Before Ashrosaliera could say a word to express her confusion, Luciana Bloodforge, the vampire, spoke:
"You got weird bangs, uneven and crispy, a new style?"
He approached Ash with casual, even steps. His voice was lazy yet endearing, like an actual woman. His eyes were the same shade of red that she had, and fascinatingly more saturated, like the color of fresh blood.
"Oh… Um, I burned my hair while trying to style it using [Blazing Blade]." Ashrosaliera spoke with an embarrassed blush. She immediately summoned her 20-gold-coins giant wizard hat and put it on to hide her bangs.
They stood across, two arm-lengths away, yet strangely intuned with one another. Both were shorter than average, with fiery red eyes, a giant hat bigger than their head blocking the sun. They were the strongest in their respective school year, except Ashrosaliera, who was self-proclaimed rather than earned.
Then Ash shook her head, trying to regain her composure, and finally mustered the courage to ask the right question in this bizarre revelation:
"Why are you wearing a skirt?"
Ash thought about how Roshia Naveria and the other second-year students were really freaked out by Luciana. Ash's mind immediately went super-detective mode and popped out 3 theories:
First, it could be that he loved crossdressing like a cute girl, which people found strange.
Second, maybe he was actually a girl but told everyone to address him as a guy and would suck people's blood if they dare to call him otherwise.
Or third, they weren't bothered by his attire at all, and he was just weird because of a completely different reason, one of which could be his racial background.
Luciana spoke up to pull Detective Ashrosaliera out of her curious and wandering mind on the honking train of thoughts.
"The school doesn't stop me, and I paid for it?"
Lucian didn't miss a beat, he smiled with his eyes closed, and answered with an uneven and casual tone like it was a regular answer he had to give. He looked Ashrosaliera up and down, glancing into her [Fire] badge on the left chest.
"Do you need anything from me?" Luciana asked.
"Oh, right! Sorry!" Ashrosaliera scratched her head nervously, still hadn't got a fulfilling answer to her curiosity, "I owed Roshia what's-her-lastname, and I was asked to run errands for you to pay off my debts."
"Mhm~ Interesting." Luciana tilted his head at an angle like that of a curious animal and smiled cutely, sending shivers down Ash's spine, "I heard Roshia and two other first-years were defeated by a [Fire] attribute human girl, am I looking at the honored one?"
Hearing the topic shifting towards her, Ashrosaliera immediately puffed her chest with air and had her hands on her hips, chin to the air, "striking an Ash pose," so to speak.
"That's right, 'the honored one' indeed, but I'm not just anyone, I am the strongest [Fire] user in history and will be the Elemental Empress!" Ash exclaimed, grabbing the attention of other [Water] magic users nearby who were practicing out in the field.
"Mufufu…" Visibly intrigued by Ashrosaliera's confidence mixed with arrogance, Luciana raised his index finger to his own plump, juicy lips. He squinted at Ash as he continued:
"So you are the arrogant kid with no self-control, who unleashed some kind of high-level spell in a slapping match because you felt insecure about losing? The same one that sent your schoolmates to the infirmary and had your dad come to school to say sorry? The same one that got off easy without even as much as a leash over your neck? That honored one? Everyone knows about you."
The smile immediately dropped from Ashrosaliera's cheeks, she diverted her eyes down to the ground in embarrassment, her giant hat covering a bit of her face when she lowered her head.
Facing the harsh, brutal, gut-wrenching yet truthful comments from someone who wasn't even there. Ash's feet were buried in the ground, realizing how she walked right into that landmine, she didn't dare to take her foot off the ground.
"Answer me." Luciana pressured her, "Go ahead, I'm all ears."
"Uh, umm…" Ashrosaliera stuttered while trying to explain herself, "When you put it like that…"
"Just kidding!" Luciana cut her off, smiling brightly with his fangs showing, "Your reaction told me everything, and I already don't want to get involved with you. People like you won't last long in the wizard world without friends, allies, or a trustworthy reputation."
Ashrosaliera didn't reply; she was utterly humiliated, and random people were listening in on this conversation, pointing fingers at her. Her body began to tremble. Ash bit her lips while pushing the hat down to cover her face even more. The heaviest straw was the fact that the person who shamed her was Luciana, who was labeled "weird" and "don't wanna be talked about" by others. Yet, he said Ash was friendless, allyless, and untrustworthy. It was a hard pill to swallow, but she couldn't retaliate.
"D… Do you still need me to run errands then?" Ashrosaliera asked with a jittering voice.
"You have two choices, fire girl."
Luciana spoke up, and Ashrosaliera felt immense fear coursing through her bloodstream, because when she wasn't looking, Luciana had already been mere inches away from her, with a hand holding her chin up, they were at skin-to-skin contact distance.
Ash thought she would've died right then and there if those teeth were to sink into her throat. She finally realized why people feared talking to Lucian or about him.
"Two choices?" Ash said, trying to move her head away from his hand to no avail.
"One, you can run my errands for a week; it is quite simple, really. Bring me stuff from my dorm room, get snacks from the cafeteria, carry books for me when I browse the library, among many other tasks that are not on the top of my mind at the moment."
"Or two," Luciana Bloodforge continued, "Fight me, show me what you have, then you'll only have to run my errands for one day. Just a casual sparring match at the stadium on the tenth floor."
Ashrosaliera immediately made up her mind and knew what to choose, but still, something was on her mind.
"I am not allowed to use my strongest spell… Or else I'll be expelled for good, is that fine?" Ash said sheepishly.
"Oh, so you do have a leash," Luciana chuckled, "That is fine by me."
Luciana then ran his thumb through Ashrosaliera's lower lip, sealing their deal. And Ash could only freeze in horror, not daring to even turn away, in fear of exposing her neck to him.
"I'm not going easy on you." Ash whispered.