Talia and Sanya arrived at the classroom. They had not gone to the usual meeting place. It was nearly sure that William and Arthur had not been waiting for them. It seemed they were not wrong as the two boys were already inside the room. They were clearly not cheerful and lowered their head when the two girls had come in. Talia only gave them a cold glance, especially at William. She didn’t know if he had plans to apologize and if Sanya would forgive him if that was the case, but Talia would certainly never trust him ever again. She would not hesitate to hit him once as a warning if he had ever again funny ideas like yesterday.

Talia shook her head to calm herself. She greeted everyone just like the two previous days. This time, some of her classmates timidly nodded back in greetings. From the others’ point of view, she seemed not so frightening than two days ago. She was friendly and was even smiling while greeting them. Not answering back was not very polite and a feeling of guilt was over them. She had been the one that stopped Sarah in her bullies. Even more, she had gone to the headmaster’s office and had returned without a problem.

“...Ah.”

Talia stopped in her tracks as she recalled a very important thing. Sanya tilted her head in her direction.“What is it?”

Talia scratched her head in trouble. She thought for a moment before replying. “If Darius had not contacted the Educational Ministry in time, I might be already expelled.”

“...Eh?” The two girls looked at each other in the eyes for a moment. When Sanya was about to ask for details, Mr.Smith, the maths teacher entered the room. It was a bit earlier than usual, so most of the students raised eyebrows in surprise.

“I have an important information to tell you, so sit down.” When all the dumbfounded students had settled down, he resumed. His face was the same as always like he was doing this because he had to do.

“The headmaster, Mr. Ray, has been accused of discrimination and abuse of power. As such, a temporary headmaster has been sent by the Educational Department. There will be a speech tomorrow along with their arrival. A notice will be put on the bulletin board in the main corridor if you want more information. Any question?” Silence fell inside the classroom. Some of the students turned their gaze toward Talia. Sanya sighed out in relief when she had heard the announcement. From Talia’s words, she understood that the previous day’s meeting had not been so smooth.

Meanwhile, Talia was internally relieved. If Natar Ray had expelled her before being fired, this would have caused a lot of problems. Anyways, this was for the best. She didn’t know if he was a good headmaster while still doing discrimination against ability-less people. But, he would have been a problem in the future if nothing had been done. Whispers filled the room. Students were talking to each other as all of them were shocked by the news.

“Now, let’s start the lecture. We will correct the homework that I asked you to do last time. Does anyone want to do it on the board?” Talia opened her notebook at the page where she had done the exercise. She already knew that her answers were right, so she scanned the room to look for the next thing that she needed to make Sanya’s school life better.

‘...Oh?’ Her eyes landed on a lonely person that was two rows in front of her.

After four long hours of lectures with a small break in the middle, Talia raised her body and flashed a smile at Sanya, who smiled back in return. Most of the students were going toward the cafeteria, except for a few that had other plans for the lunch. Nonetheless, the room was starting to empty itself.

Sanya was looking at the leaving Arthur and William. She muttered in a low voice. “...It seems we are back at eating with only the two of us.”

Talia, who was just beside her, heard those words and faced in a certain direction. As Sanya was about to walk to the cafeteria, Talia’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned around in confusion. Talia just smiled and said a few words. “Let’s invite someone to eat, should we.”

Talia, followed by the confused Sanya, was walking in the direction of the only person that was still sitting. When she arrived in front of her, she greeted the startled girl. “Hi, if you have nobody to eat with, do you want to eat together?”

She was a bit taller than Talia and had brown mid-long hair. Her bangs were slightly covering her black eyes, making them barely visible. The school uniform was fitting her developed body perfectly. But, the air around her was clearly not the one of confidence. She was like a scared animal. She looked with upward eyes at the two other girls.

Suddenly, her face tensed lightly. In response, Sanya’s bell lightened a bit causing her to be shocked as she was looking around her. Talia put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow with an amused look. “Wow. It’s been a while since I saw a mind reader. I would say B rank or even A rank, right? Well, it depends on if you can do more than simple mind reading.”

The brown haired girl stood up in shock and brought her clenched hands in front of her chest. Her voice quivered. “W-W-Why can’t I see your mind?-”

She placed her palms over her mouth, preventing her from saying things that she apparently didn’t want to say.

‘....Reading the mind of a Grandmaster magician? This girl has courage.’

Talia tried to calm her down. “Don’t worry. We just want to eat with you if it’s ok for you. If you want to refuse, you can. Even if you say no, I will not spread information about your ability. It looks like you want the real rank to remain a secret.”

Sanya looked alternatively at the girl and Talia. The girl was hesitant before replying in a low voice. “...If you are fine with me.”

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“So, your name is Zesty Rösler.” Talia, Sanya and the brown haired girl, Zesty were sitting at a table inside the cafeteria. There were not a lot of people around, as Zesty requested. She seemed to not be too much of a meat person as the food on her stay was mostly vegetables and fruits. However, nothing had been touched so far. She looked at Talia and Sanya through her bangs.

“Why did you ask me to eat with you…?” Zesty's timid voice reached the other two girls. Talia turned toward Sanya with a smile.

“Well, because of the bullies, I was not able to make a lot of friends at school. And because of me, Sanya was in the same situation. So, I thought that we could try to talk to someone that was also in our situation. Even more, you look like a good person. You have a powerful ability and you don’t use it for bad things. You could easily abuse it for a lot of things.”

Zesty looked with upward eyes at Talia. Her voice was low. “...How did you know about the rank of my ability? Why could not I read your thoughts?”

Talia put her index on her lips. “I’m sorry, but I can’t tell really why. Just think of me as someone that has a very good control over my mind. Well, I know that you surely don’t feel secure now that I roughly know about the extent of your power and you don’t even know how. However, I can promise you that we will not tell anyone.”

“I also promise.” Sanya on the side spoke up. She understood that Talia wanted to be friendly with the other students, especially those alone because of the previous bad atmosphere. Sanya was fine with only Talia, but it was true that it would be nice to have friends. However, Sanya was a bit shy by nature so, she was quite thankful to Talia for making the move. Even more, the other girl seemed docile.

After a moment of silence, Zesty lightly blushed and twirled a strand of hair. “Most of the people try to stay away from me because of the fact that I can read their mind. I even limit myself during the ability test. If it is known that my ability is stronger than currently, I fear that the others would become afraid of me. Ah, I’m also sorry for trying to reach your mind earlier. Even if I know that it’s bad manners, I just don’t feel safe if I don’t know the intentions of the other people.”

Talia and Sanya smiled in return. The three of them started to eat the lukewarm meal. After a moment, Talia asked a question. “Still, why would people be more afraid of you? What can a high ranked mind reader do more than a lower ranked? From what I just felt you have a strong invading mind.”

Zesty was trying to find the correct explanation. “My ability is not really mind reading. It’s more like mind probing. In fact, the name of my ability is called Mind Probing. At a low level, it can only read the surface thoughts of a person. At my level, I can reach deeper parts of the mind.”

Zesty was not trying to hide her true power. Even more, this was the first time that people from her age were talking to her about this without being scared or in discomfort. Sanya seemed interested as she added another question. “That’s amazing. How far can you reach?”

Zesty had a troubled face before answering. “...I never really tested it on someone before. I’m too scared of it. The farther that I went was the reading of emotions. I can somehow know the different emotions and their level.”

“I see.” Afterward, the girls ate while chatting. Zesty was starting to open up. Since she had been small, she had been able to know the true thoughts of those around her. She could tell when someone was lying to her or when another person was just acting like a friend. Of course, she could stop using her ability, but this would make her anxious about the other person. As such, meeting with people that she could not read their mind like Talia and Sanya was a first. She thought that she might be able to have friends like a normal person if it was them. Even more, they were very friendly to her, unlike those fake smile that she had before. Of course, she was not so naive. She knew that there was a chance that they were only playing around with her. However, there was also the chance that their feelings were genuine. She wanted to believe in this.

After that Zesty had been surprised by the number of sweets eaten by Talia, the trio went back to the classroom. The fact that they talking together made quite a few students surprised. But, none of this was as surprising as seeing the brown-haired girl’s shy but still cute smile.