Chapter 72: Midnight Maiden, Part Three

{Xhez}

{The Next Day}

"Ohh, so, if I put these two letters together, they form a different sound?" Xhez asked Rin, as the two sat together in Rin's room. The adventurer had given Xhez a blank sheet of paper, and a pencil with which she was to learn how to write.

"Yep. So, if you were going to write 'loop', how would you write it?"

"Uhm..." Xhez paused. "L, O, O, P?"

"Yeah!" Rin smiled at her, nodding, and Xhez beamed. "Holy crap, Xhez. You're getting this stuff so fast it's almost scary."

"Well," Xhez grinned warmly. "It is only due to having such a good teacher that I am able to learn so quickly."

At that, Rin laughed, and Xhez noticed that her cheeks turned red as she looked away.

"... You know, something tells me if you actually knew what you were doing when you say these sorts of things, you'd have girls writing you love letters every day of the week."

"Love letters?" Xhez tilted her head. "Are these different from regular letters?"

"Uh, yeah, they're letters where you just tell the person you're handing them to that you love them, basically."

"Ohhh, so, I could give one of these to my parents, for example?"

"N-Not really," Rin scratched the back of her head. "It would be someone you love romantically."

"Romantically?" Again, Xhez tilted her head, but in the opposite direction.

"Yeah," Rin nodded. "There are different kinds of love. There's platonic love, romantic love, familial love, you can love an object or a thing, a hobby, an idea even. There are a ton of different ways of loving."

"Ahh~ How interesting!"

"I can explain it to you in more detail after we finish this if you want. For now, though, let's just get back to the writing stuff."

"Agreed."

Thus, the two of them continued with the lesson. They'd been at this for a few hours already, as Rin had woken Xhez up earlier and given her the go-ahead to get out of her bag. She explained that Elisa was somewhere else and that the two of them could get on with the sudden tutoring, but that, unfortunately, later, Rin would have to take a brief break to speak with others.

She had a "meeting" soon, but she said she would keep hanging out with Xhez after it was done.

So, the two of them sat on Rin's bed, with Xhez in her disguise, huddled up closely as Rin showed her how to write one word after another.

"Love, by the way," Rin said, "is spelled like this. How about you write down, 'I love my parents'? Can you do that?"

"I will try," Xhez replied, nodding.

She took the pen and it felt awkward in her hand, but after seeing Rin write a few times, it became easy to mimic her motions. This entire lesson was sinking in her mind, as she memorized one thing after another from the moment she heard it.

"Like this?" Xhez asked.

"Yeah! Awesome, good job," Rin told her, and Xhez looked back down at the words on her paper as a question popped up in her head.

"How did you learn this? How long did it take?" She asked, looking up at Rin.

"Well," Rin sighed, leaning back. "It takes most humans years to pick this up. I'm no exception."

"Years!?" Xhez asked. It didn't feel complicated enough to merit such a high amount of time.

"We don't have your memory, Xhez," Rin told her. "Memorizing stuff takes a lot longer for us."

"..." Nodding, Xhez looked back at her paper.

[How many things could I learn in a short time that would normally take humans years then? Is this just one random situation, or could I make this happen with other skills and activities?]

As she wondered about that, Rin looked at the clock on the wall and she stood up. Xhez did the same and saw that it was 1:00pm. Rin had taught her how to read the time on that thing earlier today.

"Okay," Rin said, looking back at Xhez with her hands on her hips. "I have to go to my meeting now, but, when I come back, we'll get on with it."

"O-Oh..." Xhez replied, a little disappointed.

"Hey," Rin said, getting closer and putting a hand on her shoulder when she saw that reaction. "How about you take the lessons I've given you and try to think of words that you can write on your own? You're gonna get some of them wrong," Rin quickly added, "because, I have to be honest with you, the Common Tongue doesn't make much sense sometimes, but, I wanna see how many you nail."

At that, Xhez nodded, smiling up at her.

"I will try not to disappoint."

With that, Xhez saw Rin's expression quickly change to one of reluctance as she turned away from her, and walked out the door.

Xhez looked back down at her paper.

As it usually did nowadays, her mind wandered, and she found herself thinking about the memory Rin had shown her, and the kiss she'd shared with June.

"... 'I want to do sex'," Xhez muttered. "How would I write that?"

---

{Rin}

With an uneasy feeling in her gut, Rin walked up the stairs and went to the fourth floor, heading straight for the cafeteria.

[Let's just get this over with.]

For a second, she stood outside the cafeteria doors, hesitating. Balling her hands up into fists, she tried to inject some willpower into herself to just get through this, and she stepped inside. The place was largely empty, save for Jessie, the lunch lady at the back, and one lone woman, sitting at a table with a book in front of her.

The only other person here was Alea, who had apparently arrived early.

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Rin hadn't taken her as the type to do that, but she figured that sort of timeliness was a good trait to have, so, she tried to take it as a good sign as she walked over to her table. As she approached, Alea looked up at her but didn't close her book just yet as Rin sat down at the opposite end.

"Haven't seen anyone else?"

"No," Alea quickly replied.

And, just like that, the two were locked into silence. Alea continued reading her book as Rin looked at her, wondering if she was comfortable with the lack of small talk.

Seeing her now, Rin took in her appearance. Something she'd only done in passing before.

Alea had bright green hair, several shades lighter than Eve's, and a very thin body, covered in toned muscles now, a testament to the time she'd spent training. Her clothes were the next thing Rin noticed. She was wearing a black skirt over a longsleeved grey shirt and some grey leggings, looking like the kind of girl Rin would catch working at a cafe, instead of training to be a rugged adventurer.

Then again, her current roommate was someone who most would say had no business being here either, so, Rin had already learned that adventurers came in all shapes and sizes.

[... Honestly,] Rin thought, looking away. [If she didn't give me such a bitchy vibe, she'd be kinda hot.]

She waited then, for a couple of minutes, until she caught Alea looking at her from the corner of her eye. Rin turned toward her, and Alea's eyes went straight back down to the book in her hands.

"... Yeah?" Rin asked.

"Hm?"

"Did you want to ask me something?" Rin raised a brow, having been fairly certain she'd caught Alea staring at her.

"No."

"... Okay."

Again, they went right back to not saying anything.

The next person to walk into the Cafeteria was Sara. Someone else that Rin had only gotten a good look at a few times, so, now, she took the moment to do so as she walked straight to the table, with that strange sword by her waist.

[Come to think of it,] Rin thought, as Sara sat down right next to her. [I don't think I've ever seen Sara without that thing. Is she that paranoid that someone's going to try to hurt her or something?]

Sara didn't say a word. She didn't say good afternoon, hello, or anything. She just sat down, with her back straight and put her hands together, looking down at the table with an emotionless face.

Looking at her now, Rin saw that Sara had long, silky black hair that was a little shorter than Rin's, and very pale skin, with bright blue eyes that remained perfectly still as she kept them on the table. She was wearing a strange set of armor today, a black suit with gauntlets of the same color, made from what looked like a mix of black leather and a metal she didn't recognize.

[... Sara, who are you hunting down after this?] Rin asked, resisting the urge to chuckle.

However, as she looked at her, another thought came to her mind.

[Honestly, if she wasn't so scary, she'd be kinda hot... Or maybe I'm just very, very gay. Or both, I guess.]

No one said anything, right up until Varyn entered the cafeteria. He was the last to come in, and also, the most normal-looking out of all of them, as he was wearing a simple grey shirt and some jeans. He sat down next to Alea and crossed his arms.

"Sorry for being late," he said, and Rin thought back to when she'd seen him at the bar.

[Who was that? His sister or something?] Rin wondered, but she quickly put that aside. It wasn't any of her business.

"It's alright," Rin replied as Alea closed her book. "Wanna just get right down to it?"

"Yes," Varyn nodded. "So, what can everyone do? If we're going to be working as a team, I figure the first thing we need to know is our roles. Alea, would you like to start?"

"Sure, I'm a mage," Alea said quickly.

"Yes, I am too," Varyn replied. "I know Rin is a fighter, just from her... Unique style," he pointed out. "You, Sara?"

"... I fight," Sara replied in a quiet voice.

"Okay... So, two mages, two fighters," Varyn said, crossing his arms. "What do we do with that?"

"On our end," Alea sighed, "it's obvious. Any dumbass could figure it out," she said, waving a hand. "One of us can focus on defensive magic, and the other one focuses on offensive magic. And, because I don't trust any of you to keep a sword from stabbing me in the gut," she stated, "I'll be our defensive mage. How's that?"

"..." Varyn looked slightly insulted, but after a second, he shrugged. "Fine. I will center my studies around offense throughout this time, then."

"The problem," Alea quickly continued as she put her chin on her hand, resting her elbow on the table, "is you two. Neither of you looks like you can take hits, to me, anyway, so if you're out there in front of us, the chances are you might get your heads lopped off before I can protect you. So, what are you going to do?"

[... Well, my bitch detector feels like it was fairly right,] Rin thought, sighing.

"We can-"

She stopped talking, however, when Sara spoke up.

"I will accomplish whatever duty you ask of me. Do not worry about me."

"..." Rin looked at her for a few seconds.

That was, probably, the longest string of words that she'd heard Sara put together. And, the finality with which she stated that made both Rin and Alea go quiet. She looked back at Alea, and although her face still showed no emotion, it almost felt like she was glaring at her.

"... Fine," Alea turned away. "And you?" She asked Rin.

"Uh, yeah, I'm pretty good at avoiding hits. So, Varyn," Rin said, looking toward him, "I'm pretty sure I can last long enough to let you throw some spells at everything we fight."

"That sounds good," Varyn nodded. "In that case, it seems like it's settled. I will focus on learning some offensive spellsigns before our mission, Alea will focus on defense, Sara..." Varyn just trailed off, never finishing that sentence. "And, Rin can work on avoiding attacks."

"Yeah, seems decent enough," Rin shrugged.

"Then, in that case, I suppose the meeting is over. Good luck with your studies," Varyn said, and Alea all but sprinted out of the cafeteria.

Stoic as ever, Sara got up and walked out, and Varyn did so as well, leaving Rin there.

[... Okay, I guess that went well,] Rin thought. [Let's just see what happens.]

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