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“AND WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?! I ‘won’t survive in Antohsa’? Excuse me? You mean you’re going to expel me? Get real!” Stella pouted as soon as we returned to her dorm room.
“Surprised that Professor Speranza didn’t change her tune at all even now that you can cast miracles...”
“And like, who even uses their staff against students like that? I thought she was going to kill me. Even if she hates me, that’s just going way too far. What kind of teacher is she?”
Staves were a necessary tool for casting miracles. Having a staff pointed at you was probably equivalent to having a gun put to your forehead.
“She said I was getting cocky, but I’m not at all. I was working in class ’cause the deadline was coming up fast. I only stood on my staff to protect my chastity, and it’s true that I’ve got a special spirit in my staff!” Stella huffed, brushing her silver hair back angrily. She then took the slip out of her pocket. “Forget it... I’m not gonna show this to the professors.”
“Makes sense.”
After seeing that unreliable side to Professor Elyena, I could hardly disagree.
“I’m going to sew an inner pocket to my robes and hide it there,” she said, folding it up.
“Is that actually enough to hide it?”
“There are room and bag checks sometimes, but they won’t go so far as to notice an inner pocket,” Stella said.
With that, she produced sewing utensils and dexterously got to work making an inner pocket. She looked very feminine as she did so; I found myself enraptured by the sight.
“That should do it. Now not even Professor Speranza will find it!”
Stella certainly had a lot of hostility for Professor Speranza now.
I could hardly blame her; she had been way too strict on her earlier. Still, something in that speech had stuck with me.
“Hey. She said something about people having strengths and weaknesses with miracles, didn’t she?”
“Uh-huh. Since spirits are elementally aligned, you’ll inevitably end up specialized in whichever element your spirit happens to be.”
“What happens when you have to cast miracles of an elemental type you have no affinity for?” I asked.
“Obviously, you just have to cast it anyway. That’s the only thing you can do,” Stella said, as if it were obvious, but that felt off to me.
“I feel like the answer here isn’t working harder, but instead relying on your friends...?”
If one’s abilities were swung massively by the spirit in their staff, there was a limit to what one could do on a personal level. I felt like it was wrong to just buckle down and grit your teeth for subjects one was incapable of improving upon.
“During practical lessons, a bunch of students always clump up together, don’t they? I think that’s less because they’re close and more so they can make up for the others’ weaknesses.”
“I don’t know, but... I guess Quinza is the only one in her group I’ve ever seen casting Fire miracles. Maybe they’re arranged according to their element.”
As I thought.
In which case, it seemed best for students to cooperate during class... Or, well, throughout their entire school life, even. Maybe that was why Professor Speranza had given Stella a failing grade for cleaning the rear garden alone.
“By the way, what element is my specialty, anyway? I’d like to know my weaknesses.”
“We can just experiment for that,” Stella said nonchalantly. “I’ll state the simplest prayer for each of the five miracles. Whichever forms the biggest ball is your specialty, since it’ll mean you got the most spirits for it.”
Stella gripped me and chanted five prayers one after another. And the result was...
“Mm, normally one would be blatantly way bigger than the others, but I can’t tell whether Light or Wind wins here... Maybe Light, by a bit?” Stella murmured as she faced the five orbs.
“I can’t actually see the Wind orb.”
“That’s because you have to touch it.” Stella stuck me into the Wind orb.
Oooh, it’s like a tornado whipping my head.
Of the two, Light narrowly beat out Wind. The Fire orb was subsequently a size smaller than either, while the Water and Earth orbs hadn’t even really reached the point of being orbs—they’d fallen right to the ground.
“Judging by these results, I specialize in Light and Wind, but I’m weak with Water and Earth.”
“So it seems.”
“Sounds like you’ll want a friend good with Water and Earth, then.”
The time was midafternoon—dinnertime. There’d be plenty of students in the dining hall.
“Friends. Friends, huh...” Stella said, twirling her hair around a finger. She seemed unmotivated. No wonder, considering every student there had avoided her like the plague not too long ago.
“Your grades will go up with friends to help you, y’know. It’ll be like having no weak element at all,” I said, and her shoulders shifted the moment she heard the word “grades.” She just needed one more push. “You need to be top of your class for your wish to come true, no? It shouldn’t be too hard for you to make a friend or two, then.”
“H-Hold on a second. There’s no proof that making friends will raise my grades.”
“Just imagine it—you’ll be able to do schoolwork better by cooperating. Even cleaning your room will be faster if you split the load. The professors will think better of you, and you’ll have more time for studying. How could your grades NOT shoot up?”
Stella placed her hand on her chin in thought.
After several seconds, a look of motivation bloomed on her face. “Just you wait. I’ll make a friend in no time!”
Stella briskly made her way to the dining hall with me in hand.
Aaand, to summarize...she failed to make a friend.
The dining hall was packed with students looking for dinner. A few noticed Stella and came walking over, but the first thing she did was lean back and holler.
“I have no interest in puny spirits! If anyone here wields a Great Spirit of either Water or Earth, come to me! I will be generous and befriend you!”
I clenched a fist on the inside and wept tears of joy.
What was this if not a tsundere? Her speech was far too direct and revealed her clumsiness. It was adorable she felt the need to say she was being “generous,” thereby hiding her true feelings. She chose bold language, but if one listened closely, they could tell her voice was shaking and her cheeks were flushed.
Glory be to tsunderes! Thank you for everything, tsunderes!
While I was overcome by emotion, the entire student body dispersed from Stella’s presence. It was like scattering baby spiders.
Stella ended up sitting alone and muttering to herself about how nothing made sense as she bitterly ate her dinner. She seemed almost teary-eyed.