Four of a Kind

“Aw, I was hoping they’d stick around.”

Miieie wasn’t sure if she agreed with the girl that walked next to her, her eyes glancing to the side as the red-haired girl yawned nonchalantly as they also exited the dueling circle a few minutes after their opponents and their entourage had done the same.

It all felt so petty and dumb. Ameea and the others hadn’t told Miieie anything, only tried to push her around and get a reaction out of her. She was a commoner, sure, but the school was marketed as a non-partisan academic opportunity. She supposed it was that highborn elitism that she had heard so much about, but even then, shouldn’t they have been able to explain why she couldn’t observe without a patch on her sleeve? She could imagine certain things she wasn’t welcome at, but she wasn’t expecting it to come so quickly.

“Hey. Don’t worry about them.”

Miieie shrugged. This wasn’t how she wanted her first day to go at all.

From being late, getting distracted by the city, bumping into another student because she wasn’t paying attention, to being served bad food, to getting into a literal fight it just seemed like everything about Rosenfel was wrong. She didn’t try to show that she was bothered by it, but given her lack of talk, it was pretty obvious that she was trying to make sense of the whole situation.

“I didn’t mean to start a fight.” Miieie replied, mulling over her thoughts, “I just wanted to check out the dueling circle. I’ve never seen one before.”

“Never? Like, at all?”

She shook her head, “Where I’m from… our school was like, two rooms big.”

“What? That’s super small.”

“Yeah, I guess when you’re living out of a farm that’s how it is.”

“Well, welcome to the big city, farmgirl.” Rel stretched outward as she continued on, “You’re going to be dealing with a lot more culture shock than nobles who act like jerks.”

Miieie giggled, “Guess, I just expected my first day to be better. Thank goodness we don’t have any classes today or I’d be in big trouble.”

For how bad today had been, even with how she made the best of it, she couldn’t imagine it going better if she had to actually make an impression in class on top of everything else. All of the antics and enemies she had made would be overshadowed by her annoying the teacher by falling asleep in the middle of class. Such worries, thankfully, would have to be reserved for the next day of school.

“Those are just jitters. It’s your first day somewhere new and big.” The red-haired girl remarked, “Everyone feels it, even nobles.”

“Says the girl who just stepped in from me getting the beating of a lifetime.”

“I mean, yeah, that was pretty dumb. But they had it coming.” She craned her hands behind her neck as the two of them walked out of the building. “Do you do that kind of stuff often?”

Miieie thought about the question for the moment as a gentle breeze swept by them. The answer was an obvious ‘yes’. Miieie didn’t think about her actions very often and much like her impulse decision to get lunch with Iris earlier in the day she just went with whatever sounded best at the time. Back on Skilma, Aric would often call her the “dumbest smart person” he knew; a title she took as a badge of honor.

“I’unno. Sorta?”

“Wild.”

“Eh?”

Rel laughed, “It’s cool. I like it when people just go with the flow. Especially in places like this. I prefer reacting to overthinking, but you’ve probably figured that out.”

It was hard to dispute that. Rel wouldn’t have helped her out in the circle if she was thinking about all of the reasons not to get involved? How many people did Rel make a rival of in this school for that one decision?

“Yeah. Thanks for that.”

“Ah, it was no biggie.” She smirked, “Besides, a good knight has to know how to swoop in for a good rescue.”

“Well, Ser Knight.” Miieie teased, “Why don’t you give me the tour?”

“Heh. Sure. I mean, I’m no expert, but I can tell you what Ameea-senpai told me and the rest of the other first years. I got nothin’ better to do.”

The two girls laughed, but by the time the two finished their tour evening began to set in. Curfew was still a few hours off, but between the fight at the dueling circle and their own energy levels dwindling from a long trip to Rosenfel at the beginning of the day they decided to head off to the dormitories. At the very least, Miieie was quite happy to have the whole worries from the dueling circle behind her, though she knew sooner or later she was going to have to deal with the people she sparred with one way or the other. Some of them were first years, after all.

“So where’re you from, Rel?” Miieie asked as the two girls moved through the first floor of the dormitory building. “Is it big? I mean, it must be because you're a noble and all, but like I’ve never been inside a castle before.”

The taller girl sighed, “Santrscwine. Yeah, it’s big.”

Miieie blinked. Santrscwine was a big island. She had never been to it, but it was one of the larger ones that made up the central part of the Ieielian Kingdom. From what she recalled of the world atlas made her imagination flare up. How many Skilma’s could one fit in all of Santrscwine? What was the tallest building? What did it smell like?

“Woah.” Miieie moved upwards on the staircase going up to the next floor. “Guess Rosenfel must seem really small.”

Rel shrugged, “I guess so, yeah.”

“Well–oh. Haha, this is me.”

The other girl stopped next to her and looked at her own pamphlet again. Miieie was confused, up until what Rel said next.

“Apparently, also me.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, apparently we’re sharing the same room.”

She giggled, her hand gripping the handle of the door in front of her as she swung it open. To her surprise there was another familiar face inside–Iris’s. The girl sat at the table, writing in her notebook, like she had been when they had met in the cafeteria. Upon Miieie’s sudden appearance with their other roommate she looked up for a moment before returning her gaze to her pen and paper. Miieie blinked, what were the odds?

Part of her sighed a breath of relief. At least she wouldn’t have any issues with her roommates… or, well, most of them.