Chapter 17

The healers were wonderful at their jobs, but even they shook their heads in dismay at Juni's injuries. It wasn't that they were not fixable, a few broken bones was nothing compared to the powers of a healer, but her injuries would not stay fixed. After a short pause, it would become apparent that Juni's scrapes, snapped collarbone, half-crushed ribs, and twisted ankle had come right back, even after they had been completely fixed just a moment before.

Arek paced the outside of the room restlessly. Zeik had come with him this time, and was sitting against the wall, not sure what to do. He did feel a little resentful towards the person inside, after all.

"She's still in there, huh?" Zeik gestured towards the so-called "operating room," which was basically just where healers worked their more potent magic without being seen. "Still being like that after having those healers work on her nonstop for two days... Has that happened before?"

Arek reminded himself that Zeik was brand new to the Capital, and pushed his frustration down. "No, even the worst injuries made it out of there perfectly fixed within the hour. I have never heard of anybody being kept in there for longer than a day. Those healers could even dispel curses and wounds dealt directly to the soul."

"Shit..." Zeik looked towards the doors again.

Arek paced a little faster, then stopped and faced a wall for a few seconds, then repeated.

"That aside, you okay?" Arek stopped his pacing to ask Zeik. "They fixed all your problems, right?"

"I didn't have many to begin with." Zeik shrugged. "There was a hole in my foot, but I passed out afterwards and it didn't seem like anything else hit me."

Arek thought for a moment come up with something flattering, but... "Isn't that..."

"It's kinda pathetic. I know." Zeik sighed.

"I understand though, seeing that stuff for the first time is probably pretty-"

"No, seriously, I know it's sad. Don't even try." Zeik said. "Is she really that strong?"

"I'm not exactly sure." Arek said. "I have a rough feeling that she's supposed to be someone of importance, but apparently she had to mess with my memories a bit to cover something up. Nothing I can really trust in my memories related to her, I guess."

Arek let out a sigh and slid down the wall he was leaning on until he was fully sitting on the ground. Zeik couldn't help but cringe at the dirt from the floor getting all over Arek's white uniform pants.

"That's rough, man."

Arek nodded. The two sat there in silence for a moment.

"Then who could have been strong enough to do such a thing to her?" Zeik decided to ask the question they were both evading.

Arek suddenly became very interested in the small cracks on the floor tiles he sat on.

"You probably don't have an answer, sorry for putting you on the spot." Zeik apologized. "But it's a scary thought."

Arek let out a "hm." And went back to sitting silently.

The silence quickly got to Zeik, who wasn't exactly a social guy in the past, but staying quiet only worked to a point, and then it got awkward. He reached into his bag and pulled out a crude, small notebook that he had made himself, since there was a lack of note-taking materials on sale, unsurprisingly for the time period they were supposedly in. He offered it to Arek.

"What's this?" Arek was visibly confused. He'd seen books before, but never something that'd easily fit in the palm on his hand. Most books were leather-bound, expensive, and extremely heavy.

"I call it a 'notebook.'" Zeik couldn't help but feel a bit proud, even though it wasn't his own creation. "You've been missing class for the past two days to stick by here, haven't you? You'll need something to help you get back into the swing of things. This is that."

"Wouldn't this be worth a lot if you decided to sell it?" Arek said, suspicious.

"Like hell people are going to buy them." Zeik laughed. "I had a friend who is super involved with the business field, and from him, I've learned that no matter how innovative something is, if it's nothing that can't be done by conventional means, nobody has a reason to want to buy it. People can make these things easily, and even if they do pay me for the convenience of not having to make one, I'm not going to make much more than enough to cover the material costs."

"Makes sense." Arek pretended to understand what Zeik had just said. "But this must have costed at least something for you to make, right? You sure you want to give it away like that?"

"It costed a few pieces of paper and a bit of string. Basically free to make one for your own use." Zeik waved the question off. "Don't sweat it. You'll need it, probably. It's way better than just keeping the notes in your brain. Seriously. I hear horror stories about how stingy they are with their paper around these parts."

Arek chuckled. "The stuff does cost alot. Only high-ranking nobles like her could afford to write all her notes down. How did you even get your hands on this paper?"

"It's a long process, but basically I shaved some wood off a tree and went from there." Zeik said. "I got pretty bored sitting in an inn room alone, you know?"

Arek gave Zeik a strange look. Did this guy just say that he MADE his own paper? Couldn't he make a fortune off of that, alone?

"No, I'd rather not make an entire industry my enemy." Zeik said, as if reading Arek's mind. "If I released this method of making paper, or even started selling the stuff on my own, I'd singlehandedly bring down the entire market price, and the people who hold a monopoly on that knowledge would come find me. I was surprised that nobody knew how to make paper, actually. I thought it'd be common knowledge by now."

"You sure know a lot about this stuff."

Zeik shrugged. "Eh. I had a friend who's obsessed with it. He would have been one of the richest teenagers in the world if he didn't already have enough money to not need to bother."

"You speak pretty highly of this friend of yours." Arek pointed out. "Where is he now?"

"To be honest, I don't know." Zeik's voice was slightly tinged with sadness. "I kind of got yanked out of my normal, everyday life, and that's how I ended up here. Sorry, but I can't really tell you the details."

Zeik wanted to tell Arek about everything. How he came from a world hundreds of years more advanced, and how he'd found himself in this strange world in a strange body, he felt as if it would bring trouble, almost like he'd experienced it before. He wanted to tell Arek so bad, but the words would not come out of his mouth, which refused to open for such a purpose.

"If you ended up here, you probably went through something. I won't bug you too much about it." Arek said, serious. "I was born in the Capital. Never left, never had a chance to."

Zeik's eyes snapped upwards from their focus on the floor to look at Arek. His whole life, he'd been surrounded by these massive walls and countless buildings? It would have been like looking up at the sky from the bottom of a well. Doesn't he feel trapped?

Zeik opened his mouth to ask this, but then realized how rude it was, and held off.

"The Capital isn't all that grand of a place those on the outside make it out to be." Arek said. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

Arek went silent again, and Zeik took a deep breath. It was true that those on the outside spoke extremely highly of the Capital, but...

Wait, how did he know that? It wasn't like he'd spoken to many people ever since he'd started his journey.

"That's why she means so much to me." Arek continued, cutting off Zeik's line of thought. "Juni's at the top. She's been places nobody else has, and she'll go places nobody else will. If I follow her, don't you think I'll be able to go those places, too?"

Zeik couldn't help but smile a bit. So that was why he'd been sacrificing his school life just to wait here for the past two days. Arek did feel trapped, and that blue-haired girl was his only way out. No wonder he was completely obsessed with her.

Well, even if he couldn't go to those places, he could dream, couldn't he?

After a pause, Arek let out a bit of a sad laugh. "It hurts me, having to rely on that belief. I'd just met her not too long ago, and I'm already speaking like I'd have her for life." Arek said. "Ah, sorry. I'm going on a rant.

"I'm sure you'll get there, even without her." Zeik said encouragingly. "I mean, you've gotten into the hardest school around these parts already, you must have had a reason for doing that, right?"

Arek shook his head. "I got in by chance. That's all. There's no way a commoner kid like me will get anywhere in that Noble-centered school. I'll be lucky to graduate."

"That's not a good thing to tell yourself." Zeik said. "If the school's so Noble-centered, then it's even more impressive that you managed to get in. You're overlooking your own ability, because those around you told you that you have none. Trust me on this one, I've been there."

"You sure are assuming a lot, for someone I just barely met a couple days ago."

"Am I wrong, though?"

At this, Arek just laughed. After a short silence, he stood up and said, "Maybe you're right."

Arek dusted his pants off and placed the notebook in the pockets of his slightly dirty white uniform jacket. It was only then, looking up at Arek from a sitting position, did Zeik realize how much taller and more well-built Arek was compared to himself. While Zeik had a scrawny body that probably only reached 5'2". Arek stood at least a full three inches higher, and while he wasn't overly buff in any way, it was clear that his arms weren't just skin and bone, even with his jacket on. Zeik silently cursed whoever the previous owner of his body was for not taking proper care of it.

"You going somewhere?" Zeik, stood up too, hoping to close some of the distance between his height and Arek's.

"I'm going to go back to classes. You're right. I've been missing a bit too much." Arek said. "You don't go to school around these parts, do you?"

"Nope."

"Ever considered joining the Academy? If I could get in, I bet someone like you could just as well."

"I'll think on it." Zeik said as Arek left the building.

Zeik turned to look at the doors through which Juni had been carried a full two days ago. She had attacked him the moment she saw him, and he held plenty of contempt for her because of that sole reason, but she meant everything to Arek. Zeik wasn't the type to call someone he'd just met a couple days ago his friend, but Arek sure fit that description. Zeik decided to judge Juni fairly, without any of his bias as someone who'd been attacked by her, when she woke back up.

"the Academy, huh?" Zeik sat back down against the wall. "I'm going to need more notebooks."