Chapter 5

Hellena

The mess hall of Gathaspa Academy was a large two-storied building. The first floor was filled with dozens of long tables and benches; each of the table was fit for eight students. There were several long beams that supported the mezzanines present on both sides of the mess hall. The floor was made of solid tiles, and so do the mezzanines, while the walls were made from white solid bricks.

At the end of the mess hall was long food counter which occupied most of the wall, and beyond the counter was the huge kitchen that served all of the Academy's rations. Two staircases were built on the left and right of the counter, both lead to the second floor mezzanines.

"Sorry for the wait." Tasia said with an apologetic smile as she seated herself opposite to Sakura and Kyro, who were sitting close to each other. Although each table was supposed to be seated by eight students, this one was only occupied by the three of them.

"You were supposed to be here like, fifteen minutes ago." Sakura said in reply.

"Can't help it. The Martial Arts class just went a little over-time."

Tasia then looked down at the plate that was served in front of her. The delicious smell of the five chicken drumsticks topped with a thick layer of mushroom sauce that wafted through the air had caused Tasia to drool a bit. She took a long sniff at her lunch and exhaled with pleasure.

"Good thing that it's not yet cold." Tasia beamed, while her stomach was already grumbling with hunger. Quickly she picked up one of the chicken drumsticks and hacked into it.

"Thanks, Sakura. I owe you one." said Tasia through a mouthful of meat.

"Actually you owe me twenty Gelds. And to include this week, you owe me a total of eighty Gelds." corrected Sakura.

"That's why I love you Sakura. You're both a good friend and a good piggy bank." Tasia said jokingly. "Don't worry. I'll pay you once I get my allowance next month."

"And what happen to this month's allowance?" Sakura asked furiously.

"I, um, well, I kind of misplaced it, I think. Seriously I forgot where I put it. Sorry." Tasia said with an act of innocence.

Sakura sighed heavily and rubbed her forehead.

"I still don't understand how you deal with her." commented Kyro as he observed Tasia.

"To tell you the truth, I just don't." Sakura growled, and then she continued eating her plate of steamed fish rice. She lifted a spoonful of the white grain into her mouth, chewed slowly and swallowed.

Sakura then looked at Kyro, who was consuming a bowl of fish stew next to her. She was still in disbelief of why he was still here.

Being a 1st Class Young Magister at the Academy, Kyro had been granted the privilege to eat at the mezzanines of the second floor; a special and more comfortable place that was built exclusively for the 1st Class students. Yet he chose to have lunch with Tasia and Sakura instead. Except for Kyro, no other 1st Class Young Magisters had their lunch on the first floor. This was the reason why nobody else wanted to sit on the same table as them, as the juniors believed that they should give their senior Kyro a little bit of privacy.

Sakura questioned herself. Of all the students in the Academy, why did Kyro chose to spend his lunch time with her and Tasia? It's not like he doesn't have any other friends among the 1st Class. In fact, he was really popular with the students, especially with the girls, and he was admired by both his magic skills and his appearance. Even without the charms like that of Grand Magister Sting and High Magister Sephyr, the Alteration Class Specialist, Kyro's look was still enough to attract most of the female students in the Academy, including Sakura.

And still, Kyro chose to befriend Sakura and Tasia and had spent more of his time with them rather than his other friends. Sakura was glad, and she had to admit that she felt lucky to be close to him. There was nothing else that made her happier than to be with Kyro

"Is there something wrong?" Kyro asked in puzzlement, realizing that Sakura was gazing at him for almost two minutes already.

As Kyro turned his face to Sakura, she slightly blushed. Then she giggled after seeing his face was covered in patches of moist brown gravy from the fish stew he was eating.

Sakura removed a white handkerchief from the pocket of her jacket and reached for Kyro's face.

"Let me get that for you." She smiled blissfully.

With the clean handkerchief in her hand, Sakura gently wiped the stains of gravy from Kyro's face. At first the boy only responded with a flushing red cheek, as he was lost for words. After a while he finally held Sakura's hand and gently shoved it away.

"Sorry…" Sakura mumbled nervously, and now it was her who blushed. She slowly pulled her hand out of Kyro's grasp.

The two of them went quiet; their eyes were staring directly to the floor. Both had their hearts throbbing louder and their cheeks flushing red. Then Kyro looked at Sakura and began to speak.

"Thank you…" Kyro took the handkerchief from Sakura and started cleaning off his own face. Once he was done, he returned the handkerchief to Sakura and smiled warmly. "…but I can do it myself. I really appreciate it though."

"Okay." Sakura beamed. The two of them nodded to each other, before returning to their meals. Both of them now wore timid smiles on their faces.

Tasia, who was watching the whole thing from the start, was also smiling from ear to ear. From her point of view, Sakura and Kyro would really make a good couple. Tasia may not be an expert when it comes to relationships, but she believed that her two friends were truly made for each other.

"What's wrong?" asked Sakura with a wide-eyed look when she noticed that Tasia was grinning broadly.

"Oh, it's nothing." Tasia shrugged and then continued biting on her half-eaten drumstick. In a matter of seconds, the chicken's thigh was reduced to nothing but a piece of a bone. Tasia dropped the small bone next to her plate, picked up a second drumstick and hacked into it.

"Hey, Sakura," Tasia called to her friend, her mouth spluttering the chicken's mushroom sauce as she did. "Would you mind cleaning me as well?" she teased while pointing at her own cheek.

Sakura's face reddened once again. "Not funny…" she muttered while puffing her cheeks.

Tasia started to laugh. Even Kyro, who was enjoying his stew, suppressed a chuckle, causing Sakura's embarrassment to grow higher.

"Um…excuse me…"

Tasia's laughter was suddenly cut short when she heard a quiet voice of a girl next to her. She turned to her left. To her surprise, she saw a young girl standing at the corner of their table, her hand was carrying wooden tray with a bowl of porridge on it. Tasia had never seen her face before. She guessed that this girl was one of this year's new intakes. Like the rest of the female students, the girl wore the purple Academy's jacket over her light blue dress, while on the lower part of her body she wore a blue skirt that reached down to her knees. Some of the features of the new student which Tasia found unique were her bright purple shoulder-length hair and the purple set of pupils in her eyes.

"Can I…urm, have a seat…over here?" the girl stammered a nervous and shy kind of tone when she addressed Tasia and her two friends.

Tasia regarded the new student amazement. Before this, there wasn't a single Young Magisters who had asked for a seat with Tasia, Sakura and Kyro. Usually the younger students tend to 'cower' under Kyro's presence and avoid sitting on the same table as him. This new student probably didn't know who Kyro was yet.

"Yeah, sure. Not a problem for us." Sakura said cheerfully. She gestured to the empty space beside Tasia. "You can sit next to Tasia."

"Thank you…"

Slowly the girl made her way across the long bench, placed her tray on the table and sat down half a meter from Tasia's left. She then lifted the spoon on her tray and used it to sip on the porridge.

An awkward silence struck the three friends and their new tablemate. While Sakura and Kyro were looking at each other with puzzlement by the new student's presence, Tasia was still devouring her second drumstick, and later she proceeded to the third.

"I'm Sakura by the way." Sakura introduced herself to the new student, breaking off the silence. She then pointed to Tasia, and then Kyro. "And these two here, are Tasia and Kyro."

Tasia was not surprised by Sakura's sudden introduction, as she was always the friendliest among the three of them. In fact, it was Sakura who had firstly greeted Tasia during their first day as roommates.

"Um…Hi…Nice too meet you…" the girl shyly nodded to the three of them.

Sakura replied with a giggle, while Tasia, who didn't bother to stop eating, gave out a mouthful mumble.

"Likewise" Kyro smiled. "What's your name, miss?"

The girl now answered with a more confident tone, yet there was still a slight timidity in her tone.

"I'm…My name is Hellena."

"Well it's nice to meet you too, Hellena." added Sakura. "Hey Tasia! Why don't say something for once!"

Tasia did not utter a word. After her third drumstick had been licked clean, she finally turned to the new student named Hellena.

"Hi" Tasia greeted half-heartedly, she then took another chicken drumstick and wolfed it down.

"Sorry." Sakura sighed in apology for her roommate's attitude. "She just doesn't like to be disturbed while she is eating."

"I'm very sorry… If you're not comfortable…then I should just…"

Hellena was about to stand up and leave with her tray but Sakura immediately halted her intentions.

"Wait! Hold on! No you're not. Please sit." Sakura said in a jest, pointing Hellena to return to the bench. The student obediently did so.

"Thank you. Sakura…"

"And don't you worry. We're all happy to have you here sitting with us. Right, Tasia?"

Tasia was still busy with her chicken; she didn't reply a single word to Sakura.

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows and huffed. "Could you at least try to act friendly?" She complained, although Sakura knew that it was futile as Tasia was never happy when someone had disturbed her lunchtime.

"Oh, great. Looks like we have company." Kyro suddenly snarled.

"Keep your head low." he told Hellena, who was still dumbfounded by the situation.

The first floor of the mess had gone silent. The sound of three sets of footsteps became more audible to Tasia's ears. The footsteps were approaching their table. Tasia already knew what was coming their way.

Tasia warily peeked from the corner of her eye. All the Young Magisters were still consuming their food, but their bodies appeared to be stiffened and trembling. Carefully, she turned her head a little to the left, and saw three figures clad in red jackets heading directly for their table from behind her.

Leading the pack was a boy with a spiky dark orange hair, sinister eyes and a malicious grimace that marred his otherwise handsome face. Accompanying him were two other boys who appeared to be at the same age as he was. One boy was as thin as a chopstick, with curly black hair and eyes that were close together, while the other one had a shaved head and was muscular and broad, yet he was nothing compared to the toughly built students of the Swordsmanship and Martial Arts Classes.

The 1st Class' Elemental Trio.

Tasia's nose cringed at the sight of them. The Elemental Trio was the bane of the Young Magisters of Gathaspa Academy, especially for the younger students. They preferred to bully other students who they see weak and useless simply because they believed that the Academy only needs strong Magisters in its ranks, while the weak should be excommunicated from the school.

The formation of the team was organized under the leadership of the 1st Class Young Magister Seva, the orange-haired boy, and his trusted fellow 1st Class Xander and Hummel. As their team name went, the Elemental Trio were the best three students from the from the Elemental Class, and all three of them were listed on the top ten ranking among the 1st Class Young Magisters in Gathaspa Academy. Even though they excelled in terms of power and skills, they lacked honor and compassion towards others, only showing cruelty to any students they found 'useless' for the school.

"Look who it is, guys." Seva, the leader of the Trio said upon arriving at Tasia's table. "It's the famous sharpshooter Kyro and his two little floozies."

Tasia locked her jaws upon listening to Seva's insult as she tried to control her anger. Her mouth then chewed harder while her teeth gnawed on the chicken. She avoided her eye contact from the three bullies, but kept her ears open for anything that they had to say.

"So did you two serve your Master Kyro well last night, girls?" Xander added the insult.

"Don't you three have something better to do like beating a puppy for a small change?" Kyro sternly interjected them in order to stop them from insulting the girls any further.

"Now Kyro, that's not the way to talk to a fellow elite." Seva chuckled fiendishly. "Oh, and who's this?"

Seva now drew his eyes to Hellena, the girl had stopped eating her porridge and was now pointing her eyes straight to the floor. The bully lowered his body and moved himself closer to Hellena.

"A new student, eh?" Seva said in recognition.

"Is she your new pet, Kyro?" he asked insultingly as her ran his fingers across Hellena's smooth purple hair. The new student let out a strangled yelp when she was touched by him.

"Leave her alone, Seva." warned Kyro.

"Why should I? And what are you going to do about it, huh?" Seva grinned maliciously as his hand was now brushing gently on Hellena's cheek.

Kyro only cursed under his breath in response for the threat that was made on him. Tasia didn't blamed him, as fighting among the Young Magisters were strictly prohibited, except during an official battle in the Coliseum.

"Just like I thought, Seva. He's nothing without his precious little bow." Hummel, the muscular boy chortled.

Xander, the skinny one, laughed at this. "Come on, Kyro. Are you just going to let Seva do something terrible to your new toy?" he directed to Hellena, who was being harassed by the Trio's leader.

"You're quite pretty. What's your name girl?" asked Seva.

Hellena tightened her lips, refusing to answer.

"Not talking? You know that's not the way to act in towards us 1st Class elites." Seva then roughly grabbed Hellena's face, pressing her cheeks between his grasp and pulled her head closer to his.

"Perhaps you still didn't get to the point of who we are exactly, pretty girl. So I'll just let you off with a warning." Seva breathed to her face. "You should look at yourself in the mirror. You might be a Magister, but to this Academy you're nothing than a useless piece of trash. Consider yourself lucky that you are an acquaintance to Kyro, or else I'll be sending you to where you truly belong. A garbage can."

"That's enough, Seva!" Kyro shouted in fury.

Seva looked at Kyro and smirked, he returned his eyes back to the frightened Hellena.

"You should thank your Master Kyro for that, you sorry excuse of a Magister!"

Tasia who was still eating went into shock when Seva roughly shoved Hellena away, throwing the poor girl off the bench. She would've fell face first on the hard tiled floor if her arms hadn't covered her head. She stayed on the floor for a while, sobbing on her palms.

This is too far, Tasia cursed in her thoughts, her blood boiled by the sudden witness of violence.

"Let's go Seva. It's no use wasting time with these weaklings." cackled Xander, who had walked a few meters ahead with Hummel towards the direction of the stairs leading to the mezzanines.

"You're right. I've little time to waste on trashes such as you." Seva spat on Hellena, he then straightened himself up. "You should just leave this academy, little girl. The Academy doesn't need any useless people like…"

Before he could finish what he said, a rock-hard bare fist smashed against his face.