Author's Notes: Welcome back friends, I hope you enjoy the newest chapter of America's favourite fanfic. Sorry for the long absence, been busy with irl happenings and recently sick, but I'm back stronger than ever! The revise chapters are going strong, going for the 9th chapter now so hurrah. I wish I can finish them all soon so lift your hands up people and share me your energies, the spirit bomb needs them.

Now I'm not gonna waste too much of your time with this Author's Notes, so go out there and read my children, read!

Don't be afraid to review as always!

The moon has long replaced the sun, reminding me of how a simple act of trying to find out what caused the blackout has lead me down into a rabbit hole of manual tasks and labours.

I've been waiting for a certain blonde for a while now. The wait was long and my exhaustion was worthy of an epic that I decided to sit in the middle of the hallway. Something that I won't dare do under normal circumstances, but with the powers out and all the teachers too busy with their things, I allow myself a little bit of anarchy.

I hear light footsteps coming, out of a room comes Diana, a notebook in her hand. "That's the cleaning group assigned".

Diana was assigned, naturally, to help the teachers by assigning work groups among the students. Power's completely out, for the most unbelievable reason, and it's crucial for the teachers to maintain their power and legitimacy over the confused and distressed students before they revert back to the natural state of savage animals.

For now, with the fairies out of the option, it's up to the students to get out their way and do their own chores for once in a while.

My eyes fall onto a petrified, or hibernating, goblin laying on the floor not far next to me. The goblin has his tiny hands wrap over his tiny legs, folding like an egg of some sort. The petrified goblin sucks on his petrified thumb as he snoozes away like the baby that he is.

Diana flips through a page from her notebook, lifting my attention towards her again. "We're done now, but I suggest we go check out the laundry group, there's another assignment I have for them and I honestly find it hard to trust those girls".

"Yeah", I remark with a yawn. "Thankfully, most of the students work has gone as smooth as a baby".

The sound of paper almost being torn echoes through the silent and dark corridor, Diana looks down to me with wide eyes and a slightly hanging jaw.

I raise my eyebrows. "What?"

Diana blinks a few times. A rare sight, as she seems to lose some coordination of her words for a brief second.

Diana finally shakes her head and says. "Nevermind…"

Diana returns her attention to the small notebook on her hand, flips through some pages, stops, and traces her hand on the paper. She clears her throat and continues. "As I was saying, we should check out the laundry team, I need to make sure they're on schedule".

As Diana was about to leave, I stand up and ask. "You're really okay with all this, huh?"

Diana looks up from her notebook. "How do you mean?"

"A dragon, again, can you believe that? That's twice within the span of months, yet you're not even fazed by that fact".

Diana briefly pauses before she closes her notebook and gives me her full attention. "I honestly am, but as the Headmistress asked of us, we as students are not to talk about it. The last thing the school needs is the students being panicked. Also, you're not doing that different from me too".

"Oh, me?" I repeat and point a finger to myself. "No, my indifference is just because of my disbelief in this whole thing, honestly. Sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo the teachers made up".

Diana raises an eyebrow, expecting me to go on.

I just shrug the question off. I'm not going to tell her that there's a high probability that the teachers tried to cover up the Sorcerer's Stone's malfunction that's caused by unauthorized tampering by a group of students!

"Nope, you're right. It verily must be a dragon!"

Not wanting Diana to linger on the topic further, I walk past Diana and towards direction of our next destination. "Come on, I don't want my date with my bed to be delayed".

There's some amount of distance I gained from Diana until she breaks her silence. "You're going the wrong way".

I follow Diana through the winding stairways that leads to the lower levels of the school, a place where I'm not well acquainted with, forcing me no moment of leisure in walking in order to catch up with my only guide in this place.

The place we're heading is the laundry room. Fairies usually do their work there, but circumstances have forced some unfortunate group of students to roll up their sleeves and do the dirty work for once. Though so far in our journey, I fail to see why Diana would revisit this place if, as she mentioned, the laundry group has already assigned.

We descend down the last flight of stairs and as we do, loud talking, shouting even, begins to greet our ears. The familiar loud voice that belongs to Akko easily echoes through the thick stone-walled rooms, the echo chamber manages to amplify the girl's already impressive decibels. I can't really make her words out, but it's something along the lines of 'I'm Akko and I want this to happen despite it's clearly and explicitly out of my grasp of capabilities'.

Yep, sounds about right.

Now I realize exactly why Diana wants to check on the laundry group.

Diana suddenly stops her descend to listen. It could be caused by my exhaustion, but apparently Diana has better hearing compared to mine, as she immediately picks up on what the Nipponese witch was ranting about.

It takes more steps down the stairs for me to finally pick up on Akko's exact words.

"Damn you, dragons! You've been quiet for 100 years, yet you have to steal from us while we're here! That can't be forgiven! We have to get the stone back!"

Akko knew about the dragon? You'd thought that someone like her would be the last to know about this.

I look towards Diana for any wisdom in the matter, but she keeps her gaze forward, contemplating on the girl's words herself. Diana says nothing and now continues her descent to approaches the girls below, while I do the right thing and wait by the stairs concealed from the group.

"Don't do it", Diana says, announcing her arrival and turning all heads towards her. "The only thing you're supposed to do here is this laundry. You should refrain from doing anything stupid".

"What are you doing here?" Ask a new voice, one that surprises me when I recognize it came from Amanda.

Still hidden, I peak down the stairs. And sure enough, the red head witch is there beside Akko. All the more reasons for Diana to come here and check on the group I suppose.

Akko furrows her brows and steps closer towards Diana. "Diana, this will affect you, too! Without the Sorcerer's Stone, we can't have class and we won't be able to use magic!"

"But you are no match for those dragons", Diana calmly interrupts. "You can't even keep up with the classes as it is. Your meddling will only fuel the problem".

Akko was already defeated even before the war started, the facts are there and there's no denying it. But the lesser witch's defeat doesn't dissuade Diana from stating what's on her mind. With a stern and scolding tone, the blonde continues. "You always act before you think. You should realize that you always involve others and bring them only trouble. If you continue like this, even your friends will get tired of you".

Amanda seems to take pity on Akko and cuts Diana off. "Hey, it's none of your business. Stay out of it!"

Diana turns her attention towards Amanda. "You too, you're always goofing around. Just because you don't have a purpose, you shouldn't bother others. If you get yourself in trouble, it's not just you that will be punished, do you understand that?"

It seems like the two have multitudes to say to Diana, but the blonde spares no more time with them any longer. Diana turns and begins walking to the direction of the stairs. Without turning back, she says. "And the professor asked you to draw the water, don't forget to do that".

Diana notices me on her way up the stairs. Without stopping, she walks past me and says. "We should go, there's no more reason for us to be here".

"I- I'll wait here", I reply. "Our job is done anyway".

Diana stops her climb and turns. After a brief pause, she nods. "Very well"

Without waiting any longer, Diana finishes her climb and leaves me.

I step down the ladder just in time to see something unexpected. I'd expected that after such bombardment they received from Diana, Akko and Amanda would be discouraged to continue their fool's quest. But instead, I see the both of them grinning at each other with determined glow in their eyes. It appears that I've walked in on the birth of an unholy alliance.

As I finish the final step, I say. "Don't do what I think you're about to do".

At that time, I finally see everyone who Diana assigned to work on the laundry, the entirety of the green and red team. All of them had had their work stopped, probably from Diana's interruption.

They all turn their heads towards me but Akko was the first to speak up. I'm not sure why, but she's immediately shocked at my sudden appearance. "Y-You!"

Amanda, too enthusiastic of my arrival, quickly cuts Akko off. "Yes! Another foot soldier to the cause!"

Akko turns to the redhead and blurts. "Wait what? He's coming too?!"

Amanda wastes no moment to reply her friend's question. She's too preoccupied with preparing to leave her laundry behind for the dragon. "We'll have more chance at succeeding with you around. You can't fly a broom, but I bet someone can give you a ride.

Amanda scans the room. Her gaze falls onto a certain pale witch, who, without waiting for any explanation, responds. "I'd drop him off a cliff"

Amanda turns to me. "Maybe someone else then"

I say nothing as I study Amanda. She shows no hint of joking or hesitation, which worries me more and more. I ask her. "You're serious about this, aren't you?"

Akko walks up beside Amanda. "Of course we are!"

A grin appears on Amanda's lips. "We're not going to back down after what she said".

The two girls looks to the silenced me expectantly, as if waiting for my approval of all this. But the silence from me isn't one made of thoughtfulness, but it's one out of disbelieve that these two would think I find wisdom in their ridiculous idea.

Seeing no sign of the two backing down, I say with disbelieve. "Are you two born idiots, or did you develop it?"

Different from the instantly triggered Akko, Amanda easily recognizes this attitude of mine. Before Akko could escalate into a fit, Amanda slings her arms around me and whispers. "Just think of it, all the praises we'd get if we make it, all the praises you will receive".

It's impressive that after we know each other for so long, she thinks that something like that would distract me from the real risks.

I push her arm off my shoulders. "This is dangerous and it's not me exaggerating it. This time you're properly mad if you actually plan on doing this".

Amanda chuckles, as if all I said fuelled a challenge for her. "Mad is my middle name".

I raise my brows. "Is it? It's funny. I thought you said it was 'Danger' earlier this morning. You know, when we were…"

My words trail off as I'm reminded of something. Ignoring Amanda, I look past her towards a series of rumbling washing machines on the back of the room. I push past Amanda and approach the machines, upon arriving, I waste no time and immediately search its back. Without requiring a long moment of searching, I finally found what I'm looking for. It's at this time that Constanze begins to suspect my intentions.

I reach deep into the machine's back and Constanze immediately knows my intentions. She tries to rush towards me but was too late. A thick vial containing a familiarly green fluid is now in my hand. And just as I plugged it out, the machine begins to lose its speed, slowly going quieter and quieter until any sound and movement becomes completely absent.

"I can't believe it, this is the thing this morning!".

Constanze couldn't say a word but her pained expression speaks volumes The short witch desperately tries to snatch the vial away from my hands, but I easily hold it up out of her reach. She jumps up and down desperately, showing no sign of giving up despite the clear impossibility.

"Hey stop it!" Amanda cries. "What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with me? Do you have any idea how dangerous this thing is?"

I lift the vial higher away from Constanze, forcing me to pause for a moment. "You could help the school by returning this to them and you decided to use this to wash the laundry?"

Amanda flinches at my response, she loses her words and fails to come up with a response.

Confused, Akko frowns and turns to the redhead. "Amanda, what's he talking about?"

Amanda grits her teeth and shows no sign of answering the question. Seeing this, I took the liberty of answering that question myself. I hold up the vial for all to see. "You see this thing? This little devil right here thought it's a great idea to siphon some magic directly from the Sorcerer's Stone".

Lotte covers her mouth with her hands and gasps. "You girls did what?"

Amanda ignores Lotte's question and quickly rushes towards me. She violently snatches the vial from my hands and glares at me. "What is wrong with you?"

"That thing is dangerous, Amanda. You could be expelled if the teachers finds out about it"

"That's none of your business"

"That's your friends' business. You're not the only one that's being risked here".

My eyes find Jasminka who stands at the back of the room and has said nothing from the beginning. As our eyes meet, the girl averts hers and looks away.

"And what if you and Constanze got expelled? You think the teachers aren't going to do the same thing to Jasminka?"

Amanda, teeth bared and fist clenched, keeps glaring at me. I say nothing to her then, not out of a loss of words, but out of her stubbornness.

I start again. "You just got saved this morning, back when you ran off out of the scene and the teachers found me instead. I thought that after you're saved from being expelled you'd at least try to not get in any more trouble. Turns out, the first thing you did that was getting into another trouble, picking a fight with Akko out of all things. But even that wasn't enough for you is it?"

Amanda breaks away from me and shoves the vial back to Constanze who quickly takes it and holds it securely away from me. Amanda keeps her back turned towards me and says nothing.

There was a brief silence in the room, only broken when I shake my head and sigh. "You know, I'm sort of starting to think you're doing all this on purpose".

All eyes follow me as I walk past the quietened group and towards the exit. Out of all of them, I could only bear myself to look towards Jasminka. I expect her to say at least one thing, but all she did was staying silent and refusing to look to me until just the last moment before I leave.

By the time I'm back at the corridor, Diana had already left long ago. With quiet, I begin walking down the long, lonely corridor.

I wait in front of the door that leads inside the teachers' office. While I wait, I let my mind wander off to what just recently happened.

A dragon, how absurd that they thought they'll go on such a pointless mission. I did nothing wrong in stopping them and no one can tell me otherwise. Despite me wanting to prove Michelle wrong, so far her words has perfectly described the reality.

They went overboard today, and that was still not enough for them. Amanda didn't strike a surprise to me, but it was Constanze who did. Just the span of hours ago I'd thought that she's only in these troubles because of Amanda, but the events earlier confirms that she too has a wayward and dangerous tendency if left alone. It's Jasminka I worry about the most, she's one who actually listens to me that time. And I do worry that she's only following them because they're her friends.

But really, the real problem is how they seem to just want to get into trouble! They just barely escaped the one earlier in the morning and next thing Amanda does is picking a fight with Akko in class, and now this? Unauthorized dragon hunting?! They need a permit for that I bet.

My thought goes interrupted as I realize how long the wait is. There's not a sound that stirs inside, it's as if whoever teacher inside are ignoring me. But as I trace my mind back a few paces, I realize that I hadn't knocked on the door in the first place. Soggy biscuits, I blame my sleep deprivation and exhaustion.

However, knocking on the door made little difference whatsoever. It was dark and abandoned when I peer inside from a narrow window, and not a sound stirs within. It was quite the walk from the laundry room towards here. I went here in an effort to find Michelle, but now I mentally slap myself across the face at how fruitless this endeavour has been so far. At this point, I'm not even amazed by how terrible my luck has been today that I don't even feel the pain anymore. Numbed, my senses have numbed and made obsolete so I don't mind another stroke of bad luck in this day filled with series of uncomfortable events.

A sound from the far side of the hallway interrupts my yawn. Far away, a door opens and out comes a trio of students, all doing their appointed tasks, carrying stacks of neatly folded clothes and disappear into the horizon as they went on to distribute it.

God has denied me of even the simplest pleasure of yawning, conniptions were given instead. I start walking down the hallway again, thinking why the hell I didn't just go straight to my room and hibernate for a whole week. As I was about to give up, however, the door in front of me opens and out comes a Cavendish. She came out of the Headmistress's office, carrying an oversized and aged scroll. My mood is sort of lifted at the sight of Diana, but completely shattered in mere nanoseconds at the sight of what follows behind her.

Miss Finnelan hastily steps out of the room, a rare expression of panic stricken her face. "We must go quickly, there's no time to waste, we need to catch up with the Headmistress".

Diana, unaware of my presence, casts her head downwards thoughtfully. "Brooms are out of the question, and walking there will take a hefty amount of time and energy, electricity are out so modern transportations are unavailable too".

Miss Finnelan stops in front of Diana, she too, is unaware of my presence. "Then what do you propose?"

Diana looks up to the professor momentarily, before averting her gaze as she ponders more alternatives. Miss Finnelan waits patiently for the witch's suggestion, one that I doubt will ever arrive. Cutting through the thoughtful silence of the two, I finally raise my voice and declare my existence. "I think I know a way".

The two of them turns, seemingly startled at my unannounced presence. Diana quickly hides the scroll behind her back, but soon eases up as she realizes it's just me.

I never knew I've mastered the invisibility spell.

Miss Finnelan quickly collectts herself and straightens her back. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"I think I know the way". I repeat. "You two wanted to go somewhere right? Somewhere far away yet there's no magic in the air tonight, so…"

My words trail of as I notice the two of them staring at me intently. Gathering myself, I try to make an excuse. "L- look, I wasn't eavesdropping or anything-".

The two exclaims. "Just get on with it".

The forest was quiet. Not a soul stirs and no misdeeds were done. Peace and serenity is what fills the forest, and it is what it is. Until bright light shines past the trees and a roar of engine savagely cuts through the silence, killing and butchering it as more sounds begins to follow. The flap of wings and rustle of leaves begins to appear as the inhabitants of the forest scrambles at the intruder.

A yellow taxi exits the forest edge, gaining impressive air before landing onto a grassy field. The taxi drifts uncontrollably for a moment before it recovers from its momentum and continues on a straight path towards a dirt road laid ahead. As the taxi rocks sideways, Miss Finnelan tightens her grip on the seat. "Good god!"

Rahjaesh briefly glances to the professor. "Sorry, ma'am!"

Diana, equally alarmed by the driving but less expressive than the professor, pushes herself from her seatbelt and leans towards me to whisper. "Is this normal?"

I raise a hand, telling Diana to hold the thought for a moment. Turning the large map in my hand, I try to get a clear reading of where we are and direct Rahjaesh's next turn. "In about 100 metres, take a left, Rahjaesh".

Rahjaesh looks to me from the rear view mirror and nods. "Yes, mister!"

With my guiding complete for now, I turn to Diana. "Sorry?"

Diana's eyes widen as she notices how calm I am. Raising her voice to a half-whisper, she repeats. "I said, is this normal?"

I tilt my head at the question. "You're the one who's from UK, you tell me".

Still gripping tightly to the leather seat, Miss Finnelan looks to the backseat and interrupts our little meeting. "Mr Franklin, I've lived in the UK far longer than anyone in this taxi has and I assure you I've never seen someone drive a taxi like this in my life!"

"There's a first for everything". I quietly mutter, to which I earn a glare from the professor.

"Look, Jericho", Diana says. "I appreciate the fact that he's taking us to the ruins as quickly as possible but we would greatly appreciate it if-".

Diana's words are cut off as a mean turn on the road forces Rahjaesh to turn the taxi sharply, Diana would've been thrown right towards me if she didn't catch the front seat in time.

"…Slow down!" Diana finishes with a raised voice and messed hair.

"Don't worry, miss!" Rahjaesh says. "We're not too far away from the ruins now".

"Then you'll have no problem slowing down, please", Diana politely asks.

Rahjaesh takes his eyes off the road for an alarmingly long time as he looks back towards Diana in slight puzzlement. He stays quiet for a moment as he gazes at the girl, it was after a couple more seconds does he shift his gaze towards me. As if waiting for an approval from a boss, the gnome looks to me expectantly.

I shrug to him. "You heard the lady".

Rahjaesh nods and finally (thank God) returns his attention to the road. A click and clack of the shifting gear later and the taxi slows down to comfortable speed. The roar of engine has been reduced to a tolerable level now, and I can no longer hear the forest dwellers' cries of mercy. Meanwhile, the two witches couldn't care less about hiding their relief. Sighing deeply, Miss Finnelan and Diana sinks back to their seats, the tense in their body begins to seep away.

Another turn later and we finally see the ruins in the distance. Resting nicely on a wide clearing in the middle of the forest is jagged formation of rubbles and rocks, all acting like ruins do; being random. There's no significant thing to note since it's literally just a pile of rocks. Or, that would be what I normally think if it wasn't for the fact that a dragon supposedly lives there.

Such an ominous place, I couldn't believe the girls actually thought of coming here.

The calmness in the taxi lets my mind drift for a moment, but Diana's voice pulls me back to reality. "Are you alright?" she asks.

"I'm already accustomed to this, I'm just tired, haven't slept in a while", I answer.

Diana shakes her head. "That's not what I meant".

I sigh. Taking a deep breath and look outside the window, I ask back. "How much did you hear?"

"Some" Diana answers. "I'd already expected them to not listen to me, so I thought to see how they react to you. On one hand I'm glad you and have the same idea, but on the other hand I feel sorry of how they treated yours".

Diana stops for a moment as she waits for my response. But she soon realizes there will be none, and so she looks ahead towards the ruins. Diana continues. "I'd be surprised if even after that, you still want to be around them. I know they're your friends, but you have to know when they've gone too far".

Diana pauses. She takes a glance at me. "Not the best choice of friends either".

I quietly scoff. "You're not the first one who's said that today. And also you're one to say, you don't exactly have the best choice of friends yourself, Diana".

"They're good girls", Diana replies. "Once you get to know them".

The taxi rolls down the clearing and slows to a stop at a good distance from the ruins. Rahjaesh rolls the windows down for us, and the three of us looks outside. The ruins itself is nothing impressive, a dozen or more of rocks and rubbles scattered across a wide-grassless opening in the forest, the usual trope for ruins. It's dark and deadly quiet out there and oddly enough, the fact that we're actually in front of a dragon's lair had just set in to me, and despite some bits of disbelieve still lingering in my heart, an anxious feeling begins to set on me.

I grip the seat tightly, anxious of what's to come.

The click of the door pulls my attention away. Upon turning to the front seat, I find Miss Finnelan stepping out of the taxi and begin to make her way towards the ruins. Alarmed, I shift glances back and forth between the professor and Rahjaesh. "Wait, she's not supposed to do that? She's- the place is dangerous!"

Trying to find the most reasonable person here, I look behind me in search of Diana but found her missing. The witch had already exited the taxi and is on her way catching up to the professor, giant scroll in her hand. Not keeping my eyes off the two, I shout. "What? What are they doing? Rahjaesh!"

The gnome turns to me, a look of equal confusion in his face. "Maybe I should've turned the child safety lock on, mister".

I keep looking towards the two witches again. Beads of sweat begin to run down my temple as I notice they show no sign of stopping. They've gained quite the distance from the taxi, and their figures begin to drown in the darkness of the night.

Hesitating and way beyond afraid, I rush out of the taxi. "Oh god, are we really doing this?!"

I start my run towards the two, desperately trying to bury my own hesitation and fear with hope that they have some mighty explanation for this outrage.

The dead silence of the forest doesn't help either. It was only the sound of my rushed breathing and the stomping of my shoes on the uneven rocks and dirt that fills my ears. A few distances later however, I hear a soft voice coming from the taxi.

"But who's going to pay…"

The inside of the ruins is no less haunting than the outsides. Uneven and aged cobblestones line the long, dark, and lonely stone corridors that seem to have no end. A pair of pale green light is our only source of light. I try to keep up with the two witches, the both of them strides forward and leading the way with confidence.

"Outrage, this is an outrage", I mutter under my breath.

The two witches suddenly stops to a halt and I hold a whimper at the sudden stop. Fearing that they've spotted something horrible, or that something has spotted us. I quickly look around, but the light only provides a small range of illumination, not enough to really see far. Diana and the professor doesn't even try to explain what caused their stop, which leads me to thinking they're just trying to mess with me.

Throwing an accusing look towards Diana, I say. "I swear to god, Diana, if there's a Balrog I won't be the one pulling a Gandalf here".

Something in the dark forces Diana to ignore my comment, turning around, she points with her wand and shouts. "Over there"

Before I could really register where she meant, Diana continues her march and leaves the professor and I behind. The latter more alarmed by her action than the former. Before I can react to her sudden departure and alarming statement, Miss Finnelan follows Diana, leaving me in the dark.

"Wait, don't leave me!" I cry.

I catch up to the professor and both of us saw what Diana has spotted. A towering double door sits at the end of the massive corridor. Different from the rest of the objects in this ruins, this door seems to be well-kept and in good conditions, with no good signs that it belongs in someplace like a ruins.

The doors were open, and we could see some light coming from inside, basking the dark and massive corridor in light.

"Good work, Diana", Miss Finnelan says, and she quickly walks up to Diana.

As the two of us near Diana and the door, I begin to hear distant voices coming from inside the open door. Curiosity begins to grow inside me, almost overcoming my overwhelming alert of my surroundings. The three of us walks towards the towering door and stops at its foot, and beyond us, a figure more impressive than the door comes into view.

A massive white dragon, larger than the one that attacked our school, stands at the end of the room. The details of its body are hidden by the backlight from behind him, but even then, I could see that it's staring down on us.

I instinctively reach for my wand, but stumble and fail to pull it out as my hands tremble with fear.

Diana turns to me and grabs me by my hand. She tilts her head to somewhere inside the room, as I follow her direction, I realize we're not the only ones in this room. The sight of the great beast has distracted me from the familiar sight of Miss Holbrooke who stands not far away from us accompanied by a couple of teachers.

"Miss Holbrooke?" I exclaim.

The Headmistress quickly turns to the three of us. "Finnelan, and Diana!"

I wait for my name to be equally exclaimed, but Miss Holbrook doesn't bother, her attention is fully caught on the scroll on Diana's hands.

My invisibility spell is on again!

"Diana, what is going on?" I ask.

Diana doesn't answer the question, she's too captivated by another sight. As I follow her gaze, I find what might be more alarming than the dragon itself. The entirety of red and green team is here in this room, not entirely fazed at their own horrifying close proximity with the white dragon.

The bizarreness has taken its limit, I can no longer make intelligible words, only weird facial expressions and stutters.

The white dragon shifts on its place to face us, shaking the ground as it does.

"Oh, another?" The dragon suddenly speaks, its voice was loud and as a strong gust of wind, it echoes through the room endlessly. "Another pile of junk you want to pay me with?"

Scroll in hand, Diana boldly takes a step forward. "There's no reason to pay".

The blonde lays the giant scroll on the floor and rolls it open. Written inside the scroll is a bunch of unidentifiable scribbles and words and a giant, red mark on the shape of a dragon's… hand, printed atop the words in a manner similar to a signature mark.

"Here", Diana says. She brushes her hair away as she looks down to examine the scroll. "This is the contract you signed with Luna Nova a thousand years ago.

With curiosity now overpowering their surprise, the teachers flock towards Diana and the scroll. The girls too has caught attention to what's unfolding, one by one, they climb down from what seems to be a giant desk with a size fitting for a dragon.

Akko, with Lotte giving her a ride, flies down next to us. "A contract?"

"There was a contract?" Miss Holbrooke remarks.

Miss Finnelan sighs. Visibly embarrassed, she whispers to the Headmistress quietly. "Yes, but it was written in ancient dragon script. No one was able to read it".

Diana continues. "I mastered this script when I was 12. It doesn't say anything here about interests. In other words, we didn't need to pay any interest from the start. But you knew these teachers couldn't read ancient dragon script, and you've been deceiving them. Making them pay interest that didn't even exist".

The news sinks onto the teachers and they collectively gasp at the news. All eyes turn to the dragon, who now stands accused. Cornered and endangered as beads of sweat runs down his scaly hide. The dragon tries to keep his calm and looks away dismissingly. "That's a false accusation!" he scoffs. "There is no such thing as 'no interest' nowadays. Something promised that long ago must be invalid now!"

"In that case, the debt itself is invalid", Diana argues. "Do you accept that?"

The dragon tries to reject the idea but fails to come up with anything. Seeing this, Diana pushes the attack even further. Se lifts her wand up and with a flick of it, a calculator of light appears out of thin air. Numbers begins to run on its screen, too much and too fast for mortals, or at least me, to read.

"According to my calculation, the interest Luna Nova paid so far is more than the original debt itself. If the interest itself is unjust, then the debt itself should be considered paid in full. Do you accept that?"

Diana lets her wand down, and the calculator fades away. "Regarding this unnecessary interest Luna Nova has paid over these years, we can negotiate you paying us back at a later date".

Diana's words trigger a wave of reactions across the room. The witch girls are all holding back their awe and admiration, the teachers try to hold their happiness at the sound of 'paying us back', and the dragon grunts and grimaces in horror.

"With that being said", Diana resumes. "Can you now return the Sorcerer's Stone?"

Diana turns towards the dragon, her back held straight in a perfect posture, Diana shows her hand forward and exclaims. "Mr Fafnir!"

A wave of relief and optimism sweeps through the crowd, the teachers and witch students all look towards the dragon expectantly, eager to hear his most awaited response.

I still don't understand what's going on.

All is done and the teachers crowd around Diana, thanking and congratulating her for her heroic act.

She deserved it, totally does. What she did was nothing short of heroic. I was late to the realization at first, but now after catching up on what's going on and after realizing the weight she had added to the scales, I can't help but admire the girl even more.

Another thing catches my attention, the elephant, or should I say, the dragon in the room. It seems as if I'm the only one who's really seeing the dragon, seeing as how no one seems to pay the dragon no more attention, all too caught up in Diana's grace. I don't blame them to be honest.

Mr Fafnir, the dragon, caught notice of me noticing him still. "What do you want, boy?" he asks in an annoyed tone.

"You're a… dragon", I remark, still awestruck at the beast.

Mr Fafnir sighs. "Brilliant observation"

Muttering still, Mr Fafnir turns his attention towards the many out of place computer screens perched and hanged all over the wall. "Cursed wizards, no wonder your kind is dying".

"Wow, that's… rude", I say.

Mr Fafnir quickly looks to me, his eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. He tries to speak quickly, but stumbles through a few words. "What, what did you…"

"Are you really going to badmouth just after you got out of trouble?" I ask.

Mr Fafnir squint his eyes and looks to me curiously. "I would, but I won't speak it in human tongue"

The dragon watches me carefully. Annoyance and irritation begins to make way for attention and interest in me. He brings his claws up to his chin and scratches it. "It's been ages since I last see a wizard, someone from Yen's Forest, no less"

I blink a few times. "Huh, how did you figure that out?"

"Your wand there, tugged comfortably in your belt, that wood can't be found anywhere else"

I've heard of stories mentioning the acute eyes of dragons, but this is beyond all those stories. In this rare occasion, it seems that the legends downplay the dragons' abilities.

"My wand's not for sale, it's never for sale, sorry", I tell the dragon.

Mr Fafnir sniffs the air. "Hm, curious", he says. "A normal flesh you have, and yet you try to look like a wizard".

I've heard of this too, sharp sense of smell. I should be amazed, or at least insulted by what he knows and says, but instead I feel like I've been violated, somehow. Pulling on my robes for cover, I say to the dragon. "That's real polite. And no, I'm not trying to look like a wizard, I am, a wizard".

"Are you now? Well, I suppose today is the day of fools with foolish dreams"

The dragon stops on his words and leans closer to me, his eyes never leaving mine as he continues to study me. "Tell me this instead, wizard. Have you ever heard the birds of Odin sing?"

I pause for a minute, trying to register the bizarre question of his. "I'm… not sure how I'm supposed to know or answer that".

"Have they ever told you their secrets?" The dragon continues. "Have they ever sang, have they ever spoken to you, have they ever warned you of threat and danger?"

The dragon pauses briefly and leans even closer towards me. His aged yet bright eyes come into full detail at this distance. "Have you ever tasted a dragon's blood?"

The dragon stops, he studies me with great interest as he waits for my response.

I reel back a bit from the dragon and his odd questions. I was about to leave him and his weird and confusing questions but something tells me I shouldn't be impolite to a dragon.

My long and confused silence is my answer. The dragon closes his eyes and nods. "I see, I see. Tell me this then, wizard, where do you come from?"

I shrug. "Yen's forest, just as you said. That's where I live. Or my teacher, more accurately, she just takes me in".

Mr Fafnir shakes his massive head. "No, no. I'm referring to your progenitors".

Now that's just weird. So I return the question to the nosy dragon. "You're not my father, dude"

The white dragon roars into laughter. "In time, wizard, you'll tell me eventually!"

Without any more questions and still chuckling, the dragon turns his back towards me, shaking the whole room as he does. The click and clack of his keyboard means the dragon has no more need of our conversation, so I make my way out of the room. However, on my way out, I could feel he's giving me some final glances.

Because of the talk with the dragon, I ended up being the last one to exit the ruins. Stepping outside, I'm greeted with the sight of the grim forest once again, only this time, the sound of chatter fills the once grave-silent air. The teachers and students have grouped up around the taxi, most of them working on preparing the Sorcerer's Stone for travel.

Diana notices my return and separates herself from the group. "You came out late, I was worried you got lost".

"I was, actually".

I look towards the Sorcerer's Stone. Diana follows my gaze and remarks. "Quite the situation the school had, being indebted to a dragon out of all things. They're not normally the type of people you'd like to get indebted to".

"The school owes you a greatly, Diana".

Diana turns to me. "And I owe you some thanks too. If it wasn't for you, we'd have no way to arrive here in time".

"Thank the driver, not me".

Diana turns her attention to the group of students surrounding the stone, all huddled and chatting with each other, the sight of them a complete contrast of the lifeless forest around us. "We originally planned to carry the stone by brooms lead by the students, but in the end we decided that the Sorcerer's Stone will be carried by the taxi. I'll be inside to watch over it".

It's like an unspoken thing, but I feel like Diana's words could translate to her offering me to join on the ride.

"That's nice, but I feel like flying" I answer.

Diana replies with a nod and walks towards the teachers and the Sorcerer's Stone, leaving me be with my decision. With a last look towards the ruins, I take a deep breath and try to forget the conversation with the white dragon.

Sudden rushed footsteps pull me away from my thoughts. I turn around just in time to see Akko shoving her face very close to mine, too close for comfort. "You're a wizard! A boy!" The brunet exclaims accusingly.

I blink a few times. "What? Yes I am, what's the matter?"

Akko's eyes widen and she's properly speechless in my indifference. "What's the matter? What's the matter? You're the only boy in our school and you didn't tell me?"

My mouth quickly purses as I remembered that I failed numerous times to disclose this information to Akko and her compatriots due to embarrassment and the amount of times I just don't want to tell them.

"Yes", I say, pulling my face away from the too alarmed Akko. "Yes I am a boy and I forgot to tell you that. Forgive and forget?"

"What a load of baloney!"

At this point, Akko has taken full hold of my shoulders and is now shaking me back and forth rapidly. As if an explanation to all this outrage is going to roll out of me like a gacha. "You're unforgivable! Why didn't you tell us? What were you planning to do after fooling me huh? You're gonna do all kinds of creepy things I bet!"

"P-p-p-preposterous!" I stammer in between the girl's raged shakes.

Sucy pops up beside Akko, with a vile smirk, she says. "No one's that interested to you to do anything like that, Akko".

Without turning around to give her friend a glare, Akko shouts. "Shut up, Sucy!"

I struggle to look past Akko towards Sucy. "H- How did this happen?"

Sucy replies. "I've figured it out almost instantly long ago, Lotte probably too. Honestly it takes a special kind of stupid to fall for your dumb disguise for such a long time".

Sucy's snark might be the lifeline I needed, Akko, taking the bait fully, stops her shaking and looks to her friend. "But- but! Why didn't you told me?!"

Sucy grins. "It's fun seeing how dumb you could be, Akko".

Akko looks visibly hurt by her friend's word, losing attention on me, Akko shoves her face to Sucy's. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

This is it, this is the point where all of Sucy's jokes might really hurt Akko's feelings! There's only one reasonable thing a friend is supposed to do here, and that's to swoop in and fan the flames just so Sucy will take the brunt of Akko's rage and take the spotlight away from me! Delightfully devilish, Jericho!

Raising my volumes, I cry loud enough for the three to hear. "Yeah, Sucy! Why didn't you tell her? You're such a terrible friend, Sucy!"

It's super effective! Akko clenches her fist and grits her teeth, visibly affected by my attempts to rile her up.

A grin escapes the edges of my mouth at the smoothness of my plans. Unable to contain my ambition, I boldly continue. "She's such a terrible friend, honestly. She must've thought it's funny to see you making a fool out of yourself, Akko!"

Akko is more and more riled up at her friend, easily purchasing all of my bolognas.

Sucy stops and silently looks to the angered Akko for a full minute, before shifting her gaze and casting a glare towards me as soon as she realizes my full intention. "I should murder you"

Seeing the gravity of the situation and the possibility of it to escalate, Lotte immediately steps in on impulse. "Hey, hey. I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding, maybe he's too embarrassed to tell us!"

With Lotte's mention of me, Akko seems to lose a few of her anger towards Sucy. "No way!" Akko says. "Why would he be embarrassed? How hard is it to walk up to us and just tell us that ooooh I'm a boy look at me!"

"It's not that easy, Akko", I whisper quietly, as low as my self-esteem that anyone fails to hear.

I can't show how weak I am by admitting that I was too shy to tell them the truth in fright of them not seeing me the way they would a wee witch girl and won't continue to hang with me!

This thought lingers for a moment, but soon the face of the pink haired pumpkin flashes through my mind, like a vision of my late gran-gran passes by me and reminding me of her advices.

Of course, this is one of those times where your lies has run and gone dry, leaving you with nothing but the last choice to come clean and tell the truth. Honesty is the last saving grace to a redemption-stricken lie after all.

I gulp and take a deep breath, preparing for the worst to come through my windpipe. "Hahah!" I laugh oh so genuinely. "It was all but a prank, it's nothing like that at all! I'm not too scared to admit who I was, I'm not that much of an idiot to be like that! I was just observing how long it would take for you three to realize my true identity! Yes sir, y'all caught me red handed this time!"

Dammit!

Akko's eyes widen for a moment, as if she actually bought my lie for one second. But she quickly straightens her mind furrows her brows, eyeing me with ever-growing suspicion. "No way that's the story! You're just making it up!"

Before Lotte could calm her riled up friend, Akko pouts and crosses her arm. She turns away, closing her eyes and denies to look at me further. "Whatever your excuses are, I still won't forgive you! I'll never forgive you! Never ever, ever!"

Not sparing another moment to look at me, Akko stomps away, pout still present. Lotte follows her friend, scampering towards her and attempting all sorts of verbal tactics to sooth the upset girl.

I breathe in and out deeply and a wave of relief washes over me. A weight that I forgot had burdened my chest for an absurd amount of time has been lifted from me, and the effects are quick to be felt. However unpleasant the confrontation was, at least it's now over, and all the misunderstood has been cleared away. All that's well ends well.

"If I still have some poison left, I would've spent it all on you".

I've completely forgotten that Sucy is still here. Turning around, I'm met with her deadly glare once more.

I let out a silent whimper at the sight.

Like a predator to its prey, Sucy doesn't let her eyes escape mine. Like a wicked version of a staring contest, the two of us look to each other without blinking, as if the first to do would be chomped down entirely.

The contest was long, and I'd expected her to do some unholy things to my body sooner or later, but unexpectedly, the beast suddenly turns around and begins walking to the direction of her friends, leaving me unharmed.

My invisibility spell is potent.

With harm out of my way, I breathe a sigh of relieve, shake my worries off and make way towards the crowd gathered around the taxi, ready to leave this place and everything here behind. Glad beyond belief that all this drama and trouble is done.

It seems that the teachers have taken the luxury of taking the taxi, which now has the glowing Sorcerer's Stone absurdly strapped on its roof. A gnome driver at the front, witch teachers at the back, and a neon like Sorcerer's Stone. If one were to add red and blue neon lights, lasers, dinosaurs, explosions, good music, and Zardu Hasselfrau, we could film a 80s music video.

With the crazy taxi packed and me not being able to ride a broom, I realize I've no choice but to hitch a ride. Scanning the area, I try to make my pick. "Hey, Sucy-"

"No", the witch cuts and walks elsewhere.

"T-that's fine" I call to her. "You must be tired and can't carry a person on your broom!"

I look around, trying to find another alternative. Akko is out of the option, since she's as good as an anchor in this situation, so that leaves me with Lotte. I ask the girl. "Lotte, can you give me a ride home?"

With regret, Lotte shakes her head. "I'm sorry, but I can't. I've promised to give Akko the ride home she needs and I don't think I can handle carrying two".

I caught a glance of Akko. Our eyes meet for the briefest of seconds, but as we do Akko immediately returns to her pouting state and looks away.

"I-I see". I say. "That's okay, I could ask Diana to…"

I look around, and to my massive dismay, Diana took my words too quickly and is already in the now fully packed taxi.

My heart sort of drop as my option begins to dwindle. Afraid to worry Lotte, I tell the girl. "I…. can maybe walk my way back, it's not that far".

The rev of an engine suddenly fills the night air, signalling the imminent departure of the group. Diana rolls a window down and pokes her head out. "Everyone, the taxi will lead the way home. Don't stray too far from it and keep it in your eyes as you fly".

Diana takes a moment to assess us, making sure nothing is out of the ordinary and that everyone is ready to go. Soon, she notices the second flightless bird of the bunch and raises an eyebrow. "Do you need a ride?"

"Y-yes!" I say, face brightening up in Diana's offer. "If there's still room beside you I'd love to-"

Diana nods thoughtfully and cuts me. "The taxi is already full, and we need all the teachers here just in case. I'll have to assign someone else to carry you back".

Diana catches notice of my badly hidden disappointment. She says. "I can't really trust something as precious as the Sorcerer's Stone to anyone else, I'm sorry".

Diana scans the group, stopping as her eyes spots the backmost group. She calls out to them. "Amanda, have one of your friends carry Jericho here, I'm afraid he's unable to fly back home".

I spare no effort in turning around to address the girl at the back of the group, I could only look helplessly towards Diana and I spare no expense in hiding my disappointment at the blonde. A heartstring snaps and some part in my heart collapses, the disappointment is palpable that all the grim and dark of this place cannot match. This is the verdict that deep down I'm sure would be final, but despite that, I had tried to deny it fervently. I just don't want to see those three right now. I know it's bad to avoid them after what happened, but really, it's not a good time for me to see them. I just don't want to.

Perhaps that's what Diana is planning in the first place, she wants me to reconcile whatever happened between us.

Nay, she's torturing me, I bet. How inconsiderate, the gal this witch girl has! Forcing me to reconcile with someone currently hostile with me instead of letting me avoid and procrastinate my problems for an indefinite amount of time.

The girls begin to take flight, and I begin to sense movement behind me. Even then, I care not to look back.

"Yo", a familiar voice calls out.

I slowly turn my head, weighty it is that I could feel my neck bones creak in protest. I reply, with the same lack of enthusiasm as Amanda's. "Yo"

Amanda is floating in the air, the moon behind her basks her in a beautiful dark light, giving an imposing and graceful look for the beholders down below. Following behind Amanda are her two friends, Jasminka and Constanze, all on their own brooms.

I avert my gaze from the three. "You don't mind, do you?"

A shadow suddenly rushes overhead, followed by a gust of wind. I turn and find Amanda flying overhead towards the night sky.

Another gust of wind follow, this time Jasminka tows not far behind the redhead.

I'm left silenced for a while, dreading the next who will follow the two. But the last witch doesn't follow. Turning around, I find Constanze in front of me, her broom laid close to the ground and its engines slowed to a halt.

"Constanze?"

The witch says nothing, she only stares at me with furrowed brows for good moment. Eventually, her cheeks slowly rise to a pout, and she finally grunts quietly, tilting her head sideways and telling me to just get this over with.

The ride home was quiet, at least on the back row of the group. I stay with Constanze at the back-most of the flock, accompanied by Jasminka and Amanda. The girls all follow the lead of the taxi which, different from the manner it arrives here, traverses the dirt road below safely. We'd have a difficult time keeping track of the taxi in the moonlight, but the oversized stone makes the taxi the least concealed object in the vicinity.

There're no words spoken between me and Constanze ever since we departed, not necessarily because she's unresponsive to my attempts, but for what transpires earlier in the night. The endless rev of the engine installed into Constanze's broom is the only thing filling the silence.

Constanze has this near-ceaseless pout from the moment we took flight. She actively tries to avoid my gaze and keeps her head forward.

I sometimes catch Amanda throwing glances towards my direction, but upon returning the gaze, she always averts hers immediately.

The flight goes on like this for what feels like a painful eternity. Until I can't bear it anymore that I decided to go out my way and say it. "Are you guys mad at me?"

Still looking ahead, Amanda scoffs at my words. "Gee, what gave it away"

Amanda says nothing else and Jasminka offers not a single word.

"It doesn't make any sense, aren't I the one who's supposed to be upset here?"

I breathe a deep sigh before I continue. "I told you going after the dragon was a bad idea. No I'm not buying into the 'everything turned out alright in the end', the point is you risked being expelled from just going out here. After all I said I'd thought the three of you would at least try and give it a second thought".

Despite my lengthy speech, the three won't budge a muscle. All three of them keeps their eyes forward and away from me, and none cares to say a word.

"Guys come on, I'm not good at this!"

After another disgusting silence, I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. "Fine, you want an apology? Fiiine I did wrong, I shouldn't have told everyone what you did"

No response. The persisting silence urges me to continue my apology.

"I guess plucking the vial out was a pretty jerky thing to do. Sorry if I messed up your machine, Constanze. But you guys are pretty awful you know that? And I don't want to be dragged out of the school for the awful things you do. I just wanted to tell you all that and wanted to stop you".

I pause for a breath and say. "I was just trying to stop you guys, but I guess I shouldn't be a jerk about it".

I'm not good with any of this, I never find it easy to say this kinds of things to anyone. In fact, I've never said this kinds of things to anyone, it's just so embarrassing.

I don't think I made any good apology and I don't think I could continue with any more, so I was surprised when Amanda suddenly slows down to fly next to me. "Dude, stop". She says in one quick breath. "I was just messing with you".

I turn to her. "W-what do you mean?"

"It's just a joke, it's just a joke! We're not mad at you or anything I just wanted to see far you'll go. Right Constanze?"

The little witch stays silent for a moment, until Jasminka nudges her with her elbow. Immediately, Constanze starts nodding.

I look to the red head and red begins to slowly rush to my cheeks. Burying my head in my hands, I mutter. "No, no, this can't be happening".

But it's not just the red of embarrassment that's brewing inside of me, I'm starting to feel a completely different kind of red for this American.

Amanda quickly takes notice of this, she pauses and visibly looks panicked. She quickly darts her eyes away and points behind me to the pink haired girl. "It was Jasminka's idea".

The accused girl is visibly pained, "What?! Amanda you meanie!".

Amanda is already on her fight or flight mode and time she chooses fight. "Y-yeah, she's terrible she teamed up with Constanze to force me to follow".

With herself pulled into the crossfire, Constanze shoots Amanda a dreadful look.

Jasminka appears to represent Constanze's feelings when she says. "Amanda, stop lying to him! You're the one that told us to stay quiet!"

Amanda bites her tongue and is frozen in conflict. She struggles and stutters to form any coherent word and could only come up with unintelligible noises for a moment. Part of her must've felt overwhelming guilt but another part doesn't want to take admit that guilt. Her face becomes a battleground of emotions yet she tries to hide it and act as if all this is nothing but a joke.

After a long moment of indecisiveness, Amanda suddenly shuts down and cranes her head weakly. It was then when she grumbles so quietly.

Jasminka wasn't impressed at all. "He didn't hear you".

Amanda repeats her statement, slightly louder than before but still inaudible.

Jasminka sighs. "Amanda".

Amanda suddenly lifts her head up and with a loud cry, loud enough to be heard by all the airborne witches around, shouts "I'm sorry I was messing with you!"

The words ring in our ears, and the three of us soon find Amanda bitterly looking away from us and refuses to say anything else. Red is her colour and it's not her hair. I sort of ignore anything in my surrounding right now. Just hearing Amanda struggling and finally shouting her apology is still a surreal experience.

Not four of us attempts to say anything, probably still recovering and grasping what just happened between us. It's really weird, awkward and sort of uncomfortable. But my embarrassment is sort of gone now, mainly because I'm sort of out of the spotlight now. Or rather, the spotlight is shared with another idiot.

"So you're honest when you said you're not mad at me?"

Amanda doesn't meet my eyes. She barely says, "'Guess".

After that, I say nothing, and no one too says a thing. Silence accompanies the flight and none of us attempts to make any change to it.

I feel like a change of topic is at hand, seeing how uncomfortable are everyone on the matter. And apparently that responsibility falls onto me. I don't usually do this, but the whole ordeal makes me comfortable enough to start, though awkwardly. "Soooo, how did Akko found out about me being a boy?"

I notice Amanda flinching at the mention of that matter. She keeps looking away and acts like she didn't hear my question.

Jasminka drifts closer towards our broom. "Well, we didn't know they still don't know, so…"

"Oh, that must be awkward" I say.

Jasminka nods. "It was, Amanda was the one that spilled it".

Upon hearing her name, Amanda turns to us and pushes herself into the conversation again. "Dammit Jasminka, why is it me again?"

Jasminka giggles seeing her friend's distress. I couldn't blame her, it is a rare sight for everyone.

"You're a mess", I tell Amanda.

"You're an idiot", Amanda says to me.

I shrug. "Well you're not totally wrong at that, I guess it's my fault for not telling you I still hid that secret in the first place".

The girls didn't ask, but I continue nonetheless. "I didn't tell you because I thought you guys don't want to talk about anything relating to the broom race, so I kept it to myself".

I pause in surprise as I notice Amanda turning to look at me. I say. "It's stupidly silly, I know".

Amanda raises an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't we want to?"

"Well I… you're all basically disqualified because of the baton bagel, which is my fault by the way not Jasminka. So I thought maybe the race didn't leave a good memory for you all".

"That's ridiculous", Amanda says. "We don't care if you did, we had a fun time we didn't care about the race. I said that remember?"

"Well, yeah I remember, but then you went on to your rooms and the next day and the next you three never spoke anything relating to the race so I thought you don't want to talk about it".

Amanda replies quickly. "Well we never talked about it when you're around because we thought you're still bitter about it and don't want to talk about it! And true enough you never talked about it so we thought you were bitter!"

We stare at each other for a moment, the revelation dawns on us soon. "We're both idiots, aren't we?" I say.

"You're the one who said it", Amanda replies.

Silence dawns on the two of us. Meanwhile, Jasminka and Constanze watch the two of us expectantly, as if they're waiting and expecting very hard for both of us, any of us, to say some apology or another for not being open. We're both bad at apologies, if what just transpired taught them anything, so naturally, none of us says any.

However, one of us does say an apology eventually, albeit not one on this current topic.

"Hey, Jerry", I hear Amanda mumble, so quiet it comes out like a whisper. It makes me turn to her. "Sort of… I'm sort of sorry for being stubborn earlier".

She doesn't meet my eyes, a very rare sight of her. Silence hangs heavy as she waits for my reply. I can only imagine what's going on in her head right now.

I hate the serious direction this conversation is reeling into, so eventually I reply, "So terrible, please don't ever try to apologize to me ever again".

Out of her embarrassment and into surprise, Amanda glares at me. "Oh you're unhappy? Well sorry your highness I don't make apologies for a living!"

"I'm just saying you're super awkward doing it and it makes me feel awkward too"

"Well its' not as awkward as your lame apology!"

"How dare you that took guts to say!"

While we're caught up in our bickering, I didn't notice the smile making its way to Jasminka. She watches us bicker, smiling and chuckling, she's glad that her friends are back.

Eventually, she doesn't want to miss out. Jasminka slides her broom closer and says, with a radiant smile, "If Amanda's wasn't good enough, I apologize too then".

The distant dawn sun in the horizon, despite the warmth it casts on the once cold and dreary forest and how it surrounds the air and warms us, has no chance of outshining and out-warming the smile the pink haired girl radiates.

I need sunglasses.

I reply, "You don't need to, Jasminka, it's Amanda that was acting like a jerk after all".

From behind, Amanda says, "Oh my gosh I already said sorry!"

I ignore her, naturally.

Jasminka shakes her head. "No, no. I'll do a better job watching over her stubborn head next time".

With her apologies done, Jasminka looks at Constanze. Soon Amanda follows.

I follow their gazes and find the little witch turning back and forth between her two friends with a look of distress in her face. She would then look back to face me once in a while, only to quickly throw her gaze away from me, darting her eyes and turning back and forth away from me again and again.

"I'm sorry is what she's trying to say", Amanda pipes in, showing her grin that has been missing the whole night. She's definitely happy the apology spotlight is now on someone aside from her.

Constanze throws a serious look towards the redhead, who now backs away and raises her hands in defence.

I appreciate her gesture, it's the most I'll get from this girl. I think this to myself as a soft smile begins to form on my lips.

"Well I'm sorry for being a jerk earlier too, I guess…"

The three of them has their full attention me. They wait and watch me with great attention, ready to hear whatever I had to say next.

What they don't know is that it's just that, that's the extent of my apology, I'm not good at them and no one can convince me to continue with it. Stammering, I tell the three. "I- I'm not going to say more than that! Stop looking at me like that!"

Amanda has the most disappointed look on her face, perhaps because my apology is as lame as hers, but Jasminka was the first one to reply. "Apology accepted. But does that mean you accept ours?"

The three waits for my answer with eager smiles, save for Constanze who tries to make the best smile she can muster.

This warm yet terribly mushy situation is a completely new feeling for me and I don't want this to stick for long. I say, still embarrassed. "Yes".

A wave of relief sweeps through the girls. Jasminka has been smiling all the time, I've thought there's no way for her to do it, but the warmth the girl radiates seems to rise twofold after she hears the great news. Amanda just breathes a sigh of relieve, probably relieved that the whole mess is over, yet she does smile a little afterwards.

All seems to be glad and well except for Constanze, whose eyes keeps searching away from me, a tremble constantly runs through her lips, as if there stuck are her words and smile.

I couldn't blame the girl, I myself couldn't smile. It's just such a heckin weird feeling for me, listening to and saying all these mushy stuffs. So much discomfort was felt in me in such a supposedly good moment.

"Can you guys… look away now? Thanks" I beg.

The three says nothing and thankfully moves on. I'd expected more words coming from them, especially Amanda, but surprisingly they all comply. One by one, Jasminka and Amanda leaves me and Constanze alone, their smiles ever-present as they do.

A deep breathe escapes me, fuming against the cold wind.

Ahead, the trees are endless still. Our journey's end is quite far, but I'm glad it is. The sun continues its climb on the distant horizon, bathing the sky in rich and warm colours. The previously lifeless and soundless trees make way for green, verdant, and lively trees. The voices of its inhabitants and the movement of wings fill my ears. The whole world itself seems to have the perfect timing.

I would sometime smile to myself along the journey, thinking how Michelle's still right and yet also wrong at the same time.

They're good friends after all...

Sometime along the journey, I catch Constanze glancing back to me silently, only to look away when I return her gaze.

/-/

Author's Notes: Hey ho it's your favourite author again! So here we are at the 26th chapter, and those pesky friendship problems are sort of amended. I have not much to say here beside the usual paragraph asking for likes and all that, so I'll do just that! Don't forget to follow and favourite this fanfic if you really do enjoy it, it really means a lot for me and I appreciate all the feedback reviews i could get, good or bad they're reviews and are always welcome so don't be shy and write down anything you like down there, even unrelated stuff!

Well done if you recognize where the dialogue between Jericho and Fafnir comes from, you must be fun at Valhallas.

Ho boy was this chapter a good time to write and a long one at that. I think it would've been better and easier for me to cut half of this and attach it to the 25th chapter, but at that time of that chapter's release i didn't expect the sheer length of this chapter, a staggering length of 13,029 words!

It happened and well it happened. The next chapters will be ever more exciting i betcha, no more sappy and mushy things i hope, i never write those kinds of stuffs so i have no benchmarks.

I hope you all stick around for my next chapter and the next, because it'll be more and more interesting as we go down this rabbit hole : )

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Akko denies looking at me for the whole day, grumping constantly, she keeps working on her laundry.

Can't be helped, it takes time for the Sorcerer's Stone to fully integrate to the system, so for tonight, we'll have to fold our sleeves and make work for this special occasion. Tomorrow the stone will be up and running, and all will be well again.

"Sigh, I guess I'll lend a hand", I say as I fold my sleeves.

"Did he just say 'sigh'?" Sucy says, squinting her eyes at me in disdain.

I walk over towards Constanze, who seems to have the most trouble. This is enough reason for someone to lend a hand, but add the fact that I was the one that messed her machine up, I have more reasons than most to help the girl.

"Hey", I start.

The girl ignores me for a minute, focusing on her work dutifully.

"I'm sorry for breaking your machine, I'll lend a hand if you want me to".

She says nothing and gives me not a single look, but she shows no sign of refusing my help as I sit down next to her.

I don't want to force her to like me, so I just quiet myself away and wash away the pain, the pain that is the dirt that's dirtying these damn clothes.

Only, what's… this?

I've never felt this kind of clothing before, it's odd… and spongy, why would they place the kitchen sponge here? In the clothing laundry? That would soil the perfectly good clothes!

Picking the wayward piece of dish armament up, I study the nasty little rascal briefly. A pink spongy item, it's oddly connected to another sponge…

It's a bra.

The redness pales in comparison to the rush of blood beneath my cheeks. Constanze raises her head in confusion at me, but her curiosity quickly makes way for embarrassment as she notices the object in my hand. A multitude of unintelligible noise emanate from the stunned Constanze.

"N-no wait Constanze I didn't"

Picking up on the curiosity, Amanda comes shuffling in behind us. "Yo, what's up?"

Amanda's cheeks starts to puff with red. She covers her mouth with her hands, trying to supress whatever sound that almost comes out. It sounds like a mixture of laughter and scream.

"Uh, guys? Why are you slacking?" Akko asks in an annoyed tone. Her impatience and annoyance was quickly thrown out the window, however, when she starts to stutter gibberish and steam begins to blow out of her head. "WHA-WHAHAHAHHAWHAWHWHAAWWHA".

Akko points her fingers accusingly towards me, her head begins to boil and she's at a loss of words, but soon all those fire will erupt and she'll scream louder than she'd ever screamed.

I've lived a good albeit short life.