Chapter 2

"He said that?" Misaki whispered, her eyes wide with astonishment.

She almost fell off the bed, but I grabbed her before she could hit her nose on the floor.

"He said that. Do you think I'd make it up?"

Haruka grunted and took a bite of her apple.

We had been working hard all day. We had all pitched in to clean up the auditorium. It wasn't that badly damaged, really. A few broken windows, a burned spot on the floor, scattered desks... There weren't even holes in the walls! You could call it a minor mess, nothing more!

But of course, I wisely kept my mouth shut and swept up the debris. All my thoughts were occupied by Director Tetsuya's words.

"Evening sessions, Aska. Every other day. We will train right here to avoid new destruction. Protection, control, kanji-concentrators."

I could only bow in gratitude. He didn't ask me; he just stated a fact. And that was a huge stroke of luck. The director didn't behead me; instead, he decided to develop the very abilities that should have gotten me beheaded. I was a lucky girl!

"Knowing you, it's about to get worse," Misaki grumbled, sitting up on the bed.

I gave her a nasty look.

My friend immediately put her hands up.

"I surrender, I surrender. I just don't remember him taking anyone for extra lessons."

"And do you remember anyone bringing a battle from the clan chronicles to life?" Haruka asked pointedly.

Misaki scowled. There was nothing she could say to that.

After my conversation with the director, I was afraid that the brave company led by Satu would be waiting for me somewhere, but... they weren't even at cleanup. I had a sneaking suspicion that the girls had been sent somewhere else. Far away from us. It seemed that Tetsuya was very good at separating warring sides. So far, his only mistake had been leaving the school at the very moment I decided to go to the Weaver's temple.

And Miya... his daughter.

"Where is her mother?" The question just slipped out.

Haruka stopped chewing, and Misaki became guarded, asking, "Aska, who are you talking about?"

"About Miya, the director's daughter. She lives here, right? Where's her mother?"

The girls exchanged glances.

"Aska, he's a widower," Haruka replied.

"As far as we know, he came here with Miya," Misaki added.

"No one even knows what she was like?"

For some reason, I felt sorry for the little girl. I didn't know what Tetsuya's wife was like, but...

Haruka shrugged.

"It's not known. You know, no one talks about it. It's just rumors... but it's impossible to tell what's true and what's not. Only one thing is known: once a year, the director and his daughter, along with all the students and teachers of the Gozen School, go to the Floating Temple to honor the souls of the dead."

An image of a huge, clear, icy lake appeared before my eyes. In the center of the lake was a wooden temple, which at first glance seemed simple and unassuming; it was hard to understand why people would go there. But they would tie braided cords on their wrists: black if a loved one had died decades ago, blue for five years, yellow for two years, and red for less than two years.

"And the kumihimo on their wrists were..." I began.

"Blue, Aska," Misaki said quietly.

"Just like Koji's," Haruka noted.

"Koji?" I started. "He had a wife too?"

Haruka rolled her eyes.

"That's all you can think about. I don't know. But someone close to him died since he ties a blue kumihimo before the trip to the Floating Temple."

A few seconds later, I realized it was a jab at me. I almost slapped myself on the forehead. Right, Aska was in love with Koji. Therefore, my friends interpreted my questions about him accordingly. What a mess to get into! Couldn't the owner of this body have chosen someone younger?

Nevertheless, I didn't miss how Misaki nudged Haruka with her elbow. She felt sorry for me, apparently. Or maybe she was just tired of these jokes.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Let's go to sleep," I grumbled, pulling the blanket over myself. "Tomorrow is another day."

No one objected.

...A few days passed. If I had thought I was tired after my classes and training with Ayu, now... now I understood what it was like to be truly tired. Director Tetsuya made no allowances for my studies, experience, or knowledge. He would show me, and I would have to repeat it. That's all. Any attempt to be lazy and say, "I can't do it," was nipped in the bud. A wave of darkness would simply fly at me and cover me head to toe.

The first time, I shrieked from surprise. The second time, I realized that screaming wouldn't help. The third time, I threw a hurricane of ryoku. The fourth, I built the right shield. Things were getting better. Tetsuya praised me sparingly, but always fairly, never pretending that my progress meant nothing.

He had great power. It was huge. For now, it was hard to understand what kind of power it was—a thick, viscous darkness that rushed at you at tremendous speed, instilling terror and turning you into a helpless doll. And you absolutely couldn't lose concentration. Otherwise, that was it. You were there one moment and gone the next.

But we never touched on the topic of what had happened in the auditorium. I wasn't smart enough to bring it up carefully, and the director acted as if nothing had happened.

Right up until a moment when, after a particularly savage attack, I was trying to catch my breath and collect myself, and he suddenly smiled and asked, "Well, Aska, are you ready for the trip?"

"Trip?" I asked warily, rubbing my bruised shoulder.

"The trip to the city. The prize for getting the best grade in calligraphy."

***

From early in the morning, the students were filled with anticipation.

A trip to the nearby town was something like a holiday. The girls impatiently peeked out the windows and ran outside to wait for the carriages. Yes, we were going to ride in them. As I had come to understand, there were no engines here; all transportation was pulled by horses.

On one hand, it was unusual. I clearly remembered that I had never ridden horses in my past life. On the other... it was better than walking.

I was braiding my hair, and Misaki was buzzing around me, chattering about which of her two keikogi was better to wear. Given that both were identical purple ones, the question was pretty baffling.

"No keikogi," Haruka advised, looking up from a book on ryoku techniques.

"Oh, you!" Misaki scoffed.

I smirked a little. I had nothing against nice clothes, but at Gozen School, we wore a uniform. So you just put it on and went where you needed to. The uniform, by the way, was very comfortable; I had nothing to complain about.

I was lucky that Misaki had stood out to the weapons teacher and earned a trip to the city, and Haruka had on ryoku techniques. It was somehow calmer with the girls than alone. My intuition told me that someone from Satu's group would be on this trip, too. It seemed like someone was always hanging on my tail.

"They're here!" Misaki's joyful shriek pulled me from my thoughts.

Haruka and I rushed to the window.

I was speechless, trying to process what I was seeing. Wait a minute. Two carriages... for ten girls, that was too many, because the carriages were large. But that wasn't even the point. Because the carriages were not pulled by... horses.

The creatures' bodies were covered in scales, their eyes blazed with a green fire, and their elongated snouts were more serpentine than equine. Their legs... the creatures had no legs. They had... tails. Something between a snake's and an octopus's.

"The hebi are new this time," Haruka said thoughtfully from beside me. "Last time, they were old, but these are spirited, young ones."

"Hebi?" I repeated in an echo.

"Well, that makes sense," Misaki said as if she hadn't heard me. "Horses are a luxury on the border with the tsumi. They would get eaten in an instant. But try to catch a riding hebi."

One of the beasts, as if hearing her words, arched its back, and emerald flashes ran across its scales.

"Whoa!" Haruka breathed out in admiration.

"Are we really going to ride in that?" I asked sullenly, not sharing her enthusiasm.

Both friends looked at me in amazement.

"Aska, what's wrong? They're hebi! They'll get us there super fast! We won't have to waste time on the road."

I didn't answer, but my caution didn't go away. It was a good thing that we then headed for the exit, and they weren't going to talk about me anymore. They had other things to worry about.

I was trying to analyze my own feelings. Something was off. But what? Had I crossed paths with a hebi in my past life? Unlikely. In Aska's life? Had one of us stepped on someone's tail?

I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. How naturally the words "stepped on a tail" had come out, as if I were a snake and not a human.

One carriage was for the students, and the second was for the teachers. Tehiko sat with us, apparently to supervise everything.

A small group of students poured into the courtyard, curiously examining the hebi. Some were envious, some were in awe, and some quietly sighed. Satu was indeed riding with us. The other six students were almost strangers to me; I had only seen them a few times. Three girls in black keikogi, one in a green one, meaning she was a year younger than me, and two in blue ones—first-years.

To my surprise, Director Tetsuya wasn't going to the city. I felt a sense of disappointment inside. It wasn't that I was hoping he would be there, but... seeing him was much more pleasant than seeing Koji or Teacher Yachiharo, who, by the way, had already taken their seats.

"Let's go," Misaki whispered and pulled on my sleeve.

I hurried after her.

Both of the hebi harnessed to our carriage froze as if enchanted when they saw me. A chill ran down my spine.

"Hello," I mumbled.

The hebi flinched and immediately bowed their heads to the ground. I sighed in relief and climbed into the carriage after Misaki. It was so nice not to have four non-human eyes staring at you, trying to decide whether to take you to the city or eat you right there.

At one point, it seemed like someone else was looking at me. I turned my head.

Koji. It was him.

He was looking as if he wanted to see something more than what was actually there. Oh well. I pretended not to notice.

And it was at that very moment that Miya appeared in the courtyard out of nowhere. She was running with such a determined look that the students involuntarily stepped aside.

"Oh, look who it is," one of the girls laughed quietly. "We would take you, but we'd get in trouble."

Miya paid no attention to the girl; she stopped next to us, out of breath, and beckoned me to her. A gasp of astonishment passed through the students.

I leaned down to the little girl. Maybe she wanted to ask for something? To buy a treat?

Miya put her little arms around my neck and quickly whispered in my ear, "Buy a cobra."

And then she darted behind the other students, cleverly hiding from Director Tetsuya, who was coming down the school steps.

Buy a cobra? What was this new thing?

"What did she say?" Haruka whispered.

"I didn't catch it," I replied as neutrally as possible. "She was too fast."

I don't think they believed me, but I knew in my heart that Miya's words had to be kept a secret.