At dawn, Lian jolted awake on the bed like a fish breaking the surface.

Reflex pulled her toward her mindscape, and she met only starless black.

Still not willing to meet me? She sent the thought into that well of night.

Aer’s silhouette rose again from last night like a patch of fog.

Lian drew out the Script and hugged it tight like cold driftwood.

"Aer..." Her whisper drifted like a leaf on water.

At the table, steam curled like morning clouds.

Alicia already sat, her breath quick as a runner’s and sweat gleaming like dew.

Seeing Lian, Alicia scraped the chair beside her out like chalk on slate.

She beckoned, a lantern in fog.

Lian didn’t fuss about the missing lap invite today.

Maybe Alicia finally saw the line between Lian and Ling, like twin shadows.

"Lian, are you really okay?" Alicia’s voice trembled like a plucked string.

"Last night was my fault. I shouldn’t have dragged you to dance," she said, the words falling like rain.

"Eh, it’s fine," Lian breathed, a small breeze through reeds.

"I’m not that petty." Her grin flickered like sunlight on tea.

Alicia nodded, relief pouring like warm tea.

"If you forgive me, good. Eat up, and we’ll walk to school under plane trees."

"Mm." Lian’s reply was a sparrow’s note, quick and light.

They bowed over breakfast, chopsticks pattering like rain on leaves.

Remi and Flan had heard already, news passing like wind from door to door.

They stayed calm as still water, so long as Flan kept hand-feeding her like offerings.

The classroom breathed sunlight and chalk dust like light snow.

"Ahem! Class, I have bad news!" His voice cracked like dry wood.

"You’ll graduate next year; everyone knows that like the calendar on the wall."

"But that bastard principal cut a deal with the Adventurers’ Guild to flirt with their front-desk girl, like a moth to flame."

"That’s not the point!" He chopped the air like a blade.

"The point is: fail to get C-rank or higher, and the gate to your diploma slams shut."

"What?!" The room erupted like a boiling pot.

"That’s nonsense!" Panic skittered like mice.

"C rank needs C-rank commissions. Where do we find that many, like fish in a dry creek?"

"Most adventurers feed families on C-rank jobs like daily bread."

"We’d be stealing bites, smashing livelihoods like bowls on stone."

The homeroom teacher saw their anger flare like prairie fire.

He wore anger too, a borrowed mask over a fox’s grin.

If he hid that upward curl, sly as a hook, it’d be perfect.

"We teachers are furious too!" He thumped his chest like a drum.

"Advice: form parties for jobs. Don’t go solo, fly like geese in a V."

"That’s it. This afternoon is self-study. Bye~" He slipped out like a breeze, leaving no cloud.

They froze for a few heartbeats, then surged like a tide at spring.

The class rushed toward Alicia and Lian, feet drumming like rain.

"Alicia, team up with me!" Voices tangled like kites in wind.

"Lady Ling! Me!" The plea rang like a struck bell.

"Alicia!!" The name chimed again, bright as copper.

Alicia hugged Lian tight, trembling like a leaf in rain.

Lian grabbed Remi and Flan like anchors dropped in surf.

"We’ve already formed a team," she said, laying words like stones across a stream.

Remi’s look was pure refusal, stubborn as a mule under a mountain.

This smelled like hard labor to her, like hauling logs uphill.

"Miss Ling, Flan and I aren’t joining as students…" Her voice thinned like smoke.

Lian clapped a hand over her mouth, swift as a swallow.

She whispered in her ear, soft as a reed flute.

"Five ultra-clear, uncensored sleeping shots of Flan." The offer dropped like a pebble in still water.

Remi’s eyes sparked like fireworks. She met Lian’s gaze, twin blades catching light.

Confirmed it by eyes—the right trade partner, hawkers nodding at dawn.

"Mm~ Flan and I already joined Alicia’s party~ Sorry, everyone~" Her sing-song fluttered like ribbon.

No one knew who set the rule, but four per party had sunk like ink in bone.

Hearing they were full, the crowd drifted off like fog, disappointed.

When they left, Lian exhaled a long thread like steam.

Remi rushed up, rubbing her hands like a cricket sharpening legs.

Lian sent the sleep shots by phone, images flitting like paper cranes.

She glanced at her gallery—only a bit over a thousand left—

and felt she had Remi on a silk leash.

They filled the party form and handed it to the homeroom teacher like passing a baton.

Then the four set off for the Adventurers’ Guild, footsteps beating like drums.

Lian walked with head down, thoughts circling like swallows around a pagoda.

"Why do I feel I’ve seen a building with that name before?" Her doubt hung like mist.

Alicia shook her head, refusal firm as a locked gate.

"We’re students; we never touch adventurer work," she said, brushing it off like gnats.

"I think you’re overthinking, Lian. We clearly never—" She stopped as lightning split memory open.

A flash ripped through both their minds like a blade, and cold memory poured like rain.

"Um, Lian, did you remember something too?" Her voice thinned like rice paper.

Cold sweat beaded on Lian’s brow like frost.

"It wasn’t me, but Ling and I share memory," she said, words stumbling like stones.

"So… yeah, as you think." Her breath frayed like thread.

"Then… are we still going?" The question hung like a lantern over a cliff.

Remi and Flan traded looks, puzzled as owls at noon.

"What’s with you two?" Remi asked, her brow lifting like a bow.

Alicia wavered, heart tugging like a knotted string.

Then she pointed at Lian like a compass needle finding north.

"Not Lian—Ling. Ling blew up one of their branch offices." The words fell like stones.

"A big meeting was on; the place was thick with strong types, floor probably B+—storm clouds all."

Remi shot Lian a look you’d give a brick.

Lian flushed pink like a peach.

"Why look at me like that? I didn’t do it!" Her protest fluttered like a sparrow.

Remi knocked Lian’s head with a knuckle, light as a bamboo switch.

"Are you dense? Why blow them up for nothing?" Her words snapped like twigs.

"You didn’t leave proof, right?" Her eyebrows arched like bows.

"Nope. Ling erased them with a single mana sphere, clean as fire through silk."

"Not a trace at all." The certainty sat like a stone.

"Whoa—brutal." Remi whistled, wind in the reeds.

"No evidence, no fear. Let’s go." Her grin flashed like a knife.

"Oh…" Lian lowered her head like a wilted flower and followed.

Her small steps pattered like rain along the road.