Kure could guess that Cassia probably wasn't the best boss in the world, but as someone who had never had a job before, she didn't think Cassia was that bad.

Kure had worked at the bookstore for a few days now and in that time, she had come to learn that Cassia deeply cared about many things. But that was a closely guarded secret. Cassia tried really hard to pretend she didn't care, but Kure wasn't falling for it.

No matter how apathetic she looked at customers when they walked in, or how coldly she scolded Kure when she made a mistake, Kure couldn't easily forget that this old lady gave her a job the moment she found out she was homeless.

One of the things that Cassia cared deeply about but refused to admit was the many books in her store. Kure was given the job of keeping the shelves tidy and moving the books around, so she knew this fact well.

Kure had to routinely rotate the entire store's shelves to prevent any one book from being exposed to the sun from the front window for multiple days in a row. The books had to be placed perfectly upright to avoid damage to the spine and pushed all the way into the shelve with no part sticking over the edge. Kure had even been scolded for not pulling a book out from a shelf incorrectly once.

'What are you doing, dearie? Grabbing the book from the headcap? From the spin, dearie, from the spine!'

But as strict as she was, Cassia never refused to let Kure read one of the books in her free time. Although Cassia had set a 'one book at a time' rule on days that the store was open, which based on Cassia's last reaction to Kure falling into one of her study trances, was more hidden concern than anything else. Because another thing that Cassia cared about but wouldn't admit it was people, which for some reason included Kure in particular.

Surprisingly, Cassia paid Kure too. Kure assumed that the trade was going to be a room, food, and access to books for manual labour at best, but Cassia insisted that she wasn't a slave driver.

It was night and Kure was cooking dinner for the two. Cassia was working the budget (something Kure had almost offered to do before she realised, she still didn't quite understand the exact value of money yet).

Kure had learned to cook a little in home economics so she didn't mind. Chopping the vegetables and putting them into the pot kept her hands busy while allowing her mind to wander over what she had learned that day.

The problem she was having was she didn't know her elemental affinity. She had already learned the makeup of several spells for each of the elements, but until she knew her affinity, she couldn't make any practical advancements.

Kure accidentally dropped one of the pieces of carrot when she was throwing them into the pot and reflexively went to pick it up, burning her hand in her foolishness.

Kure hissed as she moved to where the sink was but before she got there an angry old lady was at her side grabbing at her hand and spewing insults.

"Are you stupid, dearie? You ought to know fire is hot by now! You can clean up any mess after the fire is out and the stove has cooled."

As Cassia was ranting, a ring of blue surrounded her hands and the burning sensation faded.

"Do you have a water affinity?" Kure asked, her curiosity overcoming any timidness she was feeling after being scolded.

Cassia nodded.

"And that was healing magic, right?"

"What do you think it was?" Cassia snapped as if she hadn't just shown her true colours by healing Kure's hand.

"I just wanted to be sure, because it looked different last time when Reinhard healed my cut." Kure tried to explain herself.

"Reinhard?" Cassia's eyebrow raised at the mention of his name.

"Yeah, he had red hair. But he didn't have a blue circle around his hands, but little lights… Do you think it might have been spirit arts?" Kure asked, completely oblivious.

"If it's Reinhard it could have been…"

"You have heard of him?" Kure asked, eyes widening.

"Yes," Cassia answered, as she aged an extra twenty years in three minutes, "I have heard of Reinhard."

Kure just hummed; her mind already moved onto something else.

"Miss Cassia, if you're a water affinity, could you find out what my elemental affinity is?" Kure asked.

"What, you don't know?"

"No."

Cassia just sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head.

"Maybe after dinner is finished. Don't want that pot boiling over do we?"

"Eep!" Kure rushed back to the pot to finish her job.


Cassia didn't end up examining Kure's affinity that night, Instead, Cassia chose to wait until the next day, which was ~coincidentally~ the day that the bookshop was closed that week.

Cassia also insisted on doing it outside the house and outside the city in a nice, empty field. Kure got the impression that Cassia thought she was some reckless kid that would try a spell immediately after she found out her affinity without considering her surroundings or the consequences.

Kure wasn't that reckless. But she wasn't going to say anything.

Cassia closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows in focus. The air around Kure tinted blue for a few seconds before fading.

"My, my, how special." Cassia said, putting Kure on edge, "It seems your affinity is Yang magic."

"Yang magic?" Kure blinked. She wasn't expecting that. Yang magic was really rare, and Kure wasn't anything special. She had read about a few different Yang spells though.

The components of a spell were; prepare mana, visualise, gate, and incantation. Yang spells were mostly focused on enhancement. She also needed to be careful to use something lower level to prevent damage to her gate.

"Now, now, calm down dearie. Just because you know your affinity doesn't mean that you can cast a spell ju-"

"Sira." Kure spoke the incantation before Cassia could finish her sentence and started running at break-neck speeds. Kure laughed as she felt the wind in her face. As an unathletic nerd, Kure had always been secretly jealous of the fastest runners in her class, so a speed spell had been the first thing that had come to Kure's mind. She wasn't running at a supernatural speed, as that would require the addition of 'El' to the incantation, nor did she have super fast reflexes which required the 'Ul' prefix which was a rank above that, but for now, she could say she would have been the fastest runner in her class if she had been back in high school.

In Kure's excitement, she stopped paying attention to the spell and how long ago she had cast it. The spell cut off suddenly, and the momentum sent her tumbling. Dammit. How stupid was she?! She should have paid better attention. Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!

While she just sat there scolding herself, Cassia stumbled over. She looked exhausted, and Kure knew why.

"I'm sorry I messed up," Kure said.

"Wha… what?" Cassia seemed confused.

"I promise I'll do better next time to meet your expectations." The line sounded well-rehearsed because it was. Kure had said it countless times to her parents and all the teachers she had disappointed whenever she didn't get the mark that they expected her to get. The mark she could have gotten if she were just smarter. If she just worked a little bit harder.

"You… you cast the spell on your first try?" Cassia said, rather shell-shocked. Kure didn't catch her tone.

"Yet I lost focus at the end and ruined it, I know."

Cassia just groaned and suggested that they go back to the bookstore. Kure accepted that as the result of her failure.


"Miss Cassia, can I read these books on Yang magic?" Kure asked.

Cassia was reading a book which she was carefully hiding the title. Started by Kure's sudden question she rushed to get her out of the room.

"Yeah, yeah, why… why don't you read them upstairs on my desk, I have a few damaged books on it, but just… just put them to the side."

"Okay, Miss Cassia!"

Kure rushed up the stairs. She had some studying to do!

Cassia hadn't been lying about the damaged books, but Kure hadn't thought that they would be this damaged. She had imagined a torn or missing page, or a stain on the front cover. These looked like they had been in a storm from the ripped spine, discoloured pages and overall poor shape. Kure couldn't imagine that these had originally been Cassia's books. Maybe she was trying to salvage them?

'Good luck, Miss Cassia, you're going to need a miracle to do that.'

Kure chuckled to herself before freezing.

'Or maybe, just some magic.'

The Yang affinity wasn't just enhancements, Kure had read in 'Elemental Applications' that it was also possible to repair damaged items but didn't go into detail. Kure turned to the specialised books she grabbed and smiled with a new goal in mind.


Someone shook Kure's shoulders, drawing her out of her intense focus. She looked up to see Cassia's displeased neutral face. Not to be confused with Cassia's bored neutral face or her hiding-that-she-cares neutral face.

"Miss Cassia?" Kure was confused, what had she done this time?

Cassia sighed, "The shop is opening in a few hours dearie. I can't believe you actually read all night long, like a child. It's unhealthy. Get washed up and eat something before you're late."

Kure got up from the desk and stretched.

"Yes, Miss Cassia!"

Her only reply was a long sigh.

Kure scurried to get ready for work.


This repeated the next day, and then the next. It had been three days since Kure had slept and yet it was Cassia that looked exhausted. Cassia had kept her mouth shut on the matter, but Kure was beginning to sense her growing irritation.

The fourth night, Cassia disturbed Kure from her studies before the old lady went to bed.

"Go to sleep dearie, you're going to make mistakes and damage the books if you keep doing this." Cassia's voice was stern, but the way she pulled at her lip indicated concern.

"But Miss Cassia, I think I almost got this!"

Cassia groaned.

"What are you researching anyway? Is it really worth all your free time? Don't you have anything else you'd rather do? Friends you want to see?"

"I'm learning repair magic." Kure said, answering the first question and paying no mind to Cassia's other questions.

"What?"

"I think I have almost learnt enough to make a practical attempt."

Kure looked up excitedly at Cassia. Cassia's left eye twitched.

Cassia finally opened her mouth after a few seconds.

"I don't-"

"Let me show you!" Kure grabbed at a chipped glass of water that Cassia had left beside her desk the previous night. She quickly downed the remaining water. Ignoring the sudden realization that she was thirsty; Kure raised her hands over the glass.

Repair magic wasn't the cure-all that many were led to believe. It relied on the caster's understanding of the object to fix it. How it was shaped and put together. Kure didn't know how a clock worked, so she wouldn't be able to repair one, but because a glass was a simple shape, it wasn't that hard to fix. A child could understand it, and Kure was at least as smart as a child.

The glass glowed white for a few seconds. The chip filled in and the glass almost looked brand-new. One could only just see a slight dip where the chip used to be. Kure frowned at that. She should be able to do better.

"Go to bed." Cassia said, her voice now blatantly annoyed.

"But Miss Cassia, I was thinking of helping you restore these books like this." Kure didn't understand why Cassia was still insisting she should sleep. Didn't she see that Kure was almost finished learning something that could be a great help to the store?

"Go. To. Bed." Cassia said the words slowly. Kure got the message this time.


Cassia closed the bookshop early the next day. This made Kure excited because it meant she could get even more research done, but as she went to head upstairs the old lady blocked her path.

"Miss Cassia?" Kure asked.

In a swift movement, Cassia grabbed Kure's ear and pulled down. Kure yelped in both shock and pain. Her hands flailed aimlessly as Cassia dragged her to the door and shoved her out.

"I don't understand?" Kure said. Cassia just stared at her with dead eyes. "Do you need me to go on an errand for you? Why didn't you say so-"

"Don't come back until you have found some friends." Despite the clearly compassionate intention behind the command, Cassia's voice was stone cold.

Kure blinked. Why would Cassia care if-

Kure's thought was stopped mid-sentence as Cassia slammed the door, leaving no room for arguments.

Kure stood there, dumbfounded for ten minutes. Find friends? No one had ever told her to do that before. If anything, her parents had discouraged it. Hanging out with friends would get in the way of her studies, or so had she been told.

Kure hung her head low and turned away from the shop and began to walk. Her eyes were watery as she felt a sting in her chest. She didn't understand why. Her parents had just wanted what was best for her. They had been right. Right?

She collided with someone's chest. Looking up she saw a man with lavender hair wearing a white uniform.

"Sorry!" Kure squeaked. Her cheeks heated in embarrassment as a nervousness seized her stomach. The memory of the grey-haired man flashed in her mind. What if the man got angry at her? Would he strike her?

"Don't worry, it is also my fault for not paying attention while I was walking, miss." The man reassured her. He had a formal tone and a stiff posture.

"Miss Nakamura?" A familiar voice said, and Kure relaxed as she saw that Reinhard was with this man.

"Mr Reinhard!" Kure smiled as she bowed her head to her saviour in greeting.

"Mr?" The man with lavender hair raised an eyebrow and sent a glance Reinhard's way. Reinhard shook his head slightly as an amused smile ghosted his face.

Kure paid no attention to this as she scrambled to grab the leather pouch Reinhard had given her from her satchel.

"I got that job, so as promised, I will pay you back!" Kure gestured for Reinhard to take back the pouch enthusiastically.

"What brings you into town today?" Reinhard ignores Kure's gestures as he smiles at her warmly.

Kure blinked. Reinhard's appearance had made her forget what had just happened and her dull mood along with it.

"Oh, Miss Cassia, my boss, sent me out." Kure was honestly shocked that it had left her mind.

"Did she send you on an errand then? I apologize for disturbing you while you were working."

Wasn't she the one that bumped into his friend? How could he be at fault? Why was he apologizing?

Kure shook her head to ease his mind anyway.

"That's the strange thing though, it wasn't a usual errand."

The man with lavender hair just stood back and watched their conversation like it was a spectacle. Reinhard tilted his head, frowning slightly in concern, "What do you mean?"

"She said I wasn't allowed to come back until I found some friends, but I work at a book shop?" Kure frowned in confusion. Her thoughts began to slip from her mouth, "I could understand her ordering me to sleep, because four days in a row without would affect my work, but why would she care if I had friends or not?"

She realized what had just happened and rushed to correct herself.

"Ah, sorry!" Kure blushed as she realized that she had been rambling, "That isn't really your problem."

Kure noticed that the pouch was still in her hands.

"Take it, I did promise." She tried to shift the conversation back to repaying her debt.

Reinhard looked at the pouch and back at her face. His smile the slightest bit cunning, he turned to his friend.

"Julius, what's the etiquette regarding a knight from a noble house accepting money from civilians?"

Julius blinked in confusion before understanding gleamed in his eyes.

"It would be considered shameful. Not to mention word could spread that they were accepting bribes."

"Then, I apologize, Miss Nakamura, but I cannot accept this." Reinhard refused the coin pouch politely.

"But this is just me paying back a debt, surely that is fine." Kure tried to reason.

"I never said that I intended to be paid back, the money was a gift." Reinhard said.

"But!..." Kure was becoming increasingly distressed as she realized that Reinhard wasn't going to accept the money no matter what she said. She had made a promise though!

"If you insist on paying me back, I have a favour to ask of you." Reinhard offered.