“Well, like I was sayin’, Pandora can’t be the only monster.”
“No, it could only be Pandora. This is the end of the world we’re talking about, you realize? Not just the end of humanity—the entire world. No matter how strong the monsters were during the age of gods, it’s not like they would be able to end the world itself.”
“I had the impression that the gods were up to more absurd stuff than the monsters…,” I tried.
“Yes, they generally were. But even Flagah, the god of destruction, was put to shame when he failed to cut down the World Tree in his hubris.”
“Only the strongest god and Pandora had the power to destroy the world,” Myfila said. “That’s why they resorted to fighting each other directly.”
“See, Feil. I vote for what Myfila just said.”
“Agh,” I said. “Do we have an expert anywhere in this place—anyone who knows mythology in this Academy?”
“Mythology is the temple’s specialty. Shall we go ask them?”
“So, a priest? Most of ’em never know when to quit talkin’. Feel like we’ll end up gettin’ a sermon for bein’ rude if things go sideways.”
The dining hall at lunch was a hullabaloo of over two hundred students that day.
There were some stuffing themselves in preparation for an afternoon ranking match, others chatting up a storm with their friends, and some grumbling about the heaps of assignments they’d gotten during morning lectures…and also even a handful eating quietly alone.
Among them all, the three of us were waxing poetic about our own theories on mythology.
Our subject: whether there was any being who could usher in the destruction of the world, other than Zen—the Supreme God—and Pandora.
“There sure are fewer to choose from than I’d expect,” I said. “I always got the sense the end of the world was a regular thing during the age of gods, though.”
“Well, the mythos was created from each locale handing down stories and cobbling that together with the greater elementals’ descriptions of the past. So it makes sense that a ton of side stories are parading around as the main story line.”
“Still, I can’t believe that the fire giants only burned down Mount Galba. They always say they ‘burned every mountain,’ so here I was convinced that—”
“That was just a slightly worse mountain fire than usual. The Hearth Goddess’s Great Blunder was much bigger.”
“Sure must’ve put egg on those giants’ faces bein’ beat out by a goddess’s cookin’ disaster.”
Encouraged by the teeming conversations around us, Cyril and I started to naturally talk even more loudly. Myfila was the only one who kept her usual tone without being influenced by anyone.
I took a bite of my staple sautéed vegetables as I said, “Well, when it comes down to it, the world’s still standin’. Pandora might be the only one, then.” I chewed as I looked up at the tall ceiling of the hall. Then I sunk down in my seat, my back dragging along the chair.
“Oh?”
Right as I was on the verge of falling off my seat, a platinum-blond girl walked down the cramped aisle between the long tables.
Like the other students, Sasha Shidoh Zultania was carrying her tray of food as she walked. She stopped—deliberately—and chose that moment to give me advice on my posture.
“I do believe you know that’s not the proper way to enjoy a meal.”
I sat up in my chair. “Of course. Right, Sasha.” A thought had occurred to me. “Say, Sasha, we’ve got an open seat right here. Why don’t ya join us for once?”
“For once? Don’t you mean for the first time?” Sasha just smiled wanly at my sudden proposal.
The two girls behind her, on the other hand, were staring like hell had frozen over. One of her overly serious teammates scowled and hesitatingly asked, “Feil Fonaf, are you…inviting Lady Sasha to eat with you as though you two…are friends?”
I wrestled with some tough rye bread that was giving my jaw a workout.
“Princess or not, in the Academy, we’re just classmates. Haven’t got to be so formal.”
“I am suggesting that you do have to be!”
She was suddenly screeching at me—I’d been expecting the straitlaced one to act like that. The students around us were all so surprised that they turned to look at us at the same time.
“Oh—I didn’t…”
That made her go silent.
There was an awkward pause before Sasha saved the situation. She set her tray down gently next to me. “Yes, I should spend some lunches deepening my bonds with schoolmates.” Then she pulled out a chair. That was enough to dispel the tension.
“Come, Mireille. Dorothea, you as well. Why don’t you have a seat?”
The students around stirred a little from Princess Sasha sitting down with us, but that was it. They all went right back to their own meals.
I took a peek at Sasha’s lunch—it was the daily special. Unexpectedly ordinary.
“Don’t often see you in the dining hall,” I commented.
“I carved some time out of my day so I could. I can’t eat a sandwich with one hand while continuing to work every day. I daresay it’s not a healthy habit.”
“Well, don’t push yourself too hard, bein’ a princess and an Academy trustee an’ all, or you’ll end up sick someday.”
“I ought to say that to you. You forced your way into Julietta’s battle earlier, after all. Do you make a habit of saving people?”
“’Course not. Just lost my patience.”
When they saw Sasha and me talking, it wasn’t just Sasha’s teammates who gave each other dubious looks, but Cyril and Myfila, too.
Suddenly, Sasha said, nearly laughing, to Cyril, who was sitting across from me, “We haven’t spoken over a meal like this since we were children, have we, Cyril?”
The most handsome guy in the Academy gave her a fond smile before he replied, “It’s not the same, Sasha. Back then, I wasn’t even allowed to address you by name, and there wasn’t anyone as rambunctious as Feil around.”
They sounded a whole lot like childhood friends when they talked.
As I stuffed my face with the mountain of veggies on my plate, one of Sasha’s teammates chose to quietly blurt out, “I didn’t even know vegetable stir-fry was on the menu as a set meal.”
“So, Feil Fonaf, I know you well enough. What did you need from me?” asked Sasha.
“Good instincts,” I said.
“Of course I’d be able to tell.”
Then she finally started eating her own meal. She trimmed her fish with unbelievably graceful skill using her knife and fork, then brought a morsel to her mouth. She didn’t speak with her mouth full, either.
I decided to keep the conversation going while she was eating.
I started off with a “Sorry, but it’s just normal chitchat—”
I didn’t look at her as I stabbed at my vegetables with a fork and asked her, “Who do you think was the strongest being in mythology? It can be a god, a monster, whatever, anything goes. We were talkin’ about who was the strongest, but Cyril and Myfila insist it’s the Supreme God and Pandora, and they just won’t listen to reason.”