As promised, she came the next evening after class to the large garden. The place she found herself lost in, back when she was working as a janitor while walking around. That day too, during gym class and practical class, she still failed to fly with a broom and even conjured a basic elemental magic. She turned irked when remembering Cath’s smug face when he flaunted his silver fire in the magic circle during their lesson. That day also, the annoying creature went out to hang out with their female classmates.

Aediva stabbed the soil with the hand trowel, annoyed. It was then when she noticed the looming shadow of the giant - the owner of the garden, overseeing her work. Aediva looked up and found Naffael’s displeased look.

“Lass, don’t stab the soil like that. You might destroy the flower’s roots” he said, squatting behind Aediva - completely engulfing her with his much larger frame and taking her hand, guiding her to carefully sift the ground bit by bit.

“Gently. There’s no need to rush” he scolded her when feeling she was being hasty with her movement again. The girl grumbled under her breath, feeling Naffael lifting his weight off her back. But seeing his shadows still blocking the gradually sinking evening sun, she didn’t dare to try and mess her work again. After moving the last flower from the certain patch of the flowerbed, Aediva let out a sigh.

“Blackhorns~ I’m done with the flower~!” she chirped happily to the dragon who had also finished with the new flower bed to place the Freesia flowers. He glanced at Aediva placing the flowers in the black bags beside him.

“Come, let me show you how to plant them” he said, teaching and guiding the girl the ways to plant the fragile plants - noting how much more careful she is compared to an hour back when she started working on his flowers. He glanced at the broken tools at the side by the tree but quickly turned back to look at her handiwork.

“Eeekk!!!” she suddenly shrieked when seeing something wriggling in the soil.

“It’s just earthworm, lass,” Naffael said.

“Do I have t-to remove i-it?” Aediva asked him with teary eyes. Naffael snickered, burying the earthen creature into the soil without answering her question. He chuckled when seeing Aediva’s wiggling her body in childish disgust as she stepped away.

“All done!”

After about an hour and a half, they finished with all their garden duties. Naffael only chuckled when seeing the dirt on Aediva’s face, wiping it off with the towel in his hand.

“Ah, you got dirt on your face too, Blackhorns” Aediva said, taking the towel in his hand to wipe it off but quickly finding that she can’t even reach for his forehead even if she is tipping at her toes.

“Blackhorns, bend down a bit!!!” Aediva whined, sighing in relief when he lowered his head as she told him. All cleaned, she quickly turned giddy.

“Can we start with the magic lesson now?” she asked him excitedly. Naffael let out a sigh.

“Alright. Let's see how well you use magic first” he said, gesturing at Aediva to carry her stuff and follow him. Like a little chick following its mother, Aediva followed the golden-haired giant.

After a while walking around the garden, Aediva couldn’t help but noticed that it was the same way she had been through. Among the tall bushes, it was as if they were walking in circles and after a while, they reached the cliff with a single tree and a marble bench in its shades.

“Ah, this is that place where I found you weeks ago” Aediva chirped - walking closer to the large tree that gives off a very ancient vibes with the dark green moss growing on its bark and it’s numerous branches spreading outwards. It feels so much colder as its shades covered them from the sunlight. Personally, Aediva prefers the sunlight’s warmth though.

She looked beyond the cliff, her breath fell short when seeing the vast view of the academy itself. The blanket of green trees down there with the large black castle gleaming at a distance. Now that she thinks of it, this is weird.

“Hm, it seems you noticed,” Naffael said, gaining her immediate attention.

“Is it magic?” Aediva asked. The golden-haired male merely nodded, turning his head at the three archways down the cliff.

“Each of the archways leads back to the garden and the maze” Naffael explained. Then it clicked in Aediva mind as she saw the familiar ruined archway. She had passed that one before.

“That one… Depends on my mood” Naffael explained, as if he could read the girl’s mind. Aediva frowned, suddenly placing her hands on each side of her head.

“Blackhorns, are you reading my mind?” she questioned him, responded with his amused chuckle.

“I don’t need to read your mind, lass. I can see it clear on your face” he said with a subtle tug at one side of his lips. Aediva pouted.

“Blackhorns’ being unfair. No reading my mind or my face” she said to him before cracking a smile.

“As I thought, you’re amazing, Blackhorns. So you could send anyone anywhere with that portal?” Aediva wondered. Naffael let out a short huff.

“Yes, although it acts as a one-way gate for everyone but me” he said, taking the broom leaning against the tree before tossing it to Aediva.

“We’re starting with brooms?”

“Try riding it” Naffael didn’t waste time to cut to the chase.

The lesson went about way worse than they anticipated. Naffael lost count of how many times Aediva went shooting randomly and oftentimes away from the cliff. Sometimes land face first on the ground. After a few tries with the broom, she laid flat on the ground - half wanting to die from all her failures.

The same it was with a small scale shooting a target with basic magic attack. There are times when it didn’t come out from her palms at all (since she has no wands). Most of the time it destroyed the small log until nothing left. After a while, she collapsed yet again to the ground - despairing at her circumstances.

Her magic is no doubt, wild and unpredictable. And uncontrollable. She felt her fingers numb from firing at the logs under Naffael’s supervision. That said, that guy really has the patience of a saint.

Aediva’s wild magic hit him in the face and he wasn’t fazed in the slightest. Most of the time he avoided it way too casually. All the while stopping Aediva from prostrating to apologize to him in a panicked response to her magic flying all over the place.

“Ugh… It’s all a disaster…” she complained as Naffael eyed her. The black mist surrounding her pulsing around her.

He looked away, silent and contemplating.