Chapter 7: Loose Screw and Four Eyes

A blond-haired girl stood at the doorway. By her side was a large robot dog that was retracting a ram that had popped out from its mouth to break the door. “TOP OF THE MORNING TO YOU!” declared the girl, who put her hands on her hips and grinned widely at him.

Ace let out a small whimper. It was only his third day in the Sanctum, and the door was already in smithereens.

The girl gave him a curious look before realising what she had done, to which she simply laughed and shrugged it off. She plopped down on a chair and scooted so close to him that he could feel her bubblegum-scented breath on his face. The mechanical dog yapped loudly and set its heavy metallic paws on his thigh. The girl gently pushed down on its nose and tutted, “Gauss! Lie down.”

It let out a whine and curled into a ball on the floor at her feet. “You must be the shy normie that Felix brought back,” said the girl as she tore off the pair of goggles that were too big for her face. They were dangled before Gauss, which ate them without a second thought.

The girl lifted his two-toned arms, studying them. “You look funky but not ugly,” she remarked, her shimmering blue eyes studying him intently like a frog on the dissecting tray. She started to pat his hair. “Did you dye this part of your hair white to give yourself some personality?”

“No… It’s a birthmark,” Ace said and pried her hands off his head gently. 

“Ooh, birth…mark…” The girl dragged out her ‘th’ so long that air started whistling through her teeth. Ace could not help but notice that she had a slightly chipped front tooth. She seemed so fixated on him that he had to clear his throat to get her attention. 

“You broke my door,” he said.

“What’s your name?” the girl asked, completely disregarding his statement.

“U-Uh… Ace.”

A wide smile spread across the girl’s face, and she grabbed his hand. “O-M-G. FINALLY!” she gushed profusely, shaking his hand.  “I’m Leonhart Euler, a soon-to-be sorcerer!” 

“Hello…”

“Hi Ace! You’re my friend now.” Leonhart seemed like she had just received a long-awaited parcel of something she bought online. She was a surging spark of energy, and if she could, she would be bouncing off the corners of the room. 

“I–”

“How’s the food?” she asked, not waiting for Ace to say anything before she stole a bite of the noodles. “It's sooo yummy! That place really lived up to its reviews.”

“You bought it?”

“Mhm! Gauss flew over to get it. It’s my treat, by the way. I’ll pay for the door too.”

“Uh… Thanks,” Ace said. As you should!

“No biggie,” she said and whistled for her dog. “This is Gauss, if you haven’t realised. He’s my best pal. I implemented a door-knocking feature, but I guess it worked too well.”

Couldn’t you just knock like a normal person? Ace thought as he tapped the dog’s head with his pointer finger.

Leonhart stuffed a spoon in his mouth. “Eat! Quickly! I wanna show you my room!”

After much protest and force-feeding, Leonhart hauled him to her room, which was much more spacious than his. Metal scraps were piled at the corners of the room, with papers and drawings strewn everywhere, mingling with discarded snack packets and crumpled energy drink cans. The many computer screens illuminated the dimly lit room. The processors hummed softly in the background. A tank with a pink axolotl in it sat in the corner of the room. It opened and closed its mouth, occasionally catching the random piece of food that floated into its cavity. “That’s my other pal, I just got him a few days ago,” Leonhart said. “Wanna name him?”

Ace racked his brain but could only come up with one. “Girving?” he suggested.

Leonhart pondered for a moment before she broke out into a smile. “Girving and Gauss, sounds great! Girving it is.”

“You sleep here?” Ace asked, holding back a sneeze.

“No, this is my workshop. I have another room where I sleep,” Leonhart said, sweeping away crumbs of food on the table onto the floor and sorting out her notes. She signalled Gauss to get a chair but it became the chair. Ace stood by it, unsure of whether it was appropriate to sit on her dog.

Euler… Where have I heard that name before? Ace thought. Dr. Farid had mentioned that abilities were passed down the family’s lineage. There was only one explanation for Leonhart’s affinity for math.

“Are you from the Euler family? The one that did a lot of math stuff?” Ace asked.

“Dunno. I don’t remember much about my family,” Leonhart said. “I’ve lived here for as long as I can remember.”

Ace looked around her room and looked closely at what was written on the papers carelessly plastered on the walls. There were blueprints and mathematical equations scrawled on them. The only glaring exception was a bright pink list.

A list of good-looking sorcerers? Ace scrutinised the list and saw a few names on it. At the top was Felix’s name, along with other names that were too illegible to read.

“Hey hey, no peeking.” Leonhart ripped the list from the wall and tucked it away. 

“Er… I was looking at the math stuff,” Ace denied.

“Oh, you know it?” she asked. 

“I did a lot of it,” Ace said. 

Leonhart squealed with excitement. She scribbled something on a piece of paper and shoved it in his face. “Really? Then what is this?” 

“The Schrödinger equation for free particles in one dimension,” Ace answered, “if I remember correctly. I saw it while reading up on quantum mechanics.”

Leonhart rubbed her hands with glee. “My prayers have been answered!”

“Prayers?”

“I’ve been praying so, so hard for someone with a functioning brain cell to fall into my life!” 

“Felix always says that I’m too nerdy to make friends,” she added and changed her voice to make an unflattering impression of Felix. “ ‘Leonhart, you need to get your nose out of the books! Blah, blah, bleh.”

“You don’t seem to like him that much,” Ace remarked.

Leonhart pointed to another part of the wall. Ace walked up to it and saw that it was a crumpled document with a knife driven through the centre. “He’s your legal guardian?!” he gasped. 

“Took me in when I was seven or six,” Leonhart said flatly, sparks flying as she welded away at her project. “Barely had time for me. Granted, he’s an Elder, but he spends most of his time flirting with people or eating.”

“Elder?”

“The top brass, like top-toppity-top,” Leonhart replied. “It’s nice to know someone who is up there but I get weird looks from people.”

Ace suddenly felt guilty. This is the guy I called a drug dealer.

“I don’t really care about what they think of me. I don’t associate myself with boring people.” Leonhart leapt off her chair and stuffed a spherical device in his hands. “But with you, everything changes!”

“What’s this?” Ace held up the device, noticing doodles scrawled across its surface – neon flowers and grinning skulls glowing faintly against the dull grey sheen.

“Something I’ve been working on!” she nodded excitedly. “Press this button and it pulls out your Essence!”

The device whirred to life and started filling up with blue-green Essence. Ace watched as the meter slowly filled up; the red arrow inching toward the top of the sphere. “What does it do?” he asked.

“When it’s full, it goes KABOOM!”

Ace yelped and dropped the device. Leonhart cackled madly. “I’m just kidding! It’s designed to blow up only when there’s a sudden surge after it reaches full capacity. I implemented a controlled, continuous release of Essence to act as a safety mechanism so that the device will never be at full capacity if left unattended. The threshold is set quite high, so it won’t blow up if you just put in that little bit of Essence.”

Leonhart smiled so sweetly that Ace almost forgave her for nearly giving him a heart attack. “I don’t know, but you’ll probably find some use for it, so keep it with you. There’s another button that empties it out.”

Ace tucked away the device in his pocket, making sure that he had properly disengaged it. 

Just then, Leonhart’s phone started ringing. Pop music blasted from the phone’s speakers and she picked it up, “What? Oh really?! Can I bring Ace along? No, I didn’t blow him up...”

Leonhart hung up and did a celebratory wiggle in her seat. “Felix called and said to meet him right now! We are going out to the ferry terminal! It’s our first outing together, how fun!”

“Where are we going?”

“Felix said that he had a surprise prepared! C’mon let’s go!”

***

“Wow. Which one is the surprise? The clown cart or the two people with you?”

In front of them stood a very unimpressed, bespectacled girl with indigo hair, which was styled into blunt bangs and a short ponytail. However, Ace’s eyes were immediately drawn to the humongous backpack that she carried. It was obviously far too large and heavy for her frame. Despite that, her back was ramrod straight. 

“Sorry, but who are you?” Felix crouched to the girl’s eye level and smiled. “Are you lost? Do you want me to find your daddy or mummy?”

The new girl kicked Felix right in the shin, and he howled in pain. Ace and Leonhart watched with their mouths agape. “I’m not short, I’m still growing,” she lowered her voice. “Perhaps you need glasses, Felix.”

“I like her,” Leonhart remarked. “I’ve always wanted to do that, by the way.”

Ace could only nod.

The girl directed her attention towards them. “Hi, I’m Jude Lee Shi Yan. You can just call me Jude.”

“N-nice to meet you, Jude,” Ace stammered. “I’m Ace. She’s Leonhart Euler.”

Leonhart immediately started to shower her with compliments about her fashion style, “I love your hair! Ooh, and where do you get your glasses? Very sleek!” 

Jude ruffled her fringe. “Thanks. These glasses are from Onedays. Transition lenses.”

“Does no one care that she just kicked me?” Felix groaned dramatically as he nursed his bruised shin.

“No,” Leonhart and Jude said in unison, and they fist-bumped each other. Rapport was clearly being built at lightspeed.

“Let’s head back. I want to take a nice shower and a good nap,” Jude said and opened the car’s boot. She arranged her luggage and did a little hop to pull the boot back down, much to Felix’s amusement. Glowering at him, she slammed it shut. The bumper fell off with a loud clang. 

“That little pipsqueak,” Felix muttered. 

“I can hear you!” Jude hissed.

Grumbling to himself, Felix squatted down and tried his best to fix the fallen bumper, which was badly mangled from his attempt to parallel park earlier. Leonhart stood by his side and offered him duct tape and not-very-moral support. 

When he was done, the quartet got into the car. Instead of driving off, Felix sat in the driver’s seat. He drummed his fingers on the wheel and cast furtive glances at Jude, who had placed her legs on the coaster.

“Aren’t you going to tell them?” she asked, deliberately shifting her feet so that her boots touched Felix’s arm.

“Tell us what?” Leonhart looked at both of them.

“About our relationship,” Jude said.

“You guys are dating?” Leonhart poked Felix playfully. “Or are you her dad?”

“I’m not a pedo!” Felix shot back. “And I don’t like children enough to have them.”

“We’re cousins,” Jude answered on Felix’s behalf.

“You have a family?” Leonhart asked.

Felix thumped his forehead on the wheel. “Obviously. My parents made me. My parents’ parents made them, so yes, I do.”

“You know Dr. Lee? He’s my dad and by extension that guy’s uncle,” Jude said.

“Dr. Lee Guangyao? He’s your uncle?!” Leonhart asked Felix incredulously. “You never told me this before!”

“I don’t visit the hospital wing that often,” Felix said.

“Are you keeping more stuff from me?” Leonhart demanded. 

Jude chimed in, “He’s also the head of the family.”

“N– Yes whatever,” Felix huffed. “No one cares about who's the head of the family these days. Look, I don’t really like talking about my family. Leader this, Elder that.”

“Since you are related, don’t you guys have the same Will?” Ace asked, trying to be a part of the conversation.

“I Reawakened before I started school at the Sanctum, so yes and no,” Felix replied. 

“Reawakened?”

“When one’s personal Will dominates their inherited ones. It happens but not very often. Usually occurs when we are old enough to choose our Wills.” 

“You have to choose? Aren’t sorcerers just born sorcerers?” Ace asked.

“We can see phantoms, but until we turn sixteen, seventeen or even eighteen, we can’t do anything about them.” Jude narrowed her eyes. “You seem like you don’t know a lot of things. Are you the Aberrant that everyone’s been talking about?”

Ace opened and closed his mouth before he nodded. “I have to admit, you do have some strangeness to you that screams ‘Aberrant’.” Jude brought her face close to his. Her eyes were definitely looking at his birthmark. 

“I get that a lot,” he blushed and gulped. Why do they always make it a point to talk about that?

“No, it’s not just the appearance,” Jude mumbled. “Agh, whatever.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our family can see the flow of Essence, even inside individuals,” Jude explained. “As of now, I can only sense them. By the way, don’t lump me together with that person who’s driving. The family is split into several branches: Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Brunei, Australia and Indonesia. I’m from Taiwan, he’s from Korea.”

Leonhart pinched Felix, and he drew in a sharp breath. “When we return to the Sanctum, I want to know everything,” she demanded. 

Felix pulled a long face. “This is why I like Ace better,” he grumbled. “He doesn’t ask such… invasive questions and has more respect for me.”

Ace could only laugh nervously.

“You don’t get to keep secrets when you are an Elder,” Jude rebuked and turned to Leonhart. “He's not very humble, is he?”

Felix scoffed. “You haven’t seen pride–”

“You asked a woman if your cock was big,” Leonhart said nonchalantly. 

The car would have exploded there and then if not for Felix’s control over his flames. The only casualty was the steering wheel, and Felix had to call for Lady Meng to ferry them back to the Sanctum. He stayed behind to wait for a tow truck, but Ace suspected that it was merely a ruse so that he would not have to be stuck with them.

“Do you want me to erase your memories?” Lady Meng asked Ace once she heard Jude’s and Leonhart’s dramatised recount of the conversation.

“No, thank you,” Ace grimaced. “I’ll just bleep out the nasty things.”