The Emerald Promise and the Phantom of Athenya

Tap-tap-tap…

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed softly through the main library building.

“Miss Cynthia!” Miss Sophie, the librarian, called out as she hurried up the stairs.

“Ughhh…”

“I can’t believe you are actually here! We should evacuate—Oh, Miss Sophie!”

Miss Cynthia was in the middle of squishing a young female student’s cheeks when Miss Sophie arrived.

The librarian tried to steady her breathing before continuing. “Oh… you found her. But it seems like… we are safe now!”

“Oh, really?! That’s a huge relief. But how…”

“It seemed to just leave on its own.”

“I see. Thank you for notifying me, Miss Sophie!” Miss Cynthia—with her hands still firmly squishing Annette’s cheeks—turned back to Annette and smiled. “I guess now I have plenty of time to deal with you, don’t you think?”

“Imh showwhyy!” cried Annette.

Miss Cynthia gave Annette’s cheeks one last stretch before releasing them, then placed one hand on her hip. Meanwhile, Miss Sophie could only silently pity the young girl.

“So now tell me! Why are you here?! Say it! Didn’t you feel the tremor?! Didn’t you hear the sound of the warning bell?!”

Annette, now free, sat down on the floor with her legs folded beneath her as her adviser began scolding her. “I did, ma’am!”

“You do know what a warning bell is, right?!”

Annette gave three quick nods.

“You do know what to do when you hear one, right?!”

Annette gave another three quick nods.

“So tell me, what do you have to do when you hear a warning bell?”

“Run away, ma’am!”

One of Miss Cynthia’s eyebrows twitched. “Where to?”

“Umm…” Annette paused, carefully choosing her words. “Out…side?”

Miss Cynthia crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently against the floor.

“Does this place look outside to you?!”

“Um…” Annette cowered.

“Oh! Does the botanical garden at the top look outside to you?!”

“It’s not—”

“This place looks the polar opposite of  ’outside’  to me!”

Miss Sophie, who was watching the situation, tried to calm the female professor down, but it was no use.

“Um, I’m just—”

“We’re lucky that the situation was over quickly today! You didn’t see what’s actually going on, did you?!”

“I di—”

“I saw it! It was the guardian! The dragon one! The humongous divine beast! And the dragon for some reason decided to give us a visit after hiding for over six centuries!”

Miss Cynthia kept changing her arm and leg movements as she spoke continuously, leaving no room for anyone to interrupt.

“Um, he wasn—”

“It was just so huge and could easily destroy our campus! Do you understand now what kind of emergency it was?!”

“Hiieekk!! Y-yes, ma’am!” Annette unconsciously squeaked.

“Now, now.” Miss Sophie once more tried to calm Annette’s adviser.

Miss Cynthia pressed her forehead and took a deep breath.

“I think we should head back to the office now. The headmaster decided to continue the classes as usual tomorrow.”

At Miss Sophie’s suggestion, Miss Cynthia decided to end her scolding. Both of them left the library after Miss Cynthia told Annette to go back to her own room—not the back room.

“Go-back-to-your-room!!” Miss Cynthia told Annette one last time.

“Speaking of which, Miss, why do you often call her a tiny hamster? She isn't particularly petite, is she?,” asked Miss Sophie after they left the library.

“Her guts are!”

*** 

While the two women left through the main library entrance, Annette used the small door at the back, which was mainly used by staff members. This path was quieter, with fewer people using it, and that was why she liked it.

The first thing Annette did once she left the building, however, was not go back to her dorm. She headed straight towards the eastern wall of the campus, passing through the garden. Behind some tall bushes next to the eastern wall, she looked around and made sure that no one was nearby to witness what she was about to do.

Yush! I think it’s good now.

Annette then looked up at the top of the tall wall, then made a gesture with one hand, and floated herself up and over it. Annette was secretly breaking the rules. Students were not allowed to enter or leave the campus grounds except through the designated gates.

Barely any time had passed before she floated over the wall again and came back inside. Once more, she looked right and left, making sure no one was around, before running all the way to her room.

It was a slightly weird feeling for Annette to be in her own dorm room at this time. However, given the situation, she had no choice but to obediently follow her adviser’s command.

After closing the door behind her, Annette reached to open a drawer next to her bed while her other hand reached into her pocket. She took something out of it and rested it in her palm. It was a gem of vivid green. She stared at it for quite some time with a complicated look.

I made a promise after all. I guess I really have to attend the class tomorrow.

Annette stored the emerald gemstone inside the drawer before closing it. She then threw herself on the bed, facing down.

“Ughhh… I don’t want to attend the class. Won’t they think I am weird? What if they surround me? What if they shower me with questions? Ughhh…”

Anxiety started creeping into Annette’s mind as she regretted her own decision.

“People in the royal capital seemed to have a very loud voice. Will the students here also be like that? I hope they are not as loud… ughhh… I can’t stand loud voices,” sobbed Annette.

She was reminiscing about the hustle and bustle of the street in the royal capital when she was staying at Miss Cynthia’s house. But then, she closed her eyes as she was reminded of something else.

Before her mother passed away, Annette lived together with her in a small village. The villagers were not very familiar with magic, and her basic education was mainly taught by her smart mother.

After her mother passed away from sickness, the villagers found out that she could wield magic incredibly well, and she became the centre of the villagers’ attention. Ever since then, both adults and children might randomly call out to her in a loud voice and approach her, bombarding her with questions about her magic.

The villagers were ordinary countryside people who were curious and excited, especially about things that they rarely witnessed. While they didn’t mean any harm to Annette, their overexcitement and loud voices gradually became overwhelming for her. She then developed the habit of flinching, running away, and hiding, to the point where she ran away to hide in the forest.

Annette slowly half-opened her eyes.

But I can’t roam around freely on the campus if I don’t attend the class, right? she thought to herself and sighed.

“Earlier, I didn’t get any chance to tell Miss Cynthia. What should I do alone… Ugghhh… How do I tell her?!”

Annette rolled her body around on the mattress before abruptly stopping.

“But if I don’t tell her…”

An image of Miss Cynthia suddenly flashed in her mind. It was when her adviser smiled so brightly and said, “You’d better not want to know what I’ll do~”

A sudden shiver ran up the poor hamster’s shoulders.

As she rolled around and pondered what she should do, Annette’s adviser—who was in the Faculty Building—sneezed.

***

The morning had broken as the apprentice mages were getting ready to start a new day. Though yesterday had been quite an uproar, the headmaster had decided to continue the classes as usual.

In front of a classroom in the advanced course wing, a crowd of students was baffled by something, preventing them from entering.

“Hey, what’s going on?” said a female student with her hair tied in a half-updo who had just arrived.

“You better see it for yourself,” replied another student.

Inside the classroom sat a student alone by the window. The mysterious student’s eyes were fixed intently on the book laid before her. Her medium-length honey-brown hair was messily tied into a single braid at the back of her head. She was so deeply focused that she failed to notice what was happening around her.

“You guys! What are you doing?! Get in the class now!” said a tall muscular male professor.

Soon, the first bell rang and the students hesitantly took their seats. They were very conscious of the existence of the mysterious student. The sound of the bell seemed to drag her consciousness back to reality. Finally noticing her surroundings, she nervously lowered her head and curled into herself. However, Professor Royce wasn’t aware of the strange occurrence and nonchalantly started the class.

“Mornin’ class. I’ll take your attendance first.”

Soft chatters of the students could be heard as their attendance was taken. Not only had they just experienced an unexpected historic event yesterday, but today they also faced another strange event.

“—Okay, next, Annette Heinz. Ah, never mind, next—” Professor Royce fixed the placement of his reading glasses and was about to move on to the next name when he noticed someone had answered him.

“Um… here, sir!” With one hand raised, the mysterious student tried her best to speak louder than she usually did.

The whole room instantly turned to face Annette, which made her instinctively lower her hand and curl up. Their professor also looked at her and blinked twice with a puzzled look.

“Oh. You are here. Hmm… I see. Well, okay. Next—”

Professor Royce fixed his glasses with his finger and continued the attendance while the young and curious mage apprentices started whispering to each other.

“She spoke!”

“The ghost spoke!”

Annette had been trying to suppress her panic in silence all this time. However, she was still drowning in her own spiraling mind.

They stared at me!!! Ughhh. What should I do?! I’m not a ghost I swear! I want to go back to the library… Ughh…

***

By the time her first day ended, she felt completely exhausted. It was indeed a very tiring day for her, mainly because she was often lost in her own mind and overthinking everything. As soon as she heard the last bell ring, she hugged her books and sprang straight towards the library. She couldn’t even remember how she exited the Academic Building.

Library! The library! I’m almost there!

“Huwyaaahh—”

Suddenly, Annette bumped into someone and lost her balance. Just as she was about to fall, a strong arm grabbed hers and pulled her in.

“Are you hurt, Miss?”

Standing before her was a striking male student with golden-blonde hair and green eyes gazing at her, while the twilight secretly witnessed the encounter between the two.