To ask directions

An old and raspy voice resounded throughout the class, "The main ingredient of a potion is important as it defines what kind of potion you want to concoct. For example, the venom of a [Black Spider] can be used as a main ingredient and consequently cause to concoct a poisonous potion, but the supplementary ingredients are also important as instead they lead to what kind of additional effects can be given, or increase or decrease the quality of the potion. Then..."

However, such explanations were lost to the corner of Vailyn's mind. The already incomprehensible babbles of the old man became even more incomprehensible. Vailyn wanted to listen since it would be better to not anger the old professor, but her thoughts would drift towards the conversation she had with Cordelia.

There were three important pieces of information that Cordelia revealed to her. The first one regarded her senior, who is pretty much protective towards her, from the information Vailyn gathered. Her senior is very friendly and amiable towards everyone, but would be hostile towards those who wish to harm her friends or close ones. It may be one-sided, but Alicia might consider Vailyn as her friend, hence such protective behavior when around her. And such protective behavior might have caused her to declare a prosperous statement. If that was the case, then many dangerous eyes would focus on her to the point that unnecessary events might spiral around her. It was better for Vailyn to confront immediately her senior, even if such thing might not resolve nothing at all.

The other ones were about Cordelia herself. Cordelia's existence could be said to be as important as that of Alicia, if not more. It would have been better if Cordelia was lying, but such thing wouldn't really make sense for Cordelia Snow to do such thing when she is known to be a cold and serious kind of person. And from her words it seems that she'll be around as much as her senior meaning that the definition of normalcy will vanish. Then, there was the fact that Cordelia was able to cast a complex spell without too much difficulty and without showing any sign of her mana depleting. Cordelia was already a capable and powerful mage, a mage that might be able to fight head-on a fourth year student.

"Ms. Yelin! Could you please repeat what were talking about?" It was when the old professor called Vailyn that she woke up from her thoughts.

"..." Vailyn just remained silent and shook her head.

"Are you perhaps mute, Ms. Yelin? Should I concoct you a potion to make you talk?" The old professor decided to pursue it further.

"I wasn't listening professor. I apologize, It is my fault."

"Good, " He smugly nodded. "It is good that young'uns are honests and humble like in my time, but next time be more careful." Vailyn couldn't believe it. It was unusual for the old professor to not scold and embarrass a distracted student in front of everyone. The old professor is known to harass and shame students that are poor and from humble origins. Vailyn connected this event to her senior. It made Vailyn's blood run cold, as the old professor would find any single little mistake she would make and criticize her harshly. It was a sudden turn of attitude towards her. It was a change that might also have occurred to several of her classmates and other professors.

Vailyn immediately left the class the moment the lesson finished. Cordelia watched in the corner of her eyes the figure of Vailyn. There was curiosity and amusement within those gelid eyes.

...

It was after several minutes that Vailyn stopped in her tracks, "I...I don't know where she lives..." Of the many informations Vailyn had gathered about her senior, she didn't even think of searching in what residence her senior lived within the academy. Vailyn wanted to hit herself, but no one can truly blame her since Alicia was the one that would always visit her.

"Hmm? Is that...?" Vailyn could hear a faint voice from the distance.

"I didn't!"

"Come on! You promised me!"

"I don't know anyone there!"

"There is me!"

Vailyn pinpointed the direction of the two distinct voices. One of them came from Morgana, and the other from what Vailyn presumed to be a friend of Morgana. Even from the distance one could sense from Morgana's voice that she was uncomfortable, but this friend of hers seemed to not notice, or he did notice it, but nonetheless pushed.

"I mean, it is quite far from the academy...Why would you even want to start a party so far?"

"We couldn't help it, last time we caused such a ruckus that they warned us to not doing it again, at least not near the academy. So, let's go? They are already waiting for us at the gate."

It wasn't Vailyn's business to really meddle with Morgana or her friend, but to Vailyn finding Alicia was that of a bigger concern than interrupting a conversation between two people.

It was when the conversation between the two continued that Vailyn could feel that something was wrong, as Vailyn could hear more clearly this person's voice and tone. That feeling intensified when Vailyn could clearly see this one's face and the little movements that his body made.

Morgana couldn't see it as she was pondering and watching somewhere else, but Vailyn could see how this student was oddly anxious and nervous. For whatever the reason for this person acting like this, Vailyn didn't really care as she really needed Morgana.

"Ugh, Then I think I can-"

"Ms. Blaire?"

"Eh? Who are you?" The male's eyes widened at the sudden interruption.

"Vailyn?"

"Yes, Ms. Blaire. It is me, Vailyn."

"What are doing by interrupting us!?" Before Morgana could speak, the male spoke first with impatience and frustration.

Such a sudden outburst caused two pairs of eyes to focus towards the male. One of the pair that were filled with doubt came from his friend, and the other pair that were instead calm and composed came from the intruder.

"...I apologize. I didn't know what came to me." He deeply breathed.

Vailyn corteously bowed to the two before saying, " It was rude of me, and it might be abrupt but my senior asked for Ms. Blaire's help."

"Senior? Who is your senior that can demand my junior's presence. Let me guess, someone who just want to invite her for a cup of tea. Yeah, just say this to your senior that they need to directly talk to my junior if they want to talk with her." The senior sneered.

"Alicia? What does she need my help for?" Morgana genuinely panicked as her friend rarely needed help.

Vailyn shook her head, "I cannot possibly say this in the open."

"Fine, fine, let's go!" Morgana grabbed Vailyn's wrist and hurriedly walked away as she ignored her senior.

Vailyn looked back as she was being dragged by Morgana, and she could see an infuriated expression directed towards her.

...

"Ms.Blaire, please slow down." Vailyn politely said.

The ginger-haired girl dragged the pale blue-haired one.

"Didn't I tell you to call me Morgana?"

"That would just make it more difficult when in public."

"Then call me Morgana when there's only Alicia and me around."

"Senior might demand to call her by her name too, and I would really like to avoid doing that."

"Fine! You can call me Morgana when the two us are alone, happy?" Annoyed by the overly reserved, Morgana accepted Vailyn's request with exasperation.

"Yes, I really appreciate that, Ms.Blaire."

"Didn't I just tell you to call me Morgana?"

"We are currently in public, Ms.Blaire."

"I swear if you are doing this in purpose..." Morgana wanted to lash at this junior of her friend but held it as there was something more important to do, but it made Morgana happy inside as Alicia asked her for help.

Such thoughts, however, were going to be shattered by Vailyn herself.

"Anyways, we have to hurry up! Alicia needs my help!" Morgana shouted with joy.

"Ms. Blaire, it seems that you are more happy than worried."

"I am! I am still worried but my happiness is slightly slightly a bit higher."

Vailyn could see that cooling down this raging flame might not be a good idea, but she needed to do it.

Vailyn closed her eyes before opening them and then spoke, "It was a lie." Those four words stopped Morgana in her tracks, and consequently Vailyn could finally breathe more air.

"...What?" Morgana turned towards Vailyn with wide eyes.

"It was a lie." Vailyn said those words slowly and more pronounced, it gave time to properly register inside Morgana's brain before it exploded.

"What?!"

"It was a-"

"Yes!" Morgana rolled her eyes with discontent. "I know! You repeated it three times! I...I just...why?"

Vailyn averted her eyes from those of Morgana as a blush could noticeably be seen, "I don't know where she lives..." Vailyn muttered.

"Huh? Who?" Morgana was thrown into confusion by this.

"I need to talk to my senior, but I don't know where she lives." Embarrassed, Vailyn muttered.

"Pff..." It took several seconds for Morgana to process this, and after that she couldn't hold her laughter and loudly laughed. The attention from several students was drawn to the laughter, and Vailyn lowered her head just so that they might not notice her.

"...Please, Ms. Blaire, this is unbecoming for you to laugh like this, stop this instant." Vailyn whispered.

"Hahahah! I don't care about that rubbish! Kuh! Hahah! T-this is hilarious!" Morgana continued to laugh as if she was being tickled, so Vailyn took the initiative to instead drag her somewhere less crowded, and Morgana let her do that.

Even when Vailyn found a suitable place for conversation and took a seat, Morgana was still laughing, and it took several minutes for her to properly return to her usual self, albeit there was now a grin on her face as she faced Vailyn.

Vailyn felt that dealing with Morgana might be even more exhausting than dealing with Alicia.

...

"I understand your worries," Morgana nodded as she heard Vailyn's explanation. "I understand that you are worried that being under Alicia's protection you'll be in a greater danger, but that is not a 'what if' situation but a fact. You are already in a greater danger than before. Allies and enemies of the Skadi family that lurk in the shadows are already checking your backround, maybe they already did. You cannot escape from this without any kind of consequence."

"..."

"You seem to be awfully calm about it." Morgana frowned as the girl in front of her seemed to be quite calm, too calm for a person that their entire family might be used as hostage.

"They are not here anymore, they left these lands long ago."

"O-oh, I-I'm sorry, I really am!" Morgana panicked.

"No, it is fine, Ms.Blaire."

Morgana sighed heavily, she now found this weird girl to be quite pitiful. Now she understood a bit why Alicia was so protective of her, just a tiny bit, that is.

"Let's return to the topic." Morgana said as she regained her composure, "Even if you are not the brightest you should already know that even if you managed to convince Alicia to drop off her stance, the rest of the people won't be really be convinced even if those words were to came from her mother, and instead this would just get more troublesome."

"In the first place, why did everyone assume that senior would protect me just by that action of yesterday? This is a bit...too much." Vailyn finally learnt what happened yesterday from Morgana.

"Can't you blame them?" Morgana said sharply, "Alicia would rather spend her weekend with someone with no status and a not so bright student instead of spending it with students with a higher status and potential, to the point of even refusing events hosted by the parents of these particular students." Morgana sighed once again, "The majority of mages in this academy come from a lineage of mages, and consequently there's a set of formalities and decorum." Morgana started to explain. "Think of us as the elites of mages. We behave in a certain way in certain places, we subtly comunicate our intentions through certain gestures and actions. The fact that for over a year Alicia has been visiting you every weekend is an example, it is like indirectly saying to everyone that you are under her wing but such thing was not considered something official as Alicia used the excuse of a senior helping her junior in her studies, but then yesterday under the eyes of everyone, with her gesture of following you, she pretty much announced officially that you are her protectee." Morgana exasperatedly explained in detail.

Before Vailyn could speak, Morgana continued. "It didn't matter the intentions behind it, whether it was because she was worried or not, Alicia knows this kind of decorum and so everyone now think of you as her protectee."

"This is so meaninglessly complicated." Vailyn protested.

"This is just how it works for us."

"Is it rare that someone takes another as their protectee?" Vailyn curiously asked.

"Oh, it is not rare that someone uses their influence of their family to protect their friends, but it is rare that someone does so without anything in return. You know, elites of mages and all that."

Vailyn stood up, " Thanks for the informations and time, Ms. Blaire."

Morgana gave out an 'Oh' before exclaiming, "Hey, thanks for helping me out there."

"Eh? You knew that something was wrong?"

"Are you understimating me? You thought I was dumb?" To that question, Vailyn didn't respond, but Morgana took that as a yes. Morgana was offended as she snorted, "Go! And you better talk thoroughly with Alicia."

As Morgana waved at the distant figure of Vailyn, she muttered, "To think that my senior would fall that much." Morgana sighed again, "You were lucky that Vailyn arrived, otherwise you may have found what are the consequences of attempting on doing something foolish."

...

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