A mutually beneficial friendship (3)

Cyrus Fyodor's POV

It's puzzling, very puzzling. Why would Ashel tell me to collect information about some commoner girl? The only connection between the two of them is that she was staying at the Brianson's estate. Liam and Ashel were known rivals, was this some kind of convoluted scheme to mess with Liam? If I played this right I could get both Ashel and Liam to think I was helping them by half exposing their opposing schemes. This could make me a political power player. I smiled wildly as I pictured myself as a puppet master controlling everything.

My power fantasy was interrupted by the smell of smoke and screams.

A student raised their hand "what was that?" The teacher stared wide-eyed at the door "remain calm students"

The students began to panic and a few rushed out the door. The teacher tried to stop them, but everyone ignored her. What could be happening?

I exited the classroom and could see smoke coming out of the room next door. Through the windows I could see a large flame burning in the classroom, desks were on fire and students were gathered in the corner hiding behind magic shields. The teacher was casting a spell to contain the fire, but looked to be struggling.

In the middle of the burning classroom was a wide-eyed Olivia staring at the fire with a... massive smile?

My teacher and 3 other teachers pushed past the students and entered the classroom. They joined the original teacher and quickly squashed the fire with their magic.

I stared in awe at the scene, what happened?

Olivia covered her expression with her hand and her eyes darted around the room. Her eyes were misty and she looked like was about to cry, but her expression from a few seconds ago wouldn't leave my mind.

This and that strange letter from yesterday, instead of making some excuse she just wrote that she decided not to come, how odd. What is the motive behind these actions.

A loud yell rang out through the hallway "What is going on here?" The principal made his way through the crowd and examined the scene with a scowling expression.

Olivia removed her hand from her face and raised it slowly. "This is at least partially my fault."

"Partially your fault Ms.Erem?! What are you referring to?"

While the principal yelled at Olivia I examined the burned classroom. Some of the desks that were in the center of the fire were burned to ashes. How strong was the fire to cause this kind of damage? Did that first year commoner girl really cause such havoc?

But why? I thought of her expression as the flames burned around her. Was she a terrorist, on a mission to kill the nobility? Is this why Ashel asked me to investigate her?

Most importantly how could I manipulate this situation to my advantage. It is puzzling...

Ellie's POV

The principle's office was extremely lavish, yet the chairs were extremely uncomfortable. Sitting next to me was the rat-girl who asked to see my magic.

Magic is rooted in emotion with each element feeding off of different emotions, and the amount of magic power of the user. Olivia had a lot of magic, and I have a lot of emotions. One thing I don't have is any control or knowledge about how to use magic. Even so, I was not expecting to burn the class... or how enjoyable it was to burn something. I had desperately been wanting to burn something for the past year, and it just felt...right to burn something. Hehe this is a bad sign. There was one thing I was curious about though.

"Excuse me principal, but why is that boy-" I pointed at the black haired boy from yesterday who was leaning on the wall at the back of the room. "Here?"

Cyrus smiled at me and waived.

"That's irrelevant Ms. Erem, please would you explain the situation ." The principal glared at me.

"Sure, I'll explain it. Today was my first day of class, that girl next to me right now asked if I wanted to show the class my magic, I said no. She pressured the teacher and me, and because of my respect for authority I gave in."

"I...I didn't mean to cause any damage. I just don't have a lot of control over my magic-which is why I tried to refuse."

He switched his glare over to the rat girl. "Lady Rodenne, is this an accurate explanation?"

She rolled her eyes. "I suppose, I asked Ms.Erem to show her magic to class, because I was curious about her magic. I never expected her to go psycho and light everything on fire."

"I didn't mean to start a fire, It's just that I don't have good control and fire is the hardest for me to control. And I would never have tried it if I wasn't pressured into it"

The principal clasped his hands together and rested his chin on his hands. "Ms.Erem fire power magic is powered by rage, is there something making you mad?"

What is this a therapy session? "I'd be lying if I said no. If I'm being honest I've been stressed for a while."

Everyone stared at me, even lady Rodenne looked a little guilty. Hmm, so the rat-girl didn't want to bully the innocent and pure me.

I sighed loudly "I hate to disappoint you, but I came to magic school because I'm bad at it. Not because I'm some kind of genius."

Lady Rodenn's eyes widened "so you're not better at magic than me?!"

"No...I'm a danger to everyone, and this is the only magic school with teachers powerful enough to stop my magic from going out of control."

It was depressing to think about, "and that's also the reason I stayed at the Brianson's estate, because Liam is powerful enough to neutralize my magic."

Lady Rodenn gasped "you're much worse than me!" She smiled happily and patted me on the shoulder. "You should let the poor commoner off the hook sir."

Let me off the hook? Are you serious?! This is only partially my fault.

The principal shrugged "your generosity continues to impress me Lady Rodenne. I'll let you off with a warning Ms. Erem. You two are dismissed."

Eeeeeh? Should I be mad or happy? What is this girl a princess, tch politics...

Hmmm, but she didn't hate me anymore. This is great, fun fun fun all aboard the friendship train.

Lady Rodenne left the room and I was about to step out of the door when Cyrus stepped in front of me, blocking the entrance. "Sir can you leave us alone for a moment"

"Ah yes of course sir Fyodor." The principal stood up and quickly pushed past Cyrus.

What kind of place is this???? Did that teenage brat just kick the principal out of his own office?? I hate this world.

Cyrus closed the door and locked it.

Danger

This is a dangerous situation

I backed up cautiously. "What's this about..."

His smile disappeared "we're the same kind of people, there's no need to lie any longer."

Lie? I'm a lot of things, but not a liar.

"I saw your expression during that fire, you enjoy causing pain to others"

"What no, I just like fire-wait you like causing pain to others?"

He smirked "you can't fool me, you're a schemer. Yesterday you didn't want to deal with me so you used others to do it for you, today you wanted to light a fire so you did. Then you negotiated out of it and got rid of a potential enemy. You even turned them into a potential ally ."

what was this brat saying? I mean sure when you put it that way It sounded a little weird, but I mean really? Really we're having this conversation, like really?

He took a step closer "I know you're lying about your control, I saw you yesterday using wind magic,you didn't seem to have any trouble then."

I grabbed him by the collar, and pushed him against the wall "THAT WAS YOU?!"

"Hold on! It wasn't me, I just saw it happen!"

"You just admitted to me that you enjoy causing pain to others, now do you wanna confess or are we gonna have a problem?"

"I can't use wind magic, I'm incompatible with that element"

I let him down "if I find out you're lying you're toast."

Hmmmmm, what did I just do??????????? Huh, this is not good. Noooot good. I'm not supposed to threaten people! I can't go through this again.

Cyrus took a deep breath and stared at me like he was sizing up an attacking animal. "What's your connection to Ashel? Are you his spy, his rival,or are you spying on him?"

I looked at him in confusion "who's Ashel?"

He crossed his arm haughtily "mind games huh, fine I'll tell you who was messing with you."

"I'm not playing mind games, I promise. But I would like to know who thought it was funny to mess with the new girl." I started grinding my teeth.

"Julius Fitzwilliam Aurelius" He grinned. "Does that scare you off?"

I stared at him blankly "who-" he cut me off

"Can you stop toying with me? I know that you know who the crown prince is."

The crown prince?! I hate this world so much.

I stared Cyrus down "what do you want?"

He blinked and frowned " I'm not entirely sure, you won't tell me your agenda and you don't seem like your going to. But..."

Where was he going with this?

"I do know I want to work with you, it's rare to find someone similar."

Similar?! "We are not similar, you are probably the wors-wait, work together?"

He nodded "I think we can help each other."

"You mean like friends?"

"Well it will appear that way I guess"

I did it, I made a friend! He's really weird, and a sadist I think, but that's irrelevant.

I started to smile unintentionally, "by the way, I wasn't faking not being able to control the fire, it's that just I'm okay at controlling my fear. So I can actually use weak wind magic." I was quite proud about that.

He matched my smile and winked "of course,I understand"

Uuugh, this was a very odd interaction "alright I'm leaving"

Cyrus stepped in front of the door again. "Wait, you don't have any information to exchange?"

Information, what kind of information could he want? Ah I've got it!

"Umm, Liam's becoming a temporary teacher here, his first day is in a couple of days."

"What?, but why would he? That doesn't make any sense..." he stood deeply in thought for several seconds

"So, can I go now?"

He snapped out of his thoughts and quickly moved out of the way. "Ah, yes of course"

I unlocked the door and left, I turned around and Cyrus was still standing there...thinking. Hmm kind of a weirdo. No definitely a weirdo, can't believe I'm friends with him.