I was in the room. My room. Ms Roofwood had tucked me to

bed, threatening me to not get out till I feel better. There was a plate of

food besides me. Food, since I still didn’t knew what to call it. It really

looks like a mush.

“Nanoja.”

“Here.” He said.

“Do you know what’s happening to me.”

“I do.”

“Well?”

“You are running out of love.”

“That simple?”

“That simple. You don’t have enough love to work that wand.

I don’t want to hurt your feelings Flare, but you don’t love these people that

much.”

“I, I suppose I do not. Well, the important thing is,

Nanoja, can I teleport?”

“Are you really okay with that Flare?”

“Well, I am not okay-okay with it. But, well. Some strange

things are happening here. I don’t know what. I don’t even like it. But that

man has to do something with that form, and 6 whatever moni was that.”

“I feel like you are just over thinking. People have been

nice to us. Besides, we don’t know the culture. Perhaps keeping secrets is a

norm here?”

“You are completely missing the point! The main mission is

to free Vivian! That strange man is obviously harassing her or something. So,

tell me. How do I teleport?”

“Like you do always. It shouldn’t take much love, and the

wand will align itself from it.”

“I just want to confirm a feeling I got.”

I took my wand, my wand. The one with white handle and pink

gem. The one that has just the correct weight.

It feels good to use this. A familiar wand. Just like always.

I drew hearts in air. Kept drawing them till one of them turned out just

perfect, immediately filling with pink energy and expanding. Expanding till it

blinded me with pink light.

When I opened my eyes, I was back at the garden. The ‘common

dorms', I think Vivian called it. The place with the lucky fountain. There

wasn’t anything out of order here too, but I saw someone. Another girl, just

having a walk. With brown fluffy hair. She was wearing that uniform I saw at

the breakfast hall. It was a uniform which looked like a uniform. Shirt tucked

it, shirt knee long with a tie and all. Which was really surprising, because

that means everyone I have met till now were openly breaking school rules by not

wearing a uniform.

“Excuse me.” I approached her, “Could I know your name?”

But she kept in walking, ignoring me.

“Would you tell me the time please?”

“Almost 9. You should be heading for your class now.” She

said in a very deep voice. Upon closer look, I saw that she was frowning.

“Ah, don’t worry about me. I was allowed to leave extra

early.”

“Hm.”

“Yeah, I like, fainted and all, so, you know, medical

reasons.”

“...”

“You still haven’t told me your name.”

“I know.”

“Could you please tell me your name.”

“Vi-Vinian, I think.”

“You think?”

“...”

“Ah, that’s a very pretty name. I have a friend with a

similar name. Her name is Vivian.”

The girl stopped her tracks. She looked into sky, as if not

wanting to meet my eyes. Still with the frown on her face, she said “I made a

mistake. I apologise. My name is Clara.”

“So, so what’s Vinian?”

“My tongue slipped.” She said, turning her back away from

me. “It’s now time for class.” She spoke.

“Say, do you know why a strange man wanted me to come

here?!”

“No. Do not disturb me any further. I am hear to enjoy a

walk, not to deal with a commoner’s foul breath.” Were her last words while

walking away.

“Well?” popped out Nanoja to my shoulder, “Did you confirm

what you wanted to?”

“I don’t even know what I wanted to confirm. I just feel so

strange.”

“There is nothing strange about that, you have always been

the type of girl to act accordingly to your whims.”

“Yeah, let’s go back before anyone notices.”

But, apparently, people did notice. Or, well, at least , a

person did. For as soon I opened my room’s door, I saw Vivian seated on my bed,

sipping a cup of tea.

“Ah, Flare. I was just waiting for you. Have a seat.”

I sat besides her on the bed. Even though she was calmly

drinking her tea, I was getting strong disappointed mother vibes from her. The

next thing she will say is ‘I am not mad, I am disappointed.’

“Flare, did you go to the common dorms?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Do you know why we stop you from going there?”

“I....never thought about that.”

“You didn’t even asked Ms. Redwood?”

“No.”

“Well, if you ask her, she will say something along the

lines of not having you influenced by those bad kids. She once had a very

talented student, who turned into a...less than average student after

interacting with them”

“Bad kids?”

“Well, they are commoners. Even if they entered here through

scholarship, bloodline does matter. Magic circuits are inherited. Our ancestors

waged wars on whose magic is strongest. Hence, only the strongest magic

wielding bloodlines are nobility. Very different from the royalty which gained

good circuits just by repeatedly marrying into other princesses.”

“Is..that so. Well, that was a good history lesson. Say,

it’s getting pretty late now, how about we just go to sleep?”

“Did you meet Clare?”

“Clare?”

“Yes.”

“No. But I did meet this strange person named Clara.”

“Yeah, that’s her. She just had a slip of tongue.”

“She said the same thing! She first said her name is Vinian,

and then changed it to Clara.”

“Yes, she tends to do that. So, what did she tell you?”

“Oh, her, she was very rude. She just ignored me and called

me bad words.”

“I see. So she is still like that. It’s nice to see she

hasn’t changed much.”

“Are you two friends?”

“...Flare. Have you ever caught a robber?”

“Are you changing subjects?”

“I am not. Just answer the question.”

“Well, yes. Many.”

“Did you ever thought that maybe the robber was robbing to support

his family?”

“Family? Why would a robber have a family?”

“Why can’t he?”

“Who in their right mind will marry a robber?! Robbers just

steal because they are greedy, you know?”

“I see. Remember our conversation. A few days ago, I think.

I asked about secrets, and you said people in your world don’t keep secrets.”

“Yes, I think that happened.”

Vivian took a deep breath, and released it with a sigh.

“Flare. Before you arrived...no. I don’t know how to tell

you this. Just..you know, we were told to act nicely.”

“Nicely?”

“Well, you are a Maagical girl. You can kill anyone of us if

you ever wanted. Hence, we had to walk on thin ice. Even before you came, we

were given a script to follow.”

“Wait wait wait. Everything is happening too fast. Are you

saying you became my friend only because you were told to?”

“No. Flare, you are such a nice girl. I would had become

friends with you regardless of what happened. But, it’s really hard to do that.

I know it’s only been 2 days, but..It’s really more of not my type of work.”

“I don’t understand what you are saying!”

“What I mean is, you look so innocent, and happy. And then

you fainted twice. And I heard they will use you for second’s wand. And, there

was him too.”

“Him?”

“That strange man you saw. This whole plan went into dust

just because of him. You can say we are having this conversation because of

him. To tell you what a bad person he is. Listen, Flare. That man you saw, he

is evil. Pure evil. He desires nothing but human torture.”

“Wh-who is he?”

“Flare. He is..I need to explain some terms to you first.

You know Insight? Not from your world, the one in this world.”

“No.”

“Insight is..wait, let me remember the textbook definition.

Insight refers to the generation of spontaneous thoughts due to natural forces like

expansion of universe and movement of planets. Do you get that?”

“Sounds a bit like Astrology, but yes.”

“Okay, the second term is Depravity. It means, it refers to

the physical changes in human body when it doesn’t follow ‘insight'. The

symptoms can range from mild headaches to death.”

“So, what does it has to do with that man?”

“It does, kinda. I don’t know how to approach this. How to

tell you. There is just so much, it’s difficult to form an answer. But here

goes, Flare.”

“Yes.”

“The man you met was God of this world..”