The common room was quiet now. Yami had left to do whatever Yami did when he wasn't yelling at us. Asta was still buzzing from the mission, his leg bouncing up and down as he sat on the couch. Noelle was trying to look dignified but kept glancing at me when she thought I wasn't looking. Magna was staring at the wall with a weird look on his face, like he was thinking too hard about something.
Then the portal opened.
Finral stumbled through first. His hair was messy and there were dark circles under his eyes. Vanessa came after him, her wine bottle almost empty and her face looking like she had bitten into something sour. They both flopped onto the couch like puppets with their strings cut.
"Nothing," Finral said, throwing his hands up. "We searched for hours. Every tree. Every rock. Every stupid bush in that stupid forest. Those Eye of the Midnight Sun guys didn't leave a single thing behind."
Vanessa took a long drink from her bottle. When she pulled it away, her mouth made a popping sound. "The suicide spell they used? Real nasty stuff. Burned up everything magical on their bodies. Robes turned to ash. Those eye pendants turned to dust. Even their skin started smoking before it all went up. We couldn't get a single clue about where they came from or what they were planning next."
Magna stood up so fast his chair fell over backwards. His face was red. Like, really red. The kind of red that happens when someone is about to do something stupid.
"NOTHING?!" He was shaking. His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were white. "We almost died out there! The villagers almost died! Old man Seyhi almost died! And those bastards just... just disappear like it was nothing?!"
He threw a fireball at the wall.
It wasn't a small fireball either. It was big and hot and when it hit the stone it went BOOM. Rocks flew everywhere. A cloud of dust filled the room. When the dust cleared, there was a hole in the wall big enough to see the moon through. The night wind blew in, making the candles flicker.
Finral yelped and dove behind the couch. "MAGNA! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
"I'M FRUSTRATED!"
"THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU BLOW UP THE CASTLE!"
A door slammed somewhere deep in the base. Heavy footsteps came down the hall. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. Everyone froze. Even Luck, who was hanging upside down from the ceiling beams for some reason, stopped swinging.
Yami appeared in the doorway. He wasn't wearing his captain robe. Just a white shirt and loose pants. His hair was messier than usual. And his eyes—his eyes were the scary kind of calm that meant someone was about to get hurt.
"Magna."
"Y-yes, Captain?"
Yami walked across the room. Each step was slow and heavy. He stopped right in front of Magna and looked down at him. Magna was not a short guy, but next to Yami he looked like a kid.
Then Yami punched him on top of the head.
CRACK. The sound was like a rock hitting wood. Magna's sunglasses flew off his face and skittered across the floor. A big bump started growing on his head immediately, like a cartoon character.
"STOP DESTROYING THE BASE!" Yami's yell was so loud the windows shook. Then he punched the wall right next to the hole Magna made. His fist went through the stone like it was paper and destroys the whole wall.Now there were TWO holes in the wall. Or maybe there is no wall now. "THAT'S THE FOURTH WALL THIS WEEK!"
Magna was on his knees, holding his head with both hands. "I'm sorry, Captain! I wasn't thinking! I was just so mad about those cult guys and—"
"I don't care if you were mad! Use your words like a normal person! Don't use fireballs!"
"Yes, Captain!"
"And now I made another hole in the wall because of you!" Yami looked at his fist, which was covered in stone dust. "Look at this. Now I'm part of the problem. This is why we can't have nice things."
Vanessa raised her wine bottle. "We've never had nice things, Captain."
"Shut up, Vanessa."
"Shutting up."
Yami grumbled something under his breath and lit a new cigarette. He took a long drag and blew the smoke out through his nose. When he spoke again, his voice was calmer. Still annoyed, but calmer.
"Anyway. While you idiots were blowing up my base, I got word from the Wizard King's office." He reached into his pocket and pulled out something small and gold. It caught the candlelight and sparkled. "The mission in Saussy Village got noticed. Saving two hundred villagers from a terrorist attack? That's the kind of thing that gets you recognition."
He held up the gold object. It was a star. About the size of his palm. Five points. Polished so bright it looked like it was glowing.
"We got a merit star."
Asta shot up from the couch like someone had lit a fire under him. His eyes were so wide they looked like dinner plates. "A STAR?! Like a gold star?! Like the ones Sister lily used to give us at the church when we learned our letters right?! I used to get those all the time! Well, sometimes! Well, once! But Sister Lily said it was a very good star and—"
"It's not the same thing, dumbass," Magna said, but he was smiling now even though his head still had that bump. He picked up his cracked sunglasses and put them back on. One lens was broken. He looked ridiculous. "A merit star is what the Wizard King gives to Magic Knight squads when they do something good. The more stars you have, the more respect your squad gets. Other squads see those stars and they know you're the real deal."
"So it's like a score?" Asta asked, bouncing on his heels. "Like in a video game? The more points you have, the higher your rank?"
"What's a video game?"
"I don't know! The word just came to me!"
"It came to you? From where?"
"From my soul! My soul knows about video games!"
Vanessa leaned forward on the couch. "The star system is pretty simple. You do good work, you get stars. You do bad work, you lose stars. The squad with the most stars at the end of the year gets special recognition from the Wizard King himself."
"Then we must have tons of stars!" Asta shouted. "We just saved a whole village! Two hundred people! That's got to be worth like ten stars at least!"
The room went quiet. Finral suddenly found the ceiling very interesting. Vanessa took another drink. Magna coughed into his hand. Even Luck stopped swinging from the beam.
"Actually," Yami said, walking over to a section of wall that didn't have holes in it, "before today, we had negative thirty-one stars."
Asta's whole body went stiff. His mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Finally he managed to squeak out, "Negative... thirty-one?"
"Yep."
"Negative? Like... less than zero?"
"That's what negative means, kid."
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! HOW DO YOU HAVE NEGATIVE STARS?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Vanessa started counting on her fingers. "Let's see. There was the time Magna accidentally burned down a noble family's barn. Minus two stars. The time Luck destroyed a bridge during a fight with a criminal. Minus three stars. The time Captain Yami punched a hole in the royal courthouse wall because he was tired of waiting in line. Minus five stars."
"That wall was asking for it," Yami muttered.
"Then there was the time Charmy ate all the food at a diplomatic dinner between the Clover and Diamond Kingdoms. Minus four stars. The time Gauche threatened to kill a noble for looking at his sister's picture. Minus three stars. The time Gordon's poison magic accidentally got into a village's water supply and everyone got sick for a week. Minus six stars."
"...I was trying to help..." Gordon whispered from his corner. Only I heard him.
"And the time Grey transformed into the Wizard King as a prank and caused a three-hour security lockdown. Minus eight stars."
"I said I was sorry!" a potted plant in the corner squeaked.
Asta's face had gone completely pale. "So you're telling me... that our squad... is the WORST squad in the entire kingdom?"
"We prefer 'most unique,'" Vanessa said.
"That's just a nice way of saying worst!"
"Tone matters."
Yami ignored all of this. He pressed the gold star onto the wall. It stuck there, looking very small and very alone on the big empty stone. "There. Now we have negative thirty stars. That's progress."
"How is that progress?!" Noelle finally spoke up. Her face was twitching. "We're still negative! We're just LESS negative!"
"Progress is progress, royal girl."
"I can't believe this. I should have joined the Golden Dawn. Or literally any other squad. Even the Purple Orcas. Do you know how bad you have to be to make the Purple Orcas look good?!"
"The Purple Orcas have a mole problem," Finral said quietly. "Literally. Actual moles. In their base. They can't get rid of them."
"AT LEAST THEY DON'T HAVE NEGATIVE STARS!"
"Captain Vangeance's squad has seventy stars," Vanessa said, swirling her wine. "The Golden Dawn is at the top. Best squad in the kingdom. Every year they get more stars. Every year they get more recognition. It's honestly kind of annoying how perfect they are."
Asta's mood flipped instantly. One second he was horrified. The next second he was grinning so wide his face looked like it might split. "Seventy stars?! Yuno's squad has seventy stars?! That's amazing! That's incredible! Yuno's in the BEST squad in the kingdom!"
He started pacing back and forth, his hands waving around as he talked. "I can see it now. I'm walking down the street in my Black Bulls robe. Yuno's walking toward me in his Golden Dawn robe. He's got this cool wind blowing his cape. You know, for dramatic effect. And he looks at me with that serious face he always has, and he says 'Asta, how many stars does your squad have?' And I look him right in the eyes and I say..."
He paused for effect.
"We're working on it!"
Noelle stared at him. "That's it? That's your big speech? 'We're working on it'?"
"What's wrong with that?!"
"Everything! Yuno has seventy stars! We have negative thirty! That's a hundred star difference! You should be embarrassed!"
"I'm never embarrassed! Embarrassment is for people who give up! And I never give up! That's my ninja way!"
"Your WHAT way?"
"MY WIZARD WAY! I MEANT WIZARD WAY!"
Noelle put her face in her hands. Her voice came out muffled between her fingers. "I made a mistake. Joining this squad was a mistake. My siblings were right about me. I'm a failure who makes terrible decisions."
"You're not a failure," I said. "You cast your first successful spell today. You protected two hundred people."
Noelle's face turned pink. She peeked through her fingers at me. "That's... that's different. That was an accident. The spell just appeared in my grimoire."
"Spells don't just appear. Your grimoire responded to your desire to protect people. That's how magic works for people with good hearts."
The pink on her face turned to red. "I—you—that's—you can't just say things like that!"
"Why not?"
"Because! Because it's embarrassing! And confusing! And I don't know how to respond!"
"Just say thank you."
"...thank you."
"You're welcome."
Vanessa was watching us with a big grin on her face. "This is better than theater. I should get popcorn."
"We have popcorn?" Charmy appeared out of nowhere. "Where?! I want popcorn! Popcorn with butter! And caramel! And cheese! ALL THREE TOGETHER!"
"Charmy, when did you get here?"
"I smelled romance! Romance smells like popcorn!"
"There is no romance!" Noelle shouted. "There is absolutely no romance happening here! Stop looking at me like that!"
Yami, who had been watching all of this with the tired expression of a man who had seen too much nonsense, pulled a stack of envelopes from his robe. "Alright, shut up everyone. Payday."
The room went dead silent.
Yami tossed the envelopes one by one. Magna caught his with his face because he wasn't paying attention. Luck snatched his out of the air like a cat catching a bird. Finral fumbled his three times before getting a grip. Vanessa caught hers between two fingers without looking. Charmy grabbed hers and immediately started biting the corner to see if it was edible.
I caught mine one-handed. It was thick. Heavy. When I opened it, the bills inside were crisp and new. Two hundred thousand yuls. That was a lot of money for a commoner from the middle of nowhere. I had saved money from hunting mana beasts before joining the squad, but this was different. This was Magic Knight money. This was "buy whatever you need and still have some left over" money.
(Author note: I am going to upload 1 chapter daily after 30 chapters as i am getting tired of writing on my 📱 so sorry but i would make sure to upload one chapter daily)