(Chpt. 44) Choosing a path

Alice.

«Yami»  

I looked at the teacup I was holding, a swirl could be observed after adding a questionable amount of sugar. Again; the maid did give me a weird look, but that did not matter. I was emotionlessly looking at the spinning liquid, it had been quite a while since Aizen had left and the boredom I was feeling could not be described. I found myself wordlessly staring at the now calm dark-tea — watching my eyes; my appearance was somewhat weird, I wasn’t smiling. Something was missing, was it Aizen? I don’t think that was it, something else; something important for me was missing. But I couldn’t tell ⁠— I shook my head. 

“Yami, are you alright?” 

“I am fine.” 

I casually answered Ari, who was looking at me with concern. She looked at me with eyes full of doubt and a slight hit of displeasure. But, I wasn’t feeling that well for some reason; now that I had sat down, I had a lot of things to think about. First what happened earlier today.

I still couldn’t believe Ari did not believe me; calling it a lie instead. I guess it was my mistake ⁠— I took it too far. I couldn’t really try to convince her, what would I gain from it? I would only gain my own self-approval, nothing more. Besides, whether she believes in me or not, does it matter? I am me, that’s all that matters, I don’t need to prove anyone anything. But there is something missing. 

“Mistress Yami.” Hearing those words; my train of thought shattered and I grimaced; instantly looking at the source. It was Firil. I flinched, trying not to glare daggers at him. He seemed quite taken aback from my behaviour but cleared his throat and stepped into the room, he took a seat on one of the couches. We were in the guest room; it was the coziest place in the entire mansion. 

“I mean… Yami.” I tilted my head hearing his correction, he had already gotten my attention. There was no need to rephrase himself. He cleared his throat again and started speaking. “How about meeting the smith I told you about tomorrow?” 

“Yes!” I did not even think about it. Ari tilted her head seeing my sudden change of mood, but I digress. Smithing and emotions ⁠— there is only one important concept there. And I know which one it is, I had no time to waste about why I was feeling depressed. 

“Very well…” he paused. “Is there something else you would like to know?” 

I pondered for a second. “Why did Aizen have to go alone?” 

“She had to be escorted by Gerard to the academy to take the test, so there was no need to accompany her, seeing it could influence the results.” I nodded hearing his explanation and stood up. There was no time to waste. 

“Yami are we going somewhere?” Ari suddenly asked. I just smiled and took her hand. 

“I just remembered I had something important to do, see you later.” I gave Firil a casual farewell, he seemed to be thinking about something after hearing me. We left Cecil alone again, but I think it was better for her to be with her father. 

We left the mansion and thanked the guard for his services, it seemed to be common courtesy or something. I learnt a few things from Ari once Aizen left, seeing I was bored. So, I did the best thing and bombarded Ari with questions; a lot of them did not get answered, but I got to know a few things. 

We walked towards the magic academy. The time was around lunch time ⁠— not many people were around because of it. Eventually, we found ourselves standing in front of the snowy institution. It was as white as ever. 

“Yami look.” Ari pointed towards someone in the distance. I squinted my eyes and with a bit of a struggle I managed to see who Ari was pointing at. It was Gerard. Without much thought, I took Ari with me and stood next to Gerard, he seemed to be waiting for something, seeing that he did not see us right away. Eventually he noticed a shadow casting on the ground and at last; he perceived us. 

“What are you girls doing here?” 

“Looking for Aizen.” I briefly stated. 

“Oh…” 

He let out a slight surprise sound. I noticed he opened his mouth again but we started hearing something coming from inside the building. I could only hear muffled sounds but it sounded like an argument. And it was getting heated.

Ting~ 

“I told you already! I don’t care about the old man!” 

“You clearly don’t understand his greatness.”

“What’s so great about that fossil?!” 

“Fossil?! Who are you calling fossil?! I bet you wouldn’t even be able to talk to him if you were truly facing him!” 

Aizen was arguing with a blue-haired girl. She looked like a mage of sorts. The argument was gradually scaling up, however, there was one important thing I picked up on this argument. ‘Who cares about some old man?’ I share Aizen’s thoughts on that regard. I don’t know what old man we are talking about, but unless it’s someone like the King I doubt it’s relevant. 

Aizen sighed. “What’s so important about the so-called Grand Mage. All he did was use some eerie darkness magic that seemed like child’s play!” After Aizen’s exclamation the receptionist stopped moving; she practically froze for some reason. 

“How annoying…” Aizen grumbled as she exited the capsule thing she was in. Until she noticed me. she slightly flinched and then sheepishly approached me; it was somewhat weird. However, before she could say anything, the receptionist rushed in the middle of us and faced Aizen. 

“Youuu, girly! Why are you lying to me?! There is no way Lynn would use Shadow Curtain!” She was slightly red. Aizen sighed seeing the unyielding receptionist and then dropped her shoulders. 

“You are right, I might’ve been delusional or something…” Then after some fake disappointment face her expression turned monotone. “You should tell the old man that using darkness spells on children can leave them delusional.” The receptionist flinched and lifted her finger to argue, but Aizen continued, "Also, why is there only one office in the entire building?" 

“You… How did you know that?!” 

“Answer me.” I could tell. AIzen was fed-up with this woman; the woman flinched again and took a step back. Although to be fair, Aizen did not even bother to hide her annoyance; which can come up as scary sometimes. Although, I wonder how she knew that. 

“The rest are private staff rooms…” she mumbled. 

Aizen nodded in understanding and came to my side, then whispered into my ear. “Let us leave, this woman is just as crazy as that old-man upstairs. These people are not sane…” She sounded rather tired so I just awkwardly nodded and took Aizen’s hand. I also did the same with Ari. We left without saying anything to the woman; who did not seem sane. Gerard awkwardly followed us not knowing what to say. The woman was left standing there as she sheepishly returned to a desk and started grabbing documents dejectedly. I think she was a receptionist.

I managed to catch a glimpse of the 'receptionist' once we were near the fountain that was between both buildings; the receptionist was… holding her head in pain and mumbling things like an insane person. She then looked around the room in skepticism a few times, I could not really make-out what really happened. 

“So, how did the test go?” Gerard hesitantly asked. 

“It went well.” Aizen answered with a grin. Gerard breathed in relief. 

“That’s good news, I will inform milady.” He bowed and then left us alone. I think he just wanted to leave, but I don't blame him. The atmosphere earlier was quite awkward. 

Ari was confused. “Umm… Aizen, what argument did you have with that mage?” She quietly decided to ask. Aizen sneered.

“That mage, or rather, receptionist. She is crazy — I go outside the old-man’s office, and the first thing she does is look at me like a hurt dog. And then once I tell her I passed she can’t believe what I just told her, and after that she just starts monologuing about the old-man like if he was some sort of deity.” she ended up her complaints with a face full of dissatisfaction. 

“Well, if she talked about the man like that, wouldn’t he be important?” 

“No Ari. At least not to me. That man was something to laugh at, he was annoying and seemed to have gone senile a long time ago. He tried throwing me a rock for whatever reason, only insane people do that.” She glanced at me. “So, I can safely say, that man was crazy. Important to her; maybe. To me; not really.” Aizen ended up dismissing Ari. 

Ari did not really have anything else to say so she just nodded. Aizen still seemed to have anger stored; she looked at me with glaring daggers and rushed to me. 

“Why did we come to the capital?!” She grabbed my collar and started shaking my neck. 

“Well… I just wanted to see metals.” 

“You and your stupid rocks...” 

She seemed rather frustrated. However, rocks weren’t stupid. Before I could correct her, Ari tried to intervene. 

“What’s so bad about this place?” 

“Everything. The people are crazy, just look at the receptionist.” Aizen pointed with one hand at the receptionist. She was still mumbling like a crazy witch. “See?” Aizen continued. “It’s your fault K-Yami. You are going to have to make up for it!” I couldn’t help but smile from Aizen’s childish behaviour. She finally let go of my collar. 

“You are going to come with me to the Academy!” 

“Eh…” I let out a stupid voice. “Nononono! I was going to meet that smith tomorrow!” I held my head in pain. How was this possible, I know… I shouldn’t be doing this, and I am trash for doing so but I had to go see the smith. “Aizen, I will come with you to the academy if you wait a bit.” 

“... A bit?” I nodded to assure her. 

“Yes, a bit. I will be doing smithy things and then I will join you once I am done…” I hesitantly said. 

Aizen pondered for a few seconds, she sighed. “You are always like this… Fine… just, be sure to join me.” She smiled. I am blessed to have someone like Aizen to my side. 

“What about me?” Ari suddenly asked. Aizen seemed to have an idea from her question and grabbed our hands and went back to the mumbling receptionist. Once we were in front of her desk, she groggily lifted her head up and her eyes trembled when she saw Aizen. 

“W-what do you want?” She hesitantly asked. Aizen hearing this; yanked Ari in front of her. 

“I want her to come with me to the academy. She has no mage qualifications but she will serve as my companion.” She said with a smile; the receptionist grimaced. 

“I can’t do that! First you dirt Lynn’s name and then you make such a selfish request? Besides is the girl even okay with it?” Ari was troubled and looked at me, I just nodded making her nod towards the receptionist. “I still can’t let you⁠—” 

“It’s fine! That girl is interesting anyways!” A raspy voice resounded inside the room, however there was no clear source. The receptionist blushed and grabbed her trembling heart, her breathing got rough so it took her a few seconds to stabilize herself. 

“Alright… Just because Lynn approved of it…” she sulked. Then she looked at Ari. “What’s your name?” 

“Ari…” Ari fidgeted not knowing what was going on anymore. To be fair, I wasn’t really following this random development either. The receptionist wrote something on a paper and looked up.

“Okay, you girls can go now.” Ari was confused and tilted her head. 

“Don’t you need more information?” 

The receptionist shook her head. “No, missy over here, has all of the data… And I assume she is a familiar of yours or something, so it’s fine.” She said with a crooked smile. 

Ari hesitantly nodded and we left the building. The receptionist did not seem mentally stable at that point in time. So I guess it was for the better to leave her alone. We left the school without saying anything and headed back towards the mansion. We strangely did not run into people or anything; it was a welcome thing. 

We arrived at the mansion and were greeted by a sulking Cecil on the garden. 

“...” 

We did not say anything as we passed the gates. 

“... Why did you people leave without me?!” She had enough of being ignored and exclaimed with teary eyes. I was the first one to speak.

“Well, I thought leaving you with your father was a better idea…” I scratched my cheek in awkwardness. Although, I did actually think that it was a better idea indeed. It’s better if she doesn’t bond too strongly with us, we cannot really take her away from her family. Cecil seemed unsatisfied and stomped the ground. 

“That’s not fair…” I approached her and stroked her hair and just pampered her in general, which somewhat appeased her anger. The guard was awkwardly watching us, since we were still in the mansion’s garden having a random argument. 

Gerard stepped outside and guided us into the guest room again; it was the place where we had spent most of the time ⁠— on purpose. So, it did not really bother me or anyone for that matter. However, Cecil was upset, so I kept giving her attention in hopes to make her less upset. 

“Just don’t do it again…” she quietly said. 

I had no choice but to awkwardly nod. Fenri was missing the entire time so I had no idea where he had gone.  But I felt nothing wrong with it, I knew he would come running as fast as possible if something happens. I kept giving her attention for quite a while. Aizen ended up sulking for some reason and Ari tried to console her… I was kind of lost. 

This continued until dinner. Firil was missing for whatever reason. But apparently he did spend most of his free time with Cecil now, which was a good thing. We went to sleep without anything happening. It was an eventful day but not an eventful evening. 

Alice.