Eris didn't have the intention to stay behind for as long as she did. However, she had a feeling that if she went to her room now she would be losing something. Furthermore, she wasn't all that excited to meet whatever roomates she had been assigned with. Knowing this academy's lack of any logical behavior, she could even bet that they arranged mixed gender rooms. Just the thought of it, made Eris shudder.
“Even so, I might as well go take a bath. I'm sure I can avoid knowing the truth until later, but—” She looked at her dirty clothes. To think that she would have to go out of her way and do things like she had to do in that "sparring session" during the first day of classes...
And then, it happened. Like a ghost out of nowhere, she felt a hand reach for her shoulder and sighed.
“Well, I was beginning to wonder what took you so long. That, maybe you were trying to avoid me?” Eris said before turning around to face her sister.
“Or maybe, have you come here to scold me for earlier? That would be so very like you, now that I think about it, Sis. Did you enjoy how I arranged things in a way to make you the class rep?”"...." In just a few sentences Kiara felt like tightening her grip or narrowing her eyes, anything to highlight how annoyed she was. But doing so was just bait for the other girl.
"You're really one to talk about avoiding people. But I wonder, how did you guess? If you knew this conversation would happen, you should have known how I'd feel about the circumstances that led up to it," she responded evenly but dryly.
"What are you even doing here Eris. I thought you didn't care for a school like this?" Her hand softened until she released the other girl's shoulder completely, stepping back with a neutral stare.
"Don't tell me you only came because you wanted to pick fights with other nobles. Did you think I'd forget about your spat with Alberta earlier and the headache you caused for the entire class?"“And you thought right. In fact, I find this kind of place to be a shining example of the absolute worst our society has become,” Eris said as she dusted some dirt off her skirt.
“But, my curiosity beat my dislike of this hero cult we live in. I had to come and see what attracted my sister—who always disliked such things even more than I do—like a moth to the flame.”“That said, 'Flowers bloom even in a garbage heap',” Eris said, doing one more of her beloved quotations.
“There are some things of value in this place. I even got a very interesting idea. I'm sure you'll love it when you see it,” Eris said when she conjured a small bubble of mercury that took a vaguely doll-like shape for but a moment, before popping like a balloon.
“As for Alberta. Rest assured she was nothing but a tool to achieve my goals. If nothing else, it's her own fault for making herself an easy target for attacks. And the whole class' fault for being so easy to read. My objective of making you stand out was accomplished marvelously because of that. If nothing else, I have to thank her for it. And our teacher, for thinking he's so above it all, he doesn't look at the small details.”Kiara could contain no longer the efforts of rolling her eyes, especially as Eris went on and on as if she were discussing the time of day, or perhaps the weather.
"Curiosity aside, you can't just provoke people for a reaction or some lofty goal Eris." She was hardly surprised she even had to spell this out to the other girl.
"Furthermore, I didn't ask to stand out. Did you ever consider that?" No, of course she didn't, but it was too late to go back and change events now. Kiara raised a hand to her already shaking head and with a sigh she placed an increasingly irritated gaze onto Eris.
"You could have just wrote letters to me instead of following me all the way here. But what's done is done. I'm concerned more about the future, and no thanks to you, I have a responsibility as this class' rep in making sure there's less problems than there needs to be." A pause.
"That includes you Eris. I mean it. Don't try and pull this stunt again. If you're stuck here with me, you're a student like everyone else. Those are your peers, not your pawns," she said with growing heat in her voice, unamused by the conjured "doll" that leaked mercury on the ground before popping. Like Kiara's patience.
“Now that you mention it. I wanted to make things better for you, but I hardly stopped to think it through,” Eris admitted her own mistake after Kiara pointed that she moved a little to fast with her plans.
“At any rate, I still think you are a better fit for this role than anyone else in the class. All of them are completely blind. Laughing at a jester tiptoeing on a tight rope rather than facing the truth.”“Of course, you don't have to worry about that. I'll be a good classmate from now onwards. As much as I'm allowed to, anyway. As I said, there are some things of interest I found that are worth putting up with this circus. Of course, you're one of them.”"You know, you could at least try to get along with the others...." At least she wasn't outright hostile like Alberta was at times, Kiara reasoned to herself. Though that might have been worse off for wear in the long run. Despite her annoyance, she felt herself deflating as Eris' words reminded her she only meant well; even if she did have a twisted way of going about things.
"Whether or not I'm the best candidate, who knows. I don't think I'm exactly favored by our classmates one way or another," she said, immediately thinking about her fight with Sophiel.
"Still, if you keep on your best behavior, I guess that's all I can ask for." She sighed. How was it Eris was the one being lectured yet
she was the one who felt exhausted? Maybe it was because she ignored Eris' blatant finishing words of interesting concerning her....
“Oh, but I'm trying to. I even tried to be friendly during these duels, but it seems like the person I was paired to was taking this a bit too serious for her own good,” Eris said as she fidgetted with the wooden sword she used earlier.
“I mean, why would I go out of my way to hurt someone in a meaningless exercise like that one? Even if they could be healed, I don't think the sensation of being stabbed is the most pleasant experience to remember about your first day of class,” she said as she looked around at the sun setting behind the flowering courtyard they stood on.
“I promise I'll be a good girl, if that's what it takes to give you some peace of mind. At least as much as I'm able to. Terrible as this place may be, I might as well try to make good use of my time here, I suppose,” Eris said as she turned her back to her sister for a moment.
“By the way, have you seen those so called Miracle Seven? I wonder what is your impression of them? I, of course, find that whole cult-like mentality surrounding them to be nothing but the trite excuses of those who cannot find their own path by looking within themselves, but... Even I have to admit one of them caught my attention for some very interesting reasons.”Kiara felt like sighing but didn't. She had a fair idea of what Eris' idea of being nice was but she didn't further question her so long as she promised to be on good behavior. That was exactly what she did, thankfully, the other girl turning away from the class rep. Expecting that to be the end of the conversation, Kiara was surprised to hear the next question. The Miracle Seven? Well, she wasn't wholly surprised that was how Eris felt about them but hearing someone caught her attention was interesting of note.
"Well, the Seventh Seat's mana feels similar to mine, though that's probably because we can both use electricity," she started, remembering sensing him earlier during the celebrations.
"As for anyone else...the Sixth Seat kind of looks familiar, don't you think? It's kind of funny. Overall, I think they mean well. The Miracle Seven I mean. If anything else, it's good inspiration for us students."“Well, that's interesting. I've learned a few things about mana today, but this was something new,” Eris said after Kiara revealed the likeness between herself and the Miracle Seventh.
“Ah, yes. There's something certainly alluring about her. I only got the chance to talk with her for a moment, but she felt kinda nostalgic, like a kind of illusion. I think I've read in a book about Eastern philosophy once, the metaphor they used for this is 'like the Moon reflected on water'. Something beautiful that looks to be so close, yet is truly unreachable. Actually, talking about this reminded me. Did you know she called my aura beautiful? That's very funny indeed, right?”"I can imagine," Kiara mused. She knew very well the properties of her sister's aura, especially of how it seemed to stare back at people. She had to wonder then, if the Sixth Seat was impressed by Eris herself or was only admiring her own beauty from the mirror that reflected back. Kiara didn't feel like diving into any answers too deeply, especially when it looked to be sunset at this point.
"Well, interests aside, we'll have plenty of time to talk now since we're in the same class," she said in attempts to settle the mood between them.
"We should really get going to our dorms. It's been a surprisingly long day and we could both use the rest."“Oh, sure. It really has been a long day, right?” Eris laughed it of as she followed her sister away.
“I can barely believe they don't have a proper bath here, though. Such a boring place...” As the two of them departed, idly leaving the training grounds, Kiara suddenly felt foolish for not even mentioning Eris' time in the class so far. So concerned was she of making sure she didn't cause any trouble that she almost forgot about the blatantly obvious, mentally cursing herself.
"Oh, I guess it should go without mentioning you made it past the trial fights. Since you're still here," she said with almost stumbling words.
"Er, how was your fight exactly? You didn't really mention much besides your opponent being too serious and by the time I was done, your fight looked like it ended."“It was nothing special, really. I tried to get the fight done with a strike from behind while invisible, but somehow she avoided it. After that, it just devolved into a battle of attrition until I got tired of her tryhard tenacity and gave up,” Eris said with utmost naturality.
“Seriously, I wasn't even being serious. If I wanted to, I could have defeated her in a single strike, but like I said, I didn't feel like actually hurting someone just for the pleasure of our teacher. I even offered to let this farce go and give up on the fight together but she was being a tryhard annoyance, so I bailed out.”“Actually, I think she's one of your roommates, the horse princess girl or something like it. Certainly a boring person to hang around,” Eris commented as they walked. However, she paused when something caught her attention.
“What about you? You seem way more battered and bruised than me, that must have been interesting at least,” she asked, when she noticed Kiara's state of disregard.
“Not just you, even...” she pointed to her sister's tome.
"Eris, I thought you said you'd be nicer to our classmates." Well, she supposed Eris wasn't badmouthing per se, but Kiara still felt she had to point it out. By Eris' description though, she narrowed down the list of potentials and figured her opponent was....
"Oh, Sanhan. I actually bumped into her earlier before the matches. You know, I'm sure you wouldn't find people boring if you got to know them," she pointed out, defending her roommate a little. All in all though, Eris' words were about what she expected, bored and finding no amusement to the grand scheme of their matches. She almost forgot she had a fight of her own until Eris pointed it out. Immediatley her body reacted, feeling more weary once her sister brought attention to being battered.
"It's not much. Alot of the pain and aches have resided over time and-oh, that." She noticed one of her tome's pages sticking out of her pocket and shook her head.
"That's my own dumb fault. I dunno, I used my tome like a shield and, well, my opponent kind of....destroyed it. I'll have to see about replacing it soon because I don't think the professor will go easy on us, with or without it."“Well, just tell me if you need help. I certainly could give you some tips about aesthetics if you wish. I myself have been thinking about some future improvements I'd like to make on my own tools,” Eris smile turned into a slightly mischievous grin at the idea of helping her sister. However, soon enough they reached the dorms, making this as far as they could go together for now.
“I suppose this is it. I'll see you later, Sis. Just take care. I'm pretty much sure this lame school has planned for us to have mixed gender rooms. If some boy tries anything inappropriate just let me know,” Eris said in a not-too-veiled threat.
Those words wouldn't go unnoticed or unheeded on Kiara's part and she only nodded wordlessly. It must have been some cosmic irony that placed her in such a position, representing Class C while keeping her sister from trying to murder them-no, Eris wouldn't have been that crude. She'd go for cleaner methods. Honestly, she felt more concerned for Eris' roommates more than anything else, a thought that lingered even as she headed to her dorm.
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