“Alright! I am all done, finally!” I said to myself while I took a breath of relief.
I stretched my arms and legs while still being seated on the floor.

My legs cramped up for using this coffee table to do my homework for the past three hours now. It would be a lot more convenient if I had stayed at school to do my homework.

Using our low table was a little uncomfortable to use for a longer period of time.
We need to sit on the floor to use our coffee table, unlike a normal table where people need to use chairs.
The school bench was really like a blessing in comparison to our table.

I just completed today’s homework in one fell swoop.
Today was a Saturday, so teachers tend to give us more homework than usual so that kids don’t slack off on their day off, that is Sunday.

I don’t mind doing a little extra homework. But a lot of the other of my classmates really sulk a lot. I don’t get why those students hate doing their homework.

Homework is an essential activity to keep one’s brain in check. If you want to excel in academic studies, then you need to study. The school is an abode for learning and make one’s mind sharp.

Teachers give us students homework so we won’t slack off and forget about the teachings from school. In a way, they are looking out for us, the students and we should be grateful. But kids now these days, don’t tend to have any respect for their teachers. Instead of being grateful to the teachers, students nowadays insult their teachers behind their backs.

They even keep insulting nicknames to their teachers which is morally wrong. Teachers are strict because they are looking out for the well being of their students.
But instead, students think teachers are just oppressing their authority on them.

I laid back on the floor and stared at the ceiling.

If I were the principal, I would just rusticate such students from the school.
Such students are a bad influence on other students.

One such student that first I would suspend will be my twin brother Armin.

Armin and I are Fraternal twins.
Although we were twins, we were nothing alike.

I was always at the top of my class and whereas my brother was always dead last.
He always keeps playing around and never once took his studies seriously.

My homeroom teacher always gives me a lecture that I as his sister should do something about him. What does she expect me to do?

Armin always shrugs me away whenever I try to talk with him regarding that he should take studies seriously.
He just gives me this cold look and casually while scratching his ear,
‘Oi! I am the older brother, you're the younger one. So stop talking back to your older brother and respect your elders. Didn’t they teach you that in school…’ is what he always says.

This really makes me furious.
If only if I were to be born before Armin, I would have been the older sister.
He always keeps fooling around and embarrasses me in the school with his antics all the time at school.

He should know that Big brother (Desmond) been working so hard to get us into school, so we should appreciate his efforts and study hard.
My goal is to graduate from a renowned college and provide a source of income.

I just tend to see that earning from a mere footsoldier is a fool's errand.
Making an earning while putting our lives at risk all the time, it’s a foolish way to earn money. Life is more precious than money.

I told him not to enroll in the military but he still joined the military. He always tends to flex his muscles and always assures us that he will be fine.
But on his first day, he was knocked unconscious for three days.

Still, it’s very odd...
The people who brought big brother were two female soldiers. On top of that, the two of them were heavily armed and not like an average soldier.
Big brother had joined the guardsmen regiment which was one of the lowest-ranked military posts. So the only people in those ranks were low born citizens who are mostly lightly armed. At most those soldiers were only allowed to carry around was a steel baton.

But among the two women, one was wearing a full plated armor and sword and the other was wearing a fancy light robe and equipped with a long staff with pretty embroidery on them.
Those equipment were nothing like ordinary attire and weapons.

I got up from the floor and grabbed my bag. From there I took out a book that was a little old and bulky.

This was the book that kept records and information about sorcery and other magical weapons.
It was not easy getting my hands on this book. Only higher grade students were permitted to get access to this book.
This was the first time I was breaking the school rules, please forgive my insolence only this once.

I placed the book on our low table and opened it.
There were a lot of scriptures and ancient texts that I have never seen before.
This book contained bulk-load information about magic.

I thoroughly scrolled through the pages, looking very closely.

This book was a gold mine of information but for now, I was looking for something specific.

There were a lot of things that I wanted to read but right now, I was searching for particular information.
After turning like dozens of loads of pages, I finally found it.

This section of the book had detailed information about enchanted gear in specific.

Basically, every living soul has mana or we can also call it as a life force.
There are exceptional human beings who can channel that very mana and change the attributes to one’s will.
These people are called Mages.

And in this growing day and age, going to war was a common thing and magic plays a crucial role in warfare.

But because of the scarcity of such human beings, sending them to the battlefield would be a very risky move. It was both a double-edged sword to deploy a mage on a battlefield.
Losing one of the mages would mean a quite big blow to one's military might.

But for that very reason, the military came to an alternate solution.
Creating weapons forged by the mages, which came to be known as enchanted gear.

Every enchanted equipment is reinforced with a mana crystal made by the magic from the mages.
That crystal is the lifeline of the gear and it further enhances one's weapon giving it a magical property depending on the type of the equipment.

And that’s how non-magic users can use the enchanted gear and harness magic indirectly.

The two women that brought my brother was armed with many such types of equipment.
Almost all of the stuff they were wearing had almost similar types of jewels attached to it.
She did say that she was one of big brother’s co-worker but I really doubt that.

I examined her gear closely and almost all of the equipment had a mana crystal or something similar.
The way speech pattern and their etiquettes belonged to those of the higher class.

Also, big brother’s clothes were in tatters and blood. It could not be a wound from a chariot collision. It clearly tells me that my big brother was beaten up black and blue.

So why would the two them heal him and drop him back home?
Why is brother acting as if nothing happened?
Why is he not telling the truth? And why does he lie that it was a chariot accident when it was clearly not?

Is he hiding because he doesn't want us to be worried?
Or was he getting blackmailed?

The above, both cases seem plausible.

Just when I was in the middle of the thinking, someone on the door started banging loudly.
Could it be that the ruffians that attacked big brother…?

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Open up the door, already!” replied an overly excited voice in a hurry.

I lowered my guard and took a breath of relief.

I got up and opened the door and there stood an overly enthusiastic boy with shine in his eye.
It was none other than Armin.

“Can’t you open a little faster?!” exclaimed Armin and pushed me aside and dashed inside.

“I can’t. You can either keep some patience or just live outside for all I care.” I replied.

Armin ignored me and started closing the curtains.
This was rather odd of him.

I noticed that Armin was holding something that was tucked inside his shirt. It looked something precious and important.

“Hey… don’t tell me you brought another stray puppy, did you?” I asked curiously.
This wasn’t the first time he brought home something weird.

“Huh?” replied Armin, “No I did not! Could you please close the door!”

Armin seemed a lot serious and overly cautious for once.

“You better have a good reason for pushing me aside like that,” I said threateningly.
I know I was the little sister and hence Armin been a lot disrespectful nowadays.
I need to show him my moron of a brother his place.

To my sentence, a bright smug smile appeared on his face.

I closed the door and I sat opposite Armin at the table.

“Today I found something mind-boggling thing that even you will start praising me,” said Armin excitedly.
I can't even imagine that myself singing praises for my twin brother, Armin. At least not in this lifetime.

“It better not be another pigeon egg which you mistakenly thought it belonged to some mythical dragon, like the last, time,” I said.
Armin tends to loiter around while playing and he has a habit of collecting trash while he's at it and bring that home.
I always tend to throw away that trash when he's not looking.

“Hey! I am really serious this time! This is really amazing that I promise!” said Armin.

I let out a sigh,
“That’s what you said the last time and before that. And like every time you bring such junk.”

“But this time its really unbelievable!”

“Alright! Show me then.” I said.
No point in arguing with him further like this.

A smug smile appeared on his face.
“Try guessing it!” he said.

This jerk of a brother was really know how to get on my nerves.

“Stop your games! Or I will kick you out as well as your precious treasure outside.” I said threateningly.

“Okay! Okay!” said Armin.

Slowly he unveiled the thing hiding in his shirt,
“Tadah!”

He raised the thing he found in the air like a prized trophy.
I was speechless because this time it was really not trash.

This time Armin brought home looked really...

“What is that?” I asked in a surprised tone.

A wide grin appeared in Armin’s face,
“An armored glove!”

That looked like one of the gauntlets that the soldiers tend to use.
But it looked a bit weird than a normal one.

“Hmm," I said, "Place it here on the table,”

Armin did as I said and I carefully examined this strange gauntlet.

This was a longed sleeve gauntlet that can cover one’s hand till the elbow.
It was purely made of iron and in mint condition. Although there was no covering for fingers.
It had a black dark jewel attached at the back of its palm.

Could this be…

Suddenly Armin interrupted,
“This is an enchanted gear, isn’t it?” said overly excited Armin as his eyes shone brightly.

…

It can’t be!
“Stop talking nonsense, it looks like a vintage model of a gauntlet.” I replied, “Anyway, how did you get this?”

“Hehe!” smiled happily Armin as he scratched his head, “I found this in an alleyway while playing hide and seek.”

There’s no way one can find an enchanted gear laying down on an alleyway.
“This is just another garbage,” I said.

Armin’s face suddenly swell up in frustration,
“It’s not! I will gift this to Big brother!”

“No way!” I replied, “This is a vintage model of the gauntlet and it’s a little too bulky for one to use. Also, you only have one of gauntlet from a pair, henceforth its deemed useless.”

That gauntlet would only slow down big brother, no point keeping such gauntlet.
Still, this was a lot better than the one time Armin brought a dead rat thinking it was a mythical creature.

“But we can sell it for scrap, and get some money out of it,” I added.

Armin burst in rage and banged his fist on the table.
“No! I wouldn’t let you-”

*Shlunk*
Just when two long blades from the knuckles of gauntlets poked out and pierced through my books kept beside on the table.

What the hell!

Both Armin and I backed away from the table quickly.

For the first few seconds, we just stared at the gauntlet in a puzzle.
The two-blade that stretched out of the knuckles was almost 30 cm long.

“Did you see that!” yelled Armin, “I told you this was something cool! So cool! Yahoo!” Armin went bonkers and started yelling and celebrating like a mad man.

“Hush! Keep it down, will you?” I interrupted him with a furious tone, “You don’t want the landlady to kick us out, do you?”

To that, Armin quite down finally.

“Cool it may be, that thing just destroyed my homework,” I said as I glared at Armin furiously.
To that Armin avoided eye contact and looked the other way.

I grabbed the book that I brought from the library that was still placed on the table.
Thankfully it was left unscathed, unlike my homework.

I went back to the section about enchanted gears and looked thoroughly.

Armin sat beside me and started to take a peek in the book as well.
“What is this book?” he asked.

“Stay quiet for a second!” I said with a serious tone.

Then I rigorously checked in between pages,
“There!” I shrieked out loud.

There was a section of the book dedicated to mana crystals.
According to this book, there were different types of mana crystals. 
The power and function of enchanted gears depend on the type of mana crystal.

Red colors indicate fire attributes whereas yellow meant that one can harness the element of light.
There were many other mana crystals like blue, green, purple, etc with different attributes to its congruent color.

Also, it was said that brighter the crystal, the more power one can harness.
There was much more useful information but currently, it was irrelevant in this situation.

I looked within the entire pages but didn’t find anything about the black jewel that was etched on this gauntlet.

I guess this wasn’t an enchanted gear.
I mean why would one find such stuff laying around the back alley.

But still, this dark black jewel wasn’t your ordinary jewel.
It’s definitely something precious and I never have seen this before.
Also, this weapon had a kinda eerie presence as if it was alive. It’s just making my heart a bit uneasy whenever I stared at that jewel.
Was I being hysterical?

What if it was really an enchanted gear but not listed in the books.

“Hey, how about we gift this to Big brother to use it?” Armin interrupted me while I was in the middle of thinking.

Giving this out to Big brother would be an ideal choice.
If this gauntlet really turned out to an enchanted gear, then big brother can definitely rise in a high post in the military.

But I don't wanna give this to big brother. Even if this turned out to be an enchanted gear there is a chance that my brother could be labeled as a thief by the original owner and get imprisoned.
Hypothetically if the owner never shows and brother gets to keep this for himself, he would be instantly promoted to a higher rank in military post. Knowing how a big fool is my big brother he would head on to march on the battlefield to get some pocket change and glory. That's the last thing I wanted.

Also, who placed that gauntlet is such a place?
There are a lot of risks if people find out that we possess this gauntlet. It could be that someone might have stolen this enchanted gear and hid it in the alleyway and my brother stumbled upon this accidentally.
Or maybe I am just overthinking and it's just regular garbage, a failed experiment.

For now, it's better not to let big brother find this out.
There are a lot of de-merits than merits.

I must somehow change Armin’s mind and somehow keep this thing a secret from big brother. If it comes to his knowledge that Armin found something like this, he will definitely try to get his hands on it and march to the battlefield.

“Armin, let's not give this to Big brother,” I said.

Armin looked at me with doubtful eyes,
“Don’t tell me…” Armin said,

Did he figure me out?

“You want to give this to big brother yourself and take all the credit, don’t you?” he added.

Ah, I forgot he was just dum-dum.
I took a breath of relief.

“Armin, isn’t your dream to become a soldier, like big bro?” I asked.

“So? Yes, it is.”

“So if you give this to Big brother now, what will you do when you became a soldier? How would you get another cool gear such as this?” I  asked him.

Armin gave some thought,
“Then I will use this gauntlet for myself.”

“But you would have already gifted this to big brother. So now big brother has the possession of this gauntlet.” I answered smugly.

“Then I will ask big brother to return it,” he answered rhetorically.

A smile appeared in my face,
“And do you think that big brother will return this back to you?”

Armin started sweating profusely.
“That’s right, he won’t return it to me then.”

He really was easy to manipulate.

I easily managed to trick him.
And this person was my older brother, sadly.

“He always tends to make fun of me. Says that I am a fool and irresponsible. So of course, he won't return it to me.” added Armin as he angrily glared at empty space.

“Great! Let’s hide this gloves for now and keep it a secret from big brother. ” I replied, “If you don’t then don’t come complaining when big bro takes this away for himself.”

“Alright, let’s keep this a secret between the two of us,” replied Armin enthusiastically as his eyes shone brightly.

He really is a simple-minded person.
I am worried about his future self.

“One more thing,” I said, “Don’t go near the place where you found this gauntlet.”

“But why?! That’s the place where my friends and I play usually,” argued Armin.

“What would you do if the owner of this gauntlet came looking for it?” I questioned him in a monotone.

“I.. uhu...” Armin mumbled.

“Also keep in mind that you shouldn’t tell a soul about this gauntlet, and not even to your friends,” I added.

“But-” Armin tried to make an argument.

“You don’t want to lose this gauntlet, do you?” I asked.

“Alright! Geez,” said Armin.

Finally, he accepted my terms.

“Good!” I replied, “Also you stink, go take a bath, will you!’
I was wondering what was this god awful smell, this whole time.

“Oh that!” replied Armin, “I was hiding inside a big dumpster where I found this gauntlet. Don’t worry the dumpster was empty, I checked before hiding.”

He smiled brazenly as if it was very clever of him but it was rather disgusting.

“Go and take a bath already!” I scowled at him.

After some nagging, he finally went to a bath.
Now then, where should I hide this gauntlet?

Also, how do I put this blade back inside the gloves?

But the most and the least important issue was that my homework was in shreds.

Sorry for the delay, but hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you for reading as always!

And wish you a Merry Christmas!!!!
☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆