It had been a little over a week ever since Aylin produced the map for the Lusian village. All the faculty staff had been worrying over the Head Principal due to her total absence from activities in the Academy. She had been cooped up in her room for several days now.
The Lusians were still afraid of human interaction and avoided everyone they saw. Celia would often complain about nausea and morning sickness. I explained that it was pretty normal for pregnancies and handed her some pain relief I got from the nurse. The nurse herself was surprised a guy was asking for anti-nausea pills. She then remembered that I usually hung out with Aylin and covered her mouth with her hand.
It was a complete misunderstanding, but the nurse told me to be careful still and watch her so she doesn't take too many pills at the same time. She handed me a small cup filled with pills.
"Here, take it to her. And make sure to comfort her afterwards."
"Comfort her? Don't tell me this is gonna cause mood swings?"
"In some cases, it might, so just take extra good care of her!" She winked.
She totally believed that these were for Aylin...
I handed the cup to Celia and instructed her not to take more than the recommended dosage of 2 per day. I told Eris to have an extra watchful eye over Celia in case anything happened.
"Got it, boss." She waved her hand while playing chess with the Princess.
She will definitely not watch Celia. I told Celia to be careful, otherwise it could hurt the fetus, and she froze up a bit hearing that the baby could be impaired if she took too many.
"I will make sure to be careful."
Summer break had almost run its course and there were only a few days of vacation left. And soon I would need to return to the Fivindus Estate to continue my practice.
As I was about to walk away from Celia, the sights of the Fivindus Estate popped into my mind. The library and the white little bunny. It made me curious if there were anyone like that in Celia's village.
"Celia, were there any rabbit Lusians in your village?"
"Yeah, we had an auntie, her name was Ita. She was one of the gentlest people I knew. She was a librarian in our village and she was in charge of most of our paperwork. She basically raised us by telling us a bunch of fairytales and stories. Whenever she transformed, she would become this small, cute white rabbit with a little bow on her head. But Auntie Ita disappeared for no apparent reason one day and no one was able to find her. I did see her on the moon with Celestia, so I can only assume she passed on peacefully."
Should I tell her about Mabel? If it is true what she was saying, that there was a white rabbit that disappeared from her village, then that must mean that the Fivindus family were in possession of a Lusian in complete secrecy? And that Lusian gave birth to that white rabbit. But then what happened to Ita? It's too early to know, and asking Celia would only cause more distress and complications. So I think that is enough questioning today.
After dealing with the Lusians, I went to check up on Aylin and Fiviana. I thought they would be in the usual meeting place, but when I opened the club door, they were nowhere to be found. Where could they be? Maybe in the library of Landia? I checked the grand library and looked behind every corner and still couldn't find them. On the beach? Nope... maybe they are just out shopping in town? As I was walking back to the Academy, I saw a group of girls standing in the hallway blocking my way.
I heard some commotion up ahead and a few girls yelling. I pushed my way through the crowd and saw girls from noble families loyal to the Royal Family shoving another schoolgirl up against the wall. The crowd was cheering them on as they were choking her.
Apparently, they heard her criticizing the Royal Family and bragging about knowing the scandals the Royal Family was behind, for example, the situation in Wien.
"If you know so much, how about you try speaking now?" She pressed her elbow against her throat with her already pinned against the wall.
"Cease this foolishness this instant."
A familiar face came out the other side of the crowd with one of her arms outstretched as if ordering a military unit.
"Your Royal Highness, Princess Emovi?!"
"Stop with your disorderly act immediately."
"But Your Highness, she was spewing criticism and falsified rumors about the Royal Family."
"Have you forgotten the rules of this Academy? The Academy acts as a neutral entity even if it exists within the Kingdom of Fukviyu. Whatever she decides to say here about the Royal Family stays here in the Academy and shouldn't be judged with bias. As long as we are students here, we shall respect the freedom of speech the Academy bestowed upon us."
The bully finally let go of the girl, and she fell onto the floor with a thud. Emovi extended her hand towards the girl on the floor and asked if she was okay.
The girl looked at Emovi's hand before looking at the genuine smile on her face. But instead of accepting the help, she slapped away Emovi's hand and ran away.
"See? I told you, even if you treat these people with kindness, they do nothing but disrespect the throne," the bully said.
Emovi frowned, and I managed to slip past the crowd to finally get to the clubroom again. When I opened it this time, I saw a whole table filled with snacks and drinks, with Aylin and Fiviana stuffing their faces.
"Did you guys... go splurging for snacks the entire day...?"
They stared at each other before swallowing and pushing a bowl of snacks towards me.
I sighed before joining them as well.