Valaria nervously passed through the academy gates, her purse held to her front and her heels echoing from each step.
As timid as a child around strangers, her eyes darted around, searching for at the very least a familiar face to go talk to.
She saw Kurt, hanging out with a few of his friends but...
"It’s better if I avoid him."
She knew when she was wanted and when she wasn’t.
She had made a mistake, and it had cost her a potential friend.
She wouldn’t make that mistake again. But for the friend, she would rather it stayed in the past, as a reminder of consequences.
"Who next."
Taking her eyes off Kurt, she saw Kai, holding a glass of fruit juice and lost in thought.
"This could work."
Just as she took her first steps, a flock of girls ran past her and surrounded the poor youth like fishes to bait.
"Kai... Kai, can I have a photo with you?"
"Kai, I was hoping I could dance!"
"Kai...."
There was so much ntion of Kai that Valaria got fed up and turned away—only to see Kiara darting toward the girls with a happy look.
"Girls... girls... now, there isn’t enough of a Kai for everyone."
Her words, quite true, made the girls sad. But Kiara seed to have a plan as she rubbed her hands together sinisterly and continued.
"So why don’t you lots have a drinking contest? The last one standing gets the prize~."
Pointing at Kai to indicate he was the prize, the girls burst into shrieks as Kiara led them and Kai to the grass field where a table serving wine was set.
She winked at Valaria as she passed by, while Kai rely nodded to acknowledge her presence.
"I guess they’re busy."
Seeing them walk away, Valaria ca to that conclusion.
With tensed shoulders, she looked around and found Enko.
The dragon, sitting on a bench, looked at the dark skies with a serene expression—enough for Valaria to know not to disturb her.
"Hey, want so?"
Just as she had lost all hope of starting a conversation, an unexpected voice shattered her nightmare.
"Damian!" Valaria exclaid in shock at the black-haired, red-eyed, glasses-wearing youth currently in a polished black suit and offering her a cup of apple juice.
"I’m not a child," Val said, shoving the glass back.
She was an eighteen-year-old young woman, old enough to drink, and here Damien was passing her fruit juice.
"I said the sa thing."
Cheshire, in a light blue gown, comnted as she joined the conversation.
Her black hair, done in a long ponytail, gave her a more mature look as she smiled at Valaria’s presence.
"Oh, is that Miss Champion?"
"Heh!" Val blushed, flustered from the sudden complint. She was really weak to those.
"You know, Miss Champion, you never struck as the dress type, but damn, you look smoking hot. I’m just going to co out and say this—if I was a guy, I’d probably ask you out."
"Heh."
Valaria blushed even more, rubbing her elbows in embarrassnt.
"h, my sister is better," Damien interrupted, his comnt gaining heated glares from both Valaria and Cheshire.
"Enough with your sister complex, you freak."
Cheshire whacked him on the head, earning a pained scream from him.
"It’s not my fault... ouch... my sister is so perfect."
Valaria, mad at first, ward up to their antics before posing a question that had been bugging her.
"Eh... Cheshire, where is Ellie?"
It was strange to see Cheshire and Damien together, but what was even more strange was to see Cheshire without Ellie.
Those two were as glued together as real-life twins, so seeing one without the other felt almost wrong.
"Oh, her... she’s over there."
She said, pointing to a bench occupied by a familiar pink-haired elf dozing off in a beautiful white dress.
She seed almost like a baby with how pure she looked right now.
"Is she safe?"
Valaria’s question was quickly answered as a duo of social dia pranksters, ready to dump water on the sleeping elf, were brutally shot down by a bow and arrow the elf manifested in her sleep.
"Sleep shooting!"
Val smirked, committing the sight to mory.
"By the way Val, how is Instructor Art?"
Changing the topic, Cheshire, slightly concerned for Art’s health, inquired from Valaria.
"...I don’t know!" She shook her head.
"Wait, you haven’t gone to see him?"
Cheshire gasped, shocked at that realization.
She wondered if a fallout had occurred between Art and Valaria, because the last she saw of them, they seed rather close.
Like a master and pupil.
Valaria, sensing her disappointnt, shrieked back.
"I don’t know how to face him."
Valaria responded.
"He’s in a coma, so he probably can’t do the—ouch... what was that for?"
Cheshire interrupted Damien with another whack on his head and intervened.
"That man is a rather shitty person..."
Grabbing Valaria by the hand, Cheshire began in a sour tone.
She was reminded of the thrashing she experienced from Art.
How ruthless he had been and how he tried downgrading her.
What he did back then shattered her every self and it had been overboard, and yet such trauma had been the foundation of her new life.
No longer was she shackled by false expectations, nor was she a coward.
Heck, she even t her best friend because of that incident.
So, as much as she didn’t want to believe it, she had to admit—Art’s treatnt of her back then had so positives.
"...I won’t defend that man. I saw it with my own eyes, how he beat you up... heck, I even received a similar kind of abuse. But unlike , you settled your grudge. You scarred his face once and even managed to kill him in the rank gas. You should face him with pride."
Val, feeling her sincerity, grinned and looked down in sha.
"Val..."
Hearing Cheshire call her na, she sighed and raised her head high to bathe in that pride—
but all she saw was a broken girl before her, a spear ramd through her chest, blood pooling down her dress.
Her lips quivered, trying to form one last word.
The sparkle in her eyes, once mischievous, dimd as her hand slipped away from Valaria’s grip.
The party’s music humd in the distance, uncaring, while in Valaria’s vision the world turned to silence.
A silence that scread louder than any sound she had ever heard.
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