“Marquise is not at the academy today. Little Kate has sent for her brother because she’s running a fever.”
Little Kate—Katelyn—was the youngest sister whom Marquise Bolton cherished like his life. For her sake, Bolton would easily skip three or four classes and face disciplinary action.
So I was confused and a little scared. ‘Then who is that?’ When I asked in a whisper, Keran put his index finger to his lips and said ‘shh’.
[Your Majesty]
Now, the two voices have become one. It wasn’t just two; dozens, or hundreds of voices joined together. It sounded like the cries of the dead in the karmic fires of an eternally burning hell. I remembered hearing a similar sound recently. My back and the back of my neck, exposed to the midsummer humidity, began to sweat coldly. Keran, who was standing at a distance, carefully approached the bed.
“Is it an imp?”he muttered. Imp was a small fairy who loved mischief like a pixie, but due to its twisted nature, they were never kind. Their talent was to frighten humans and make them depressed or angry at the same time.
But that was far cry from killing. Because imps were mischievous fairies, not monsters. At least, that’s what I believed.
“It’s Pannington.”
“What?”
“When he stabbed me, he made that kind of voice. I mean, Pannington… .”
[Miss Blossom appears to have business with Your Majesty.]
Even as I spoke, the intensity of the sound grew more menacing. Soon, the existing voices were joined by the sound of banging on the door. What started out as a light noise grew to a furious roar. The old door was shaking. Keran gently comforted me as I trembled and shouted to the outside.
“Who are you?”
[Your Majesty].
[Your Highness, Keran.]
“Answer the question!”
[Miss Blossom.]
[Lady Blossom appears to have business with Your Majesty.]
The finely sharpened edges of the voices slashed at the hands covering my ears. Keran hugged me tightly. Perhaps because of his warm body temperature, I gradually calmed down. It felt like I was soaking in a bathtub full of hot water.
I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, but suddenly, all the noise completely subsided, and silence came. Then, my cheeks heated up for a different reason than before. Without even having time to reflect on the bizarre experience from earlier, all my attention was focused on Keran. I realized how bravely he had protected me.
My heart pounded as I suddenly felt like I had become his female lead instead of just a background character. The next moment, it stopped. My eyes caught sight of the dull brown hair hanging over my left chest.
“Thank you.”
I gently pushed his chest with my fingertips, and Keran immediately pulled away. But his response, ‘You’re welcome,’ sounded a bit strange. At first glance, he seemed tired, maybe even a little ticked off.
As I conjured up the image of the imposing countess of Villard buried somewhere in my mind and overlaid it with the Crown Prince of Illestia, urgent footsteps suddenly approached.
“Dalton!”
The next visitor to appear after Walsh and Bolton was a woman, and unusually, she was calling me, not Keran. The fear that had only passed for a few tens of seconds came back.
“Go away!
I didn’t know what trick they were trying again. I didn’t even want to know. When I gritted my teeth and nervously responded, the woman hiccuped in embarrassment and said, ‘That’s rude!’. She didn’t say anything like ‘Must go see Blossom’ or ‘Blossom is looking for’. It was odd.
“Faulkner?”
Bree knew how to properly imitate the condescending tone of the voices of Illestian nobles. So I immediately realized that it was Jacqueline Faulkner who had knocked on the door. She often spoke in a much more aristocratic tone than Anais, whom she served, as Faulkner always emphasized that she was serving the noble Duchy of O’Brien despite her lowly status.
“Come out quickly, Dalton! If this continues, Anna will go bald!”
“Bald?”
If I were the evil being, I don’t think I would choose Faulkner as bait to lure me out. Despite Keran’s dissuasion, I clung to the intriguing topic Faulkner raised. Then she let out another loud scream.
“Your roommate is pulling my lady’s hair out!”
***
The hallway on the second floor of the girls’ dormitory was usually crowded with Anais’ suitors, but today it was crowded for a different reason. When I arrived, the area near Anais’ room was already crowded with people.
“Just say it, you blockhead! Because of you, because of you… !”
Brianna Mosley’s thunderous voice, famous throughout Fitzsimmons, effortlessly pierced through the thick human barrier.
“You are so much more than your looks; you are not a failure; you do not want to become a nun! Say it yourself!”
“I want to do that too, but… !”
“But what? You haven’t even tried! Coward!”
I made my way through the crowds encouraging them and the crowds trying to stop them. Between Brianna’s fingers, I could see Anais’s blonde hair tangled wildly. What was surprising was that Anais was also holding Bree’s hair. If it had been one-sided violence and not a fight, as Faulkner said, I would have intervened right away. But since that did not seem to be the case, I paused.
Mia Peterson happened to be nearby. It was the fourth-grade girl with good dexterity who I was taking swordsmanship class with. At the Love Month Banquet, she was the one who painted the famous “Ariel Levesque Chopping the Incubus’ Head.” I walked up to her and poked her in the side with my elbow. Little Mia was so shocked that she jumped to half her height.
“A-A-A—.”
“That’s right, Mia. I am Ariel, the senior you look up to the most.”
At my words, Mia twisted her body and blushed. When I saw that, a question arose. How did a shy kid like her break through the formidable human barrier and end up in the front row of the fight? Did she get caught up by mistake and was not be able to get out?
“Se-Senior, did you make a call too?”
“What?”
“I mean, on the bet… I bet all my June allowance on Ms. O’Brien.”
Where Mia’s round chin pointed, I could see Stephen Kirkpatrick collecting gold coins from onlookers. Jose Soto was half a step behind him, handing out something like paper. It probably said something about having to accept the consequences, no matter what happens. That was a tactic Kyle and I used for our marshmallow animal betting game.
Kirkpatrick, who was famous for being a miser, was someone who, unlike us who believe that pranks should end on a fun note, would go crazy when money was involved. Though it irked me that he was running a betting pool with my friends, I knew he was destined to go down in flames soon, so I didn’t interfere. This year again, he sold the fake genealogy from a bogus fortune teller at a high price.
However, it was surprising that Mia fell for Kirkpatrick’s tricks. Maybe the mystery of how she got to the front row isn’t so mysterious after all. It was a moment when Kelly Ramirez’s sharp insight triumphed again.
“I really like the academy. It makes me realize that I’m not the only weirdo in the world.”
“Senior Mosley walked first in the fight; she was also the first one to grab hair, but the true expert was senior O’Brien. Can you see that? She’s pulling on the sideburns!”
“How did they get into a fight in the first place?”
“That… I don’t know either. Embarrassing to admit, but I wasn’t here from the beginning.”
Is that something to be embarrassed about? I was dumbfounded for a moment, but soon came to my senses and refocused on Bree and Anais.
“Hey, don’t cry pathetically! You’re pulling someone else’s sideburns!”
“Sob, sorry, sorry. But you—!”
“Don’t apologize, you dullard! Who apologizes during a fight?!”
“D-Dullard….”
“Are you upset? Are you pissed? Then say so!”
“Then, will you let me go… ?”
“No!”
Bree shouted firmly and raised her other hand to the back of Anais’ head. Anais screamed and twisted her body. A handful of bright blonde hair fell down. Faulkner, who was very worried about the hair of the young lady she was serving, screamed from somewhere.
“I won’t let you go, especially now that I see you got angry when I called you ‘dullard’!”
“In that way, I… .”
“I don’t know! If you don’t say it! No one will know about your feelings!”
Anais stumbled as if in shock. A puddle of tears formed on the floor where clumps of her hair were scattered. Brianna Mosley, who wasn’t as heartless as she pretended to be, also began to whimper a little.
It was time to intervene. I put on the cardigan I wore loosely over my thin short-sleeved blouse and stepped forward.
—To be exact, I tried to step forward.
“Where are you going, Ari?”
Long arms extended from behind my back and wrapped around my shoulders. A small chuckle fell over my head.
“Kyle!”
“I thought you were in detention? Do you know how lonely it’s been without you in the auxiliary magic lab?”
It seemed like Keran and Bree were the only ones in all of Fitzsimmons who knew exactly what kind of incident I was involved in. The full story of the incident that the two people knew might not be the same, but they knew.
Kyle was already a very thoughtful person, and he already had a lot of things to worry about without me having to add them. So I didn’t say a word to him about the catastrophe that had befallen on my side. Instead, I said:
“Why don’t you take the test for Casey?”
“Letting me skip practice was not enough payment.”
Kyle, who was giggling, grabbed my hand, which was hanging at my waist, placed it on his palm, and stretched out my index finger.
“There are many things in the world that don’t require you to take action, Ariel.”
You can now sponsor an extra chapter by buying me a Ko-fi! 2 Ko-fi= 1extra chapter.
