Chapter 20

I stood there for a moment, stunned. The emperor remained on the ground before me, awaiting my response.

"I- I don't even know what battle you're talking about." I said, playing it safe. "Can you at least explain to me what's going on? and stand up while you're at it, please?"

He didn't stand up. It was getting more and more awkward the more he just stayed there.

I took a moment to mentally sit back and admire just how absurd this scene must have looked to one of the knights standing at the other end of the room. Their great emperor, bowing down to what looks like a silver-green-haired girl who was barely in highschool. No matter how cute I was, I was honestly scared that one of them would pull out a lance and run me through right there and then.

Luckily, that didn't have to happen, as I, in my inability to think straight, said, "Look, I'll agree to help you if you'll just get up and explain what's going on."

Nice one, me. Reeeeaaaaal nice.

"So you'll help?" I didn't even see the guy stand back up, he was just suddenly there again. "This country needs more capable women like you!

"S...ure." I sighed, cringing at his use of words. "But I'll have you know I'm a dude."

"A... what?" The emperor didn't seem to recognize the word I used. Odd, considering it existed in their language.

"I'm a dude. A man, male, I classify as a boy." I said. "I know, really misleading appearance. I didn't do it on purpose."

The emperor's expression struggled to hide his disappointment. Ah, he was probably trying to add me to the harem or something along those lines.

"Well, on your way now." He said, deflated. "I will send a messenger to give you details later. You may stay here at the Academy for now, a room's already been arranged for you."

I couldn't help but burst out laughing as I exited the room. This whole situation was like something straight out of a comedy. At that point, I couldn't even be that mad at myself for agreeing to help, since the result was so hilarious.

--

Living in the Capital was certainly... Hectic, to say the least.

Zeik found that the least of his struggles was paying for his stay at an inn, since there were plenty of jobs that he, as a capable teenager, was allowed to work. His biggest issue was how unfamiliar everything else was to him. Even this long after being sent to this world, Zeik found himself reaching for his phone in his pocket to check the time, or for his earbuds whenever he was doing nothing. He had a general idea of what he could do to survive and earn money, but anything outside of that had him stumped.

Looking back, he didn't really have a plan for the future back in his own world, either.

The school that Arek went to looked interesting, but Zeik didn't even come close to meeting the requirements to enroll. He knew nothing about this world's history, sciences, or achievements. Sure he'd probably ace anything that overlapped with his past education, but that didn't make up for what didn't

Zeik found himself once again staring up at the ceiling of the inn room he had been staying in, wondering what he should have been doing. Other than working a bunch of part-time jobs to pay for his stay, it felt like he was doing nothing with all his time.

At this point, he wasn't even sure if J could have figured something out.

A loud banging at his door made Zeik jump off the sofa he'd been sprawled out on. He rushed to the door and opened it, scared that costs would fall on his head if the door flew off its hinges.

Standing there was a stunning girl with pale blue hair. Her name was... Juni, was what Arek called her?

Zeik stood there for a second, not knowing how to respond to her sudden appearance, until he realized that this was the very same person that tried killing him once before, and he went to slam the door shut again.

Juni reached a hand out and the door stopped in its tracks. "Calm down, I'm only here to talk."

Zeik couldn't trust that very well, but what choice did he have? He invited her inside reluctantly and kept the door a silver open, just in case he had to yell for help.

"Cozy place." It seemed like Juni was trying her hardest to comment on this room that was almost not worth describing as "modest". There were no decorations, and the bed was a mess since Zeik was a strong believer in not making your bed if you're just going to sleep in it again. For someone as high class as her, this probably was a different kind of difficult.

"Please, it's an inn room." Zeik sighed. "Compliment it to the owner of the place, I just live here. What did you want to talk about?"

"Not even going to offer me tea or a seat?" Juni crossed her arms. "What do they teach commoners these days?"

"Don't expect me to show hospitality to someone who literally tried to kill me last week."

The two stared at each other for a good second, long enough for Zeik to notice how the casual sweater and long skirt combination along with a loose ponytail gave off a really warm and cozy wife vibe, then wanting to slap himself because why would he think that about someone like her?

When one of them finally gave in, it was Juni, who just wanted out of there as fast as she could.

"...Your hair." She pointed at the streak of blue among the black on Zeik's head

"What about it?"

"Is it dyed?"

Zeik pulled at the blue strand so he could see it, then rubbed at it a bit. "I do wash my hair regularly, so my guess is no? This blue's staying strong."

"I meant the rest of it." Juni said, catching Zeik by surprise.

"The... What?"

"You carry a Signature very similar to someone that I know, and I want to know if the black in your hair was put there artificially.

"Not that I can remember, but I can't seem to remember much anyway." Zeik replied honestly. "But again, it's been there since I can recall and I do wash my hair regularly."

"Color placed by Alter can only be removed through Alter." Juni said this in a way that Zeik could not understand at all.

"Alter? Is that like a type of magic?"

"If you want to call it that, it IS magic." Juni clarified, irritated. "It's also what the common folk refer to its users as."

Zeik felt like there was an interesting story behind that, but that wasn't the time.

"And what, do you want to try to mess with my hair or something?" Zeik's hands flew to his hair, as if to protect it. "Sorry, but I'm not going to let anyone's sparkly magical fingers go near these locks, especially yours."

"You have an interesting way of speaking, don't you?" Juni said. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to see if that color can be removed."

"What if I just so happen to like this color?"

"Then I can bring it back afterwards."

Zeik looked at her doubtfully. There was no way she thought she could convince him that easily.

"Is there a contract or something that we can make that prevents you from going back on your word, then?" Zeik suggested, thinking back to all the magic shows that J had introduced to him.

"Sorry, but contracts are not of my Authority."

"Authority? That's like, what you can control and whatnot, right?"

"Essentially."

Zeik thought for a second, and couldn't really think of anything else.

"So what is your Authority, anyway?"

"Freezing and Ice." Juni suddenly gained a proud look, as if she was bragging. "Not many people have two Alter they hold Authority over, I'll have you know!"

"Though those two are pretty much a pair..." Zeik mumbled. "Don't not many people not even have this 'Alter' in the first place?"

"Only one out of every three thousand, two hundred and sixty-eight has a Signature, apparently."

"Why the super-specific number?"

"Don't ask me! And aren't we getting off track here?" Juni caught on to Zeik's topic-changing. "I swear on the Aures name that I will not do you harm. Is that not good enough for you?"

Her frustration and slightly flustered look at falling for the topic change was just a little cute, Zeik thought. If she was swearing on her family name, she must have been pretty serious about something that he was missing here.

"I'm sorry, but where I came from, names do nothing but distinguish people from others." Zeik said. "Mind telling me why you're so interested in my hair? I might let you do whatever it is you're trying to do if I don't hate your answer."

Juni's brow furrowed a bit more. "You sure have some nerve, demanding all that from me."

"Don't pull that card now after you've almost killed me and now you're in my inn room demanding random stuff from me."

Juni opened her mouth to say something, but didn't. She crossed her legs and sat down on the nearest piece of furniture - Zeik's messy, unmade bed, and motioned for Zeik to pull up a chair.

"Oh great..." Zeik sighed, realizing this was going to be a long one.