Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

—

Without Grim’s grounding presence to stabilize her, Yuu was certain she would not have slept a wink Thursday night. Fortunately, the small life warm in her arms was enough to lull her exhausted body out of reality and into dreams.

By the time she became aware of it, Yuu was walking a vast desert, cool sand sifting between her bare toes. Despite the deep navy blue of the star-studded sky, a certain brightness lit the scene with fluorescent clarity. Dimly, she was aware that the hodgepodge combination of these surroundings was impossible outside of her own mind, but even that recognition passed by like a floating feather.

Why have I been dreaming so often lately? She wanted to open her mouth to ask, but her voice was stuck in her throat. Yuu blinked and lost her train of thought as a gust of wind blew past her eyes. Like in any dream, she did not feel its chill.

You’re late, someone was sneering in the dark brightness of her mind; Yuu spun weightlessly and made out the shadow of a horse and its bearded rider bleeding from the sand-dunes. Though she could not see his face, she knew instinctively who it was. A figure from a movie, a man she had seen squinting down at her from Crowley’s office, an advisor she had only just remembered on the Magic Carpet hours ago...

Believe in me, you small-time thief, the shadowed man was cursing a cowering figure. A burst of sparkling light ignited the tremoring man and banished him into a gust of wind and sand. Both Yuu and the man on horseback were moving together with the trail of light, gusts whipping dashes of sand past her face painlessly.

Chase it! Hurry!

A vast, open-mouthed carving of a tiger rose ponderously from out of the sand-dunes on the far horizon. The world around her shook with the intensity and force of an earthquake; the sand around her bled into monochrome light and darkness. Colour faded from the surroundings and concentrated on the enormous Sphinx-like tower in a whirlwind of gold. The light bursting from its sightless eyes and gaping jaw lent an otherworldly, frightening air to its might that caused her to take in a shocked breath of caution. Unlike Yuu, however, the shadowed figure on horseback shook his fists excitedly in the air and cackled, Finally! My long-time dream is about to be fulfilled! It’s the...

Magic cave!

Bring me the lamp!

Quickly, bring it to me!

“—The lamp,” Yuu muttered restlessly to herself, curling her fingers around cotton. “Bring the lamp.”

“What are you talking about?” Fred II frowned across one of the Great Hall’s many tables, spearing a cut of bacon with his fork. “Lamp? You don’t need one if you’ve got a wand.”

“Fred?” Yuu blinked and rubbed her eyes. An unmistakable unruliness of Weasley red hair met her searching stare. Her friend’s grin was as playful and wicked as she remembered, but somewhat faded at the edges. She could not quite remember what his voice sounded like.

“I heard you fourth years are finally going to deal with fairies in Care of Magical Creatures?” he commented through a mouthful of breakfast. “Careful with those buggers now, Yuu. They might be stupid, but they’re real hard to catch.”

“Fairies?” Yuu repeated slowly. “But fairies aren’t in the fourth year curriculum. Fred...why are you here? I don’t exist in Hogwarts right now...”

“Why, that’s obvious!” Fred pointed his fork at her and narrowed his lively eyes. “I’m here to remind you.”

“Remind me,” Yuu repeated numbly.

“’Course. Can't have you thinking you can run away, can we?” he murmured. “No matter how hard you try, you don’t belong over there...”

“—up!”

Yuu burst out of the dream and flung aside her soft cotton sheets. With the desperation of a choking victim sucking in their first breath of unadulterated oxygen, she heaved out the magic smell of Hogwarts and greedily drew in Scarabia’s warm and bright morning.

It was only a dream. Dreams were the fabrication of the mind and held no ground in reality. Even if she might have seen something in the washroom mirror last night, surely the world would not be censuring her for existing here when it had sent her in the first place.

And last night’s image had not made any sense. For the boy with the bright green eyes did not belong in a House of red and gold. Surely he was not real, an illusion...

You don’t belong there.

Grim. Where was Grim? Yuu scrambled to find her partner before discovering him buried under the sheets she had thrown aside. He was blissfully asleep. Heady relief weakened her limbs; Yuu bent forward to let her head rest on the white tuft of fur under his neck.

I’m here to remind you.

Yuu shook her head furiously into Grim’s fur.

Someone was banging on the door insistently. “Wake up!” they seemed impatient. “Just how long are you planning to sleep? You’re lucky I'm a patient guy.”

The lock rattled around outside the door while Yuu recovered her wits. Although still confused with sleep and a nameless agitation, she finally realized where she was. Scarabia’s spare private room, on its low wood-framed bed, buried under fresh-smelling blankets, glowed with the soft light of morning—she had gone to sleep in her magically cleaned uniform last night. While she took stock of her bearings, Grim turned on his side and complained nasally, “No more bleu cheese crackers.”

The curly blond-haired student she had seen last night slammed the door open a few seconds later. He was glaring impatiently and tapping his foot, dressed fully in dorm regalia. The healthy bronze of his skin could not hide the defined muscles emphasized in crossed arms. “Just when are you planning on sleeping until? Especially that fat grey rat over there! Laziness is not permitted in this dorm, you know.”

“Fugah!?” Grim lurched out of his sleep briefly to scowl in the direction of the door before collapsing on his face gracelessly. “I might be grey but I’m not a rat! Stop bothering my sleep! Munya...”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that one,” Yuu said bemusedly, rubbing her eyes. “Why is everyone in this school so convinced that Grim is a tanuki or a cat or a rodent?”

“We have no idea what he’s supposed to be,” the golden-haired student told her rather reasonably. “We gotta associate him with something somehow, right? What do you call him then?”

“By his name?” Yuu lifted a brow. “Or a Monster, which is what he is, I guess.”

“...Fat grey rat rolls off the tongue better,” he muttered under his breath. “Whatever! Anyway, hurry up and get ready to go out. Didn’t Dorm Head Kalim tell you that we had a march this morning? If none of us can sleep in, neither can you, mark my words.”

Yuu reached for her phone. “It’s barely six in the morning,” she gave him a baleful look. “During the Winter Holiday, too. And I don’t even know what a ‘march’ is.”

Combined with her poor sleep last night, Yuu’s mood this morning was not at its peak. Unwanted problems kept piling up on her back, both in and out of dreams; additionally, having never been a morning person, she longed to bury her head under a pillow for the next day or so.

Golden Hair ignored her grumpiness. “Right now, the Scarabia dorm will proceed towards the East Oasis in a ten-kilometre advancing march. That includes the rat!”

“I said I’m not a damn rat!” Grim finally abandoned his half-asleep state and sat up with a snarl. “Who’s insulting me, you...wait. What did you just say? Advancing march!?”

“Ten kilometres is already kind of much...” Yuu frowned worriedly. “But over sand? Forget about me. Can you guys even make it?”

“Ten kilos!?” Grim stood up indignantly. “Why does the Great Grim have to do somethin’ like that!? And my henchman’ll collapse before we make it a tenth of the way through!”

“Thanks, Grim,” Yuu rolled her eyes, “I see you have ample faith in me.”

The student scoffed. “Stop complaining. So what if the Directing Student looks even girlier than my cousin? Dorm Head said you have to participate, so you have to participate. I'll give you five minutes to fix yourselves up in the washroom before I drag you out myself. By your hair. Now go!”

“But...” Yuu paused as she realized she didn’t have a name to call him.

Golden Hair lost patience with them and reached forward to fish Grim bodily out of his sheets.

“Lemme go!” Grim struggled fruitlessly in his arms. “I don’t wanna march or whatever! Henchman, save me! Funyaaaaa!”

“I can’t even save myself,” Yuu massaged her head tiredly before pushing herself off of the low bed and slogging towards the washroom.

This time, she pointedly avoided staring at the mirror while she brushed her teeth.

—

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO | The Shackles of Friendship.

—

Scarabia was unmistakeably beautiful during all times of the day. It looked stunning in the sunset, dazzling under the stars and moon, and with the new morning it possessed a soft glow lent by the surrounding sand-dunes that Yuu had never seen anywhere else. The pale blue of the brightening sky felt refreshingly cool on her bare arms as she stepped out from the dormitory castle to meet the waiting Grim, who had gone off to complain to whoever would listen about the lock that had prevented them from leaving the dorm last night.

Yuu thought that if she kept staying here she would lose all sense of the seasons. The bitter cold of Night Raven College’s campus and its snow-buried roofs almost seemed like an illusion from where she stood shading her eyes over the great sunlit domes of Scarabia.

“You look tiny,” Grim glanced her up and down from the doorway, unimpressed. “I feel like we’re starting to get closer to the same size.”

“It’s the black, I think,” Yuu ignored his frankly ridiculous statement and tugged at her borrowed Scarabia uniform’s inner tank-top. “Black’s a shrinking colour. I’ve got to say, this fabric is really nice. It's much more breathable than the school uniform.” NRC’s school uniform was already expensive enough, so she briefly wondered at the cost of the material and decided to stop while she was ahead.

“...You should put the hood on if you don’t want to risk sunburn,” Jamil Viper spoke up from where he was leaning by the staircase. “But I didn’t expect I’d have to magically modify the smallest size of uniform to make it fit.”

He had settled in his position without either of them noticing; Grim jumped briefly while Yuu turned towards the new arrival with a suppressed flinch.

“Yes, yes, I’m small and unimpressive,” Yuu masked her surprise with a roll of her eyes, following his advice and feeling the cool silk fabric of the hood settle over her ears.

“That’s not what I meant,” Jamil was still frowning suspiciously in her direction. A second later, he had erased the pressure from his brow and was smiling again. “...In any case, it looks very nice on you, Yuu. Even better than I expected. I’m sure Kalim will be happy to see you later.”

There it was again—the flattering, carefully ‘created’ voice he had used the night prior.

“...Senpai, you don’t have to do that,” Yuu followed him down the stairs and towards the long red carpet stretching into the ‘storage’ half of the dormitory.

“Do what?” Jamil humoured her while Grim hopped sprightly down the stairs ahead of them.

“That thing where you pretend to smile and flatter everyone,” she clarified. “Your voice becomes all emotionless and unnatural, kind of like one of those announcers on an advertisement. You seem a lot more genuine when you’re lecturing Kalim-senpai or telling me I’m being stupid or talking to yourself.”

“Very insulting,” Jamil said blandly, “I wasn’t aware that my voice was so annoying to you.”

“It’s not annoying! You could be a singer, it’s that good,” Yuu chased his longer steps out towards them ivory swan’s fountain. “I just don’t get why you have to say things you don’t mean...”

“Isn’t it easier to praise others and put them in a good mood?” Jamil noticed her jogging and slowed down a little. “That way they can become useful to you.”

“But if you have to hide what you really mean behind that...” Yuu sighed and shook her head as they passed the spout of water glittering in the light of the new day. “Never mind. I shouldn’t force my opinions on other people. I just thought that you might be putting undue stress on yourself, that’s all.”

Maybe the Overblots were affecting her excessively. Yuu had never used to be worried about things like this—right now, she even found herself a little annoying.

Jamil muttered something about her foolishness and worrying about others in a situation like this, but by now Yuu could tell when he was talking to himself and let the words pass by unchecked. In any case, he seemed a lot less tense without that carefully controlled subservient smile, so she didn’t mind being the butt of his joke.

Azul had advised her last night that sticking too close to Kalim or Jamil would be unwise because of the danger she risked. Yuu was aware that the three conditions she had promised him in return for their ‘contract’ this time around had serious consequences for her future in the Twisted Wonderland, especially if her safety was compromised, so she swallowed back the questions rising up her throat, but...

Right now, the person who she could not understand the most was Jamil Viper. For even if he did not hold the key to this mystery, he surely knew the method to obtain it.

Down through the cluster of castle-like storage buildings, one atop of where her ‘room’ was located, their smooth road sloped downwards to the gate hewn into the tall rampart wall. It was guarded on either side by a minaret that cast cool shadows over Grim and Jamil and plunged them almost out of view as they descended the final steep set of stairs out from Scarabia into the desert proper.

Atop the golden sand stretching out into a vast expanse clustered over a hundred students dressed identically in Scarabia’s dark uniform. Yuu felt her new sandals sink an inch into the soft grains and grimaced when she imagined trekking across ten kilometres of it. The only upside to this situation was the comforting grip of the rubber-leather bottoms on the soles of her feet, and perhaps the camouflage the uniform offered her. Now that she had her hood up, it seemed that almost no one could recognize her at a glimpse as the infamous Directing Student.

Yuu absently followed Jamil forward past huddles of yawning and talking students. She gave Grim a meaningful glance, reminding him of their talk last night, and jerked her chin towards the nearest group.

Grim returned her a flat stare before he sighed. “The things I do for my henchman,” he grumbled, before turning and sidling into the group of students where Coriander stood. A call of welcome floated back over to her ears.

“I’ll buy you ten tuna cans when this is all over,” Yuu promised over to him, cupping her hands around her mouth.

Jamil paused a few steps ahead, arching his brow. “Planning something?”

“I could ask the same of you,” Yuu shot back, reluctantly impressed that he had caught even their small conversation and movements. Were all vice Dorm Heads frighteningly observant?

He released a breath through his nose. “Even if you don’t trust me, it’s probably not wise to say it to my face.”

“I could say the same to you,” Yuu didn’t back down, but she made sure she was staring at the neatly braided row of golden ovals strung into his hair instead of his eyes.

“...Hmph,” Jamil turned away after a moment. He cast a quick glance across the gathered students. “Almost everyone’s here. I’m going to help Kalim get ready for the procession. Careful you don’t get stomped on.”

He’d diverted the conversation, which was well within Yuu’s expectations. Both of them knew the other was not quite friendly, but neither were they willing to take the final step forward into open hostility. Yuu, because she was at a disadvantage and still didn’t fully understand what was going on—Jamil, only he himself knew.

“...Wait,” she squinted belatedly at his slim receding figure. “Stomped on?”

It was only several minutes afterward, as the last stragglers trailed out of Scarabia’s open door, that Yuu understood what he meant.

Out of the mist haunting the warming morning air appeared a giant shadow blurred in the distance. Jamil headed unswervingly in its direction; she realized that he measured up to less than half of its height even this far away. But Yuu had enough experience training and observing magical creatures that she could tell the shadow was moving towards them of its own accord—it was alive.

“An animal...?” Yuu whispered to herself, following after Jamil unconsciously. But as the lumbering shadow emerged out from the mist, she trailed to a stop, craned her head back, and gaped gracelessly.

Kalim al-Asim had both feet planted upon the back saddle of an enormous elephant over twice the height of any student in the vicinity. Yuu could have appreciated the way he balanced himself lithely over the palanquin-like saddle of the animal, the shadow its curved ceiling cast over his richly coloured skin. Or the jade beads and expensive-looking cloths draped over its back, neck, and top of the elephant’s head. She could have admired the sheer impact of its movements as the elephant moved across the sand, sending clouds of dust and gold flying up with every heavy footstep. But her attention had been stolen completely by the face of the enormous grey creature that blinked heavy grey eyelids over its softly slanted eyes and lifted its long trunk briefly to sniff the air.

“Wow,” Yuu whispered in awe. “I’ve never seen an elephant in real life!”

Jogging closer, she could make out a long row of tall metal-tipped flagpoles rising behind the elephant’s back that pointed a long fading trail into the distance. Colourful drapes and pennants of fabric flapped cheerfully in the breeze, pointing their journey ahead of them. But all that was extraneous. Yuu still could not take her eyes off of the magnificent creature towering above the rest of the students; the unimportant figures of Jamil and Kalim and the nearby students faded from the forefront of her mind as she slowly made her way across to get a better look.

The elephant had caught sight of her by now—Yuu hadn’t been shy about approaching it from the front. For some reason, she thought she saw a human-like intelligence in its big heavy-lidded eyes that was not present in other non-magical creatures (at least from the animal videos she had watched back in her world). One large ear flapped briefly before the trunk lifted in the air and pointed towards her.

Yuu sensed curiosity bright and present in her direction. She eagerly approached the tip of the snout, unthinking of any consequences, and angled her head up to greet it with a wide smile. The nose bumped into her bare forehead, dry and warm; she felt a gust of hot and dry breath blast across her cheek. The leathery grey skin was rough and lightly lined with long hairs that irritated her skin and elicited a laugh. This elephant smelled of sun, sand, and wind as it curled its snout affectionately around her bare arm.

“—Hey...” Jamil was approaching her from somewhere to her right. He sounded harried, exertion in his hastened breathing. “Don’t just run in front of an elephant! He could have crushed your bones to pieces!”

Finally blinking out of her eagerly observing stupor, Yuu turned towards him with shining eyes. “It’s a he! Does he have a name? How old is he? Look at this trunk! It’s like twice the width of my arm! How much do you think he weighs?”

“You—are you seriously—” Jamil glanced between the elephant, who had tugged Yuu’s arm upright to play with, and her excited smile focused on him. He groaned and cupped his forehead. “I should’ve taken the beast tamer thing more seriously.”

“What?” Yuu leaned forward to catch his usual self-directed muttering.

“I said stop giving me a headache before seven AM!” Jamil snapped. “Dammit. Is there an idiot that runs straight at an elephant like that? Do you know how dangerous they can be!?”

“Can’t be as bad as a Manticore,” This time it was Yuu’s turn to mumble under her breath. In her defence, most magical creatures appreciated head-on confrontation. Dragons, Hippogriffs and all other manner of beasts and beings she had encountered hated sneak appearances the most—in fact, those often resulted in an unfortunate fate for the ‘sneaker’.

“Okay, okay, let the Directing Student go,” Jamil finally resorted to ignoring her completely and began to bodily haul her away from the elephant.

Both Yuu and the animal turned to stare dolefully at him.

A vein pounded in Jamil’s forehead. “We’re going to be late,” he seethed. “Kalim, say something!”

It was only then that Yuu realized Kalim, balanced atop the elephant like he was riding a skateboard, was staring emotionlessly down at her. The sunlight caught his scarlet eyes and cast beautifully curved shadows down the side of his face, his Dorm Head uniform. Briefly, Yuu wondered if those eyes were always this shade of crimson—she had the feeling the brilliant colour of his irises had been brighter somehow. But Kalim was frowning as he met her gaze; he seemed confused.

“Kalim?” Jamil yanked at Yuu’s shoulders again. “Call your elephant off.”

“...Elephant,” Kalim mumbled. He squinted at her, the weight of sobriety on his face frighteningly intimidating, before turning away. “—Hey, elephant. Let go.”

For the first time, the nameless elephant made a sound; it released a small trumpeting noise of protest that sent vibrations through her entire body and sent wind whistling through her clothing before reluctantly uncurling its trunk from around Yuu’s much thinner and paler arm. She forlornly waved at the creature while Jamil yanked her backwards through the sand, leaving two trails where her sandals dragged.

“More trouble than you’re worth,” Jamil muttered under his breath. This time she heard him clearly over her head.

“Um...sorry? I love animals,” Yuu explained helplessly. Due to her relative surety that the elephant would not have posed a danger to her, she hadn’t expected him to react that way, but from an outsider’s perspective she supposed that a person running at a much larger elephant was the height of idiocy. She hurried on, “Almost as much as I love new knowledge. Are we going to follow him through the desert?”

Before Jamil could answer her, or even release her shoulders, Kalim’s commanding voice echoed easily over the desert around them. “Listen up, everyone! Starting now, the gathered students of Scarabia will begin its advance towards the East Oasis!”

The elephant trumpeted loudly; its call silenced the chatter persisting across the flat desert area. Jamil finally released her and allowed Yuu to glance around. She was unable to see the surroundings for the crowd of over a hundred students dressed in the Scarabia dorm uniform; wearing the same clothing as them, Yuu felt like they had bizarrely begun to resemble some sort of cult.

Kalim was still speaking. “This training session will be heavy on the legs, waist and hips. Anyone who breaks formation will be treated to heavy punishment! Got it?”

“Yes, Dorm Head!” the hundred students shouted in unison around her. The sound echoed across the wide empty desert like the crack of a gunshot. Yuu echoed the affirmative a second after Jamil’s snappy response beside her, a little intimidated by the sheer volume of the answering shout. The elephant didn’t seem the least frightened, though. Without being asked, it began to turn ponderously around to display a swishing tail decorated with a thin golden chain.

“C’mon,” Jamil tugged her backwards one step as the students began to file into a neat formation behind the elephant. “I’m heading up the rear. You’ll take a spot in the last row. Grim is...”

“...does the Great Me really have to do something like this?!” Grim was complaining loudly a ways behind her back.

The blue-haired student beside him hissed out a shushing noise. “Don’t let Dorm Head’s attention fall on you! I know it sucks, but last time someone complained too much on a march he got dunked headfirst into the sand and nearly suffocated before we fished him out.”

“Funaaa! I thought that Kalim was a good guy!” Grim looked watery-eyed. “We shoulda never come here if it turned out he was just as scary as everyone else...”

“Shh! Do you want to get skinned alive!?” Coriander yanked at his ear. “C’mon, you can stick to my shadow for some respite, but stop talking so loud, you hear?”

“...Tyrants, the whole lot of ‘em,” Grim plodded past them despondently.

“Hmm,” Jamil blinked with a moment of blankness she was beginning to associate with his ‘surprise’. “...Well. That seemed to work out. Grim can stay with his new friends, then.”

“What if he falls behind and gets stomped on?” Yuu said worriedly. “Grim’s pretty good with running around, but he’s less than half the size of everyone else. If he can’t keep up...”

“Worry about yourself,” Jamil rolled his eyes, “your partner’s already made friends in the dorm, unlike you. Look at him.”

“I’ve got you, don’t I?” Yuu grinned cheekily at him, refraining from mentioning that Grim was moving under her request. “For whatever reason you’re not letting your dorm students murder me. And one Jamil-senpai is probably worth one hundred friends.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” he snorted at her, turning away. “In the first place I’m not doing this for you.”

“I know,” Yuu sighed, “In effect, I’m still surviving, though. I know that you’re doing a lot behind the scenes, but some of it has indirectly benefited me. So staying with you is probably safer than the alternative.”

Jamil frowned at her as the hooded figures passed them by. He flipped his own over his jet-black hair, cutting off the light of the sun from glowing against it. “If you’ve got time to move your mouth, move your legs instead. We’re heading out.”

“Setting out!” Kalim’s loud announcement echoed him far ahead.

Scarabia’s advancing march would have been utterly unbearable in the heat of the noon hour. Even now in the early morning—Yuu's smartphone, tucked in the pocket of her magically adjusted harem-style pants pocket along with her wand, told her it was only six forty-five—the sun beat down relentlessly on their heads. She was grateful for Jamil’s practical advice of suggesting that she keep the hood over her head. Without mentioning any protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, she was sure the heat against her skin would have been highly difficult to endure.

Even with the hood, Yuu grimaced in discomfort as she fell into rank at the back and wondered how long she would last.

As if responding to her dread, it only took a kilometre of marching for her thigh muscles to feel the slog. An unexpected discovery from her time dealing with magical creatures was that Yuu had not been exposed to long-winded fights in the taming of dragons, nor had she exerted great strength wrestling and beating back attacks. Her internship period had only been half a year, during which the creatures she had met were more-or-less hesitantly friendly towards her, and Charlie Weasley had been careful not to expose them to overly dangerous specimens (except for the one who tried to Curse her by her name). Even the more hostile creatures were dealt with several feet away with her wand outstretched. It was a case in which the wand was mightier than the sword. Or muscle, as it were.

Which meant that in September when she had landed in this world, Yuu had been almost laughably weak.

Therefore, physical education classes during her semester at Night Raven College were exhausting. Not only was her fortitude below average for a wizard or witch—which effectively meant she was as useful as a wet noodle, as wizards were not exactly known for their prowess in physical fortitude—but for some reason the students at NRC were all relatively physically fit, even the ones from Heartslabyul and Octavinelle (on the ground when they could maintain their balance, at least). Adding that to the relatively benevolent and absolutely muscle-obsessed Ashton Vargas meant that Yuu had been trained within an inch of her life. Several times she had to bow out during their first month so she could struggle to avoid throwing up on the grounds. Since she usually had a strong stomach and could digest slightly expired food without a problem, this was saying something.

Vargas was her favourite teacher for a reason. Although he would lecture about how she needed to improve, he never sneered at her for being unable to accomplish tasks that were basic for other students, nor did he give up right away. What was more, he had given her the shoes she still wore to this day and currently sat in her empty private room; he had given her a seat in her classes separate for Grim so their grading process would be fair to the both of them. All of these were completely new experiences she had never seen from another instructor in any world—that someone was behaving as an adult and taking responsibility for her existence. For someone like Yuu whose existence had never been considered welcome, it felt like a gust of fresh air.

So, even if Yuu hated physical activity and it prevented her from speaking to him more than necessary, she found Ashton Vargas highly agreeable for his actions alone. At this point, his obsession with his own appearance and musculature came very low on the ranking of strange or damaging quirks that NRC’s inhabitants possessed, anyway. And on some level, she was aware that his bragging and lecturing contained some form of truth. A good physical foundation could only help and not harm the growing magician—just look at her now.

So in the present, as Yuu trudged past her first kilometre at the tail-end of Scarabia’s neatly formed advance, she reluctantly appreciated the skills and practice that had been drilled into her daily for the past three and a half months. Without the daily runs, stretches, weight-training and sundry, she would have collapsed by now.

“—Here,” Jamil appeared by her left side and pushed something into her hands. He had gone to monitor the formation a while ago; she’d completely missed his return.

Yuu had been concentrating on the scattering of golden sand crunching beneath her sandaled feet as she walked, so for a moment she was convinced the bottle in her hands was water. A few blinks later revealed the bold label of SPF 50 on the bottle swimming out of the sunlight.

“Sunscreen?” she said dumbly, looking up at him.

Jamil’s resplendent dark skin and clothing posed a heavy respite in the burning sunlight and day of the desert. He pointed at what little of her pale shoulder was bared and explained succinctly, “I didn’t expect you to be that pale. If you don’t put on sunscreen, you’ll burn for sure. Sunburns get nasty for the pale-skinned in the Scalding Sands, so be liberal when you’re putting it on.”

“Oh...” Yuu realized that her arms were beginning to flush pink. She hadn’t even noticed nor realized how important sunscreen was in a situation like this. “Thank you, Jamil-senpai.”

“Pay some more attention,” he lectured her. Yuu was beginning to think that it was his favourite phrase to repeat. “And don’t forget the back of your neck, even under the hood. ...Should’ve realized earlier that you weren’t used to the area.”

The last sentence sounded suspiciously like an apology, but Jamil had already turned away and disappeared into the sea of black uniforms before them when she looked up in surprise. Yuu hesitated but let it pass in favour of squeezing out some of the sunscreen on her arm.

Small actions like this always reminded her of how smart, how observant, and how thoughtful Jamil Viper could be. She had only seen Ruggie Bucchi take care of someone so obviously and that was limited to Leona (and now, occasionally directed at her). But Jamil seemed to always be ‘taking care’ of someone. Though Kalim occupied most of his attention, in the past few days she had discovered that he fed the entire dorm, managed the training schedules this Winter Holiday, and even now was walking between the rows of students, offering a word and correcting a step.

It made Yuu feel sort of ashamed for being suspicious of him. Jamil could easily keep his observation private like Jade Leech, but instead he spared no effort in using it for his dormitory. She could not imagine how difficult or taxing it must be. Could someone like that be making untoward movements in the dorm he poured his blood and sweat into?

But at the same time, she remembered the curious haziness in her mind that lasted from their conversation last night—remembered the strange weight in his words and pressure in his eyes.

“I’m not cut out for this detective business,” Yuu groaned to herself. At the back of the great march of advancing students, no one heard her.

The thirst kicked in halfway through kilometre two. Yuu realized she was not the only one who had forgone water when the golden-haired student complained about it several steps ahead. His voice was slight, but when observing closer, Yuu could also hear Grim’s distinctive grumbling from further up in the rippling air as well.

Yuu felt the peeling skin of her lip and decided it was best not to dwell on the thought.

As they progressed and morning settled properly over the desert, dispelling the lingering mist, her limbs began to feel heavier; sweat beaded at her neck and face and felt sticky against the sunscreen she had applied generously under the hood. Three kilometres in, Yuu resorted to distracting herself from the burning in her thighs and calves by observing the bobbing hoods moving in front of her.

Scarabia’s parading march, like everything about the dorm, was extravagant and impressive. She didn’t know if the march itself was some sort of dorm tradition like the ones Heartslabyul carried proudly—and indeed, Yuu had heard much of Ace’s and Deuce’s complaints about being forced to sing some kind of ‘alligator song’, though at the time she had not chased the conversation further. But the elephant marching far ahead in the distance and Kalim standing underneath the shade of the palanquin atop its back looked like some scene out of a movie—a fairy-tale. Walking in neat rows of four behind him were his dorm students all wearing hoods of ebony streaked through with gold. In the centre of the row was a space through which Jamil paced, dark eyes alert under his own hood. The whole procession must have been over twenty-five metres in length up to Yuu, who straggled slightly behind the last row at the back.

The only positive about this situation was that no one seemed to recognize her under the hood of Scarabia’s dorm uniform. Or perhaps they did, but were more concerned about struggling past this endeavour... Yuu thought exhaustedly that both options were equally likely. Anyway, with Jamil walking back and forth among the ranks, no one was stupid enough to cause trouble, whether it was with her or with Grim.

“—Over there!” Kalim’s voice snapped through the air like a whip. Yuu jerked her falling head upwards; he had turned himself around and was glaring at the middle of the procession with his arms crossed. The shadow of the palanquin cover obscured the lustre of his eyes. “You’re breaking rank!”

“Le...lemme...take a break,” Grim wheezed back.

“Don’t expect me to be lenient on you!” Kalim turned back around and the shadow spread down his back to his feet. “Now, continue forward!”

“Funyaaa…”

“I feel like Kalim-senpai's vocabulary changes a bit when he’s...like this,” Yuu muttered to herself, dashing an arm across her uncomfortably warm forehead.

“Tell me about it,” the student she was walking beside grumbled. “Dorm Head sounds like one of those villains from an old film. Is he in his rebellious period or something?”

Startled by the quip, Yuu snorted out a laugh. “Like how some people start acting like the villain of whatever movie they watched last week?” She, Ace, Deuce and Grim had done their fair share of imitations.

“I wish it was that simple,” sighed the student. When he glared up towards the front of the procession, Yuu saw real vitriol in this expression. “...At this rate I’m gonna lose all my faith in Dorm Head as a good leader.”

“Hey! Come on, you can’t let this weird episode hurt your opinion of him! What if something else’s going on?” she protested instinctively. Yuu did not like that look. “Dorm Head has his own troubles, you know?”

“Well...you might be right, but what other explanation is there?” the student clutched at his hood wearily, losing the glare. “Gah! I can’t think with this heat! I never thought there’d be a day when I longed for NRC’s winter weather.”

“Tell me about it,” Yuu sighed, “I think I’m going to melt into a puddle if this keeps going any longer.”

“You mean dry up into nothing,” the student made a face. “A puddle wouldn’t last five minutes in this ridiculous weather. And it’s the middle of December, too. Imagine June...ugh.”

“Ugh,” Yuu repeated with feeling. The two of them traded grimaces.

Even their banter had faded into silence by the sixth kilometre. Yuu had no strength left to check the time on her phone, which felt like a stone in her pocket; the entire sky around them moved like shimmering liquid with the heat of sunlight. She stumbled and fell over in the sand before pushing herself to her feet. The grains burning against her palms brought consciousness back to her muddled mind.

It would have been nice to collapse here, but Grim was still ahead. And she still had a job left to do.

“...can’t even withstand this much is proof that your usual training isn’t strong enough!” Kalim’s commanding voice came from a far distance. “Blame your past self for slacking off, not me...”

Yuu struggled upright. The sky was swimming as if she was back under the Coral Sea. Sunlight burned in her lungs. Fixing her eyes on the receding backs of the Scarabia students marching forward ahead of her, she took in a breath of dry desert air and forced her legs forward once again, longing for the shadow of Ramshackle’s dark night.

—

“—Keep up the pace!” Kalim’s voice broke past the haze of red obscuring Yuu’s vision. “Lift your legs up higher. That’s you!”

“I...I can’t take it anymore!” someone was wailing in the distance.

“Break...breaktime,” another voice wheezed.

“Fools,” Kalim snapped, the pitch of his voice falling. “It’s exactly because of this mess you all are that we took last place in both the Magift Tournament and the exams!”

“Water,” Grim’s voice dragged with exhaustion. “If you don’t gimme water right now I’m gonna shrivel up into a husk...”

Grim.

“...ey. Hey, Yuu,” Jamil's nice-sounding voice was much closer to her ear. There was a firm band of pressure around her back that was hauling her forwards. “If you can understand what I’m saying, open your eyes.”

Grim was in trouble...she needed to help Grim... Yuu struggled to think past the haze in her mind. A second later, stifling heat hit her with the force of a brick. She stumbled. The warm band around her back stopped her from plunging irreversibly forward, and she finally realized that the band was an arm, that the scarlet in her vision was the sun beating against her closed eyelids—

The march!

Yuu wrenched her eyes open, uttered a bleat of complaint, and weakly shielded them from the beating ball of fire above their heads. “Where are we?” her voice was a dry croak.

“Don’t worry about that. Are you...” Jamil’s usually calm voice carried a line of tension. When Yuu feebly turned to her side, her eyes met the dark side of his hood. It was only then that she recognized the arm supporting her slack form was his.

“Jamil-senpai?” Even to her own ears, Yuu sounded rather stupid.

“Don’t talk either.” Jamil turned slightly so that she could see the furrow of his brow over his dark eyes. “You...never mind. It's not important right now. Are you feeling dizzy? Do you have a headache? Nausea?”

“I’m okay,” she responded automatically.

“You were mostly unconscious until now,” Jamil turned further so he could glare at her. “Don’t give me that ‘I’m okay’ crap. Why didn’t you say anything until you collapsed?”

“I collapsed?”

“Almost half an hour ago,” Jamil sighed. “You didn’t notice? I thought you were just stumbling again, like in the beginning, but after you didn’t move for almost three full minutes...”

“Thanks,” Yuu rasped. The air was still swimming. “I’m not so good with physical activity...I didn’t notice until now...”

“That’s got nothing to do with having stamina or not,” Jamil snapped. “How can you not notice you’re about to pass out?”

Yuu shrugged. She had no better answer than ‘I don’t usually pay attention to myself’, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t fly this time.

“I can stand by myself now,” she tried instead.

“No you can’t,” Jamil said sharply. “Your pulse is fast and irregular and your breathing is shallow. All signs of heatstroke, however mild. Until we reach the Oasis and get you some water, listen to me. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“Heatstroke?” Yuu echoed again, dumbly. So the faraway sound of air whistling was her own frantic breathing?

“We’re almost there,” Jamil ignored her. “Less than a quarter of a kilometre left until we reach the Oasis. Hold on.”

Yuu had no energy to appreciate the surroundings around them as they passed the last of the proudly waving flags. Absently she wondered how much stronger Jamil was than he let on; even in this weather, he did not so much as break a sweat almost fully supporting her weight across the sandy desert floor. The surroundings blurred for a few moments before coolness brushed against her skin. Shutting her eyes briefly, she opened them again to the shady insides of Kalim’s palanquin, glaring back at her in scarlet glory.

“It’s not hot?” Yuu blinked again and looked around. The ceiling that shaded them was domed in the centre and small cloth triangles dangled from the sides to shield her from the heat around them. Underneath where she was collapsed was the leathery back of the elephant draped in a scarlet saddle, and he had bent its legs to lie on the ground; on her other side was a flat-faced Kalim who stared into the distance. He did not seem to notice her presence.

Yuu once again felt a strange prickling at her neck, a dissonance in the air. Was it confirmation bias, or was there really something wrong with her friend...?

Jamil came jogging back from a distance. Yuu cast her gaze around the lofty perch and outside to the wide expanse beyond them, recognizing several familiar faces of the Scarabia students grouped together as they shed their hoods; then she looked up over the elephant’s grey head to catch the mouth of a massive depression in the ground ahead of them surrounded by a circle of withered palm trees.

“...Are we at the Oasis?” Yuu asked Kalim carefully, observing the emotionlessly staring Dorm Head still sitting beside her cross-legged.

After a beat of silence he turned towards her, frowning as if he didn’t know how to answer her question. “...I told everyone...to stop earlier,” he said slowly, voice still low.

Yuu squinted into his face worriedly. “Senpai, your eyes—”

“Yuu!” Grim leapt up onto the palanquin in two high bounds, preceding Jamil’s arrival close behind. “Jamil told me you fell over. Oi Kalim! My henchman can’t stand this much physical activity, y’know! Why are you pushing him so hard!? Weren't we guests?”

Kalim squinted at Grim. “...Can’t stand this much...” he repeated before frowning at Yuu.

“I’m okay!” Yuu hastened to assure him. “More importantly, senpai, your eyes—”

“Yuu,” Kalim interrupted her.

Jamil clutched one of the pillars of the palanquin, suddenly looking exhausted. “...We’ll take a fifteen-minute break,” he called over the crowd of students before them. “After that, we’ll begin the march back to the dormitory! Understood?”

“Finally!” someone collapsed to the ground.

“Water,” gasped his friend. “Need...water.”

Jamil dashed sweat from his brow and leaned heavily against the pillar, breathing hard. Yuu glanced worriedly at him before her partner came into her line of vision.

“Grim, are you okay?” Yuu asked her partner while he climbed up onto her knees.

Grim pushed the cool pad of his paw against her forehead. “That’s my line,” he grumbled. “You’re a weakling so you gotta be careful, dammit!”

“I didn’t think it would be that bad,” she protested.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. First you get too cold, now you get too hot,” Grim made a face. “Though honestly you’re not the only one. If I don’t get water soon I might evaporate into steam. I was all excited when we made it to the Oasis but just look at it! It’s freakin’ empty!”

“That depression in the ground is the Oasis?” Yuu looked over at it again and grimaced. “Water would be very nice right now.”

“...ter,” Kalim continued murmuring, still frowning at her. “Water...Yuu...water. Yuu, do you want water?”

“Obviously! Do you see my henchman!?” Grim turned to wave an emphatic paw at her. “Look at ’im! Jamil had to half-carry him here to your shady spot!”

“You’re overreacting!” Yuu lifted her partner and set him on her other side, her muscles protesting with the movement. She grinned hesitantly at Kalim. “Senpai, I—”

“Yuu!” Kalim took hold of both her upper arms, fingers cool against her skin. His voice rose in pitch. “What happened?! You’re all red and your eyes are unfocused! And your pulse is too light and fast!”

Yuu widened her eyes in surprise as he pressed two fingers to the side of her neck. Kalim possessed none of the pressure that had made him fearsome; instead, his jewel-like red eyes were bright with concern as they scanned her person.

“You’re the one who did this whole march thing,” Grim grumbled from her other side, frowning suspiciously at Scarabia’s Dorm Head.

“Okay,” Kalim said, nodding furiously, “okay, don’t worry. First you should lie down and lift your legs up. I’ll get you some cool water!”

“Wait, Kalim,” Jamil took an unsteady step forward.

“Jamil!” Kalim blinked and then smiled. “You look exhausted too! That’s not like you. Don't worry, I’ll make some water right away!”

“Make some water?” Yuu and Grim echoed simultaneously.

Scarabia’s Dorm Head sprung to his feet with a smile and spread his hands wide so that they overreached the shade of the palanquin and glowed in the late morning sun. “The respite among the burning sands,” his clear voice carried into the day. “—An unending banquet.”

“What’s he blabbering on about now?” Grim asked her in undertone.

Yuu’s slowly churning brain caught the heaviness underlying his words. She sat up straight. “This is like when Leona-senpai turned Ashengrotto-senpai's contracts to—it's the chant to a Unique Magic?”

“Sing,” Kalim commanded. A vortex of shimmering light gathered at his fingertips. “Dance! —Oasis Maker!”

The last word was accompanied by a thunderous rush of bells and wind before a distant hissing caught their attention. Yuu and Grim exchanged glances before sticking their heads out from under the palanquin and gazing upwards, where the relentless sun hung in the sky. The hissing was coming from above them—

A drop of water moistened Yuu’s cheek. She looked down and wiped it in confusion.

“Water!?” Grim’s shocked yelp brought her attention back up just in time for a torrent of rain to strike her upturned face. Extinguishing the burning sky that rippled around them, the rainfall sparkled with magic as it struck the ground, the astonished students, and Jamil, whose expression could not be seen.

“Aaaah!” Grim emitted in delight, abandoning his seat beside her to dive into the sun-shower with abandon. “Now this is what you call a ‘blessed rain’!”

“It tastes amazing,” Paprika stood up from where he had been lying flat in the sand. He held out cupped hands eagerly. “This is the kind of water that brings life back into withered trees...and me. Hey, stop pushing!”

“I’m alive,” the blue-haired student groaned from the ground.

“Magic,” Yuu repeated, craning her head into the sky. That rush of thunderous wind had been... “Kalim-senpai! You can control the weather?!”

“First we gotta get you some!” Kalim pulled out what looked like a golden goblet and stuck it out the side. “Keep your legs out, Yuu, it’ll help with the dizziness. Here ya go!”

“Thanks,” Yuu took the overflowing goblet from his hands, gazing into the magically summoned water. Despite not understanding how it had gotten there, she could see straight to the bottom of the cup; dimly, the water still sparkled with magic. Unable to resist her ravenous thirst, she took several big gulps before someone snatched the goblet from her hands abruptly.

“Idiot!” Jamil snapped from her other side. “You can’t just—!”

“Hey Jamil!” Kalim protested in confusion. “Don’t steal Yuu’s water, there’s plenty to go around!”

“You can’t just give a heatstroke victim water without warning, you moron, he’ll—”

Yuu’s vision lurched and nausea struck the back of her head. She planted a hand on the velvet carpet of the palanquin, trying to get her bearings. Voices contorted into white noise.

Someone pulled her off into air, worsening the sensation; then her dusty sandals touched rain-soaked sand. A set of hands supported her into the feeble shade of a completely withered, grey palm tree. Starbursts of nausea exploded behind her eyelids. Yuu collapsed to her knees, leaned forwards, and heaved.

“—anything for breakfast,” Jamil’s muttering filtered slowly back into her ears. “I’ll have to rework the schedule or at least get him something to eat. He’s way too thin to last the way back—dammit, should’ve anticipated this, at least...but in the first place, why is he this small…?”

Someone was patting her rhythmically between the shoulder blades. Yuu coughed, her throat raw, planted a hand by her knee to steady herself, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her vision swam briefly before righting itself to display the clear liquid she had vomited in the shady sand before the tree-trunk.

“You okay?” Grim was gazing up at her from her right side, hovering anxiously. “What happened? Don’t tell me you got fed poison or whatever in the food!”

“—Fine,” Yuu managed, pushing herself back on bent knees. “Just a little sick. One—one second.”

“You can’t directly feed heatstroke victims without cooling them down first,” Jamil said from her left. Once again, it was his hand that had been thumping her on the back. “Well, the rain that’s still falling should help a little with the heat, at least, but I’ll put some cool towels on your neck and limbs for around ten minutes. Then you can have water to drink, got it?”

Now she realized that sparkling water was still falling down around their heads, a relentless blessing that stuck her hood to her skin. Yuu took it off and felt the cool droplets beat on her cheeks with a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Jamil-senpai.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Jamil frowned.

“You helped me across the desert and just now, you half-carried me to the tree. Without you I wouldn’t have made it here at all,” Yuu said sincerely. She met his eyes. “Thank you. I owe you for this.”

Jamil made a very strange expression that seemed unusually painful before turning away. “...I’ll take you back to the shade. You shouldn’t be out in the sun when you’ve got heatstroke.”

“Jamil-senpai?” Yuu called out, but he didn’t answer her.

Fortunately, Yuu’s episode of heat sickness was relatively mild, and after elevating her legs like Kalim had said, she recovered quickly with the cool towels pressed against her pulse points. Several goblets of clear, fresh water later, she finally felt clear-headed enough to assuage a worriedly staring Kalim from beside her on the palanquin.

“It was probably just some nausea,” she assured him from where she leaned against a pillar, smiling as a nearby Grim gurgled over at her from a distance where he was gathering rainwater into his open mouth. “And it wasn’t your fault. You just wanted to help.”

“But I,” Kalim scrunched up his face before he awkwardly flipped the wet towel laid against her forehead. “I still...”

Yuu caught his receding hand and squeezed it. “Tell me about that magic. Was it your Unique Magic?” she asked eagerly. “I’ve never tasted water that delicious in my life. You know if you bottled it, I bet you could make a killing...”

“Is that right?” Kalim finally grinned back, lacing their fingers together. “You thought it was that good? I can fill up the empty Oasis with water if you want, no problem!”

“The entire Oasis!?” Yuu gaped. The wide depression in the ground ahead of them was at least a kilometre wide. Even Yuu’s own powered-up Aguamenti wouldn’t fill a tenth of the deep crater if she concentrated hard. “That’s amazing!” Was it where the title had come from?

“My Unique Magic’s called The Unfading Blessing,” Kalim settled himself more comfortably by her side and waved his free hand at the surrounding rain sparkling with the light of magic. “Or Oasis Maker, if you prefer. Fitting, right? I can use just a tiny bit of magical power to create a ton of delicious-tasting water!”

Grim climbed the elephant’s hind leg to dangle over the edge of the palanquin. He swallowed his own mouthful of water and made a face. “So basically your Unique Magic is ‘a bunch of water comes out’? Gotta say, that sounds kinda boring. Basically everyone else can cast water-based magic too...”

“Don’t say that!” Kalim exposed his white teeth in a grin. “The whole selling point of my Oasis Maker is that it uses up practically no magical power at all. Actually, if we were living in an era where irrigation and running water hadn’t been established in the country, the existence of this Unique Magic would’ve eliminated the need for travelling long distances to collect water, or sterilizing water by heat to kill bacteria...I swear it would’ve been considered a priceless treasure!”

Yuu listened intently, impressed by the scope of Kalim’s considerations. Usually, it was easy to mistake him for someone who only thought about partying, but times like these reminded her that those in a position of responsibility like he had the weight of cities or countries on their shoulders, if only for noblesse oblige.

“Another era?” Grim wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, unimpressed. “But that means it’s not useful now.”

“I guess,” Kalim laughed wryly, “Just like you said, now that running water’s a common thing, thanks to advancements by the legendary advisor to the sultan, it’s a magic that isn’t really useful. Ah ha ha!”

“That’s not true at all,” Yuu removed the warming towel from her forehead. “Kalim-senpai, your Unique Magic is just as amazing as the other ones I’ve seen so far.”

“Huh?” Grim squinted at her. “Are you still dizzy or something? He just made it rain.”

“Exactly! He made it rain,” Yuu said triumphantly, sitting up. “It’s one thing to conjure water with magic like you guys are taught in class. But remember, we heard a really loud noise when Kalim-senpai used his Unique Magic! And if he was really conjuring water, why wouldn’t it just appear in a gigantic wave and flood the area?”

“’Cause it’s raining out of the sky instead?” Grim blinked. “Though...what does that loud wooshing sound have anything to do with anything?”

“This is just my guess,” Yuu cautioned, “But that noise sounded like wind coming from really far off. I’m not a meteorologist or anything—do those exist in Twisted Wonderland?—but what’s happening right now looks like actual rain and it’s not just water coming out of the sky from nowhere. I think that Kalim-senpai is not only summoning the rain, but he might be actually changing the weather from miles away to ‘create’ a sun-shower. That's absolutely amazing! I don’t think I’ve heard anyone doing that before, ever.”

Kalim gaped at her. “Changing the weather? But it’s sunny!”

“That loud wind and rumbling noise,” Yuu clarified. “I think it’s the noise of a storm forming several miles away. That, plus wind, is what usually creates a sun-shower like this. Back in Japan...er, where I studied abroad, we’ve got some fables about this kind of weather too, by the way. One of them is something about the fox is welcoming his bride.” Apparently, ‘fox demons’ or whatever they were really called actually existed in the land surrounding Mahoutokoro, though she had never seen one before.

“I guess changing the weather sounds a lot cooler than summoning water,” Grim acceded her doubtfully. “Whatever. At least it tastes good. That makes it pretty much more important than anything.”

“To you, maybe,” Yuu rolled his eyes. “Careful, Kalim-senpai. Even if it doesn’t take much magical power to activate your Unique Magic, you shouldn’t let Grim drink you out of house and home.”

“How do you do that?” Kalim was staring at her in a slightly dazed manner.

Yuu blinked. “Sorry?”

“You always surprise...no, it’s like you’ve brought in a completely different spin on things I always took for granted,” he shook his head with amazement. “Yesterday too. I’m starting to think it’s not my Unique Magic that can be a priceless treasure.”

“Maybe since I’m an alie...er, since I’m ignorant,” Yuu corrected herself. “I feel like I tend to be pretty annoying too since I don’t know anything about you or your culture...”

“Annoying? It’s like...like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert,” Kalim told her vehemently, tightening his hold on her fingers. “Don’t sell yourself short, Yuu. You can really brighten up someone’s day with how you focus your attention so single-mindedly on them. At least it’s saved me several times already.”

Embarrassed, Yuu attempted a grin. Kalim was unabashedly genuine in his words, and Yuu had not yet learned how to accept praise like that naturally from anyone other than Deuce Spade (who was far from this gregarious). With the Savanaclaw students she knew, it was easy to run away, but right now all she could manage was a few words. “Oh...uh...th-thanks.”

“I don’t know if you get it,” Kalim narrowed his eyes a little bit, catching her hand as she untangled it from his. “Listen to me, Yuu...”

“Um...This water really is delicious!” Yuu scooted backwards and forcefully changed the direction of the conversation. To disguise her warm cheeks, she picked up the mostly empty goblet and waved it at him.

Grim squinted between them, looking confused.

Kalim gave her a slightly unsatisfied glance. “...Well, I’ve got some confidence that the water I create is the best-tasting water in the world,” he conceded after a second.

“Right, now that you mention it,” Grim sucked in a breath that told Yuu he was going to launch into a food report (in this case, a water report). “The coolness in this water feels really nice to the stomach and my throat when I swallow it, but there’s no hardness or strange aftertaste. And it’s not tepid at all. The freshness resembles spring water and it’s got the mellow kind of taste that means you can gulp it all down without hesitation!”

“...Can Monsters taste the difference between water?” Jamil said from Grim’s other side.

“Gyah!” Grim flinched. “Where’d you come from!?”

“Grim can taste the difference between anything,” Yuu informed him. “Actually, his vocabulary also improves suddenly when he starts his whole critiquing mode.”

This time, she had seen Jamil approach them a few seconds before he had spoken, though it might have had something to do with the extra attention she was affording his movements. In any case, it was a good distraction from the persistent pout Kalim was pointing in her direction at the conversation change.

“Damn straight!” Grim recovered from his surprise and gave Jamil a sharp-toothed grin. “My sense of taste is always on-point, y’know.”

“He’s really good,” Yuu agreed proudly. “Did you know Grim can taste the difference in the freshness of eggs? Like I’ll scramble them in the morning and he’ll say ‘This one’s a week old, we need to get new ones’ or something. And milk, too.” Yuu herself could tell apart the taste of ingredients if she tried, but compared to Grim, she came up woefully short on the ‘freshness’-tasting skill. It didn’t help that Yuu didn’t eat half as much as her partner.

“Ha ha! That’s amazing!” Distracted, Kalim reached forwards to pat Grim’s round head with a grin. “I thought Grim would be a guy that could see the difference. I’ll reward you a cracker for that!”

“Reward?” Yuu repeated with a blink as Kalim pulled out a tin of crackers. “Where does he get all this stuff from?!”

“We deal in a system of rewards back in the mansion, so he’s used to handing things out in return for...well, a lot of things,” Jamil told her in undertone. “Also, it’s not that hard to hide something in the folds of your clothing. Even Kalim can do that much.”

“Ugh...I’m always hungry, but I kinda don’t want to eat dry crackers right now,” Grim was edging away from Scarabia’s Dorm Head, eyes teary.

“Right,” Yuu remembered. “Jamil-senpai, you looked kind of pale earlier. Do you have heatstroke too? Do you need to rest more?”

“Don’t compare me to you,” Jamil snorted. “I could go on all day without any problems. But Yuu...”

Yuu cocked her head and prompted him to continue.

Jamil considered her with narrowed eyes. He had been giving her this slightly suspicious look all day today, but Yuu could not understand why; she returned the look with a blank one before remembering to avoid his eyes. Although not very good at clearing her mind of thought, creating a false wall of memories was surprisingly easy when she remembered Grim and Ace and Deuce.

This Occlumency thing didn’t seem that difficult when she pondered on it a little.

“...I’m probably overthinking it,” Jamil muttered to himself. “...Anyway, be careful. You’re kind of more... fragile than I expected, so if you can’t take the ten kilometres, tell me. Today you’ll sit with Kalim on the way back, got it?”

“But I—”

“Got it?”

It wasn’t a real question. Yuu shrunk a little. “Yes sir.”

“Taking care of your body is an important part in this training too, you know,” Jamil explained. “And using the resources around you when your own aren’t enough is essential in making it out of situations unscathed. Watching you stumbling everywhere by yourself is bad for my blood pressure.”

Yuu lifted both brows to stare at him.

Jamil stopped talking. “What?”

“You always do that,” she observed. “From back in October when we cooked together in the kitchen, you always become more genuine when you start lecturing me. And even a couple of days ago...Senpai, do you like lecturing people or something?”

“No, you moron,” he rolled his eyes, “it’s because you seem to be unaware of the simplest common-sense rules that exist. Watching you is like watching a train-wreck in progress...I don’t remember my little sister being like this...”

“Oh! That’s what it was!” Yuu put her fist in her hand triumphantly. Behind them, Kalim was shoving a cracker in a protesting Grim’s mouth. “You’re an older brother! You know, until now, I always called Ruggie-senpai a mom, but when I think about it, he’s basically an older brother to the people in his neighbourhood too. Actually, until now, I couldn’t make the connection at all, but after Ortho talked about his older brother I realized that such a relationship could exist too...”

Perhaps she should have recognized it after meeting Jade and Floyd, but their sibling relationship was so special even without the whole ‘different species’ thing, that it had taken Yuu’s terrible social muscles until now to really understand. Somehow they seemed a little different from the definitions of ‘siblings’ she was familiar with.

Siblings. Jamil had a sister. Yuu wondered what it would be like to have a sister. A family.

“I don’t even know why I said that just now. It’s not important whether I’m an older brother or not,” Jamil groaned, rubbing his temple. He paused. “...You’re an only child?”

“Yes. I’m not very knowledgeable on stuff like family relationships,” Yuu admitted sheepishly. “The only relationship I’ve experienced outside of reading or watching them is friendship. I think Ashengrotto-senpai was laughing at me about this earlier when I asked him to be my friend. You think I should have asked him to be my brother instead?”

Jamil stared at her.

“...Did I say something wrong again?” Yuu ventured tentatively.

“No,” he responded calmly, “Just trying to figure out your past and your brain.”

“Why do I feel like you’re insulting me?” she muttered under her breath.

"Hey! Kalim! What’s wrong with you!?” Grim spluttered through a mouthful of cracker, batting at his reaching hands. “Water! I need water!”

“Right here!” Kalim said cheerfully, pulling out a second goblet.

“This guy’s like a whole different person from when we set out this morning! Funaaa!”

“Different person?” Kalim gave him a confused smile. “What’cha talking about?”

“—Right.” Jamil straightened. “I shouldn’t be wasting time talking to Yuu. The fifteen-minute break got extended to half an hour already to deal with your heatstroke...we should be heading back now. Kalim!”

“Huh?” Kalim turned towards him with a grin.

“Can you gather the rest of those foolishly frolick...the students on break and start them on the march back to the dorm?” Jamil asked, waving a hand at the students running pell-mell below them.

“Already? Yuu’s barely recovered!” Kalim cast her a worried glance. “Can’t we take a few more minutes to rest? Everyone’s exhausted too, aren’t they?”

“That’s exactly why we need to go back as soon as we can,” Jamil shaded his eyes with a hand and glanced up at the drizzle fading away into the mid-morning sky. “If we wait any longer, the sun will rise up further. If the temperature rises any further, Yuu won’t last even under the palanquin with you.”

“You’re right! Jamil’s always got the big picture in mind,” Kalim said with a big smile before he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “He~y everyone! Let’s go back to the dorm and eat breakfast. Do your best on the way back, and let me know if anyone’s gonna pass out, okay?”

Paprika squinted incredulously in their direction. “He’s normal!?”

“Shhh!” the golden-haired student smacked him in the back of the head. “Keep your voice down!”

The blue-haired student was squinting in their direction, but Yuu could not make out his expression under his hood.

“Normal,” she repeated. But Paprika had a point. Kalim had been anything but ‘normal’ earlier when his commanding voice was so deep and intimidating. The attitude he displayed had been a world different from the worried boy who offered her a full goblet of water; his vocabulary completely incompatible with his usual word choice. And the colour of his eyes...

Yuu remembered the frustration of the student who had marched beside her this morning, how he had suspected his Dorm Head of behaving like a tyrant, and felt the beginnings of panic rising low in her gut. That student was far from the only one on the verge of losing their faith and trust in Kalim. Paprika had forcefully silenced the dissenters in the kitchen, but even he had been surprised at Kalim’s sudden change in personality today.

At the end of her swirling thoughts was a single solution: to corner Jamil for a serious conversation. For regardless of how suspicious the vice Dorm Head may be, failing to take action at this critical juncture was tantamount to dangling Kalim’s reputation over the edge of an abyss. From what she had learned through her dealings with Azul, reputation was more important than expected in a closed-off campus full of armed magicians like NRC. So even if Jamil wasn’t the endpoint of her suspicions, he was a pivot that she had to bypass.

“Do you trust me?” Kalim had asked her last night with constellations of stars in his eyes.

Yuu had already made her decision long ago, before she risked a third contract with Azul Ashengrotto. It had everything to do with trust, and simultaneously it had nothing do with trust at all. For, just like during the Octavinelle incident, she was increasingly aware that her actions came from a fountain of her own ego and selfishness.

Jamil, with the unseen burdens on his shoulders and the title of attendant she had yet to dig through the meaning of, was someone she not only wanted but needed to understand if only for the boy who had looked up at the moon and spilled his solemnest worries to her and the dark sky. Even if she knew it was a better idea to pull back now... even if it would pull the world down around her ears again...

Yuu didn’t want to turn a blind eye.

The back of her neck prickled again.

—

To Yuu’s surprise, the muttered conversations and covert stares in the lounge told her that many of Scarabia’s students had long recognized her during their morning march. It didn’t help that on the return trip, Kalim refused to let her climb down from the elephant’s back, drawing even more attention. And yet, to her further shock, no one needled her for special treatment nor singled her out for failing to stand the ten-kilometre trek across the desert sand.

“Why do you think they’re not angry?” Yuu asked Grim after breakfast, hugging one of the lounge’s soft cushions to her stomach. Around them, low chatter filled the room, though a good percentage of the students had collapsed, exhausted, to the soft carpet. Several were already snoring.

“Nnnah?” Grim released gracelessly from where he reclined, full-bellied and sleepy, on the cushion beside her. “Why do you always think people are mad at you or hate you or whatever?”

“In this case, it’s ’cause they do hate me,” she said dryly. The resentful eyes facing her last night were obvious even to someone unused to social situations like Yuu. Additionally, Jamil had warned Kalim against setting her on the elephant beside him in case Yuu meet some sort of revenge for it last night. Yet so far, not a single person had so much as glanced at her in disgust over breakfast, although no one took the initiative to approach their corner of the carpet, either.

Had they transitioned from ‘hate’ to ‘utter indifference’? Yuu regarded the room carefully over her teacup.

Like Kalim had requested yesterday, breakfast this morning was a traditional meal from the Scalding Sands that left a vaguely burning aftertaste in Yuu’s mouth even as she sipped at a refill of cooling jasmine tea. The spices Jamil used were, although similar to the ones found in her world, somehow slightly distorted so that each bite was—in Grim’s food report’s words—a ‘new adventure’. Yuu pondered briefly why the foods here were slightly different from the ones she was familiar with, Japanese cuisine or not.

“Hey,” someone said from her left. Yuu blinked out of her thoughts and turned. Balanced beside her at eye-level was the blue-haired student that had stuck beside Grim this morning during the march. The same one that had eagerly chatted with him two nights ago. His full head of short, wavy hair obscured his brows and lashes, but even crouched he was much taller than her and built rather stockily with skin the colour of ripe wheat.

“Hello,” Yuu blinked owlishly up at him.

“Um...are you okay?” the student asked her hesitantly.

“Okay?” she repeated.

“Yeah, you...” the student grimaced. “This morning, most of us saw vice Dorm Head half-carrying you over to the shade and...”

Yuu remembered the sour taste of bile in her throat and made a similar wince. “Oh. Right. Um, yes, I’m okay. You all saw that?” Now that she thought about it, vomiting was a highly embarrassing affair and one she’d never had to suffer through before now. It seemed that even her relatively strong stomach could not overcome heatstroke.

“Everyone noticed you struggling to make it at the back from the outset in the first place,” sighed the blue-haired student. “I think most of the other guys were expecting you to give up and show you ‘true colours’ somewhere along the line, but you didn’t.”

“True colours,” Yuu echoed again, bemusedly. “Come to think of it, Paprika-san was saying something like that earlier too. What does that mean anyway?”

“‘Paprika’...never mind. I’m starting to think that everyone’s worried for no reason,” the blue-haired student mumbled weakly. “Well, anyway. Someone as stick-thin and weak-looking as you shouldn’t have gotten roped into this whole mess in the first place, so a few of us realized that you’re probably not the culprit when you got trapped in the dorm last night...if you were actually the bad guy, last night would’ve meant you getting stabbed by your own poisoned dagger, so to speak. And it would’ve been our fault for getting tricked by such a stupid puppeteer.”

Puppeteer. That word again. “I’m here to help,” Yuu said earnestly. “Not to be whatever culprit you’re talking about.”

“I sort of get that feeling,” he laughed. “In the first place, you might not be stupid, but you’re definitely not nimble enough to run circles around Scarabia’s students, of all dorms. No offence, but you don’t look like you’ve ever developed a scheme in your life with those big shiny eyes. Do you play chess?”

“Not as well as I would like,” Yuu’s shoulders slumped, remembering her almost exclusive losing streak against Leona.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

She peeked up at him consideringly. “So...um...”

“I’m a second year,” the student clarified.

Somehow unsurprised that he refused to disclose his name, Yuu shrugged and continued, “So senpai, why are you talking to me?”

The student blinked, though she could barely detect the movement under his wavy hair. “...Why do you think I’m talking to you?”

“I don’t know. By all rights, you and everyone else hate me,” she said helplessly before catching sight of her lightly dozing partner. “Oh, is it for Grim? You seem to have made friends with Grim. He's a little brash, but he’s not bad at all, you know.”

“You noticed? I’ve been trying to be quiet about it, but...” the student grimaced. “Well, that’s close, but it’s not the reason why.”

“It’s not?”

“You’ve probably never recognized me before this week,” he rocked back on his heels with a rueful grin. “But you helped me out a couple of weeks ago. You know...that big incident... Anyway. It's nothing like false pity or compassion or something stupid like that. I just owe you, that’s all.”

“Owe? Me? I didn’t do anything though,” Yuu said blankly.

She could barely make out his eye-roll under the fringe of hair. “Whatever. Just take it easy after heatstroke, kid. You look like you’re doing pretty well for someone who was puking his guts out a couple hours ago, so I guess there’s nothing else for me to say, but it’s more exhausting than it seems. Well, try your best to survive around here.”

“Wait a second, senpai,” Yuu protested, but the second year had pushed himself to his feet and was walking away out of the entrance, waving his hand lazily in the air.

Grim’s snore broke her out of her thoughts. Yuu absently smoothed the white tuft of fur below his neck and wondered just what she had done for the blue-haired student to ‘owe’ her. Come to think of it, ever since the morning, she had not felt the prickling pressure of hundreds of unfriendly eyes trained on her person. Was the upperclassman right? That the Scarabia students believed that Kalim’s strangeness was her responsibility...

But if she had been suspected as a ‘culprit’ behind Kalim’s strange behaviour lately, then how long had these episodes been going on?

More importantly, did this mean the students of Scarabia trusted Kalim enough to find a ‘puppeteer’ to blame for his recent storm of actions?

Maybe it wasn’t too late...

Or perhaps all her ideas were just conjecture and the students were merely too tired to glare at her right now. Thinking up new possibilities wasn’t going to solve anything in this situation. Yuu clapped her hands to her slightly sun-reddened cheeks and decided to plan an encounter with Jamil today.

First, she had to figure out where he was.

Unfortunately for her, as soon as the Scarabia advance had returned to the dormitory castle, Kalim and Jamil had taken the elephant off to where it presumably lived. Yuu was eager to follow them and perhaps spend some more time with the magnificent creature, but Jamil had commanded her to rest in the lounge with the rest of the dorm students, so she had no idea where they had disappeared after parting.

The students that had distributed food that morning had talked among themselves about how Jamil had done most of the prep work last night, which meant all they had to do was reheat the food on the stovetop; Kalim, who was supposed to direct the ‘defensive magic practical lessons’ he had yelled about last night, had yet to appear. Yuu glanced around restlessly but found nothing useful.

That was fine. She'd just have to figure out their location by herself.

Piling her soft cushion and a few more up by Grim to support his head in case he rolled over, Yuu pushed herself ponderously to her feet, which still ached from the morning’s trudge through the sand. As she was still clothed in Scarabia’s uniform, the contours of the sandals’ soles helped with obtaining balance; after wobbling once, she slowly made her way across the carpet and around sleeping or lounging groups of students, searching diligently.

“—can’t figure out this problem,” Paprika was saying loudly as she approached his group. “Help me out here! I’m almost there, I just need a hint!”

“Hint: read the textbook,” Baharat responded in monotone. They were bent over a wide spread of textbooks and loose-leaf lined paper dashed through with messy writing.

“Thanks. Real helpful. Why didn’t I think of that earlier.”

“If Dorm Head catches me with homework unfinished again he’ll actually throw me out from the open balcony over there this time,” Baharat snapped, scribbling without a pause. “I got no time to waste for you, so cut it out. Curse yourself for being slow.”

“Your face is slow! Who’s the one sitting around doing homework that should’ve been done yesterday?”

“Like you have the right to be saying that.”

“Heh. It’s not like you have the brains to get this problem anyway.”

“Is that the attitude of someone asking for help?”

“If I help you solve that problem, will you answer a question for me in return?” Yuu asked from beside Paprika, peeking over his shoulder.

“Ah?” Paprika scratched his spiky sand-coloured hair absently. “Sure, if you can figure out this nightmare—uwah! The Directing Student!?”

“Good morning,” Yuu sunk into seiza and examined the fan of papers scattered around him. “Magical Analysis? Come to think of it, Paprika-san, what year are you in?”

“What—you—I—” Paprika spluttered, pointing his Magical Pen at her in surprise. Yuu leaned back to avoid the metal tip swinging past her nose. Across from him, Baharat had raised his head to frown at them suspiciously.

Yuu was aware that she had a terrible reputation among these two in particular, but even so she at least knew their names (or what passed for them). The blue-haired student had marched straight out of the door, leaving these two and Coriander. By hook or by crook, she needed to know where Jamil was as soon as possible. So she met Paprika’s incredulous glare with a calm stare before glancing back down to the worksheet full of equations and proofs.

“...Not a first year then,” Yuu commented weakly after a moment.

“Scarabia’s distribution of second years is a little high,” Baharat explained, still staring at her suspiciously. “...Did the heatstroke kill off all your brain cells or something? I can’t think of another reason why you’d willingly approach us. Before now you ignored us completely.”

“Well that was because you guys were glaring at me with the intensely burning fury of a thousand flaming suns,” Yuu gave him a flat stare. “Usually when people hate me that obviously, it’s a bad idea to interact with them.”

“That’s obvious. I was starting to wonder if you had some strange hobby of purposefully damaging yourself or something,” muttered Paprika.

“So that means you’re ‘interacting’ with us now for a reason,” surmised Baharat, crossing his arms. “You know we have homework due every day thanks to this whole training boot camp thing, so before Dorm Head comes in waving his staff around and trying to murder the lot of us, we don’t have time to be fighting you.”

“I don’t want to fight anyone,” Yuu rolled her eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes at your upperclassman!” Paprika snapped.

Yuu paused and gave him an odd look. “People do a lot worse here at NRC. Is the top-down hierarchy in Scarabia really strong or something?”

“Well you can’t... What?” Paprika stalled to a halt.

“You noticed?” Baharat lifted a brow. “We’re not as cautious around here as those quiet Octavinelle guys, but the Scalding Sands has got a long history of stratification. It’s kind of natural for the same feeling to develop here in Scarabia, especially if your Dorm Head is Kalim al-Asim of all people.”

“I had a feeling,” Yuu said thoughtfully. “Paprika-san listens to Jamil without hesitation and the rest of the dorm students are strangely obedient.”

“Collectivistic societal country,” Baharat rattled off. “You might learn about it in Magical History next semester.”

“It’s not ‘strangely’ obedient, it’s called respecting your freaking superiors,” Paprika sneered at her. “If you’re stuck here you’ll have to do as the Scarabians do and smarten up real quick.”

“‘Scarabians’ isn’t a word, doofus,” Baharat put in helpfully.

“Your face isn’t a word.”

“Is that the only insult your tiny brain can come up with?”

Yuu had adjusted to Wizarding society once from her closed-off muggle world, and now she’d been immersed in Twisted Wonderland where all the values seemed turned upside down, so she could adjust to Scarabia a third time without more than a shrug. “Okay, senpai. Sorry if I offended you.”

“And don’t—” Paprika screeched to a stop again. “...Huh?”

“Hmm,” Baharat emitted. He had stopped glaring at her and was now tapping his Magical Pen rhythmically against the open page of his textbook. “So you’re not here to fight. Then are you here to negotiate?”

“Bingo,” Yuu grinned sheepishly at him. “I guess the blue-haired senpai was right. You can all see through me pretty easily.”

“You’re too straightforward,” Baharat shrugged his dark shoulders. “I bet you suck at chess.”

“Does everyone play chess here?” Yuu grumbled under her breath.

“That guy beside you’s the second year champion,” he heard her anyway.

Yuu spun to gape up at Paprika. “Champion!”

“Hmph!” Paprika could not quite resist puffing up his chest smugly. “Chess is easy. I can beat some of the Board Game Club’s members, y’know. How about it? Revised your opinion of me?”

“Do you think you could win against Leona-senpai?” Yuu wondered, crossing her arms thoughtfully. “When he’s actually serious about playing I’ve never even managed a draw.”

“Wait, you’ve played chess with the second prince of the Afterglow Savannah!?” spluttered Paprika.

“...Is Scarabia big on distinguishing famous people too?” Yuu asked Baharat bemusedly.

“His reaction is normal,” even he looked slightly pale, though the difference on his dark skin was hard to see. “You...I guess country bumpkins really have no fear. Ignorance is bliss, huh?”

Yuu didn’t know what to make of that, but the conversation was derailing. “Um, so anyway. You’re right that I suck at chess and you’re right that I’m here to negotiate. I wanted to offer to help you with your homework in return for some information, but now that I’m looking at it...I don’t know if I can solve that problem.”

“Hey…Still not done?” A yawning Coriander paused on his swerving route around Baharat and glanced down. “This is why you don’t play games all night. Dorm Head’s gonna be back any time.”

“Shut up,” Baharat didn’t seem surprised at the presence behind him. “Vice Dorm Head’s practice problems are always ones that mess with your head. I need to think for a while before I answer them.”

“Just answer them however,” Coriander said reasonably.

“You know he grades them, right? I don’t want to leave a bad impression on that guy.”

“Please, he—” Coriander glanced up and caught sight of Yuu scanning the Magical Analysis textbook spread out before her and Paprika. “Wait, it’s the runt Directing Student!?”

“Hello senpai,” Yuu said a little more politely than usual after considering Baharat’s advice about Scarabia’s hierarchical relationship.

“What the hell?” Coriander did a double take before glancing around. “Where’s the cat?”

“Oh yeah,” Baharat sat up straight eagerly. “Where is he? Grim or something, right? I didn’t get to march beside him this morning.”

“I did,” Coriander said smugly. “That cat’s got more endurance than I expected. Sure, his voice can get annoying, but when he goes on all four legs he looks almost exactly like the cat I have back home.”

“Screw you,” Baharat said moodily. “Next time I call dibs.”

“Grim is sleeping,” Yuu tried to suppress her amusement. “Over there in the pile of cushions. I think he’s more tired than he was letting on. You know Grim sleeps for an average of fifteen or sixteen hours a day? I swear he could miss a meteor hitting the school.”

“Literally a cat,” Coriander emphasized. Then he frowned at her. “...So what are you doing so close to that guy? He’ll actually punch you if he loses his temper, you know.”

“That guy?” Yuu repeated blankly.

Coriander made a face and amended, “‘Paprika’,” before dodging a crumpled ball of paper that flew in the direction of his ear.

“Negotiating, huh...” Baharat gave her another thoughtful look. “I doubt you could give him anything of value, though. This is all advanced second-year material. Actually, knowing Vice Dorm Head, it might have some third-year stuff mixed in too.”

“As expected of Jamil-senpai, he’s wicked smart,” Yuu commented weakly.

“You’d think so, right?” The golden-haired student who had woken her scooted over on Paprika’s other side and leaned in conspiratorially. He looked in a much better mood than the glare he’d worn this morning. “But listen to this. Jamil-kun ranked one hundred and first in the second years’ exams! That’s even lower than you, Directing Student.”

“What?” Yuu blinked in surprise.

“What!?” Paprika jerked his head up from his worksheet again.

“...Lower than the Directing Student?” Coriander took a seat next to Baharat in interest, crossing his legs casually.

“Yeah. I went to check all the exam results after the whole anemone fiasco a couple weeks ago, y’know, bearing Scarabia’s spirit of deliberation and all that pizzazz,” the golden-haired student obliged them with a grin. “Guess what? The Directing Student ranked fiftieth out of the firsties. And after I asked Lucius about it, he told me that the kid got full marks on Alchemy, History and Analysis.”

“I want to learn what Lucius is saying too,” Yuu said wistfully.

“That’s not the point! You’re non-magical, right?” Coriander pointed at her rather rudely. “Which means you never got educated about all this stuff! Don’t tell me you cheated like those anemones.”

“I heard from the ’Labyul guys that he didn’t grow an anemone,” the golden-haired student put in.

“Seriously?”

“Don’t listen to him. I told you, the kid’s in cahoots with Ashengrotto,” Paprika started scowling. “That guy came with his two mafia bodyguards and threatened me never to talk to this guy again after I yelled at him in the Mostro Lounge, did you know? If Ashengrotto were alone I coulda taken him, but with those twins...”

“No you couldn’t,” Yuu, Baharat and Coriander chorused in unison.

“Also, didn’t the Directing Student get rid of the anemones? With the delinquent first year from Savanaclaw that’s taller than most of us?” the golden-haired student pointed out reasonably. “Oh, and his fat grey rat. Wouldn't that make him Azul Ashengrotto’s enemy for life or something?”

“Fat grey rat?” Paprika forgot to be angry in favour of a snicker. “Can you not say it like that? It makes it sound like the Directing Student’s a Pxkemon Trainer or something.”

“Oh, I’ve played that game,” Yuu recognized. “Blue-senpai introduced it to me.”

“Blue-senpai?” Baharat echoed, eye twitching. “...Has anyone told you your naming sense sucks? Who’s this blue guy?”

“Short for Blue Diamond-senpai,” Yuu clarified, “he’s a Heartslabyul third year. He says the name makes him sound like a sentai hero. Um...anyway, Paprika-san, Grim might’ve made a deal with Ashengrotto-senpai, but I didn’t even know about it until the exam results came out.”

“Grim did?” the golden-haired student blinked.

“Talk is cheap,” Paprika said automatically, but he didn’t look as hostile as before.

“I always thought you were an idiot,” Coriander commented, squinting at her. “You know Scarabia hates idiots.”

Yuu wondered if they were aware that their suspicion of her directly conflicted against this assumption that she was a fool, but for once she held her tongue. Right now she needed information, which meant she couldn’t afford to offend her only source of it.

“Appearances can be deceiving,” quipped the golden-haired student. “Just look at this...ah...‘Paprika’. Heh.”

“Hah? You wanna go?” Paprika bared his teeth.

“Look at this reaction. You'd never think that he had a brain.”

“If you keep insulting me you’re the one that won’t have a brain.”

Yuu flipped the page of the textbook while the other four bantered over her head before she fished over a blank piece of paper and pencil. Despite not being half as good as Azul was with calculations, she enjoyed Magical Analysis just because it was a clean way to understand the world—it made sense in her mind when so many mysteries couldn’t.

Didn’t Crewel say something about this theorem a week ago when he was in a foul mood...? Yuu still couldn’t understand most of that lesson, but maybe if she read up on it a little more she’d be able to solve the problem using it.

“Anyway, it’s got to be a lie that vice Dorm Head got an average score on the exam,” Baharat was saying as she concentrated on the page. “Only someone who knows the material inside out and backwards can come up with this demon level question over here. Maybe he was having an off day.”

“What’re you talking about? It looks simple,” Coriander sounded unconvinced.

“You’re being tricked!” Baharat snapped. “It’s got three layers to it! I’ve already written a full page and I’m not done.”

“Has anyone told you... You think too much?”

“You don’t think at all.”

“But you reckon he has any time to study with all the crap he’s got to deal with every day?” Paprika asked doubtfully. “Hell, I wouldn’t be able to make breakfast half as good if you gave me ten hours.”

“You got that right. The mahaleb seasoning the sweet cakes this morning tasted heavenly,” the golden-haired student said dreamily. “You think there are any left over?”

“Mahaleb?” Yuu looked up in interest, her pencil pausing. “Is that a spice?”

“Yeah, it comes from the soft insides of the mahaleb cherry pit,” the golden-haired student obliged her. “Have you ever had marzipan? It tastes kind of similar. Some people call it ‘mahalepi’.”

“I have no idea what that is, but can I call you Mahaleb-san?” Yuu asked him. “I’ve been trying to find a name for you all day.”

The golden-haired student stared at her.

After a beat of silence, Baharat angled his face away, his shoulders shaking. Beside him, Coriander fought to keep a calm expression. He coughed several times. “Directing Stu—ahem! Directing Student, he’s a thi-third-year.”

“Mahaleb-senpai,” Yuu corrected herself. “Is everyone else a second-year then? Paprika-senpai?”

“That’s not the problem,” Coriander tried again, his voice trembling finely.

“You know in my head I’ve burned you to a crisp thirty different ways already,” Paprika told her flatly, a vein bulging on the side of his head.

“As long as you don’t do it in real life, I don’t mind,” Yuu shrugged.

“He’s as off his rocker as the rest of them,” the newly named Mahaleb said with dawning wonder.

“Hey! You call Grim a ‘fat grey rat’!” Yuu protested while Coriander and Baharat lost their battle and cracked up across from them.

“No more,” Coriander gasped, “I can’t breathe...!”

“His freaking face,” Baharat hit the carpet with the heel of his palm between bursts of laughter. “Look at the Directing Student! His freaking face! He looks like that sparkly guy on the thirty-second adverts!”

“I can’t take this hair clip off!” Yuu argued back heatedly, yanking at it. “Otherwise you wouldn’t see my eyes at all!”

“Who knows, maybe you’re trying to lower our guard with your face,” Coriander choked out.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” she spluttered. “Do I look that weird?!”

“Useless joking aside, why do you even care we’re called? Do you pay this much attention to everyone?” Mahaleb looked a cross between annoyed and amused.

“Just the students at NRC,” Yuu clarified, pointedly ignoring the still-sniggering duo across from her. “I think everyone here is great. When they’re not making fun of me.”

“Not our fault you’re so easy to make fun of,” Baharat’s voice was still trembling.

Yuu returned that remark with a scowl and decided to completely ignore him. Now that she had a name for Mahaleb, it was time to complete her original purpose. She turned back down to the textbook and continued to write, losing interest in any conversation.

“...You think this guy’s suspicious?” Mahaleb said after a pause.

“So maybe we jumped the gun a little,” Coriander was still snickering. “He looks more like a stuffed animal than anything.”

“Crazy,” Paprika mumbled under his breath. Yuu ignored him.

Baharat finally recovered from his laughing fit, dashing tears from his eyes. He leaned forwards to get a better look at her writing. “Even if you came in fiftieth place on the exams, do you really think you can do anything about that worksheet? It’s got problems that...wait.”

“One second,” Yuu mumbled, the speed of her writing beginning to increase. “I’m trying something. Professor Crewel mentioned that you can calculate the force of magic power using an integral plus this new formula so I think...”

“I’ve already tried that,” Paprika shoved his head over beside hers rudely and pointed at the spot she’d just written. “Hold up, why did you change the bounds to this range?”

“Because you have to include the time before it hit the target,” Yuu explained. “Look, if that spell descends from this spot in the sky five metres over the target it’ll take almost two seconds to land.”

“...That formula’s still not complete,” Paprika mumbled, watching her write. “Try multiplying it out first. No, not the non-magical way. Have you guys studied the law of magical variables yet? You need to use this.”

“Oh,” Yuu watched him scribble beside her descending row of equations with his Pen. “Oh! How did you do that? It makes so much sense! Paprika-senpai, you’re smarter than I thought!”

“Spare me the flattery, it doesn’t make me happy at all. Hold on a second, I think I got the end,” Paprika was still scribbling. “Heh. Don’t underestimate your upperclassmen. See? There’s the answer.”

Yuu clapped furiously for him. “I had no idea you could do that with an equation,” she said excitedly. “How did you manipulate the last part? Like three variables disappeared.”

“That’s ‘cause you don’t learn that stuff until the middle of second year,” Mahaleb put in, looking exasperated. “In the first place, the fact that you got most of the way through that problem by yourself is out of the ordinary.”

“Wait, what happened?” Coriander squinted at the paper upside-down from where he was sitting. “You lost me at the beginning. I hate calculations...That doesn’t look like the answer I got at all, dammit!”

“Me neither,” Baharat said weakly. “Lemme copy that later, ‘Paprika’.”

“Hint: go read a textbook,” Paprika didn’t miss a beat.

“Oh, come on! We’re on the same team!”

“That was during the game last night. Now it’s all for themselves.”

“So... Does this count as me helping you solve the problem?” Yuu asked him hopefully, wrenching her eyes away from the piece of paper.

“No way,” he sniffed in her direction. “You couldn’t get the end, could you?”

“Then...then the next one,” Yuu bargained.

“You think you can even understand this question?” Paprika challenged. “The last question’s always the hardest, you know.”

“…I can give it a shot,” she said bravely after a moment of hesitation. The things Yuu did to prevent Overblots...

“Ha! At least you’ve got some guts.”

“What’s this all about?” Mahaleb asked curiously while both of them bent their heads over the page with twin concentrated frowns.

“The Directing Student wants info,” Baharat answered. “In exchange, he offered to help this guy out with his Magical Analysis homework.”

“What? Isn't that weird? If I remember right, the Directing Student’s a first year,” Coriander said blankly. “Paprika or whatever he’s being called aced his Magical Analysis semester exam even if he practically failed the other ones. Who’s helping who again?”

“I got this far,” Paprika pointed at his work done under the block of text spelling out the last question. “Bet you can’t even understand what it is.”

“I sort of can!” Yuu protested, her academic Ravenclaw spirit ignited. “What does this squiggly thing mean?”

“You don’t even know what that is? Look over here,” Paprika flipped the pages of his textbook forward.

“Do they have this book in the library?” Yuu pored over the lesson eagerly. “Professor Trein borrowed me a set of first year textbooks but I haven’t seen the second year ones yet, now that I think about it.”

“You go to the library?” Paprika gave her a vaguely disgusted look.

“Not recently,” Yuu admitted, deciding to spare him the long explanation about the events that had plagued her over the past weeks.

“The whole set should be in the library, third row from the top in the reference section,” Mahaleb put in helpfully. “Unlike Paprika, we’re usually familiar with that building. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Scarabia’s students are mostly the indoor type.”

“This guy knows a lot of stuff,” Baharat commented, starting to scribble again. “Not like I care, but you sure you wanna ask this moron when you could ask, ahem, Mahaleb-senpai?”

“I don’t mind that name, actually,” Mahaleb said thoughtfully. “It reminds me of sweet cakes. Come to think of it, when’s lunch?”

“You just had breakfast.”

“So? When’s lunch?”

“No, that little sigma has nothing to do with a sum,” Paprika stopped her as she practiced the problem in the lesson. “You can’t combine sigmas either. Here, add a ‘prime’ to the second one so you don’t get confused.”

“Where did the second one come from?” Yuu asked blankly.

“Idiot, everyone’s magical power capacity is different,” he rolled his eyes before catching himself. “...Forgot you’re a non-magical for a second. But compare any guy lying around in this room with, say, Heartslabyul’s crazy tyrant Dorm Head.”

“Riddle-senpai’s not a tyrant!” Yuu protested. “...Anymore.”

“Even though he’s almost as small as you, the size of his magical reservoir is absolutely insane,” Paprika ignored her. “No one wants to get on his bad side. That guy’s temper is shorter than a candle wick.”

“But Professor Crewel said we could ignore the difference.”

“Yeah, when you’re a n00b you can ignore the difference. Time to take off the training wheels, kid.”

“Aw man,” Yuu’s shoulders slumped. “Okay, let me redo that part.”

Coriander was staring at them strangely. “Hey...Paprika?”

“Shut up, I’m busy,” Paprika ignored him. “You can combine the denominator though. And...okay, you have most of it.”

“Can’t you use this plus that law of magical variables thingy we just did to solve the problem?” Yuu asked blankly.

“No you can’t. You’ll miss half the question.”

Yuu mumbled something and started flipping back through the textbook furiously.

Mahaleb exchanged a raised brow with Baharat let out a low whistle. “...Never thought I’d see the day.”

Ten minutes later, Yuu and Paprika reached a breakthrough point in their equation-hunting and managed to race through the problem with matching results. “This counts, right?” she asked hopefully, flexing her cramping fingers. “I came up with the idea that solved the problem, right?”

“You needed help!” Paprika argued back.

“I didn’t say I’d finish the entire thing by myself, I said I’d help you,” she retorted.

“What did you want to know anyway?” Mahaleb looked up from the glowing screen of his phone curiously.

“Where Kalim-senpai and Jamil-senpai usually hang out,” Yuu answered him. “I also wanted to know how long Kalim-senpai's, uh, episodes have been going on, but you probably won’t tell me that so easily.”

“Why would you wanna know that?” Paprika started gathering his homework in a relatively satisfied manner. “If you’re the bad guy, you don’t need to ask us.”

“If I was the bad guy, I wouldn’t be here,” Yuu rolled her eyes.

“Hey! Be polite to your upperclassmen!” he snapped. “No eye-rolling!”

Yuu stopped rolling her eyes and looked up expectantly at him.

“Directing Student. You couldn’t be...” Baharat hesitated.

“I promise I won’t use it to hurt anyone,” Yuu insisted.

Baharat fell silent, still frowning at her.

“...I don’t know about Dorm Head, but vice Dorm Head's usually in the kitchens before lunch,” Paprika finally relented with a long-suffering sigh. “In the mornings he has to get all the prep work done for the day’s food, plus the next day’s breakfast. I'm usually on food prep duty with him from Mondays to Thursdays.”

“Jamil-senpai sure has it rough,” Yuu winced.

“After lunch he’s been drilling us in magic with Dorm Head the past week,” Paprika recalled, shoving the stack of papers in his open textbook and shutting it. “Then he makes sure the schedule is going well or something and disappears. After that, the dinner crew puts the final touches on that night’s food, it’s free time, and lights out. Am I missing anything?”

“Yeah, you’re missing how he never gets tired,” Mahaleb put in sarcastically. “…In all seriousness, Jamil-kun also usually follows our Dorm Head wherever he goes. It is kind of his job, which is why we get to bum food off of Dorm Head anyway.”

“Attendant,” Yuu wrinkled her brow. “...Kalim-senpai told me yesterday.”

“Seriously? That’s basic info,” Coriander wrinkled his nose. “You don’t have to be a super snoop like, ah, Mahaleb to figure that one out. Are your eyes rotten or something?”

“I know nothing about the Scalding Sands!” Yuu felt the need to defend herself. “Plus before, Kalim-senpai only ever told me Jamil-senpai was his ‘friend’.”

“Or maybe you’re just dumb,” Paprika snorted.

Yuu ignored him casually. “What’s the whole ‘attendant’ thing like?” she asked curiously. “You mentioned something about a stratified society earlier, Baharat-senpai. Don’t tell me that the Scalding Sands is a monarchy, too?”

“...Huh?” Baharat had been examining her carefully; now he blinked twice under a lock of scarlet hair. “Oh...yeah. Well, some people call the ruler a ‘sultan’ instead of a king, but the meaning’s the same.”

“Oi! Don’t ignore your senpai!”

“Just how out of nowhere is your hometown!?” Coriander looked rather taken aback. “Even that Pomefiore first year, the guy who becomes unintelligible when he gets mad... Anyway, he knows more than you, and he’s from the middle of nowhere!”

“Pyroxene,” Mahaleb corrected absently, still not looking up from his phone.

“Nowhere,” Coriander stressed.

“You guys know Epel?” Yuu perked up. “I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks.”

“He’s one of the first year regulars on the Magift Team,” Mahaleb responded, “like me and...uh...Cory here.”

“Only the cat can call me that!” Coriander spat at him.

“My ‘out of nowhere’ is probably even more remote than Epel’s,” Yuu, who liked the Pomefiore first-year well enough, hedged her words carefully to defend him.

“Seriously? What, you from outer space or something? Go back home to whatever planet you came from,” Paprika said moodily, irked at her continued efforts to ignore him.

Yuu decided not to disclose to him that he was mostly right. “Anyway, does the whole ‘attendant’ thing exist commonly in the Scalding Sands?”

“Not really.” Baharat paused. “Well...not anymore, at least. But you know our country’s annoying about blood and history and that stuff, so families like the Asim one usually have a really long, inseverable partnership with a bunch of other rich families ‘cause they go way back. In your precious Heartslabyul’s dorm, weren’t there similar noble family ties with those prissy boys from the Kingdom of Roses?”

“Precious Heartslabyul,” Yuu muttered, wondering how other people saw her. “I don’t know, they don’t talk about their families or homes much.”

A stab of guilt struck her chest. Yuu had known the students at Heartslabyul the longest, but she had always hung out with Ace and Deuce, favouring casual conversation over her usual curiosity. It was only now that she realized how little she knew about the structure of the Kingdom of Roses.

“Might be a cultural difference,” shrugged Coriander, leaning back on his elbows. “Anyway, the Viper family’s always been the very closest to the Asim one. They're the most trusted retainers, attendants, whatever you want to call ‘em.”

“But their social status is different,” she followed his line of conversation slowly.

“Right. People who aren’t from the Scalding Sands sometimes have trouble getting that point nowadays,” Baharat explained. “Part of the reason why it’s sometimes tough to create allies cross-dorm. I won’t say that your identity and status mean everything, but even in modern times, the citizens care a lot more than they pretend to.”

“‘The ugliest chains are the ones humans create for themselves,’” Mahaleb quoted. He paused. “Well, mostly humans. I haven’t seen any Merfolk around, but there’s a steady stream of Therianthropes that hang out where I live in the Silk City.”

“City boy,” muttered Paprika. “Though...I can’t imagine Merfolk surviving the dry spells we get in the summers. Even I practically evaporate.”

“I feel like the hardest thing to comprehend is how people make themselves unequal like this,” Yuu rubbed her temples. “I mean when most of the countries here are monarchies, I guess there’s no way around it, but it makes absolutely no sense to me.”

Baharat squinted at her. “‘Most of the countries here’?”

“People like to say that these days,” Paprika didn’t seem impressed. “How everyone’s equal and stuff like that, even the sultan. King. Whatever. But as long as people exist in Twisted Wonderland, human or not, no one will actually be equal. Else the whole servitude thing would have been completely abolished years ago.”

“Servitude?” Yuu repeated, alarmed. “Kalim-senpai said he has over a hundred servants, but Jamil-senpai counts as one of them? I thought he was an attendant. Are they the same thing?”

“Not quite,” Mahaleb paused and put his phone down. “Actually, maybe?”

Paprika made a complicated expression. “...I don’t know if anyone can answer that question,” he mumbled.

“In the first place, it’s an honour to serve the Asim family,” Coriander put in, “and they get paid ridiculously large amounts. But it still means that your ‘identity’ changes to that of a servant. That'll stay on the invisible record of your name forever.”

“Yeah, definitely not as simple as a hired help or housekeeping or anything,” Mahaleb put in.

“Even the Viper family isn’t exempt from that, no matter how long their history is or how capable they are,” Baharat shrugged. “Like I said, society’s stratified. Family trees are important, and people will whisper behind your back if your family is of some certain descent. I guess the Viper family comes closest to an exception because they’re so capable though. Vice Dorm Head’s nuclear family is full of superstars anyway.”

“So Jamil-senpai's a superstar after all,” Yuu surmised, wondering just how many layers he had.

“At least for a few months last year he was, before Dorm Head came in,” Baharat made a face. “And even now he’s got to be pretending to be dumb. I swear, most people think he’s utterly average, but no one can score straight seventies on every single subject consecutively for that long without being a genius.”

“Straight seventies?” Yuu mumbled confusedly. “Before Dorm Head came in?”

“...Is it ‘cause of Dorm Head after all?” Coriander lost his easy-going expression, the dark indigo hair around his face lending his frown an extra weight. “You think that...”

“Hey,” Paprika sat up straight, glaring at him. “I thought I told you not to—”

“Anyway, it’s definitely the truth that Jamil-kun's been through a lot,” Mahaleb cut across them loudly. “Especially when this whole training boot camp thing got sprung on us Monday. He had to do all the packing and organizing for the students to get home safely and well...now he’s got to do all this every day.”

“But vice Dorm Head isn’t complaining,” snapped Paprika, “so no one else should be. Look at how much he contributes to the dorm!”

“If he wasn’t amazing, he wouldn’t be Kalim al-Asim's personal attendant in the first place,” Baharat pointed out mildly. “I will admit that vice Dorm Head’s more capable than probably ninety five percent of the school population even at a place like NRC, but that’s his job.”

“So? He’s amazing,” Paprika argued back. “No one even recognizes how much he does for the dorm every day! Even now, he—…anyway, without him, we’d be stuck in a desert without water.”

“In the first place, don’t you think it’s above and beyond the ordinary that Jamil-senpai's working a full-time job this exhaustive on top of being a student?” Yuu couldn’t help but to insert. “His endurance is incredible.”

“Exactly!” Paprika said vehemently, pointing at her, before realizing who she was and coughing awkwardly.

“There is no doubt that we’ve all gained some admiration for Jamil-kun this Winter Holiday,” admitted Mahaleb, “But considering his status and the weight behind his name, it’s still expected of an attendant to perfectly complete all the tasks around his master.”

“Master,” Yuu repeated, nose wrinkled. “…Even when status is just a construct…”

“You don’t get it,” Baharat shook his head at her. “That’s the way it’s always been in the Scalding Sands.”

“Doesn’t mean It's right,” Yuu grumbled to herself. “Plus, Kalim-senpai probably doesn’t want Jamil-senpai to feel lowly compared to him.”

“...Normally, that is,” Mahaleb finished for her. “Who knows what he thinks right now.”

A silence buried the five of them after his sombre words.

Yuu looked around at them in belated surprise. “Come to think of it,” she realized, “Didn’t you guys hate my guts?”

—

Before Yuu entered Scarabia’s enormous kitchens, which were apparently mostly used for light meals and ingredient storage, she summoned the Doubled pocket watch she had duplicated from Azul. Earlier that morning, when changing into Scarabia’s uniform, she had Banished it to make sure that no one could gain access to it and send a mistaken message to him. Now, hovering by the mouth of the arched double doors, she carefully wound the hour hand to the Roman ‘III’ before closing the cover and tucking the golden chain underneath her black tank-top.

The code they had come up with on the spot yesterday used the twelve hours on the clock face as communication. Last night Yuu had told Azul personally (while still confused) that it was ‘one o’clock’ by phone. This was the code meaning that something out of the ordinary had occurred. Yuu could probably text him the same, but she still thought that the watch was a faster method of communication. Perhaps she wasn’t cut out for this smartphone use thing.

Remember…. Create a blank. Or at least think of other thoughts. Either way, she had to be careful. Sucking in a deep, steadying breath, Yuu leaned her entire body weight on one of the double doors to push it open before poking her head in to observe.

Across a giant island counter double the size of the school kitchen’s impressive display, the back of Jamil’s hood bobbed around a stack of plates. Yuu found herself gaping briefly at the tall ceilings and the shelves and cabinets stretching around the perimeter of the room before his voice brought her out of her staring. “Who is it? Lunch is going to take another hour, at least, so don’t even think about stealing food right now.”

“It’s Yuu,” she called out sheepishly. Unless she really tried, her voice was usually relatively quiet, but now it reverberated off of the ceiling and bounced over to Jamil easily.

He stilled for an almost indiscernible moment before turning around with a frown. “…What are you doing here?”

I wanted to observe you… was something that even the tactless Yuu had learned to keep in her mind. Instead she offered, “Did you want any help? I don’t see anyone else in here.”

“Help? You?” Jamil snorted once. “Your legs are trembling like a new-born gazelle’s. I’d advise you to measure your capabilities before making absurd offers you can’t fulfil.”

“It’s not my fault everyone here is stupidly strong,” Yuu grumbled, making her way across the counter where he sat. “Ten kilometres across a desert is kind of tough for the average person, you know.”

“Strong? Them?” Jamil lifted a dark brow. “You know that Scarabia’s vast majority of students are the indoor type. They don’t enjoy physical exercise at all.”

“Still stronger than me,” Yuu mumbled.

“Doesn’t it feel empty saying that yourself?” he asked flatly. “…Sit down already before you collapse.”

“I’m fine,” Yuu protested, but Jamil started glaring at her, so she quietly pulled her aching body up onto a tall stool on her right. The cool seat soothed her sore muscles; although Yuu was good at resisting or ignoring pain, she did not actively try to subject herself to it.

“Hmph,” Jamil released a breath from his nose and muttered something that sounded like pain in my ass. Yuu soundly ignored him, though it was rather interesting interacting with someone who seemed to talk to themselves so often.

After distractedly observing Jamil’s deft movements in skinning some sort of fruit or vegetable she did not know how to name, Yuu put both elbows on the edge of the cold counter and rested her chin on her palms. “How do you get so resilient, senpai?” she asked. “You didn’t seem tired at all until we reached the East Oasis. And now you look like you’re all recovered.”

“…You noticed,” Jamil muttered under his breath. “I wasn’t tired, I—never mind. That much exercise is nothing to write home about. You’d better get used to it fast if you want to survive.”

“I’m in the business of focusing on strengths and specializing,” Yuu said primly. “It’s not effective to always cover for weaknesses when I could be spending my time learning new things.”

“Learning new things, huh…” Jamil flicked a long curl of peeled skin into the garbage can with his Pen. “Honestly, Yuu, you didn’t look the type.”

“Type?” Yuu blinked across from him from her cupped palms. “What do I look like?”

Jamil scanned her with a piercing glance. “…Like a…Pomefiore student.”

Yuu had a feeling he had been about to say something different. “I’m far from as good looking as Epel,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about, but you…” Jamil hesitated, the suspicious light in his eyes becoming clearer. “…Anyway, until I heard you came in fiftieth place on the exams, I was sure your brain was a flower field.”

“Hey!”

“Think back on your actions for a second,” Jamil started heatedly before cutting himself off. “…Talking with you always throws me off.”

“Anyway, I probably have no destiny with physical activity in this life, so it’s better not to dwell on it,” Yuu shrugged.

“For someone who dove off a staircase to save Kalim a couple of months ago, that’s an unexpectedly realistic view of life you’ve got.”

“It’s because it was Kalim-senpai,” Yuu explained. “The people here are…you all are worth it. Sure, sometimes people can be stupid or do bad things, but there’s something special about everyone that’s worth whatever I can give out.”

Jamil gave her a weird look. “Special? About who, Kalim?”

“Everyone in the school,” Yuu replied without hesitation.

“…I won’t pretend that I get what you’re saying.” Jamil twirled his Pen and a veritable mountain of ingredients began to send themselves into cast-iron pots lined up behind him. “But is that why you’re here now? Because you’re worried about Kalim.”

“You’re the one who trapped me here,” Yuu pointed out, watching the trails of sparkling light follow the ingredients into the air.

“How rude,” Jamil’s voice brightened into the slightly unnatural polite tone he used when flattering others. “You’re our special guest that volunteered his time to help with Scarabia’s problem.”

“Right,” Yuu resisted a roll of her eyes, remembering how Paprika had resented her ‘lack of politeness’. “If I was actually a special guest, I wouldn’t be dragged across the desert with everyone else, nor would the dorm stare at me like I personally wronged every one of them.”

Their brief conversation just before had been an unexpected outlier. Yuu remembered Paprika blustering about how he still hated her and about Baharat giving her a funny look and about Coriander and Mahaleb trading glances before she had left. Yuu wondered if she was reading too much into it or if that enmity had thinned just a bit.

“But you could have fought harder to leave,” Jamil responded shrewdly, breaking her out from her circling thoughts. The ingredients finished sorting themselves out. “For a moment I thought you might be really up to something…like trying to get on Kalim’s good side.”

Yuu stared blankly at him. “…Why would I want to get on Kalim’s good side? We’re friends.”

“Money? Power? Status?” he didn’t hesitate. “Kalim already seems to like you. …He’s usually got good judgment about these things, but for all I know, you could just be an excellent actor.”

“I don’t think even you believe what you’re saying,” she squinted at him while he began to clean the counter. “It looks like you’re trying to find reasons to be suspicious of me.”

“It’s a habit,” Jamil said automatically before frowning at her. “…What? What are you looking at me like that for?”

“Huh?” Yuu schooled her expression. “Oh…nothing? I think.”

It’s a habit.

Yuu didn’t even know what kind of face she was making. Was Jamil’s life so different from the rest of them that he couldn’t even think without habitual suspicion?

Jamil squinted at her warily. “Kalim didn’t start telling you tales, did he?”

She blinked back to him. “Kalim-senpai?”

“He’s been looking awfully concerned about you these past couple of days. Dragging you off on carpet rides, frowning into space…” he paused. “Makes my job a lot harder.”

“I’m the one worried about him,” Yuu muttered. “The way his personality completely changes with his vocabulary isn’t natural. In the first place, this whole situation is extremely fishy. There’s definitely someone acting behind the scenes…”

“You mentioned that last night, too,” Jamil leaned on the counter, seemingly ignoring the slowly simmering row of pots behind him. “What makes you so sure that there’s a third party in the first place?”

Yuu could not tell him about the Imperius Curse. “Because it’s so sudden,” she attempted instead. “I didn’t manage to figure out how long it’s been since Kalim-senpai started having…uh…episodes, and he doesn’t seem to remember them at all. But if I’m right, he wasn’t like this last month.”

“So? Stress has adverse effects on people beyond our current knowledge,” Jamil retaliated. “Especially someone in Kalim’s position. As the inheriting son of the family, you have no idea what he’s been through. What if it all finally got to him?”

There was a heavy weight in his words that suggested this time, Scarabia’s vice Dorm Head was not putting up a front nor redirecting the conversation. When Yuu sneaked the chance to observe his eyes, she found that he was not looking at her but past her. A line deepened at his left eyebrow, and his mouth was curved down in a small but visible frown.

A different world. A whole new world. Now she found herself thinking that maybe it wasn’t all a good thing.

“Poison and assassins?” Yuu found herself asking.

Jamil glanced at her. “Usually people don’t say something like that straight to my face. I told you that was a joke, didn’t I?”

“I don’t believe you,” she frowned. “Though… Honestly, as someone who’s been born and lived in a completely peaceful time in a place that has pretty much no influence from people of power or status, I have no clue what it’s like for you all. So if I say something rude, you should tell me straight.” Like Paprika had done earlier today.

“It’s better than hiding behind honeyed words and ill intentions,” he shook his head, to her surprise. “In the first place, Yuu, there’s no way you live without influence from people of power. Every country has its wealthy and the famous. You can’t tell me that you don’t feel anything towards them.”

“I don’t feel anything towards them,” Yuu said.

Jamil blinked at her.

“Though in the case of Kalim-senpai and Leona-senpai, I do feel something towards them,” she corrected herself. “Sometimes it hurts when I look at them. I wish I could…”

“That’s the price they pay for their position,” Jamil cut her off. “They have what can’t be purchased by money. Leona-senpai’s always talking about how he’s no different from a peasant, but everyone knows it’s not true.”

“Jamil-senpai, you know Leona-senpai?” Yuu blinked.

“We’re acquainted,” Jamil shrugged. “In any case, what Kalim and Leona-senpai have is worth its weight in gold. Or blood.”

Yuu remembered the scar across Savanaclaw’s Dorm Head’s left eye. She asked in a subdued voice, “Is it really that dangerous for Kalim-senpai where he lives?”

“It’s none of your business,” Jamil said succinctly. “…Though with the way the mansion stands out, it’s easy pickings for…any manner of people aiming for the Asim family. But Kalim is someone who understands exactly what his position is and the responsibility behind it. Also, the multitudes that would literally kill to be in his position—or erase it.”

“He’s someone who ‘must be’ happy,” Yuu mumbled. “Because from the outside, he’s nothing short of the most fortunate person in the world.”

“…!” Jamil sucked in a breath.

“Though Kalim-senpai is really strong,” Yuu didn’t notice. “His laughter and goodwill to others aren’t a front at all. He can be genuine even despite all that’s on his shoulders…it’s so impressive it’s almost frightening.”

“…”

There was no response from across the counter. Concerned, she glanced up at him. “Jamil-senpai, you know Kalim-senpai the best of all. You’re his ‘attendant’, right? Doesn’t that mean you’ve been through a lot too? Do you know if what’s happening now is…?”

“Yuu,” Jamil said sharply. “You think that Kalim has the self-awareness of the heir of the Asim family? That he’s a suitable heir?”

“Huh?” Yuu glanced up at him in surprise. “Yes? At least he’s not oblivious about it. And his friendly behaviour or generosity doesn’t necessarily mean that he doesn’t get it. If I can figure this out in a few days, surely you know better then me, Jamil-senpai. After all, haven’t you watched him grow up?”

Jamil gritted his teeth. “—And you…think that he’s suitable for the position of Scarabia’s Dorm Head?”

“What do you mean?” Yuu stilled, the way he spoke finally beginning to raise alarm bells in her head. “Is…is there…someone’s aiming for the Dorm Head position? Which is why all this stuff is happening?”

“You tell me,” Jamil met her eyes briefly. “What are the other students saying about his recent behaviour?”

If Yuu was aware of how dissatisfied Scarabia’s dorm students were, surely he knew a thousand times better than her. She frowned and asked, “Couldn’t they just challenge him to a magic duel?”

“It’s not that simple. Most of the students are from the Scalding Sands—they know what’ll happen to them and their next of kin if they challenge the authority of someone from the Asim family.” Jamil sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose tiredly. “So even if someone’s much more capable, much more respected, they’ll never be able to openly show any disrespect—or Greats forbid, any enmity towards him.”

A small hint of bitterness was growing in his voice.

“That sounds exhausting,” Yuu sympathized with a wince. “For both Kalim-senpai and the rest of the dorm. You’d never be able to tell from everyone’s penchant for partying usually…”

“The atmosphere of a dorm tends to follow the personality of the Dorm Head,” Jamil explained. “Like how Octavinelle is led by that overly suspicious-looking Azul Ashengrotto. The whole dorm is full of people probing each other out all the time and none of them are to be trusted.”

Yuu remembered how several members of the Octavinelle dorm had all but figured out her magic through sounding her out and shrugged, unable to disagree.

“On the other hand, Scarabia’s entire environment has been extremely lax this year,” Jamil continued, the line between his brows deepening. “It’s no wonder that they came in last for the semester exams school-wide. When banquets and feasts are being thrown day and night, they seem to have lost all their awareness as students.”

For a while now, Jamil had looked close to miserable under his hood. He was still clutching the counter, fingers and knuckles much paler than their usual dark brown. With the growing thorns in his voice, Yuu’s own seed of suspicion in her head began to sprout.

What if…

“Being a vice Dorm Head seems like it’s a lot of work,” Yuu commented carefully, regarding the profile of his face. “You have to pay attention to all the little details like this and pick up the slack for the Dorm Head whenever something goes wrong. It must be exhausting.”

Jamil swallowed. “…It can’t be helped,” he said quickly. “My family—I’ve been Kalim’s attendant since I was born. So I’m used to it already.”

“Really?” Yuu pushed, unconvinced. “Not just your dorm mates…I think that you’ve helped them out a lot this year. And this week, too. Maybe it’s just me who doesn’t understand the whole structure of the Asim family and Viper family, but aren’t you all people? Just because you’re ‘serving’ him doesn’t make your value any less than—”

“Yuu!” Jamil’s voice rose in pitch.

She flinched. “Wh-what?”

“That’s enough.” He braced both hands on the countertop to lean across it, the beds of his fingernails turning white with the pressure they exerted on the table. Yuu realized with confusion and a sinking sensation that Jamil’s pupils had shrunk so she could see the charcoal grey irises lit bright under the kitchen’s lamps. He was sweating. “I don’t need words like that now. Not anymore.”

“Ja…Jamil-senpai?” Yuu hastily reached forward to support his frame. Had she pushed too hard? “Are you okay? Did I say something wrong? Sorry—sometimes Grim says I’ve got no tact—”

“You really think so?” Jamil yanked his head up to stare her in the eyes.

“Think so?” she repeated dumbly, directing her gaze up to the golden coins braided into his hairline.

“All people are equal? I’ve got as much value?” Jamil barked out a harsh laugh the likes of which she had never heard before. “You don’t understand. Those are just words that gloss over what real life looks like. There’s nothing like fairness or equalness in the world.”

“Even if life isn’t fair, that doesn’t take away how amazing you are,” Yuu insisted.

“You’re too late,” Jamil told her solemnly, almost gently. “Years ago I might have been in a place to take in those words honestly, but you’re too late. Unless you’re willing to be my ally?”

“…What are you saying?” Yuu whispered. “Ally? I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Jamil-senpai, you’ve been behaving strangely these few days, is there something wrong?”

Was he really…

“…Are you suspicious of me?” Jamil asked her.

“I…I want to make you happy,” Yuu said sincerely.

“You won’t even look me in the eye,” he laughed bitterly. “Well, I don’t expect anything from you. It’s not like we know each other that well, so I can’t help it if you don’t trust me.”

“Senpai!” she exclaimed, yanking her gaze down to his eyes with a brief spurt of anger. “That’s not true! Even if you—”

“—Caught you.”

“—!!” Yuu’s earnest sentence was cut off into a strangled noise in her throat when Jamil’s troubled frown transformed into a wicked smile. “Jami—!”

The surroundings smeared out of focus. The soft yellow glow of the overhead lights distorted into purple. Her gaze caught by the cool charcoal grey of his eyes, Yuu watched helplessly as they burned into molten flame.

She’d been careless!

“Yuu, you’ll be my ally?” Jamil asked her amicably, magic lining his words and smile.

There was no time to think. Yuu furiously drew up a memory of her sitting by the fireplace with Grim, both of them nursing mugs of steaming hot chocolate as the quiet snow slowly accumulated outside Ramshackle’s tall lounge windows. The surroundings seemed to brighten slightly as she focused hard. Ace and Deuce laughing at her as she stood in the autumn yard outside her dorm, the remnants of a broom clutched in her hands. Sitting with Riddle and Cater and Trey around Heartslabyul’s elegantly decorated coffee table.

A bead of sweat dripped from Jamil’s forehead and struck the countertop. The tiny sound felt like an overwhelmingly loud assault on her ears. “Damn it,” he muttered to himself. “Reflected in your eyes is your master—Nod your head when I command.”

The world spun. Her head ached. Yuu only realized she was about to fall over in her chair when Jamil’s cold hands steadied her shoulders. Had she nodded? Thinking felt like swimming through molasses; her blank-faced reflection in his scarlet eyes stared back at her.

“You will be my ally, won’t you?” Jamil asked again. His voice felt like it was coming from far away.

In a very small corner of her mind, Yuu cursed herself. She had been too obvious with her suspicion against Jamil! At least she should have brought another witness with her—Grim, or one of the students, maybe. Tipping him off ahead of time made it possible for him to counterattack.

But whatever had happened didn’t seem like Legilimency at all—more like what she had read about the Imperius Curse, though she had obviously never seen an Unforgiveable in action. However, while Yuu had felt some kind of confusion, some mental slipping when speaking with Jamil before, she had never experienced something like this. It felt like an out-of-body experience, as if she were an impassive bystander watching her body follow the movements ordered of it like a robot, like some kind of living doll.

Had her momentary Occlumency done something to save her from completely losing consciousness? But it was too little, too late…

Yuu felt herself finally nod heavily in Jamil’s direction, twice.

“…Phew.” Jamil let go of her and drew the back of his arm across his forehead. “You had more willpower than I expected for a non-magical person.”

Yuu felt a wave of shame and sadness weigh at her chest. “—Sorry,” her voice said hurriedly. “I’m your ally, Jamil-senpai. I promise.”

Jamil snapped his head up to frown at her. “…Your eyes,” he murmured. “They haven’t changed colour?”

“…?”

“Yuu,” Jamil squinted at her, “What am I to you?”

“…Jamil-senpai?” Yuu said again. In the corner of her mind, some part of her wondered why he looked so surprised.

“Usually they call me ‘Master’,” Jamil muttered to himself. “Did the spell not take properly? But that can’t be possible…there’s never been a single time it’s failed, with my ability it shouldn’t be a problem...”

“Would it make you happier if I called you Master?” Yuu’s voice asked him blankly. “I thought you wanted to be allies.”

“…Well, whatever,” Jamil sighed. “If you’re my ally, you won’t be suspicious of me anymore. And you won’t be able to get in the way of others’ opinions changing anymore. I’ll applaud you for managing to dig this far in a few days, but I can’t have you figuring everything out this fast. Yuu, you’ll stay with me until I say you can stop. Understand?”

“Sure, Jamil-senpai,” Yuu’s voice answered for her. “I’ll be on your side no matter what you ask of me.”

“…Fu,” a startled laugh burst from the vice Dorm Head watching her from across the counter. “Ha. Ha ha ha! …You’re better at sucking up to others than expected, Directing Student.”

Yuu blinked at him. In the corner of her mind that was more lucid, she thought that Jamil, with his eyes narrowed unevenly and his contorted grin split open wide to reveal white teeth, looked like a completely different person from the ever-calm vice Dorm Head that was always chasing after Kalim.

“Jamil-senpai,” her voice asked. “Is there anything you would like me to do for you?”

“Don’t rush,” Jamil told her, looking in high spirits. “Scarabia follows after the foresight and deliberation of the great magician and advisor of the desert. There’s plenty for you to do, but everything has its order. Let’s see. Why don’t we start with this?”

—

Yuu watched the hours slip by that day with the curious detachment of a bystander in a small corner of her mind. Whatever magic Jamil had cast on her messed fiercely with her emotional state; despite recognizing with her mind that her suspicions had been founded and he was involved with the culprit behind Kalim’s strange behaviour, she felt no shock or anger, as if the entire situation had nothing to do with her. There was some distant confusion as she wondered why Jamil might act against the ‘master’ who he served, but even that drew a backseat to his command.

On the other hand, Yuu felt extreme, almost unnaturally impassioned emotion when Jamil was concerned. The spell he’d cast had asked her to ‘be his ally’—so she was eager to fulfil whatever that role meant. She wanted to be useful to Jamil; needed to make him happy as if that was the reason for her existence. In fact, with all of her negative emotions towards him unnaturally suppressed, she came dangerously close to being convinced that she really was his one and only ally in a strange dorm full of those that oppressed him.

The tiny, almost coherent part of her consciousness in her brain barely managed to retain her own freedom, and even that was muffled.

Soon after their conversation, Yuu had accompanied Jamil in taste-testing the plates of food, which he did so quickly his hands blurred across the plates. Several students came in to carry out the plates for lunch, and a few frowned in her direction until Jamil took a step in front of her to block them from view. Before they left for Scarabia’s lounge, he commanded her to stay within range so that he didn’t lose his pawn before he could use it. Ecstatic at receiving an order, at being found useful, Yuu nodded furiously, but Jamil made a strange expression she could not understand.

Eating felt strange—though she could vaguely feel the temperature of the stew and salad against her tongue, taste was muted and unimportant. Instead she stuck to Jamil throughout the lunch period, watching blankly as Kalim angrily lambasted the room for eating too slowly and demanded practical magic lessons as the plates were carried out of the lounge.

Grim squinted at her and said something about how his henchman was behaving strangely. Yuu’s head ached briefly when she looked at him; Jamil pulled her back out of the way of the duelling students and asked her where she was going. It was only then that she realized she was slowly making her way towards her partner…

Her partner!

In an evanescent moment of clarity, Yuu turned to him with a frown and said “Grim,” but then Jamil yanked her chin up so that she looked him in the eye. A blink and she remembered that her one and only ally was Jamil Viper, other thoughts slipping through her mind like sand between her fingers.

A while later, Jamil stood up to participate in the practical lessons. Yuu eagerly scrambled to her feet to follow him, heedless of her aching limbs, but he pushed her back down on a cushion with a murmur to stay out of danger. Although slightly unsatisfied at being left behind, she acquiesced; in some corner of her mind, the half-lucid Yuu remembered something about not revealing her magic nor her secret in a place like this.

But Jamil was her ally…

Yuu caught sight of Grim blowing a fireball out of his mouth and her head began to pound again.

“—Hey,” someone was shaking her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Yuu looked up and distantly recognized the blue-haired student who had spoken to her earlier in the day. “Senpai,” she said woodenly.

“Headache?” he winced sympathetically. “It’s the heatstroke, isn’t it? Actually, me and vice Dorm Head were talking earlier. Next time we’re probably going to bring out shade umbrellas when we march. You’re not the only one who got heatstroke, though your case was the most serious.”

“If Jamil-senpai says so,” Yuu shrugged.

“That guy seems to have taken a liking to you,” commented the blue-haired upperclassman, leaning back on his arms beside her. “He probably left just now because that group of first years were planning on hitting you ‘accidentally’ using their practical magic. You should watch out a bit before you get incapacitated again.”

Yuu blinked at Jamil single-handedly facing off the crowd of four Scarabia students. “I’m Jamil-senpai’s ally,” her voice corrected. “It’s not good for me to become useless here.”

“…Is…that right?” the blue-haired student squinted at her. “When’d you guys get so close? Vice Dorm Head’s usually kind of closed-off.”

“We’re not close.”

“Oookay,” he said slowly, still squinting in her direction. “You still feeling sick or something? Well, anyway, be careful. Attacking non-magical people is against the law, among other things, so you’ll probably be targeted with things like rocks and getting tripped in the hallways. I’d watch your back.”

Yuu nodded emotionlessly at him. In her mind she wanted to thank him, but the words wouldn’t come out. Across the room, Grim stared in her direction unblinkingly until a jet of water hit him in the face.

It was not until that evening after dinner that something disturbed the strange spell that had been cast over Yuu’s will. Luckily, practical magic lessons meant that she had remained on the side-lines during the afternoon’s exercise. Moreover, whatever confusion had disturbed her mind had not affected her ability to solve problems, so the worksheet she was given along with the rest of the first-year students was digested without trouble (to Jamil’s raised eyebrow). Yuu had even walked Grim and a few disgruntled looking first years through the last few problems at the vice Dorm Head’s behest.

After dinner was supposed to be ‘free time’, but Kalim looked as angry as ever. None of the students were brave enough—or reckless enough—to defy him, so the practical lessons continued. In a corner of the room, Jamil motioned for her to lean in and whispered for her to go back into her room and rest up for tomorrow.

This was one command that Yuu could resist. She clutched the hem of his hooded jacket and protested, “Why won’t you use me more?”

“Have you forgotten you’ve suffered heatstroke today?” Jamil didn’t seem angry that she was talking back to him, though there was a note of surprise in his brow. “I haven’t even talked to you about the plan yet. Anyway, I need you in better condition, so go to bed early today and we’ll talk more tomorrow.”

“But senpai…”

“Who’s in charge around here?”

Yuu’s shoulders slumped. “…Jamil-senpai is.”

He crossed his arms with a funny frown. “…Feels weird to have you this obedient,” he mumbled to himself.

Grim was still in the centre of the room, and Yuu’s legs took her automatically in his direction, but Jamil bodily hauled her out into the hallway and pointed down towards the stairs out to where her room belonged, so Yuu confusedly followed his directions out into Scarabia’s tepid night. Even the heat was dull against her lightly sun-burned skin.

The surroundings blurred briefly, but Yuu’s feet knew where to take her. Halfway there, she bumped into a student, who shoved her against the wall of the building they were passing.

“If it isn’t the Directing Student,” the student sneered. Yuu could not see his face for the shadows, nor did she feel anything towards him.

“…Do you need me for something?” her voice sounded metallic to her own ears. Jamil had told her to rest up, and this person was in the way.

“What’s with you and the vice Dorm Head?” he asked rudely. “What, you realized that you can’t live in Scarabia without brown-nosing Dorm Head Kalim and have now switched targets to Jamil? You make me sick.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yuu’s blank voice answered him. “I’m Jamil-senpai’s ally.”

“Ha! What use could a runt like you be to someone like him? Let me tell you, the only reason why Kalim’s Dorm Head right now is because Jamil pushed him up to the position!” the student spat.

—And you…think that he’s suitable for the position of Scarabia’s Dorm Head?

Yuu was Jamil’s ally. Did that mean she was Kalim’s enemy? But did Jamil want to be…

“Hey! Listen to people when they’re talking!” the student snarled in her face. “The likes of you has no right to even speak about Jamil.”

“…Are you jealous of me?” Yuu asked him. “You can ask to be Jamil-senpai’s ally, too.”

“Shut up! Who’d be jealous of you!? You can’t even use magic!” spat the student. “In the first place, we still don’t know if you’re the reason why Dorm Head Kalim became like this.”

“It’s not me,” Yuu’s voice said. A zephyr of cool wind whispered through the space between them; her mind cleared a little.

Right. She was heading back to…

Why had she been heading back to her private room?

“Words are cheap,” the student shoved her shoulder roughly; it knocked into the wall of the building. The starburst of pain brought some more coherence into her mind. “I don’t usually do this, but you walking out in the middle of the night by yourself is too good of a chance to pass up. Before I get outta here I’ll need to teach you a lesson, punk.”

“Get…out…of here?” Yuu repeated slowly.

“I’m done with this place,” the student spat. “And with Kalim, and with you! Eat thi—”

“Yuu!” Kalim came jogging down the road happily, jangling loudly as he waved. “There you are. I was looking all over for you!”

“—Geh!” The student took a step back. “D-Dorm Head!”

“Oh, hey,” Kalim blinked at him, as if noticing his presence just now. “What’re you doing here? It gets cold at night, so stay warm, okay?”

For some reason, even though his friendly tone of voice did not change nor did his smiling expression, the student took two more steps back. “Yessir. S-sorry! I’ll be going now, Dorm Head.”

Yuu blinked dazedly in the student’s direction as he spun and jogged back towards the dormitory castle. Before she had more than a few moments to appreciate his receding figure, or wonder at his words and their meaning, however, Kalim’s smiling face filled her vision. “You okay? Be careful walking back at night, the weather here changes fast!”

Unsure of whether his words were a metaphor or literal, Yuu blinked at Kalim confusedly.

The beaming red eyes widened briefly. “Yuu?” Kalim repeated. He felt her forehead with a warm hand. “Are you okay? Don’t tell me you’re still feeling sick?”

Concern. Warm. Kalim. Red eyes.

“Okay…” Yuu repeated slowly. With the momentum of a drowning man breaking through the surface of the ocean, she shuddered in a breath. “—Kalim-senpai! Are you all right?!”

“Uwhoa!” Kalim emitted as she latched on to his shoulders, though even her momentum was not enough to push him backwards. “That’s my line here. You were all weird just now. Like…never mind. Anyway, come along with me for a second!”

Yuu’s confused mind was still recovering. “Huh? Wait, I—Kalim-senpai, I need to talk to you about something!”

“Ah ha ha! We can do that after we get there. C’mon!”

Her head an utter mess, Yuu could do nothing more than allow herself to be pulled by the hand along to the direction of the storage tower. What had happened? Last thing she knew she was in the kitchen speaking to Jamil before—

You’ll be my ally?

Before she realized that Jamil was involved with the reason behind Kalim’s strange behaviour.

Yuu’s heart lurched in her chest. Jamil. Kalim’s attendant and the person closest to him, someone who Kalim held in the highest regard, someone who was nothing like he seemed, someone who laughed with his eyes narrowed unevenly and his mouth curved up wickedly—

Someone who, she was now realizing, hid himself so well that she knew nothing about him at all.

“How could this happen?” she whispered.

Kalim looked back curiously. “What’d you say?”

Yuu opened her mouth to tell him that Jamil was—that Jamil had—

You will be my ally, won’t you?

“No…nothing,” she found herself saying.

“That so? We’re almost there,” Kalim swung their joined hands cheerfully back and forth.

Yuu swallowed her words in horror. How come she couldn’t say anything? How come she hadn’t disclosed it all right away? Even if Kalim didn’t believe her, it would be disingenuous to hide something so important from someone who she considered as an important friend.

She tried again. The words stuck in her throat and choked her.

The spell, she realized. Was there something preventing her from letting out Jamil’s secret? But right now she wasn’t under the spell at all. Could it be that this spell affected her differently?

Distantly, Yuu remembered that Ruggie’s Laugh With Me had worked on her with almost frightening ease. Remembered Trein telling her she was susceptible to magic as a non-magical person. But was this spell of Jamil’s a Unique Magic, like Ruggie’s, or…?

Her brain refused to work properly.

“We’re here,” Kalim flung open the doors to his treasure vault. “O~i! Magic Carpet! Let’s go out for a joyride!”

Seconds later, the Carpet unfurled from around a pile of coins it was sprawled out upon and made a beeline for them. First it waved a tassel at Kalim before prodding Yuu playfully with its entire body.

“Whoa!” Yuu steadied herself, coming out of her frantic thoughts. “He…hello, Carpet. Wait, Kalim-senpai? What are we doing here?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Kalim smiled at her guilelessly. “We’re going on another trip into the skies! You sure are out of it, huh? Some fresh air will help out with that.”

“Senpai, wait a second, I need to—”

This time, Scarabia’s Dorm Head was not the least bit shy in seizing Yuu under her armpits and bodily hauling her up onto the Carpet after he leapt up easily himself. She herself was still shocked from the revelation of Jamil’s betrayal, so her reflexes were a good deal slower than usual; heedless of her ruminations, the Carpet zoomed upwards to the high window in the tower before shooting out of it and into the bright night sky gleefully.

“I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” Kalim told her cheerfully as Yuu stopped thinking in favour of clutching him in fear. “Doesn’t it feel great up here in the sky with the wind in your hair?”

“Easy on the speed,” she squeaked.

“Okay, okay! Carpet, slow down a little for Yuu, won’t’cha?”

The carpet made a tight circle to demonstrate understanding, but unfortunately, it only exacerbated her vertigo.

Several minutes later, they broke the cloud cover and the waning gibbous moon appeared luminescent and enormous in the distance. Yuu heaved a sigh of relief and released Kalim. “Phew. Senpai, give me a little warning next time.”

“Sorry,” he gave her a mischievous grin. “I got too excited.”

“That’s okay, I guess,” Yuu sighed, unable to continue her charade of seriousness. The whole ascent had pushed all thoughts of Jamil and betrayal from her mind. She smiled at him and asked, “Doesn’t flying release stress for you? Then you should do it as much as you need.”

“I knew you’d say that,” Kalim grinned back at her. “How are you feeling? Heatstroke can get nasty. Sorry I made it worse.”

“Made it worse?” Yuu echoed curiously.

“You know, how I gave you water when you…” Kalim sighed remorsefully. “Jamil’s so much better at this stuff than me. I had no idea that drinking water right away was bad for heatstroke.”

“Don’t blame yourself, senpai,” she hurried to reassure him. “Thanks to your water, I recovered much more quickly than I could have.”

“But the reason you came out this morning was because…” Kalim hesitated. “Yuu, next time, ride with me in the saddle, okay?”

In the saddle? But hadn’t he made it clear that she was part of the training camp? Yuu remembered that Kalim had been in his less reasonable state and hesitated. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, senpai?”

“I shouldn’t have mixed you up in our training if I knew you weren’t up to it,” Kalim sighed and grinned wearily at her. “I still feel like we should cancel the whole thing.”

Yuu didn’t know how to answer this tired smile that lacked his usual brightness. The words about Jamil were in her throat even now, stuck behind an invisible barrier she was not sure was of her own making.

What would happen if she told him? If he didn’t believe her…

But what if Kalim did believe her?

Yuu remembered Azul’s manic eyes locked on her as tears of Blot leaked down his cheeks.

—No. She had to be more careful. Even with the carefree nature Kalim showed in front of her, being betrayed by the closest person to him could be enough to send him over the edge.

“Yuu?” Kalim squinted into her face. “You okay?”

“…I’m…fine,” Yuu mustered up a smile for him. “Hey, Kalim-senpai. You and Jamil-senpai are good friends, right?”

“That’s right!” Kalim perked up. “Like I’ve said, Jamil’s an amazing guy. He’s my closest friend and confidante. I can’t imagine my life without him!”

Yuu shut her eyes briefly. “…Have you noticed him acting…strange…recently?”

“Jamil?” Kalim blinked at her. “Not really. Well, he’s always overprotective when we’re not in the mansion, and recently with this winter training camp thing he’s got a lot of stuff to organize, but that’s about it. Why?”

“Nothing, I was just…impressed that he did so much work in a day,” Yuu ventured. “You know, Jamil-senpai’s got so much on his plate. With making food and the training schedules and taking care of you.”

“Yeah, he’s the most capable person I know,” Kalim nodded with a smile.

“…?” Yuu squinted at him, feeling a slight dissonance. “Um, aren’t you worried that he’ll get mad at you for piling too much work on his shoulders?”

“Come to think of it, would he?” Kalim tilted his head to the side consideringly. “Jamil’s stronger than that, but I guess you’re right that he can get stressed out too.”

Yuu remembered the bitterness in Jamil’s voice as he told her that humans were not equal. That Kalim’s position was worth its weight in blood. Was it possible that Kalim himself believed in these statements, too? But he had always considered Jamil his friend.

Did friends really behave this way? Not noticing the burden they might place on another’s shoulders? Had Kalim never even noticed that the work Jamil did was far out of the ordinary... Or did he also subscribe to what Baharat had said so callously, that all of this was nothing more than Jamil’s ‘job’?

Did he take it all for granted?

“What’re you thinking so much about?” Kalim pressed the spot between her eyebrows curiously. “You’ll get wrinkles!”

It was nigh impossible to tell him that she was wondering if his position and his unknowing actions had planted a thorn deep into his ‘friend’s’ heart. In the first place, did Jamil consider Kalim his friend? Yuu realized she had never asked. Like Kalim’s sunny smile, she had taken his actions for granted. But today she had learned that what Jamil showed the world was not Jamil at all.

Was Scarabia’s vice Dorm Head holding on to a burden as big as Kalim’s?

You will be my ally, won’t you?

Yuu shook the voice out of her head and groaned. “How am I supposed to figure this problem out?”

“What problem?” Kalim was still smiling at her. “Your face has changed like ten times in the last minute. You want some help?”

You’re part of the problem, she found herself thinking. But that wasn’t fair. Kalim had no idea…

“I was just trying to think up a way to reduce stress,” Yuu said weakly.

“Oh, I know the answer to that,” beamed Kalim. He waved a bangled hand at the sky. “Flying has got to be the best method ever. And flying with a friend, even more so! Take me—when I go on a Carpet ride with you, I feel so much better about all the problems I have.”

“You think we could take Jamil-senpai on a trip with us next time?” Yuu asked hopefully.

“That sounds like a great idea!” Kalim lit up. “Yuu, you’ve taken a liking to Jamil too? That’s great. Usually Jamil doesn’t try to make friends of his own accord.”

“I,” she hesitated. “…guess? Senpai, you’re Jamil’s ‘closest friend’, right?”

“You just asked me. But that’s right,” Kalim said confidently, his smile the most brilliant one yet. Yuu could see the tangible fondness he had for Jamil in his words, in his expression. Her heart felt like an anchor weighing down into her stomach.

“Do… do you and Jamil-senpai ever fight with each other?” she found herself asking.

“Huh? What’s this about?” Kalim blinked at her. “Why would I fight with Jamil? Or are you talking about practical magic lessons…?”

“I mean,” Yuu hesitated. “Umm…right. Ace and Deuce—my friends from Heartslabyul—fight all the time, but they’re a lot closer than other people would assume at first glance. It’s a method of communication for them, I guess.”

“Oh,” Kalim didn’t seem to understand. “I don’t think I’ve ever really fought with Jamil before though. We’re really close!”

Wouldn’t close friends fight? Yuu had almost had a fight with Grim during the Octavinelle incident. Being friends with someone so different from herself often meant that differences of opinion resulted in conflicts. Ace and Deuce were a good example—but Yuu found herself remembering Trey and Riddle, and how the lack of conflict between them had festered into the state it was during September.

Yuu had seen her share of conflict. This semester, she had been part of conflicts more times than she could count, argued with Leona and angered him enough to be bitten back, literally. Gone nose to nose with Azul so that his fingers dug into her neck as he seethed.

Was this really okay?

She tried again. “What if your opinions are different?”

“Opinions are different?” Kalim repeated, furrowing a brow. “…I don’t really remember when our opinions differed that much, though.”

Attendant. The word lodged itself in Yuu’s brain. No matter what Jamil did, he would not be equal with Kalim. So his opinion would never be on the same level. And of course, he would never show his ‘master’ that he thought differently, behaved differently, than what was expected of him. For Jamil was too skilled to show such a mistake in a job he was assigned.

But didn’t Kalim ever notice?

A close inspection of the smiling face in front of her revealed guileless goodwill. And, she realized with all the colour draining from her face, nothing else.

It seemed that despite how importantly Kalim regarded his closest confidante, he was not without his problems. Yuu never considered Scarabia’s Dorm Head as anything other than kind, generous, and considerate before, but right now the dissonance in her mind was gratingly evident.

Something was slightly off about the way he ‘thought’. And that ‘something’ might be pushing Jamil further and further down the path of no return.

To Yuu, friendship had always been an observed relationship read about in books, a great bond that surpassed trials and inspired great acts of courage. This semester it had become a reality that she could scarcely believed existed for her.

And now it looked like the heaviest shackles chaining the ones before her to the ground.

“—Yuu?” Kalim uttered in surprise. “You’re as pale as a Ghost! Is the heatstroke acting up again? Want to go back? Or should I call a…”

“Kalim-senpai,” Yuu clutched his arm, guilt nauseous in her stomach. “I…I’m going to make friends with Jamil-senpai. Is that okay?”

“What are you talking about? Of course it’s okay,” Kalim was still looking at her face worriedly. “Jamil needs more friends. More importantly, you really don’t look so good, should we head back—”

“I’m really going to make friends with him then,” Yuu vowed seriously, meeting Kalim’s scarlet eyes against the white moon. “This time, I’m not going to let anything happen to any of you.”

Kalim gave her a blank smile that slowly lost its light-hearted cheer as she continued to look at him. “…I don’t know what’s going on,” he said gravely, “but don’t try and do everything by yourself, okay? I’m here to help you. We’re friends.”

“Friends,” Yuu echoed, the word turning to ashes on her tongue. She wanted painfully to believe him. But whether it was because of the suggestion in her mind that her first priority and ally was Jamil Viper—or because of the niggling unease rising in her mind as Kalim talked about his ‘best friend’, somehow things looked to be less and less simple between the benevolent master and the capable servant.

—

“You’re still not coming back?” Floyd’s voice whined through the receiver that night as Yuu towelled her hair dry post-shower. Grim, having been exhausted by a long day of practical magic training, was already buried in the sheets fast asleep without the energy to even snore.

“Sorry, senpai,” she said sheepishly. “I’m on to something. Long story short, my instincts were totally right this time.”

“Has anyone told you you’re too nosy for a shrimp?” Floyd sounded so despondent that she could picture his pout without having to see him. “Even if something’s gone wrong with Rakko-chan, you don’t have anything to do with it. This is how you get eaten by a predator.”

“But I’ve got the partnership of Azul Ashengrotto-senpai himself,” Yuu said cheekily. “Plus Symbiote One and Symbiote Two, right? Jade-senpai should have gotten the message I left on the pocket-watch already too, so I’m not in as much danger as you think I am.”

She decided to consciously leave out the strange spell Jamil had cast on her. Whether it was because his command was still active somewhere in her brain or because she wanted to keep it secret, even Yuu did not know.

“Winter Holiday’s so boring without you to push around, though,” complained Floyd. “I’ve got half a mind to come sleep over with you and Azarashi-chan. You think Rakko-chan would let me?”

“Please refrain from coming,” Yuu said pleasantly.

His voice dropped in pitch. “Hah? You sure have some guts to stand up against me, you tiny shrimp.”

“I can back up my words with actions, Mister Eel.”

“Aha! Better watch your attitude around me.”

Yuu paused. “But wouldn’t you get bored of me if I became obedient?”

“You’re not wrong,” Floyd reverted to his usual cheerful tenor.

“Floyd, are you talking to Yuu-san?” Jade’s faraway voice called his brother.

“Ja~de, come help me convince Koebi-chan to come back already,” Floyd’s voice moved away from the receiver. “I’m freaking bored.”

“You know how stubborn Yuu-san is. She’s even made a deal with Azul…it’s most likely useless to try and convince her otherwise,” Jade sounded amused. “Additionally, it seems that her guesses were not unfounded. Three o’clock, the code for ‘beginning an investigation’…why don’t you ask how the search went? Wouldn’t that interest you enough for some entertainment?”

“I don’t have to ask,” Floyd said sulkily. “It’s obvious that Koebi-chan’s gotten herself stuck into another den of trouble again and instead of running away, is swimming around like an idiot. Watch, she’s gonna trigger all three of Azul’s conditions and get locked up in Octa forever.”

“That would be an interesting future, indeed,” Jade didn’t seem displeased in the least.

“I can hear you,” Yuu muttered.

“So anyway, Koebi-chan. What was that holiday from your world you were talking about just now?” Floyd lost interest. “Crisp-something?”

“Christmas,” Yuu corrected him. “It’s probably the only holiday I celebrated back in my world, actually. Hogwarts—my school—decorates the entire castle for the holiday. It’s always on December twenty-fifth of every year.”

“What a weird name,” commented Floyd. “What’s it for?”

“Present-giving?” she responded. “I don’t really know, but the Headmaster always sent me some notebooks and quills for Christmas. And I always went to Honeydukes—er, that’s the chocolate and sweets shop in the town by the school—to buy some sweets during the season.”

“Present-giving?” Floyd’s voice brightened. “So you’re gonna give me something?”

“When did I say that?” Yuu asked exasperatedly. “In the first place, I don’t know if I’ll even be back by the twenty-fifth.”

“Huuuh? It’s gonna take that long? No way. What are you going to give me?” Floyd said unreasonably. “I won’t forgive you if you say ‘nothing’, by the way.”

“Present-giving?” Jade’s voice drew closer. “From Yuu-san? That’s something I would like to know more about myself.”

“Like I said, I didn’t say I—” Yuu stopped while she was ahead and rolled her eyes at the receiver. “…The school shop is closed for the Winter Holiday, though.”

“So what? Think of something,” Floyd said even more unreasonably.

“Has anyone told you that you sound like a mafia member threatening a normal citizen unreasonably?” Yuu deadpanned.

“Aaah? Got a problem, shrimp?”

She grumbled something about overbearing Merfolk. Secretly, however, Yuu was glad for the distraction. Even with Floyd’s pushiness, his relationships were far from the tangled mess she had discovered Kalim’s and Jamil’s to be. It posed for a distraction from the looming problem that haunted her mind.

“Yuu-san,” Jade’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. “Are you thinking too much again?”

“How can you always tell?” Yuu asked plaintively.

“Symbiotes,” Jade and Floyd synchronized perfectly.

“…You two are really close,” she realized at their joined voices. “Right! You two were siblings. Twins.”

“…Koebi-chan, are you tired or something?” Floyd asked after a second, sounding like he was worried about her sanity.

“What do you do when Jade-senpai is being unreasonable, Floyd-senpai?” Yuu asked eagerly, ignoring him.

“Why, I’m never unreasonable,” Jade cried in the background.

“I punch him,” Floyd said blankly.

“But then he’ll punch you,” Yuu rolled her eyes, remembering their casual and intense ‘arguments’ resulting in scrapes and cuts (and perhaps worse) a month ago in the Mostro Lounge. “What if you have a difference of opinion you want to solve by words?”

“That’s a rather foolish question,” Jade commented. “Do you think that Floyd would change his mind because of anything I said?”

“That’s my line,” Floyd snorted. “Jade’s more stubborn than a hunk of iron at the bottom of the sea. Plus he’s a weirdo.”

“A difference of opinion is what makes us unique,” Jade added. “Why in the sea would it be necessary for us to do something as useless as solving that difference?”

“I see your point,” she rubbed at her drying hair tiredly, wondering why Floyd’s hairclip still refused to come undone. “But some differences can have more consequences than just a fight or two.”

And Yuu was determined to prevent the disastrous collision of this critical difference in opinion—in friendship—in position… before it reached an irreparable instant.

—