Memories of the Dark: "A New Found Friendship"

Peronell Keen,

I am currently having breakfast with Lianna and Cedany. Today, we are officially gonna have our first class. I am nervous, I won't deny that. We were as well wearing our uniforms given to us, the hat they gave us along with the uniform wasn't required to wear. So we didn't wear it as it was disrespectful to wear it in class anyways. In our chests there were brooches. On the left side, our names were carved in a rectangular brooch. On the right side, it was an ACA and Gold Empire brooch. The others have their own perspectives empire's brooch. It is very mysterious and creepy how they got our measurements right. I mean the uniforms fit us perfectly.

"Did you sleep well, my lady?" Tristan sat beside me and I was shooting death glares at him.

"Don't call me that! After making me run after you, you call me a lady? Does a lady run after their servants? The last time I checked, it was the other way around." I hissed angrily at Tristan who was beside me.

"Forgive me, I need to save myself from my mistakes!" Tristan explained.

"This is why you should take your vitamins, kids. You don't want to forget the names of the most dangerous and aggressive people." Cedany said and she sipped on her coffee.

"I always take my pills to calm my anger issues, just like what my therapist told me to." Lianna looked proud as I look at her with a dumbfounded look.

"You have a therapist?" I questioned as both Lianna and Cedany nodded.

"I had my therapist since I was 12 years old." Lianna answered.

I guess there are a lot of things I didn't know about my friends.

"You must've had a rough childhood for needing a therapist." Tristan looked saddened by the news.

"No, I was the only one who was rough." Lianna corrected and Cedany laughed at her statement.

Tristan and I were left dumbfounded.

"Lianna was a wild child. She would always pick fights with other children because she has anger issues." Cedany explained.

"I knew that she has anger issues, but I never knew she had a therapist." I'm disappointed that I never knew.

"By the way, did you guys know?" Tristan caught our attention.

"Know what?" I repeated and Tristan looked around to see if people were eavesdropping.

"Lief and Gavin have been hanging out with people from the Red Empire. All I can say is I think Lief found a girl he likes." Tristan spilt the tea as we looked at the table where Lief was hanging out with the same people from yesterday.

"And why do you feel the need to tell us that all of a sudden?" I don't care for this kind of news, I already knew that they were hanging out with those people. I've met them before after all.

"Oh~ Someone's jealous~" I gave Tristan a weirded-out look.

"No, I'm not. He's like a brother to me." I denied it, but he's probably not. I just said that because I didn't want to be in an awkward position.

"Poor Lief, straight-up brother-zoned by his beloved Peronell. Peronell has a heart of an unbreakable stone." Cedany teased.

"I think you're talking about yourself. Remember that one time a guy was about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge and you just stared at him straight in his eyes? When the other people managed to talk him out of committing suicide, he started yelling and calling you the devil." I chuckled as I remembered that memory.

Tristan looked terrified while looking at Cedany who was calmly drinking her coffee.

"Hey! Cedany has a heart made of freshly made muffin. She's brighter than the morning sun and calmer than the moon—" Lianna was cut off by me before she got more poetic about her love for her Holiness.

"Yeah, her Holiness is the holiest of all. We get it." I said just to shut her up.

"I don't get it—" Tristan was cut off.

"Shush, servant boy!" I immediately shut him up as he obeyed.

Cedany just laughed throughout the conversation and I don't blame her. It was just another random and dumb conversation like we always had.

I looked at the booklet that Miss staff gave yesterday to look at the class schedule. We were right, it was time for Etiquette Class. We are outside of the classroom, checking if this is the right classroom.

"These classes are gonna be the death of me." Lianna fell to her knees. "Goddess please save us all from these classes!" She put her hands together as if she was praying.

"Don't be so dramatic! We haven't even started our classes yet." I told her off. Cedany helped Lianna stand up.

"Oh, the goddess has helped me!" Lianna dramatically falls into Cedany's chest.

"Now, you're just snuggling in her chest..." Tristan pointed out.

"Mind your own business, you narcissistic servant boy!" Tristan looked offended by Lianna's words.

We went inside the room and a few representatives were already there. I guess we're still early. Tristan who was following us sat at the very back, which didn't surprise me. He probably doesn't want to be called a servant boy. Of course, to torment him. I followed him to the back and sat in front of him. I smirked at him and he just sighed.

"Don't look so dismayed, I'm here so I can take care of you." I was lying, however, I did have to come off innocent for him to let his guard down a little.

"Frowning is bad for my beauty, so please stop tormenting me." Tristan dramatically lay on his desk.

"I'm not, I'll just sit here peacefully." I turned around and saw that someone was sitting beside me.

He looked familiar, could it be Jose?

"What?" Jose asked.

I was unfazed even when he already noticed I was looking at him.

"I heard that you and Lianna argued," I observed his reaction, he just looked annoyed when I brought up Lianna's name. "you shouldn't have said that she lost to William Hawk. She was saddened by her defeat." I told him and it seems that I just irritated him more.

"You think I care? I just stated facts."

"You shouldn't have stated the facts then. My friend refuses to believe those facts and I support her beliefs. So should you, Jose!" I sermoned.

"Jose? My name is Josef!"

"I know." I did know, I just want to torment him.

"Huh?!"

I didn't pay him any more attention. I brought out the book under the desk and started reading it instead. I could feel him looking at me. I knew he hated me already and I'm quite proud of myself about it. This is for Lianna.

Lianna Morris,

"Why did Peronell sit over there?" I asked Cedany who looked at Peronell who was sitting with Josef.

"Probably because she's planning to collect people who hate you. So she can create an army full of people who despise you." I knew she was joking around, however, what if it was true? "She's probably just there to torment Tristan, don't worry about it." Cedany sat down and I sat with her.

"I hope you're right." I glared at Josef, who wasn't looking at me.

"Hey, can I sit here?" I looked up and it was just another dude.

"Go ahead, man." I let him since I don't mind.

I looked at Cedany, who was reading the book that was under the desk. Who should I talk to? I looked at the man who sat beside me and he was looking at a newspaper. Isn't that for old people?

"What are you reading?" I asked the guy.

"It's something women aren't interested in." He answered.

"Excuse you?" I was offended.

"It's about a massacre. In Black Empire to be exact." I looked at the newspaper's front page.

"Oh lookie! They're having a sale in the black market," I pointed at the front page. "they sell a lot of intestines and liver in there." He looked at me, speechless.

"I said women aren't interested in things like this, however, the black market isn't known by normal people. How did you know the black market exists?"

"I went to a black market once with a friend." I sheepishly smiled.

He looked at me like the thing I said wasn't normal. I knew it wasn't, however, it's the way I cope with the trauma I had with it.

"I don't even want to know why you went there."

I looked at the brooch on his left. His name is Cedric Gorvenal, he had the same last name as Josef. I don't even want to ask why they have the same last name, it'll just be bad for my health.

"Your name is Cedric Gorvenal? Have you decided on what position you will take?"

In the booklet they gave us, we were required to choose what weapon we will wield. Since my father is a mage, I think it would be understandable for me to be a mage as well.

"My ancestors are sword masters. So it's obvious." Cedric sighed.

"At least we have something in common." I laughed it off and Cedric went back to reading.

I looked down on my desk and saw there was a chocolate candy with a note attached to it. The note said 'Let's be friends.' I looked at Cedric who was reading intensely. Is he the one who gave this?

"My mom made a lot of those and attached notes to them. You deserve to receive one, I guess." Cedric was looking away and I realized that his ears were red.

What do you call this again? Is it bipolarity?

"Thanks, I'll savour it." I happily munched on the candy.

I heard Cedric snort back his laugh and I just shrugged it off.

We just finished with History class which wasn't interesting because Mrs. Hindra Odinel was just a pure hindrance. Her name should be changed to hindrance. We sat there for hours listening to her and about the bullshit history of Acantha. My hate for her is understandable because she kept embarrassing me. After all, I wasn't listening to her. Mr. Miller, our adviser and etiquette teacher was more kind. Miss Latasha, our herbal teacher was more interesting.

The next class is the inspection of creatures and just by the name, I knew that it would be the death of me. So I decided to invite Cedany to go into the garden since it can calm my nerves.