A Daily Life

 “Wake up!” A voice called at Rumia, bringing her back into the realm of consciousness.

Rumia grumbled as she stuffed her head further into her pillow. Her newly assigned roommate was trying to act in opposition to her lethargy, pulling the glowing girl up to her feet.

“If you want to attend school on time, you have to be up early! Lucky, you have the school’s best guide at your service!”

Anise did a little bow, still in her pajamas. Rumia, on the other hand, slept in her normal clothes, but she still shined as bright as ever.

“Right…” Rumia said. “When does class start, again?”

“In about an hour and a half,” Anise said, turning around, before opening a drawer and bringing out a strange item. “I woke you up early because you were so tired that we didn’t get to talk. If we’re going to be roommates then we should at least get to know each other!”

“Huh? Sure,” Rumia said, rubbing her eyes. “Anise… right?”

“Yes!” Anise turned back towards her. “My name is Ourania Anise. Well, Anise is my first name but saying my last name first is more powerful. You’re lucky to be paired with Lunar Academy’s premier engineer!”

“Uh-huh,” Rumia nodded. Anise seemed a little bit disappointed at the simple response, so she put up her hand holding the strange device.

“I’m looking to eliminate all minor inconveniences in my day to day life,” Anise said. “For example, brushing your teeth every morning is a drag. So, I made a device that can do all of that messy work with the simple push of a button! As you can see here, the device is made of…”

Rumia stared at the girl for a while, though her mind wasn’t exactly tuning into what she was saying. She didn’t have a lot of time to process everything that was going on to her right now.

Why was she stuck here? How long is she gonna be here? How is Adelyn doing? Is Svector worried about them? She couldn’t stop thinking about those. She really hoped that Adelyn was okay. She said she would come to her eventually, but she didn’t want to just wait until that happened.

“-and that’s why brushing your teeth is such a drag. I don’t know who engineered the human body but I bet I could’ve done a way better job!”

“Hey,” Rumia asked. “Where do I go for my classes?”

“Uh,” Anise said, looking disappointed once again. “Well, you probably have a similar schedule to mine… considering we’re roommates. But, if you want details you can just push the button over there to call Pascal. She knows everyone’s schedules.”

Anise pointed to a button on the countertop between their beds. Rumia tapped it, and a blue light flared up in the middle of the room.

“Greetings, Rumia and Ourania Anise,” Pascal said, forming from the blue light into her own figure. “How may I help you?”

“What’s my schedule?” Rumia asked.

“You have a very similar schedule to Ourania Anise, taking the same general education courses. However, she does have an engineering class that you do not have. I shall create a document so you can observe your schedule at any time.”

Pascal raised her hand and created a blue square, with a schedule written down on it. Reading, mathematics, merchanting and ecology. It seemed to be rather basic.

“Thanks,” Rumia said.

“Remember that classes begin in one hour,” the assistant explained. “Please do not be late.”

“Wow, half an hour has already passed?” Anise muttered. “I didn’t realize that's how long I was talking…”

“Well,” Rumia began to head to the door. “I guess I’ll see you in class.”

“Wait, hey! You can’t just go, you don’t even know the school layout yet! Let me give you a tour!”

Anise began to run after Rumia as she left the room, but then paused when she realized she was still in her pajamas. Rumia could use this hour to herself anyways.

***

The school was situated fairly close to one of the walls of the city. A simple walk of ten minutes was enough to get her staring at the grand stone wall, decorated with glowing flowers and vines.

Rumia knocked on the wall. It was about as sturdy as she expected. She looked up at how much they towered over her. It was probably 75 meters over her head, staring down at her. She had no idea how she was going to escape this place.

“Classes are starting soon,” a voice came from behind her. Rumia jumped a little bit. She turned around to see Grimace, looking as moody as ever.

“Right. Yeah…” she nodded. “Hey, how long am I actually staying here?”

“Minimum? Until the lockdown is over,” Grimace said.

“And when is that? And why is this city under lockdown anyways?”

“I cannot declassify that information to you.”

“Oh come on! I’m stuck in this place and you can’t even give me a reason why? Just tell me. It must be a pain for you to keep me here anyways.”

Grimace looked hesitant at Rumia’s request, as if considering it. However, he ended up shaking his head anyway.

“That information is only for those in charge, not for you,” he said.

“Who? They’re keeping the entire city locked down like this for what?” Rumia demanded once more. “Maybe if they didn’t keep it a secret people would bother to fix it!”

Grimace sighed, and looked at Rumia. Looking at his eyes, Rumia could see a pang of regret in them.

“Fine,” Grimace said. “Only to you. If you tell anyone else this, I’m going to be in big trouble. Especially not Pascal.”

“What is it, then?” Rumia responded.

“The capital, Oscur, is the most pronounced and prestigious city out of all of the major cities. We house the royal family, Luminis, which acts as a governing body to the other cities. Or well, we used to at least.”

“Really, what happened?”

“Both the King and the Queen died of illness at around the same time. Leaving just the princess. She was too young to properly rule at the time, so…”

“Someone else took their place?”

“Yes. The governor of this city, Rebecca Esther. She’s the one currently in charge, and also is the one who enacted the lockdown.”

“Why?”

“A very sudden order, the princess has gone missing.”

The two of them both went silent after that. Rumia didn’t know what to say after that revelation. The princess was missing?

“The princess? Is that why the lockdown is enacted?” Rumia asked.

“Yes, we believe that she is somewhere in the capital. So we’re hoping we can find her relatively soon,” Grimace said. “So far, no luck.”

Rumia paused for a moment to think. While it was unfortunate, it did also provide an opportunity. If she could find the princess, then maybe she could get out of here.

“If you tell anyone why, then there is most likely going to be a significant amount of civil unrest. So I ask that you keep this secret,” Grimace said.

“Yeah. I got you, thanks for that,” Rumia nodded.

“Classes are starting soon too. You should go back.”

“Right,” Rumia responded. She began to walk back to the school.

***

Rumia’s conversation with Grimace had gotten her thinking. There were two points of exit for her.

One, there was the option of finding the princess. If she was in the city, then finding her would release the lockdown. Then, she can go and find Adelyn on her own.

Two, she could try and break out of the city. This was probably the more dangerous option, but she wasn’t planning on coming back anyways. Though, the risk of failure was very high. She doesn’t want to imagine what would happen if things went wrong.

But, if she could not find the princess, then it might have to happen. She could also wait for Adelyn to come, but she doesn’t know how long that would take.

Rumia’s mind raced with these thoughts all throughout her classes. She walked through each class without much of a mind to what actually was happening in them. The only thing she could think about was her plan of escape.

“Hey, hey, heyyyy-” a snapping in her ears brought her out of her thoughtspace. It was Anise. Rumia wasn’t paying attention to her own movement and found herself in the cafeteria. A large number of other kids were there, chattering.

“Huh…?” Rumia asked, turning to the girl.

“You’re finally awake. Jeez,” Anise crossed her arms. “You were like a zombie through the entirety of class. Did you need my notes or anything?”

“Oh, no. I’m fine,” Rumia brushed the girl off before taking a bite of her cafeteria food. It tasted better than she expected. Though she was about to go back off to the depths of her own mind.

“...did you see the new glowing girl?” a voice came from behind them. That stopped Rumia from falling back into her void for a second. She turned around to listen to the voice.

“Yeah, she was kind of like a zombie with how she walked. I think she’s rooming up with Anise too. Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but do you think Anise created an entire girl?” A second kid spoke.

“I wouldn’t put it past her. She probably copied a bit of Pascal, she’s always doing something crazy like that. Though the fact that she even glows is kind of crazy, I wonder what’s up with that?”

Rumia blinked a bit. She supposed that she hadn’t been acting the most normal during her day. However, more importantly, she leaned over to Anise.

“Hey, is that your reputation?” Rumia asked her.

“Oh, you’re finally paying attention now?” Anise responded, but then she opened her eyes wider and shook her head. “I mean, yes! I’m the greatest engineer in this school! I’m sure you have noticed from all of my inventions!”

Rumia tried to think back. She did vaguely remember something she said about her inventions, but she couldn’t remember what exactly.

“Yeah, I noticed. So, uh… if you’re so good at engineering, could you help me a little with something? I’ll… I’ll tell you later,” Rumia responded.

“Hm? Of course I can help you!” Anise’s eyes seemed to light up at the question. “Everyone could use my help anyways, really. Eheh-”

Rumia clapped her hands together.

“That’s great!” Rumia smiled. “After class we can meet in our room-”

“Though obviously, you’re not going to get my inventions for free,” Anise said with a little bit of a smile. “Let me ask for something in return.”

“Ah,” Rumia should’ve expected this.

“Oh, it’s nothing big,” Anise said. “You’re just gonna have to let me run some tests on you, that’s all!”

“What? What does that mean?”

“It means that I want to figure out what’s up with the fact that you glow. I mean, everyone’s noticed that at this point. I’ve never seen anything else like it in my life, so…”

Rumia was confused. Though, it couldn’t be too bad.

“Fine, I’ll do a few experiments with you, if you’ll help me out,” Rumia said.

“Sweet! I’ll see you after class then! I need to prepare something,” Anise said before getting up, having already finished her lunch and walking off.

Rumia had no idea what might come next.