After that, for the next three weeks, Aria and Lance were more or less stuck together. They usually ate lunch at a designated area in the library, sometimes engaged in mock battles (to Lance’s displeasure), and studied together.
Occasionally, Lily would join them when she wasn’t around her “minions”, as Aria calls them. For reasons that evade Lance, the two girls seem to always be on edge around each other, and at times they end up fighting each other in unsanctioned duels.
So far, the score’s even.
“Do those two have some history with each other?” Lance once asked Rose shortly before she went on another expedition.
“In a way,” Rose said while she was packing up. “Lily feels that Aria robbed her of her position.”
Rose refused to elaborate when Lance asked and told him to ask the person in question if he’s really curious. Lance just gave an awkward smile at that.
Lance tried to bring up the topic a few times when he and Lily were together, but she was surprisingly evasive every time, causing Lance to soon drop the issue entirely.
On the other hand, Lance had better progress on getting to know Aria.
Some of the things he found out about her is that she’s not as emotionless as she seems. It’s just that her facial expression hardly changes to reflect her mood. Aside from that one time when she talked about Rose.
I’m pretty sure her eyes were sparkling back then.
She also seems to like romance novels.
“You really like these kinds of novels huh?” Lance said, glancing at the page of the novel Aria was currently reading.
“!!!” Silverhart immediately slammed the book shut and hid it from him.
“Huh? I was just looking at the page…”
“I...It’s embarrassing to read if...you’re behind me,” she said, looking at me, her face slightly tinted red.
“Sorry about that,” Lance scratched his cheek. “At times like these, you look just like a normal girl, Aria.”
“!” Aria immediately stood up, carrying the book she was reading with her, and ran. She stumbled a little along the way, but kept running.
“Hey Aria-!” Lance tried to call out to her, but remembered they were in the library. He ended up seeing her leave in a hurry.
“Did I do something wrong…?” Lance questioned himself.
Along the way, he saw Aria trip a few more times.
Was she always that clumsy?
There are times when Lance finds himself alone and other students would approach him, asking him questions as to what his relationship with the two girls, especially Aria, as he would often be seen with them.
“So you two aren’t engaged?” One female classmate asked.
Lance was stunned at the question.
“No we aren’t,” replied Lance. “Also, aren’t we a bit too young for that?”
“W-Well, it’s not really strange for members of higher ranking noble houses like yours to be engaged at this age, but I guess it's not…” The classmate in question mumbled something about the situation being similar to a novel.
Lance wisely pretended to not have heard.
“Oh..well...You see…” Another classmate, this time a guy, tried to explain. “You’re the only one who can talk to her normally without her outright ignoring you or ending up in an argument like with Miss Belladonna…”
Lance made a wry smile. In any case, Lance decided to answer his classmate’s question.
“That would be thanks to my sister. She’s her apprentice.”
“She’s Miss Rose’s apprentice?!” “That explains her welcome speech…” My classmates muttered in awe at my sister being mentioned.
Sis is really popular huh.
“Einfelt.”
A familiar voice interrupted from outside the circle. Lance’s classmates were startled, but quickly opened a path for her.
“Aria, what’s wrong?” Lance asked as she made her way to him.
Her body jerked a little before answering.
“Professor Archaman is calling for you. He said that we should go and meet him in the faculty room.”
I wonder what he needs… With that in mind, Lance excused himself from the crowd and followed Aria to the hallway. Unlike the usual, where they walk side by side, this time she’s walking in front of Lance.
Once they were alone in the hallway…
“What did he need us for?” asked Lance.
She shook her head sideways. “I lied.”
Lance stopped walking and stared at her in befuddlement. “Wait, why?”
She didn’t stop walking as she answered.
“I wanted to talk to you, but there were too many people around.”
“Hey, wait for me!” Lance exclaimed as he caught up with her.
Lance recalled what one of his classmates said about her ignoring pretty much everyone else and got a bit worried. “By the way, how’s the academy working out for you?”
“It’s fine. It’s not a complete waste of time as I had originally assumed,” Aria replied. “I’m still a bit disappointed that there’s a four month restriction before first year students can officially challenge others in a duel.”
She found out the hard way when Professor Archaman stopped her and Lily, Lance recalled the incident. Not that it stopped the two from secretly dueling each other afterwards.
Interestingly enough, it seems that the two of them actually seem to enjoy fighting each other.
Meanwhile, Aria had a question of her own.
“Why are you asking?”
“Oh, I was just curious if you’ve made any friends,” Lance said.
“I haven’t.”
“How about you and Lily-”
“Don’t even joke about that.”
“I had a few run-ins with her these past few weeks. It seems that she frequents the library.”
If looks can kill, then the look Aria was giving him right now would have killed Lance a few times over.
I guess bringing up Lily was a bad idea…I was sure they would have gotten along by now since they share a few hobbies…
Lance decided to change his approach.
“Then Aria, what do you—”
She suddenly stopped walking, causing Lance to nearly bump into her.
“At least tell me when you’re going to stop…” he muttered as Aria turned to face him.
“My name…” She said.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“You’re using my name.”
“Ah.” I never realized.
“I guess I just got comfortable enough to start using your first name,” Lance said. “Besides, I think it’s a beautiful name.”
It was just a moment, but Lance could have sworn he saw a soft smile on Aria’s usually expressionless face, causing him to blink.
Maybe I was just seeing things, he thought as he saw Aria’s usual expression afterwards.
On the other hand, her hand is gripping the hem of her uniform, not that Lance understood why.
“What were you about to say?” she said in a seemingly toneless voice.
While Lance was concerned about her tone, he proceeded to answer her question.
“I was about to ask what you think of me,” Lance said.
Aria’s body shook a bit before answering.
“You’re master’s younger brother and…” she trailed off while putting her hand on her chin, so as to think about it.
“And?”
“A rival,” she said before nodding at herself with a face that says ‘That must be it’.
“....Do you have any friends outside of the academy?”
“No.”
How could you answer that question so easily?! Lance scratched the back of his head in confusion.
After a short pause in the conversation...
“Can I be your friend then?” Lance asked.
Aria was a little confused at his question. “But I just said you’re my rival.”
Lance chuckled a bit.
“Well yeah, you did. That doesn’t stop us from becoming friends.”
Aria was not visibly confused. “It doesn’t?”
Is she actually that bad at making friends? Lance thought as he replied, “If you want to.”
“I’m...uh…” Aria was at a loss for words as she struggled to answer.
She looks cute right now, Lance thought.
She took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself. Once she regained her nerves…
“Then...can we become friends?”
“Of course!” Lance offered his hand for a handshake. “Here’s to a lasting friendship, Aria!”
She looked at Lance, then at his extended hand, and then at her hand. Slowly, she moved her hand.
“...I’ll be in your care, Lance,” she said as she shook his hand.
Suddenly, she let go and briskly walked away.
“Hey, wait up!” said Lance.
Why is she walking faster than usual? I’m sure I didn’t do anything strange back there...
Another peculiar thing that Lance noticed was that, for the rest of the walk, Aria kept looking away if Lance tried to look at her and would stumble from time to time.
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