Everyone has something they regret in life, that goes without saying. Aradia is no different. The amount of things she regrets is honestly too much at times.
But at the moment, she was dealing with her latest regret. The red head can't help but wonder what had possessed her past self to ever try and get on the good side of Mei.
But she would be lying to say she did not know. She did know why she did that. It was not just an impulsive action- okay maybe a little- but it was supposed to be a backup plan.
When someone is thrown into a world they have no idea of how to survive in, with concepts such as war waiting for them in the near future, it's no surprise some questionable choices are made.
Thanks to meeting Lir, Aradia knew about her "little" problem and knew who to look for but unfortunately lady luck decided she wanted a break from their relationship and left her all alone to deal with that bastard outside of the bar.
Meeting Mei was an absolute coincidence but one she was very glad for. If not for Mei.. Aradia doesn't want to think about what may have happened.
At that moment, it seemed appropriate to leave a good impression and leave an opening for her future self since she had no clue if she would be able to contact Ellen anymore.
Lady luck did return at one point though, that is why they managed to clear the illusion mansion and her gate-way was sealed.
But some decisions came back to haunt her once again.
It was the day after her confrontation with Mei and the little talk they had in her office. It was not anything special, she only asked a few questions regarding her experience with the weapon, her health and any past experience with weapons as a whole.
Aradia decided to be honest because the last thing she needs is to embarrass herself, she already does that enough with the whole magic stuff, there's no need for more, thanks.
Mei had sighed at her answers and told her to come to training a bit early to which the red head agreed.
And so, that is why Aradia is currently sitting on a beach in the changing room with her elbows resting on her knees and head bowed down into her hands
The changing room did not have much going on honestly, there were wooden benches and storage areas for everyone's clothes and belongings and some cleaning supplies shoved into the corner. It was similar to a sports locker room.
Someone poked her shoulder gently with a wooden sword. Aradia was startled, she had not even heard the person come in.
Looking up she saw her brother, Isaac looking at her with amusement.
"What?"
"What are you doing here?"
Issac asked as he looked down at her, he too had changed out of his uniform and into the training uniform.
"What do you think I'm doing?"
"Yah! Talking back to your older brother like that! Tsk, just answer the question."
Aradia stared at him for a second. She still could not get used to the fact she now has siblings. It really was not at all that fun.
"Okay grandpa. I'm here to train, why else would I be here?"
"What did you call me- huh? You are not in our class? Wait, did Mei specially decide to train you?"
"Yes."
Isaac looked like his brain was having a hard time believing that. She does not blame the poor guy for that. She has not accepted her fate either.
"But.. you cannot even lift a sword..?"
'rude'
Aradia thought to herself. It was true but that still does not mean it did not offend her.
"I'm not going to learn to wield the sword"
"Oh. Then what will you learn."
"The Firelance."
"The what?"
Isaac was beyond confused about what she was talking about. He had not heard of such a weapon before.
Aradia made a gesture with her right hand. She curled up her ring and pinky finger while both the middle and pointed fingers were outstretched and pressed against each other all while the thumb was upright.
Aradia pointed her finger gun towards Isaac and made a "boom" should while tilting her hand away, mimicking a gun's recoil.
"Oh."
Realisation dond on the blond's face. He may not know the name of the weapon but he has heard many things about it and had seen it once or twice as well.
"That is the name of it?"
"Hm."
"Are you sure you want to learn that?"
"Yes."
"Alright"
Aradia was surprised that Isaac did not question her further. He simply sat down beside her and stared at nothing in particular.
"What are you thinking so hard about?"
"The fact we will probably train together from now on"
"I don't think that will happen"
Isaac looked at her again, he did not have to voice out his question. His eyes told Aradia what he wanted to say.
"You wield a sword. I will shoot a gun. In addition to that, I'm only being taught because Mei took a special interest in me. I doubt she would let her interests get in the way of her work"
Isaac hummed softly in agreement before pausing.
"Gun?"
He said the word like it was a nail rolling off his tongue. Aradia panicked inwardly. She spoke before thinking.
Before she could excuse her mistake though, Isaac looked at her with a deadpan expression.
"You could have saved us both some mental power and could have just said you wish to learn to wield a gun instead of bothering with the whole "Fireplace" thing"
"It is "Firelance" and well, I thought thought you may not be fimiliar with the informal term"
"You just did not know the term yourself."
And then under his breath Isaac muttered:
"Stupid"
Aradia was about to throw hands when they both suddenly heard foot steps and looked at the door onto the far left and saw Mei standing in the doorway.
.
.
.
.
.
Aradia collapsed on her loft bed face first.
"You look like your soul left your body.. again"
Lir commented as he sat on the window in his pixie form. The window sill had become Lir's personal corner, there were even some throw cushions and blankets on the sill for him.
"It did"
Aradia groaned into her pillow before finally turning over and looking at Lir from across her.
"This is truly not the most flattering angle for you"
Aradia rolled her eyes before seating up. Her arms were still shaking from the hell in the guise of training she had to do earlier.
It stared it simple enough. Running and warm up exercise but then it all went downhill because her aim, to put it simply sucked.
Kim Yeon Haa had visited a few shooting ranges with her friends in the past. Key word few because her aim was questionable at best and a threat to the room at worst.
And so, Mei had her first doing exercises to strengthen her arms before moving onto improving hand eye coordination, which franky made Aradia want to kill herself..., again.
Okay that is an over exaggeration but still.
Though on a side note, by the end of training her aim did actually get slightly better despite the shakiness of her arms, so much so that it even surprised Mei. But it was not that surprising to Yeon Haa since she was quick to pick up certain things, like this for example.
"Oh, Ming Baishi came looking for you"
"Hmm?"
'what does that weirdo want now..'
"What did he say?"
"Not much. He wants us to meet with him later to discuss something important, or so he said"
"Oh"
Saying so Aradia finally got up and went to go get changed. Soon enough she was ready to go out again and as per usual Lir tagged along but from a distance.
They went towards the old abandoned hut opposite of the dorms and a little behind the main academy building.
For such a prestigious academy to have an old shabby hut laying around for no reason was something beyond Aradia, though she chose not to comment.
In the original novel, the main cast, aka Astolfo, Clara and Isaac would sometimes use the old hut as their personal hideout. Even going as far as renovating the interior, but none of the actual teacher or staff knew about it.
The red head snuck over to the hut and pushed open the door. The door was a little shorter than her so she had to bend slightly in order to get in.
Once inside she saw that the interior of the old shabby hut had already been changed. The place had been dusted after probably three generations went down and there was a wooden desk beside the window that faced the outer boundary of the academy as well as a few chairs.
Currently Ming Baishi and Astolfo were present inside the room.
"You called for me?"
Aradia asked as she closed the door behind her. The two looked far better now though still obviously tired.
"Clara wants to partner with me for the end of the year project"
Astolfo said without opening his eyes from his half laying, half sitting position on the chair.
"Oh"
"We can partner with up to four people. So I wanted to hear your thoughts on letting Clara join this.. mission, I suppose"
Aradia leaned against the wall in thought. Originally, she did not want Clara to get involved, after all, the girl already has enough to deal with as is.
But it would appear it isn't totally possible. Of course Astolfo can turn down the offer and Clara will likely never bring it up again but seeing as Astolfo would instead partner up with someone who Clara is already suspicious of.. yeah this will cause some misunderstandings.
And that is the last thing Aradia wants. In the novel Clara and Astolfo were like ride or die partners. Almost always together and going through it all together. This is a key factor for what happens later in the novel.
As Astolfo became the commander, he announced Clara as his executive officer. It's crazy to think how these literal high schoolers had to become war strategists and the likes.
Anyway, all in all, Aradia can't risk their early academy day relationship to be bad, even if it's something as silly as picking group partners.
Besides having Clara around will probably be for the best, though they will have to be careful about Ming Baishi's actual identity.
Aradia finally nodded, saying:
"It is alright with me. I think she will also be able to help us out a lot. So you should speak to her about becoming a group of three for this project"
Astolfo finally opened his eyes and nodded back. He had already gone over this problem with Ming Baishi and the stone carved man did not care who came along as long as they did not get in his way.
"Ah, also, it would appear different year students cannot group together, so.."
"So we will have to work together outside of the academy"
Aradia finished the sentence.
"It is alright. I will ask Issac to partner with me"
"Is that not too many people?"
Ming Baishi spoke with a light frown. Indeed, there were far more people involved than what Aradia had initially expected.
But Issac was trustworthy and also a part of the original main cast. Him tagging along would honestly work in Aradia's favour in the long run.
And so, she told Ming Baishi to rest assured. Even if the number of people is far more than what they had expected, the two people joining them were very trustworthy and would probably help out far more than Aradia ever could, frankly speaking.
And with that, the short secret meeting came to and end. Aradia had a light dinner before freshening up and getting into bed. She felt beyond tired.
Their exams would start soon enough and they would also start on the year end project. She also now has weapon training to do as well as magic lessons...
Aradia's breathing evened out quickly as she continued to think about all of these things. Lir watched the moon outside from the window as he listened to her breathing before he also started to get sleepy.
It had been a long day, it was finally time for some rest.
*Modern world: study session*:
Aradia: what happens to nitrogen when the sun rises?
Clara: it becomes daytrogen
Isaac: I'm going to bed
Aradia: sleep tightrogen
Clara: don't let the bed bugs bitrogen
To be continued...
What's up people? It's me Yan and I'm actually not bed *gasp* I know, the biggest plot twist of 2026
Where do I even start- actually nvm, to sum it up, I fell sick again, my mum's brother got married and if you know anything but south Asian weddings, you know that shit takes up your whole time so yeh and then I studied and studied because this year we finally chose our groups and I obviously picked the science group and then had mid terms pushed extremely early and then did that soooooo yeah
I'm once again sick, duh, results will probably take a million years to come out like last year and I'm just trying to get my social life back again, taking baby steps towards talking with people and creating once more
I have no excuse for going MIA for almost a year besides the fact that the AO3/fanfic/writers curse is indeed real soooo yeah
Anyway, enough with the depressing shit, I'm back now, I'll try post every two weeks with a new 2k word chapter but like always, no fucking promises
And I'll try to not ghost you all again
Trust bbg, I ain't no playboy, I only care about you *bites lip*
Okay it would appear my cold medicine has me acting high so I better shut my mouth for good
Wanna shut it for m-? WHO SAID THAT?!
Ahm- that's my shitty attempt at humour and now I'll do cry myself to sleep
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I crashed out while writing
Once again please forgive this lowly author for any grammatical errors or whatever
Have a good day/evening or night
And I will try to see all in next chapter
Adios amigo
Words: 2431