There are certainly a lot of interesting classes, except for the ones on politics, etiquette and the like, which for some reason they teach to common students too and not just nobles. There are also nice classmates, although I feel bad at this point that I still refuse their invitations to go out together... But I can't help it, I really don't want to follow them to some noisy pub. Well, I probably won't see them again after I graduate.
'Wait, that was supposed to be an optimistic thought, why are there mixed complaints too...?' Anyway, speaking of graduating, I have to do it to achieve my goal, which is very simple, I want to have a nice house in a perfect place. Just like now, but not just nice, but perfect, and that it is my own house that I am responsible for, so I can decorate it however I want. As for the details, I will worry about that in the future.
Until then I need money to travel. I don't like the capital, my neighborhood is good, but even there is too much noise all the time, especially for my sensitive ears, although I have learned to ignore it, I don't want to live all my life in one place with that annoyance in the back of my mind.
So, I want to travel the land to see what it has to offer, but the world is not the safest, monsters, bandits, strange biomes, there are many ways to die easily, away from the safety of the walls, so I need money for guards... And for that I need a job, and for that I need skills, and for that I need to study... How annoying.
'If only I had amazing magic, I could travel without worrying... Oh well, maybe it's time to go ba-'
I'm interrupted by another train whistle, this time much closer.
Yes, time to go back, I trot back home this time, arriving a few minutes later.
"I'm home!" I call as I cross the hallway and head for the couch in the living room, mmm... I should take a bath. I take off my sweatshirt and shorts when I hear a happy Nicole coming out of her room.
"Welcome~!"
She looks at me, looks around, her ears droop a little and her tail slowly stops wagging.
"..."
"... What?"
"What happened to my skewers?"
"Ah, uh... Maybe the booth was not open?"
"Look at your tail," she says, pointing behind me.
I turn my head and see my tail pointing up, completely stiff and a bit bristly... Traitor. "Haa," I let out a short sigh as I continue to undress.
"Sorry, I forgot, should I go back and get some?" I ask.
"Haa... No, that's ok, let's buy some on the way to work"
"Or I can cook you some- huh, we'll buy some?"
"Yeah, you come with me"
"Why!?" I say as I stand in my underwear and throw my clothes through the open door into the laundry room.
"You need to get out more, also, someone might see you from the window"
"Hardly anyone comes through this neighborhood, it's early and you're the one who gave me the exhibitionist thing." I say as I look at her figure, she's only wearing a shirt that exposes her belly and black panties. She doesn't seem to be wearing a bra either...
"It's not exhibitionism if no one is looking at me"
"I'm looking"
"You don't count, you're still coming with me." She affirms and puts her hands on her waist.
"Eh... But there are a lot of people in the castle"
"You'll get used to it"
"What do I do if they talk to me?"
"You answer them?"
"And how am I going to do that?"
"Like you're doing now." She says, sounding increasingly exasperated.
"But-"
"You're coming with me!" She interrupts.
"Ugh, fine!"
Finally satisfied with my answer, she goes back to her room. I can't help but stare at her butt, her panties do a great jo- uh, I mean, they don't do a great job hiding it, plus her wide hips give her a sexy wiggle when she walks...
"Stop looking and hurry up, we're leaving in forty minutes." That makes me look up again and see her with a big grin on her face.
Eh... Damn, she caught me looking at her.
"Haaa..." I sigh again, it's hard not to stare at a body like hers, her choice of clothes doesn't help... Luckily, I'm over my, uh, horniness towards her after an accident a few years ago, where I was... De-stressing in my room, when I carelessly said her name out loud and she walked in... ...
'AAAAHHH!!! DON'T REMEMBER THAT!!! DON'T REMEMBER THAT!!!' I say to myself as I cover my face with my hands, luckily, I'm closer to her than any other member of my family so it wasn't too awkward, we both dismissed the whole thing as teenage hormones, although she did tease me about it for a long time.
As I go upstairs to the bathroom, I stop and look down, uh, she already know- THINKS I'm a pervert, so screw it. I also take off my underwear and throw it in the laundry room as I go to the bathroom next to my room, upstairs.
Even though I denied it... Walking around naked feels, um, interesting, somehow... Refreshing, let's leave it at that. If a stranger saw me now, I would gouge out his eyes, but I don't mind if the one looking at me is an acquaintance, shouldn't it be the other way around...? Or is that normal...? Who cares.
-----
After a quick shower, drying with magic, a quick brush and a change of clothes, we both go to the castle, she is now wearing a navy-blue women's suit, with the crest on her chest indicating that she belongs to the court magicians, she usually wears casual clothes when she works, this must be a special occasion. She looks really dignified and trustworthy, you could mistake her bored look for one of coolness and confidence, what would all those who admire her think if they knew that her favorite pastime is to lounge around and make fun of me...?
Meanwhile I decided on a brown sweatshirt over a simple white shirt and black jeans, I would have preferred a skirt, it's more comfortable and easier to fit my tail, but I love how the jeans accentuate my butt. As well as a simple hair garter at the tip of my hair. While I'm proud of my body and love being dressed lightly at home, I can't help but feel incredibly self-conscious when I get looks from strangers, even though I want to show off a little, it's a contradictory feeling I'm still deciphering.
"Didn't you work in a bakery? You should be used to dealing with people by now." She asks me as we make our way to one of the main roads leading to the castle, it's not the shortest route, but there's a skewer stand that sells the best skewers in the world (according to Nicole). Although it's still early, even if they're open, I doubt they'll have anything ready at this hour.
"Usually, the interactions I have are based on greeting, charging, dismissing them and not much else, plus a lot of salespeople were coming in, so I think my social skills were regressing rather than advancing..."
"You mean vendors? What's wrong with them?"
"Yes," I reply simply.
"Ah?"
"They are my natural enemy, listen, they just talk about how great their product is, how generous the discount is, how expensive it usually is without their amazing once-in-a-lifetime promotion, basically they talk and talk and talk"
"Just tell them you're not interested." She says wearily.
"They won't let me! They won't shut up, I have to talk over them most of the time, it's very stressful and maybe rude"
"Mmm... Well, your face is very expressive, any vendor should know from the beginning that you're not interested, if you interrupt them, they can't get mad at you, they asked for it." She tries to be reasonable, but...
"Last time, I was serving customers at the bakery when a guy came in and tried to sell me perfume"
Her expression tells me that even she thinks it's stupid.
"For the sake of my sanity, I tried to ignore the fact that he was selling that thing to a race known for their strong sense of smell. When I finally found a loophole in his rant, I told him that I was just an employee and couldn't take money from the register"
Nicole regained her 'this girl is just talking nonsense' look, although this time she looked a little more understanding.
"He said his super awesome offer was for me, not the store owner, and then lined up several different bottles on my counter and asked me to try them." I explain.
"What kind of idiot distributes perfume in a bakery!" She says with a scandalized look on her face, as if her gluttonous side had overpowered her tutoring side.
"I know! The smell of freshly baked bread is what attracts customers the most! I guess... At least for me. Anyway, I tried to act disinterested by ignoring the bottles and pretending I didn't have any money on me, and you know what he did?" I ask, raising my voice a bit.
"What?" She replies, reverting to her strict but lazy tutor mode.
"He got mad at me! He even said as he grabbed his stuff. No way, people have bad taste here, I know where to never go again. The bastard attacked me like that! Shouldn't you be nice to your potential customers? Why get angry if someone doesn't want your stuff? That's your fault, not the customer's."
"Haaa..." I sigh and take a breath, trying to calm down before continuing.
Although, as he was leaving, I thought about his situation, maybe he hadn't sold any of that obvious cheap copy perfume for days, so seeing a girl not even give his merchandise a glance, the poor guy might have blown up a little. So, I felt bad for him, but I also felt really angry at him for taking it out on me, but I also felt a little attacked, somehow vulnerable and unfairly endangered, um, and all those ugly feelings came together with stress, a little panic and a terrible urge to cry... Complicated feelings got mixed up and made it worse.... Needless to say, my day was completely ruined"
"..." Nicole shows a complicated face.
"... In short, I hate door-to-door salesmen"
"... Seina... I don't know if I should be angry at that idiot or at you for caring so much about something so insignificant"
"It's not insignificant!"
"On the other hand." She says, ignoring me. "It's been a long time since you've said such long sentences, maybe I should thank the man"
"..."
"Next time you run into someone like that, just tell them to get screwed and get on with your life, it's not-"
She stops talking.
Suddenly a light in my peripheral vision catches my attention, it appears in the sky, from behind a cloud, it approaches the ground quickly and is so bright that it illuminates the sky and the earth blue-white, my ears also pick up a hissing sound from the thing, resembling meat cooking in its own fat.
I just stood there and watched it fall without really reacting... At least until it hid behind one of the Academy's tallest towers, visible from all over the city, and half a second later...
BOOOOM!!!
A loud bang is heard, making me jump and cover my ears, followed by a loud shudder.
"WHAT THE HELL!!!" I said, finally coming out of my daze, as I was waking up and trying to figure out what to do, when suddenly loud bells rang throughout the city, 'huh, not just a meteorite? Why would that ring a bell... Or chimes, what is the difference?'
"That sound..." Nicole mumbles. "Go to the castle, quick!" she yells at me before running off in the direction of the academy.
I stopped caring when I started paying attention to the screams of people near me. 'I guess that woke up the whole town... I better listen to Nicole,' I run towards the castle, I really have no idea where I am, but my hearing is only surpassed by my smell, so I know where to go, I just have to follow the distinctive smell of the main street and it's a straight path from there, even if I got lost I would just have to follow my own smell back home, or go over the rooftops straight towards the castle towers that come into view between the streets, rising into the sky.
Less than three minutes later, I am interrupted by an avalanche of people who have suddenly appeared on the streets, and to make matters worse, although most of them were walking fast, many others were running as if their lives depended on it.
Fortunately, this is still a residential area with buildings not too tall or far apart, so I dash to an outside staircase of a small apartment building and climb to the top, from outside the railing, as there are people coming down the same stairs. I'm confident I'll come out unscathed even if I fall a few floors, I'm physically stronger than most humans, and my strong, beautiful legs and butt aren't just for show!
... No time to think about that', I reach the top smoothly and run, parkouring between the buildings, I have to concentrate... There's too much screaming and...
Suddenly I feel a big chill, maybe the whole city, because for a second there was a terrifying total silence... I turn in the direction of the meteorite or whatever it was that fell and notice... Uh, I'm too far away to see properly even with my good vision, but, it's a black mass that's... Climbing buildings!? You also see multi-colored lights quickly approaching them... Are they aliens or something and someone is shooting at them?
'... Again, stop freezing like an idiot Seina!' I scold myself and keep running, after a few minutes of running the buildings get bigger as I get closer to the center of the city where the royal castle is, mmm... Not as crowded as before, I keep going along the ground. Suddenly some strangers and I stop and look down one of the smaller side streets where we see a flood of people running and screaming.
I don't have to wonder why for a long time, because behind them are... They look like xenomo- huh? Xeno what? Again, strange words appear in my mind, it's been a while- 'HEY! Concentrate and run, you idiot!', five four-legged creatures, six to ten feet tall, with an elongated head, no visible eyes, sharp metallic teeth and a huge segmented tail with a deadly looking blade at the tip, things that resembled something between machines and monsters, they were chasing after the crowd, even though they didn't seem to be in a hurry, they still matched the crowd in speed.
"AAAH!" But before I could run, I saw a human woman, holding a girl who looked like her, being pushed to the ground, as I saw one of the creatures let out a loud roar, at the same time it left its slow pace and charged at her at full speed.
'No! I should help- huh?' Before I could finish the thought, I saw my surroundings move, or rather I am moving, with my outstretched hand shooting a fireball at the monster. It hit it right in the face and stopped it dead in its tracks, although it didn't look particularly hurt.
I turn to the woman. "Lady, get out of here!" I yell at her, she doesn't answer me, she just gets up and keeps running. When I turn back to the monsters, all five of them are looking at me, and now they are running towards me! But again, before I can come up with a plan...
I feel a tug in my mind that makes me turn towards the brick wall of one of the buildings to the right between me and the monsters... Whatever it is... Uh, it feels like the first time I've awakened my magic. Almost by pure instinct, I stretch my hand towards the wall, or rather towards what's behind it.
Darkness.
It's still early, but the sun came up quite a while ago, it's already quite clear out here, so somehow, I understand that it's more effective to focus on this part, with a confidence I've drawn from somewhere unknown and an unusual lack of fear or sense of self-preservation, I mentally call out to the darkness from inside the building and make a pulling motion to the left with my hand.
CRAAAACK!!!
Almost the entire wall, along with the interior of the first of four floors of the building, was ripped off and dragged towards the street, hitting the monsters, stone, brick and metal debris striking the body and huge head of one of the closest creatures, killing it instantly, while its corpse also shot out and hit two of its companions.
I watched while, once I heard everyone far enough away, I backed up and began climbing back up to the rooftops to gain height advantage, through a stone archway that connected the small side street to the main street. I didn't have to worry about their survival for long, because-
CRAAAACK!!!
A second scream from the building I had torn the wall off of signaled the beginning of its collapse, and in less than two seconds it collapsed on top of the stunned creatures and into what looked like some kind of shop across the street.
I moved as fast as I could away from the huge cloud of dust and, pressing my ears back from the loud sound that almost resembled an angry roar, I began to think, I didn't hear anyone inside or nearby, but... I hope I'm not to blame for what just happened, ehh, I'll deny any involvement on my part if anyone asks later. Remember Nicole's wise but questionable advice, Sei, everything is legal if the authorities aren't around.
It seemed that the group of monsters were stray ones, now that I know what their whistles and roars sound like, I couldn't hear any nearby, good. As I returned to the ground and ran towards the stone and crystal castle that adorns much of the sunrise, I remembered what I had just done... The few who can use magic are supposed to awaken it sometime before puberty, just as it happened to me. I'd never heard of a second awakening before, plus I somehow knew what I was capable of and how to do it, like I'd done it a million times before...
'Besides, isn't non-magical darkness just the lack of light or something...? Although at the Academy they say that the world is filled with many different mysterious energies.' I should ask Nicole later, as a court mage she should at least have an idea.
Anyway, it's fascinating and a bit scary to be able to feel the energy in every dark place, which is maybe a fifth of the huge metropolis that is this city. Well, it's not really annoying, although I did feel like a metaphorical bucket of cold water hit me, it's just... Like... Uh, like being in an empty room when suddenly you blink and there are a million swords at your fingertips, ready to be used. I even feel like I could...
I stop for a moment to test my idea, I go up to the roofs for the third time, this time a clothing store, and look in the direction of where the meteorite fell, eh, they seem to be managing it, I don't know what kind of magic or attack it is, but with glowing projectiles that leave a trail of blue light behind them, they knock the creatures off the buildings.
"Great!" I say out loud, there's no one here, so it's okay. Even though they look like they came straight from hell, they seem to be far from invincible, as I also proved with my act of bravery... Or rather my act of thoughtlessness, impulsiveness and stupidit- "NO! My fully conscious act of, uh, self-discovery, yes, of course."
I quickly search for the nearest creature I can find and manage to spot a lonely one about, I'd say, a mile away, just standing there, eating... Ah, something I, uh, really hope it found in a butcher shop. I focus on it as best I can and... There it is, the metaphorical sword around it and... Also inside the thing. If I can draw the darkness, can I crush it? Somehow, I know the answer is yes. Gesturing with my hand...
I clench my fist.
And just then the creature gives a big jerk and falls over like a puppet whose strings have been cut... Wow, huh... Even though the level of danger I feel from them is quite varied, they are certainly hostile, but still, to have your heart, or whatever it is they have in their barrel torsos, crushed without being able to do anything about it sounds quite unfair, I almost feel bad, almost.
"Well... Yeah, I can kill them, I should help then." I said, changing my course.