"Why is water coming out of your forehead?" Another bizarre question rattled Sofia's head as she felt as if her muscles were going to slide off her bones.

 

"Lady Siri, please."

 

"Please what? I don't understand what that means." 

 

"Please be quiet for a moment." Sofia begged the high noble, who was the source of her immense headache.

 

Sofia might have been too harsh to Lady Siri, she wasn't the one who made her stay for an additional bell after class, constantly casting spells under the oversight of a vigilant assistant. Yet, the cold-blooded mage decided that now was the best time to begin asking strange questions. The exhausted noble doubted that the strings of words leaving Lady Siri's lips were the unhuman sentences she heard, her brain must be so tired that it decided to play a cruel game with her. It was a dangerous thing to ignore a high noble but even more dangerous was speaking to the noble with a barely functioning mind.

 

For some odd reason, the Firmusian girl laid her head on top of Sofia's legs, apparently caring little about the prestige difference between them two. Although not showing it too much on her fairest skin, Lady Siri seemed to have been exhausted by something but she hadn't casted too many spells. During the class the northerner only defended against her attacks, never expressing any want or desire to attack the Junker. It wasn't as if the girl had no offensive capabilities given that she almost murdered a fellow student not a week after joining the Academy. For all Sofia knew about the girl, all of Lady Siri's spells might be powerful area of attack and death spells, which would explain her seemingly blessed nature. One of her classes might be a glass dragon type class, with a lot of offensive capabilities but little to no defence.

 

Is this why she chose this class, to cover her major weakness? That makes more sense than my previous theories.

 

"You look like Iris after learning a spell. Why is that?" The girl suddenly spoke up, her eyes lazily focusing on Sofia's features.

 

"What do you mean by this?" Sofia sighed out a response, her head no longer ringing.

 

"Yourrrr face, it made an exprrrresion unknown to me." Sofia's sea-green eyes widened as the girl started to behave like a cat, albeit her face remained as blank as before.

 

"I'm very sorry Lady Siri for this." She quickly realised that she had accidentally been scratching the girl on the head like some sort of doll. She quickly pulled her hand away causing the purring maiden to open her eyes in an alien form of disapproval. "... Lady Siri, is Iris a good maid?"

 

"Iris?" The mage grabbed a lock of her pitch-black hair and fidgeted with it, looking as if she had forgotten the question before turning back toward the owner of her pillow. "She is my favourite... why did you ask?"

 

"Not to be rude for inquiring about your House's private matters but I was curious about why your maid wasn't with you today morning for example."

 

"She is paying a tribute for my mistakes." Her Ladyship explained, a hint of sadness penetrating her monotone voice. 

 

"Is this related to the incident with the knight, and how she was sent flying?"

 

"Hmmm," The mage nodded. "I also asked Iris to level up and she is doing it now."

 

"And can I know how or where she is 'levelling up'?" 

 

"I'm not sure if I can say this." The girl's eyes shifted uncomfortably between the spindly birthmark on her forearm and Sofia.

 

"What kind of dangerous information could I get from knowing such a thing? I'm simply curious." The frontierwoman said slowly. In truth, she wanted to know if the maid wasn't tarnishing the honour of her mistress. She wasn't sure what would she do if it turned out that the elf was abusing Lady Siri's cluelessness but it wouldn't be anything nice. If something were to happen which would force the House of Dar Blackworm to pull out their member from Oriripol it would ruin Sofia's plan, so she was planning to root the problem out before it became an issue.

 

"Are you honest?" The pale maiden said as if this one question could force the other person to answer with truth and only truth. 

 

"Yes."

 

"Then, Iris said that she would take up all of the old quests she had in the Guild, she said that they pay more than new quests." With a child-like innocence, the high noble spoke seemingly unaware of how useful that information could have been for any nefarious actor.

 

Hero's Vale was a frontier which meant that Sofia had plenty of opportunities to meet the sanctioned monster slayers. Her Lord Father hired at least one of them every spring to keep watch over the northern parts of the Valley while the farmers were planting crops in the fields. This and the fact of living in the frontier of human civilisation meant that adventurers had a positive reputation among people like Sofia. Yet the information that a maid was a sellsword and butcher for hire could be turned useful by spreading it around the weak-minded civilian nobles and turning them against Lady Siri. Not to mention that a maid of a high noble wandering around in the lower districts could be an easy target of attack.

 

"What is the next thing you want to do, Lady?" The enchantress said after a moment of respite.

 

"I don't know, you decide."

 

"Have you always let other people decide for you Lady Siri?" The frontier noble said while staring the pitch black fan of hair spread across the humble bench.

 

"No."

 

"Then what was one of the major decisions you have taken." Sofia blurted out before her mind recalled to who she was speaking to.

 

The blonde woman felt goosebumps creep up her spine and a hollowing emptiness spreading in her heart as she had ruined another opportunity to help her House. She wanted to grab a lock of her golden hair and rid the sign of being a Junker away from herself, so as to not further blemish its heroic name but her body disobeyed her, under the cold judgemental stare of Lady Siri.  The two differently coloured gems gained a little bit more colour to them as the mage continued to restrain Sofia under her gaze as she retreated into herself for a moment.

 

"I decided to leave with Iris." A cold as the North voice finally spoke, sounding like thunder in the stillness of the empty arena.

 

The Junker felt her body relax as the pale girl answered with no anger nor venom hidden in her words and instead a sort of relief underlined her monotone voice. After all of the self-destructive thoughts vanished from Sofia's mind, she focused on the content of the words said to her. The Blackworm's answer, it was a rather benign one but spoken in a way reminiscing the Junker of the way her Lord Father spoke of his great achievements.

 

The young noble couldn't decide how to feel about the answer she was given. It was pretty sad that a girl her age considered choosing which maid would accompany her to Oriripol a major decision. She couldn't know of the Blackworm's traditions and if choosing a personal maid was something important but she would doubt the likelihood of this being true. Most likely the clumsy yet intelligent girl resting on her lap was simply never allowed to think for herself. Her entire life was already predestined for her with her only responsibility being to wake up each morning.

 

"Lady Siri, what do you think we should do now?"

 

"I don't know." The pale mage ran her finger on the snake-like birthmark staining her otherwise flawless skin.

 

"What is something you would like to do though?"

 

"Can I eat some deliciousness?" The petite northerner laid her hands on her stomach causing a deep grumble to sound out.

 

"Then I invite you to have tea with me, how does it sound?" Sofia suggested.

 

"Yes?" The girl hesitantly answered, looking unsure of her choice.

 

I think we are both too tired to listen to four more bells of lectures anyway.