2.5 The Merry Band: Aurora

After a rather boring geography lesson, mostly so because I’m already well equipped with geographical knowledge, we had a class on myology. Once that was done, our school day was over. This is a boarding school of course, so it’s not that we had anywhere else than school to go to.

For most of us that is. From our room, you have a clear view on the school gates and even from all the way up here I could see the girl in the hood leave. If I recall correctly, you can’t leave the school grounds without an approved reason to do so or when the school closes during winter-, spring-, fall- and summer break.

“Hey Odin,” I said as I sat down at my desk while he was already lazing off in bed. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

“Plans?” he scoffed. “Wilderhearts don’t make plans, we… uh… we do as we like!”

“…Sure.”

I opened the pamphlet of the school’s floor map to see what kind of things could keep me busy until night. There were various ‘after class activities’ and even an entire ground for the purpose of magic training. With a myriad of options to choose from, I decided to go with the most Leith thing to do; I headed to the library.

On all floors it said library on the north-west side of the building, The first one I decided to check out was my floor’s, the third floor’s, one.

Once I arrived, there wasn’t anyone else there. Without a librarian to talk to, and not much help from the wishy-washy way the shelves were stored, I decided to walk through the library and pick out some books at random.

The first shelf I stopped by was filled with books about mythical weapons. I wonder if there’s anything written about Gungnir in here, I thought to myself as I picked up the thickest book in the aisle.

The next row of shelves I stopped by was filled with music. I don’t play any instruments, I’ve never had any interest in playing one either and honestly, I’m not that big on music in the first place, and yet I picked a book from this shelf as well.

The final find of the day should be something that could give me, and the rest of Team 6, a little boost during our first test.

It took me a while, but eventually I stumbled upon the place where documentations of historical battles were shelved. Once again I picked the thickest book off the shelf.

With three books in my hands, I walked around the library again, looking for a place where I could flip through the pages before borrowing them.

In the corner of the room the farthest away from the door were twelve desks, placed in groups of two facing two. Behind the desk formation were three couches, two facing each other and the other one facing the desks. In between them was a low table that could be reached from each couch. There I also came across the first person in this library.

She wasn’t a classmate of mine, which makes sense since there’s ten first year classes each consisting of thirty students. And that’s only counting the Royal Guard students.

I couldn’t keep standing here, I quickly had to make a decision. I’d prefer not to read seated face to face with a stranger, but I really want to sit on the couch and not on the wooden chairs at the desks.

I ended up choosing the couch in the middle, seated at the far end away from her. The moment I sat down, she lowered the book that was pretty much pressed against her nose, placed it down on her lap and pressed her glasses further up her nose with both of her hands.

I felt her staring daggers at me as I picked one of the three books to read. It ended up being the music one I chose on a whim. I opened the first page titled “Niowiht Hymne” which had a music score below it. The second page explained the meaning of the melody. In short: the song means ‘Anthem of Nothingness’, it’s a song that tries to convey that nothing matters in a beautiful way.
How is one supposed to catch that from a mere melody, though…?

Before checking the book’s third page, I saw that the girl seated diagonally from me was still staring.

The third page, a much better song to put on the first page if you ask me, was called “Lied van Eldiron” the song that is played when the king makes his entrance.

Before I checked the fourth page, she suddenly said, “My name is Aurora. What is your name?” The way she spoke is what I imagine the personification of a newspaper would sound like. I felt a little bad for thinking a thought that came out so rude.

“I’m Leith.”

She tilted her head slightly, “…Leith?”

My name isn’t common at all… so perhaps her confusion stems from the uniqueness of my name.

“I suppose my name is quite strange, huh…”

She slowly shook her head from side to side. “Leith…” she whispered. “By any chance, are you familiar with petrification?”

“…What?” The suddenness created a pool of questions in my mind, deep enough to make me drown. All I could reply with was a simple, “No…”

“Oh, I see. Please forgive me then. It is a pleasure to meet you, Leith.” Since the moment she began the conversation, she hadn’t dropped eye contact. “I noticed that a lot of students nowadays prefer more physical activities compared to brushing up their minds in the library.”

She said it so matter-of-factly that I found it hard to reply. Again. “Uh, yeah… I thought I was the only one in the library when I entered earlier.”

“I thought so, too. I suppose I actually was the only one until you entered.”

She’s still locking eyes…!

Breaking the silence once more, she said, “Tell me, Leith, what sort of books do you like to read?”

Aren’t bookworms supposed to be the quiet type… Why is she so talkative? Though, perhaps I don’t mind talking a lot when it’s about books.

“I like reading history books… and tales from far away. Oh, I also like reading about magic.”

“You have interesting taste, Leith,” she remarked.

There was another silence since she didn’t tell me her preference… or is she waiting for me to ask her?

“What about you?”

“Oh, I am so glad you asked. I also love reading about magic, mythical weapons and my absolute favourite topic to read about is art history.”

“…Mythical weapons, huh,” I said out loud without realising.

“Mmhmm, I have been keeping myself busy with making a catalogue of my favourite ones. One day I plan to turn it into an official work full of information, both the basic stuff and the information that is a little harder to come by.”

I didn’t hesitate for even a second as I asked, “Do you know anything about the lance Gungnir?”
For the first time since the start of our conversation she averted her eyes. In between her and the couch’s armrest laid her leather schoolbag. She took a pile of loose pages out of it, looked at her lap where the book still laid and put the pages back. First, she took the book off her lap, then took the pages out of the leather bag again and placed those in her lap.

“Gungnir… Gungnir…” she whispered as she flipped through the pages. “Oh, it seems I found it.”

She held it up towards me without saying anything else. The way she did, I couldn’t reach it, neither could I read what she had written down from here.

After a bit of silence, she turned the page her way and read aloud, “Gungnir. This weapon originates from the myth of a god of the north called Odin. Some extra info: it is rumoured that with this lance, just about anyone wielding it could hit their opponent without missing. Furthermore, equally impervious to failure is its return to sender.”

She turned the page my way again. That’s still too far away for me to reach…

Though that bit of information was quite interesting, on the short end, but still interesting. That’s what made me think that I should ask her about her favourite one to really get into the depths of this.

“Thanks, I’ll try to remember that. What have you written down about your favourite weapon?”
Her eyes that stick to mine like tree sap sticks to paper suddenly lit up. “Oh, I am so glad you asked!” Her voice also sounded a little less newspaper-y all of a sudden. “My number one absolute favourite weapon is the one that princess Hikari of East-Twynne is rumoured to possess—

—Kusanagi no Tsurugi.”

I had never heard of that weapon before.

“Hers is also rumoured to be fire imbued. If that happens to be true, then without a shadow of a doubt is she in possession of a weapon second to only our own king’s weapon called the Tizona.”

“…Tizona?” I felt like I was supposed to know stuff like this, especially as a guard in training.

“Yup! Absolutely nothing is known about the history of the sword, but what is known is that the sight of the sword’s cross-guard has made his every opponent surrender in fear. Hence why it is considered the strongest sword, he has yet to lose a battle with it after all.”

“Woah…! That sounds really cool… Making your opponents forfeit at the sight of the might of your weapon!”

“I agree.” For the first time, she smiled. “Although I still believe that the princess’s sword is my favourite.” She averted her eyes again, flipping through the loose pages of her soon to be catalogue.

“Oh, it seems I found it.” She held it out at the awkward distance again, but this time she placed it back in her lap and lifted the pages up. She stood up, walked around the low table in between us and sat down next to me. Without looking my way this time, she placed her hand above the page and said, “Libra Imothy.”

“What are you doing?” I asked her full of surprise as soon as her hand started glowing.

She turned her head my way. “Oh, this is my only speciality I would say. I can summon a pretty much limitless amount of copies of these sort of pages. I have yet to fully hone it, but I can also summon copies of art from memory…” Her cheeks turned a little red. I guess she gets embarrassed as well when talking about herself.

“Oh…” She turned her eyes back on the page she was trying to copy… and accidentally got distracted because of me. “I wanted to hand you a single copy, but I guess I will hand you some spare ones.”

“Thank you for the copy, but really, I don’t need the thirty-six other ones.”

“I understand… You counted that pretty quick…”

I handed the spare ones back to her and closely looked at the page.

Kusanagi no Tsurugi. The absolute number one strongest sword in known mythology home to the Far East. The original name is rumoured to be: “Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds”. It is difficult to tie a single story into the blade, but I will try to write down the most interesting one once I have made my choice. The blade is seen as the embodiment of the highest form of courage. There is also an added form of mystery and divinity since it’s a sword so rare that barely anyone has ever seen it.

Although now it is rumoured that Princess Hikari, the princess—and next in line for the throne—of East-Twynne has successfully summoned it. Since the rumours first came to surface, she has gone missing which makes the rumours more difficult to confirm.

Kusanagi no Tsurugi, huh…