Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 9 | Day 7

Amelia continues to look away from her cousin despite her excited shouting as we land on the ground, with the platform vanishing from beneath our feet. However, the many cadets around us participating in the internships obviously notice the giddy Class B magician and her target, so dozens of whispered conversations begin to come up from around us.

That is, until Maria notices Anabel and immediately stops, focusing her attention entirely on her as she says, “Anabel. I didn’t know you were the one supervising the students.”

Wait. What?

I blink in surprise at that before looking between the two and feeling a very tense atmosphere building around them, with several of the cadets close to the two actually beginning to step back and build a bit of distance between them.

Huh. Didn’t know they knew each other.

The two continue to stare at each other for a few more seconds before Anabel frowns and says, “It’s not like that’s something hard to find out. You must’ve just been slacking again. Like always.”

My eyebrows raise slightly at the stern tone she’s taking.

And they’re obviously not on good terms.

Before their little verbal war can continue, the colonel clears his throat and says, “Since the cadets have arrived, I will be handing them off to you, colonel Luna.” He then quickly makes his exit as if trying to avoid getting in between the two women.

Maria looks at him for a second before turning back to focus on the cadets as if Anabel wasn’t here. She seems to scan through each and every cadet’s faces, including mine, Aidan’s, and Amelia’s, before refocusing on Amelia and smiling.

She then begins to speak as if talking to everyone in our group despite not taking her eyes off of her younger cousin, “I’ll be escorting all of you to the portal hub. On the way there, I expect you to form up into your groups so that I can assign each of you by group to your internship destinations.”

A few seconds pass while the cadets begin to whisper before Maria turns around and snaps her fingers, making a large, golden magic circle appear in front of her, where various little arrows emerge above the ground pointing into the main building.

“Well,” she says while turning around again with a smile, “follow the arrows to find the portals!” Maria then continues in a quieter tone so that only the cadets in the front of the group, myself and my group included, can hear, “In the meantime…”

Amelia immediately tenses up as the other cadets begin to follow the arrows, followed immediately by her cousin vanishing from sight before appearing in front of her just seconds later as she envelops her in a hug.

I raise an eyebrow at her blatant act of ignoring her job, which as she said earlier was to ‘escort’ us to the portal hub and not to just point out the way. But Anabel seems to just be happy to get away from her as she follows the arrows along with the other cadets.

Not that she’d be able to do much against her. Not considering that Anabel is just a major whereas Maria is a colonel despite being a little bit younger than her.

I purse my lips for a second before glancing at Cyria – who actually doesn’t look too surprised right now – just to nod my head at her and slowly begin to make my way after the other cadets.

Please don’t let her remember me. I really don’t like hugs.

As if on cue, I feel her hugging me from behind while saying, “Where do you think you’re going little birdie?”

Shit.

“Please let go,” I tell her while trying very hard to ignore the stifled laughter I hear coming from the others behind me. “And stop calling me that. Why do you even do that anyways?”

At least she didn’t do this in front of everyone.

Thankfully for me, she lets go of me after a few seconds and says, “Because of how adorable you were when I used to-”

“Okay, that’s enough,” I stop her mid-statement while turning around to see Cyria with a very curious look on her face, likely wanting to hear the rest of it. “Just stop calling me that.”

I can let the hug slide, after all we haven’t seen each other for a while. But there is no way I’m letting someone call me ‘little birdie’ at my age.

Although I didn’t exactly like it back then either.

I turn to look at Amelia with a frown before saying, “Please control your cousin.”

Maria just laughs at that as she moves over to give Aidan a hug, to which he reciprocates. Meanwhile Sophia just stares at Maria with a look on her face that makes it clear as day that she wants to bombard her with questions about her magic.

Guess it was stupid to worry about their relationship. Especially when Maria has her magic to sate Sophia’s curiosity.

“I wish that were possible,” Amelia mutters with a frown of her own before asking her cousin, “I didn’t know you’d be the one greeting us here. Weren’t you supposed to be on the front lines at the Grand Warzone?”

Maria lets go of Aidan before sending a cursory glance towards Cyria and Sophia while answering Amelia’s question, “I was. But mom called me back for this.”

I frown at that and ask, “She called you back just to greet us, guide us to the portals, and assign our internship destinations?”

“No,” Maria says while focusing on me again, “she sent me to be you and Amelia’s chaperone during the internship.”

My eyes widen at that before I hold myself back from swearing.

Are you kidding me?

I knew each group was going to have a chaperone following them to their base to make sure that they were treated the same way as a normal magician in the military, but seriously? Her?

And right when I was happy that Anabel wouldn’t be able to chaperone due to her status as the supervisor, too.

“We should probably catch up with the others,” Cyria suddenly interjects, bringing Maria’s attention to her again, only for Maria to stare at her for a few seconds. She then glances between me and her a few times, gives Cyria a thumbs-up for some reason and turns around to begin walking towards the others while shouting back, “You heard the lady! Let’s move out!”

I blink in confusion at their actions before deciding that it isn’t important and following after her next to Amelia.