"Hey, Aida..."

  "Hi," Aida said listlessly, continuing to scrub her brewing supplies.

  Sue squatted down next to her, blinking anxiously at her. Aida didn't meet her gaze.

  "How are you doing?"

  Aida finally glanced at Sue. She had asked the simple question so softly, so kindly, so sincerely, that she felt her walls shake.

  Years of building up the stoicism that was required in the professional world, where she always had to put on an unbothered, even pleasant facade while she got walked all over - by customers and supervisors, and occasionally coworkers - long enough that she had mostly adopted that attitude as her baseline persona, and then reinforced by the consequences of displaying her vulnerability to the two boys who discovered her secret in this world - all nearly crumbled under the genuine concern for her.

  Sue wasn't asking a loaded question - at least not intentionally. The question itself was loaded, but Sue wasn't thinking that far ahead. She knew something was wrong, and unlike all the other times where she had insisted that she could take care of Aida with bravado, now she was just asking as a simple invitation to let Aida say whatever she wanted. She had the air of one who knew she wasn't able to do anything to help the situation, but was also hurting along with her.

  For some reason, that vulnerability did the most to thaw Aida.

  No ego, no pretending to understand. An implicit acknowledgment that Aida's feelings were her own.

  "Not good." Aida's words came out broken, fighting through the tightness in her throat. "But I guess that's obvious."

  Sue got onto her knees, wrapping her arms around Aida in a tight grip as the metal mixing bowl clattered to the ground.

  Aida sobbed, lamenting all the unspoken words and missed chances to clear the air with Ezra. She regretted her restraint. She thought she was doing the mature, logical thing when she decided to accept Ezra's words as law. She wished she had fought back - even if it would have made her look pathetic, and made Ezra look down on her.

  Maybe if she had humiliated herself begging Ezra to take a chance on her, and he still rejected her, then his current condition would have been a selfish relief.

  What had she been acting for the whole time? It wasn't like she could take revenge on him by living a good life with someone else, showing him what he missed out on. There had been no point to preserving her image.

  Aida drew in a deep, shuddering breath.

  She had to accept they might not ever learn what happened to Ezra. If he never came out of his comatose state, then he was gone, and her resentment of how she handled the situation was only going to hold her back.

  As far as what would happen to the world, with arguably the most powerful male lead gone...

  Aida raised her head. "Sue, do you still not remember what happened in the Deep Western Woods?"

  Sue blinked at her before shaking her head, smiling sadly. As if she knew what Aida was thinking. "No, I'm sorry. From what everyone else has said, though, I...must not have been out for that long. Since I got back to base within the day."

  Aida exhaled. Sue did understand Aida's train of thought...but maybe Ezra would wake up after a little longer. After all, he wasn't the protagonist of this world - he wasn't weak, but perhaps he had weaker plot armor than Sue.

  He has time - Healer Luk can infuse Ezra with nutrition poultices to keep his body alive.

  Aida was aware she was clinging to an impossible hope - the only kind of hope that existed in stories.

  The hope that Ezra would wake up significantly stronger than before, the way Sue came back with awakened powers from her stint in the Deep Western Woods.

  "How do you think they're going to hold the final placement matches if Ezra is out of commission?" Aida asked.

  "Um," Sue pulled back from Aida, looking at her face searchingly. She seemed disconcerted at Aida’s immediate change in tone. "They put up a notice saying they're changing the placement match system...in the interest of fairness and cutting down on frivolities. They're removing the segment of matches where we fight the other elements in our same tier - so we just fight against and get assigned our final rankings as first through fifth of our respective elements."

  As Aida tilted her head, trying to understand, Sue continued to elaborate. "Yeah, since we all have different strengths, they said ranking us by combat prowess doesn't make sense - especially since everyone can help in the effort against the monster attacks in support roles, like crafting equipment and defenses and such. So the speed and accuracy with how we handle our elements against our peers should be enough to judge our ability, instead of getting into the intricacies of evaluating our performance against advantaged and disadvantaged elements."

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Aida nodded slowly, understanding. "But we're still having the placement matches start tomorrow? Havi warned me we would."

  "Yup. The idea is that third years will graduate a week early, so we can go home earlier and take care of our things and...say goodbye to our families."

  Aida felt a chill run down her spine at the reminder of having to meet with Aida's parents. The thought of graduation being moved up - and having only one star cycle's worth of matches - should have been a relief, because it meant she didn't have to continue with the farce of pretending she had shared history with her classmates. But leaving Maglica earlier also meant she would be forced to face 'her' parents earlier.

  It's okay, I have a job lined up already, Aida reassured herself. Maybe she could go straight to Burston City without stopping by the Lorehs'.

  "Um, so," Sue started, fidgeting. Her face screwed up in thought. Finally, she sighed in exasperation. "Okay, you know I'm bad with tact so I'm just going to say it: are you sure you're fine? You moved on so quickly to school stuff."

  Aida had to think for a moment before she realized what Sue was talking about.

  "I just don't have time to grieve when we have finals tomorrow."

  Sue pouted, vexed at Aida's excellent answer. "Okay...but let's talk more after matches are over, okay?"

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  Sue accompanied Aida to the Lake so she could do some last-minute training. Aida got the impression that Sue wasn’t at all worried about her competition in this altered system of placement matches - which made sense. All of the leads were indisputably the most powerful practitioners in their respective elements. Even in the first placement matches, Sue only ever showed apprehension about how she could defeat Ezra.

  Time sure has flown, Aida reflected, smiling softly as she fired icicles at the fireballs Sue shot over the Lake as target practice.

  She remembered how discombobulated she was when she first woke up as Aida Loreh. Her physical body was weak, her mana control nonexistent. Now, after seven extra long moon cycles of hard work and training - since each moon cycle consisted of five star cycles - she finally felt comfortable. Her body and abilities could somewhat keep up with her thoughts.

  “I’m really proud of you.” Aida smiled at Sue’s fond words.

  “Thanks. I am, too.” Sue giggled at Aida’s response.

  “You’ve changed so much. You’re so confident now. You’re like a completely different person.”

  Aida felt her smile fade. She wished she could admit to Sue who she really was - but she knew it was better not to. Especially after the fiasco with Ezra. At the same time, she really hated lying.

  “I am a different person.”

  Sue grabbed Aida around the neck, hauling her in as she mussed Aida’s hair in an affectionate noogie. “Look at you! You’re so self-aware now, too!”

  Aida laughed as she fought her way out of Sue’s grip, her heart hammering at the near miss. What had she been thinking? Her guard really had dropped so low if she was already letting herself say her thoughts out loud.

  What if Sue really had taken her seriously?

  Sue was smiling at her.

  “Remember how I used to be the one who protected you whenever stupid Boyton would pull your hair? Now you’re in the top half of the class, and you have a job lined up after graduation…” Sue’s face fell as she contemplated the upcoming changes.

  “You don’t have to worry about protecting me anymore,” Aida said softly. “If you’re going to join the Gullbeaks, you’ll have to focus all your energy on protecting yourself…” Aida bit her tongue from completing the rest of her thought. Protect yourself so that you can protect the rest of us.

  Ocean blue met vibrant lilac eyes. The wind stirred Aida’s black strands, her hair mirroring the golden waves that were Sue’s locks.

  Gazing at Sue’s unworldly beauty, Aida felt her heart clench.

  Sue will be fine. She’s the main character. She has plot armor…she’s meant to go do great things.

  Regardless of her refrain, Aida couldn’t help but be worried that she was missing a critical piece of the puzzle.

  Sue’s somber face broke into a dazzling smile as she held her arms out.

  Aida fell into Sue’s embrace, clutching the taller girl tightly about her slim torso.

  “I’ll make sure to protect everybody,” Sue said softly into Aida’s ear, squeezing her shoulders reassuringly. “I’ll make sure nobody…will become like Ezra.”

  “I believe you.”

  Aida gently touched Sue’s cheek, her skin soft and smooth.

  “I never asked - how was the Fire Festival in Buddington?” Sue’s eyes lit up and she blushed at the memory, looking every bit like a young school girl despite the weight of the heavy destiny that awaited her.

  “It was good! We played some games, but we didn’t win anything - I brought him to meet my parents, and he ended up helping them sell skewers at their stand for a bit until they kicked us out.” Sue smiled in embarrassment. “He really is such a good guy…”

  Aida nodded. “Has he gotten any job offers yet? Or is he committed to helping his parents?”

  Sue’s lower lip jutted out slightly in a pout. “Honestly, Kuri said they were willing to hire all of Class 1 as soon as we graduated, but Caleb and Levi insisted that they wanted to help their parents with their businesses, and Ezra is…I think he was going to take their offer, but, well…”

  Sue trailed off, before saying in an off-handed manner, “I think Lara is going to take the offer.”

  “With the Gullbeaks?” Aida was startled. She didn’t think Lara would mesh well with them, but if they needed firepower, it made sense.

  Sue hedged.

  “Yeah, I was surprised. I thought for sure she would focus on her own family’s sanitation business with that whole clan struggle going on, but…I don’t know.”

  Aida pressed her lips together, thinking back to the smirk on Dev’s face after he had beaten Lara in that random sparring match. Egos are so weird.

  Now that she thought of Dev again, she frowned. She hadn’t heard much else from him regarding their Adventuring venture.

  “We should head inside, it’s getting dark,” Sue said, linking her arm through Aida’s. “Get some rest for tomorrow, look at who you’re facing…”