(Alice POV)

"That witch, always screwing  me up."(Alice)

I bet you are wondering what happened this time... Well, I need to start from the beginning.

Today is the admission test for the Cross academy and before I left the mansion the witch told me she would give me a lift to the entrance. In a way she didn't lie, she gave me a lift... to the entrance of the capital.

The mansion of the witch was located in a forest next to the capital of the Cross kingdom. The reason for that was because the witch didn't like the noisy capital. 

Thanks to the witch wicked joke I need to walk through the entire capital in order to reach the academy. I didn't mention it before, but in the center of the capital were four buildings located near each other, these buildings were the palace, the church, the academy, and the mercenary guild, between them were two large paths highly decorated intersecting each other. It's a little dumb, but that's why this kingdom is called "the Cross kingdom".

Knowing that throwing a tantrum wouldn't change anything, I decided to explore the capital a little before the test, after all, I have two hours left.

I rarely went out of the mansion, so seeing the people in the capital lively and busy while working or going from one point to another was a feast for my eyes, as this was my first time seeing this kind of interaction between people. Not only that, every house I saw was made of high-quality materials, the streets were filled with carriages carrying merchandise and at the sides of the streets were large poles of metal with light crystals on the top. As continued strolling through the capital, by pure casualty I found a shop that caught my attention.

The appearance of the shop was elegant with a... "unique" sign on the top of the entrance, apparently, the name of this shop is "Sweet Blood". What made this shop stand out as it was filled with female customers, and most of them were wearing an academy uniform.

I must say I like the design of the uniforms. The uniform consisted of a black blazer with a golden cross on the right side and colored edges on the cross with the color depending on the element of the user, a white shirt with short sleeves, and a black miniskirt.

One could think this design can't protect the students from any danger, but contrarily to its appearance, the uniforms were especially enchanted by the teachers of the school, providing a strong defense against most of the dangers like hits, slashes, cold, fire, etc. by enveloping the user with an invisible membrane of light, also this uniform includes the best feature of all, self-cleaning. And as you expect for a top-notch academy, the acquisition and repairs are for free.

Of course, there are some restrictions like a student can't leave the capital wearing the uniform without permission, selling it, or abuse of the free services. If you break one of the previous rules then you will be immediately expelled from the academy.

I must add, you can personalize your uniform if you pay an extensive amount of gold for the acquisition and repairs while respecting the cross with the respective colored edges.

As I looked inside of the shop with curiosity a group of female students saw me and an energetic girl waved her hand at me.

"Heeey, come over here, we have a seat for one!"(???)

Puzzled by her sudden action I took her offer with curiosity, taking a seat right next to the energetic girl.

"Yo masked girl! Are you new here? Have you been to the capital before? what color do you---"(????)

The first one who talked to me was the same one who invited me here in the first place, the energetic girl. I didn't know how to respond to her barrage of questions so I focused my attention on taking a good look at her appearance. As I looked at her I noticed that her hair only reached her shoulders and her eyes were shining full of vitality, with both of them being yellow, I don't know why but she gave the impression of a dog with a lot of energy. 

Next to her was a little girl with beautiful long black hair reading a very thick book, she seemed used to the mischiefs of the energetic girl, as her black eyes never left the book even for a second. And the last girl on the table was drinking a suspicious multicolored drink with her eyes closed, her calm attitude together with her blue hair tied in a low ponytail gave her an aura of a big sister.  

"Olivia! Please give me a 'heart attack'!"(???)

Wait...what!? Hearing the word heart attack brought my attention back to the energetic girl. It seems this girl is a frequent customer, as the waitress gave her a thumbs up with mischievous eyes. After ordering whatever was called 'heart attack' the energetic girl looked at me with a smug smile.

"I know what are you thinking. Why would a stranger invite another stranger to drink? Well, the answer to that question is.................... I'm curious!"(????)

The energetic girl acted like the previous barrage of questions didn't exist and gave me an incoherent reason for why she called me. I don't know why but she is giving me an urge to punch her in the face. It was good my face was behind a mask otherwise everyone would be able to see my twitching face.

Fortunately, my feelings were dispersed when the little girl sighed and translated what the energetic girl really meant.

"What this fool is trying to say is that she is interested in your hair color and in you wearing a mask. Also, I understand the feeling of wanting to punch her in the face, but don't even dare to do anything."(????)

"That's right! As expected of Lapis, she understands me! Is this your way of showing your love?"(????)

The girl named Lapis frowned at the words of the energetic girl, they seemed used to this as they entered into their own world leaving me outside of the conversation. Noticing this the blue-haired girl stopped drinking and looked at me with a troubled smile.

"Sorry about them, the girl who is making a fuss over there is Fari, and the girl scolding... and there is the punch. Ehem, the girl who just punched Fari is Lapis and I am Rine. This establishment is run by an old friend of Fari named Olivia, she is the waitress over there."(Rine)

Putting aside how Lapis did a beautiful and well-excetuted gut-punch I understood why Fari invited me. She lured me here to buy in this shop with the possibly gaining a new regular client. The explanation of Rine made me look at Fari in awe, I never expected her to be so cunning while acting like a fool.

While I was thinking if staying in this shop was a good idea the waitress returned with a red bubbly beverage.

"Here is your order, this is a treat from the house so please enjoy our special drink."(Olivia)

I didn't believe for a second that this was a drink, just looking at it made me hesitate a little, but with no other choice, I accepted my fate. With everyone looking at me I lifted my mask a little and tried to take a sip when the voice of Azazel stopped me.

"Wait! you can't drink it like water! you need to maintain it in your mouth for a moment before drinking"(Azazel)

I was surprised by the sudden intervention of Azazel, as he is usually sleeping most of the time. This was a habit he developed to recover faster from the infernal training. Since then he learned the joy of sleeping and tries to sleep every time he can, but what is more surprising is his capacity to be aware of what was happening around him even while sleeping.

I trusted Azazel and slowly drank the beverage, at first my mouth felt a light burning sensation only to be immediately replaced with a sweet flavor. Hiding the fact that I liked the beverage I slowly finished it while glaring at the three girls. Apparently, they knew what was happening, as Fari avoided my sight while trying to whistle, Lapis picked up her book and Rine sighed in disappointment, incidentally, I heard Olivia clicking her tongue and the other customers chatting again as nothing happened.

"So... Can someone explain to me what is going on?"(Alice)

"We-Well, you see... It's a tradition that every new customer must drink first the 'heart attack'. Usually, the new customer surprised by the sudden flavor would cough a little and then enjoy the products in the shop. Everyone here has been a victim of this tradition, because of it we swore to keep it in secret, after all, we want to see new customers suffering from the same tradi-- I mean trap."(Fari)

I felt a familiar Deja vu from the words of Fari, but putting that aside, her explanation was enough to understand the reason behind the strange attitudes of the customers and the girls. I'm really glad for having Azazel with me.

Knowing that the two-hour mark was about to end I stood up from the table and tried to leave the store, but Fari stopped me with regretful eyes.

"Please don't go! I know you are a little mad, but this was a little joke, so you don't have to be that angry right?"(Fari)

I needed to admit she is good with her election of words even if she looked like a fool. But unfortunately, I had more important things to do.

"I'm not angry or something like that, I need to be present for the admission in half an hour."(Alice)

"Then it's perfect! We can take you there! Hey Lapis, Rine let's go!"(Fari)

Learning I wasn't mad she dragged me out of the store without giving me any moment to refuse or hearing the opinion of her friends. Not bothered by Fari's actions Rine paid for the drinks and Lapis followed behind us.

When we reached the entrance of the academy a group of students blocked our path while looking at us with despise, as I looked at the group wondering if using violence was the right answer a boy with a narcissistic attitude and a girl with a lot of makeup stepped out from the group.

"What do we have here? The same group of trash with trash spirits! Your seven and eight stars are wasted on you!"(Boy)

"Don't look at them, my love... They don't deserve to be in front of us."(girl)

Why are they speaking like a stereotypical villain in the stories of Azazel? While I wasn't able to believe this kind of people existed in real life I saw how the faces of Fari, Lapis, and Rine looked annoyed and sad, it seems they have experienced this kind of treatment more than once. With time tickling I tried to end the discussion, but when the narcissistic boy caught my presence he looked at me with a sweet smile.

"Oh, beautiful flower, you need to stay away from these rotten fruits like everyone else. You don't want them to rot you as well."(boy)

Feeling the "good intentions of the boy" made me shiver in disgust, I wanted to puke immediately from the words of this imbecile and punch him until he wasn't recognizable but for the sake of the conversation I suppressed both my nausea and aggressive impulses.

Not wanting to hear anything else I directed my gaze at him and his group trying to speak with a very civilized language while thinking 'You can't be rude with them, after all, you don't have any right to be rude'.

"Hey you piece of shit, you better be moving your ass away before I beat the crap out of you."(Alice)

...

Eh...? is it me...or my thoughts and words are being inversed more often?

While I was self-reflecting on my bad habits I sensed how the surroundings fell in silence and no one even tried to utter a single word. With no surprise, the face of the narcissistic boy and his group were in shock not believing what they just heard. I timidly looked at the reaction of the girls only to see Fari with her mouth opened, Lapis dropping her book, and Rine with her eyes wide open while covering her mouth with her hand.

"Yo-You!!!!!! Do you know who are you talking to?!?!?!" (????)

O0ps, the narcissistic boy looked furious and summoned his spirit without a second thought. I should mention it was amazing how he summoned a bow glowing with a light blue color that fast.

"You need to regret your words in hell, now die!"(???)

Without any other warning, he fired a light blue arrow at me with the target being my heart. He really has the intention to kill me, but it was a shame his opponent was me.

I saw the trajectory of the arrow and caught it with my hand. Seeing my amazing feat left the boy a little shocked, but it didn't take long before he recovered his smile. Synchronized with his smile the arrow on my hand began to frost my hand and the ice was spreading fast all the way to my wrist. It was a good plan but I only looked at my hand with an exasperated face.

"Pathetic."(Alice)

As a survivor of the witch infernal training, I couldn't let myself be defeated by something of this level, so I gathered the resonance energy on my wrist and crushed the arrow together with the frost on my hand.

By the way, Azazel named resonance energy to the energy produced between magic and astral energy. When I asked him why that name, he said he took the word resonance from the way that my magic and his astral energy resonated. Surprisingly the witch said the product of the two energies didn't have a name so we decided to call it like that.

It was strange why the witch didn't know why the resonance energy didn't have a name and why no one was bothered by it.

Anyway, with his attack dispelled the narcissistic boy looked at me in shock. I was ready to punch him in the face when the voice of the girl with heavy makeup made me stop.

"Darling we don't have time! The examination is about to start!"(girl)

The boy returned to his senses and shouted at us while running away.

"You are lucky today, don't let me find you ever again!"(boy)

And just like that he left like a sore loser, knowing that the admission test was about to begin I looked at the three surprised girls behind me with a smile before running to the admission test... later I remembered I was wearing a mask and they didn't see my smile.