Do not read this unless you have read chapter 5 first! http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=30722

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As soon as school ended I wanted to go to the library but I was afraid of getting lost. Going on the first day isn't really necessary either, so right now, I'm walking around town with Iris and Elis.

"So~" Iris leans forward to get a better look at my face. I already have an Idea of where this is going. "since you scored the high- I mean, since we're friends..." she lightly claps her fingers together. "I'd like to get to know you better."

Iris knew a lot about the students at the school, or the nobles, at least.

"Like what?" I ask. My body stiffens slightly and I pull my arms closer to my body. Elis simply stares at the children passing by, her eyes stuck on the ball that flies around.

"You know, stuff." she bats her eyelashes. "Like... if you can actually control the tides and stuff. Things like that. Guh!" Elis gives her a mighty poke to the side. "What was that for?"

She scrunches up her nose, "Oh~ so when you ask it's perfectly fine. You dummy Iris," Elis shakes her head vigorously and uses Iris's line against her. "Just because she had the high score on the test doesn't mean she can control water freely like that. You need to attend school everyday so you learn." she wags her finger.

"Don't you wag that finger at me." Iris grabs it.

"GUWAH!" Elis's finger is covered in a stone casing. "That's not cool!" she starts tugging at it. "I. Can't. Get/ It. Off!"

"Hehe." she smiles as she turns back to me. "So, on to other questions."

"Y-yeah. S-sure." she's scary. I've gotta be sure not to make her angry, if I get my hands wrapped in stone, how will I turn the pages of my book?

"Where do you live?"

"It's a village in neutral territory. Just south of here, the large forest in the middle of the continent." she makes gestures with her hands for me to go on. "I-I uh, have two parents and a little sister."

"Since you have the highest scores on the magic aptitude test, how long have you had your magic for?" she pulls out a notepad and a pen and begins writing what I just said. "Oh, and did you have anyone teach you magic? How about the number of friends you had?" she eagerly awaits my answer.

Should I lie to her? No no no. Starting off with lies is bad. I'll tell the truth, hopefully.

"Uh, I don't know how long I've had my powers for." Iris nods slowly and makes the same gestures with her hands. "N-no one taught me magic. I didn't really interact with anyone other than my parents for most of my life. M-my friends, I only got them when I was a little older. I-I spent most of my time in my room."

"I see, not a social butterfly then." she writes it down. "Your parents sent you here to learn magic?"

"T-they did." they didn't. She nods at my response.

"So, El. Is it okay if I call you that?"

"Y-yeah."

*Pop*

Elis runs up to us triumphantly with a piece of stone between her thumb and index finger, "MUHAHAHAHAHA! I got it off! In your face!" what is she saying? Doesn't she know better than me how scary Iris can be?

Iris claps her hands quickly and quietly, "I made them the same size as the ones before, I'm impressed. You've lost some weight haven't you?"

Elis puffs out her chest and laughs, "Fufufu, you bet! As a warrior, I've got to maintain my physique!" she pokes the nonexistent muscles on her arm.

"But you were having the hardest time out of all of us breathing today." I say, during the run this morning, sweat was just pouring down her face.

Elis frowns and knits her eyebrows.

"Now now." Iris says. "Don't make fun of her El. That's what I'm for, right Elis?"

"Hmph!" Elis turns around and walks off into the marketplace.

"I-is that okay?" I ask.

"Hahaha, don't worry, she'll be fine." Iris shakes the pen in her fingers. "Next question. What's your special ability?"

Uh, what do I say for this one? Iris is burning holes through me with her gaze. Books, please protect me from her stare. I move my hands to the side of my face, as if I had a book to cover my face.

"Um, El? What are you doing?"

"J-just thinking." I say.

"Hmm. Just thinking." she writes it down on her paper.

"D-don't write that! Erase, erase!"

Iris shrugs her shoulders and crosses off the line of text, writing in its place, Doesn't like people knowing how she thinks.

Heheh. Please don't write that either.

"So, your special ability?" she asks again.

"C-c-confidential!" I yell. I just didn't know it, I've had my magic since I was a little girl but I don't know what it is. I've never really practiced with my magic, my parents never allowed it.

"Okay. Next one." she taps her pen on the paper. "Since you're from a village, instead of a city or town, what were your parent's positions in the village? How many friends did you have? How did you pay for the trip here and for the academy?"

Too many questions at once, I put my hands up to cover my face again. I hear Iris's pen flow across her paper, Thinks a lot when asked a question.

"My parents were normal villagers. As for my... friends, I didn't have many." I didn't have any until I was six. "And for the payment, the whole village pitched in to send me here."

Iris smiles, "You must be loved." no, no I'm not. I only have my sister.

"Y-yeah... something like that." it's the opposite.

"Mov-" I interrupt her by pointing to Elis.

"Look!" I say. "Let's go." I speed away from Iris.

"H-hey! Wait up!"

I didn't want to answer any more of her questions, I don't want to be reminded of that place.

"Hey Elis, what are you doing."

She only answers with an, "Umu." her stare is focused on a wand. Just like Iris, her gaze is enough to burn a hole through the glass where it hides under.

"Uh Elis? You're not going to buy that are you?" Iris asks. Elis uses her knees to help herself up.

"No. We weren't given enough money to spend on things like that anyways." Elis brushes off the dirt from her uniform. "Let's go get something to eat!" she starts off in the other direction.

"Hey Iris." I ask.

"What is it?"

"Your parents didn't buy you guys wands? I see some other students have them." they're literally walking by us right now.

Iris glances at Elis, her face looks sympathetic. "Her parent's didn't exactly want her coming here." she says. "Unlike me, she's the first daughter. They wanted to marry her off. But she wasn't always like that. As a child, she was very very obedient."

"What happened?" my view of Elis, even though I've known her for only one day, started to change.

"Her mom died. After that she became a lot more rebellious. I know that Elis got along really well with her mom, her dad on the other hand, not so much. Especially after her mom died, he became a lot more strict and she became a lot more wild."

Iris looks on with a sad face.

"She was a good person." she says.

"Must be."

"Come on El, let's go catch up with her before she does something."

we run through the crowd of people, with Elis's short stature it's hard to find her. Finally, after going on for another minute or so, we spot her near a food stand surrounded by people.

"I'll have an apple and a piece of meat mister." she opens her purse. "How much?"

The old man smiles, "For a young lady like you, only three coppers."

"Hey! Sherman, don't be giving everything away at such a low price!" the woman next to him yells.

"Hun please. I'm only giving it to the young lady here." he says.

"Yeah missus, no need to get mad at your ol husband. The rest of us don't mind paying full price." another customer chimes in.

One of the armored customers laugh, "Hahaha, yeah, we'll pay. Unless you're jealous of the youth!"

The woman purses her lips and gives in, "Fine."

"Thank you!" Elis says.

"I think you're mighty pretty." Sherman says.

"Awww." the six other people in line say.

the woman blushes and looks away, "D-don't say that in front of the customers."

The group bursts out laughing, "Good move ol man, you guys are gonna have some fun tonight huh?" more laughing.

Elis notices us and walks over, on her cheek is a string of meat.

"You didn't buy some for us?" Iris says.

She nods, "Too much money." *chomp* she takes a bite out of her apple.

"B-but you got a discount." she says. "I would've paid you back."

Elis shrugs her shoulders and points to the line, "My bad, guess you're going to have to get it yourselves."

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After waiting in line, Iris and I finally get our food, Elis came with for seconds, apparently the kebab was pretty good. We sit down at a nearby bench and munch on our meals, a plethora of people walk by with groceries and clothing. I see two kids, a boy and a girl, walk by, in their hands a cone and a bunch of snow.

"What's that?" I ask no one in particular. I know it's food, I saw them lick it as they walked by, it's just that I've never seen it before.

Elis practically spits out her second kebab she's shoving in her mouth, "You've never had it?"

"Had what?"

"Ice cream." Iris says. "It's a pretty good treat, cold and sweet. We should go get some next time." Iris leads one of the pieces of meat off the stick with her teeth.

"Eh? We should go now! It's been so long since I've had any!" Elis stands up and points to the opposite directions the kids came from. "Onward! We shall taste it before the winter!"

Iris clears her throat, "Winter is four months away Elis, we can get some later." she stops and grins. "Unless you want to get fat again."

"Uuuuuu." Elis looks down at her belly, it doesn't seem any bigger. "Let's at least go find where it is for next time. Please Iris." she leans on Iris rubbing her head on her shoulder.

"F-fine, just stop doing that here." she shoves Elis away. "L-let's go."

"YAY!" Elis jumps in the air.

"But we're not getting ice cream today." I say.

Elis pouts, "Don't be a downer El, let's just see it for today. It'll be good to keep in the back of our minds." she grabs my arm and leads me away from the bench I was sitting so comfortably on. "Hey hey!" she says. "I'm going to take this shortcut!"

"You don't even know where the ice cream shop is." says Iris.

"We'll find it eventually." she still drags me with her.

The path we take has less people, it's a street but it leads to a slightly different part of the city. I don't mind, I was getting kind of bothered by the people staring at my hair. Elis suddenly stops.

"H-hey guys." she points into the alleyway. "Y-y-you think they're okay?"

On the floor, three men in cloaks lay unconscious. Iris runs down to check on them. Turning each one around, she searches for wounds.

"Find anything?" I ask. Their knives are scattered on the floor, the air in a part of here seems to be darker.

"Well, they don't seem to be dead, only knocked out."

"A-aren't they thieves?"

Iris grabs the chin of the largest man and moves his head from side to side.

"I guess? It doesn't make sense that they would be left here though."

Elis leans down to get a better look at them, "You're saying that they were ambushed?"

I jump in, "I don't think so." I say.

"Why?" Elis asks.

"Because," Iris stands up. "they're not dead, and none of their possessions are missing."

"The victim defeated them?"

"Probably, we should call the guards though."

"Okay, let's go El." Elis pulls my arm.

"H-hey! Don't take me along!"

"We're all in this together." she says.

The guards came and arrested the men. Apparently, the big guy, their leader, was a wanted criminal, a warrant was put out for him. Since we found them, they decided to give it to us, we didn't tell them that we didn't defeat the man though.

By the time they were all hauled away it was dark out. The streets were only slightly quieter than before, but many of the students had left for their rooms. We do the same and take the road back. On our way, we pass by a post office.

"Oh, wait." Iris stops us. Her eyes gleam as she reads the sign on top of the building. "I'm going to stop in and get a card."

"Who're you sending it to?" I ask.

Iris smiles and feels her hair ornament. "My sister. I can't wait to tell her about the year, I'll write it as I go along."

Sister huh? I should get one too. I haven't seen her since I left the village.

"I'm going to get one too." I say.

"You're going to write to your sister too?" Elis asks.

Using her same response I say, "Umu."