Chapter 28

"There you are!" Juna called out, rushing over with a cupcake in hand and it had a candle stuck in the middle of it. "Since we can't properly celebrate your birthday, I improvised. Where's Ash?"

"O-Outside…"

What was Juna doing? Melyssa balked when Altina pulled out Claimh Solais, her weapon, and proceeded to float her right to the kitchen while Juna went to retrieve Ash. Rean, Crow, and Kurt were waiting for them when Melyssa was dropped right on her feet in the middle and Altina made Claimh Solais disappear.

"Did you REALLY have to do that, Altina?"

"Yes. You would have run if I didn't."

"This really isn't necessary…we have more important things to worry about…"

"Life is too short, Melyssa," Kurt spoke up, usually the quiet one, but he had to say this much. "After what happened yesterday, every birthday should be celebrated to some extent. And you are 18 now, correct? That is a huge milestone in one's life."

"Exactly." Juna and Ash walked inside and she still had the cupcake in hand, extending it to the birthday girl. "Now stop fighting it, let us sing Happy Birthday to you, blow the candle out and we'll all have a cupcake. It's harmless."

Sighing, Melyssa decided if it made Juna happy, she would suffer through this and took the cupcake, watching Rean light it. They all sang to her and then she stared at the candle when Juna ordered her to make a wish. Shutting her eyes, she wished for Jurai's safety and prosperity, as well as her family's before blowing it out, all of them applauding her.

"See? That wasn't so bad!"

"No, it wasn't." Melyssa hugged Juna with one arm. "Thanks, Juna."

Then, they all sat down together as a class and ate their cupcakes.

After their cupcakes and people started wandering off to rest before they landed, Rean gently pulled Melyssa aside. "Here, I have something for you, birthday girl." He pulled a small packet from his pocket, wrapped in brown paper with twine string. He had been browsing the vendors, seeing if there was anything he or his may need before they hit Jurai and spotted this small trinket.

Rean had, and not on purpose, cut Crow off. He had been approaching Melyssa, hoping to try mending fences again when Rean had swooped in. He knew Rean wasn't trying to block him or anything, but it sure felt like.

Melyssa stared at the brown package with wide eyes, not expecting any gifts, especially one from her Instructor. "Rean…" He pressed it to her hand and she took it, her eyes staring at it for a moment or two before looking back up into his fuchsia eyes. "What is this?"

"Open it and find out."

Hesitantly, Melyssa looked back down at the present and pulled at the string, unraveling it to reveal a brown box. Rean opened the lid for her to reveal what it was and she felt the breath temporarily leave her body. It was a beautiful midnight blue stone that had little stars embedded inside of it. It reminded her of the night sky and her love for stargazing. It was on a silver chain and Rean took it out of the box to step behind her, moving her hair to the side to clip it on around her neck.

"It's so beautiful." She pulled her hair out of the chain once he finished and turned to face him, fingering the stone. "Thank you."

"Now, before you think it's just for pretty…" Her reaction was beyond what he had been hoping for. Rean had been concerned she would find it overwhelming or inappropriate, so the expression on her face when she had seen it… relief had coursed through him. "It has a protection spell imbued in the stone." Not one that would guarantee 100% safety, but it would help rebound minor spells and whatnot, help her avoid incoming harm. Enchantments were tricky. "Also, it reminded me of the sky that night we had gelato, which made me think of you."

Rean wanted to protect her and remembered their night under the stars with gelato, which told her he enjoyed it as much as she did. She felt that all-too-familiar warmth course through her body and her heart filled with a feeling she couldn't describe. The protection spell was more than likely done by his witch friend.

"So, as long as I wear this, it will protect me?"

"Not completely, but it will help a great deal."

She wanted to ask him why he would give her such an amazing gift, but Melyssa refrained. This was her Instructor and, no matter what she felt towards him, they couldn't be together. It wouldn't be appropriate and the last thing she wanted to do was cause him problems within the academy. Still, she hadn't forgotten that night with the gelato or the walk they took together under the stars on the academy field. Why was she having an overwhelming urge to press her lips to his? Maybe it was because she now knew what a kiss felt like, even if it was a tarnished memory. Rean was like a forbidden fruit she desperately wanted to taste.

"You truly are one of a kind and not who I thought you were at all, Rean. I will cherish this always and never take it off."

"Who did you think I was?" He asked, puzzlement lacing his voice before it dawned. Or at least he had just hit an assumption. The Ashen Chevalier, a stuffy 'hero' or something. "Ah, never mind."

Hopefully, now that she knew him, the man beneath the moniker… things wouldn't ever be awkward between them again. Not like when she had first met him and realized who her Instructor was, though that awkward had mostly been on her end. She had been overwhelmed that first week and he had instinctively gone out of his way to help ease her into everything.

"Anyway, I'm glad you like it, it looks good on you." She made it look lovely, but he knew better than to say that out loud.

She blushed at his compliment, her cheeks infusing with pink, and looked down at the necklace again, loving how the little stars shimmered in the stone. There was no way she could let him walk away without giving him something in return. Without hesitation, she stepped up and hugged him around the neck, feeling his hesitation, but she didn't care.

"Thank you for thinking of me."

Pecking his cheek, Melyssa turned and left the kitchen, leaving him standing there with a shocked expression on his face. Rean stood there long after Melyssa had vacated, unaware that he had moved his fingers up to the spot where her lips had kissed his cheek. Goddess, he was in a lot of trouble when it came to that woman and that's exactly what she was – a woman. A beautiful, smart, brave young woman who had attracted his attention as more than just a friend. His mind threw up a bunch of rules and regulations that he would be tossing aside and willfully breaking if he pursued this, pursued her.

As his friends would probably tell him…. some rules were worth breaking over the right person.

The only question was: Would Melyssa allow him to break those rules?

On the outskirts of Jurai, the Courageous II landed and everyone disembarked exactly an hour and a half later. They had a little bit of a trek to get to the actual city, but it wasn't anywhere near as far as what they had to walk yesterday. Melyssa grabbed her bag and shouldered it, along with everyone else, Rean instructing his students to fall in line. When they arrived in Jurai, it would be all business and he wanted to make sure they were prepared for absolutely anything. Prince Olivert promised to come back in 3 days to pick them up and bring them back to Leeves since the trains were all shut down for the time being.

"Now since this is familiar territory for Melyssa and Crow, I'm asking you both to take the lead and I'm depending on you both to guide us around Jurai when we get there for the investigation." Rean informed them, watching both nod and he did the same before they all departed for Jurai.

With each step she took, that dreaded feeling pulsated through Melyssa and she did her best to ignore it, putting her focus into destroying some monsters they ran into on the way to Jurai. Crow hadn't been to Jurai in years, so being asked to be a guide seemed silly to him. Equally silly was asking him to do so alongside Melyssa, who was keeping him at arm's length, not that he blamed her, even after his apology. He had ruined not only her birthday, but he had stolen her first kiss without even asking anything he should have and then immediately afterward made her feel like complete shit for it.

"This place seems familiar." He said softly after dispatching another group of monsters, surveying the territory. "Did we come here as children?"

Melyssa looked over at Crow, along with the others, immediately swallowing down that spark of hope. "Yeah, we did." She gestured to the nearby tree. "We used to climb this all the time while my grandfather would fish in the river." There was a river just beyond the trees, not far away from where they had played as kids. "Sometimes, your grandfather would join him, Crow." She informed him in a soft voice, the memories of them swinging on the branches and their laughter echoing in her mind. How she wished Crow could experience the nostalgia she currently was. "Anyway, we're almost to Jurai. About 10 more minutes or so and we'll be at the gate."

They used to play here and climb this tree as children. Crow could vaguely remember his grandfather fishing, though he didn't recall Melyssa or coming out here with her. He knew she wasn't lying, he did have a feeling associated with this area, happiness and joy for the most part. Falling in step with Melyssa, he kept his pistols out, the inner joy tampered with something else as each step took them closer to the gates of Jurai.

"Something feels wrong." He said it quietly, just to her, not wanting to upset the others over a feeling.

Maybe it was just him.

"I feel it too."

There was a very uneasy feeling surrounding the outskirts of Jurai, so Melyssa could only imagine what it felt like on the inside. She shared a concerned look with Crow and then looked at Rean, who had an intense expression on his face. He must've felt something was off as well. However, once they arrived at the gates of Jurai, the Imperial soldiers allowed them inside without any issues.

The town was…lively.

There were people everywhere shopping, walking, talking, and there were smiles. This was the 'richer' part of Jurai, but the further they would venture in, those smiles and the cheerfulness would vanish. There were still parts of Jurai that suffered from poverty and economic hell. Right now, the rich, the nobility that lived in Jurai, looked as happy as clams and that did not sit well with Melyssa. Jurai was a city bathed in commoners, but ever since Jurai had been made a Special Economic Zone, the nobility had slowly but surely edged its way in.

Now, after the civil war, the issue between the classes was supposed to -in theory- ebb as the classes were encouraged to mingle a bit more, lessen the stigma between them. That was in theory, but the reality was one couldn't force people to stop acting the way they had been taught, by people who had been taught the same. This was a problem that had lasted generations and it would take generations more to fix it.

"I'd say this isn't so bad," Crow said wryly, having holstered his pistols once through the gate though he still felt the urge to have his fingers wrapped around one. "But it still feels wrong."

"So, what exactly are we looking for? How do we start this investigation?" Juna inquired, once they found a quiet spot in between uptown and downtown Jurai, staring at their Instructor expectantly. "You said it was a political issue, correct, Instructor?"

"Yeah, Prince Olivert gave me more information on the way here and I can share it with you all now." Rean rubbed his hands together, knowing this would not be easy for Crow and Melyssa to hear. "Heidel Rogner is trying to vie for power in Jurai."

Heidel Rogner was from one of the Four Great Houses – the Rogner family, who was very well-known in the city of Roer, where Alisa and the Reinford family were from. He had hired jaegers during the civil war to capture Irina Reinford, Alisa's mother, and Class VII had saved her and restored order in Roer. Before Heidel could be sentenced, however, the Noble Faction had saved him, or rather Duke Cayenne had, and since he had a lot of power back then, nothing was ever done about Irina's kidnapping. It had infuriated Alisa and now…he was trying to steal power from the Imperial government in Jurai.

"From what His Highness was told, the nobles are slowly but surely taking over Jurai and there's an upcoming election for a mayor of the city."

"But…how can that be?" Melyssa demanded, her eyes wide, and looked at Crow, shaking her head. "No, that's wrong. Jurai's last mayor was Crow's grandfather – Mayor Armbrust. The Imperial government has complete control over Jurai, so how can there even be an election?!"

"Emperor Eugene III decreed that Jurai needs a leader of some sort instead of the Imperial government running it." Rean could understand why she was upset, but at the same time, he had to remain neutral. "Prince Olivert isn't happy with his father's decision, which is why there are a lot more Nobles here than there was a year ago."

"Aidios, help us…" Melyssa whispered, not believing this sudden turn of events. "Who is he competing against, Instructor?"

"THAT…I don't know yet. Prince Olivert didn't either, but Scherazard thinks it's another one of the Four Great Houses. And here's the worst part – Ouroboros is backing Heidel Rogner in the election." Rean did not like the look that crossed over Crow's face, knowing this was a very serious situation they'd just stepped into. "The election is one week from tomorrow, so Prince Olivert is hoping we can somehow put a stop to it before then. He said if we need to stay here longer than 3 days, it's not a problem, and Principal Le Guin has already signed consent on it too."

Melyssa felt nauseous, looking around at all the people walking and talking, not believing what was happening to her home. If Ouroboros was backing Heidel Rogner, his competition did not stand a chance and was in danger of becoming extinct.