"The name's Ariana, what's yours?" Ariana asked, now seated at the front, her hand stretched out toward the blonde-haired girl.
"Rizel," she said, accepting the handshake with a smile that didn't go unnoticed by several of the male students nearby, and even a few of the girls.
"Sorry about the outburst back there, I just couldn't hold myself back when I saw it was that guy," Ariana said, her expression souring for a moment.
"You two seem to have some history," Rizel noted.
"It's nothing, really. Just, don't let his looks fool you, he's probably the weakest person in the entire first year, honestly in the whole institution," she said, satisfaction clear in her voice.
"Right," Rizel murmured.
Ariana shook her head and straightened up. "So, what level are you? Or is that a secret?" she asked, nodding toward the bandana wrapped around Rizel's Meta-watch.
"Oh, this?" Rizel raised her arm. "I just wanted to see if I could make some friends without scaring them off with my level first," she said with a small, sheepish smile, and began untying the cloth.
"Level 6.8, we're almost the same. So you're a high ranker," Ariana noted.
"Yep," Rizel said, pumping her fist with a hint of pride. "How about you?" she asked, a little hesitant.
"Me?" Ariana didn't say anything, she just showed her.
"Level 7," Rizel said, her eyes going wide.
"Of course," Ariana smiled proudly. "You didn't think you were the only high ranker around, did you?" she laughed.
"Alright, how about I call you Zelly?" Ariana said.
"Zelly? Isn't that a bit strange?" Rizel asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nonsense, it's perfectly fine. And you can call me Aria or Ria, whatever you prefer," Ariana said with an easy, carefree air.
"Alright, I think I'll go with Ria," Rizel said, and they both smiled.
They kept talking as they waited for the rest of the students and the teacher to arrive.
"But when you said that guy from the elevator was the weakest of all the first years, what exactly did you mean?" Rizel asked, keeping her voice low.
"Well, the thing is…" Ariana trailed off, feeling genuinely conflicted. Even with how much she hated him, enough that she could probably shoot him in a friendly spar and call it an accident without losing any sleep, she still couldn't bring herself to hand out this particular detail about him, something she had kept to herself for a long time and that only a handful of people knew.
"It's okay if it's something you'd rather not share," Rizel said with a smile.
Why do I even care what happens to him? He can drop dead for all I care.
"No, it's fine. It's a problem he's had since he was young, probably since his awakening," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "He couldn't sense his mana core, it was like it didn't exist, even though it did. I don't really know what caused it, but he was never able to break through because of it."
"So he's still stuck at level one?" Rizel's eyes went wide.
"Technically he isn't even as strong as a level one, so you can't really call him that. Based on the international power grading system, he'd probably sit at origin level zero," Ariana said, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"That shouldn't even be possible," Rizel said, genuinely struggling to make sense of it.
"But that's the reality. I suspect it has something to do with the blessing he awakened," Ariana said.
"What blessing?"
"It's…" Ariana stopped, then suddenly stood up and started waving with a big smile on her face. "Isa, over here!"
"Who are you…?" Rizel followed her gaze and it landed on a girl whose looks somehow didn't seem to fit the world around her, but she wasn't looking back at Ariana, she was staring hard at a specific part of the classroom, her expression completely blank. Rizel could usually pick up on even the slightest shift in someone's composure, and what she felt coming off this girl was overwhelming, a deep, barely contained hatred locked behind that empty stare.
"Where is she even looking?" Rizel followed the girl's gaze and it landed on someone she hadn't expected.
"Him again," she murmured.
It was Lorelle, who appeared to be fast asleep at his desk.