I'm talking to Anne. As I was about to leave the restaurant she ran into the kitchen and back out, telling me that she'd like to talk for a while. Maybe she thinks that I'm hurt more than I'm letting on, I'm fine. Maybe she thinks that she needs to pay me back for helping her out back then but I'm fine. There's nothing wrong, even if he did hit me, I would've been fine.

"You sure you're okay?" she asks for the hundredth time. At this point I want to yell but then everyone would stare at me and she'd definitely believe that I'm not fine.

"I am Anne. How many times do I have to confirm how I'm feeling?"

"Until I'm sure you're fine." she says stubbornly. We've been talking for hours. The sun is going down for goodness sake.

"Well," I stretch it out. "I'm pretty sure that I know I'm fine Anne."

"But I don't know if you're fine. You could be lying to me."

"What makes you think that?" I ask looking up at the darkening sky.

"Because I lied to you about how I felt."

"..." I don't have anything to say to her about that. She hit the nail on the head, I'm hiding a few things but they're not something that I want to share. Honestly, I really don't know how fine I am after that incident but my mind is becoming clearer. Just talking and feeling the cool breeze on my skin helped a lot.

"If you don't want to talk about how you felt that's fine. I didn't want to talk about how I felt, but you can't bottle it up you know. Just tell me how you honestly feel." Anne says. She's trying to deflect my attention away from the way she acted. At least she admitted that she bottled her's up.

Am I really just lying to myself? After Nathaniel went away I felt much better. The feeling sat around and boiled for a bit but it eventually died down, the fire was snuffed out after all.

I sigh. I should just tell her or she'll bother me all night at the warehouse. "Anne." I say. "I've been telling you how I felt. At first it was a lie, yes I was mad and feeling a bit down but the talk really helped. I'm fine now. Is that good enough?"

"Fine." she gets up off the bench. "I'll believe that for now but I'll keep my eye on you okay?"

"Heh. It's not like I can stop you."

"Right. I'll see you at the warehouse." she turns to walk away.

"Anne." I call out. "Hold on."

"What is it? Decide to finally tell me how you felt?" she smiles wryly.

"Yeah." I say. Her brows shoot up and she pulls her chin in.

"Really?"

"I was really grateful that you helped me back there."

She puffs up her cheeks and slightly turns away her head, "Ahaha. You're making me blush. I'll see you later."

"Yeah. See you soon. Try your best to not get fired after the incident today."

"As if I have any power over that. The manager didn't seem too displeased so I think that I should be fine." she says disappearing into the background.

----------

It's taking forever to get to the warehouse today. I'm not exactly jumping roofs like I usually do but still, a very long time. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow the sun just started to rise. The pace I'm going at is best described as more of a feeling, you know, the feeling that some people get sometimes when they're laying down but they know that they should get up or want to get up but they don't. Something like that, yeah.

I really want to get to the warehouse soon but after every jump or two I just stand and let the wind continue to whistle past me. It's more relaxing than it is cold, very soothing in a way. It makes me want to slump to the ground, this is how, or close to how, I should've felt like when I was face to face with Nathaniel in the restaurant. What's the point of my training up until now if I fail to utilize it?

That being said, Henry thinks I'm still a little bit too stiff on the movements. Ugh, so many things I have to improve on and no one to help me along the way. Though, I could always ask for a sparring match.

Hopping of a building I finally make it to the warehouse. About damn time. Opening the door, I go in to find eight out of the Twelve there. This is the most that I've seen all at once. What was the count again? Henry, Anne, Hannah, Garret, Adrian, Carlyle, and Allan. That's seven, I don't know the eighth. I'm just assuming here that he's a member.

"Hello there." Hannah says strutting up to me. "Haven't seen you in a while. How have you been doing?"

"Just wonderful. How's his case going? When's the trial." I ask.

She smiles lopsidedly, "Hmph. It's about a month or two away. Based on his crimes, they decided to send a few judges from the capital to judge him."

"I see. Are you hoping for the death sentence?" Garrett came in from behind her, he seems interested in the conversation.

"No you dummy." Henry says jumping in. "If she wanted him dead then there wouldn't be a trial in the first place."

"Yeah, but I thought that she just wanted justice the old fashion way."

"I think the old fashion way is killing them with your own hands." Adrian says.

"Uh hey!" Hannah yells. "I was talking to the Thirteenth. Why are you guys jumping in?"

"Well Han." Henry says. "The three of us are obviously trying to save him from your evil clutches."

"I wasn't going to do anything like that." she says in protest. "J-just a little flirting."

"Tease such a young one like the Thirteenth here and he'll think you're in love with him." Henry says putting his arms over my shoulders.

"Beware the Succubus' enticement." Adrian warns. "They'll lure you in then, after what I hear is a good time, they'll snap your neck, sometimes."

"What happens the other times?" Garret asks. "I've never had much of an interest in monsters like you Adrian."

"Eh. Sometimes it just ends up with it leaving the man behind, free to enjoy the rest of their lives."

"Don't say that part man." Henry hisses. "Though, I really doubt that the Thirteenth here would be enticed that easily. I mean, he's already rejected that one over there."

"Aww thanks for the compliment." Hannah says.

From the things that I've heard, most succubi are extremely attractive. Like Adrian said, some are harmless while others will snap the person's neck after the deed is done.

"Are we going to do anything serious here?" Anne asks from behind Adrian, Hannah, and Garret.

"We're waiting for Carlyle to give the call over." Henry says.

"Then I have a question. Who's the eighth guy?" I ask.

"He's actually the eighth, nice guess." Henry replies. "He's part of the information gathering part of the group. Different from our mission though, you've heard of him before."

Henry allows me to go back into my memory to search. I can't quite recall anything.

"During the auction." Anne says. "He was the one that Garret, Hannah, and Adrian were guarding. Francis."

Oh, the guy who was working underground. I wonder how his combat skills are. Probably not bad at all, he is chosen as the member to disguise himself underground.

"What's he doing here?" I ask.

"Preparing for the upcoming attack." Garret says. "We have about a month and three weeks but Carlyle wanted to recall Francis here. His ability is the most useful for a team oriented style anyways.

"What would that be?"

"Allowing us to communicate with each other through telepathy. He's kinda like a network, though, the thing is that only one person can receive the messages. Carlyle was the person who had the link last time. Though, that didn't prove very useful because we didn't have the time for him to establish it with you, Henry, or Anne."

"So, he can link a person's thoughts?"

"More like what Garret said, messages. If he's linked to me, and establishes a connection with the you or Garret, then the messages, thoughts, that you have can be transmitted through the link to me. Max that he can link are five people, he was almost at his limit in the auction too. The time limit for it is around two hours. Only one person is the receiver. They usually act as the back up." Anne explains.

"And the receiver for the next large scale mission will be..."

"You." Carlyle says from across the room. Can he really hear from that far away? "We'll be having you as the supporting member for the upcoming operation. Come over here so that we can link you guys up for a test run."

-------------

Monday.

"Class." Miss Ein says loudly. "We'll be heading outside for another round of sparring."

"I wonder what magic we'll be using." Iris says, perking up a little bit. She's been lost in thought lately, she doesn't seem to be fully there. I wonder if she's found something interesting, I'd love to hear it, if she was willing to share with me of course. There's no way that I would or even could, force her.

"Iris wants to know the spell or type that we'll be using!" Elis shouts. I guess even Elis has noticed it. I have to say I'm impressed, hehe, I should've thought more highly of her. She and Iris have been friends for years.

"I'll explain outside. It's not a complicated spell." Miss Ein says. "Follow me class."

"El." Elis says. "You better start getting along better with your partner or you'll suffer too. You two have to be closer like Iris and I are. You know, maybe take a bath together."

W-what? T-take a bath together? I don't really think that Elis knows what she's saying, wait yes she does! She's trying to suppress a smile right now.

"But was only ask kids." Iris slaps Elis on the back. "You're not making it any easier for El. Anyways, what did you do with the money we made on the quests? I spent mine on a new notepad and pen. See?"

Oh Iris, I think that I'd be just like you if there wasn't a library here, I'd be spending most if not all of the money I made on books. "So far, I haven't spent it yet. I might just save it."

"Save it? There wasn't that muc- OOF" Iris's fist lands squarely on Elis's head. "Owww." Elis rubs her head. "Why'd you do that?"

"It might not be a lot for nobles like us but..." Iris glances over at me.

Ehe. There's no need for that. "It's fine Iris. Elis wouldn't be Elis without her thoughtless comments."

"They're not always thoughtless El." she retorts. "Sometimes I have very meaningful things to say."

"Like what?" Iris puts her hands on her hips.

"Y-you know... umm." Elis leans over to me. "C-can you help me out here? I'm asking this as a favor."

Elis, I don't think that it's good of you to just copy what others say. Though, that might just be my excuse. Truthfully I don't really have anything on hand right now to lend to her ear. Even if I did Iris would just dismiss it.

"I've got nothing Elis." I say.

"Poo." Elis pouts. "I'll think of something next time."

"I won't take it if you steal it from El."

"...shoot."

Miss Ein stands in her usual position on the sparring grounds. The other classes are out here as well. That means that we've finally caught up. I'm glad, it was my fault that we were behind in the first place. Miss Ein took an unscheduled session outside to have us practice water magic. I feel very grateful that no one knows that she did it for me. If they did, there's no way that I could face them.

"Summon your spirits." Miss Ein says. "We'll be using them in class today."

Come out Byu! I choose you! Byu comes out in all her blue, puffy, furry, glory. I chose to use she instead of it. I'm not sure if Byu's actually a girl or if Byu even has a gender but I flipped a coin and it landed on tails so I chose girl. Characters in some books that I read used to coin flip to decide a bunch of things, it seems to have worked out pretty well here too.

"Well not all of us." a student says. "One of us might pass out again."

I look over at Rainen. He's not fazed by them at all. Though, if it were me, I'd be either hiding my face, or trying my best to make it seem like I didn't hear them. I'm pretty sure that my reddening face would give it away though. Haaah. Strangely enough I can find myself being able to look at Rainen for more than a few seconds before feeling like I want to look away again.

"The spell that we'll be using is a low tier, intermediate, normal or basic spell, [Slingshot]. One that's most commonly used for launching projectiles like rocks. We'll be using your spirits today."

I unconsciously pull Byu into my arms. I don't want to send her into anybody. What if she or the person get hurt? Plus, she's really fluffy and warm. I'd be bad if I said I wanted to use her as a pillow or something to snuggle up on right? Some of the other students are also visibly shaken.

"Don't worry about their safety." Miss Ein says. "We'll only be launching them into the sky. I'll go group to group and have you launch your spirits, I'll give you something to regulate your mana so the output is equal among everyone. Your spirit in the end will stay where the maximum force of the slingshot takes them, they won't fall down, just have them float."

"What's the reason?" Harneth, the elf from before asks.

"It's something that the headmaster wanted." she says. "It'd be an interesting experiment. he said."

Why would the headmaster be interested in our spirits and how far up they go?

----------

"Ellar, Rainen, it's your turn now. Put these on." Miss Ein hands over two rings. Both are plain but each hold very large ruby crystal. "Now please launch them."

"[Slingshot]!" I shout while my hand shoots up.

"Impressive." Miss Ein says when she sees how far Byu went up. "That's the furthest today."

"[Slingshot]!" Rainen shouts. My eyes, just like everyone else, are glued to the trail of fire coming from Rainen's spirit. When it finally stops, his spirit is a good third of the distance above mine.

"I expected as much." I turn around to see the teacher from before, Hector. "Rainen, come with me."

He follows after Hector, or Mr. Oswald, into the academy.

"Well," Miss Ein says. "Ellar. You will be joining up with Feno seeing as how Axel seems somewhat sickly. Axel please take a seat before you throw up."

"Yes Ma'am. Thanks for the permission!" Axel waves his hand backwards as he goes to lay on the side of the building.

"Glad to be working with you again, Ellar!" Feno says.

"Y-yeah. S-same." I say. He's still to friendly for me.

"Next session will involve the barrier." Miss Ein and the other teachers shout.

Groans echo around.

"We've done this hundreds of times!"

"Looks like you don't know how to count then." one of the older bearded teachers say. "Hammering in the basics is the best way to improve. They're also good building blocks for the future."

"All right." Feno says. "I'll go first."