As expected, Ronin got the highest in the Scholastic Exams on all subjects.
What was not expected, however, was the outcome of the fight between several Scholar students.
They continued to fight among themselves even when the guards have brought them to the Head Councillor’s office. Eventually, they needed to be sedated and had to intervene with locking them all in separate rooms, for they still continue to attack each other the moment they caught sight of one another.
And yet, they actually do not want to fight.
Their bodies move on their own.
They were continously yelling:
“Make it stop! Ronin! Call Ronin and tell him to make it stop!”
At night, a certain guard managed them and made sure that they would not stand up to go to the others’ rooms.
And by morning, they were well again.
Councillor Verita asked one of them, the one who started the fight, what happened. But all he can say is:
“I don’t remember….”
The Head Councillor frowned. “You don’t remember you were yelling for Ronin?”
“Oh…. That. Well, I asked him to answer my paper for me, but he declined….. or something similar….. Anyway, I got mad. And….”
He was racking his brain because there were gaps in his memory, but he can’t retrieve them at all..
“That’s all I can remember. Why am I in the infirmary, Councillor?”
Lady Verita’s mouth was already in a thin line from all of this, but her frown went even deeper.
“You really don’t remember fighting with your friends and using your Mage Focuses on each other?”
“I don’t.”
She rubbed her chin, and eventually nodded. “I see.”
She walked out and was about to go to a certain dormitory room….
But remembered what a certain girl told her.
“Do not approach him. You might provoke him.”
And so, the old woman can only shake her head.
“I hope you will take care of this before things become too late, Naemhnaid.”
Yet she could not stay still and do nothing either, and so she had been monitoring all of Ronin’s activities and reports of his behavior from his teachers closely.
And yet the year passed, and nothing else happened regarding Ronin Willowe.
However, something did happen to one of the professors, Mephisto Espinella.
“Another one gone….” Councillor Verita paced in her office alone.
She was drinking tea to soothe her nerves, but it was not effective at all and only added to her impatience every time she had to pour herself another cup.
“Both of them related to him. It cannot have been a coincidence. If I could use my Truth Seeker on him, maybe we will find where those two went….. and if he truly had anything to do with all these incidents and the disappearances…..”
She sighed.
“But that would also provoke him. If he truly was what Rabuka Biturea feared him to be….”
“We must tread carefully.” She said, as she envisioned the face if this Commoner.
They have yet to encounter each other in person, and so far, all his professors only have a good impression of him. They do not like him particularly, but they have come to appreciate his genius and even hoped more students will become like him.
As for his relationship with Espinella….
They have been very close, and she knew that they travel together almost every Week’s End to conduct more experiments regarding the resurrection machine.
Espinella sends reports of this venture diligently, and showed no signs of having concerns over his research assistant.
Though a few days before his disappearance, he looked ragged as he received news that his sickly daughter’s condition had not only gotten worse….
But his other two daughters had also become infected with the same disease.
It was very likely that he disappeared to go take care of them, but why not report it to Verita and the Council first? They could have easily understood and allowed him to take his leave.
In fact, it would be even understandable still had he resigned permanently.
But he just disappeared one night, without a trace, much like Vyrill just a year ago.
She remembered those boys that fought to the death and suddenly lost their memories, and that sinking feeling on the pit of her stomach kept growing the more she thought about it.
“Could it be that both of them knows the truth about him—“
“Mother, I’ve come to remind you about the Astral Ball preparations!”
Her son, the fanciful Professor Nifalios who teaches the Lower Year Scholars Aristocracy, came inside her office without knocking on the door.
“Warret, have some manners. You are the Aristocracy professor after all and yet you forget your basic etiquette.”
Professor Nifalios just twirled a strand if his curly hair. “Oh, mother! It’s almost like we’re not blood-related and you haven’t carried me in your womb for 9 months.”
He added: “We’re not strangers, and so there’s no use for trivial pleasantries like knocking and greeting. And this matter I have come for is urgent! The Astral Ball would not function as it should without settling this matter!”
She sighed. “Very well, what is it?”
“Shall we order red roses that symbolize romantic love between men and women, or shall we order yellow roses for friendship and camaraderie?”
Councillor Verita just stared at her son judgingly before saying:
“Your urgent matter….. is to ask about flowers?”
“Yes! It is very important! I know that many look forward to this ball to be with their sweethearts, but some of the children just wanted to have some fun with friends too—“
“Pick both, then! And if you have nothing more to say, get out!”
She chased her son away and slammed the door, rubbing her forehead full of wrinkles.
“He’s so much like his father, caring about the frivolous things even in dire straits.” She sighed.
Speaking of friendships….
She was also aware that Ronin Willowe has been spotted together with Cermin Drychspiel many times, and had become his new friend.
“If yellow roses means friendships…..” She sipped on her tea.
“Then your yellow rose have thorns, young prince. I hope you see that soon enough before you get pricked.”
Meanwhile, Ronin had been walking in the garden himself before he leaves for vacation tomorrow.
There was another star on his vest. 4 stars, with 4 sides. Like diamonds in the sky.
He looked up, as twilight was coming soon and he had to go back inside for curfew.
The reason why he came here…..
Was because of a letter left for him.
[I have made my choice, Ronin. I thought you would become a flower that blooms fast when the day arrives, and yet it turns out you are a vine that slowly crawls at night.]
[But I do not judge nor mock you. The Headmaster’s prophecy may not have been wrong, only his interpretation.]
[The Truth that Vyrill found out draws me in, and maybe once we have found it, this hidden secret of this world itself….. I may share it with you, if that so helps you reach the path you were going for.]
[I know that you do not care. Our relationship is lower than that of a teacher and a student. It’s a relationship of two people using each other as a means to an end. ]
[But I do care enough to say these futile words:]
[We are simply parting for a moment to pursue separate paths, but shall fate allow us, we will meet again. If not, I will remember you, both as someone that I have come to dislike….]
[And someone who I have come to trust with my past burdens, and my aspirations for the future.]
[ In a way, Ronin, I have thought of you as a friend, a partner in the crimes we have commited, and did not even realize it.]
[Some part of me hoped that you thought of me the same way too, but I know that hoping is for naught.]
[ Like a deadly thorny vine, you have latched on to me that even when I dislike you very much, it still pains me to separate myself from you. It drew blood.]
[That boy you are fooling would be bleeding like this too. But….]
[ I pray that when he bleeds from your thorns, and was suffocated by your vines…. That he still manages to cut you off and survive.]
[I pray that when he frees himself from you, he does so completely, and stomp you with his foot.]
[That shall be my last parting wish for you, Ronin. My curse. —M. E.]
Ronin glanced at the letter once more….
Before tearing it to pieces, stomping it and burying it on the grounds of the garden, eventually to be used as fertilizer by these plants.
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