“Control time and space?” She recalled there being something like that in the game. Wat though? The longer she stayed in this world, it felt as though her memories became hazy whenever she thinks of the game. Charlotte placed down her cup with one hand, her other hand still swinging the sharp silver object in her hand at full speed.

“From what I know, this arts is long lost and few humans even possessed this ability to begin with. Probably only that lazy old hag 6th still possesses this magic now.”Ran randomly threw this remark, making the rest of the group puzzled.

“Who’s lazy old hag number six?” Ran was a vampire, that meant that whoever he was talking about was most likely a nonhuman. Charlotte seemed to remember something about this; someone who knows time and space magic and isn’t human, is lazy, female and sixth of something. She seemed to recall there being someone who fit this description from the game, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. It was there, but she couldn’t completely remember what.

“Ah…” when he wasn’t paying attention, the silver knife in Charlotte’s hand grazed his neck, red blood dripping on his white uniform. “Silver…you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?” Ran jumped back a few steps, gripping the cut wound on his neck as his eyes twitch while watching the still calm Charlotte.

Charlotte lifted her gaze and looked at him with an annoyed expression, carefully speaking each word, “Then.stop.bothering.me.”

Ran helplessly shook his head, “Sorry, no can do. I’m quite thirsty right now.”

“Tch, then just thirst yourself to death.”

“How cruel~ It’s been almost half a year since I had a single sip of your bloo-“

-swoosh~

“That was close~ you almost severed my head.”

“It would have been better if it did.”

Their weird 'conversation' didn’t make any sense to Leila, Terence or Leo, frightening them even. Leila lightly cleared her throat and decided to continue and ignore the two, “The identity of the student who was able to use this magic is still unknown till this day, but, those who saw his shadow, yet never his face, all followed him to the clock tower, always practicing his magic in secret at midnight.”

Charlotte suddenly cut in, “If he was secretly practicing, how come so many people know of this? How is that even a secret at this point?”

“Ahaha…” Leila laughed awkwardly, then continued as if she didn’t hear her, “A-anyways, when the students who followed him wanted to get closer and entered the clock tower, his shadow would suddenly disappear without a trace. The next midnight and the midnight after that, no matter how many times they followed him, the results were always the same. But, each time the students who had followed him noticed something strange.”

“He was actually a demon in disguise.” Ran randomly added.

“Huh? No. How did you come to that conclusion?”four heads turned to look at Ran with a slight frown. The academy was located between the borders of the three human countries, in the middle of the human territory. Unless one of the kingdoms had fallen, the chances of a demon sneaking into the academy was very low…sort of.

“All I heard was that each time, they noticed that a-“

“There they are!” suddenly, a loud shout cut Leila off for the nth time. But this time, when they heard the loud voice and looked at the direction it came from, followed by the single shout, countless shouts followed after, with them, a herd of footsteps…

--durduruduru

The ground lightly shook, then, as it continued, so did the intensity, dust started rising…

“Oh boy…”

“W-we better get going…”

“How in mother-nature do they keep finding us? Do they have a tracking expert amongst them?”

“Tomorrow, we should meet up at the old oak tree.”

“Got it.”

“But, won’t they find you two again?”

“…let’s hope not?”

Nodding their heads in agreement, before the herd of students could reach them, they quickly scattered away into separate directions.

“Crap, they’re escaping again!” one of the students shouted.

“Argh! To the left! The left!”

“No, I clearly saw them go to the right!”

“Your highness! Please wait for us~!”

“Huhu~ looks like we’ll be able to get another scoop! [His highness and Lady Charlotte, a secret rendezvous]? [Lady Charlotte in the lead, what is lady Marionette’s next move]?”

“Oi! No pushing! We found them first!”

“Hey, Lady Charlotte went that way! After her!”

“Vice-president, we can’t let them escape!”

“Pres, I think we should stop if those two don’t want to…”

The chaos that suddenly came, quickly left just as fast, the dust slowly started settling back down…

Seeing them leave, Charlotte hopped down from the tree, making her way back to her dormitory. Of course, Behind her, Ran was still following close by…

“Haa….” Charlotte let out a long sigh as she lay down on her bed. It’s barely been one and a half week, yet she’s already this tired. Charlotte turned to lay on her side and looked at the empty bed not far from hers.

Since the day they were assigned to their official dorms, she’s barely seen her roommate. When they do meet, it would mostly be her trying to avoid Charlotte. When she greets her, the girl would just meekly nod her head and bow, before leaving again. Her roommate was Ana, the one she’d met on the first day of class. Not only was she avoided by her roommate, but also her entire class….except Ran.

Charlotte got up from her bed and walked towards her desk. Seeing the recently arrived letters, she faintly smiled. She didn’t know her father was such a worrywart, sending her letters every three days, as well as the occasional letters from Analisa that Lily and Iris had requested to send.

By the time she finished reading, lunch break was almost over. Charlotte neatly folded the letters back in their envelope and placed them in her drawer. Checking for all the things she needed for the next class, she left once again.