There are plenty of people who don’t get along. It was just bad luck that she and I ended up sitting next to each other. Our first encounter could hardly have been worse, and that was probably why we fought constantly.
I could’ve just left her alone, even after the color of her hair changed. Let her deal with her powers herself. After a while they would overflow and wreak havoc on everything and everyone around her. Poor girl.
But despite those thoughts, I couldn’t shake off the image of her back as she walked out the classroom, looking lonely.
I pictured Nanalie Hel isolated in a special room, alone. What did I care?
And yet, the image filled me with fear. It must have reminded me of what I’d gone through—I didn’t want to see such a past repeat itself, even if it happened to someone else.
I started to attack her physically to bait her into burning off her excess magic, but it was in no way for her sake—I wasn’t about to punch her in the gut and claim I did her a favor. I just genuinely wondered how I would’ve grown up had I not been constrained by my environment—could I smile and laugh and be at ease? I felt like I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself had I allowed things to take their course and let her smile disappear.
✦ ✦ ✦
Being four years older than my fellow classmates, I wasn’t allowed to lose to them in anything—be it studies or magic. I had to be first in everything. Problem was, the girl beside me, Nanalie Hel, instilled dread in me time and time again.
She was always in second place, breathing down my neck, and I never knew when she might overtake me. No matter how much further ahead of her I tried to be, she was obsessed with victory. Add to that our proximity, and it really complicated things for me.
I avidly studied magic and absorbed such knowledge and power as to be beyond anyone’s reach. I didn’t care if people might see me as a monster. If I was defective, I would simply polish that defect instead of trying to make up for it, until it reached a state of perfection unseen elsewhere. My life became much more comfortable.
Prince Zenon taught me everything I knew about reaching an accord with others. However, he’s the type to be up-front about his feelings.
“And how did you end up with such a crooked way of thinking?” my father had once asked me with a chuckle. I had no answer to that.
I liked girls with a mild scent like that of my mother, which is why I would never disregard them. And when I was nice to them, it put smiles on their faces. It helped that they were cute. It wasn’t like I went out of my way to curry favor with them.
Then what about this girl with the azure hair and the deep frown?
I believe words are magic. Once they enter your ears, they take hold of your mind and bind your body. Unconsciously, I’d come to be just the way Naijeiri said I would.
“In the future, you will be an awesome mage! I guarantee it!”
“But—”
“You will use more magic than I do, more than anyone does, and you’ll be super popular with the girls!”
If I became an “awesome mage” and “super popular with the girls,” I thought I might see her again. And this time I would win at rock-paper-scissors and have her be with me forever.
This ridiculous idea never seemed to leave my head. Who ever said I’d get to see her again just because her predictions came true?
You’re just a fool, whispered a voice in my head.
✦ ✦ ✦
It came time for the final party of my school life.
I no longer needed to use my magic on Hel: by then she’d gained full control of hers. My role was over and done with, blessedly. And yet, the two of us didn’t stop bickering. There had been few times we ever talked properly. I could remember them if I wanted to, but it’s too much of a bother.
The party was far from dull. I talked with a few girls, and danced with a few more. Only, since I knew deciding upon a special someone made things stressful both for yourself and for those around you, I hadn’t committed to a real dance partner.
Nanalie Hel showed up late. Though she had tremendous energy when it came to studying and competitions, her tardy side would occasionally manifest too. All this despite the fact her roommates had arrived a long time ago.
She turned heads once she appeared in that powder-blue dress. I saw some of the men get slapped by their dance partners as they gazed at Hel, swayed by her precious figure—she didn’t expose her shoulders even in casual clothes—and a touch of sex appeal.
I, however, thought she was no different from usual. Her appearance hadn’t changed enough to warrant so much attention, while Maris beside her looked several times lovelier than before. Seeing the baron’s son so captivated by her, I was tempted to suggest he invite her for a dance if he liked her new look so much.
The party entered its final stage.
The last item on the teachers’ program for the night was making me invisible. I knew that Mr. Bordon, one of the teachers, found me rather hard to deal with, but persistently concerned himself with me nonetheless. In particular, when it came to my fights with Hel, teachers typically didn’t intervene, but Mr. Bordon had once hurled himself at me to stop us. Though I was hardly the only student he’d give the occasional earnest scolding, to be clear.
I had him pegged for a hopeless meddler after six years at the school, but why did he have to send me to Hel in the courtyard? It was clear he had used some odd sort of spell—I wasn’t invisible, for starters. Whatever spell he had cast, it functioned more at the psychological level than anything material.
Sitting on the fountain, Hel turned around. She always had a comeback for anything I said, and this time was no different. Bickering with her in such a place somehow put a smile on my face.
Her azure dress glowed faintly in the moonlight.