Three days passed like a blink of an eye. Arthur wandered through the dense forest path, his legs arching with each step.
'Argh, why does my arm still hurt…' He thought as he rolled his sore shoulder to release the tension.
Last night's training session with William and Nyerere was exhausting. He spent three hours tanking spells, getting knocked about like a ragdoll constantly.
'I don't know why I said I could take all their attacks… ah my head!'
He stopped walking for a bit, then settled down to rest under a tree's trunk.
He looked around, scanning all the leaves in the area.
"What type did Acheron tell me to get again?"
He scratched his head, trying to recall.
・
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・
One hour ago, Anaxagoras mansion.
Arthur just came out of his room, fully dressed in the academy attire. He went to the teleportation chamber, arriving earlier than his siblings.
"Arthur! Wait!" Acheron called out, still dressed in her pajamas.
Arthur turns back. "Yes?"
"Before you go, I need you to make a stop at Elysium Reach, there is an herb I need you to get…" She pulled out a piece of paper and read from it. "It's called the 『 Alluring Flower 』, it has seven pointy leaves. Can you get it for me?"
"Right now?"
"Yes! It's located at the northern part of the forest, near the academy so it won't take long."
"But I'm really tired from the beating I got last night…"
"Pleaseeeeeeee!" Acheron insisted.
"Argh fine!"
・
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Elysium Reach.
Arthur shook his head, pulling himself from the memory.
'Seven pointy leaves…'
He stood up and continued walking deeper into the forest, keeping an eye out for anything matching the description.
After a few minutes, he heard the flowing movements of water.
A small stream flowed through the forest grounds, crystal clear water passing over the smooth stones.
Arthur knelt down beside it, checking the leaves of the vegetation growing around it.
His eyes landed on a cluster of plants that grew right at the water's edge. Their distinctive seven pointy leaves matched Acheron's description.
'Found it!'
He carefully cut out several stems, making sure to leave the roots intact so they could grow again.
Then he heard a distant voice.
"Le..."
Arthur immediately stood up, looking around.
'What was that?' He thought, walking slowly away from the flowing waters.
Then he heard it again but this time it was male voices followed by a cruel laughter.
Curious, Arthur began to follow the direction of the voices.
…
"There's no need to shout for help; no one will hear you here!" A student dressed in Arcane Collegium uniform said as he laughed alongside his two friends.
"Yeah, hehehe, it's as Derek says, now come on, don't be shy. We're just going to have a little fun…"
They laughed some more before they began their main objective.
Arthur hid under a bush, watching them from a clear angle.
A beastkin girl with wolf ears and tail, laid on the ground, her clothes torn to pieces, barely covering her body.
She was leaning down to drink water from the nearby stream when she suddenly felt something poke her back.
She turned her face to see a random boy, holding her waist.
At first instinct, she tried to wiggle away from the grip.
Then two others came out from the other side in front of her.
"Wow, who knew beastkins have such big a**" One of them said as they pushed her to the ground.
She cried and shouted for them to stop as they tore her clothes to pieces, leaving only the ones covering her delicate parts.
"Let me go!" She tried to force her way out, but it was to no avail.
"You should feel honored, beast! Not everyone has such a big ass as you! I'm just going to give it the best treatment ever!" Derek smiled mischievously as he began unzipping his pants while the other two held her down.
Arthur clenched his fist; his whole body filled with rage.
"Stop!"
All three of the boys turned to see him.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Derek finally unzipped, ready for the treatment to start.
Arthur stepped forward, walking towards them. "I don't think you heard me well… I said stop!"
Derek and his friends exchanged glances then burst out laughing.
"Did you hear that guys? He's giving us orders!"
"What are you some hero? Hahaha!"
Derek's smile grew. "Listen kid, you should walk away before you get hurt…" His eyes dropped down to Arthur's chest.
He saw the Anaxagoras emblem.
"Oh, shii…"
One of his friends noticed too. "Isn't that the Anaxagoras crest?"
Derek clenched his teeth and his fists. If he dares do anything to Arthur, the whole of the Anaxagoras family will crush his family, leaving no one alive.
He forced a smile, zipping his pants back. "Tsk, if you want her, you can have her… she's trash anyways."
He spat on the ground and signaled his friends to leave.
"Come guys, this isn't worth my time..."
Arthur watched them as they vanished into the forest darkness.
He exhaled a breath of relief. Then he approached the beast girl, kneeling in front of her.
She flinched, shifting herself further away from Arthur.
"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," Arthur kept his voice soft. "Can you tell me your name?"
She stared at him with wide amber eyes, her facial expression showed how terrified she was. After a while of analyzing Arthur's behavior, she whispered a response.
"A-Araxie…"
"Araxie… that's a nice name." Arthur removed his jacket and wrapped it around her, covering most of her body.
"Can you stand?"
Araxie nodded and tried to get up but her legs failed her. It seems Derek and his friends used some kind of spell to prevent her from running away.
'Those bastards!'
He quickly caught her, then carried her in his arms.
Araxie looked up at his face as he got her out of the area. She cleaned the tears from her eyes and said, "T-Thank you…"
Arthur smiled, then took out his teleportation stone. "You're welcome."
---
Arcane Collegium.
Acheron sat under a tree near the academy's teleportation grounds. In her hand was a blood stained book she found in the library.
An ancient spell book of one of the most powerful mages in the kingdom.
Ophelia.
It was disguised as a normal spell book that students never even bother reading. The perfect hiding spot.
…Flip…
'It should be around here somewhere…' Acheron thought as she scanned through the pages looking for a specific spell.
…Flip…
…Flip…
'Ah ha!'
☽━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☾
✮ Song of Ophelia ✮
Listen to the melody I write in grief, born of stormy days and peaceful nights. This pain cannot be overcome, for it is eternal.
Pain is forever. The moment I died, pain became nothing. Pain became me.
A cursed world, deemed to suffer. I am sorry. From love's deepest sorrow, I am truly sorry.
Shira... Boshamon... cross the paths between life and death. Let them feel what I felt. Let them suffer as I did.
A mind shattered beyond repair... like mine.
☽━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☾
'The spell should be hidden in all these quotes…' Acheron read it over and over again, trying to form a pattern.
'It's no use… this spell won't be as easy as I thought.'
The teleportation circle glowed bright with intensity. Arthur stepped out, carrying Araxie in his arms.
Acheron closed the book and stood up to met him. Her eyes shifted to his arm, a beastkin girl, half naked with tears trembling down her cheeks. "What happened?" Although she already knew.
"I found her in the woods while I was collecting the leaves you asked for…" Arthur slowly placed her down to stand. "Some nobles tore her cloths and were about to do unspeakable things to her, I stopped them before they could tho…"
Acheron looked at Araxie from up till down. 'She has the same body type as me…!'
「 Is that the only thing you can think about?!!! 」Stellar shouted in Acheron's mind.
'Hehehe… I'm joking, I can see why the nobles would try to do such to her, she is well…'
「 You already knew that would happen… didn't you? 」
'Who knows?' A mischievous smile curved on Acheron's face, though it was faint, Araxie did notice and shifted to hid behind Arthur.
"Oh, she's scared of me?"
"I think she's scared of people as a whole." Arthur replied, patting Araxie's head to calm her down.
Acheron slowly walked up to Araxie, removing her coat. "Here you can wear this…"
Araxie hesitated but saw the way Arthur was friendly with Acheron then decided to put in a little bit of faith too.
"T-Thank you…"
"You're welcome… what's your name?" Acheron wore a love ling smile on her face.
"A-Araxie."
"Araxie… Don't worry, you are safe with us." Acheron softened her tone, drawing Araxie into her arms.
Araxie felt warmth, no human has ever treated her the way these two have and that created a sense of obligation.
She looked up at Acheron, then at Arthur. "My lady… I don't know how to repay you!"
Arthur placed his hand on his chin. "You don't have too… Do you have parents we can take you too?"
Araxie's expression dimmed. "M-My mother sold me off to a noble when I was little."
"Sold you off as a slave? Her own child?" Arthur frowned.
Acheron still held onto her, listening to all she said.
"Yes… I worked as a slave until I grew up, and then, the House master started calling me to his room to help him with personal matters, he said it was for my good and his."