B4 - Chapter 8 - Dragged Along

In the interest of not wasting such valuable time, Lily only tried a few more times before shelving this for the outside world. Arakil also agreed with this approach, as if she wanted to read the texts and refresh her understanding, then it could be done via the grimoire itself.

What they ended up using the remaining time for was the glyph game, where each would draw a small part before handing it to the other. When they had previously played this game, Lily had to rely entirely on her wand, but now she could try drawing with her mind and reasonably keep pace with Arakil.

For what was supposed to be a teaching aid, Lily found all of this remarkably fun, and the remaining time they had together passed by in a blur as they drew all sorts of bizarre glyphs and even inscriptions together.

Before Lily departed, Arakil gave her a reassuring smile. "You might be closer to refining your Mana than you realize. You didn't even notice some of the swaps I did."

"What…? When?"

Arakil just gave a mysterious smile before lightly patting her on the head. Usually, Lily would pout when someone touched her head, especially if her ears were involved, but Arakil had joined the shortlist of people like Rose and Margit who could do so without causing her to flinch.

"I'll see you next time," Lily promised before exiting the room.

The dream began to fade, and Lily woke up in her bed feeling groggy as usual. Physically, she was a bit sore from lying down for so long without moving, but mentally, she was drained, as cramming a full day of mental activity into eight hours was not without its consequences. While in the library, she had considered asking for permission to see the stars tonight, but now that she was outside, she found herself unable to muster her former enthusiasm.

Better eat, wash up, then relax before actually going to sleep. I've got to deal with Rose tomorrow, so I'm going to need all the energy I can get.

***

Lily could've kissed her previous self as she had been right on the money. Not only was Rose full of energy the next morning, but she practically kicked down Lily's door at the crack of dawn to wake her up. If she had forced herself to stay up and try to feel the stars, she would've suffered greatly at the hands of her enthusiastic big sister.

"Why so early…?" Lily asked, sounding still half asleep.

"Because! I finally get to show you around the dungeon!" Rose answered excitedly while waving her hands wildly. "I've been dying for this day, but you were stuck on the first floor for so long, and then I was busy with festival stuff, and yeah. Not to mention flying!"

Lily mumbled incoherently before dunking her face into some cold water produced by one of the more permanent glyphs she had drawn for her room. That helped her wake up, and thanks to her cleaning bracelet, she was able to freshen up before Rose dragged her out.

"That bracelet is handy, I should see if I can't buy or find one," Rose commented.

"I get the feeling in your hands it would be abused."

Rose chuckled in response, not bothering to deny what Lily said. The intent was obvious: it would allow her to live down there for even longer periods. Lily was sure her sister probably summoned water or jumped in a river to clean herself, but that only went so far in freshening you up.

To Lily's relief, she wasn't dragged immediately to the dungeon, but instead to the cafeteria, where they had an early breakfast. Rose was shoveling down her food while Lily went at a more relaxed pace. Since they were eating, naturally, the topic of Lily's fancy dinner came up, and she was able to gush about the delicacies she had enjoyed.

Rose just nodded along knowingly before joking that Lily would probably be accepting a lot more invitations in the future. Of course, she denied that, but a small part of her was at least a little less resistant to the idea.

Then, with their stomachs full, they headed to the dungeon entrance. Lily had expected it to be a ghost town since it was still very early, but there were already plenty of students heading inside. Practically everyone knew Rose, so they all waved or greeted her as she went by. Lily also received a few greetings, and that was when she realized that there were a lot of first years this morning.

I guess they are taking the goal of reaching the second floor very seriously. I get the feeling I'd better be prepared to get dragged inside with Hana and Lotte next weekend.

Then, very surprisingly, they bumped into Alice, who seemed to be exiting the dungeon. Lily had to admit she was curious about what some of the professors did in their free time, and the fact that Alice used it to go dungeon diving was painfully predictable. She immediately spotted Lily and Rose and eyed the two suspiciously.

"I hope you aren't planning on helping your sister reach the third floor?"

"Nope, and I doubt that she needs my help to do it," Rose replied confidently and pointed a thumb to her back. "I want Lily to see my progress with using these stupid wings and see if she can't give me any advice."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"You do know that there are professors who can help you with that, right? Alice asked.

"Yeah, but they aren't Dragia. It's different," Rose insisted.

Alice looked on the verge of probably pointing out that Lily was also not a Dragia, and didn't even have wings, but closed her mouth and shook her head. Lily knew exactly what she was going through. There were times when you just couldn't argue with Rose; she would do whatever she wanted.

"Well, good luck, I guess. Try not to get into any trouble…"

"If trouble knows what's good for it, it'll know to stay away from me," Rose responded with a smirk.

This time, it looked like Alice was going to say something, but Lily quickly interjected. The last thing she wanted was for Rose's fiery tongue to get them suspended from the dungeon or something.

"Um, Alice, would you be willing to do me a favor?"

Alice's frown faded, and she turned to Lily with a look of genuine curiosity. "That depends on what it is. So spill."

Lily nodded. "I need permission to study the stars at night, but I don't want to break any curfew rules…"

"I'm surprised you didn't just use those shadow—"

Lily quickly kicked Rose in the shin, causing her to stop talking. Unfortunately, Alice wasn't a fool, and it was probably too late.

"Sneaking out would have been very stupid. You would have probably been easily caught," Alice said. "As for permission, that shouldn't be too hard. I'm assuming this is for your bloodline?"

Lily nodded.

"Would a room with a window be enough?" Alice asked.

"No, I need to be under the stars directly," Lily replied. "I went through something similar when I was at the orphanage, where I needed to be under the moon."

"So you snuck out?"

Lily didn't answer, but Alice eyed her suspiciously before turning her gaze to Rose, who just shrugged in response.

"Don't look at me, I was at Regarth whenever that was happening. Or maybe it was when I was traveling with Lady Desthu?"

Alice sighed. "Very well. I'll let the headmaster know. It probably will be fine since you could use a courtyard or something. If you had said you needed to be out in the middle of nowhere, it would've been harder to arrange."

"Thank you, Alice."

"Don't thank me yet," Alice snorted. "Also, be warned that there's a good chance that they will check on you to see if you're actually doing what you're saying. So I hope this isn't some scheme."

Lily vigorously shook her head to deny it as she genuinely needed to be under the stars. She just hoped that her sitting there and meditating would be enough "proof" as she had no idea how long it would take to get some tangible results to feel and guide the stars.

With that out of the way, Alice waved goodbye to the two before departing, leaving Lily with her sister staring at her curiously.

"I'll explain in the dungeon," Lily said with an awkward smile.

Rose grinned before grabbing Lily by the hand and heading straight to the staircase, leading them right to the second floor. As always, Lily was amazed by the sight, the sounds of chirping birds, and even the smell of fresh dew; it really was the forest.

"It feels good to be back here. Much calmer than the lower floors…" Rose sighed, stretching her arms and back while basking in the sun.

"I thought you said you came down to see the fort we built?"

"I did, but I didn't stay for long. Me and this place don't exactly have the best history…"

"You burnt the forest, didn't you?"

Rose chuckled awkwardly, which was enough to all but confirm Lily's suspicion. They walked a bit deeper into the forest, away from the entrance, while casually chatting, and then they started getting into more secretive talk.

"So basically you want to turn stars into glyphs?" Rose asked.

"Yeah… The idea is that I could enchant my cloak by arranging the stars," Lily further explained.

"I'd love to see it for myself, but if I get involved, they will think we are doing something wrong…" Rose sighed.

"You seem to be quite the troublemaker… I thought your trip with Lady Desthu was supposed to mellow you?"

"I'd say I've calmed down… Old me would've definitely tried to sneak into the dungeon at night."

"I guess that's true… But there's a big difference between sneaking past Margit and the professors."

"Yeah, Margit couldn't exactly sense magic like the professors here… Damn, those shadow cloak talismans were the best."

Lily giggled before reaching into her pouch and pulling out a few and offering them to Rose, who showed no restraint in snatching them and grinning wildly. While they might not be able to fool the professors, she could probably use them to trick some of the dungeon monsters.

"So… What exactly is your flying plan?" Lily eventually asked.

"Well, what did you do for your flying friend?"

"She couldn't fly when we were exploring, she could safely land though, so she would ask me to send her up into the air."

"Using glyphs, I'm guessing?"

"Nope, runes."

Lily quickly explained runes, earning several appreciative nods from Rose. Lily thought she might have been finally interested, especially after hearing that these were effectively "simple glyphs," but she still didn't bite. Of course, this led her to want a demonstration, and after finding a small pack of monsters, Lily was able to show off push, pull, lift, and press.

Rose was quite impressed by the demonstration, although still hesitant to jump on a stack of lift runes on her own. Considering her sister's normal attitude to everything, it was strange to see her even a little meek.

"By the way, since when could your cloak draw?" Rose asked.

Lily blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"Your cloak. You cast it before summoning those runes."

Lily finally looked at herself, noticing her Nebula Veil fluttering around her and obscuring the wand she held in her hand. Apparently, she'd grown so used to the repeated obfuscation that it had become second nature to her, and without even knowing, she'd called it now.

No wonder Arakil could trick me by removing the wand… I thought I was more observant than this, but now I'm having doubts.

"It's all part of my training. Soon, I hope I'll be able to draw anything and everything," Lily said with some confidence.

"Of course you will, I never had a doubt in my mind. I bet you're going to make a huge splash during the interschool tournament."

Lily awkwardly scratched her cheek while chuckling nervously, as that was exactly her plan. She really hoped that it would be enough to push her over the edge and start being able to draw with her mind in the real world, even if it was tiny things like runes. If she made a big spectacle and she had nothing to show for it, then she might never live down the embarrassment.

"Okay, next I want to see how you fly," Rose announced.

Lily's expression froze as she stared at her sister. "I thought today was about you…"

"No, I definitely said I wanted to see your flying inscription. Arakil even said you could draw one for me."

[I did mention that.]

With both her loved ones ganging up on her, Lily could only sigh in defeat. She pulled Arakil out of her pocket, and the book floated up before enlarging to its regular size. The pages then fluttered and turned to reveal the flying inscription she had previously copied, as she needed to do it again after replacing the saved blueprint with her flashy attack spell for the dungeon duos.

"I guess I'd better get drawing…" Lily mumbled in defeat.