“You know magic, then?!” Asked Luca, a little louder than he intended, leaning forward on the bench of the cafeteria.

  “A-A little bit, yeah…” Answered Alyska, slightly flustered “B-But nothing spectacur really… J-just a little.”

  “Oh, c’mon!” He protested. “I’ve never seen magic, Aly. Before seeing the things that make the fortress float and a little something that the doctor did with her finger yesterday, I never got to see any of it! Please don’t make me beg you to show me.”

  “I-I just…” She sighed, avoiding his eyes. “I don’t wanna disappoint. You seem to have lots of expectations…”

  “Aly, pleaaaase.” He pouted pyfully, to which she giggled, embarrassed. He figured out that if Alyska ughed, he felt better.

  “...” Alyska covered her mouth with one hand, looking to the side, before raising her other hand, fingers spread, and her palm facing Luca. She whispered something, her mouth covered.

  Slowly, a green glow began to emit from the young woman’s palm, less as if the hand itself was glowing, more as if a small fme had appeared before it, but there wasn’t any fme; the small green light didn’t shine much, but slowly, something appeared: some white dust-like specks began emitting from the light, ejecting slowly from her hand and floating in the air, before she closed her hand, making the light disappear and the specks with it. Luca gazed at Alyska with fascination in his eyes.

  “It looked like… like fireflies almost.” He commented, his voice a bit quieter, unintentionally. He felt giddy, with a child-like sense of wonder inside. Alyska simply giggled as she looked back, embarrassed.

  “Yeah… it’s the easiest healing spell; it’s supposed to help with the pain. Not really impressive, to be honest.” She talked down on herself, but Luca could see the hint of pride in her eyes.

  “Hey, I couldn’t do it. Although I couldn’t do any spell, to be fair, I don’t know squat about magic.”

  “But it interests you, yes?” She asked, slightly confused. He shrugged, taking a bite of his mb with potatoes. “Really? Then, why the intrigue?”

  “I mean, it looks cool, you know? But I don’t really care about learning it.”

  “Well, if you are going to delve in the dungeon, you’ll have to learn some, at least a basic elemental type; magic is essential for survival in there!” Luca scoffed, not with disdain but almost at how much effort it sounded like it would take.

  “I guess. I don’t even know the types, though… Are there many?” He wondered; the dy’s giggle worried him.

  “I’m afraid the subject of magic is a bit much for me to teach you during our little chats. Only in elemental magic there are more than 10 types!”

  “...That doesn’t sound like too much.”

  “Keep in mind, Luca, people dedicate decades to mastering one element. And that’s elemental magic! I’m not even talking about the other 3!” He tilted his head, starting to understand the scale, but not by too much though. “I respect wizards and magic users too much for me to simply stand here and give you a lecture that was…”

  “Half-assed?” He finished as he saw her struggle with a word; she gasped dramatically with mock offense.

  “Luca! Language! Dear me, what would the council members think if they knew a member of their beloved guild was talking in such a profane way!” Luca chuckled at her act.

  “I’d assume they’d be more worried about that same member pissing on their fortress.” Alyska tried to contain a giggle when he commented on his incident from the previous day, but she failed. She cleared her throat and resumed eating.

  “... I think the maids were probably more concerned with it than the council members.” Luca covered his mouth to be able to ugh with the food in his mouth. “Hehe, I-I can’t imagine them being the ones to clean it!” Both shared a ugh in the middle of the canteen, their ughs and conversation drowned out for the rest of the guild members and students eating there by the general rabble.

  “Alright, you got me.” He said as he cleaned his mouth, putting his napkin on the now empty tray. “Well, I guess we ate early again… We should find something to do.” Alyska herself cleaned her mouth and pushed her trail forward, pulling out her clock and opening it.

  “Hmm, I suppose you are right… I’m afraid I haven’t found any activities to do yet, though.”

  “... We could go to the cssrooms and wait for csses together.” He suggested, knowing it was the same thing that he said yesterday that made them bump onto the horrifying minister of coin.

  “Wh- B-But, Luca!” She gasped, shocked and worried, before Luca started ughing.

  “I’m kidding!” He stood up chuckling. “C’mon, let’s look around for something to do.” Alyska sighed in relief, and, imitating Luca, she got up. As they walked to the door together, they kept their hands to themselves; Luca wanted to hold her hand again, but he recognized that it was pretty weird—it was just her comforting him; he wasn’t about to abuse her kindness.

  “You have a weird way of coping with embarrassment, Luca.” She giggled, walking beside her. Luca noticed her scent as they exited the crowded cafeteria. Flowery, sweet, and with a recognizable vender.

  “Well, it’s hard to forget about it when it just happened.” He shrugged. “So, might as well get a head start on the whole ‘you’ll ugh at this some day’ thing.”

  The two, then, continuously chatting, started to explore the east street of Zenith. The city was in the shape of a circle, surrounded by huge stone walls and with the Zenith’s fortress in the middle, so from the south, west and east, main roads extended themselves. The main road was full of businesses, as Luca had learned the previous day while grocery shopping, and the west street was mostly things like inns and pces to spend the night, either sleeping or partying, with a couple of tourist trap-looking pces, probably because it was the street where the train station was.

  The east street, apart from the obvious main point of attraction—the university—had a public library and mostly houses, things that were useful for students that also weren’t already inside the inner walls. Luca remembered that, from the director’s office, she could oversee the east entrance and street. With this in mind as they walked, he looked backwards to the fortress, a move that caught Alyska’s eyes.

  “What’s wrong, Luca?”

  “... There was a window yesterday.” He answered, halting his pacing and looking back. “In the director’s office, a huge wall that was just a window but… It’s not there anymore.”

  “Oh! Perhaps it’s just the reflection of the sun that doesn’t let us see it?” She said, also looking back, but after a few seconds, even she wrestled with the idea. “… But then, why wouldn’t the other council members have them…”

  “You think it’s magic? I’ve been thinking every weird thing is magic.”

  “You shouldn’t assume everything you don’t understand is because of one thing you don’t know much about, Luca… But, yeah, in this case it might be magic.”

  “Wonder why she’d hide it. You think the director doesn’t want people knowing she’s looking at them?”

  “Perhaps it’s the other way around. Would you like to know if the director of the world's most important university was looking at you?” Luca nodded at her hypothesis, but then again, why would she even want to look at them? The view was nice enough, he thought.

  “I guess it’d also be a weird sight, you know? Like, imagine seeing right now an old dy looking down at you from over there behind a piece of gss.” He exaggerated a shudder.

  “Heehee, yeah, perhaps you are right.” Both giggled at the idea, looking back at the fortress. “I believe that’s what they call a voyeur.”

  “Haha! Eeeew, the director’s a perv~” Both ughed, their enjoyment slowly dying out, giving way to silence between them. “... You don’t think she might be-”

  “I don’t know, but I think I’d rather leave this street for now.”

  “Agreed.”

  Both walked immediately to the side, a smaller street, exhaling in relief at the idea of being out of sight from the hypothetical director. The smaller street shocked Luca; it was… normal. It was smaller, with few businesses and more house doors; it seemed less like a picture of a painting and more like a street he’d see in the capital of Cuartel or any other city. It made him rex, freeing him from a tension he didn’t know he had until that moment.

  “Hmm, there also doesn’t appear to be anything to do here.” Said the girl from Pide. Luca didn’t notice at which point they had started walking again; he seemed to just follow her instinctively.

  “Yeah… we could’ve tried the library, I guess.”

  “Hmm, I suppose, but reading a book hardly seems like a couples activity… a-as in, a thing you do with another person.” He knew what she meant, but he still enjoyed her getting a bit flustered; it made him feel less self-conscious about his inexperience when talking to someone.

  “True… But then, what should we…” Luca’s voice trailed off as both reached a small pza. A little open area surrounded by a couple of cafes and taverns, with a fountain in the middle and a children’s park to one side, Luca took a deep breath at the scene. “... This is a nice pce.”

  “Yeah.” She seemed to be as stricken by the sight of a small area like this being in a pce like Zenith as Luca was. “And you know what? I can’t imagine us finding a better pce to rex at.”

  “Hey, you are right! It’s a good pce to hang out, peaceful and quiet… As long as there aren’t too many kids in that park over there.” Both of them started walking towards one of the nearby benches that surrounded the fountain, sitting down on either end of it.

  “I don’t know, I think it’d be nice to have some children’s ughter mixed with the background noise.”

  “Yeah, mixed, not when it’s all the background noise.”

  “Heh, alright, good point.” Alyska took a deep breath, then exhaled. “Aaaaaah~... Lovely…” She sighed, rexing her posture and watching the scenery.

  Both rookies then simply leaned back on the bench, enjoying a comfortable silence as the pza residents went through their day. Letting his head fall back, Luca felt the warm noon sun brush his face with its warmth, taking a second to imagine he didn’t have responsibilities in Zenith; he simply had to sit there, next to the girl he liked, rexing.

  Sitting back against the back of the bench, Luca’s eyes drifted to Alyska. On this warm day, the girl wore not her signature fancy purple jacket with her family’s pin. Instead she had a dimmed green blouse with a long skirt of a dark blue that almost passed for bck. Luca never was one for fashion, but he knew when something looked good on someone. The skirt covered her lower body, but the hem of it hugged her waist with the blouse stuffed into it; thanks to that, Luca was able to discern exactly where her waist was and where her upper body began to follow her ribs, before expanding into her chest that pushed ever so slightly against her clothing. Her arms were, of course, exposed, with her pale skin looking even paler under the direct sun above them, and her soft, delicate hands were one above the other, resting on her p. No matter what she did or how she dressed, Alyska seemed to only be capable of behaving like a proper dy… And though Luca never did like the idea of being friendly with a maiden of high css, he still felt attracted to Alyska, even if what he wanted from her was a little more forward than “being friendly.”

  “...?” Alyska turned her head to look at Luca. “Something wrong?”

  “O-oh!” Luca felt himself freeze a little. Did she catch him looking at her body? “Sorry, I uh… I like your outfit.” Luckily, his half-truth once more seemed to be effective, as her face lit up.

  “Thank you! These are some of the first clothes I chose for myself, so I always like wearing them! And look, the skirt has pockets!” She began to excitedly show off her outfit, and once again, her enthusiasm melted Luca’s nervousness away. Seeing her smile, ugh, the way her eyes seemed to crinkle whenever she expined why she liked something, the small gasp she took before giggling… Gods be damned, he fell for her hard; he even surprised himself with how much he was focusing on the little details of the woman before him. “So… Yeah! I’m not really the patriotic type, but I don’t think it’s bad to get inspired by my region to make an outfit, is it?” She stared at Luca as if waiting for an answer, but he just started ughing quietly. “W-what’s funny?”

  “Hahaa… nothing, it’s always nice seeing someone be passionate about something, you know?” Alyska smiled tenderly at the compliment. “‘Sides, I like to think that people are better at things when they like them, so it makes sense that you are good at dressing.”

  “Gosh, thanks Luca… That’s kind of you…”

  “Hey, I suck at dressing. Next time I go shopping, I’ll ask you for advice. Sounds good?”

  “Oh, I’d be delighted to help Luca! I'd love to py dress-up with you.” She says pyfully, before another silence. “Um… Luca I, uh…not to be…”

  She struggled to say something. Luca, of course, didn’t know what it was, but if it was the same thing he was thinking of telling her… No, it couldn’t be… Could it? I mean, certainly since getting to Zenith, he had been getting some compliments, well, maybe twice, but… Luca shook his head; his ego had been infted enough.

  “I like spending time with you, Aly.” He said, letting it out before his nervousness prevented him from doing so; he thought that if she kept struggling to say whatever it was she wanted to say, his ego would make him think the wrong thing again. So Luca thought better and decided to try and finish her sentence.

  “... Yeah” Alyska smiled, scooting ever closer on the bench. “Me too, Luca.”

  With a sigh of relief, Alyska calmed her nerves and once again faced forward. Basking in the sunlight once more, the young man from Cuartel let the presence of the dy from Pide comfort him, feeling his heartbeat even out into a normal pace.

  …

  But then Luca felt Alyska’s hand find his, holding it. Not to comfort him, just out of her own wants.

  “I’m gd I met you.” She said, squeezing his hand as he turned it instinctively to hold her properly, her voice both soothing and lethal, and his heart starting to race once more.