The Adventurer’s Academy

As the two of them talked, Lisa's eyes went from one girl to the other, in between looking down and scanning pages from the novel she'd bought.

"So, I..." Rin shrugged. "I'm curious. Harriton told me a little about it, and I wanted to know more."

"Oh. Uh, sure, then. Wanna sit down somewhere, though?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Oh, and, sorry, Lisa, for interrupting like this," Rin told the girl casually. Eve blushed, for some reason, but Lisa just waved a hand.

"It's okay."

On that note, the three of them exited that bookstore and went looking for somewhere they could talk. They found a table set beside a store, in between a few merchant's stalls, with four chairs placed around it. They were empty, so the girls just sat down here before Eve got started.

"Right, so, yeah," she looked up, trying to think. "So, about the Split... In school, we were taught that a little over a thousand years ago, like with humanity, everything changed. But, for us," Eve began to explain, "well, you know how we have two clans?"

"Uh, the northern one and... I forgot the other," Rin said.

"That's fine," Eve shrugged. "Anyway, there's the Northern Clan, where I'm from, and the Western Clan. But, there used to be more. There were a few Southern Clans, Northeastern Clans, among others, but they all fell apart when the Split happened. To humans," Eve continued, "it just made you all disappear, but for us, it turned us into these, ehm, monster-like fairies called spriggans."

"What's a spriggan like?" Rin asked.

"Well, they're as big as you," Eve told her, "they don't have wings, and their skin is made of wood. Aside from that, they have a stronger connection to nature than we do."

"What does that mean?"

"It means spriggans can control animals, and even use enhanced earth-based spellsigns," Eve said. "Apparently, fairies could do the same once, but, over time, our spellsigns deteriorated. We're still more powerful with magic than the average human," she said with a bit of smugness, "but yeah. We're just not the same fairies anymore."

In part, this was all stuff that Rin had already heard from Harriton, but the added context to the fairies' side of things did seem like it could be applied to sprites as well.

However, there were a couple of questions still on Rin's mind.

"So," she rested her head on her hand, "if fairies were turning into monsters, how did they stay friendly with humanity?"

"We didn't," Eve quickly answered. "For a long time, we had plenty of wars with humans. Mostly, because the ones who were left after the Split saw fairies as either monsters or future monsters. We lost most of them," Eve shrugged. "But, after a while, when the rate of fairies turning into spriggans finally started dropping, deals were made and the hostilities stopped. I don't know anything about beastborn or whatever other races are out there that we just don't know about," Eve shrugged, "but, if you want to know more, you can probably just ask Varyn. He's on your team, right? He seems nice enough, too. He'll probably tell you."

"... I guess so," Rin nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem," Eve smiled.

Lisa then spoke up.

"That was cute," she said, off-handedly.

"W-What?" Eve asked, pulling back.

"You explained all of that so enthusiastically," Lisa said, with a smile. "It was nice."

"I mean... Eh, Rin, she asked, and I... Yeah. Anyway!" She flew out of her chair. "How about we head back to the Academy?"

"Sounds good."

As that conversation concluded, Rin had a lot on her mind. It sounded like there was a time when fairies were confused for monsters, just like sprites were. However, that begged a question.

[How did they end up so differently?] Rin asked herself. [Even if the sprites fought with humanity for a while, it sounds like, eventually, they should have just realized there were a few sane sprites left. But, apparently, they never did. It's probably worth telling all of this to Xhez, though. If anything, just to see what she thinks.]

As the three of them then passed through the gates leading into the Academy's front yard, a woman exited the building. Wearing a casual black leather jacket and jeans, Cara appeared to be heading somewhere.

Rin smiled when she saw her teacher and waved at her.

"Hey, teach'" She called out, and Cara's eyes glanced up at her.

"Hm. Are you three doing okay?" Cara asked, putting her hands on her hips as they all stood in front of her.

"Y-Yes," Lisa stammered for some reason, as she bowed. "We were just doing a little shopping," she said, showing off her book.

"Good. Don't skimp out on your training, though," Cara said, walking past them.

Rin, however, thought about something then.

She remembered how Maria had scolded her before, along with the slight hint of guilt that she could sometimes see on Cara's stern face whenever they looked at each other.

"Uh, you two go on ahead," Rin told the other girls then, turning around and jogging over to Cara.

"Sure, bye!" Eve called out and Rin waved back, before arriving next to her teacher. Cara stopped, turning to look at her.

"Rin?" She asked.

"Hey," Rin smiled brightly. "I just... wanted to see how you were doing."

At that, Cara blinked.

"... Why?" Cara asked.

Her voice sounded so confused, it was almost funny.

"Cause," Rin quickly replied, "I... You know, you were the one who got me to come here, all that time ago, and I haven't really gotten to know you that well."

"Well, I am your teacher,"  Cara crossed her arms. "It's not really too necessary, is it?"

"I know, but," Rin persisted, "considering... Considering how much I owe you, I don't know, I'd like it if we could hang out. Once or twice, anyway."

"Pfft," Cara scoffed, turning away and walking off. "You don't owe me anything," she said, as Rin followed her.

"I'd say I do!" Rin jogged up to be by her side. "Oh, shoot, you're busy, aren't you? Sorry if I'm bothering you, am I bothering you? Yeah, I am, sorry."

"..." At that, Cara sighed. "It's okay. I'm not doing anything. You can tag along if you want."

"Oh. So, where are we headed, then?" Rin raised a brow.

"The Arena," Cara replied.

She said that, as though Rin was supposed to know what that was.

"And, uh, what's that?"

Cara raised a brow at her.

"It's been a month, have you not gotten to know the city, yet?"

"Uh, no, it's just... I missed that."

"Whatever," she shrugged it off. "It's a place where people fight each other for money."

Hearing that only made Rin's confusion bubble up even more.

"What?"

"Exactly what I said," Cara replied. "If you haven't seen it before, then, I guess you'll understand once we're there. If you... I dunno, wanna talk for a while, I guess, we can do that after."

With that being said, the two of them began walking through Libera's streets, together. They moved to the western part of the city, just under the train station. Here, a few cars passed them by, each one stopping just short of a certain black door that Rin had come across before.

[Wait...] She realized. [Is she taking me to that place from earlier?]

Indeed, that became obvious as the two of them formed part of a line of people, waiting to enter the building. A man at the front checked each one, but a while later, when Cara and Rin eventually got to the front, he only looked them up and down once before allowing them to go in. Specifically, though, it was Cara, who the guy looked at.

[I guess even Rank A adventurers are a little famous,] Rin assumed.

When they made their way indoors, Rin was stunned. Immediately, they heard a crowd, frantically cheering and calling for punches to be thrown. Rin could hear smacks and thuds up ahead, past a circle of people. The building was dark, and this one corridor they were in led to a spot behind the structure, out in the open.

Here, their destination became known. It was a place nestled between a few different other buildings, where Rin could see people spectating from their windows. There were benches at the sides, where Rin saw nobles sitting, and there was a crowd surrounding a stage up ahead.

Finally, on that stage, were two grown men, punching each other in the face, for the crowd's amusement.

"This is the Arena," Cara stated. "Follow me. I've got my own seats here."