Miko blinked a bit in surprise at Sanngridr's response. She didn't really understand why her question warranted such defense. Still, her words rang true.
‘You did, you're right. Justine, Caroline, all of us are still safe. Thank you, so very much for your assistance,’ Miko said, bowing to Sanngridr.
‘See? Everything will be fine! Just because it doesn't make sense to us it doesn't mean it didn't help! So, thanks!’ Ronin continued with a grin.
Miko still had her doubts, but there was no denying nothing bad had happened, so...
Mariette had already visited the Overcity College of Magic once before when she prepared for taking classes in the Sealing Fundamentals course, but this time she used her portals to arrive directly outside the classroom itself before entering. It was a wide-old-styled classroom, with wooden flooring and wide windows set against the back wall. Instead of a chalkboard, however, there was a wall-wide LCD screen, and the wooden desks were implemented with smaller flip-up computer screens: signs of new technology that nonetheless didn’t take away from the antique feel.
At the front of the room were various devices and tools that Mariette had seen before, and even more that she had never seen until this moment. Some were more conventional, like an ouija board, or a magic circle drawn with white chalk right before the teacher’s desk. Others were stranger, like combinations of magic and technology, such as an astrolabe in the corner that blinked with various lights. One wall was dedicated entirely to shelves of books, their size varying from tiny fairy-sized leaflets to table-sized doorstoppers.
However, what caught Mariette’s attention most was the presence of other students, recognizable by their uniforms: one student with brown, curly hair happily tapped away on her desk as she hummed a cute song up to the very front of the desks. There was also a gloomy student with black hair nearly covering their face in the very back: Mariette couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not. Soon after she arrived, three other girls came after: they were flashy, extroverted types who sat on desks, their school uniforms were not properly worn, and spoke brazenly about various topics Mariette was not interested in. They ended up sitting right next to Mariette’s desk, and continued conversing and giggling loudly.
“Like, she gave some pixie dust like she thought I was gonna, like, fall for it, but I was like, OMG, no way I’m touching that limp stuff~!”
“Totally! Pixie dust is like, so lame~! Unicorn blood is where it’s at~!”
In accordance with the rules of the school, as far as Mariette knew, she’d changed into the proper school uniform for the school. If fitted her in the shortest skirt that Mariette ever has had to wear and she didn’t understand why, as dark blue as the vest she wore over a white shirt tied together with a blue ribbon just under her neck, yet over all that was also the robe that was assumed part of the school uniform; a dark-blue witch’s robe that just hung around her and down behind her further than her skirt like some form of cape, almost. Felt weird to Mariette.
She’d learned that alumni at the school were allowed to wear special witch-hats that adorned their heads. Mariette… kind of wanted to wear one.
As for the girls, Mariette didn’t have a single clue what they were talking about and was kind-of intimidated and didn’t really come here to make friends or anything like that, so the white-haired girl whose hair hung way down over her robe sat down at an appropriate location, by a… computer, which Mariette frowned and stared incredulously at. She didn’t really know how to use it. She pushed it aside, and placed her necessities in front of her. Notebook, pen, and Bunny the stuffed rabbit. All she needed.
She was still wearing an eyepatch and her usual head-ornament that looked like two long rabbit-ears… that Mariette hadn’t considered the fact she’s wearing for a significant amount of time.
As other students filled up the classroom, Mariette noticed that the bubbly girl had approached her desk with a smile.
"Hi. I like the bunny you have. It's cute," she said.
"I'm Rennala. What's your name?" This caught the flashy girls' attention, who glanced at Mariette and gossiped among each other in whispers, or at least attempted to:
"Ugh, that eyepatch is trying way too hard~"
"Is she trying to look cute with the cripple act? So sad~"
"And what's with the stuffed toy? This ain't, like, kindergarten~"
Rennala puffed her cheeks. "Don't listen to them, they're just bullies."
Mariette blinked and looked up at the newly arrived individual. It was odd being spoken to like this, and a little surge of nervousness went through her. That was part of school, wasn’t it? Making friends… and such. This wasn’t exactly a normal school, but still…
‘I’m… Mariette,’ she answered, a bit of her nervousness leaking into her voice. ‘Thank you,’ she said, referring to calling Bunny cute. Then there were the flashy girls laughing… and Mariette tilted her head, fundamentally not understanding what the idea was. Still, her eyepatch… ‘Hm… I suppose I don’t need this right now,’ she said, reaching to remove her eyepatch, to reveal a completely fine blue eye behind it. She looked to the girl again, and she kind of wondered…
‘Why are you taking this class?’ she asked, for she couldn’t currently imagine reasons beyond her own.
The flashy girls giggled once Mariette took off her eyepatch, but then quit once they realized Mariette didn't respond to their teasing.
"Because I'm fated to," Rennala answered with a smile. "It's my destiny to graduate. In fact, I'm next in line to do that. My mother graduated from here, as did her mom, and her mom…"
Mariette noticed the black-haired girl shuffle closer. Rennala blinked.
"Oh, how about you, Ebony?"
The girl had one eye showing from her locks of hair, and she shyly answered: "I have…A demon inside me. I was told I need to control it, so…I hope I can learn to. He can get…Hungry…"
‘I… see,’ Mariette replied to their reasoning, a little surprised another girl had come close to them. She still wasn’t entirely comfortable with this setting, but, huh. ‘I… hope that you’ll succeed,’ she managed to press out, hoping that’d be something good to say in these circumstances.
“I hope so too,” Ebony answered with a sad smile, and Rennala nodded enthusiastically. “And so do I! It’s not a good thing to be possessed by a demon!”
That was when the door opened, and Mariette saw the teacher enter: a magical girl wearing a prominent steepled witch hat and flowing robes, and thick, round glasses. She was carrying a tall stack of books; the topmost tomes dodged to avoid the top frame of the lower doorway before returning back to the stack.
“Settle down, class!” The teacher ordered, and both Rennala and Ebony returned back to their seats alongside the rest of the normal students. “See you later,” Rennala whispered to Mariette before leaving with a smile.
The teacher placed the books on top of her desk, and glared at Mariette…Or rather, at the rowdy students next to her; they were still chatting away, seemingly ignorant of the teacher.
The teacher then hatched an evil smile, and lifted a glass bottle to the front of the desk, opened the lid on it, and then summoned her magic staff. Mariette then heard her chant, as her eyes glowed a bright purple, and a swirling mist formed inside the bottle. She slammed her staff bottom against the magic circle, and that also began to glow. Then, she pointed the staff at the girls, and like a fishing rod, made a reeling motion with it.
“So anyway, like, he was cute, but, like I don’t know if he’s, like, my type or-Huh?”
The girls noticed that they were starting to slightly move, as if drawn by some kind of force.
“What the hell? Is someone pulling-Ahh!”
The teacher made a heavy yank, and the girls flew across the classroom. As they fell towards the wooden desk over the magic circle, the circle flashed, once for each girl. And as it did, the girls shrunk to the size of tiny insects, and ended up in the glass bottle. The teacher then closed the lid on the bottle; Mariette then realized what the holes on the lid were for.
“I am Magus Tuuletar, and this is Sealing Fundamentals,” she then announced, and lifted the glass bottle up for the class to see; the three girls inside cried and sobbed with tiny squeaking voices as they banged desperately on the glass.
She then opened the glass bottle, and casually threw the girls out of the bottle; they returned to normal size as they fell on their butts, visibly shaken by the event.
“While dialogue is necessary for developing higher understanding for the mysteries of the arcane…I will not tolerate any inane chatter or distractions in my class. If you wish to speak, I expect a raised hand asking for permission to speak. Understood?”
She asked the girls, who promptly apologized and returned to their seats; their faces were pale.
Mariette nodded to Rennala, before focusing on the teacher. She was definitely curious about the books dodging the top frame on their own, and kept her attention on any sign of magic. She wondered what a Third Eye user would have seen… then she watched the teacher's gaze, got momentarily scared she was glaring at her before she realized it was at the girls next to her.
Mariette most certainly learned a lesson by what followed. While making a mental note not to do anything to annoy this teacher, her pen went at it, writing down what the teacher had done, what she had chanted, the items available… as best as she could. Unfortunately, Mariette wasn't used to writing, either, so it didn't go fast and with plenty of spelling errors, but what she was good at was memorizing.
So while the teacher continued, Mariette did her best to write down what she had experienced, her eyes darting from the notebook to the teacher. Managing portals with Awareness made her good at multitasking.
By the end of the lesson, as the students scattered, Tuuletar stopped Mariette from leaving. She had a stern look to her.
“Mariette, first of all, good work in taking notes. This generation has been attention-deficit, but you actually paid attention even for the history section, which is commendable. However…I would like to have a word with you regarding the toy.” She looked down at Bunny.
“I would prefer that you leave it at home, as I fear it may distract you from the lesson at hand, especially once we begin the practical section of the course.”
Mariette had sighed out as the lesson ended. She’d written down a lot, but she wasn’t sure how much of it she’d actually learned, or how much of it was relevant. She had a lot of studying ahead of her, she figured, as she picked up Bunny to leave. When Tuuletar stopped her. Mariette got a little wide-eyed, thinking she was in trouble for some reason. Turns out, no, she wasn’t… kinda. First she calmed a bit from the praise, but then the next point… Mariette looked sad and squeezed Bunny tightly.
‘Would it be too dangerous for him…?’ she asked in a vulnerable voice.
Tuuletar sighed softly. “Well…It can be. You see, during this course, we will practice sealing away lesser magical entities like boggarts, sprites, and imps. However, if there is an object with totemic features, for example an animal totem, one of these entities could attempt to possess it during the sealing, and essentially bring it to life. And if that were to happen…” She pointed her staff down at Bunny. “I would be forced to destroy the vessel.” She then lifted her staff up. “However, it would require the subject to detect the toy in the first place, so if you insist to bring it along, then I can cast cloaking magic on it before the practical session begins.”
‘Ah,’ Mariette made a scared noise as she turned away with Bunny, shielding him instinctively from Tuuletar’s staff. She of course knew he wasn’t actually in danger for the moment, but she just instinctively defended him. She turned back and looked sadly down at him. ‘I… I suppose I should let him stay home with his wife. I’ve been keeping him away from her for too long, I suppose… I can’t make her jealous…’ she idly said, looking almost teary-eyed at him. ‘… Okay, I’ll… I’ll leave him home…’ Mariette said, before giving a defeated, sad sigh.
That said, there was something… she wanted…
‘… Would it be possible… for me to practice ahead, somehow? I… I need to become good at this… as quickly as possible…’ she said, hoping that some kind of support from her teacher.
Tuuletar leaned on her staff, in deep thought.
"So you wish for extra lessons?" She pointed her staff at a bookshelf, and drew a book with some flower markings to her. "I understand the feeling, having had many courses to study at times myself…" She flipped through it, her eyes skimming the contents.
"I can grant you after-school lessons at 4PM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and at 5PM on Fridays, for about an extra hour each except for Wednesday where I can hold it for two hours. However, these are not included in your scholarship, so you have to pay an additional fee of a Silver per week for the additional lessons. Is that acceptable?"
‘…’ Mariette bit together, listening to Tuuletar’s words. Oh. She was willing. But, it was at the cost of an extra silver per week. Mariette breathed in, the extra cost giving her a shiver. It was fine. She just had to hunt some more dangerous foes. ‘It is,’ Mariette nodded. ‘Thank you… so very much,’ she said, bowing to Tuutelar, all while trying to consider what kind of hunt she’d have to go on in order to earn that money…
Tuuletar nodded with a curt smile of her own. "You're welcome, Mariette. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I must prepare for my next class. Goodbye."
Once Mariette finished talking with Tuuletar, Rennala and Ebony peeked out from behind the doorway; the former waved her hand at Mariette, while Ebony simply stared. "Wow, you're going to get extra lessons? I'm so jealous~" Rennala spoke with a friendly teasing manner. "You must be rich to afford her fee, huh?"
Ebony averted her eyes. "All my coins are spent on paying for all the food Damien eats. It's honestly a bother…"
Mariette looked after Tuutelar with thankful eyes… though also somewhat lamenting how much this was going to cost her. Ooooh, she better put her back into hunting monsters… Oh.
‘Ah!’ Mariette made a noise as she realized Rennala and Ebony were peeking at her. She looked away for a bit, somewhat ashamed, then looked back at them again. ‘Er… not really… It’s going to take basically the last I have…’ Mariette replied. She didn’t really have a reply for Ebony’s words, other than silently hoping her problem would be solved one day.
Rennala looked surprised, but then giggled. "Well, I'm sure you'll manage, Mariette! You seem like the hardworking type of girl~"
Ebony also nodded with a slight smile. "I hope I'll see you two in class again."
Rennala beamed. "Of course! Won't we, Mariette?"
‘… I do, do I…?’ Mariette asked, lamenting the moniker a bit. Then again, it wasn’t as if she could help it. Still, as she looked over Rennala and Ebony… She supposed she did look forward to seeing them again. ‘… Yes,’ she eventually replied, nodding to them and giving a little smile.
‘Yes, we will!’
And so, the three girls chatted together a bit longer before going their separate ways for now. For now… Mariette was decently happy with her choice to come here.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t lose sight of why she really came here.
Xaltwind
Lunamaria Hawke
Kon Kon
Floofenstein
RPM
Renose
Rune_Alchemist
Savo
