didn’t port away with that.”
“Thank you.” Haru Kii says in a really small voice bowing deeply to her. The guard looks embarrassed.
We get what little we brought with us as well as a couple of small things Rin and Hermes bought here. I don’t even need to carry anything since Rin is carrying the bag we’re sharing. We meet down at the main entrance a little earlier than Professor Schwarz said to, but it seems everyone else had the same idea.
“Since we’re all here early there’s no point hanging around.” Professor Schwarz says and leads us out of the inn and through the streets. They are always busy but they seem a lot busier than normal. Even the alleys seem filled with people. Almost everyone looks scared and tired. Many appear to be wandering aimlessly or are sitting at the sides of the street. I very rarely noticed people sitting on the street before but now there doesn’t seem to be any space left on either side other than where doors are.
Rin looks at me seriously and says. “They must be refugees from Minerva or the outer worlds. I don’t know whether anyone got away from Minerva, but they would certainly have evacuated any of the outer worlds that were relying on Minerva’s protection. Probably all of the outer worlds on that side of Minerva, because there would only be a couple of other routes to Portalis and the worlds they relied on would be vulnerable with the fall of Minerva. This is the frontline of the war now. To think we almost went to Minerva too!”
“Oh, I’d forgotten about that.” I say only now remembering that we would have gone there if not for the war. It seems they had good reason not to take us there.
“I doubt they’d have even let us come here if this had happened before our trip.�
� Rin says.
“What do the Fallen Angels do with their prisoners?” I ask Rin. I haven’t been able to bring myself to ask until now. If he wasn’t killed then Ara Kii would certainly be a prisoner now. I can see Haru Kii understands what I am asking. She is young but there is no point trying to shelter her from this. It will only hurt more when she does find out if I do that.
“It depends. In Contractia women, particularly pure blooded Contractian women, are considered superior, right? Well, with the Fallen Angels it is better to be a man, particularly a black man. I assume it is because the Fallen Angels are black too. That’s why many of the prisoners we take are black like I said before. That means it is really bad for a light skinned female mage like us to be taken prisoner, but for a male soldier or civilian it isn’t as bad.”
“So my brother would be ok if he was taken prisoner?” I ask.
“There’s never any guarantee but there’s a good chance he would be. Was he a mage?” Rin asks.
“He was a monk so he used magic, but he wasn’t the same as a Contractian mage.” I tell her.
“If they captured him they would probably have recruited him.” Rin says. That means I may one day have to fight him, though the odds of that are low. At least there is a good chance he is alive.
“Is that the queue?” Professor Schwarz asks herself in shock and I look up. There appears to be a queue right round the huge circular building ahead of us. We can see both the start of the queue and where it enters the building. “This is going to take all day.”
“Are you an academic group?” The tired looking woman at the end of the queue asks. Presumably she is supervising the queue.
“Yes.” Professor Schwarz says.
“You’ll need to use the Circle of Portals instead. Only refugees are using the gate today.” She says.
“How do we even do that?” Professor Schwarz asks clearly shocked.
“The entrance is through that tunnel over there. You’ll need to provide the normal paperwork. There aren’t enough scanners so you’ll need to submit to a full body wash.” She says.
“What exactly is a full body wash?” Professor Schwarz asks curiously.
“Any enchantments on your body will be erased. Enchanted items will need to be checked so you’ll need to remove any enchanted items whilst they are inspected, other than standard issue enchanted uniforms. If you have any more questions they can answer them over there.” The woman tells us sounding a bit annoyed.
“Thank you.” Professor Schwarz says and then looks back at us. “Everyone head over there. If you have any enchanted items other than your uniforms they will need to be inspected. If you have any enchantments directly on you they will be cancelled so you may as well cancel them now. Where are Sor and Emi? They were with us when we left.”
“They’re going back separately.” Emma calls out from behind us.
“They never told me. I suppose Sor doesn’t want to go through the same problems as on the way here. She could have told me though.” Professor Schwarz says sounding stressed but accepting Emma’s words.
“Was that what she was talking to you about earlier?” Rin asks Emma sounding as surprised as I am.
“Yes.” Emma says with a nod.
“Why didn’t she just tell Professor Schwarz?” Rin asks.
“Professor Schwarz might have tried to talk her into coming with us.” Emma says with a shrug.
“So why you?” Rin asks. “She seemed to go to a lot of effort when we were looking for you. Did you become friends?”
“No. I have no idea why me so I can’t tell you what I don’t know.” Emma says.
“It still seems odd.” Rin mutters but then shrugs.
“Down here everyone!” Professor Schwarz calls out.
We walk down the steps. It is already a cold day but down here it is literally freezing. The steps towards the bottom are icy so we have to be very careful not to slip. Haru Kii doesn’t need to be told to hold on to the rail at the side and for that matter neither do I. There are lots of steps too. I didn’t count but I would estimate perhaps around a hundred.
We reach the bottom and then walk for about five minutes before reaching the end of a short queue. Compared with the queue to get here it is tiny. I was expecting a much longer queue than this but I am grateful. It shouldn’t take too long to pass through here.
“Place any small enchanted items in the boxes provided and carry them with you for now.” A young tired looking woman says pointing at a huge mess of small wooden boxes. “You can keep your uniforms on but any other large items will need to be removed and inspected separately. Are those clothes enchanted?”
“Yes.” Professor Schwarz says with a groan, looking down at her usual white mage robes with the black hood. I haven’t seen her put the hood up even once whilst on the trip. It has been cold too, so it seems strange to have the hood and not use it.
“You’ll need to enter the room over there for a more detailed inspection.” The young woman says with a yawn.
“Ok.” Professor Schwarz sighs and leaves us behind as she enters that room. It isn’t long before she returns and she is able to join us again even though it means skipping the queue that has formed behind us. It isn’t that long before we reach the front.
“Box.” An old woman says to the girl in front of me. She takes the box and quickly inspects it before returning it. Then she looks at me. “You not got any?”
“Sorry, no.” I say shaking my head.
“Move along then.” She says and I walk on. I feel a faint magic wash over me and then look back as the woman speaks to Rin. “You got lots girl.”
“Sorry. My mother’s an alchemist.” Rin says.
“Doesn’t mean you got to take her whole workshop with you.” The woman says sounding annoyed. I look back as she looks through them. “A poor alchemist judging by the work on these. You can move on.”
Rin takes the box back angrily and follows me. Past the check it doesn’t take long to reach the Circle of Portals. The portals look like large circles of liquid silver. Probably at least five people could walk through each portal side by side. The idea of walking through them is rather daunting though.
“They look really different to the one Captain Highwood uses. Will it hurt?” Haru Kii asks.
“No. I don’t think so. It doesn’t, does it Rin?” I ask.
“No, it doesn’t hurt.” Rin laughs.
“That portal over there is yours.” A woman says after taking a look at Professor Schwarz’s paperwork.
“This way everyone! Don’t get left behind.” Professor Schwarz calls out as she leads us through the portal. I shiver as I walk through, but as Rin said it doesn’t hurt. It just feels weird.
On the other side to my surprise we are in the academy classroom. To think they sent us right back where we wanted and not just to the right world. It saves a port so I smile in relief. I’m back at the academy. To me it is basically home. Most of the other students port away immediately but I plan to walk. Haru Kii, Rin and Professor Schwarz are the only ones who don’t port away.
“So have you thought where Haru Kii will be staying?” Professor Schwarz asks me.
“I was thinking of getting a room to share with her. Sorry Rin, but I can’t leave her on her own.” I answer.
“Normally only students can stay at the academy but I suppose we could make an exception. Just be glad you are in the top class because if this was even 2B I wouldn’t be allowed to make that sort of exception.” Professor Schwarz says with a sigh. “I’ll get the paperwork for you to fill in. I expect you to make even more effort in lessons since I’m going out of my way to accommodate your circumstances.”
“I will put in every effort!” I promise with a bow.
“Your extra dimensional lessons start tomorrow. I shouldn’t be tired at this time in the morning, but I am. I’ve never known such a stressful field trip in all my years as a teacher.” Professor Schwarz says. “Well, enjoy your extra day off, but don’t dist
urb the other classes. I should have told the rest of the class but it should be common sense and they left too quickly. I never thought the portal would take us all the way back to our classroom.”
Professor Schwarz ports away. Rin looks at me for a moment. “You’re really going to move rooms?”
“I’m sorry!” I say bowing deeply.
“You could have Haru Kii stay with Asuna and Hermes in that large room. They have a spare bed at the moment.” Rin says.
“I couldn’t do that.” I tell Rin shaking my head.
“Fine, you keep our room and I’ll move in with Hermes and Asuna until Peter gets back.” Rin says.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Yes, but you’re going to have to wake yourself up from now on. Unless Haru Kii is going to do that for you.” Rin says sounding a little sad.
“Thank you!” I say bowing deeply.
“It’s not like I’m going to stay in a double room on my own. You should be ok for the rent after all the bounty jobs you’ve done. That’s one thing I don’t need to worry about in that big room. I’m going to talk to Asuna and Hermes, and then I’ll move my things.” Rin says and then ports away.
“Are you going to port us?” Haru Kii asks nervously.
“No, we’ll walk. I hate porting.” I say and lead the way.
“Ah, that’s good. It feels weird when I get ported.” Haru Kii says with a relieved smile.
“I know what you mean. I can’t describe it but I get that feeling too.” I say with a nod.
“What will I do here?” Haru Kii asks.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn magic.” I say. It is a magic academy so it makes sense.
“Is it like the magic back at the temple?” Haru Kii asks.
“Earth magic is exactly the same, though a bit easier. The other elements are more difficult and dimensional magic is the hardest. For me anyway, but I suspect it will be the same for you.” I tell her.
“Is this your room?” Haru Kii asks.
“Yes.” I say opening the door. Rin must have already moved her things because they are gone. “That bed is yours now.”