Omen of a Bluebell

Cari comes to my rescue right on time. She practically barges through the door, all excitement and jitters.

Her outfit is more normal, thankfully. Like mine, except more professional.

The only decorative piece of clothing on her is her blouse, which has a lower cut at the chest and several decorative holes sewn into the fabric on her sleeves. Otherwise, she wears a simple pair of tan leggings and short black heels.

Of course, she still looks absolutely stunning, with her wavy orange hair tied up in a ponytail and her spectacles enhancing her adorable freckles.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” she says, grabbing one of my arms and yanking me from the bed.

Her voice disperses the fog in my mind, and even as we pass Bella and I get a whiff of spices, my focus is entirely bent towards not tripping over myself as I’m tugged along.

Bella follows with significantly more grace, a tiny smirk on her lips all the while.

In no time at all, we’re on another platform and Cari is fidgeting with the controls.

“Ugh, where’s the option for the gate?” she complains.

“I believe we’ll have to return to the administrative district and walk from there,” Bella says helpfully, sending Cari into another flurry of taps and swipes.

The whole while, Bella stands there, looking Gods-damned gorgeous.

It’s infuriatingly distracting.

So I set my mind to finding something else to focus on, and a question comes to mind.

“H-hey, Bella… you never told me how you got that compass. What’s with that thing?” I ask.

“Oh, this?” she asks, pulling Bluebell’s Pathfinder from her storage.

Cari glances at it, but quickly returns to waging war against the terminal controls.

“Hm…” She rubs one of the symbols around its edge thoughtfully. “Well, the short of it is that it’s a family heirloom. Apparently my family earned it by helping Bluebell—yes, the Bluebell from the stories—back during the Undone age, but…”

This garners Cari’s full attention, her eyes locking onto the probably priceless artifact, but Bella just shrugs and returns it to storage.

“There’s no way to prove it. At least, not until that Dungeon we went through,” she says, raising a brow at me. “We couldn't know for certain whether Bluebell actually existed at all.”

“But she’s obviously—” I start, but Bella cuts in swiftly.

“Yes, yes, I know. Kiri is likely the same Bluebell from the stories—but that’s all circumstantial for now. Anyways, to answer your question, my mother gave it to me the night before I left.”

She heaves an annoyed sigh, her eyes narrowing to slits. “I think she knew I was going to sneak off like I did, and wanted to make sure I’d be able to find my way.”

“So you mean to say you’re just carrying a priceless artifact around?” Cari interjects, equally annoyed.

Bella gives her a flat look. “Yes. I’m a Princess.”

Cari opens her mouth to retort, then pauses.

After a moment, she shrugs. “Fair enough.”

She turns back to commit atrocities upon the terminal.

I frown, still curious. “But what does it even do, really?”

I remember her using it to guide us to the Bluebell’s Recompense Dungeon, but how it actually did that is a mystery. And how it managed to do it even with a wild magic zone between us and the entrance?

Completely beyond me.

Limited though my knowledge may be, I can’t help but feel that it's not normal.

Cari squeals with delight as the platform finally jolts to life, its shield popping into existence around us as we float upwards. Bella waits until we’re well and truly on the move before answering.

She waves a hand in a so-so gesture, the tiny crease of a frown teasing her lips.

“I’m not entirely sure. All we’ve been able to learn about it is that it’s bound to my family, and that it takes you where you need to go—not where you want to go."

She pauses for a moment.

"...Sometimes.”

I can’t help but grin at the idea.

“Oh, don’t start. Believe me, I know how amazing that sounds, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It takes an absurd amount of mana, which is why I was running low after we’d left the Dungeon. That, and its personality leaves something to be desired,” she says, folding her arms.

Cari and I share a look.

“Personality?” we both ask.

Bella huffs. “Yes, it’s a living tool. But honestly, it’s more of a nuisance than a help.”

Cari and I stare at her, willing her to continue as my tail quivers with excitement. She throws her hands up in surrender.

“It’s not like it speaks. It’s more like… it has whims. Sometimes it refuses to activate if it’s dirty. Sometimes it points toward a cleaning cloth instead of somewhere actually useful,” she pulls it out once more, leaning on the railing as she flicks the sundial portion to set it spinning.

We all watch as it makes its slow, lazy loops. “My father said that once, it spun in circles for six hours because he didn’t use it the night before, when he was trying to find a wedding band for my mother.”

It suddenly jerks to a stop, letting out an audible screeching noise of stone on metal.

Bella groans. “See? It’s annoyed I even mentioned that night. It’s fussy. Besides, the only time it’s done something useful in the past six decades was when it led us to that Dungeon.”

It vanishes into her storage once more, and she flips her hair back with one elegant movement.

“That’s so cool…” I sigh.

“Yeah…” Cari agrees.

Bella gives us both a scandalized look, as if we’d said the sky was purple.

Before she can protest our starry-eyed interest in magical artifacts of unknowable and vast powers, I turn to Cari and barrel right into the next distraction I’d come up with.

“While we’re out, we need to go sell that dagger. We should probably do that first, actually,” I say. “Don’t want you being distracted until every shop in the city closes down.”

Cari gives me her most pitiable puppy eyes.

I try to maintain my ‘this is serious’ look, but Cari’s just too adorable. Thankfully, just as my mask begins to crack, Bella speaks.

“Dagger?”

I tear my gaze away from the pouting Cari and focus entirely on Bella. The heat rushing to my cheeks at the sight of her almost makes me regret it, but I know I can push past my instincts for a while longer.

“Oh, yeah, we fought an assassin! Got a nice dagger from them, too,” I say, pulling the dagger from storage, sharing the details I get from Relic Whisperer with her.

Normally, I’d just talk about it, but if Bella is comfortable enough to bring an honest-to-Gods national artifact out while on academy grounds, I figure it’ll be fine.

Severance

Legendary, Blood Binding

Enchantments:

Tetherstep

When thrown, Severance draws its wielder to its side after a short delay.

Note: You may teleport instantly by infusing mana into the blade once thrown.

Infuse Poison

The wielder may infuse the weapon with poisons they themselves have ingested and survived.

Greater Piercing

This item has significantly enhanced piercing power, making it significantly more effective against barriers and armor.

Greater Self Repair

This item can repair itself even when totally destroyed, so long as the wielder has mana.

After sharing the description I get from Relic Whisperer with her, her eyes widen.

“Oh, my…” Bella murmurs. “That’s a very nice weapon. Have either of you handled something like this before?”

“Well,” Cari starts hesitantly, “I’ve handled expensive items while working as a Guild attendant, but never anything Legendary.”

I just shake my head when Bella looks to me.

“I see. In that case, I can help a bit. If you’re selling it, you should do so at Sovereign Steel and Sigils. It’s run by dwarves, but they’ll be able to tell you what it’s truly worth. That said, I wouldn’t take less than 500 gold for it.”

Cari chokes on air while my grip on the dagger becomes stronger than adamantite. After Cari gathers herself once more, I try to gingerly pass the dagger off to her, but she flinches away, as if touching it will burn her.

“Oh, hells no. You put that in your storage and leave it there until we get to the shop. You’ve convinced me, we’re going to the shop first,” she says, hands up as she backs away. “Gods, we’ve been carrying that thing around for months…”

Her last words are a panicked whisper, but I pick up on them easily enough, and I can empathize with the sentiment.

Bella, on the other hand, seems as calm as could be. If anything, she seems mildly appreciative of the dagger for its abilities, rather than its value.

We talk about the shop for a while after that, and I learn that Bella knows of it because, much like the Secret Emporium, Sovereign Steel and Sigils has multiple locations, though typically only in the capitals of nations.

The entire time we travel and chat, I spend most of my effort on trying not to be distracted by the pretty fluttering of Bella's sundress.

When we land, Cari takes my hand and starts tugging me towards the main streets. On pure instinct, I do the same to Bella with my free hand.

She seems surprised at first, but her face quickly returns to her calm mask.

Now that it’s closer to noon, there’s much more traffic in the streets. Students, Faculty, Merchants, and more all move with chaotic efficiency. It takes a bit longer, but we eventually make our way back to the gate.

It’s surprisingly simple to get out now that we have student ID’s. The guards simply asks for them and taps them to a small panel near the fence one after the other.

Cari is first, of course, as impatient as she is. I let Bella go second.

It’s one of those silly, automatic gestures people make around someone they’re trying to impress, and by the time I realize I’m doing it, it’s already done.

Still, she gives me a small smile that melts me a bit.

I guess there’s some merit to those guys’ actions.

Then it’s my turn, and we hit our first roadblock.

The moment the guard taps my ID to the gate, there’s a gentle pop at my side, and familiar ethereal feathers fall to the ground all around us, dissipating into shimmering motes of mana as they land. I turn to look at the source of our disruption.

In a blink, a staff appears, thwaps me on the top of my head hard enough to sting even through my pain suppression, then disappears just as quickly.

It happens so fast that I barely have time to register who it is before it's done. And somehow, nobody else seems to notice it happen.

Not Cari. Not Bella. Not even the guards.

I rub my head indignantly.

"I didn't even look at your tag this time," I complain.

He smirks. "You were going to."

Cari gasps in shock as she finally realizes who he is. I spare her a glance while rubbing my head.

Yep... same look she gave the Headmistress.

Now that the Headmaster is here, though, warning signals blare in my mind.

What's he want this time? Also, did he have to bonk me for looking at his tag? How can he even tell that I do that?

And why didn't he bonk Cari, too?

I decide there's absolutely no way Cari didn't inspect his tag as well. Then again, she is absolutely adorable in that innocent, fan-girl kind of way.

So he's a bully.

I narrow my eyes at him as he takes in the surroundings. Only after noticing the growing crowd of shocked onlookers does he finally turn his attention back to me.

“And where, pray tell, are you running off to?” he asks bluntly.

For a moment, I feel as though he’s up to something, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. That, and I get the feeling that he’s trying to stop me from leaving—which is expressly against our deal.

Looking up—why is he so damned tall?—I find him frowning at me, brows furrowed.

I fold my arms, feeling significantly more defiant after labeling him as a bully.

“I’m going out to town. What, am I not allowed?”

He straightens up at my attitude, eyes narrowing. “Not without an escort, you aren’t.”

My indignation rises, but before I can protest, he continues, his voice deepening into something more powerful. At the same time, a shield bubble forms around us, with Cari and Bella just inside, blocking out the rest of the world.

My whole being vibrates under the sudden explosive pressure he’s giving off, and my mouth snaps shut.

“This is non-negotiable. Did you forget? You agreed to having an escort before we made that little deal. You were invited to attend because you were once Faulted. We can’t study you if you go out and get yourself killed,” he says, then snaps his fingers.

There’s another pop of air, slightly louder this time, and suddenly three people stand behind him.

Elf Fighter

Level ??

Dwarf Rogue

Level ??

Lionkin Mage

Level ??

“These three will act as your guards while you are outside Academy grounds going forward. They will not restrict you in any way, as agreed, except for in cases where it's for your own safety,” he finishes.

My protest dies in my throat. I wanted to say that this is a form of special oversight—but he's right. I'd just forgotten about that particular part of my enrollment.

It rankles a small piece of me, and I quickly realize it's the Faen Oath Stone. It gives me the feeling that this is something that just barely falls within its bounds. That this is technically special treatment.

At the same time, I know it's also technically not, because all once Faulted are receiving the same treatment.

So instead of protesting, I look back to Cari and Bella with puppy eyes, begging for help. Unfortunately for me, Cari is too busy being starstruck and Bella doesn’t seem surprised at all.

I let out a groan, filling it with every ounce of annoyance and frustration I can muster.

If I ever visit the girls at the brothel they're setting up, how in the hells am I going to explain that away?!

Kophis smirks, and I imagine slapping him hard enough to send him cartwheeling.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!