Chapter 11

"Hey, did you hear? That commoner came to school with the Vincent girl."

"Vincent? Wasn't she a branch-off?"

"It's the same thing! She's got blue hair!"

Arek sighed, head down on the table. Juni had chosen to sit next to him in the fifth and furthest row of the lecture hall, a row usually restricted to only Arek, because nobody else wanted to look at him. The nobles even went as far as squeezing themselves into the front three rows just to be as far away from him as possible. Naturally, this attracted glares and threatening gestures from the other students, all directed at Arek, of course.

Arek glanced at Juni's blue hair, and pulled at his own black strands. "Hair color, hah..."

It was said that at some point in history, a family with black hair and dark, red eyes ruled the land. However, all that Arek heard about them was just children's tales and fantasy. At some point he had thought that his appearance, which contains the black hair and red eyes, made him special or "chosen," but that was a long time ago. There were six noble families, not including the Emperor's line, and they could be told apart from hair and eye color alone. Not a single one of them had colors anywhere near as dark as black. Even among the commoners, Arek's hair was a running joke.

"Hey, hey." Juni poked at Arek. "We were late, right?"

Arek borderline growled. "Thanks to you, yeah."

"So why isn't the teacher here yet?"

Arek's eyes snapped to the front of the room, where the podium, devoid of any teacher, stood. The other students sat around, chatting happily.

"Nature's callings caught her at a bad time?" Arek said, and put his head on the desk. "Good for us, I guess."

He couldn't help but glance over at Juni again, denying that the action has anything to do with her irresistable looks at all over and over in his head as he did so. Her hair ran like a waterfall in the sense that it was loud, but still something one could stare at for hours on end. Her eyes had wandered off somewhere, giving her that faraway look that made Arek want to capture this moment somehow and hang it up...

Arek blinked himself out of his delusions, and buried his face back in his arms in the hopes of catching a couple more minutes of sleep.

The door to the classroom opened, and a pair of footsteps so light it couldn't possibly be their obese, snotty noble teacher echoed from the front of the room, as if the floor was hollow. The entire class jumped back into their seats as one of the Headmaster's assistants walked into the room, his head held high as if to look down on everyone else, and his uniform absolutely flawless, without even a single crease or even a wrinkle.

"Down to the courtyard, all of you." He spoke using as little effort and words as possible while still projecting his voice and sounding superior. "There's an announcement."

Arek could feel a mental groan from the all of the students in the room as they stood up and walked towards the door with the most expressionless face they could manage, some mimicking the assistant's posture, even. He, however, stayed sitting with his face pressed against the desk, and Juni sat right next to him, unmoving.

The echoey footsteps of the Headmaster's assistant came up the rows of desks, and stopped right in front of Arek and Juni. Arek braced himself for a strike to the head.

"You two, come with me." The assistant's superior tone hadn't changed, but when Arek looked up, he was looking them in the eye, the expression on his face from before completely gone and replaced with a somehow even more serious, no-nonsense one.

Juni's lips curled slightly upwards at the edges, just barely enough for Arek to notice.

"What are you waiting for? get over here." The assistant had already made it to the door before Arek even had the chance to stand up.

"Wha-"

"You heard him, let's move!" Juni grabbed his arm and dragged him into the aisle and down to the door.

Thoughts poured into Arek's mind. Was he going to be punished for not listening? Given detention? Suspended? Even expelled? the panic became more and more apparent on his face as he considered all these possibilities, and he didn't even notice that Juni had let go of his arm, and that they had stopped walking.

"Arek." Juni elbowed him in the ribs as hard as she could. "It's not your bedtime yet."

Arek jolted back to reality, resisting the urge to curl over from the jab to his ribs. He was standing in a room of other students, ones that he recognized from seeing at least once walking around school, but didn't know the names of. The lighting was dim, a sharp contrast from the perfectly-lit, pupil-burning rest of the school.

"...ven, twelve, thirteen..." Someone behind Arek was counting. "There seems to have been a mistake. Why are there thirteen of you?"

Everyone in the room immediately started counting under their breaths. Juni sat quietly, a mysterious smile on her face.

"There are!" A red-haired boy across the room exclaimed. "Who here didn't get the memo?"

"The... Huh?" Arek took a step back as all eyes shot to him. "Am I intruding on something?"

The assistant from earlier stepped forward and grabbed Arek by the wrist. "I'm sorry. It appears that I made a mistake.

He moved to drag Arek away, but Juni suddenly caught Arek's other arm.

"Miss Aures?" The assistant exclaimed. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What's the harm in it?" Juni said.

Arek wasn't even keeping track of the conversation anymore. This was definitely not a normal day, and he definitely did not want to be here.

"Well, everyone take their seats!" Juni stood up and took control. "Looks like you'll be gaining two members today."

"Who the hell said you could be in charge?" The red-haired boy stood up. "I'm the leader here!"

"Quiet down, Farnes." One of the girls on that side of the table spoke up. "You're causing a fuss."

The boy-Farnes-ignored her. "You can't just stroll in here with some commoner, and expect to join! Who even are you?"

"I'm Juni Aures." Juni responded literally at first, and paused for dramatic effect. "The 'Second Pillar' Candidate."

"Huh?" Was the response from the entire room. Many of them looked like they weren't sure whether to laugh or look surprised.

Arek, however, was the only one who was genuinely confused.

"A Candidate? Here?" Farnes laughed. "Don't try to play me like that! We answer directly to the Imperial Right Hand, a joke like that's going to get you nowhere!"

"You answer directly to them, huh?" Juni pulled something out of her purse. "Then it just so happens that you're my subordinates.

In Juni's hand was... the Badge of the Right Hand, stamped with the Emperor's seal. Something that someone at her age had nearly no chance of obtaining. "Because I answer directly to the Emperor."

Farnes opened his mouth, closed it, and fell backwards into his chair, deflated.

Arek's head felt fuzzy from all the shocks he had just experienced in a single day. He managed to gather his thoughts, stand up, and

"I- I need to use the restroom!" He screamed as he dashed out of the room and into the hallway. Whatever was going on there, he wanted no part of it. He ran through the unfamiliar halls, hoping to find a door, a window, anything to let him out of wherever he was.

After taking so many twists and turns that he felt dizzy, Arek found a set of double-doors that he immediately opened and dove through, expecting the sun to hit his face and everything that had just happened to just vanish from his mind...

Instead, he found himself in the same room, sitting in the same seat, with Juni's fingers wrapped around his wrist.

"Oops, didn't mean to scare you off." She smiled. It was the same bright, energetic smile from before, but to Arek's eyes, it was terrifying.

"I'm sorry, but you have to stay now that I've let you in on my secret." Juni whispered in his ear.

With a giggle, Juni turned back to the table. "And now we've got that all figured out..."

"Let's get this meeting underway, shall we?"