Start of Spring

Annette stepped in front of Mira, a dramaticly pained look on her face. "Ai...Mira, how could you forget me so easily? And I even took you out to see the lobby today~"

Ack! Mira, you idiot! Mira face palmed herself internally, and had a frantic look on her face as her 'coaxed' her friend. "I.. I'm sorry! Really!"

Mira continued to ramble for a bit, trying to explain how she was captivated by the sweets, and met some nice people. Annette, seeing her in this flustered state, almost couldn't help pinching her cheeks.

"O-oh! There's Brietta, If you want, we can share the cake together." Mira moved some of her hair behind her ear, nervously trying to switch the topic.

"Haha, alright. Sorry for teasing you" Annette finally let out some built-up laughter after seeing Mira so flustered.

"You.. you were teasing me?" Mira's face went back to her normal calm expression, her lips pursed slightly. She let out a small sigh. 'Arg, that was teasing? S-so embarrassing

Brietta came back soon after she said that, giving Mira the small box with the cake slice inside. Telling Mira to come back again soon with a bright smile. Mira and Annette spent the next few hours eating cake, taking a look at some of the potion stalls, and getting a map from the reception desk.

Then when the light outside started to dim, Annette took the reluctant Mira back to Ignis's room. Ignis then assigned Annette some spells and potions to practice, and gave her a list of missions that suited her level, then kicked her out, despite Annette's complaints.

Ignis sighed when Annette left, brewed tea for herself and Mira.

"I hope you had a good time out there today. I know it can be boring stuck in here sometimes, I promise I'll have free time to spend with you and Annette by the time of the spring festival." Ignis sad smile, but her determined eyes made Mira grateful inside.

Ignis then left the living room to go to her library and finish work.

Mira sat down near the dining table, sipping tea and looking out the window to her left. It was darker outside and she could see the small meadow and forest surrounding the Tower.

The Tower wasn't actually too close to the town of Vassilis, but wasn't very far either. The Tower was about a 30-minute walk away from the town, only separated by the Alya Forest, and the Dragons' meadow surrounding the Tower of Magic. The pathway leading to The Tower was relatively safe, too. Unless you were dumb enough to carry perfume that specifically attracted beasts or other monsters.

Looking out at the Alya Forest, Mira remembered a story she heard Ignis tell her about once when she asked.

Ignis was sitting down on the dining table, sipping tea she had made, and pouring some for Mira. It was a calm day, and Ignis had noticed Mira looking out at the forest.

"Mira, there is a true story about the Alya forest, would you like to hear?" Ignis asked, smiling at her.

Mira had nodded her head in interest, sipping her tea like Ignis.

"It's a nice story, about an Elf named Alya and a human she fell in love with...

Now, usually, Elves in that time lived in the Kingdom of Linden, where their Mother Tree was rooted, in the Magnolia Forest, one of the biggest, most lively, and mana-filled forests on the continent.

But, Alya, was banished from the Magnolia forest, for helping a group of humans who were starving and riddled with sickness from an epidemic going around. The sickness they had was something that didn't affect elves much, due to their connection with nature, and moreover, they had a semi-cure for it already. While the cure couldn't get rid of it completely, it would weaken the sickness so that it wasn't that harmful.

Alya helped the group of humans but ended up spreading the sickness onto some of the other elves living there. Most elf tribes as old as the ones living at the Mother Tree view themselves as perfect, so getting sick was a hit to their pride.

And once they found Alya guilty of bringing the sickness to them, they shunned her for getting mixed up with humans and spreading imperfectness.

So Alya traveled far away to the Kingdom of Zinnia and found peace in the Alya Forest. She made a living by helping out the Vassilis people by selling herbs and forest fruits, and each year would use her powers to strengthen the farmers' crops.

In the end, she fell in love with a traveling doctor named Toren. In her diary, he was described to have chestnut brown hair and stunning peach pink eyes. They fell in love and made a name for themselves setting up a pharmacy company, and their descendants live deep in the Alya forest today.

Every spring we have a festival around the time they got married, mages go to the outer side of the town to imbue mana into the crops, too." Ignis finished.

Mira snapped back to reality, remembering the Elf girl she had met today. Her name was Danny, right? She might have been from the House of Toren, then.

Mira took her used wooden cup and went to the kitchen smiling. Maybe I'll see them the next time I go out at the Welcoming of Spring, Festival. She stopped for a moment, Should we be friends now? Or just acquaintances? Mira let out a sigh, pondering if it would be to embarrassing to ask Annette the next time she saw her.