The bell rang, ending another day of lessons which, unlike similar sessions before, had actually taught Silence something.

That being said, the droning of a teacher preaching for an hour straight, summarized as 'why being open and communicative during team-based sessions was important,’ would naturally teach anyone why an ability that could completely silence anything was amazing. But to Silence, that was just one of many reasons she was happy, another being the lack of things she had to do now that her instructor let her off practice.

With only a few chairs that were already suspiciously empty inside her classroom, those who were left were finally given permission to leave. The inevitable chaotic stampede to the door rectified itself within minutes and only then did Silence finally stood up to make her way with a relaxed stroll.

Upon leaving the room herself, an out-of-place person in the adjacent corridor caught her attention.

It was Root, who quickly closed the distance between the two.

When she was close enough to start a normal conversation with her, greeting Silence with a relaxed but slightly serious expression. "Hi, mind coming with me for a bit?"

Bemused, Silence countered the question with two more, "Why? You’re not here to make me go to the session today, are you?"

Making a minor waving motion with her hands, she soon explained, "Don't worry, we're basically using you as a hidden weapon, so you won't need to show yourself from now on. In fact, I might as well word that as an order at this point. We're begging you to be lazy... Anyway, Blaze is waiting with the unofficial contract. Hopefully, that'll remind you."

Silence stared past her, soon shaking her head and coming back from wherever her mind went with a complicated expression.

She phased out of the conversation - and probably reality - again before it finally clicked. This time, she actually responded verbally, "Oh, that... Sure. I'll go, but how long will it take?"

Root replied in a clear voice, before suddenly becoming an almost inaudible mumble, "A couple minutes, depending on what happens..."

Without any room to decipher the last part, Root turned to leave. After she almost left the room, she noticed that Silence wasn't following. Calling once out to the girl now staring into space, she finally prompted her to follow.

Going down the flight of stairs to the ground floor, the two interwove through a few blocks, including the magic and training blocks, before reaching the library. There, they climbed another set of stairs to the third floor and entered a room. Inside of which was Blaze, who was sitting neatly at a medium sized table in the center of the room. Upon this table was a pen and normal sized paper with words on, and one thin book half opened which seemed to be Blazes from its position.

Around the table, there was nothing but bookcases filled to the brim with books covered the walls, making the room seem more cramped as the two girls entered.

Noticing the door opening, Root turned to greet them. Her initially positive tone got awkwardly cut off as her gaze settled on Silence, "Heya..."

There was a small pause from her greeting, but she quickly continued with a less enthused tone, "So, anyway. Here's the 'contract', did Root tell you what our prize is?"

Seeing Silence's head calmly cross, Blaze glared half seriously at Root before explaining it herself, "Our reward for doing all the work is to meet your sister... Yeah, I wanted to do something funny like dress you up for all the matches, but Root stopped me."

A tear was about to drop from her eye, but she then smiled with a small laugh accompanying it.

Silence shrugged, tilting her head and facing Root, who couldn't respond with anything but another shrug.

Another awkward silence enveloped the room, this one lasting for slightly longer than the previous. The one to break the ice this time was Root, cutting to the chase, "So, is that okay for a reward?"

Silence held her chin, pondered over it for a moment before answering vaguely, "I'm not sure... hell, I'm not even sure when I'll next meet her. I'd have to ask her beforehand, so I don't mind you adding something else in case she can't. Besides, when do you want to do this, cause I think she's graduating this year so next year isn't really an option. So it has to be this year if ever..."

"Ha... Well, we'd like to meet her after the event if possible, but sure, we'll add another reward to make up for that," Blaze replied, receiving a scowl from Root as a result.

Interrupting the synergy between them, Silence impatiently asked, "Well? Is that all?"

Root stopped her scowl, turning to silence and answering with a small tangent, "One little thing, please pretend to be sick for the day of any inter-school practice session. We can't really reason your tardiness with anything but lies or the truth, and we've been told not to tell the truth by the headmaster. Anyway, that's it. We'll tell you when we add a more certain reward, you don't mind if it's in addition to possibly meeting your sister, do you?"

Diverting the tangent perfectly, Silence sloppily waved her hand, turned away and left the room leaving an automatic answer in her passing, "Go ahead. Anyway, ciao."

With her exit being so efficient, the sound of an emotional debate crept behind her. Not that Silence heard this, but it made an angry librarian walked towards the room with a frown as Silence walked away.

-

After leaving the library, and then the school, Silence went shopping on her way home. Though this was more 'hoarding snacks for a weekend hibernation' than a 'normal weekly shopping', and with 2 silver leaving her wallet, Silence left with a small, but definitely visible, smile on her otherwise expressionless face.

Having successfully infiltrated the dorm with casual walking and four bags worth of the stuff, she happily spent the rest of the day sleeping and eating without any more interruption.