“There’s the place we want.” Al states.

Al and I are on a rooftop of a three story building overlooking a store on the opposite side. ‘Miva Lotions’ is its name.

He’s crouched looking down at the street while I’m sitting next to him.

After the incident earlier, we waited a few minutes before moving into the city rooftops. Al carried me all the way. We are currently at the Southeast part of the town, the richest part by the look of it.

At our right side, there’s a hill with residential houses that go all the way to the top. Here and to our left there are many shops that specialize in luxurious items.

While the rest of the town streets are mainly populated by black hairs, this area has a fair number of nobles. All of them are ranked lower than green.

“I never thought I would see the day where so many nobles walk in the same streets as the black hairs.” He says while watching a black hair boy delivering a book to a light blue noblewoman.

“Is it strange for you?”

“Yes. You see that black hair guy talking with that violet mage?” - He points to a teenager talking with another girl of his age.

“Yes, what of it?”

“They’re flirting. In public. That was unthinkable in my time.”

“Oh.”

How does he know they’re flirting? They are smiling, but I don’t see any obvious behavior.

“Are they allowed to marry?”

“No. Al, I think you are misunderstanding something here. What they are doing is not common. In fact, I bet her parents don’t know about what she is doing. Or maybe they know but disapprove of it.”

“I see. That makes more sense.” - He shifts his vision to two Mage Guards passing through.

“How was it in your time?”

“The relationship between nobles and black hairs?”

I nod.

“Worse, as you already know.” He pauses, then continues. “Nobles lived separately from the black hairs. The less rich families lived in small communities outside of the cities and towns, while the richer had their own properties. In some cities, they had communities inside but isolated from the black hairs. Kind of like what we are seeing here now, except there wouldn’t be any black hairs walking around.”

“Hmm.”

“Remember my mother? It was just like she said. Black hairs were nothing more than cattle.”

“...”

A few moments pass. Al seems to be waiting for something.

I hope this ends soon… Can’t wait to clean this blood and rest in a warm bed.

“You alright?” He asks.

“Could be worse...”

“You said it.”

Another moment passes. He’s still looking around.

“Uhm… What are you planning to do?”

“Get some dyes.”

“Oh wow, thanks a lot! I didn’t know that.”

“*chuckles* Sorry princess. I have an idea, but I’m trying to come up with a better one.”

*sigh*

…

10 minutes pass.

“*Sigh* Fuck it. The hard way it is. Give me the coat for a minute.” He gets up.

“Hard way?” I ask while taking off the coat.

“Don’t worry, no one will get hurt.” He grabs the coat and heads off to our left. He’s going to jump down in the alleyway we saw earlier.

“Eh? What do you mean by hard way!? Al!” He starts running.

"Al! St-!" I almost ordered him to stop. Why doesn’t he tell me what he’s planning?

Moments later I see his figure falling.

“Please, don’t do anything--" I feel positive mana from the same direction he disappeared. Around 1500 units. Then I sense it moving across the street and enter the ‘Miva’ store.

And I was not the only one who sensed it…

“EVERYONE HELP!”

Some nobles start extracting negative mana to annul Al's mana.

I look to the left and see Al jumping back to the rooftop and run to another building further away. He’s so fast! He must be using Accel Magic. Then I see his figure falling again.

“Another one!?” Someone yells.

I feel more 1000 mana units coming from Al direction. It moves through the streets and enters another store next to Miva.

“Who the hell is doing this!?”

“If this is a prank I swear--!”

Some nobles are starting to panic while the black hairs are confused and don’t know what’s going on.

Al is already running to another point. He reaches it and 1200 mana make their way to another store in front of Miva, right below me.

“Guards!! Guards!!!”

The nobles are cancelling Al’s mana, but they can’t help but feel nervous. No one cares when just a little bit of mana is extracted. It’s normal for the mage daily activities. But when a large amount is extracted? People get nervous. Who wouldn’t? 1000 mana is enough to cast Area Magic. It’s like someone waving a sword in the middle of a crowd.

Five Mage guards come running:

“Everyone! Evacuate this place now!” The man screaming turns his face back to the other guards. “You, guide everyone out of this area! You two, go check the places where the mana ca--!”

1400 mana units approach the guards position from another location.

“Casting negative!!” They scream.

They cancel the incoming mana.

“How many are they!?”

People are pouring out of the buildings and running away from the area.

“What’s happening!? Who’s doing this!?”

“Forget about that! Let’s just get out of here before things get ugly!”

More 1100 mana come from yet another direction, behind me.

“What the hell!!?” One of the guards yells.

I look to the right. Al is 50 meters away looking down on the street. Then he climbs down and enters in one of the windows on the third floor.

What’s he going to do?

Close to the building he entered, there’s a mage guard ordering people to get away from the area. Moments later I feel 1000 mana being extracted from the same location as the guard. No wait… Did Al do that? The guard is close to the building. So if Al put himself close to the same wall as the guard is but from the inside, it would seem like it was the guard who extracted mana.

The guard looks behind surprised. The mana goes to the opposite building and ignites, setting it on fire.

“Fire!!!” The people scream.

“You!!!” Another guard points to the one Al incriminated.

“Uh!? N-No wait! It wasn’t me! Someone inside did it!”

Both guards check inside the building. But Al already exited from the same window he entered. He quickly comes to my side and looks down. Then he jumps to the other side and enters the store building from one of the third floor window.

… So all of this was to make people exit the store? They will be so focused on running away or looking at the fire that they won’t notice anyone robbing it.

I look at the building on fire. The nobles are working together to put out the fire, but they are having problems. Moments later I see the previous guards exiting the building where Al was in, but they are arguing violently.

“HEEELP ME!”

Someone comes running from the burning building. He’s on fire!

“Roll on the ground!!!”

“Hang in there I’ll save you!!”

“Aaa! AAAA! IT BURNS!!!”

Oh no! Someone save him!

He rolls on the ground while another nobles throw water at him. Soon enough, they managed to put out the fire.

“Ahh! Aahg! My arms! It hurts!”

On the other side of the street, both guards start fighting.

“I didn’t do it dammit!!!”

“Just surrender! Don’t make this difficult for both of us!”

Other guards come running and attack the framed guard.

“Just give up!”

“It wasn’t me dammit!!!”

Please! Just surrender!

Moments later, his legs break in half and bend in a way they shouldn’t.

“AHhhh! DAAAammit!!!”

“Knock him out!!”

A guard kicks him in the head, making him fall unconscious. They handcuff him quickly.

The handcuffs have two Absorb Crystals with spikes, one for each wrist. When someone puts mana in them, they are “activated”. Once done that, they attract mana around them and grow when they absorb it. In other words, if the handcuffed mage tries to use mana, the activated Absorb Crystals in his handcuffs will grow and pierce his wrists. The worst part is that it isn’t possible to retrieve the mana from them again. Someone would have to switch his handcuffs.

The fire is spreading throughout the floors. Thankfully they are managing to protect the neighboring buildings. But the one where the fire started is not looking good...

“My store! Please, someone save my store!”

“Forget about the store woman! We have to save some of our wares at least!” A violet noble yells to the violet noblewoman. He tries to enter the store, but the fire is too hot for him.

“Daddy!” A young boy screams. He is grabbing the skirt of the violet noblewoman.

One of the mage guards runs towards the man and pulls him away from the store. “Do you want to die!?”

“But my wares--!”

“We already have a burned victim! We don’t need another!”

“... Tss!” The man sits on the ground and puts his hands on his face. He’s crying. The woman and her child run towards him.

I’m gritting my teeth. I’m so pissed... So pissed. I’m so pissed! This is just---! Dammit!!! They didn’t deserve this! Is this what we are going to do from now on!? Hurting people!? Weren’t the two Royal Guards we killed enough!?

All of this... For what? To survive? I can’t even look at what’s happening.

Seconds later, Al comes out of the window with a small bag. He climbs to the rooftop then jumps to my side.

“Got them.” He shows a bag with something inside, then he looks over to the building on fire. “Damn, I didn’t mean to do that much damage.”

He extends his hand and helps me to get up.

“A man got burned...” I say while looking away.

“There was someone still inside?” He sees the burned man being treated by another violet mage.

“That guard might spend the rest of his life incarcerated...”

He sees the guard on the ground. “Tsk, the fool resisted?”

I look at Al. I never felt so enraged before.

“Their store got destroyed.”

“...” He notices my gaze and meets my eyes. I can literally feel the weight of his gaze.

“I don’t. Want. Anyone else getting hurt because of us.”

“...”

“Please, promise me that you won’t hurt anymore people.”

“I can’t make that promise.”

“I don’t want to order you.”

“If you do, I don’t know if I can protect us. Is that what you want?”

“I’d rather surrender myself to them than! Ke! Tha-Than to see this happen again!” I point to the disaster.

“Surrender yourself? You sure talk big. Do you know what will happen to us if you do that now? Because I don’t.”

“Ghh tsk...” He’s pissing me off so much… Am I the only one who knows that this is not right!?

“No wait, I have a pretty good idea of what might happen. I’ll either meet a new master or Lady Death. You’ll meet a nice person with a mask that wants to introduce you to an axe. Then you’ll literally see the world rolling before your eyes.”

“Ghhh…”

“Still want to meet the mister axe?”

“Whatever! I don’t care what happens to me! I would rather die than to make someone else suffer!”

“DO NOT SPEAK THOSE WORDS SO LIGHTLY AGAIN!”

His sudden outburst caught me by surprise and made me unconsciously step back. I lost balance because of my bad leg and slip. I fall on my butt and slid towards the edge of the roof.

“Aaah!!”

As I barely noticed what happened, something grabbed my arm. Al did.

“...”

“...”

We’re both looking away from each other. Then he pulls me back up.

“Look, we’re both hungry and tired.” He turns his gaze to me. “How about we dye our hair first and then rest? After that, we can talk about this.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Let’s go then.”

He hands me the bag. I grab it and he picks me up again in his arms.

Then he runs at an amazing speed towards South.

“We’re going to a river.” He says as we jump from building to building.

…

…..

…….

15 minutes later, we reach the river. This river comes from South and goes Northeast.

“It’s smaller than I thought.” He murmurs as he puts me down.

“How are we going to do this?” I ask with a tired voice as I sit down on a stone.

“First we mix the red, blue and green dyes.”

He sits down and takes from the bag three little bottles and a small bowl. He puts the bowl on the ground, opens the bottles and pours the contents into the bowl.

And as I imagined, the colors didn’t mix.

“I don’t remember well the details,” Al speaks “but I know that these dyes have an ingredient that makes it impossible to mix with another color.”

“You’re talking about orel flower. The flower’s sap doesn’t mix with sap of other orel flowers. They mix one flower per dye so they don’t can’t mix with other dyes.”

“Right. Anyway, there’s a trick to this. You might not want to look." He gets up and walks away from where we are. "Ok *exhales*, here goes.”

He puts his fingers in his mouth and... Pukes.

Wha---?

He spits the last drops. Then he puts his finger in the vomit and comes back to the bowl.

He mixes the dyes with the same finger. The dyes start to loose color and become black.

Moments later, he stops when the dyes are all black.

"Here, it's done." He gives me the bowl.

I look at the bowl in my hands. It worked. The dyes are now pitch black. But how?

“I don’t get it. How?”

“Something to do with the acid in our stomach.” He answers while cleaning his mouth with his sleeve. “The sap of that flower reacts to it.”

“Hmm.”

I look again the black liquid. Oh man… This is…

“I’ll be by that tree.” He gets up. “Go take a bath. The sooner we are done here the sooner we can eat and rest.”

Then he moves to the tree and sits down with his back turned to the river.

Do I really need to do this? Just the idea of... Disgusting.

“Ghee… This is nothing, this is nothing…” I try to convince myself as I start undressing.

…

Minutes later, in the middle of the river, I’m almost done cleaning myself. Somehow I managed to clean the blood off my body.

“Hmmph.”

The wound left a scar. It’s not that noticeable, but…

“What the hell am I thinking?” I murmur as I shake my head. We have more things to worry about. This is nothing compared to that.

Wait… Where did I left the medicine? I put it in the coat pocket didn’t I?

“Al? Is my medicine in the right pocket?” I shout.

“Huh?” He puts his hand on the right pocket “Yeah, it’s here.”

“Phew.” For a minute I thought I left it behind.

At least Al is respecting my privacy. He didn’t try to peek. As far I noticed that is.

“Nora, I’ll be right back.” Al shouts.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to grab us something to wear.”

“Wait, don’t--...”

“What?”

“No, forget it.”

I don’t want to hurt or steal anyone but… As long he doesn’t steal more than we need...

“Ok. I’ll be quick. Anything happens order me to come back.”

He runs off with a great speed.

*thump*

“*breaths* Calm down. If anything happens I can defend myself.”

It’s just like earlier. No need to be nervous. There’s no one here. I just need to distract myself.

“Ok, ok. *breaths* I should use the dye now.”

I move towards the margin, where the bowl is.

“This sucks. This really sucks.” I murmur as I look at the black mixture.

No, c’mon! This is nothing!

“Bah, whatever! I’ll just get it over with!”

I put my hand in the bowl and bring the dye to my head. I violently rub my hair with it.

I keep rubbing it as hard as I can.

Then I move towards the center of the river and dip my head. I pull it out of the water and rub my eyes. Then I look again at the water and see my reflection.

“...”

It worked. My hair is black, pure black. If I didn’t know any better, I would never believe I was a red mage.

“It’s so weird seeing me like this.”

I should get out of the water now.

But… My clothes are bloodied. I better wash them.

…

…..

…….

Forty minutes passed since Al left. I washed my clothes as best I could. They are still stained but at least they won’t dirty me.

I made a small fire to keep me warm. One hour left until the sky becomes orange.

“*sigh* C’mon Al. Hurry up.”

I’m so hungry that I could literally eat a horse.

*rustle*

!!!

What was that?

*rustle*

I face the direction of the sound. Are those steps!?

Calm down, take a deep breath. It’s probably just an animal. I just have to shoo it off.

“Oi there.” A man voice comes from behind the trees.

I look in the direction of the voice. It’s a black haired man in his forties. He has a bow and arrows, some rabbit pelts and a bag. He’s a hunter.

I quickly get up.

He had a smile, but then he looks me up and down and becomes serious. “That’s a lot of blood missy. And expensive clothes too.”

Please just go away.

“Let me guess, you killed someone didn’t you? Expensive clothes… You worked for some noble.” He continues. “Who was it? Your mistress? Or perhaps her husband?”

Go away.

“I can see your legs shaking from miles away. Nervous little girl? You should be.” He raises his hand. “Give me all your belongings.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Give me everything you have and strip your shirt. It can still be sold for some good coins. Then you are coming with me, I bet your head is worth something to the guards.”

“No.”

“We can do the hard or easy way. Your choice.”

“Go away!”

“*sigh* So be it.”

He approaches me and grabs my left arm.

“Get your hand off me!”

I extract mana. Wait no! I shouldn’t use Personal Magic! But I can use…

*Type: Inner magic - Location: Both arms - 1.5 Times Strength*

I push the man away with my right arm. The strength forced him to give a few steps back. As did I to keep my distance from him.

He has a stupefied expression. Then he becomes serious again.

“You’re a lot stronger than you appear.”

“Go away! I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Oh please. It’s a wonder how you didn’t piss yourself yet.” He drops the bag on the ground. “I’ll drag your body back if I have too.”

He dashes towards me. I try to evade but he punches me in the face before I could. I fall on the ground as a result.

He takes the chance to put himself on top and strangle me.

“Gah--!”

His thumbs are crushing my trachea. I try to pull his arms away but he doesn’t let go of my neck.

“Stop making our lives harder bitch! When you wake up you’ll be in a nice cell!”

My legs are squirming. My body is writhing.

I need air! I need air! I need to breath!

*Type: Inner magic - Location: Right arm - Double Strength*

I punch the man in the face with all my strength. He’s launched a few meters to the left.

I put my hands on my neck and roll to the right side. “*cough* *cough*” I can’t stop coughing.

“Aaaahh!!! Whab be fuc!!!!”

I look at him. He has his hands on his mouth. He’s bleeding where I hit and his jaw is dislocated.

“Makin' a bfool o' me! Bab’s ib bich! I’m going bu fukin' murber you!!”

He draws a knife and stands on his legs.

“Go away! *cough* Please stop!”

He ignores my pleas and runs towards me.

He launches his arm with his knife.

He’s going to kill me! He’s seriously going to kill me!!!

“Nooo!!” I extract 900 mana and ignite it on his torso. I casted Physical Magic.

His upper body is no more. The knife was sent flying. His legs fall behind.

I look at the remains. Blood is flowing on the ground.

“Nononono. Not again not again not again!”

Why!? Nonononono! Why did this happen!?!?

“Dammit dammit DAMMIT!!!”

Screw this!! I hate this!! I want to go home!!!

“Buaahhhh!!!” Tears flow from my eyes.

That’s it. I can’t take it anymore! I want to go back to school! I want to go back to my normal life! I don’t want more of this!!!

“This sucks! This sucks! This sucks! This sucks! This sucks! This sucks! This sucks!”

I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home!

“--ey!! Snap out of it!!” Someone is grabbing my arms. “Nora! It’s alright!”

He’s shaking me and yelling, telling me it’s ok, it’s alright… BUT IT’S NOT!!

“LEAVE ME ALONE PLEASE!!!!”

“NORA!!”

*SLAP*

The man slapped me in the face.

“Snap out of it!! It’s alright!! Calm down, it’s going to be alright!” He hugs me and tightens his arms. “Calm down. It’s going to be alright, I swear.” He says with a calm and serene voice.

“Al… *sniff* Please, take me home. I don’t want any more of this.” I tighten my grip on his coat. “*sniff* I’m tired, I can’t take this anymore. Just get me out of here...”

------------

“Just get me out of here…”

Nora finally snapped. Goddammit. What a terrible timing. If only that fucker had appeared sooner when I was here.

I look at the rest of the corpse on the ground.

I don’t know what you tried to do, but you got what you deserved you son of a bitch.

***********

#BlameCollegeForTheDelay