Too late

A tall orange-haired girl was browsing through the content of a thick book she held in her hands. With furrowed brows, she continued to put together individual letters into words, then combined those words into sentences, and finally focused on figuring out the meaning behind them. After repeating this process for a few times, she reached the conclusion that this wasn’t the thing she was looking for and put it away.

“Damn it, there’s not even a single copy.” Stated De Mora after checking merely five books.

“Impossible.” I flatly denied.

She, Rex and me were in the group study room, searching for the imperial law codex. In the middle of the room were nine small tables, each with two chairs, that could be easily moved and joined together accordingly to the candidates’ needs, while along the walls stood many bookshelves filled with various books, scrolls, and manuscripts. There was also a single, slightly big desk on which were prepared various writing utensils, sheets of linen paper, and small vifer lamps. The problem was that none of us could find the thing that simply had to be here.

We had started the search individually, but there was not only a lot of material to go through, but also many of those books had no title written on their covers and had to have their content checked one by one. This process was slow, annoying, and made me curse the lazy scribes who made those copies, because of that, Rex’s proposal to divide the room into three parts and notice the others if any of us found the imperial law codexes had been accepted.

This led to a new problem.

I had noticed that there was only a single copy of each title, which meant that even if Rex or De Mora found the thing we were looking for, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t keep this discovery for themselves. Somehow I just couldn’t imagine the three of us sitting shoulder to shoulder, reading it together... well, maybe the ma’gan girl could still be convinced, but that pale guy? Very unlikely.

“I give up.” I said after checking four filled to the brims bookshelves.

“Hmm… what did you find anyway?” Asked Rex while looking at me suspiciously.

“A lot of old maps, a whole section devoted to blood beasts, strange manuscripts with outdated mining and agricultural methods, and the records of Helial Desert expeditions. Any luck on your side?”

“No, but better than you.” He replied.

“Heh, so that’s how Whitey’s truly is? How old are you Whitey? I usually don’t go for guys younger than me, but I think I can make an exception for you. I always wanted to have some fun with a human.” Said De Mora with a bewitching smile. She tossed to the side the sixth book without even bothering to open it and began to slowly stretch, emphasizing her inborn charms.

“Both of you are more useless than I thought, well I didn’t expect much from this poor imitation of a human that can barely read, but you Faust?” Rex didn’t spare a single glance at the girl.

There was no need to explain myself to him especially after the answer he gave me. And I didn’t even have to say anything in the first place since De Mora quickly reacted to his insult.

“Oh? I would love to see you read something written in my language, Whitey. Now that would be fun.” She said and sat down at a nearby chair.

Rex chuckled. “Why would I do something so pointless?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What indeed? Just think about it, is it us humans who learn your language or the opposite? Do I have to explain it any further or can your small brain-like-thing comprehend this already?”

“Oh, that’s right. Sorry, I forgot that you humans are incapable of comprehending two languages at the same time. But we ma’gans are magnanimous and understanding-”

Her riposte was cut short by Rex’s voice oozing with false pity. “You poor animal. Can you truly not see the difference between the lack of intelligence and overwhelming cultural dominance?”

At this point De Mora lost her composure as well as their verbal exchange, she already forgot that it was her who started this with a boorish attempt at messing with Rex and openly showed hostility. A low growl was being emitted from behind her clenched sharp teeth, and there was a dangerous gleam to her slanted red eyes. She stood up and slowly moved a step closer to Rex, like a predator cornering its prey.

It was time to give them some privacy.

“You… damn human trash. I can kill you with my bare hands.”

“Heh, come on, growl some more,*hehehe*, and maybe I will change my mind. It may actually be fun to tame you and put a nice collar around your neck. But don’t count on anything more, I’m not interested in bestiality.” Replied Rex and returned to his search, his back was turned towards the ma’gan girl in an obvious attempt to provoke her more.

Though the servants tried to remove themselves from our sight, this place was filled with them, there was a big chance that De Mora would regret it greatly if she fell for this bait. And I bet that Rex would use me later as a witness in front of an imperial adjudicator. Luckily for her, De Mora didn’t try to take it any further and turned to me, noticing that I was about to leave the room.

Our eyes met.

“What are you staring at?!” She switched the target of her ire, probably because I looked easier to intimidate, and I missed the chance to leave uninvolved. But yesterday’s incident with Rex gave me a good idea of how to quickly turn the tables on her.

“Here, catch.” I took out the round object from one of my pouches and threw it.

Surprised by this action, De Mora easily caught it and took a closer look at the green thing, her lack of understanding temporarily surpassed her anger. In exactly five seconds she realized the dire consequences of holding the point coin that wasn’t hers and let it go with a squeak as if it was going to explode in her face. Next, she looked with reproach at Rex whose shoulders rose up and down in quiet mocking laughter, no longer pretending to continue his search, and then at me. If we really wanted to, it wouldn’t be hard to frame her now.

I walked towards the ma'gan girl and picked up the green coin without saying a word, it was cold. The girl breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it back in my hand, but then she was hit by a wave of various strong emotions.

“You… you… you humans are mean…” De Mora couldn’t find anything else to say, and tears began to form in the corners of her slanted eyes. She sniffed loudly, holding them back, and left the group study room. I had to admit that this unexpected turn of events had slightly changed my perception of this orange-haired girl for the better.

“I guess even dogs can cry.” Rex shrugged his arms. “Let me know if you will find anything in the library, I will certainly repay the favor.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I replied and walked away.

Rex’s guess was correct, the library was one of the buildings that were marked on the academy’s map posted on the information board. I could simply ask one of the servants working there to find the imperial law codex for me, but I had come here first since it wouldn’t hurt to know what exactly was stored in our dormitory’s group study room, though I hadn’t expected this place to be so hard to use. All those books and manuscripts cost a small fortune, but it was almost as if they had been stuffed in here as an afterthought since there was an empty room to spare.

I stopped in the middle of the corridor, my urges yet again rose from within and demanded to change my priorities. Well, the library wasn’t going anywhere and the faster I explained everything with that white-haired girl the better. Only… where was she?

A quick round around the ground floor bore no results. Though I met Forty-four in the storeroom who told me to call him Julius, which was much better than Rex the Second and still had a ring of glory to it thanks to Julius Steelfire the Fatebringer - the hero king who began the reconquista of the mainland a few centuries ago. We exchanged a few pleasantries, and Julius turned out to be a rather ordinary guy when he wasn’t venting his anger on furniture or exposing himself in public. All in all, he was just overwhelmed by the situation he found himself in. It seemed that he had caught a glimpse of the crying wicked beauty running to her room and wanted to bring her some food. I told him to be nice to her and wished good luck, then I went upstairs to check the place with the biggest chance of finding the little girl - the room number XLI.

I met Fifty and Maya on the stairs; apparently, they were going outside. The short girl whose gray hair had been rearranged into that fancy hairstyle of hers reported to me that: ‘We talked with Forty-six and decided to call him Remus, he’s resting in his room. But Forty-three has closed himself and refuses to meet with anyone. I don’t understand, he did the right thing by refusing to kill and yet took it the hardest of all, why? But this place really is crazy, just thinking that they want to make all of us stab someone makes me sick... anyway, let’s call him Albus for now.’ She cut her report short as it was about to involve things that were better left alone. In return, I told them about Julius. Now the only person without a name in class five was the same person I was looking for. Fifty told me that they hadn’t seen her, but they had also skipped checking her bedroom. Still, Albus? I had told her to give a humiliating nickname to any uncooperative person, and she came back with something that meant ‘white’ or ‘bright’. This kind girl was a good fit for Fifty, she only had to eat more and make herself look at least half as good as De Mora, or at least stop making people wonder how was she able to move around in her starved state, maybe then the small sparks between this two wouldn’t be extinguished by time and grew into something big and dazzling. But no matter how optimistically I looked at it, I saw no other possibility for her chest than to remain a magnificent anvil.

“Hmm?” Asked Maya after noticing that I was staring at her.

The handsome guy was already a few steps below us, both waiting and silently telling her to hurry up, but most importantly he was out of range of my whispers. There was something I wanted only Maya to hear, which doubled as a good smokescreen for staring at her tiny bosom.

“I know this may be personal, but do you remember why you’re so thin?”

“Nope, not a clue, but I’m working on it. The food here is good, so don’t worry, I should be back in form in no time. And don’t act so distant, I’m not a fool, just say out straight ‘rest in peace Maya’s breasts’ or something, I’ve already accepted my flat future.” She whispered back with a smirk and delivered a small punishment in the form of pinching.

The smokescreen wasn’t nearly as effective as I thought, which forced me to silently receive the painful justice that was being enforced on my sides and upper arms. I had this feeling that she was thinking about pinching my nipples but hesitated, unsure if this was a line that could be safely crossed.

“Want to come with us?” Fifty's question put an end to our silly game.

“No, just tell me later if you discover anything interesting.”

“Sure.” Replied Maya and cheerfully ran down the stairs, causing the silver-haired guy to follow after her in a hurry.

There were no more additional stops on the way to the white-haired girl’s room, there was also no answer to my knocking. I pushed down the door’s handle, and the door opened effortlessly. At first glance, she wasn’t here, but there was a suspicious chest in the corner. I slowly approached it while sorting my thoughts. This morning, the little girl had been in my room inside a similar chest, but later, when the junior judge asked if I had done anything to her, she denied it; yet next she lied about me ordering her to do a lot of little things which in turn achieved the effect of increasing my reputation. I considered the option that she wasn’t trying to frame me but to help in a very clumsy way, or an unexpectedly clever one if I looked at it from a different angle. However, this theory was quickly rejected, I didn’t have to be a genius to realize that Forty-one saw me as an enemy and had been genuinely disappointed by my lack of punishment.

All of this didn’t make any sense, I honestly hadn’t done anything to her except for our short conversation yesterday. Or maybe she was angry because back then I had dodged her attempt to make me her master?

I put my hands on the chest’s lid, hoping to receive some answers from within.

“If you’re inside, then I order you to remain calm and answer all my questions.” I followed the idea that popped up in my mind and opened the chest.

The chest was empty.

“Seriously… where is she?” I was starting to get worried.

After sitting down on the bed, I began wondering what would I do if I were in her shoes. She had no master, no allies, no friends, no one to turn for help. I also had this feeling that she didn’t treat this room as hers, actually was there anything that was even slightly important to her or that caused her to show emotions?

Except for the negative ones connected with me.

Since I hardly knew her, it wasn’t possible to answer this question by my gut feeling alone, but I could still recall the more important things she had said and base my assumptions on them.

‘... may you please tell me whose orders should I prioritize in this place? I can’t remember…’

‘This order is contradictory. If I follow your order, then I can’t follow your order… please tell me who’s my master.’

‘I… I understand, but… I don’t understand. Are all imperial judges my masters? But what if two judges of the same standing give me opposing orders? Who should I prioritize in that case?’

‘Two hundred… two hundred… no, two hundred and two…’

A ridiculous thought appeared in my head, and I hurriedly stood up and left the room. This thought told me that the little girl went to the imperial adjudicators living quarters since they were clearly in a position of power. She probably acted accordingly with what Junior Judge Umbric had told us about coming to him with questions and ideas. But did she realize that just entering that place was like putting your head into the lion’s maw and counting on its good mood and a full belly? But that wasn't all, this girl was either going to ask one of the imperial adjudicators to become her master or to give her two hundred and two points. Both options were borderline suicidal or at least would end badly.

Correction, she had probably done that already... she had gone there right after our morning assembly, and it was close to noon now.

At this point, there wasn’t much I could do to stop her, but the more I told myself that it was pointless, the faster my legs moved.