“So we’re actually going to make a mana potion?” Zielle asked and Aediva glanced back at her.

“A few bottles of them actually” she answered with a bright smile that truly threw Zielle off. Wait, what?

“Wait. Wait. A few bottles?!” Zielle asked, her tone disbelieving what she is hearing.

“You can’t expect to just do one bottle, right? Don’t worry, it won’t affect you in the slightest. I just need you to inject a bit of your mana to--”

“It’s not that!” Zielle interjected, making Aediva stopped in her steps and turn around to look at her. Zielle raised the piece of paper with the long list of ingredients they need to find in the near few days before their big break-in into Efren Dorms.

“Didn’t I told you last night about the potions last night? Even with these substitutes, it’s still hard to find in the academy’s area! And you wanted to make more than one! Even for third-year seniors, they make three each year” Zielle said, heaving a sigh right after when seeing Aediva’s impassive look. Those silver eyes only blinked at the one who really couldn’t understand what’s going on in Aediva’s head.

“Mana potions have long been redundant, solely because of the ingredients to make it. Not to mention it’s really just better to sleep the magic fatigue off and let your mana recover naturally. I’m glad you managed to find substitute ingredients but these are still hard to get” Zielle said, responded with Aediva’s smiling with a rather disinterested look on her face as she walked back to where she was going.

“Why would you need mana potion anyway? Aediva, what are you planning to do with them?” after such long time not saying anything Aediva’s plan, finally Cath talked - gaining the attention of the young woman who was carrying him on her shoulders.

“Huh… If your opponent sucked you dry of mana, you’re not going anywhere far. If we’re going to a place where you would always be at the risk of being drained of mana, you can’t barge in without preparation. You’re simply asking to be caught by your enemies that way” Aediva explained as Zielle let out a sigh.

“That’s true but I was thinking you just need me to fly overhead and look around. I wasn’t expecting you to go on the ground itself” Zielle complained her worries away as she came to a stop. She looked at Aediva who kept on walking to a certain direction despite already at the stairs leading to the Aval Dorm - still in her lab coat even. It was then when she realized where Aediva was heading.

“W-W-WAIT WAIT WAIT!” immediately Zielle’s panicked shrieking halted the female with platinum blonde hair at the steps going up the hill to the garden and maze. Aediva turned around and yet again, she saw the same kind of look Fay once did when she ran to the same direction.

“What’s wrong? Is this somewhere I shouldn’t go?” Aediva asked, actually baffled at the reaction of her friend. Zielle even looks hesitant and more anxious than scared to actually speak about the place right in front of them.

“You know that’s a restricted area… right?” Zielle asked, cold beads of sweat rolling down from her temples to her cheek. Aediva look impassive as ever and look back to the steps leading to the top of the hill before turning back to tilt her head at Zielle.

“It’s restricted? Huh, then I’ve been breaking that rule from the two months back then. So why is it restricted?” Aediva said idly as Zielle let out a relief sigh only to jump back into panic when Aediva, instead of going down the stairs, continued up to the top of the hill before looking at Zielle with a mischievous smile.

“Aww c’mon. We’re gonna go and break an even larger rule after all these. What’s one more, right?” Aediva said as she walked away before Zielle could even say anything to stop her one deviant friend. Zielle started to feel nervous. If only Aediva knew how much the length of her master’s territorial tendencies…

Zielle takes a deep breath. And abruptly, a sudden wave of realization hits her. Her eyes went wide when looking at the amount of rare herbs only available in the most extreme of conditions written in the list.

“OH NO! NO NO NO!” she screamed, horrified - quickly clasping her hands together and praying to god that no curse would befell her for trespassing Naffael’s territory.

“Young master, please don’t curse me! I need to stop that crazy woman from stealing what you’ve been taking care of!” Zielle said before stepping on the first step of the stairs while bracing herself for a lightning strike or a tornado ripping her apart but no such things happen. She let out a sigh of relief but then immediately ran up the hill and caught up to Aediva who is already so close to Naffael’s personal garden - looking around like she was browsing a damn shop for herbs.

“Aediva!!!” Zielle shouted for the young woman who was sitting by one of the plants she needed for the potion they’re going to make. Hearing Zeille’s voice that's starting to sound as loud as her twin brother, Aediva panned her head to look.

“Don’t you think you need the owner’s permission at least?” Zielle asked, sounding a bit annoyed and disturbed by Aediva’s nonchalance. She let out a huff as Aediva think to herself before shrugging off whatever she was thinking and reached out for the blue-flowered plant right in front of her. Until Zielle grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

“Oh no you don’t! You have no idea how severe the consequences of your actions!” Zielle said as Aediva let out an annoyed huff.

“What’s the big deal? This place has half of what we need and I’m sure Blackhorns won’t mind if I take a few of these plants to make potions… Unless you can think of a better place to find it for free…” Aediva said, lazily limping her body as Zielle practically acts as her support pillar as she locked her arms under the trying thief’s armpits.

“Blackhorns?! Wait, who’s Blackhorns?” Zielle asked, confused. Amid her confusion at the rather odd naming decision, Zielle quickly realized when Aediva slipped free from her arm lock - already near a little box nearby.

A box of gardening tools that shouldn’t be there without an owner.

Zielle almost shrieked in horror when Aediva pulled out a pair of scissors with a gleeful smile on her face as she stood up with a basket in her hand.

“C’mon Cath! Let’s get these free ingredients for our potions!” Aediva exclaimed rather excitedly, shoving the basket to Zielle’s arms and before she could even say anything, Aediva and Cath were already cutting plants here and there.

Next destination is the Potions Lab and dear goodness, Zielle was only capable of silence after what she had been through. The wave of emotions and intense fear from seeing Aediva and Cath reaping those plants Naffael had meticulously cared for who knows how long.

The first year female from Kazbelius Dorm never had her heart raced so wildly before. And to add more salt to her gaping wound, Naffael was there. He was around but purposely not showing himself as he always does. To think that he was only watching them destroying his gardens…

That thought sent shivers down her spine. How on earth did Aediva didn’t even bat an eye when a literal Royal Dragon was so near to them. A weird feeling flutter about in the girl’s chest. While many other students would simply froze solid when Naffael as much as momentarily passed beside them, Aediva who literally was under his watchful gaze didn’t even seemed bothered by his formidable aura due to the powers coursing through his veins.

And “Blackhorns”? Oh, please don’t even tell her that’s what she has been calling the Young Master. If Zayen caught wind of that news, he would definitely go beyond apeshit. Zielle could only wince mentally when imagining the mere volume of how he projects his opinions.

And that said…

“AGHHH!!! Another fail!” Aediva exclaimed, frustrated as she slipped to the floor, laying down on the cold white marble flooring like a five-year-old on a strike at the mall after her parents refused to buy the toy she wanted. She looked at Cath poking at her cheeks with his paws in response to her rather childish reaction to failure.

Zielle let out a sigh. It has been at least ten tries and just about every calculation and measurements of the ingredients for the mana potions they’re making, failed.

Since that evening after class, they have been rather tired with the potion-making. Their ingredients are nearly exhausted and many were wasted for nothing. Zielle put down the pen to the notebook filled with failed calculations and magical measurements for the potions. Idly, she inspects the remaining herbs and even magic stones from who knows where Aediva and Cath got them after disappearing when she was setting up the equipment and cauldron for their potion-making session.

Once again, Zielle let out a sigh and took the empty beaker that was supposed to fill clear water from the spring fountain just outside in the courtyard right in front of the building they’re in.

“I’m going to get more spring water. Maybe some midnight-drawn spring water might do some good” Zielle said but Aediva merely waved at her from underneath the table. Aediva was about to doze off from fatigue after running to the Starris Mines through the Black Mirror (which she really felt a little livid when seeing). All in order to get magic stones to be used as a catalyst for potion-making.

Starting to feel unnerved by the silence as she stayed alone with the unusually silent Cath, she sat up - Cath rolling down like a little boulder down her chest. It amazed her of how he could still sleep even after such a rough tumble from her sudden movement.

“All you do was sleep. I seriously envy you, Cath” Aediva said before moving out from under the table and straightening herself up beside the table. The lonesome girl rubbed the back of her neck and placed Cath on the side like he was some sort of plush toy she was bored with.

Deep in her thoughts she was as she murmured to herself while seeing the notebook. In the end, she let a sigh.

“I hate maths…” she complained, her head slumped to the table tiredly.

The next morning, Aediva and Zielle both started the day stifling yawns in unison as they exited the Aval Dorm. Not even half of the steps down the stairs to the road on their way to class, they heard Zayen’s voice already loud and annoying them.

“Zielle! You shirk your duties as Lord Allergard’s servant. Again!” his loud voice effectively managed to break the silence between the two girl-friends and the sleeping monster. Zielle looked at Aediva as the latter too, looking back at the green-haired female student. Ignoring Zayen, they hastened their steps to their classes. Even when Zayen was right beside them, it didn’t make them want to even face him and his noisy complaints.

Groggy, tired, pissed off. Aediva was this close to punching Zayen’s face from his annoying statements about his twin sister spending time with “a lowly human”, when their attention was quickly taken by the murmurs of students around them. Zielle looked at Aediva when they both noticed a rather luxurious sports car came rolling in like a wind that literally blew both Zielle’s and Aediva’s uniforms in disarray.

“What the f--” Aediva growled, glaring daggers at the damn driver that was speed-driving in the campus grounds. It proved to stop just as quickly though, right before the school’s main administrative building where the trace of her magical outburst still lingers around.

She straightened herself with a huff and pats at her oversized hoodie - pouting to herself with annoyed grumble about the careless driver of the sleek white car. As they come closer to the courtyard, the murmurs of students around them only intensifies. Aediva’s eyes turned wide when seeing someone who she had not seen for quite some time.

Krow himself, in the flesh. Initially a little surprised that the principal is actually within her sights for once, Aediva in the end turned her gaze-turned-impassive away. Honestly, she was too tired to even care about the smart-looking man who was sipping some expensive take-away coffee.