55 Chapter 55 - Ice can melt, Plants can burn

[Kathyln Glayder POV]

Light was slowly entering my room through my window, revealing my completely frozen floor, walls and shelves. My eyes were dry, with traces of dried tears on my cheeks, I didn't feel like getting out of bed, I preferred to lie down, hugging the plush made by the castle employees.

It was a life-sized Luz plush, I had to beg Varay that, the moment we were at his sister's party, she would take the measurements so I could have it. Its clothes were completely black, so it didn't show any dirt, and whenever I squeeze it, I feel the soft cotton and stuffing it.

"Luz.... Forgive my brother~ he's an idiot~ please stay here with me forever~" I spoke quietly and started kissing the plush's cheek, until I heard someone knocking on the door, and I jumped out of bed with surprise.

"Kathyln, it's already 6 am. You told me you wanted me to wake you up at this time every day, remember?" It was Doradrae's voice on the other side of the door.

"I-I'm going...." I said a little annoyed for someone to disturb my fantasy world.

I got up and quickly put on my committee uniform, since until that moment, I was only in pink pajamas. I fixed my hair with my comb, put on some accessories and went to the door, opening it.

"Good morning, how are you?" I looked ahead, seeing the dwarf.

"I'm fine and you—? A-ahn? Aah... ATCHIM!" she sneezes and hugs her own shoulders. "M-my god, how cold... Is that why you're always pale as snow?"

"Sorry, yesterday to take some of the anger out I felt... I blew up ice magic in my room..." I replied, with a fixed gaze on her, ignoring the last question she asked.

"I-I see.... Do you want some help?" She said walking away from the door.

"No thanks. Can we have breakfast soon?" I said closing the door after passing it, and locking it.

"Oh.. Okay let's go." Doradrea said walking with me to the main room.

There I could see Kai, Feyrith, Elijah and Theodore, the four of them seemed to be already feeding. Feyrith and Kai were having some sort of tea, with the elf eating cookies and Kai deciding to just drink it. While Elijah and Theodore seemed to have the same meal, plain coffee with a sandwich.

When they saw me, Kai gave a weak nod, Feyrith stared at me for a while and then invited me to sit with them. Elijah gave me a deep look, with those glasses making him more serious than he should have been, and nodded. And finally Theodore gave just a simple nod as he poured more coffee into another mug.

"Did you sleep well, Princess Kathyln?" Feyrith was saying, as Doradrae walked away from me and sat down next to Theodore, it looks like that other coffee mug was for her.

"I slept like I was in the snow." I replied a little monotonously, sitting down on one of the chairs and getting myself a mug.

It took a few seconds after starting to drink tea, that I noticed the disappearance of two people.... Besides my dear Luz and his brother.

"Umm... Where's Claire?" I asked and everyone looked as confused as I was, I clearly knew why Curtis wasn't here, he didn't have the guts after what he did yesterday, but Claire was something else, there was no reason for her to disappear like that.

"Hm... I think Theo knows, I mean, he was the one who woke up first as far as I know." said our elf, clearly putting the responsibility of answering me on the back of the oldest boy in our group.

"The last time I saw Claire was when she left here yesterday. I didn't see her ever coming back here, or leaving here this morning.... So.. Did she really come back or not?" When he said that, we were all scared, did something happen to her?

"Maybe she's also affected by what happened to those pretty boys." Dora said over her coffee, it was still strange to see someone call Luz and Arthur "pretty boys" so openly, but it was easy to deduce that she was making fun of them, since they had no muscles and dwarves see beauty only in the physical brutally strong bodies.

I tried to catch my breath and calm down, I just had a thought to pierce her skull.... Argh... Luz is mine! How has no one been able to notice this before?!?

{A/N: She thinks that holding someone's arms, without the other person trying to resist, is a universal sign that they own each other.}

"Well, I guess I'll visit the infirmary now, to see how they are doing." I said, getting up.

"Wait, now? Kathyln, it's still too early, you have class for now, just like me, Dora and Feyfey, why don't we all go together in the afternoon?" Elijah said, finishing his coffee.

"Feyfey?" I look confused.

"Feyfey?" Theodore and Dora are also confused and Kai started to laugh.

Looking in Feyrith's direction, his face was flushed with embarrassment, making him suddenly stand up. "Who told you that name, Elijah?!?"

"Well, Arthur and Luz mentioned to me a few times that this was the nickname you had as a child." Knight explained himself and we all started laughing, even I gave a weak laugh.

The elf's cheeks and the tips of his ears were extremely red, he was trying to hide his face, but still his long ears were exposed. It was impossible not to notice the shame he had, now we knew of a childhood nickname he had.

"I will take revenge on this!!!" He said running out of the room, carrying his backpack with him.

"Well, you better get ready for class, I'll be training a little in an area of ​​the campus. The 'Deviant Magic Battle' class I'll have this afternoon is going to be intense from what some of my colleagues said." Theo said filling another mug of coffee for himself and got up, taking a backpack with him and waving to everyone after leaving.

After that, Kai returned to his room, leaving only me, Elijah, and Doradrae in the main room. I let out a heavy sigh and stared at my cup that still had some tea in it. I finished drinking all that and put a cookie in my mouth, I decided to get out of there too, leaving the two representatives of Darv alone.

They mentioned before how much longer I should wait to visit him, but I couldn't stand it, my heart was beating too fast, and that was more important than any class. So, instead of going to the classroom, I went to the market part of the academy.

That area was quite lovely, and the frigid morning weather in the autumn season made things even better, the sky seemed not to have fully cleared up yet, with the red and yellow of the sun still showing beautifully. I started to imagine him here, with me, walking next to me in that landscape.

I noticed that there were some flower shops that were being opened for the day, an old lady was opening the door of one of these shops using a key. I decided to approach carefully.

"Good morning dear, how can I help you?" The old lady said smiling when she saw me there, she had a sweet and lovely voice, she possibly got several customers with that way of hers.

"Good morning. I'd like to buy some flowers for someone special." I said smiling.

"Oh, all right, young lady. Do you have any color preferences?" She said entering the store, and I followed her.

"I would like a white one, I feel that this color represents me very well." When I said that, she smiled at me.

"Oh, do you want to give someone special a flower that can represent you? Hmmm. I see it's really very important, so how about..." She said as she went to the back of the store, returning with a bouquet of white flowers, their petals looked soft and delicate, giving an impression that they could break with the touch, but the closer to the center, the more a faint pink appeared.

"Woah...." I said, impressed by that and took a good look. "It's so beautiful... It's perfect. I'd like six flowers like that."

"It's for now." The sweet old lady would take six of that flower and put them together neatly, then hand me over. "It will be 2 silver coins."

I kept looking at those flowers and took 5 silver coins from my bag, handing them to her. "You can keep the change."

"Oh... Thank you young lady. Have a great day at school." She said waving at me as I walked out of her store and walked back through that area.

I went towards a restaurant that also functioned as a pastry shop. I entered there when I saw that the place was open and I could see several chocolates and other types of sweets, while there was an open part of the establishment, where there were tables and people could order to eat. A waiter approached me.

"Good morning miss, are you here for something to eat?" He spoke politely and with a classy demeanor.

"Not now, I wanted to order some chocolates to eat later." I warned him and he handed me a menu with the types of chocolates they have.

"You can choose, miss." He said, but then walked away when he saw that he had been called to one of the tables in the restaurant part.

There were several options, cakes, creams, hot chocolate, chocolates....

"I think I'll get some stuffed chocolates..." I thought, as I looked at where the waiter had gone, and I got a little angry to see... H I M.

I saw my brother sitting there, he decided to come eat outside of school so he wouldn't look at me or Elijah. My irresponsible brother was at a table far away, he didn't seem to pay attention to anything around him while eating a cake in a sloppy way, he had bandages on his hands and his main weapon leaning against the side of the table. The waiter I'd been waiting for had gone to his table apparently to deliver an order of a hot chocolate drink, and finally returned to me.

"Have you decided, miss?" the waiter asked.

"I'd like four cream-filled chocolates." I said and soon he seemed to take my order, leaving it in a lovely white package with the restaurant's logo on top, as they were handmade chocolates, the total was about 2 silver coin, and I paid quietly for it.

"Have a great day." He said and I waved leaving there.

"That idiot brother of mine, he had to be right where I was going...? That useless one! Useless, useless, useless!!! He caused my Luz to get hurt!!" These were my thoughts looping over and over again.

Soon I started to calm down, heading towards the academy's infirmary, while mentally humming my beloved's name. It was already 7:20am, I was late for my first class of the day, but I didn't care, after all I was going to visit the person I want most in the world.

"Good morning, I would like to visit a friend... His name is Luz Leywin, I heard that he, his brother and Princess Tessia had an accident." I told the receptionist for the medical part of the Academy.

"Oh Princess Kathyln, what a surprise to see you here... Shouldn't you be in class?" he asked me.

"Yes, I should, but I was worried to hear the news this morning." I lied, saying that I found out about this today, it would make him think I was here on impulse and not because I wanted to miss class.

"I see, it's ok then. The patient Luz Leywin hasn't woken up yet, but we realized that he just needs to rest, we do everything possible, now he just needs to wake up. And as for the people who were in the same incident, Princess Tessia Eralith seems to have awake, but was recommended to remain in bed for the entire day, while patient Arthur Leywin appears to have entered a stable state, with the possibility of being released in four days at the latest." he spoke as he picked up a list. "You are allowed to see all three if you want."

"Hm? What do you mean?" I asked because I didn't understand the last part.

"Director Goodsky has given us lists saying who is allowed to visit these three patients, you are on the list for all of them." He answered me.

"Oh. Okay." I got the room number from the receptionist and went directly to the room where Luz was.

Carefully, I opened the door and went inside, it was a room with very light colors, with a window behind the bed where Luz was lying. He was covered in bandages all over his body while that beautiful face of his was exposed. My god, why is he so handsome....?

But I noticed what was next to him.....

"A-ahn....?" there was red hair touching his face.

I followed that hair slowly with my eyes, until I realized that Claire was sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed, her head tilted a little so that her long ponytail was touching MY MAN.

"W-what do you think you're doing?!?!" I mentally screamed in anger seeing that, but then I shook my head. She is the leader of our group, of COURSE she would be there to see him, but did she sleep?! How long had she been here to have fallen asleep?!

I slowly approached her and poked her on the cheek, making her slowly wake up. Claire had a line of saliva running down her mouth.

"Ehn? Ehn....?" She tries to understand what was happening and looks at me, it takes a few seconds for her cheeks to turn red. "K-kathyln?! What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Luz, I had permission from my Teacher for the class now." I lied. "And you? what are you doing here?"

"I think I fell asleep... I was quite sleepy and I just closed my eyes a little. I'm sorry, people must have been worried." She said covering her face.

"Okay are you going to stay here longer or...?" I asked her and she gets up quickly.

"I'm going to train today before my afternoon class. Any news?" her face reddened even more after saying that, I don't know why.

"Apparently the receptionist said that at dawn Arthur and Tessia woke up. Tessia looks like she's going to be in bed all day, and Arthur has become more stable, but he won't be able to leave the hospital wing for four days." when I said that, a huge smile came over Claire's face, but soon she stopped smiling, signed.

"You mean they came here at dawn, saw me and didn't even bother waking me up?" she said with wide eyes, and I shrugged, because I didn't know.

"Okay, I'll go, don't forget your classes, understand?" She said giving me a big hug "And he'll be fine." then she leaves.

Now being alone, I placed my flowers next to Luz, noticing yellow flowers that possibly Claire brought, I could only think of one thing. "I bet they will rotten. Do I freeze them?" but this idea left me after I saw the possible consequences of it.

I sat in the chair right next to where he was lying, saw his hand exposed there and took it for me, stroking it. "So soft~ softer than my doll~" I thought, how could someone who struggled so much have such smooth skin?

I took one of the four chocolates and ate it with my right hand, while my left hand was busy holding my beloved's. "Eating a sweetie hand in hand with you~ this is so cute~" I spoke quietly.

"Yes dear, can I taste it?" My mind could hear his voice, but his mouth wasn't moving and his eyes were closed.

"Oooh~ do you want some?" I said putting one of the chocolates touching his lips.

He didn't make any moves, so for some reason, I took that candy back and ate it myself, it was completely on impulse, I don't know why I did it, but it felt so good~

"Tasted good, didn't it?" He spoke again in my imagination.

"Y-yes~ quite a lot... But now I want to taste something else~" I spoke softly to him as my heart slowly accelerated.

I was climbing on top of my lover, sitting on his belly, my face getting extremely hot, my heart feeling like it was going to explode and a smile forming on my face, everything around me, in my vision, was getting blurred, except him. He was the only thing I focused on. Only him. Only him...him.

I started to bring our faces closer to each other, feeling the light and soft breath he released. First to return the first gentle kiss he gave me the day he saved me, placing a kiss on his forehead. Then I return the second gentle kiss he gave me that day he was in my room, placing a soft kiss on his cheek. And now I wanted give him a NEW kiss, bringing our lips together slowly.

"Hihihi. I hope you wake up like Art, broth—" someone's voice made me completely stop what I was doing, I was millimeters away from joining our lips, when I slowly walked away and turned towards the door, without getting off my beloved.

I saw pointed ears, long silver hair, extremely fair skin and emerald eyes. It was the other princess, she was seeing the situation, with a frightened expression.

._._._._._._._._._._._._._.

[Tessia Eralith POV]

It was the students' first night at Xyrus Academy, tomorrow would be considered the first day of classes. I had just left the student council room, after my "brother" had paid a visit and handed everyone a tray of cupcakes in apology.

Walking through the corridors, I saw that in the canteen a fight was taking place, a use of magic outside the battle system and inside a common and closed place. This was a major violation of school rules. Upon seeing the situation well, I saw Arthur, along with that boy from before, trying to defend himself against a noble and his group.

The two seemed to accept the fight of the noble and his group, but they didn't attack, they just dodged magic blows and made them attack each other with an optimal strategy. I'd better do something, before those nobles get hurt because of Art.

So I used a plant spell I learned from BigSis Alea, a little later I unlocked plant deviant. Creating vines that held the attacking group, in addition to holding their leader by the legs and arms leaving him hanging in the middle of the canteen.

The students, who were previously having dinner and now saw the fight, were wide-eyed when they noticed that magic, and after a few seconds, even the malefactors realized the situation.

"P-President Tessia?!?" one of them even spoke up, afraid of what I might do, even though I hadn't appeared to them yet.

In an even comical way that I didn't imagine happening, Art held tight to the leader of that group's pants and lowered them, making everyone see an underwear with black feather designs on it.

"Oooh! Is that why your family name is 'RAVEN POOR'?" All the students started laughing when Arthur said that and soon he looked towards the entrance to the cafeteria, where I was spying.

I quickly hid my face from his view, still close and my back to the entrance. I felt a hand touch my shoulder, and when I turned around, it was the person I adored the most. His brown hair was soft and beautiful, the ponytail made it more elegant, his face with an incredible feature, blue eyes like the sky, making me think I was falling into the clouds beyond. Yes, that was him.

"Tess, long time no see." Art said, smiling at me.

"Yeah... But not that much, we saw each other this morning." I said smiling, feeling my cheeks heat up.

"Yes, but we couldn't even speak at that time." he answered me, giving me a wink.

"Oh.. Okay.. Yes we can talk. Do you want me to take you to the dorm?" I asked.

"We can take the long way around." He said and so we started walking.

"How has it been... your adventures?" I asked, taking him by surprise.

"How you..?" I interrupted him.

"Luz told me about it when he came here, through Prince Curtis, plus the fact that your brother showed those things at the old meeting that took place... Did you think I was silly enough not to understand that? " I answered him. "But now, tell me, how have your adventures been?"

"Well, you know how the last one was..." He said that in a low voice and I sighed.

That situation of their last adventure was too tense, a noble betraying them in the end, members of the party being killed, and on top of that having to destroy an S-Class mana beast.... But he was still here, which showed the how powerful he is and how powerful I want to become.

"Yes, I know.... I was quite scared." I said in a shaky voice and soon I felt him holding hands with me, squeezing tight as if to show he was still here.

It made me feel intense heat on my cheeks and the tips of my ears as we walked together, with the moonlight finally touching our faces as we started walking across the campus lawn.

"Tess, enjoying that... We're alone at last, and that moonlight looks great on your hair... I wanted to show you something." Arthur said, giving me a smile as we walked hand in hand, but soon he let go and turned to me.

"W-what would it be?" I said awkwardly.

"AAH! THAT GUY! WHY DOES HE HAVE TO SAY THESE THINGS?!?!" I internally screamed at that thought.

He took his dimensional ring and took something wrapped in a cloth out of it, he unrolled it and I could see a beautiful moss green mana color. Instantly reminding me of... Wait...

"Wait a minute... Isn't that... the elderwood guardian's mana core?" I spoke in shock.

"Yes, and if you remember that meeting, it has a beast will... I want it to stay with you. Your mentor said how much you saw me as a goal to become stronger... I feel I must help you. somehow...you can keep this, now it's yours." With his words, I was extremely pleased...

However... I ended up causing a disaster, as usual...

After receiving this, still at dawn, I decided to try to force all the mana core into my body, I felt an intense fever and passed out in the process, I absorbed it very quickly and when I woke up the next day at 9 am, I saw that I absorbed everything.

With that, I went to the special training room that master Cynthia let me have and I was training a little to get a little excess mana, even one of her assistants observed me and said that I was doing very well, without me having told her about my gift.

In my first class after lunch, I was put to fight Prince Curtis, I was showing him all my strength, using spells to restrain his mana beast and some vine whips to take him down. But my body started to feel strange.

The excessive use of vines seemed to be awakening the elderwood guardian's beast will, because I didn't have time to do a minimal assimilation process, the dizziness started to win, and I fell on top of my own vines. I was feeling too weak, while my opponent didn't seem to have noticed it and launched a strong attack against me.

I felt a strong hug covering me and a powerful voice screaming a spell, my eyes opened and I could only see Art's face, worried as he hugged me tightly and everything turned white....

After the white... Everything went dark... And after the dark, a light appeared in front of me, when I managed to open my eyes.

"P-Princess Tessia? Are you okay?" I heard a voice I didn't know, with my vision slowly coming into focus.

"I-I think so... W-what happened?" I said trying to sit up, I felt like I was in some kind of bed.

"You had an accident, but two students managed to protect you." when the voice said that, my vision returned to normal.

I was inside one of the rooms in the academy's medical wing, I know this only because Master Cynthia walked with me through every space of the academy. The person speaking to me appeared to be an emmitter in the standard employee uniform of the place.

"I see...and...wait! And Arthur! And the-" He interrupted me.

"Both students, Luz and Arthur Leywin, are here too, Luz Leywin is in a state of unconsciousness, while Arthur Leywin seems to be slowly recovering, but he is still falling asleep and waking up at random times, he is not stable for now." he spoke and I slowly tried to calm down.

"How long have I been here?" I asked.

"You've been passed out for the rest of the day, now it's 2:00am. You better get some rest, in the morning you'll get a decent breakfast." He said and then left that room, turning off the light.

I tried to sleep, I didn't think I would be able to because of my guilt, but it was just me blinking my eyes, which already had sunlight streaming through my window. I was actually still quite tired by the way.

I got up carefully, noticing now that I was wearing a white dress and gray shorts that came down to my knees. Getting out of bed, I walked down the hall, until I found another employee.

"Princess Tessia? Is everything okay?" she asked me.

"I'm... It's just that I woke up now and they told me that this morning I could be free..." I replied.

"Well, we informed your parents, and they said they were going to visit you, but that you should stay here at least for the rest of the day, understand?"

"Oh... Okay. But can I go see my friends?"

"Are you talking about the two boys who came with you? Yes...Actually they are in the rooms next to yours." She warned me as she pointed to the doors. "Want me to bring you breakfast?"

"I'd love to, you can put it in my room and I'll be back in a few moments after seeing them... How are they by the way and... What time is it?" I kept asking more and more, curious.

"Alright, princess. The black haired boy, who took the most damage, is still passed out, but the treatment shows he should be fine when he wakes up. The brown haired boy is stable for now, but has gone to rest. I just gave him his breakfast. And... about the time? I think around 7:00am." She warned me and I smiled at her.

"Thank you." I said and then went towards one of the rooms, with steps still a little slow because I was sleepy.

I saw Arthur lying in his bed, resting and with an empty plate of food on a nearby table, he had some injuries, but other than that he looked very well. Sylvie was lying with him hugging her like a plush.

I thought it was so cute that I stayed there for a while watching them, I approached and gave Sylvie a light caress, she seemed to wake up, but in fact she just hugged my hand in an adorable way while she slept.

"Cute...." I said softly, I didn't want to wake Art, so I carefully pulled my hand away.

"I hope you have a good rest..." I said as I gave my dear friend's mana beast a gentle kiss on the forehead, and then walked out of his room.

"Eh?" when I left there, I saw Claire leaving Luz's room, we stared at each other for a while.

"Hi, Tessia. Are you feeling better?" she asked, her face completely red.

"I'm fine. What were you doing there?" I spoke with a raised eyebrow.

"I came here to visit the two brothers, I was going to visit you too, but it seems I'm not on the list of people allowed to visit you. As I understand it, Cynthia made that list." She answered me.

"Oh. Got it.... We'll see later, tomorrow I can get out of here."

"I hope so." Claire said hugging me and get away.

"Hm..... How strange..." I thought for a while as I walked into Luz's room.

"Hihihi. I hope you wake up like Art, brother—" I said as I opened the door, but I soon stopped when I saw a girl sitting on top of Luz as if she was trying to steal a kiss from him. My face got extremely warm seeing that scene and the girl turned towards me when she noticed me, and I saw her face, it was Kathyln Glayder.

"K-kathyln?... W-what are you doing?" I asked confused.

She didn't answer me, she just kept silent looking me in the eyes, her expression was totally neutral, but her cheeks were incredibly red and for some reason she stared at me as if she was a giant mana beast ready to kill its prey. She slowly got off him, opened the window and.... She jumped out of there.

"...." I scratched my eyes and looked there again to see if I was delirious, and the window was still open, in addition to having a box of chocolates and white flowers on top of Luz.

"... Fear." It was the only thing I could say in that situation.