LEO
When I was done drawing the picture of my dream, the black-haired girl came around to check it out. Just like Marius, she asked me a few questions about what I drew.
"So all these people are your friends?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"It must have been a good dream then. I can see everyone is smiling," she said.
"It was, except SOMEONE decided to not show up, heh," I said and poked Marius on his side. He didn’t react, which made me feel a tiny bit awkward, but I quickly forgot about it. I just told myself to remember that, for one reason or another, Marius was having a bit of a mood swing again. For a guy so disciplined and well-trained, he sure had his unpredictable ups and downs.
"Dreams are peculiar, aren’t they? Some say we see what we wish for in our dreams, but sometimes we see what we fear in our dreams," the girl remarked.
I didn’t quite know what to say, except that yes—seeing everyone was probably what I wished for, and Marius not being there was something I...not quite ’feared,’ I suppose, but something I didn’t want.
I wondered, though, why everyone was there but Marius.
It wasn’t like neither he nor I had any control over it, though.
Dreams were just dreams, weren’t they?
"Ah, that reminds me—" the girl spoke again, as if she had forgotten to say something she should have earlier, and continued, "my name is Blanche. Second year. What’s your name?"
"Leo."
"How about you?" she then asked Marius.
"Marius Valenkraft," he said.
"Hm? The name sounds familiar," Blanche said, tilting her head to the other side this time.
"Marius is quite famous, heh. Everyone knows him," I said, somewhat proudly.
"Oh? What for?"
Now that I thought about it, I didn’t quite know either. It’s just that everybody seemed to have heard of his family. All I knew was that his ancestors were famous knights, but I wasn’t particularly familiar with the history of the Empire and such, only the fairy tales and folklores that the elders talked about back in the village.
So I looked at Marius too, waiting for him to answer.
Marius looked at us, hesitating a little, then said,
"It’s just something to do with my family. I haven’t done anything to earn the recognition yet."
Blanche seemed to think about it for a moment, then said,
"I can sort of understand."
I didn’t understand at all.
"So—are you guys interested in joining the art club then?" she asked us.
"We are going to explore more clubs before deciding," Marius said on my behalf.
"How about you?" Blanche asked me directly this time.
"Out of all the clubs I’ve visited today...I think the art club is the most fun one."
Blanche then smiled and said, "I’m glad to hear that. We don’t have many members, but we have plenty of materials to make our art with."
"Do you also teach how to draw?" Marius asked Blanche for me.
"When you want to learn how to do something, you can always ask any of us. But in general, I personally don’t think it’s that necessary. What’s most important is that you feel free to express yourself. That’s the most wonderful thing about art, I think."
"I see," Marius said, nodding.
As we heard the clock tower’s bell ring from outside, signaling that it was five o’clock, we decided to call it a day and left the art club.
"So, Marius, have you also thought about joining any of the clubs we visited today?" I asked him.
"No. I will be joining the student council, and I wouldn’t have time for anything else," he said, just looking straight ahead as we walked toward the dormitory.
"Is that something you want to do?"
"That does not matter," he said flatly.
"How come? Isn’t club activity supposed to be something fun? I thought that was the whole point of us checking out so many clubs today."
"We were...looking for something fun for you, Skylark. It wasn’t for me."
"But I want you to have fun as well...wasn’t today fun for you...?"
Marius then turned his head to face me, gave me a quick smile, and said,
"It certainly was."
But something about his smile told me that he didn’t fully mean it. I thought about asking him more about it to figure out what was wrong with him, but then thought better of it. Maybe there was something in his mind that he didn’t feel ready to talk about.
When we arrived at the dormitory, we each went to our own room.
"Where have you been all this time?" Dimitri asked me as soon as I entered the room.
"Oh, I was just checking out different clubs," I told him.
"Huh, that took you a really long time," he said.
"Did you find any club you want to join, then?" Briant asked me this time.
"I’m not sure, but so far the art club was the best," I answered.
"Art club? What do they even do?" Dimitri asked.
"Many things! There was this one guy making a sculpture. Another girl drawing with charcoal, and I met this girl called Blanche who painted her dreams."
"Dreams?" Briant asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah."
"That’s interesting," Briant said, and continued, asking, "and this...’Blanche’ girl—what was her surname?"
"I have no idea," I said.
"How did she look?" Briant asked again.
"Er...just...normal, I guess? Oh, and she had black hair."
Briant narrowed his eyes, seemed to think about something, then shook his head.
"What’s up?" Dimitri asked Briant.
"I...just feel like I might know her. But well, it doesn’t matter. I’m probably wrong," Briant said, shrugged, and suggested,
"Well, never mind. Let’s just go for dinner."
"Yeah, mate. I’m so hungry after the kick-ball," Dimitri said.
"Oh, how was it? Have you passed the trial?" I asked.
"Of course!" Dimitri said with a proud smile.
"Heh, congratulations," I said.
We then left our room and headed toward the dining hall. On the way, we came across the guys from Marius’s room, except Dorian, as usual.
By the time we arrived at the dining hall, it was quite busy already, with not many tables free. It was then that I spotted Blanche as I was looking around. She noticed me too and waved her hand. I was happy to see her again, so I waved back, but then I heard Briant mutter,
"It is her."
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