Buy some clothes for me?The head instructor stared daggers at me.
“You wish to go outside?”
I didn’t dare to meet his gaze and answered with my head low.
“Yes, I have something I wish to buy in the city center.”
“Get clear with what you are.” The head instructor lit his pipe, took a long draught and blew out a perfect smoke circle, “You are a slave now, not a normal St Txarango student and you have no freedom of movement. You are already restricted from walking around the school, let alone outside. I cannot approve your application to leave the school.”
“I don’t even have the right to go out? That’s way too inhuman.”
“Slaves are the personal possessions of their master, how can personal possessions be running about.”
“Don’t tell me I have to spend my entire life stuck in the school!?”
“Not really, if the master gives you permission and you travel with your master, then you can leave St Txarango.”
The head master stroked his beard.
And so because of the above, I came to Alisha’s room, and pushed the unlocked door open.
“Alisha.”
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
A pillow landed on my face and Alisha grabbed a wool blanket and covered her body with it.
“I-I-I-I-I am changing clothes!! Knock before you enter!!!! Pervert! Deviant! Degenerate! Get out get out get out!!!!”
I closed the door as I walked out and waited for Alisha to give her consent before going back in.
She crossed her legs as she sat on the edge of the bed with folded arms, and stared me with a red face.
“Is, is there something.”
“Can you bring me out?”
“To where?”
“To the marketplace, I want to buy something but I can’t leave the school on my own so I need you to accompany me.”
“What do you want to buy?”
“I don’t know yet, but I plan to take a look first and buy something suitable.”
“Shopping…” Alisha thought for a moment, “Sure, I can buy some clothes for you at the same time.”
“Buy clothes for me?” I was stunned.
“That’s right, I want to buy some formal wear for you. Daddy will be hosting a state banquet on the day he comes to Txarango. I will be making an appearance and of course you will have to go too, so some formal clothes must be prepared.”
“Slaves can partic.i.p.ate in state banquets?”
Because I’m not a normal slave?
“Yes, as my personal belonging. And daddy came for the sake of meeting you in the first place, so I’m definitely making you look your best.”
Alisha got up and came to me, and took out a handkerchief from her pocket.
“Look at how dirty you are, if you came to my room I can help clean you up but you insist on staying in the stables. Don’t move, your nose isn’t clean.”
Alisha carefully cleaned up my face, and from up close, I noticed some small freckles below her eyes. She wasn’t an unworldly beauty like Tina and Tess, at the very most she was considered pretty, but she was a lot more like the girls I was used to. The kind of girls who took care of themselves, knew how to dress up, which was clear from how well she drew her eyebrows, and her pink glossy perfect nail polish.
“I’m not done yet,” Alisha kept her handkerchief, “Your hair is messy as well, I’ll comb it for you.”
“Wo, wo.”
She pushed me to the dressing table and made me sit on the chair. The me in the mirror looked really washed out, and my hair looked like a nest of birds could reside on my head, and there were even strands of gra.s.s in my hair. Alisha opened the drawer, and there were various scissors, combs and other makeup tools of which I could not guess the use of neatly arranged inside. She chose a longer wooden comb, and began combing my hair tenderly with one hand while she held my head with the other.
I feel so uneasy. Besides my Ma, no other woman has done this for me and Alisha doesn’t seem to mind it in the least, helping me wipe my face clean, combing my hair, dusting my clothes, exactly like a gracious, loving wife… When I thought about this, I felt even more uneasy. Didn’t I just make fun of her and she complained to her daddy? Why are we now being so intimate like nothing happened, this goes against common sense. No no no, maybe I’m thinking too much, because I’m her slave, so she is helping me tidy up myself. This is normal, wu, probably like grooming a pet.
Not good, as a member of the foolish male s.e.x, I will be conquered if this goes on.
“Okay.”
Alisha finally let go of me, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“When do we go buy clothes?”
“Today then, Molan do you know your way around? This is my first time to Txarango.”
“Un, I do, my sense of direction is quite good.”
If not, I wouldn’t have been able to bring Tess around the world.
“That’s great, we don’t need to a servant to bring us around, then let’s go with ju-ju-just the 2 of us!”
Alisha hugged my arm excitedly.
“Un! Let’s go! Let’s go!”
I got nervous for some inexplicable reason, eh, why is that, there shouldn’t be anything to be nervous about. This isn’t the first time I’m going out with a girl. Ah, saying it like that makes it sound like I’m a reajuu.
(TL: Yes he really does say reajuu.)
“O, okay.” I nodded as I stammered in reply.
Tina sat at the terrace with a book on the table in front of her. As the afternoon wind blew, the pages began flipping.
She wasn’t looking at the book, and was purely daydreaming as the pages flipped to the end and the smell of tea permeated the air.
… Boring, she muttered softly.
School was always boring, especially for someone like her without friends. Going out to play was actually prohibited at St Txarango and going out required students to apply to go out in advance, and state where they were going, when they were leaving and returning and what they planned to do. Only when it is approved then one can step out of school. Truly bothersome, Tina didn’t like that, and would always sneak out by climbing the walls every time.
She thought of Molan, and decided to get him to come along.
But where was he now? From the terrace, there was no sight of him at the stables. Maybe he was with Princess Alisha. He was Alisha’s slave now, and the collar on his neck had the name Alisha chose for him engraved on it. But because Molan had strongly insisted on it, Alisha had not chosen a new name, and he was still Molan Faburando.
Tina felt that she should be grateful to Alisha, for if not for her standing up for Molan, he would be put in a far away place doing land reclamation works. She had to find a time to thank Alisha in person, but she had yet to find a chance to do so.
Though she was grateful to her, Tina hated Alisha a little.
During cla.s.s, Alisha would bring Molan to her seat and listen to cla.s.s with him, and after cla.s.s she would bring him to the canteen and they would eat while facing each other, though what Molan ate was leftovers. During morning a.s.sembly, afternoon tea, dinner, where ever she went, Molan would be alongside her, and he had very little free time. In the beginning, Alisha would bring Molan about by holding the chains tied around his neck but later on she took off the chains, leaving the collar, and held his hand as they made their way about the school.
This was clearly telling the world that, this young man was hers.
Though Molan’s family name was still Faburando, Tina thought.
She had given her family name to Molan on her own accord, without the approval of her parents and thus, it had no legal effect. Only St Txarango had recognised it, outside of the school, Molan was effectively a homeless vagabond.
Molan had never said where his home was, and Tina never asked either. Molan was proficient in the use of blades, and it was some time before Tina came to know of this strange gift, which could not be explained with either magic or the recently popular science.
Molan was full of mysteries, and Tina knew nothing about him.
Perhaps one day Molan will tell it all on his own, is what Tina had been thinking, but before that could happen, he was now someone else’s.
If she said it didn’t bother her at all, she would be lying.
She went around looking for Molan, and even knocked on Alisha’s room but no one was there. Tina kicked a pebble on the floor, her anger broiling inside.
Can’t find him. Tina easily flipped over the perimeter wall. Previously, Molan would always carry her and jump across the wall like he was flying. It has been a while since she had to do this alone.
When she landed on the other side, a brick fragment cut her ankle which made Tina suck in a deep breath of air.
The wound was deep, and just standing around made it hurt badly. There was a relay post not too far from the school where she could get a carriage but she feared she wouldn’t be able to bear the pain and make it there. Carriages from the school required applications before usage. Just when she left school, it looked she would have to go back.
Tina sat down with her back against the wall and hugged her legs.
“…”
The school is so hot.
It was more comfortable in the forest of elves, as the continuous thick canopy formed by the trees was like a natural parasol which blocked the sun, making it cool and comfortable. Speaking of the forest, Tina would think of Tess, the girl who used a portion of her life to revive Tina and regressed to her 8-9 year old state. Why did she save Tina at the cost of her own life? They clearly didn’t know each other. molan did not know, and neither does the head master. After Tess became small, she lost her memories and asking yielded no answers.
It felt inexplicable to her that she was dying for 10 over days. To Tina, she felt like she had a very long nap, albeit one without dreams.
The spell that could transfer life was called “transition” and was actually used to transfer the power of the emissary which was tied to life. And it is through that spell that emissaries become emissaries, unlike what humans had always thought, that emissaries are decided at birth. Tina had not heard the so-called “voice of G.o.d” which was probably because the G.o.d of fate did not favour this new emissary, and so she cannot learn of the meaning behind the existence of emissaries.
What kind of mission did the emissary have? For it to have been pa.s.sed down for millenia.
Could it be because of the mission that Tess initiated the transition? It could be that she would rather disappear than bear that fate, and reviving Tina was merely incidental.
Tina shook her head.
Don’t think about that for now, she said to herself in a low voice.
First, I must resettle Molan. This was the answer she arrived at after thinking for half a month.
Who knows how long she has left to live. The G.o.d of fate could decide any day to take back the life granted to her and let Tess return to her original form. She knew that she should have been dead, and did not want for much. She only worried about Molan.
That he was reckless, Tina knew long ago, but she never imagined he was reckless to such an extent that he would slay almost half of the people at the Oracle plaza upon seeing her get killed. The next time she were to leave, who knows what stupid things he would do.
Tina took a deep breath.
Idiot. She scolded him in her heart, as the corners of her mouth curled ever so slightly.
Molan needs a place where he belongs, so that he can be more accepting of her pa.s.sing on.
Just as she thought of this, the school gates opened and a carriage came out. Tina turned to see, and through the window, the 2 people she saw left her dumbfounded.