"Aldia! Wait up!"

I flinch at the sound of that voice, more so to the name she addressed me with, but I decide to just bear through it. Turning around to face the girl, I put on the best smile I could muster. "M-morning, Akko. I didn't know you're already allowed to leave the infirmary. You did go to the infirmary as I told you to, right?"

Akko slows her pace to a walk once she catches up to me so she could walk beside me. "I did, I did! I'm totally fine now. You're much more worried about me than I am!"

Despite myself, I couldn't help but humour her. "I tend to be a worrywart when someone I know got hit by what's basically radioactive magical energy".

"You're such a worrywart. You're starting to sound like Lotte".

"I'll take that as a compliment".

"Anyhow, do you have free time later?"

"Depends", I answer plainly. "What's the occasion?"

"I heard that there's a pretty cool bakery shop opening in town. I'm planning to go there with Sucy and Lotte, but you can come if you want".

"Hm, then I'm pretty occupied", I answer, and before Akko could ask me to elaborate, I add, "Indefinitely. You do know that in a matter of weeks, we'll have a treasure hunt event, don't you? I originally wanted to spent my yesterday burying my nose in a book or another and learn more about the labyrinth, but circumstances such as magical 'few in a hundred years' butterfly taking flight made it hard to concentrate".

"Just say you're too lazy to read", Akko elbows me. "And besides, it's still days away, it's okay to be lazy about it!"

"Famous last words", I remark casually.

"Worrywart~" Akko returns.

—

Today we're instructed to create golems during class. Besides my table is the red team's. There, Akko rigorously tries to create hers. She made a whole lot of mess on her work station in the process.

In the short time I've known her, Akko's been a lot of things, but talented isn't one of them, but the girl, or rather, her magic from a few days ago, intrigued me to no end. I can't quite figure out that magic, it's foreign yet familiar. So because of that, I'm compelled to stick with her just to see her use something like that again.

The problem is, after the Papiliodiya incident, Akko's been spending her time recovering from that murowa she received from Diana and I don't believe she'll be back to her full strength too quickly, so she isn't in any state to cast any magnificent spell anytime near.

I was looking when Akko fails to make a visually pleasing golem. She makes a funny face at it. I can't help but sigh and be amused at her personality.

"Maybe if you try something simple and not a perfect replica of Shiny Chariot, then you'll have better luck", I tell her.

Akko pushes herself off the desk. "But I want my mini Chariot! If I believe hard enough I'm sure I can make her!" And she resumes her golem-making, taking her words into action.

"Believe, huh", I hum, and begin to drool. "Then I believe lunch today is going to be T-bone steak".

On the edge of my hearing, I hear an interesting conversation going on somewhere in class. Some students are talking about the labyrinth and the treasure hunt event that'll be held in there in a few days.

"I heard there're monsters inside! And not just any monsters…"

"I heard there're Minotaur, and even a Cyclops, or so I heard from my friend".

"I just hope they're not skeletons", one student says. "They spook me to no end…"

"I heard from my big sister that there's one particular haunting skeleton in the labyrinth. She said that it carries a trumpet with it always and plays it despite not having any lungs!"

"That's terrible!"

"That's so spooky!"

"Well, you could say that the skeleton is out of the closet now", the girl who told the story winks, and immediately all the girls' expression around her sour.

"Please don't".

"Sorry".

The topic that had been going around among students lately is the labyrinth and what lies within it. As the treasure hunt event dawns ever closer each day, students had gradually grown anxious while some others are excited of the coming adventure. And it's no surprise that, out of all the things being talked about the labyrinth, the obstacles, the big bad monsters said to inhabit there, are what's being hot topic around here.

On the right side of my table is the blue team's. I turn to the still preoccupied Akko, working hard on her Chariot replica, her attention undivided, and believe that she won't need my company in a while.

I quietly slip away and go to Diana to talk. My main question for her: the truth about the monsters hidden down there in the labyrinth. I'm quite sceptical about the monster tales so far; they sound like, even in wizarding standards, bedtime stories to scare people away from the labyrinth. Hence why Diana surprises me when she nods and, just as I expected of the Cavendish, shows no sign of humour.

"The labyrinth houses a great number of creatures, some terrible enough for people to call them monsters. The place itself is like an isolated biome, hidden from the world, a perfect spot for reclusive creatures to dwell and survive".

"That's not what I need to hear right now", I groan. "And we're to go down there and find treasures".

"It seems so".

While I do enjoy the prospect of exploration and adventure in a curious and historical place, the idea that I'd be doing it in such a perilous place begins to deter me. The novelty of adventure and exploration begins to be overshadowed by the cruel reality of the possibility of death down there.

"In any way, I'm glad you're that interested in the event", Diana remarks, pulling me out of my anxious thoughts.

"Really? What makes you say that?" I ask. I don't believe I've openly expressed my interest on it, all except to Akko just earlier, and I'm yet to be sure these two share words often.

"I saw you going to the library numerous times lately, and notice that you keep borrowing the books about the labyrinth".

Diana catches my bewildered stare and explains further. "I notice because I intended to borrow those books. I don't mind, though".

"N-no, that's not it…"

That's odd. I don't believe I borrowed that many books. I just borrowed once or twice the other day and another: that day the magical butterflies broke out and another the next day, and they amount to two or three books in total. Perhaps Diana just mistook my borrowing amount and some other students or more are the ones that took the books.

But whatever it is, it's not worth to waste my time thinking about such trivial misunderstanding.

I shake my head. "…No, never mind that, there's something better to ask, like how am I going to go through this? I heard we'll go in teams and as far as I know I'm the only team-less sort in the whole school.

Diana places a finger to her chin. "I don't believe I know the answer… but I believe the teachers already have their plans for you in order".

"Just hope so", I say and jest. "I don't want to die alone if I were to, down there".

Diana doesn't return the humour, like she always does. She looks at my work instead for a change of topic, and her fine brows slightly arch at the sight of it. "Is that…"

"It is", I answer once I catch where her gaze is.

Hannah and Barbara who've been near but out of our conversation suddenly join at the mention of my sculpture. Once they lay their eyes on it, they're practically gleaming.

"Heeh, a cat, how cute", Barbara squeals.

"I made it after my cat", I tell them.

Diana herself seems quite impressed at the craftsmanship. She leans close to the cat to study the fine strokes I did for its fur and whiskers. "That's impressive…"

"That's so cool…" Hannah coos.

"Yeah", I say, smiling proudly, it soon disappears and a tight-lipped frown replaces it. "He got run over around a week ago".

Hannah and Barbara immediately went silent. I look to their faces to observe their expressions, they're ghostly pale and their eyes are wide and fixated to the sculpture. They take a few quiet steps back from the deceased cat sculpture they're just doting mere seconds ago.

"My condolences", Diana was the only one able to speak. "It must've been tough".

"Pets", I shrug. "You're going to outlive them anyway, I guess. This one just decided to go quicker".

Diana just quietly grunts, not really knowing how to respond to my statement nor where this conversation is going. I too share the same feeling, so I take my wand and decide to move the show forward. "I haven't put my magic in it. Maybe it'll look better if I do. Pray I won't lose an arm and a leg doing this though".

Before the girls could ask what I meant with that morbid remark, my magic had already started to flow into the sculpture. They seep into its very flesh and bones, moving joints and giving life to its muscles. The golem dully glows as my magic works its way through it, and when it finally fades, the sculpture begins to move. The first is its chest, it rises and falls as it takes its first, deep breathes. And in slow and heavy manner, it moves its limbs for the first time, audibly cracking a few skin-clays in each movement.

The cat golem opens its eyelids and its soulless eyes stare at the four of us. Its mouth suddenly hangs open, too wide for any living cat could and it lets out a pained, guttural groan. Its throat is an empty gaping abyss, and immediately the colour drains from Hannah and Barbara's faces as they both collapse to their knees and cling on to Diana's legs.

"Sorry!" was all I can say when I see them.

I notice Diana's concerned eyes leaving the two and stops dead on their tracks once she looks at me. Following it, I see her looking warily at my shoulder and the cat golem that's now already climbed up there.

I gulp and gingerly lift it up like one would a cat and place it back on the table. I try my best to ignore this thing for now and look back to Diana while trying to mask my fear. "A-anyhow, what did you make?"

Diana blinks a few times but says nothing. She just steps aside to reveal the golem she's sculpted on her table, a beautiful unicorn.

"…It's the Cavendish guardian symbol". Diana says after a moment. As she raises her wand, the golem quickly comes to life and moves with life-like flexibility and dexterity, a sea-wide contrast compared to mine.

Some students couldn't help but look at the creation with awe. Though as for Akko, she's chews her lip irritably at the attention the golem and its creator is getting. I glance at Akko and find an amused smile creeping up my lips at the sight of a terribly made Shiny Chariot sculpture held between her hands.

A for effort, Akko.

And then, after the beauty they've seen in the form of the unicorn, the onlookers' eyes eventually drift to the cat golem sitting dormant beside it, and immediately they lose the light on their faces.

Out of nowhere, a new golem walks across the table and enters the scene. This one is a red panda.

"Whoa, that's pretty cute!" I remark, glad that there's something's cute for once in this golem making class.

Hannah quickly pushes herself up, her previous fear somewhat replaced with confidence and pride now. "T-that's mine, of course it'll be cute!"

The red panda is already mobile and lively, it walks over to another golem on the table, this one a panda. They continue to play and chase each other around, both seems to be having a great time.

Barbara too now regains her footing and looks to the golem she's made play with her friend's. "Hah! They're playing!" she says with a squeal.

And of course, Diana's unicorn eventually follows. It prances close to the two golems and the three gets along quite well.

I glance at Diana and note the brief smile that appears, but she's quick to make it disappear.

The whole classroom, except for Akko who looks at them with envy, couldn't help but look to the playing golems with fondness. None could deny the wholesomeness of the moment, even Akko knows this, yet she remains indignant.

The whole class feels relaxed, enjoying the sweet moment, until without warning, a blur of clay tackles onto the red panda, immediately knocking it away from the other golems it's playing with. The atmosphere in the room palpably dropped.

The golem cat, my golem cat, had out of nowhere leaped out its dormancy and into primal instinct. It's now on top of the vulnerable red panda, its fangs bared and before any of us could react, the cat brutally mauls at the red panda, digging its teeth deep on the red panda's neck and clawing its prey right to the bones. Bits of clay meat fly into the air as the brutality ensues. Hannah and I look at the horror with equally open jaws. It happened too quickly, no one could register let alone react to the change of situation.

The panda however could, it runs to its friend's rescue, but the cat swiftly dodges the panda's tackle and does a mean counterattack with its right claw. The panda stumbles backwards and regains its footing, paw pressed on the nasty gash it just received on its cheek. Distracted with the panda, the cat failed to notice the charging unicorn. It charges right at it and trains its horn at the cat's stomach and impales it through. The cat wails and writhes but the unicorn continues its charge until it runs into a wall, pinning the cat there and immobilizing it.

The panda has now recovered and after taking a sorrowful glance at its fallen friend, charges back at the cat. The panda takes the opportunity and begins punching at the cat while it's still stuck, successfully knocking a few clay teeth out and cracking its cheek in its flurry of punches. But the panda being this close might be what the cat needed to escape.

Using its free left claw the cat swipes at the panda's side. It connected, and the panda stumbles back at the pain and fell onto the unicorn's back. They're both stunned and fell to the ground, and the cat is freed from the unicorn's impalement. The cat wastes no time celebrating and lunges at the vulnerable panda, it brings its claws down…

…And into the unicorn's neck.

The panda could only see in horror as its friend sacrifices itself to save it. The unicorn could only look to the panda with teary eyes before the cat swipes its claw right through its neck, slicing it clean off.

The limp body of the unicorn falls to the table and its head tumbles to a stop near the panda's legs. The panda's now trembling, unsure of what to do. Shocked, and too in grief for its friends to do anything but sit in despair.

The cat prowls ever slowly forward, provokingly pressing its sharp claws on the unicorn's lifeless body as it climbs over it. It's trying to savour the moment, the climax of the conflict, the victory of the hunt.

The panda shuts its eyes and tears roll down its cheeks. It's unable to move any longer, it's too afraid, too sad, to fight, while the cat smiles maliciously, showing its crooked, broken fangs. It lunges forward, claws raised high up and jaw hang open, ready to send the final blow.

And the final blow did come, but it came from the panda. The cat stopped, its body suspended in mid-air as something sharp impales its body. It looks down in horror, and found a long and sharp object on the panda's paws, now puncturing its stomach. The unicorn's horn, the panda had bravely plucked it from the lifeless head of its friend and used it as a last stand weapon.

The cat couldn't fight, it's lost too much in the fight and it couldn't hold any more pain. Its eyes went white as they're pulled to the back of its head and its limbs grow limp and finally, it slumps down to the table.

The panda could only look at the cat in disbelieve, horn still clutched tightly in its paws. But it suddenly falls to its knees and clutches its side in pain. A fresh wound is there, done by the cat in its final attack that we thought the panda fully stopped.

The panda falls to its side, but we did not find sadness or grief in its expression, but one of victory and joy. It looks to the bodies of its friends and a tear runs down its cheeks and it smiles.

It won't be alone for long, it' won't be for long.

The whole class sit in silence as the panda closes its eyes, its final breathe was released with a smile still present on its mouth and joy in its heart, knowing wherever it'll go, its friends will be waiting there.

Among all the students, there're many mixed feelings and reaction to what's unfolded. Some sees it as a tragic and horrible tale, while another would see it as a heroic and beautiful tale. It's hard to tell which student feels which, but from the quiet sobs and smiles they wear, I'm sure what's happened had left a lasting impression on all of them.

Barbara is sobbing, but she wears a proud smile. Diana is shaking her head and is already preparing her wand to fix the mess, and Hannah, well, Hannah's jaw is agape and she's speechless, probably upset that out of all of them, hers is the one that gets killed first and most brutally. I short of share the same reaction with Hannah, because now I fear that the girls' golems haven't been scored yet and I just ruined their completely great works.

Hannah tries to make words appear, but only parts of them come out. "I… my… the golem…"

I very slowly and quietly step back from the group, but apparently I wasn't quiet enough as Hannah suddenly turns and glares at me. She points her finger at me and cries, "You! You murdered my golem!"

I promptly raise both my hands up in surrender. "B-but that wasn't me, it was my golem!"

"I haven't got it scored!"

"I haven't got mine scored too, and neither does Diana and Barbara but they're not upset about it!"

Hannah is at a loss of words after my respond. She blinks a few times, not believing I just said that.

"That's because theirs are not a puddle of clay on the table! Mine is freaking ruined! And why did your golem attacked mine the worst, huh?!"

"I-I don't know, it must've liked it! I'm sorry!" I cry at the sight of Hannah's raised clenched fists.

Hannah's eye twitches and she grits her teeth. Nothing comes out of her open mouth until a few more seconds. "Just- you- you're going to make my golem for me!"

That's not okay! Hannah isn't the only one with this problem now. I have to remake my golem as well, so I have to protect my interest before fulfilling my responsibility towards others. I have to be strong and resolute now

With a stern voice and a serious look, I respond. "I refuse! I have to fix mine first".

"Do it", Hannah hisses with pure venom in her voice.

"Ok, ok, I will", I respond in whimpers.

"I can help you remake it, Hannah", Diana offers but Hannah declined almost immediately, knowing that if she accepts help from her, Diana would lose precious time and won't have time to fix her own. That and the fact she currently wants my blood because I'm really the one responsible here.

"No. We'll be fine", she says, losing her softness once she turns from Diana to me. "Won't we?"

I feel like my neck would unhinge if I nod any faster.

While Diana and Barbara are busy fixing their own golems, I have to help Hannah remake hers from scratch. To not waste material, I had to scoop the remains of her previous golem and sculpt something new from it.

"God, what a waste", I remark as I have to scoop the sticky bits from the seams of the wood.

"I didn't pay you to complain", Hannah hisses.

"You didn't pay me anything".

The original plan was for me to make Hannah's golem by my own to teach me a lesson, but since time is running out and Hannah grew impatient at my sloppy work at imitating hers, she's forced to pull up her sleeves and get dirty again.

She grumbles. "I swear to god, if this ends up terrible…"

We both try our best to work together, but with the teacher coming close to scoring the golems, panic begins to fill our heads and our work quality takes a big hit.

"That's the legs, you idiot, put it where it belongs!" Hannah yells.

"It's not like you made it indistinguishable from its arms!" I shot back indignantly, and I almost regret that immediately.

"What did you say?!"

"N–nothing, ma'am!"

We try our best to build the golem together, but working together only proves the weakness of it as we can't seem to find our pace and end up stepping on each other's foots over and over again.

"Oh my god, this looks terrible" I wince as I take a look at the full picture.

"Then shut up and fix it!" Hannah snaps.

"Wait, Hannah, I think this one looks better this way".

"Stop shoving me away!"

"I'm just trying to help!"

"Then be helpful! Stop making things worse!"

The bell tolls and it felt like my heart skipped, and I assume Hannah's as well. All the students proceed to lay their golems at the front of the class for the teacher to inspect and grade. Those whose golems have been scored are to leave the classroom. Diana and Barbara are among them, they take worried glances at us before leaving the classroom, the latter showing much more worry than the former.

Their golems marked with satisfying scores, but ours are not even done yet. In fact, when all the students had theirs scored we've barely just finished the basic shape. Thankfully, the professor permits the other students to leave while she waits here patiently for us to finish ours, giving us leniency after hearing our pleas about the 'unfortunate accident' that lead to this.

"Okay, I'll give you 10 minutes. You two better finish whatever you're making when it's over".

"Yes ma'am, thank you very much ma'am!" I say, graciously thanking and bowing to the professor. Hannah however, quickly pulls my head back to focus on the golem.

"Shut up and just work!"

With time working against us, we work extra double time. Now the class is completely empty save for the two us, since earlier, after about 5 minutes, the teacher said she wanted to have an 'indefinite coffee break' when she's too bored to wait for us to finish.

We finished our golem while the teacher wasn't around. The two of us back away from our work, both of us breath in bated breathes and both our hands are dirty from the clay work.

We look to our creation and see…

"It's freaking ugly!" Hannah slumps down to the floor and cries at the sight of the abomination in front of us—a hybrid of a red panda and a cat.

It might sound not bad in paper, like a centaur, but here the size proportion of the two are different that it makes the cat's body slim while the upper-half of the red panda too fat. The imbalance in weight makes it wobble even on the slightest movement.

"Oh god what have we done?" I grimace and raise my wand to prepare the spell. "Let's see what it looks like if its alive first, maybe it's—"

Hannah's expression quickly turns to terror. "Wait, don't—"

But she's too late, the spell had been weaved and life now seeps into the abomination. Its first movement was, similar to my first golem, from its chest, or rather, its chests. They rise and fall when it breathes. Apparently we've given it two pairs of lungs, one on the red panda's upper half body and the other on the cat's lower half body.

It begins to move. Its head careens sideways and its mouth gape open, revealing broken set teeth and long, hanging tongue. And it reveals inside, throat black as death, and its eyes are naught but an abyss of despair.

The creature suddenly wheezes, sounding sick and as if on the verge of death, and begins to wails and scream, kicking and flailing its arms around as it curses its own existence. And we lose the colour of our skin.

Even worse, the golem starts to wail like a dying man. "Why~"

Without warning, the abomination dashes forward, its limp appendages flailing madly in the wind as it runs in our direction. It leaps from the edge of the table and would've pounced on the still frozen Hannah if it wasn't for the pot I have in hand.

I caught the golem in the middle of its jump with, ironically, a clay pot, and shut it tight without a second thought.

"It definitely inherited the cat's hostility!" I exclaim.

Hannah snaps out of her shock and finally says. "W-we can't hand that to the teacher!"

I can only imagine what damage it would do if unsupervised. I feel a chill running the back of my spine at the thought of that. I ask Hannah, "What, you're afraid this thing will maul her to death?"

"Worse", Hannah swallows and turns to the golem slowly. "We'll get terrible grades".

The golem pushes against the pot, nearly making me lose hold of it.

"Leave it here then? Put some weight on the lid and, like, let it sit here for the teacher to see?" I suggest.

"I'll go get some duct tapes"

We try our best to seal the pot shut as best as we can with duct tapes. Along the way, I suggested putting a few holes in it for a breathing vent for the golem, but Hannah immediately shot down the idea, telling me that golems doesn't actually need air in a not so nice way. When we're done, the pot is fully sealed from top to bottom with duct tapes and above it. Books are used to weight the lid so it'll have no chance of escaping.

We both anxiously sit and watch, wondering if it's enough. The muffled screams and harmless pushes from within the pot tell us that it's enough.

"That's done". I breathe out a sigh of relief. I look to the clock and realize it's been 15 minutes and we didn't even notice. "Gosh, what a waste of time".

15 minutes passed, and peculiarly the teacher hadn't returned.

"No thanks to you", Hannah narrows her eyes at me. She stands up, straightens her back, and takes a deep breath to calm herself. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other things I wanted to do today".

"But what about the score?" I ask as I take out a piece of paper. "We made this together, remember? Shouldn't we split our scores on it?"

Without a word or eye contact, Hannah takes the paper and a pen from my hands. She writes on it quickly and later sticks it to the pot. Without another word or look to me, she leaves the room.

I begin to leave as well but I stop when I hear the pot moving against the wooden table. I linger on the doorway as I stare at the pot, waiting and wondering if I'm hearing things. Further waiting confirms there's no movement and I'm just overthinking things.

Sure of the pot's security, I leave the classroom for good for my own room.

"But wait! I think I forgot something", I exclaim to no one in particular, as I return to the classroom without warning.

I move between the tables and grab my stuffs that I left on my table, the mayhem today made me forgot completely about them. As I'm about to leave, again, I catch something at the edge of my vision that made me stop.

It's the pot, only it's upturned and that the duct tapes had been torn open. The books holding the pot still with its weight are scattered on the floor, and the pot has nothing's in it, all save for a piece of paper.

I barely took my eyes off it for seconds!

I hastily grab the paper and read, hoping to find a clue of what happened. Written on it is an ominous message that reads: 'please divide our scores 90 to 10, sincerely, Hannah England'.

"Hannah…" I frown and narrow my eyes, but they later give way to a supressed smile.

It is pretty funny.

I nearly put the paper down and focus on the real problem until I catch another thing written on the other side of the paper. This one has messy handwriting, one that doesn't look like Hannah's at all.

It says: 'by the time you finish reading this, you'll already be…'

My thumb covers the last bit of word, so I slowly move it to see…

"Deaf…. I'll already be deaf?" I reread the statement trying to wonder if I read this wrong or the writing is the one that's wrong.

But something made a shadow appear from behind me, and I feel a presence there. I turn around just in time to see the golem, now mid-air, lunging and aiming a kitchen knife at me.

"WHAT?!"

The golem thrusts its knife down towards me and I react as best I can. I open my book to catch the knife like a shield. The thrust was stronger than I expected, and it punctures through the book's spine and only stop mere inches from my eye.

"OH MY GOD!"

Luckily, the knife is stuck within the book once I close it shut. The golem futilely tries to wrest its knife free as it's trapped between the book's thick pages. Seeing this opportunity, I twist the book around and wrest the knife out of the golem's grasp. The golem loses its hold on the stuck knife and is thrown across the room.

I grab my wand in preparation to apprehend the golem, but as I round the tables to where I last saw it land, I'm surprised to see it no longer there. I poke my head out the classroom and saw the golem's shrinking figure running away from me down the hallway. It shows no sign of turning back.

My breathing was held and now released. I lean on the door frame and look to the book in my hand, the knife still sandwiched between its pages. The back of the book is hard leather, and the pages before it are plentiful, yet the knife penetrated so deeply it nearly poked my eye out.

What just happened? What is going on? My golem was dangerous, but this thing actually tried to kill me with a knife! A golem just tried to kill me and it's currently running away. I've no idea what caused it such hostility, but I don't want to wait to find out.

With this grim thought in mind, I exit the classroom and start to follow the golem.

Author's Exit: It's pretty hard writing about Hannah since there's little material to work with, I look forward to your feedbacks on whether she's OOC or you just don't like to see her ever because she's a big bully :3

Disregard that emoji I equally despise it.