"Who are you expecting me to being?" Aefia smirked while grabbing onto the wrist that held her airway. "If you find my silver hair curious, you might as well have a person in your mind. I want to finish dealing with you as soon as I can get the time... and now is the perfect time to clear your doubts on me... right?" Using her last breathes, she spoke with confidence.
"Why are you trying to twist the fact?" Stephany applied more pressure against her throat as she tried harder this time, then the last time she had strangled her. This time, the shape clip, along with the hair tie, had a sharp end, which she used to press against the side of her throat. "That you are from the Imperial family?"
"Was there a reason to? Despite the fact... your father seems to have a huge fued against George. I would never want to tell you my identity if the duchess and her family is in danger." She added while finally running out of breathe and her eyes shrunk over the time.
"Stop telling lies if you already know your life is on the line with it! I know your identity already, and you are still not answering my question despite you already knowing I have the information on my hand. I am not dumb as you think I am." Stephany spoke while sending Aefia's head back to collide with the wall as she quickly learned that she was trying to kill her for real.
"Cry babies will always cry... then why aren't you crying?" Aefia spoke while burning the girl's wrist and pulling out of the grasp on her throat. She immediately stumbled to the ground while holding her neck with one hand. "Go around... telling everyone that you are now clear of my identity and sell it to bring more popularity for your father."
"You are... way too strong to deal with!" She moved backwards while checking her wrist back and forth for any scars. "Looking at you... you are definitely not just a mere only child. You have strong connections to the duchess... and I will ask Lewis about you myself." She somehow summoned darts made of paper towards the girl in front of her that shot at a very intense speed.
Swiping her finger through them, a bright show of luminous redish-orange fire took over the papers that turned into ash before it could reach her face. Standing up, her hair shielded her face, then swiping to the back as she straightened. "May I ask you a proper easy question?" She held her hand up and near her face. "In an empire... the son or daughter of the Emperor or Empress, what do you acknowledge them as?"
"... Are you serious now?" Stephany laughed as she held the sharp clip at one hand. "To that level of authority, they would be pronounced as Prince or Princess to the correct form." She added with confidence while glancing at Aefia with an unserious look.
"Now... if the daughter of a Count were to speak with or hold the name of a prince or a princess at the edge of their mouth, how should they speak?" As the dark front hair shadowed her eyes, she added while silently mocking her. "By saying their titles... the ones you just said. Why are you suddenly asking such a thing?" A response flew back as she crossed her arms.
"So... what I am trying to say is..." She spoke while bowing in front of her. "Lady Stephany... while taking his name in your mouth, you must remember to say Prince Lewis. Know your place as the daughter of a Count." She lifted her head as she watched the glimmer of embarrasement levitating over her face. Finally... I have managed to humiliate her with the most common thing. What is she going to do next?
"You!" She held up the clip as she threw it over her face and Aefia's fingers caught it in time as the dangling blue crystallized flowers made a clicking sound in the air and spun around her fingers. "What benefit are you getting by not exposing the fact that you are indeed connected to the family? I can't seem to be able to get those words out of your mouth!"
"Are you really trying to spill the words from me so you can get the most respect in front of the family?" The girl added while clenching the clip properly at her fist. "Keep in mind... that a person like you... will never get to know my real identity." As soon as the words fell, the bell for the next class rang loudly against the quiet building. "Well then... I will get going." She spoke while walking ahead and ignoring the girl behind.
***
"Hmm... you both are late. And what is up with your head Aefia?" Their teacher spoke while tapping the marker against the wooden desk as she narrowed her eyes at only one person. Disheveled dark hair that ended with silvering at the end, half the length of her arms. "Does one of you have an explanation?" She added sternly as her loud voice echoed against the room.
"I knew for short she had gotten into trouble yet again." Lewis silently spoke while tilting his head all the way and staring at the way she was clenching her hair tie and clip. "Maybe not her... but she got entangled with it." With a more stern tone, he muttered to himself. Beside him, a classmate stared at the same direction while asking, "who are you talking about?"
Jumpscared he diverted his face away and looked sideways at the classmate. "My sister it seems." He added while breathing almost heavily and looked down at his desk. "But that doesn't mean you should get your nose melted into this matter either. Just stay silent."
"Hold on... you have a sister?" The classmate asked with a little too loud a voice that caught the attention of the teacher along with it. "Sorry..." He spoke while straightening at his seat and using his pencil or scratch on a paperless surface. "If you have common sense... you should be able to say what we are learning here." The teacher added after a moment of silence.
"What? Are you dumb?! You had to shout like that?!" Lewis silently spoke while keeping his head staring at the front. "I will rip out your throat the way my sister will when we reach home." The words escaped his mouth through gritted teeth. With this, the classmate tensed a little more with wanting to know who the 'sister' was.
"Anyway... back to the rules of this classroom. What is the matter Ms. Aefia? Did the cat get your tongue?" Her attention diverted from the student to the dark gazed person standing completely expressionless... then slowly bringing a smile onto her face. "Why are you smiling? As a troublemaker-"
"As a troublemaker... I believe I didn't deserve a visit to the nurse's office to get a painkiller for my aching head. I should say Lady Stephany has got some hell of an element that allowed her to smack my head hard against the wall that is still making my head to ring." She added without a stutter, which silenced the entire room out.
"Repeat that... you had the audacity to insult a person who is much more-"
"Much more disrespectful that they don't pronounce their title while holding the names of the members of the Imperial family in their mouth." She finished the sentence while cutting off the teacher and let the silence settle in as the embarrassment could be seen hovering over the face of the person beside her. "Not only that... I think it needs to come into the eyes of every parents that have their child studying here... that the teachers here are way more disrespectful to top it off."
"Silence!" The teacher slapped the table in front of her. "To have that much courage to speak over an older person? Is that what your parents have taught you before they died? I will meet you at the principal's office later on." She spoke while holding a mocking smile on her face. The rest of the class stayed silent while replaying everything word for word as both the students bowed.
"Sure... and make sure to call my 'parent' and inform them about my misbehaviour." Aefia was the first to lift her head and walk towards her seat all the way back of the class. A smirk lingered on her face as she turned her head to the person standing to her right and walked away faster. It's my turn to enjoy your demotion... queen of pride.
Next to her seat, Merrisa stood with a concerned face and tilted her head downards as Aefia approached her row. Darn it! What the hell is she doing! She mentally thought while lifting her head up and sitting next to her. Without looking her way, she tapped the chair with her finger, alerting the girl of her actions.
"Alright... then we shall proceed with the topic of vector geometry today..." The teacher looked once towards her seat and then continued with the class. An annoyed expression illuminated on her face as she looked sideways to the orange haired girl for once. "So you found out? Or did you ask?" Her voice was heard with the most soft volume.
"I asked... your brother." She added silently back. "Although I know you said you don't want me to act any different to you then the way we are normal, but I believe you deserve an inch of respect for the position you have." Her gaze settled down towards the textbook at her table.
"No Merissa. You ought not to use any formalities in front of me. You see me as a friend... and keep that privelage for as long as you can afford it. I am a person who changes their mind in the snap of a finger, so I might get bored of you if you keep doing that." Aefia flashed a smile while flipping open her own notebook. Thanks to the fact that they were all the way to the back of the class, they were freely able to communicate with each other without a gaze looking their way.
"I am glad that I have a very powerful and brave person as my friend." Merissa added as she drew lines onto the pages and placed a hand under her chin. I am honestly happy that a person like her is in the Imperial family. The way she is smart and doesn't chase behind fame, there is a high chance that lately due to her, the empire has been going into the recognition of the cross-continental areas too. My brother had sent me that letter, and thanks to that, I have finally met the reason. To have a friend like her... I really am privelaged. "Anyway... what is up with your hair?" She added a short moment later. "You seem to have got into another fight."
"Yes... well... she wanted to know the truth." Aefia spoke while showing the hair tie entangled with the clip. "And by the looks of it, my handmaid might just run behind me like a maniac until she finds the real reason. And even after that... she will alert the duchess to stop my education here. And I will definitely not allow that stating the fact you are my friend already... if she tells the duchess... I will run and seek refuge at your house." She spoke with a smile.
"Well that's a type of strict handmaid you have there. I have one of my own too, and she is just like my grandmother." The girl spoke on as Aefia's eyes caught the attention of their teacher and she immediately kicked the side of her friend's leg. "Don't get caught in the problem I am in. I really hate that woman." She silently slide a piece of paper with the following text written on it.
Hmm? That was smart! And quick! The orange haired girl silently smiled as she looked up and the rest of the class went with silence, but scribbling on paper.
***
Around break, Lewis walked into the library as he knew that she would always appear there during this time. Not this section... so she is not into the history section today? He walked around the edges while checking each shelve and around them. The geography section came into sight as the footsteps of a single person was echoing against the carpeted ground.
Aefia stood while leaning against the shelve while reading a map in front of her that levitated with an invisible force as she played with the stick of her candy. "What was that about? Lady Stephany? I thought you hated her!" He clapped his hands to grab her attention as she turned her head sideways with her hands crossed in front of her. A seriousness overlapped her usually expressionless pale complexion.
"And I still hate her. But what is up with how I pronounce her?" She added while holding the stick of her candy out and playing with it between her knuckles. A long moment of silence later, he came to stand next to her and glanced at the same map she was reading. "Since when you were interested into something like this? Isn't this the entire map of all County, Viscount, estate and everything?" He added while staring blanking at her.
"..." She heavily breathed without a response and stayed looking at a specific point of the map. Finally, rolling it close, she put it back into the shelve and glanced at Lewis with a questioned gaze. "Before that... aren't you going to ask me to ask you what the principal said? Or maybe what you said to the principal?"
Finally being reminded of the previous conversation he clenched his fist at his sides while softly scolding her. "Why did you just leave the room without telling me anything?! And don't tell me you got beaten up by that Stephany again. What happened to using your powers?"
"What is the point of exposing my full identity? To gather more attention?" She spoke with her still serious face. "Anyway, even when you haven't asked... whatever you said at the previous encounter, you did a very good job because the next time, the blame fell on Lady Stephany." She attempted to walk away with the last words hanging in the air.
"Alright! First of all... what is your plan now?" Lewis grabbed onto her shoulder. Without looking back, she snapped her finger, silencing the entire surrounding around them... time seemed to have stopped completely.