Chapter 53

53 Seeking Answer

“Anne, are you ready for tomorrow?”

Turning her head to the source of the voice, she smiled and winked at David, who was standing on her doorframe, “Yes, I’m going to bed as early as I can be. What about you?”

“Same as you, although I have noticed a certain handsome and muscly man, the huntsman captain, isn’t it?” David was teasing her endlessly after Xavier insist of escorted Anne until they arrived at the dorm.

“Yes, I was... saying goodbye to some of my friends. Xavier happened to be there.”

David’s laughter echoed throughout the hall of the third floor. “That’s it? Just because you were been in one place? Oh, my sweet friend, you need to convince me more than just a lousy excuse.”

“Ugh, fine. He saw my wound and thought it was best for me to have him escort me back here, now, happy?” Said Anne while rolling her eyes.

Hearing about her wound, David’s face was changed, and he charge inside the room, “What happened?!” Asked David.

“Ugh, you’re just as worse as Darla. She was screaming at me earlier. I’m fine. I fall to the floor.” Answered Anne while she showed David the wound on her elbow.

David let out a sigh, and with his eyes staring at Anne, he once again asked her, “Who did it?”

.....

“No one, I was clumsy, that’s why. Oh, come on David, we have our exam tomorrow. Let’s focus, okay?” Anne tried to lie to David, but David and Darla knew better.

“Fine! Just go to bed early, okay? Darla and I will bring your dinner here.” Said David, while saying goodbye to Anne.

Aghast by the prospect of being viewed as a coward by the nobles, she shouted at her friend outside, “No! David, just pick me up when you’re ready to go to dinner with Darla.”

“Anne...” David’s voice is soft, pleading to his friend.

Let out a sigh, Anne stepped outside her room, and whispered to David, “The moment the two of you shield me from their view, is the moment they will think that I am a coward and hiding behind my friends,” A determination brewing in Anne’s eyes, “I may be a low peasant, but I am not a coward, so... pick me up to go to dinner, please.”

“Alright, calm down, Anne. I’ll be here with Darla when dinner is ready.” David’s trying his best to ease the tension within the hall. The bully will never give up, even once. Yesterday, cold drinks fall into her head, or when some rotten fruits fly through her windows and into her bed, every little thing, every kind of small bullied.

Although Darla and David thought they were getting out of hand, injuring the poor girl. When Anne closed her door, David knocked at Darla’s room, he goes inside and close the door immediately. Darla was in the middle of reading a monster’s encyclopedia.

“Let me guess, she wanted to go downstairs to have dinner with us?” Darla said to David, with chuckles coming from her mouth.

David rustled his hair in frustration. “Stubborn as always. Now, what should we do?”

“What else? We just need to be with her, and pray that this time, only a small prank that goes to her.”

David curses, his hands clasped together in rage, “F*ck those nobles, they already belittling us, and now to bully Anne like this.”

Darla put the monster encyclopedia into the dresser and stare at David. “You do know why they were targeting Anne, right?”

“I know, but just because she got rescued by a noble, the nobles don’t have to be so extreme about it.”

“Not just the nobles, David.” Muttered Darla. She gave David a handful of dirty papers.

When David takes a closer look at the papers, he got surprised and his eyes go to Darla immediately. The dirty papers were actually a letter full of threatening words and curses for Anne. “This is horrendous! Where did you get this?!”

“From her mailbox, I just knew that it was strange to see so much mail in her box. When I open the box, this hideous mails came out from it.”

David read one of the letters, “Noble f*cker! You gave us a great shame. Just go back to your puny village!” David was horrified by the words, “Oh God! That was horrifying. Are you sure this is not from the noble?”

“Only one of us could conjure a chain letter like this, just looks at the stamp mark, it came from the inns all over the capitals.” Darla pointed at the stamp mark in some letters.

“The bronze pass. They got angry and humiliated, I guess.”

“Truthfully, If I know nothing about Anne, I’ll be angry as well.” Said Darla, she feel guilty expressing her opinion, and that was the harsh truth.

Bronze pass recipient doesn’t have as much privilege as silver pass recipient, they don’t have free accommodations, transport, and also the recognition from the town or the village. They were just the common people that wanted to become civil servants and serve their country. Darla feels the privilege, as she wasn’t the only one from Marlbooro town that came to take the civil service exam this year. The jealousy that came from their eyes still burned in her mind.

David has been quiet for some moments. Darla thought he was just being considerate. When the clock chimes on seven at night, Darla called for Anne to have dinner together. Step outside from her room. Anne was ready to face the bullies and have an enjoyable dinner.

Meanwhile, at the Alchemia Tower, Amaris was in a hurry to go back to her apartment. Another high-rank alchemist tried to call her, to which she replied with a simple excuse that she couldn’t be disturbed right now. Amaris opens her door and goes to the lab.

Another test, with a new spell and strand of her, came for a certain girl with purple hair. She was in her element, brewing the potion, cutting and getting the right size to fit the requirements, and adding more speckles of dust into the green fire. Hours have gone by until Amaris felt she was being watched. She chuckled and just shook her head, ignoring the intruder.

“So, what is actually your plan? Just standing there and observing me?” Said Amaris with her body turning around to see the intruder at last, “Your majesty the crown prince.”

A bit taken aback, Justice gave his best shot at smiling charmingly at Amaris. “Miss Amaris, uhm chief Amaris, it is so lovely to see...”

“Cut the chase!” Amaris cut his words, and not letting him finish his sentence, “So, what do you need from me? I am busy.”

Glancing at the brewing jar, he can visibly see a strand of purple hair inside the rainbow color potion. “It seems so. What exactly you’re going to do with Anne’s hair?” He asked directly the obvious question that has been bothering him from the moment he saw the alchemist carriage at the Z street.

The reason Justice goes in a hurry was to intercept Amaris. Somehow, he thought she was going to be inside the alchemist’s central office on the capital; he was wrong. Justice doesn’t know that she was going to conduct an experiment using Anne’s strand of hair. When he was waiting outside the Alchemist central office, Amaris has already gone back to the alchemia tower.

“Your majesty, I was thinking, that wasn’t your first question in the first place, right?” Amaris took a deep breath and escorted the crown prince to her living room. “Let us have a civil conversation in my living room. I need to brew the potion for another hour, anyway.”

They walked together to the living room and get cozy on the sofa. She offered him Caftea and cookies. He awkwardly stared at the drink and took a peek at her.

“My crown prince, I’m the chief alchemist, not going to poison you here,” Amaris said to Justice with a mysterious grin on her face. Justice took one of the cookies and carefully bite the cookie. It was amusing to see the crown prince that seems to be afraid of her, and Amaris took that to her advantage. “So, you saw me looking at your dearly beloved from my carriage at the Z street, am I right?”

“My beloved, well, she was hardly...”

“One confirmation about the bewitched spell and everything was changing for you? Dear your majesty, you just don’t know anything, do you?” A burst of laughter came to her. Amaris shook her head in disbelief. “Oh, all of you know nothing about the bewitched spell, nothing at all.”

The crown prince’s face went pale. Another shocking discovery came to light, or was it just another tease by the chief alchemist? Justice needs to seek her answer. “What? what exactly transpired on that spell? And please, answer my question, why the sudden interest in Anne?”

Amaris stands up and goes to her window. She opens the lattice, lets the afternoon wind come into the room. The moon will soon appear and the sun will shy away from the sky. She felt sympathy for them, including Anne. Amaris decided to help them.

“The bewitched spell is one of the strongest and high-level spells, dear, and of course, with some rules attached to it.”

“Rules? What rules? Please, just give me the answer.” Begging Justice, he was desperate, and with Vale and Henry going for a while. There’s only him and Xavier now.

“The Arcana Tome, that’s your answer.” Said Amaris to the red hair crown prince.