Chapter 4: Beauty Covers Filth

Chapter 4: Beauty Covers Filth

UNLUCKY! She is just too unlucky in the morning! The school has so many students, why did she have to bump into someone from the Au Elites so early? 

In the end, just after she took a bath in their house, she took another one in the school. However, this time, she was bathed with orange sticky juice and not water—which resulted in the students’ ridiculing laughter. 

Unfortunately, after she changed her uniform, her first class was already starting. She was late so her teacher didn’t let her enter anymore. Because of that, she missed her first class.

The young lady sighed exasperatedly as she put her backpack in front and then hugged it with a frowning expression.

Why did she have to be such a weakling?

Right now, she is currently at the rooftop, again, while sitting on the ground without minding the dirt anymore. She is pondering and letting herself get lost in her own thoughts.

"What's with that early grumpy face?" 

The young lady almost jumped in shock after hearing the same familiar voice of the mysterious guy who was with her a few days ago before he suddenly disappeared.

Should she tell him? Or should she not? She was hesitant. What if this guy was just someone sent from the Au Elites to spy on her so that they could make her miserable school life even worse?

"You don't have to tell me if you're that doubtful. I don't care," the guy said in a defensive tone before he suddenly used her lap again as his pillow.

She didn’t even notice that her bag was already gone on her thighs while the hands that were hugging the bag were already covering the eyes of the mysterious guy—blocking them against the sunray.

Like their first meeting, it felt as if she didn’t know things again. It was like she had no consciousness about the things that the mysterious guy does and only discovered it whenever it was already done. However, this time, there is no jacket to at least separate the dirt from the ground to their uniforms.

Speaking of the jacket, she was still hesitating whether she should give back Liev's jacket or keep it with her forever. She wanted to keep it as a souvenir since she knew how far that star was from the land where she is currently at. There would be no chance for that thing to happen again so she is really contemplating hard.

Well, it wouldn't kill her if she said something to the mysterious guy, right? 

No one is allowed to kill in their school so the mysterious guy wouldn’t definitely kill her although they are alone right now. Though maybe, the guy would laugh at her for being pathetic and weak. Looking at the good side, she guessed this would still have a positive outcome. At least she would take off some load in her heart by telling it to others, right? 

"Uhm... How can I start this?” Crostelia scratched her head awkwardly. Then, she cleared her throat before lowering her gaze.

“It’s just annoying that I’m so weak. It’s irritating to always be the weakest one. You know, ever since I studied in this school, I have become the bullies' apple of the eye and it just… Sucks. I hate it. I'm an enchanter but I can only chant weak healing spells that most of the time take all of my strength and consciousness. For an enchanter, I’m so weak. You know that enchanters were supposed to be strong, right?" the young lady said while her eyes are still focused on the ground.

After that, silence dominated their place and the girl’s eyes started to wander—reason why she had the chance to intently stare at the black pair of eyes of the mysterious guy and the white hair strands that reached his thick, black eyebrows that are slowly coming out of the black cloth that is covering most of his body.

Soon, she heard the man click his tongue while his eyes darted to the sky. His big hands that are also wrapped with a black cloth stretched out, as if he was reaching for the sky.

"Then study. I'm sure there are a lot of books in the library about enchanting. Train yourself, too. Having a weak body is equivalent to having a weak power. You can start with meditation. There were no enchanter mages that were born strong. There were no visioner mages that were born strong either. There were no bearer mages who were like that as well. Everyone had that weak pace in their lives before they transformed to the stronger version of themselves," he said before he leaned the back of his head on her stomach.

A bittersweet smile escaped from the young lady’s lips before she raised her head as she looked at the sky.

"If my physical body isn't strong, that'll just go to waste, you know?"

"Train. No complaints. I won’t accept your reasoning. Go here by the end of the school hours, I'll send someone to train you or you'd just see me here alone—that means I'll be the one to train you. You'll start next week. After class, you should be already here. For now, meditate and absorb more mana. Remember, magic has no boundaries and mana is limitless because our world is blessed with it. Even if your mana capacity is small, you can always make that wider so don’t be discouraged by a few failures," the guy said in a serious manner before he stood up and started to walk away.

Crostelia fell silent. What? What did he just say? She would train? He would train her? He would send someone else to train her if he couldn’t? Is he serious? The long helpless and hopeless, weak person like her would be able to learn magic!?

She sighed. She just hoped that what he said was true and the person that would teach her would have a very long patience as she is always like a turtle whenever she is doing something connected to magic. 

The build of the mysterious guy was already becoming small when the girl came back to her senses. She exhaled heavily before she started shouting so loud to make sure that her message would reach him.

"Thank you very much!"

The guy, who was casually walking, suddenly stopped in his place before raising his right hand and turning his head a little in her direction.

She smiled happily as a response to his wave although she wasn’t certain if he ever saw it because of their wide distance. 

The guy returned his look forward as he gradually brought down his hand and casually placed it inside his slacks’ pocket.

When he totally disappeared from her sight, that was when she realized that her next class was already coming. Then, she quickly fixed herself as she hurriedly carried her bag on her left shoulder before running down the rooftop.

This is one of the crucial times she just really hopes that she really knows magic. At least if she knew, she wouldn’t have to get tired by running for being late again. If she knew, she could just use a magic that could speed her up, teleport her or make her fly until she reaches her classroom without sweating.

Hah! It sucks to be weak.

SHE WAS not late to her next class. However, while they were busy on a certain topic, her mind was flying around the thing that happened at the rooftop. All those things that the mysterious guy said kept on repeating in her head that she lost focus in class. Because of that, none of the teacher’s lessons came into her mind. Though, she was thankful that she wasn’t called out to answer the questions during the discussion because she would probably make fun of herself again by not knowing the right response.

Right now, she is busy lining up in the cafeteria to order a lot of food for her lunch since her stomach has long been hungry since the first subject. The pleasant smell of food being cooked as soon as she entered the place was not helping and making her stomach make louder embarrassing growls—as if a beast was inside it. The smell of hot newly served dishes and appetizers, and the freshly baked desserts are so aromatic that she could feel her mouth salivating.

It is really a good thing that their school is the one providing their students’ meals since she would definitely not have enough money to buy anything if that wasn’t the case.

When it was her turn, she was about to speak when she got immediately interrupted by the people behind her. 

“One strawberry parfait and a cheesecake, please.”

“One blueberry cheesecake for me and an ice tea.”

Just hearing their familiar voices made her heart tremble in fear. Just feeling their presence made her want to run away and hide in her house. Just being near them always brought her mixed emotions that are certainly not good. Fear and angst are always her dominant emotions whenever they are around. However, whenever those emotions get totally extreme, she would always end up feeling weak and unwell.

The young lady was awoken and sent back to reality after feeling the cold, sticky liquid that is flowing from her head, down to her body. She gasped and unintentionally looked back to where the two women were standing.

"How dare you block our way, scholar?" A familiar woman said with an arched eyebrow.

That person was none other than Willowy MacQuoid, the sister of Liev who is currently sixteen-year-old and ranked as the seventh most powerful person in their school. 

One word that Crostelia could use to describe the girl, scary. She is younger than her but she is one of the most frightening people in the school who loves making her life miserable.

"Excuse me, can you please get out of our way?" the other woman said with a sweet smile before her eyes suddenly sent Crostelia a quick sharp glare.

The woman was none other than Emily Carter, the best friend of Willowy, who is also currently sixteen years old. She is also one of the members of Au Elites as her family is seated on the seventh seat. She is considered as the current ninth strongest person in the whole university.

One word that Crostelia used to describe the girl, fake. She was always smiling beautifully at her in the past, approaching her, talking to her like a friend while she was being bullied as if she would never do anything wrong like a priest in a church or a saint without a sin—just like how they describe her. But who knew that Crostelia would be bullied a lot worse just because of that woman’s greed? Things turned the other way around in Crostelia’s life because of Willowy’s act. Willowy was famous to the boys because of her innocent look as if some doll who could do nothing but to be dressed up cutely and act nice that her followers would do anything she would say even if she would tell them to die for her. That was why when Crostelia appeared, their attention got divided and the latter didn’t like that. Willowy wanted everything for herself. She doesn’t want a half—she wants all of their attention focused solely on her.

"S-Sorry," Crostelia said while lowering her head before she took a step back.

However, it was a wrong choice as just after she took a step, she immediately fell out of balance because of the wet floor and slammed her butt on the floor.

She wasn’t shocked anymore if loud laughter would fill the cafeteria at that time since she just made a scene again. But she was shocked as things didn’t happen the way she expected it to. Why? What happened? How come everyone is silent? How come no one is laughing at her pathetic accident? 

When she raised her chin, she immediately knew the reason why.

In front of her standing is the third prince of the school after all, Liev MacQuoid, offering his right hand to her.

Her eyes widened in shock. Is she freaking dreaming!?