The kiss that Flynn and I shared lasted longer than I thought. Now I just wanted to sleep and take a shower.
"You can stay here for the night, Yuri." He said.
I shrugged in agreement.
Before we went to sleep, Flynn held me close to his chest. I felt secure in his arms. His head rested on mine. This is also the first time that I ever slept at his house. When we were little kids, we got lost and couldn't find our way home so we had to sleep in an abandoned house in the public quarter.
The public quarter is what separates the poor from the rich. The nobles hardly come there, but the lower quarter citizens go there a lot to buy things whenever they want to leave the barrier. I assume they leave to start a guild down in Dahngrest. Dahngrest is also known as the Den of Guilds. I've always wanted to visit it. It's the second largest city on Terca Lumireis. Zaphias is the largest. (I got all of that information from Estelle.)
A few days went by. It turns out that our school is going on a field trip along with other schools from different cities. Our destination depends on the group. We'll be leaving the barrier for research and gathering items to study, unfortunately. I have no idea where we're supposed to be going or gathering. Maybe the school is trying to kill us all. Hell, less things to buy for us rotten kids. Just in case anything happened, I brought my bodhi blastia. I hid it in my pocket so no one would know.
When everyone who was attending the trip arrived we found out that the teachers were our temporary chaperones. I didn't like how they organized and planned these things. Somehow I was able to convince Estelle to beg the school board to allow me to bring a sword. All of the students saw my sword and now at least one person per group has a weapon.
The schools met up in Halure, the City of Blossoms. There, our groups were organized. I was stuck with Estelle and some kid named Karol Capel from Dahngrest. He was a shaky kid too. I assume his fear of monsters were severe. Estelle tried coaxing him about how some can be friendly, but Karol didn't bother to listen. Everyone knew that wasn't true.
Flynn had Sodia and a mage in training named Witcher. I think he and Sodia are friends, but her focus will be all on Flynn. I wish him good luck.
My group had to be escorted to Aspio the City of Scholars. Mages lived and trained there. Most worked for the Empire. There really isn't a place on Terca Lumireis where the Empire's not.
Aspio wasn't far from Halure so it didn't take us long to arrive. Our chaperone showed the guards his passport and we were allowed inside, but the chaperone left when we got through. Apparently we had to find Rita Mordio here. Estelle, Karol, and I split up to ask around. Everyone we asked feared her. I thought nothing was scary about her when she was in Zaphias.
Not long after, we spotted a secluded house a little ways from the center of town. On the door a note said: "Keep out, seriously. –Mordio" The door was locked so Karol picked it. Estelle got angry, but she said that she couldn't stay mad for long because I was too adorable. I can't wait to find out what she'll say to me after I tell her that I'm going out with Flynn.
She was nowhere to be found in this mess. Piles of books laid everywhere and models of blastias were spread across the walls. There was also this large blue colored thing shooting up through the roof. I think it was some kind of blastia. Maybe the citizens had every right to be scared. By the looks of it, Rita seemed like a collector of blastia. There were even ones that I've never seen before.
"It doesn't look like anyone's home." Karol said.
"I guess not. Let's hang out here then." I responded.
Karol immediately listened and sat down on the floor. I lay down next to him. Estelle had her hands on her hips staring upon me. Clearly, she wanted us to wait outside. I really didn't want to so I tilted my head slightly.
"Nice underwear." I said to her. "Bananas suit you."
She blushed deeply. Estelle clutched her school skirt and backed away. She stayed in the corner for the entire time after that moment. Karol laughed silently to himself.
Not long after, Rita walked in. Rita got pissed off from us intruders, but instead of her calling the guards on all of us, she decided to hit Karol with a fire ball. I was surprised he was still alive.
Estelle rushed up to her and held out her hand. "I'm sorry for us barging in. My name is Estellise but you can call me Estelle."
Rita stared at Estelle's hand for while. Then the mage looked at her and walked farther into the house. Rita checked everything to see if anything was stolen.
"Why are you people inside my house! How'd you get in!" she asked which sounded more like yelling.
I pointed to Karol. I didn't want to get hit by one of her fire balls. Who knows what else she could do? "Karol picked your lock and forced us to come in."
"Wh-What!" he said in a panic.
Rita shrugged it off and motioned us to come along. We all followed her out of Aspio. She took us to a place called the Shaikos Ruins. The white pillars and tiles were broken, and all of them were a blinding white. There weren't any colors on them from aging either. The mage made Karol and I push a statue. Underneath it were sets of stairs. We saw a crystal-like light shine from beneath. Everyone made Rita go down first.
Once we got underground Estelle got sidetracked and ran to find out what the object was. It looked like scales. She felt it, plucked some off, and stuffed them in a plastic bag.
"Careful Estellise. Some things are poisonous here." Rita warned.
"Oh. Okay. Please call me Estelle."
"Whatever Estellise."
She walked farther into the ruins. Following her became a drag. Rita never stayed still. Now I wonder how we'll get this research field trip done. For the first time I actually worried about my grade. If I failed this then I'd have to stay back a year. The weather was already warm and the summer came closer. In other words my final grade would not be pretty.
No one seemed to notice, but the source where Estelle picked the scales from moved slightly and silently. I thought I was seeing things. I ignored it and moved along.
Apparently, Rita planned to take us to the deepest part of the ruins. Supposedly, there were ancient gem fragments stored there. There was a rumor throughout Aspio that they had mystic powers. It sounded false to me, but Karol and Estelle wanted to see them. Strange things like magic artes and artes were in this world, but I never heard of mystic gems.
It took us a while to reach the end. I couldn't find anything mystical here. Nothing but rocks were scattered everywhere. I even examined them. They felt like ordinary stones. Estelle, Karol, and I glared at Rita for dragging us all the way down here. We saw a lot of amazing things before we reached the end, but Rita said none of them were good enough.
"I'm sorry." She said. "I thought there were gems down here. I even saw mages from Aspio bring them in to study. Maybe they're all gone?"
"That seems like the case." Estelle said.
"You're too quick to believe a stranger." I said. "Let's go-"
Suddenly, the rocks began to levitate and glow different colors. Karol freaked out and hid behind me. Out of nowhere a dragon-like monster came towards us. Karol screamed and held onto me tighter. Its scales looked exactly like the ones Estelle picked. It was angry too. The monster looked at Estelle with a strong intent of killing. After all, she did pluck off its scales.
Somehow it was manipulating the rocks around us. If it could control the earth, that must mean it can make the walls and ceiling cave in or collapse.
Everyone's eyes widened when they all saw me pull out my bodhi blastia and put it on. I pulled out my compact sword and threw pebbles at it. I made everyone head for the exit as I distracted it. Karol was the first one out.
Okay. I admit. I didn't bother to fight the thing. I wasn't skilled enough to. I had training with swords and axes, but not much. Flynn was good at that stuff. Instead I ran and made it follow me. I wasn't sure my plan was going to work, but I had no other choice.
I intended to make the monster irritated so it could use its magic to control the earth and make everything collapse. I could die, but at least the monster would be dead.
Luckily, Flynn taught me one arte. Hopefully that would be enough to irritate it. I faced it and used Azure Edge. Well, it got pissed and pulled the bricks out of the stone ceiling. The dragon launched them at me. I just dodged all of them. Except one got me in the leg. The Shaikos Ruins started to collapse like I planned so I made a dash for the exit. My leg hurt like hell, but I had to ignore it.
I heard the dragon still coming after me. I turned around and hit it with another Azure Edge. It slowed down only slightly. Good thing that was all I needed to get out. The bricks crashed down onto the monster and I barely escaped. Estelle and Karol lifted me out of the hole and sat me down on the ground.
They looked relieved to see that I was okay. Although Estelle freaked out and healed my now swollen leg. No one knew she had that ability. Rita stared at her in suspicion. My leg was good as new. No more swelling or bruising.
The only things to bring back to Halure were the scales from the monster. It was better than nothing though. Estelle saved our final grades. Rita stayed silent throughout the rest of the day with her. I guess she felt guilty for me getting hurt. I won't lie. It was her fault. Karol admired me more now it seems. I didn't know he admired me from the beginning.
Within a few hours of resting at Aspio, Estelle, Karol, and I returned to Halure. I had to hand in the scales to the leader of this field trip. Like a dummy, I handed the bag of scales to him with my bodhi blastia still on my wrist. The leader called the guards over and they took me away. On my way out of Halure, I saw Flynn coming in. Of course he saw me. I wish he didn't.
"Yuri!" he called.
I raised my wrist so he could see the blastia. By his body language, I could tell that he "tsked". He also crossed his arms in disappointment. For the first time, he had no idea what to do.
The Imperial guards took me all the way to Zaphias. There I was confronted by Commandant Alexei. He said that since I lied about my bodhi blastia and hid it inside my house when they investigated; I was sentenced to one year in jail.
I had no idea there were jail cells in the Imperial Castle. Obviously, I had nothing to worry about since Estelle was going to get me out. I'll probably be out within a few days or so. I thought prisoners weren't supposed to have privacy. The toilet is hidden behind a semi-wall. I didn't have a roommate either. Actually, hardly anyone was down here.
Not long after me being down here a guard came to my cell. I got curious and sat up on the hard cot. He unlocked my cell door and ordered me out. He also said that someone in line to the throne requested my release. I had no idea Estelle got back so quickly. The guard escorted me out from underground and in the foyer I saw who released me. It wasn't Estelle. It was loder.
To be continued…