Chapter 237: Serie: Where Is My Rhodes?
The corridor of the ducal palace was eerily quiet. On Flamme's own orders, none of the handmaidens had dared to disturb the rest of their honored guests. And she, in her own excitement at his own invitation, had completely forgotten about the other girl in her room, and so, even though she was now awake, there was still no sign of the breakfast she so desperately craved.
Serie rubbed her head and pushed open her own door. The slight discomfort of a hangover was already putting her in a bad mood, and the empty hallway only made it worse. There should have been handmaidens, cleaning, or just walking by. But there was no one. The quiet was... unnatural. "Where is everyone?" she said, her own voice a sharp and a clear sound in the silence.
She went to the next room, but it, too, was empty. So early, she thought. Where has he gone? A new and a strange feeling of an unease now began to creep into her own heart. She decided to check on her other apprentice, Ela. She would surely be awake by now, and she might know where he had gone.
She went to her room and, without bothering to knock, she pushed open the door, and the sight within made her own brow furrow even deeper.
Ela was in bed, yes, but her sleeping posture was a thing of a pure and an utter chaos. The blanket was mostly on the floor, and she herself was sprawled out like a starfish, one half of her own body hanging off the edge of the bed, a mess of a hair all over her own face, and a small, almost-imperceptible, drool mark at the corner of her own mouth. And from the even and a deep sound of her own breathing, it was clear that she was still in a deep and a dreamless sleep, completely oblivious to the outside world.
The corner of Serie's own mouth twitched.
She had never had to care for her first apprentice. Ela had had her own family. She had never imagined that she could be such a slob. And to be sleeping so soundly, after everything they had done... it was infuriating. It had been her idea, to steal the barrier's own power. And though the other had made the final decision, she, she was still at least half to blame.
All of her own patience was now gone. She did not bother to wake her gently. A small, ice-cold crystal now appeared at her own fingertip and shot towards the other's own, unsuspecting, face.
"Splat!"
The crystal shattered on impact, and a shower of a cold and a biting water now washed over her own face.
"Wha—! What is it!? An enemy!?"
She shot up from her own bed, a new and a terrible alertness now in her own eyes. She wiped the water from her own face and reached under her own pillow for her own staff, but it was not there. She had sent it for a maintenance and had not yet gotten it back.
And when she saw who was standing in the doorway, a new and a different kind of a cold, a cold that was a far and a more terrible thing than the ice, now washed over her own.
"T-Teacher Serie!?" her own voice was now a squeak. "What are you...?"
She just gave her a cold and a withering look, and a look of a pure and an unadulterated disgust. She had been about to ask her if she knew where he was, but to see her in such a state... it would be a pointless endeavor. "Get up. And for goodness sake, get dressed. You look a mess."
And with a final, disdainful glare, she turned and left, the slam of the door a final and an emphatic exclamation mark.
Ela was left in a shivering and a bewildered heap. What did I do?
And she, Serie, her own frustration now at a boiling point, now made her way to the other room. It was much neater. Flamme was not there. The white-haired elven girl, Frieren, was sitting on the bed, her own face a little pale, her own hand on her own stomach, her own eyes a little... distant, as if she were waiting for something.
"Lady Serie," she said, her own voice a small and a quiet sound.
She looked around the room, and then at the girl. "Where is Flamme?"
She flinched. "'Be good and wait for me to come back. I'll bring you breakfast. And don't go out,'" the girl had told her. Her own, elven, intuition was now telling her that there was a new and a terrible storm brewing in her other teacher's own heart, a storm that she had to do her own best to avoid.
"I... I don't know," she said, her own voice now a small and a frightened sound. "She was gone when I woke up." It was the truth.
The elven miss's own eyes narrowed. The girl's own face was a picture of an innocent and a pure confusion. And yet... something was not right. The girl was gone, her other apprentice was in a deep and a drooling slumber, and the other one... he, too, was gone. And all the handmaidens... it all pointed to one thing.
She did not press the other girl further. She just gave her a final, cool and a detached look and left.
And in the hallway, she closed her own eyes and cast a new and a powerful spell, a detection spell that now covered the entire city. And then she found them, two familiar auras, not in the palace, but in a distant part of the city, and they were moving.
I see, she thought. So that's where you are.
And without a moment's hesitation, she went after them.
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