Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The way Bellaslayn asked Evin for lunch seemed to imply many other things: she definitely had the look of someone asking for a favor, but her tone of voice contained a sense of threat while her eyes showed disbelief, offense, and desperation.

With a nod, Evin agreed to dine with her, and Bellaslayn brought him to an area of the cafeteria more reserved for the noble kind. The two received some looks here and there, but Evin followed Bella's example and tried his best to ignore them. They then sat down under a window and Bellaslayn ordered for a few dishes (the names which Evin couldn't quite understand). Evin offered to pay his share, but Bellaslayn said something about already paying for it and refused him.

"Thanks for your hospitality, Lady Bellaslayn" Evin understood he was being splurged on a date and simply thanked the other for her kindness.

"No problem. And please just call me Bella," the girl said politely.

She was acting much differently from when she first asked Evin to teach her about illusions. It was also much different from how she acted in class with the rest of the noble caste; and to Evin, it almost seemed she was trying to act in a more principled way, similar to how an actual noble girl would act.

<Since asking outright wasn't working out for her, she's now trying to court you like a proper noble lady would,> the voice was oozing with amusement.

"The food should come in a few minutes. As we wait, maybe we can talk about some topics as we pass the time. Please tell me about what you did before you became a mage here," Bella said, clearing her voice. Then, as if remembering something crucial, she added hurriedly, "If you don't mind, of course."

"I used to be a blacksmith's son so most of the time, I just helped around with my father's trade," Evin said, surprising himself with how dispassionately he spoke about the matter. He wasn't feeling all overly melancholic when thinking about his past life, but he definitely wasn't unbothered by speaking about it. Neutrality was the best he could manage.

"I've never heard about blacksmithing before," Bella exclaimed abashedly, "I can only guess that you spend most of your time in the heat of molten iron and steel."

"It was mostly my father who did the hard work. I wasn't big enough to handle his tools, so I could only make myself useful by cleaning and preparing his tools before he started," Evin said neutrally.

"Ah, that's true, I suppose. If you were as big as Arza, then perhaps you would've been promoted to assistant, rather than staying as a simple cleaner," Bella giggled.

Bella's transformation from a cold, aloof tomboy to one of the typical noble girls that circled around Decatur was professionally quick. She was obviously trained to act like how a proper teenage girl of nobility was expected to act, and although she was a bit rusty at first, she became very convincing very quickly. She would always ask broad questions, giving Evin lots of chances to talk; and she would always react positively to whatever Evin said, or would make small jokes about them to let Evin know that he was being heard.

If Evin's head wasn't infused with the voice's wisdom, then perhaps he would have fallen for her courting. But Evin could see she was clearly following a certain formula she learned as a noble and was dutifully following it. He could see it, because Bella wasn't noticing that Evin didn't want to talk about blacksmithing, or anything to do with his previous life. She most likely thought of Evin's polite, yet slightly bitter tone to be some kind of wariness towards her.

But this didn't mean that Evin was feeling animosity towards her. In fact, he could see clearly how Bella was trying so hard to make him more comfortable and not out-of-place. After the food came, Bella made sure to explain to Evin what they were and how one was expected to eat them, so Evin wouldn't commit some kind of social blunder and make a joke out of himself. When she would see that Evin would need to cut up a piece of meat or need to use two hands for whatever reason, she'd offer to do it for him, considering how Evin still couldn't use one of his hands. And almost expertly, she would do it in a way that didn't make Evin feel awkward or useless.

Evin would be lying if he said he wasn't being won over by her efforts.

Obviously, she had other motives behind her niceness, but she wasn't forcing Evin to do as she wished. Well, she did try to force the matter at first, but that didn't work, so she's now trying another method that she learned as a noble. She was rather trying to convince him to help her out, despite the occasional clumsiness in her behavior.

The effort she was making was certainly much better than whatever Chairman Kent was doing.

<You know, I really don't mind if you speak to her about illusions,> the Voice said with a lighthearted sigh. Even the Voice, which was almost always pessimistic in its outlooks, seemed to be softening under Bella's efforts.

Clutching the lodestone in his pocket, Evin sent a thought back.

<Isn't it dangerous?>

<Not really. I can work with the World of Thoughts and other Worlds so well, because like I said, I was working with something similar in your head since I came to be. So, I became good at casting magic through sheer endless practice and the advice I can offer her are just tips and tricks at best. Maybe if she asks for something specific, then perhaps I can give her some more detailed advice. As for your proficiency in it, just tell her you were naturally talented at it. The reasons don't really matter in this situation, since Bella isn't so focused on my existence as Kent is.>

<Then I guess I'll just repeat what you said to me to her.>

<Pretty sure you can nab her as your girlfriend as well,> the voice chuckled evilly. <Not many girls would be willing to spend so much time taking care of a commoner with a broken hand, you know? Especially not a noble one.>

<I really don't think so. She acted quite rudely when she first asked me for advice on illusions, remember?> Evin replied deferentially.

<That's just the clumsiness and a bit of pridefulness of a noble girl. Probably thought you'd be all over her if she just spoke with you,> the voice said and then tutted in a knowing tone. <Ah, are you still holding Leanne in your heart? You know she sees you only as a kid, right? I mean, who can blame her? She's probably in her late-20s, and you turned ten two weeks ago.>

<Shut up.>

Evin finished his little council in his head and face towards Bella.

"Thank you for the wonderful lunch, Bella," he began.

The noble girl looked a bit flustered, before hurriedly adding, "If you want, we can check out the gardens on top of the dormitory. I don't know whether commoners are allowed there or not, since I've never seen one come up there, but you should be fine if I tag along with you… The students can also plant some of their own floras up there, I was thinking I might show you, uhm, the one I planted."

The part about her planting something was probably a lie, but it was easy enough to pick one plant up there and call it hers.

"That's alright," Evin refused, "I just remembered you were asking about illusions from me, right?"

An awkward silence ensued at his words, and Bella answered, "Yes."

Her tone of voice shifted from the courteous noble girl to her usual sharp and direct one.

"I'll talk with you about what I know about illusions, but I'm afraid you'll be disappointed by what you hear… And if you're facing some kind of problem that's very specific, then maybe I'll be able to help as well," Evin articulated.

"I'll be happy to hear whatever you have to say about the topic."

Evin got himself comfortable and started speaking about the stuff he heard about illusions from the voice.

"I think the best advice I have about casting illusions, well, not just illusions, but casting spells in general, is to convince yourself that what you're doing is easy," he began. "I did the same thing when I was fighting against Decatur the other day. When I turned invisible and left a fake copy of myself for Decatur to hit, the copy was actually just copying my movements. It's easier to create a copy that only follows your movements, instead of having one that moves independently of you. You could also see it when I dashed towards Decatur with my copy in tow, it moved in the exact same way I did."

"Wait, wait," Bella stopped Evin. "You speak of these things as if they're something everyone can do, but most mages can't just go invisible, or create a clone of themselves. Please first tell me how you do those things."

Evin agreed with Bella on this one. How does the voice do all these things that seem almost impossible at first glance? Helpless, he sent a pleading thought towards the voice.

<Sigh… Honestly, it's just practice. She would find it hard to believe you, because there's no way for you to practice without having access to magic… but, hmm, just tell her you do a lot of imagination training.>

After thinking about a proper excuse, Evin resumed his talk with Bella.

"I think I was just lucky. As most kids do when they're young, I saw the mages and thought to myself how they were able to cast these magics."

Bella looked at him with suspicion as she asked, "Are you going to tell me you started practicing your imagination since then, preparing for the day you would eventually become a mage?"

"As much as I hate to say it, but yes. Dumb, repetitive practice is sometimes the fastest way you'll get good at something," Evin said coolly, but then seeing Bella's eyes turning deadly with anger, he hurriedly added, "We can meet up in some days of the week and practice together. Maybe I'll be able to help you out better if I see you in action, you know?"

Bella calmed herself and sighed.

"Alright. I guess I can teach you some stuff about close combat as well, while we're at it. The way you move your body looks so clumsy; I'm actually surprised you didn't tumble down to the ground while you were running at Decatur."

Evin remembered how awkward it was to run while intending to swing a punch at someone with two hands and took up Bella's offer.

The two then agreed to meet on the 5th and 10th of each week – the two days which were usually reserved for resting and holidays. Bella told him that she would find access to the training grounds on those days and even if she couldn't, they could find some other place to train.

"And if you want something, but can't get it because of your social status, don't hesitate to ask it through me," Bella offered at the end and then said her goodbyes.

…