A gust of warm blew by.
The warm sunlight tickled her skin as it came through the ,hidden flower garden flower garden deep in lush forest.
Janica sat there, picking flowers as she made a wreath. She had taken off her damaged academy uniform and had instead put on a comfortable beige skirt she used to wear back in her hometown. She carefully weaved the wreath together as she sang a beautiful tune.
Suddenly, a boy arrived from the forest, riding a majestic white horse. He slowly dismounted from the saddle as the sounds of the horse's hooves clapping subsided.
That boy was Ed Rothstaylor.
Janica stood up with a big smile on her face as she welcomed Ed to the flower garden. Ed wore the flower wreath she had made and held her hand as they smiled at each other. Then the two of them began to dance.
Hahaha–
Flower petals flew around them as the butterflies danced in the air. And as if the forest had blessed them, the trees moved out of their way to give them room as they moved.
Hahahahaha–
Their steps were exactly in sync, as if they perfectly understood each other. The sound of an unknown lute and a harp resonated throughout the garden.
It was truly a scene from a fairytale.
Hahahaha–
Haha–
Ha–
.
.
.
.
Chirp–
Chirp–
The chirps of the sparrows outside the Ophilis Hall windows tickled her ears. It was the sound of a new morning.
Janica sat up.
Her hair was a mess and her skin was a little bloated from last night's deep sleep. Janica buried her face into her pillow as she hugged it.
"What's wrong with me… I'm already this old but I'm still having these types of dreams…"
Waves of embarrassment and humiliation kept on crashing onto her as time passed by.
* * *
It was afternoon two days after when the disaster took place.
"Clara, you know, why is the weight between liking someone and loving someone so different?"
Clara was eating the tomatoes in her salad when Janica asked her the question. And Clara's expression, upon hearing it, grew serious. The same was true of their other friend, Anise. The two of them were Janica's best friends. They stopped playing with their forks and began to listen intently.
It was lunchtime at the student cafeteria.
Janica was the same as usual. She was out eating with her two best friends, having left the high-quality food of Ophilis Hall behind.
Ten days have passed since Janica's Disciplinary Committee Hearing had been over.
Not only did the three deans of each department attend, but Headmaster Obel was also in attendance. Their presence created a dreadful atmosphere as the hearing proceeded like a complete battlefield.
Skipping the major events of the hearing would still take way too long to cover all that had happened.
Janica had admitted to her wrongdoings and willingly accepted any punishment the committee would bestow her. She completely surrendered, white flag and all.
However, the second-years and the professors in charge of them stood up for her, taking Janica's side during the first round of hearing. They attacked the student council and academic affairs' main office with petitions. A total of 1,417 copies were submitted, completely filling the academic proposal box that a separate collection box solely for petitions had to be brought in.
During the second round of hearing, despite what Head Escort Claire had been telling her, Princess Pheonia declared that she would not charge Janica for the attempted murder of a member of the royal family. This was because she was deeply impressed by the students' petitions. And this particular decision by Princes Pheonia would be the fundamental cause of why she would receive overwhelming support from the second-years, helping her get elected as the student body president in the future.
But that was a separate story from this one.
The Academic Affairs Office also recognized the fact that Janica had not intended to do such actions as she was then taken over by Velosfer. This had made the expulsion charges become invalid. However, that didn't mean that all of Janica's wrongdoings would simply disappear since her actions still left a lot of financial damages and injuries.
This was where Lortelle came in.
Lortelle would provide the funds to rebuild Training Hall and Glockt Gall at a low interest rate. She would also subsidize all the sustained injuries completely free of charge. In exchange, she was able to negotiate half the customs fees on school supplies the Elte Company distributes to the business district. The leniency clause for Janica was just a bonus.
Because of this, the Elte Company's products gained an absolute competitive edge in school supplies. This also earned them the status of proper creditors to the academy, rather than a simple sponsor. They even went as far as getting rid of the debt the promising elementalist, Janica Faylover, had.
Lortelle was someone who would never miss an opportunity. Head Dean McDowell couldn't help but front in front of Lortelle on the day of the negotiation signing. But it was in Lortelle's nature to answer him with a smile.
While Pheonia and Lortelle were adding chaos to the situation, the students were constantly running around and campaigning for a favorable hearing for Janica.
The final result ended up being a splendid feat.
10 days of probation. 20 days of suspension. Removed from the Glockt Scholarship Foundation beneficiaries. Banned from entering Ophilis Hall starting next semester. Forfeit the benefits of being a top student. Return all academic honorary awards. And she won't be held back another year.
The years jumped for joy and cheered. It was way more than they had hoped for. It felt like they were filming some type of emotional youth drama.
However, behind the crowd of cheering students was Janica, still with her shoulders down. And none of them knew the reason why. Not a single one.
"Wh-What… what are you saying all of a sudden?"
Either way, it was all in the past. It was meaningless to argue about it now. Clara was trying to help Janica not feel so down now that her probation period was over.
The night before, Clara and Anise practiced what they would say and talk about with Janica after a long time of not seeing each other.
They made sure to never mention the Glaskan incident. They also made sure to pretend they didn't care and to never mention how they felt about it. And since it had been a while since they met up together, they decided to get lunch and catch up on each other's personal matters.
But they had already discussed everything they could talk about. Assistant Professor Cleoh tripped over while distributing test papers. The morning glory that had begun to bloom in a corner of the Defense Magic Training Center had now begun to wrap itself around the outer wall. The egg tarts from the bakery downtown that were so delicious everyone was fussing about them. Clara and Anise had prepared these sorts of topics.
"What… what does love really mean? It's a lot heavier than just the feeling of liking someone, right? That's what the dictionary says as well. And that's how I've been using it too. But… that difference in weight comes from our emotions… and the weight of our emotions depends on the person…"
"Janica, wait a sec. Here, just eat this."
"Hm? Hahaha, sorry."
Clara smiled as she took a bite of her tomato. She kept watching Janica with a smile on her face.
But a cold sweat had already begun to run down the edge of her neck. And looking at Anise, the same looked to be true for her as well. They were maintaining a poker face with superhuman mental strength, but this conversation had already become a catastrophic ordeal.
Janica had begun to sound like some philosopher. And out of all the topics she could be discussing… it turned out to be love. She was seriously contemplating the difference between actually loving someone and just liking someone.
Clara and Anise had been really worried about how Janica was feeling. The image of her sitting in her room in Ophilis Hall, looking out the window, kept lingering in their minds. They didn't know what she could be thinking all alone in such a lonely place, extremely worried that she could be suffering from the guilt and taking on that burden all by herself. Fortunately, it seemed that Janica was free of such guilt.
Ten days was not a short time. For the first two to three days, maybe even up to a week, they were worried that her heart would be aching and bruised but she seemed to have recovered to some extent, which was a relief.
However, what they weren't expecting was this.
For Janica to suddenly be troubled by love… suddenly discussing the word felt like a precursor to a greater event that could have an unbelievable ripple effect.
Slam!
Claire unconsciously slammed her fork down the table. Janica, who was biting her sandwich, flinched in surprise.
Clara got up from her chair and looked around, her expression serious. There weren't many students left in the cafeteria because lunchtime was nearly over. That was a relief, at least. This meant nobody nearby was listening. And since Janica didn't have anyone to properly talk to during her probation period, then she hadn't been able to talk to anyone about this topic apart from them.
Clara sat down again, her mindset. She made eye contact with her reliable friend Anise next to her. Clara swallowed and nodded. In that brief glance, it felt like they'd exchanged a whole conversation between them.
"So…?"
The innocence of this girl needed to be protected. Clara and Anise had been putting enough effort this far and had overcome every single crisis without failure. Whenever Janica was about to get hurt or have a difficult time, they would always jump in and shield her from all the hardships that the world had to offer.
They had protected Janica from the upperclassmen who were jealous of her.
They had also protected her from an assistant professor who didn't like her because she was always favored and protected by her classmates.
They even protected her from Ed Rothstaylor who was clearly one of the worst people in the entire world.
And even though there had been some groundless rumors about the first-years about how Ed was just 'a rude punk that was actually more competent than one would think', they didn't want to be too quick to trust. His personality was definitely arrogant and wrong in the first place, and that was a fact.
Clara and Anise couldn't let such risk factors approach Janica.
"Why are you suddenly talking about that, Janica…?"
Clara was in control of the conversation. She brought up the topic with a strong heart. Anise, who was still struggling to manage her expressions, needed a bit more time to calm down.
They need to carefully uncover this topic so as not to hurt Janica who had an extremely sensitive heart.
The love story of Janica Faylover. Bad news would travel fast. If such a bomb of a rumor went off among the students, it would spread quickly. Every student would probably already know by tomorrow morning's assembly.
Just how much damage would that bring to Janica's weak heart?
Clara clenched her teeth and shook her head, wholeheartedly of the belief that she needed to stop it.
Janica slowly began to talk.
"Actually, about that… I heard this from a friend not too long ago…"
No! Janica!
You had been stuck in your room for the past ten days, so you definitely didn't meet anyone! Who in their right mind would believe that…?!
Clara barely held herself back from screaming.
"O-Oh. So… what did that friend of yours say?"
"While she was mindlessly staring off into space in her room, suddenly, someone's face came to mind…"
"Oh my! Would you look at that? I must have lost my mind! I promised to help Assistant Professor Cleoh this afternoon! I had completely forgotten! Sorry! I'll go first! Bye, see you next time!"
Anise had already decided that this was the best decision for her to make, as she could barely keep her straight face for much longer.
Clara looked at Anise, remembering their promise together, but when she saw Anise's entire face had gone red, even up to her ears, Clara had no choice but to let her friend go. Anise was no longer in a state where she was able to fight.
A comrade had died.
Everything was left to Clara now.
The usually innocent Janica. That Janica was now a deadly poison to Clara's heart.
She was already at her limit. She bit her tongue, holding back on asking all the questions she was dying to know: Who was the other person? Where did they meet? Why did her heart change towards him? When was there an opportunity for this? What will actually happen in the future?
Clara's spirit and tenacity were that of a mighty general running through a field of arrows alone.
Janica's innocence must be maintained. The faint memories of her first love should be a beautiful memory, not a shameful dark history.
"And… that person kept appearing in her dreams…"
"Is-Is that so?"
"Yeah. I heard there were even dreams where they were dancing together—or were they playing? In a flower garden. So… uh, what do you think…?"
The corners of Janica's lips were trying to form a smile. Clara seriously thought about grabbing a fork and jamming it into her thigh.
"So that's what I—no, I mean that's what she said… about… uh, yeah…"
"Oh, I see… That's quite interesting… I don't think there is a reason, you know? When someone likes or hates someone else, there is always some type of reason."
"Y-Yeah…"
Clara ended up saying some heartfelt words that were stuck in the back of her throat.
In an instant, she felt like a parent sending her daughter off to get married, and her imagination played a reel of some third-rate novel unfolding. But Clara knew all too well that that was a waste of time.
Janica wanted to hide her love story. If Clara rushed her to uncover it, Janica would only end up getting hurt.
Clara's heart as Janica's best friend was currently in a head-to-head fight with her heart as a girl curious about a friend's love story.
This was more painful than running around on two legs to get favorable results for the disciplinary committee hearing.
However, what was the most important thing in all of this? Janica herself, that's who.
As she had been saying all this time, she needed to protect her purity and innocence. Clara took a deep breath and regained her composure.
Plaster on a refreshing smile and—
"Janica, don't you think you're worried about this too much? Whether you like or hate someone, it's not as straight-cut as you might think."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Sometimes, you might hate someone simply because of their attitude, and sometimes you may really like them because they were by your side when you were having a hard time or when you were happy. That's just how humans work. I don't think you need to worry about this too much."
Finding the reason why we like or hate someone should be left to scholars in fields such as psychology and philosophy.
"It's okay to put those complicated feelings aside and just be honest with your current feelings—no, I mean your friend's feelings. Wouldn't that be better for her?"
"Uhm… yeah. I think you're right. Ha… as expected of you, Clara."
Seeing Janica smiling like so, it felt like a knife was stuck in Clara's heart.
"Although… Janica. Thinking from your friend's point of view, I don't think they would like it very much if their sensitive concerns were circling among their friends, don't you think? I think it's better that you thought about it on your own rather than getting advice from others."
Clara had just blocked the possibility of rumors spreading in advance. She was the type of person to say such things straight to the point.
"Should I not? But that friend… she… I don't think she cares about that sort of thing…"
"No, Janica. Even if that was the case, talking about such sensitive concerns to friends… it wouldn't be good for your reputation."
"Oh… oh! You're right! You're not disappointed in me, are you, Clara?"
Janica was such a lovely girl. Clara had to swipe her hand over her face before regaining her composure.
"It's fine, Janica…"
"Great. Anyways, thanks for giving me such meaningful advice. I should go back to Ophelis Hall and report on my suspension period."
"Alright, I'll sit here for a bit more before I go. I have something to think about…"
"Okay! It's been so long. It's a relief to see that you're doing well. See you again after the disciplinary period is over, Clara!"
Janica left the cafeteria after saying goodbye.
Clara put her face on the table after a while.
I did it, Anise.
She had lost every bit of strength throughout her entire body.
Clara ended up staying still for a while, recovering her energy.