Chương 58: Ch.57— Reunion

If someone had told the Amy from one year ago that she would be transported to another world, impede the summoning of a literal eldritch being named Blood Emperor, kill a prophet blessed by none other than a goddess, receive a cryptic gift from a demon presiding over infinite knowledge, and then—two days later—find herself sitting in a disciplinary hearing over a giant glowing golden penis, she would have had several questions about their mental state.

And yet, that was her current predicament: sitting in a chair along with the six former manga characters, now real people, covered in bandages—just like her—watching five grown adults discuss their punishment in whispers. Five men were talking, whispering to each other, and by the looks of it, the discussion seemed quite heated.

Amy only recognized three: the assistant headmaster, whom she had seen in passing; Professor Vanheim, who was the head of Class S and also deeply entangled with the protagonist's party, helping them whenever he could; and finally, Kaelen, Zayd's creepy uncle with white hair and black eyes, who, for some reason, was also here. Amy yawned while leaning back in her chair. How long was this supposed to go on?

Despite having slept well over the past two days, she still felt so tired that this morning she had overslept and barely arrived at the meeting on time. She had to skip breakfast, which made everything worse. Fuck, she was hungry— It was then that, almost as if he were reading her mind, the boy beside her extended a hand, offering her a croissant along with a cup of tea. Amy tilted her head and looked toward the black-haired boy with red eyes sitting by her side.

"You seem hungry, Miss Stake." Amy stared at the croissant, then at the tea, then back at Zayd. Where and how did he even—actually, what did it matter? The croissant smelled like butter, and she hadn't eaten since yesterday, so she took it. It wasn't good to look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

"Thanks," she muttered, biting into it. Then she took the tea in her other hand and drank from it. Zayd watched her silently with a pleased smile.

"Is it to your taste?" he asked quietly.

"I wasn't entirely certain what you preferred. I can find you something else if you'd like."

"It's good," Amy said around her second bite. It was more than good, actually—it was excellent. Like, why was this so good…?

"There's also jam, if you—""Gaspard." Amy turned. Iris, seated on her other side, was leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, staring at the croissant while salivating.

"I'm also hungry," Iris said. Amy looked at her, then at the croissant in her hand, and moved it slightly farther away on pure instinct. Iris's eyes tracked the movement. Amy looked back at Zayd. Zayd had already turned toward Iris with a politely neutral expression.

"What would you like?" Iris blinked, then finally gazed away from Amy's food toward the boy beside her.

"I—whatever she's having. Actually, no." She thought about it for half a second.

"Do you have anything with chocolate?"

"I believe I have…" Zayd's eyes trailed off as a frown formed on his face. Amy blinked and followed his gaze, which was now directed toward the five adults who were discussing, and she subsequently frowned too. Crow had stood up at some point and walked toward the council.

"Assistant headmaster," he said in a voice loud enough for Amy to hear.

"They're eating while you discuss our punishment," he said, pointing toward Amy, Zayd, and Iris. There was a heavy silence as everyone fell quiet. The assistant headmaster looked up. He was an old man with grey hair, black eyes, and golden glasses. He frowned as his gaze fell on the three students, and he shook his head.

"Stop what you are doing at this instant. Have some respect." Zayd immediately took Amy's tea and pastry from her hands and returned them to his storage ring. Both Amy and Iris woke up from their trance at this action and immediately glared toward the black-haired boy with dark eyes as he returned to his seat beside Ash and Lyra.

"Really, dude?" Iris said the exact words Amy had in her mouth. Crow didn't seem to care in the slightest about their gazes and just sat back down in his chair with a small smile on his face. Once Crow sat back down, the assistant headmaster returned to speaking with the other four adults. However, the atmosphere didn't warm in the slightest. Amy had already sort of moved on, only sighing before going back to slumping in her chair; however, Iris still glared holes into the back of Crow's head, clearly still mad.

Crow didn't seem to care about her gaze, but Ash did. He cleared his throat loudly enough for the seven people's attention to turn to him, then leaned forward in his chair, flashing a bright, entirely misplaced grin at the group.

"Hey, look on the bright side, guys," Ash whispered, nudging Lyra with his elbow.

"I know losing the pastry sucks, but it could be worse. You could be feeling... crumby. Get it? Because of the croissant?" If the tension before was bad, now it was suffocating. An absolute, crushing silence followed his attempt at a joke. Not a single person chuckled. Even Iris, who sometimes could be counted on to laugh at his jokes—or at least offer a sympathetic pity giggle—just stared at him with a soulless expression. Lyra rubbed her temples.

"Ash, stop," she muttered in a voice filled with exhaustion.

"Seriously, just shut up. You're making it worse."

"Yeah, Ash," Iris agreed, slumping back into her chair with a pathetic sigh.

"Just shut up." This time, it was Lyra and Ash's turn to frown as they looked toward Iris, who was now back to glaring at Crow. It was during this tense standoff that Amy, who was trying hard to ignore the tension, felt something hot against her side. It took a second for her mind to catch up to the sensation, but once it did, her eyes snapped open, and her heart began beating loudly. Could it be…?

She looked toward her satchel, which now felt slightly warmer, then back toward the group of adults speaking in whispers.

"Sir," she called, loudly enough to get his attention.

"Can we please get this over with?" The old man looked up once again from his discussion with the four others. He looked at Amy for a few seconds, clearly mad about her tone, but did nothing but shake his head. Beside him, a bald man with a white beard and piercing blue eyes—Vanheim—rubbed his temples and let out a deep sigh.

"Although badly phrased, Miss Stake is right. I believe we've discussed the matter sufficiently," Vanheim said calmly as his gaze swept across the seven of them.

"It's time we brought this to a conclusion." The assistant headmaster looked at him silently for a few seconds, then nodded, and so did everyone else except for Kaelen, who still seemed to have something to say. Amy nearly exhaled in relief and crossed her arms, trying to calm herself down enough not to sprint out of the room. The assistant headmaster took a deep breath, folded his arms behind his back, and slowly rose from his seat.

His gaze lingered on each of them in turn before settling on Lain, who was between Iris and Ash, basically separating the two groups that had formed after they returned from the nightmare.

"I want all of you to understand something," he began.

"We are not angry because students broke a couple of rules. We are disappointed…deeply disappointed. Especially with you, Miss Arkwright." Lain flinched slightly at hearing her surname called.

"What would your family think about this?" The question hung in the air. Lain's lips parted slightly, but no answer came. Amy pursed her lips but did not defend her, not wanting to make the situation worse than it was. The assistant headmaster waited several seconds. When it became clear that Lain wasn't going to answer, he slowly exhaled through his nose and looked away from her.

"To be clear," he said as his gaze shifted between them, "Miss Arkwright is not the only person who disappointed us. Every single student present bears responsibility for what happened." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Even me?" Iris suddenly asked. The assistant headmaster fixed her with a stare, which she wisely did not return as she looked at the ground, avoiding him. The assistant headmaster kept his eyes on her for a few more seconds, then continued speaking.

"Do you realise how much paperwork this has caused?"

"I as—""That was a rhetorical question." Ash, who had been interrupted by Lyra, immediately closed his mouth. The man frowned more deeply while looking at them and began tapping his finger against the table.

"First, you decided it would be a wonderful idea to sneak into the headmistress's private office." He looked around the group, and so did Amy out of the corner of her eye. Nobody looked particularly guilty, which she realised was feeding the old man's irritation.

"Second, while inside said office, rather than doing whatever foolish thing originally motivated this plan, you collectively decided to create—" He stopped, pinched the bridge of his nose, then continued in a voice clearly containing his anger, "—a giant glowing golden genital." Amy stared straight ahead and tried to keep her expression completely blank, which was extremely hard as she heard heavy breathing from Iris, who was still looking at the ground and covering her face.

But Amy, from her perspective, could still see the corners of Iris's lips turned upward.

"Not only did you create a giant male genital," the man continued, "you somehow made it large enough to be visible from three different academy courtyards." Amy heard one of the men beside him cough suspiciously. The man ignored it.

"And then, because apparently the situation wasn't absurd enough already, you triggered the headmistress's defensive protections. The result?" The man gestured broadly toward the seven students.

"Was this." His hand swept across their tattered and still exhausted-looking forms, which were covered in bandages, particularly he pointed at Crow's missing arm. Obviously, these injuries weren't from entering the headmistress's office; this was only the official story. The headmistress had probably said nothing to anyone about what truly happened, judging by Kaelen's annoyed expression and Vanheim's complicated one. Honestly, Amy doubted that even the assistant headmaster knew what had transpired that night.

"You broke into a restricted area," the assistant headmaster continued, oblivious to Amy's thoughts.

"You vandalized academy property. You caused a magical incident, activated security measures, and somehow managed to injure every participant." He paused, took a deep breath, and shook his head from side to side again and again and again. It was almost funny if it wasn't for the fact that he looked like he was plotting to murder all of them.

"I have worked here for seventeen years," he finally said after a long pause.

"Never in my entire career have I seen something like this from any student who has ever stepped into this prestigious academy, let alone from anyone in Class S. This is unheard of! This is inadmissible! This is…!" The assistant headmaster trailed off. A long silence followed his words.

Then Kaelen, who had been sitting there with a constant frown, finally clicked his tongue and muttered something under his breath that Amy did not catch, though judging by the look on the assistant headmaster's face, whatever it was had not been polite. The assistant headmaster inhaled sharply through his nose, then spoke again.

"After reviewing the incident—" his voice was now cold; whatever Kaelen had said had changed his whole demeanor "—and taking into account the recommendations of the headmistress, this court has decided on your punishments." At that, the entire group visibly tensed, including Amy, who, despite herself, straightened a little in her chair. The assistant headmaster, ignoring the tension, spoke swiftly and without pause.

"Student Iris. Etiquette classes." Iris blinked. Amy blinked too. She looked around at the others, who had similar expressions of confusion.

"Etiquette..." Iris repeated, as if she had not heard him correctly.

"Yes, etiquette. Moving on," the assistant headmaster said with an annoyed expression and shifted his gaze away from her.

"Next, Student Ash. Calligraphy classes." Ash leaned back in his chair with a raised eyebrow.

"Calligraphy?" he repeated, just like Iris, which made the assistant headmaster frown once more.

"I've always wanted to work on my calligraphy. Nice." The assistant headmaster didn't even comment on his words.

"Student Lain," he said, turning his gaze toward the white-haired girl.

"You will assist the first-year Class F in their magic practice." Lain's eyes widened, and despite her stoic front, Amy could discern alarm crossing her face.

"Student Crow. Therapy." Crow said nothing, and neither did the assistant headmaster as he turned away from him.

"Student Zayd. You will find an activity that helps somebody else." The assistant headmaster bit his lip momentarily and shook his head while saying that. He looked clearly unhappy about the words he was saying. In fact, with every passing punishment announced, he looked angrier and angrier. To the point, at some point, his face had gone completely red. The confusion between the protagonist party, as well as Amy, was clear, which somehow also seemed to make the old man angrier, Amy noted.

With an exasperated sigh, the assistant headmaster turned to the last person.

"Student Amy. Find a job." Amy stared at him. For a second, she was certain she had misheard.

"A job?" she repeated.

"Yes," the assistant headmaster said in an irritated voice.

"A job. Like every working adult, no matter which one it is. Make sure it doesn't interfere with your studies." Amy felt her eyelid twitch. For a moment, she could not even decide whether this was a good or bad thing. Now that Libris was hurt, they could not create money for her, so she needed a different method of obtaining it. In a way, this was good. But also, a job sounded so annoying…

"Sir," Amy said after a beat.

"Do I really have to find a job? Can't I just do something else, like maybe collecting donations for the academy, which I get a percentage of?" Beside her, Iris made a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh and immediately covered her mouth. This deeply confused Amy. Had she said something funny? The assistant headmaster was glaring daggers at them. Amy could see it in the tightening of his jaw and in the way his fingers curled once against the paper.

"Do not mistake leniency for permission," the old man said sharply after a couple of deep breaths.

"You are receiving this because the headmistress, for some unknown reason, has decided not to take harsher action this time. Do not assume that means your conduct was forgiven. The punishments you are receiving today are not suggestions; they are consequences. You will comply, you will do so without complaint, and you will all consider yourselves fortunate that this is all you are receiving."

He fixed Amy with one final, venomous glare, waiting to see if she would dare utter another word, and when she wisely chose to keep her mouth shut, the old man let out a long, world-weary sigh, swept his papers into a neat stack, and slammed them onto the desk.

"This disciplinary hearing is officially adjourned," he said, his voice tight.

"Now get out of my sight. All of you." Finally. The word echoed in Amy's mind. Before the assistant headmaster could even finish standing up, Amy was already on her feet. The heat radiating from her satchel had transitioned at some point from a faint warmth to a borderline-burning sensation against her hip. After giving some quick waves of goodbye towards Iris, Zayd, and Lain, Amy turned on her heel and headed straight for the exit.

The moment she crossed the threshold into the main corridor, she realized escaping wouldn't be as simple as she'd hoped. The hallway was packed with students. Amy walked fast, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Yet she could still feel an enormous number of gazes and whispers following her. She kept her eyes locked dead ahead and, by instinct, masked her expression into a smile.

"Hey! Amy, right?" A wide-eyed boy suddenly stepped into her peripheral vision, raising a hand as if to catch her attention.

"You are the one who—""Sorry, I'm busy right now. But we can talk later if you want," Amy said with a smile, without slowing down. The boy looked at her smile and then nodded, luckily not taking offense at her dismissal. Amy kept walking for a few minutes while avoiding everyone who tried to talk to her, and soon reached her objective. She entered the dormitories, rounded the final corridor, and finally spotted the glorious, blessed door to her private dorm room.

She lunged forward, grabbed the handle, unlocked it, and slipped inside. Slam! The door shut with a solid thud. Amy immediately leaned her head against the wood as she let out a ragged breath. Her heart was hammering against her ribs, partly from the brisk walk, but mostly from pure anticipation. She slid down the door slightly, eventually dropping to her knees, and her hand fell to the hot leather satchel at her side.

Taking a deep breath to steady her voice, she stared down at the bag and spoke into the quiet room.

"Libris?" Only silence responded. Amy swallowed hard, and anxiety spiked.

"Libris? Are you there? Answer me." Still nothing. Frustrated and growing increasingly panicked, Amy unbuckled the satchel with trembling fingers and reached inside. Her hand brushed against the red cover of the fractured book. She hauled it out, wincing slightly at the heat, and held it up.

"Libris, seriously," Amy pleaded, staring at the cracked cover.

"Talk to me. Are you okay? What's happening?"

"Behind you." Amy jumped as a loud gasp escaped her throat, nearly dropping the book. She spun around so fast her vision blurred, and her back slammed flat against the door she had just locked. Standing in the center of her small dorm room was a woman. Amy froze, and her eyes widened as she took in the stranger's appearance. The woman had medium-length, blonde hair and red eyes. But the most jarring part wasn't the hair or the eyes—it was her face. She looked uncannily, terrifyingly like Amy herself.

Furthermore, the woman's entire body was covered with the exact same glowing fractures that filled the surface of the book. Despite looking like she was held together by magical duct tape, she was giving Amy a warm smile. It took a long second for Amy's brain to connect the obvious dots...

"Libris?!" The woman's grin widened, and a faint teasing glint appeared in her red eyes.

"Yup, that's me. Libris in the flesh. Or, well, the closest approximation I can manage right now."

"What!? How? When did you gain a…" A massive wave of excitement washed over Amy. Her heart beat so fast she thought she might faint. Immediately, she stepped forward and threw her arms open, going for a hug— But before she could close the distance, Libris raised a hand, stopping Amy dead in her tracks.

"Sorry," Libris said while their smile faltered into a sad expression.

"But you need to hold that. We don't have much time left." Amy's arms slowly dropped to her sides, a deep frown carving its way onto her forehead.

"What…?"

"We don't know when I'm going to fall asleep again," Libris insisted as they gestured toward the book version of them in Amy's hands.

"Right now, we need to go through the manga chapters. Immediately." Amy's frown deepened into a scowl.

"Are you insane? I don't give a shit about the plot right now; I care about—""Amy, please," Libris interrupted with a whisper.

"This is for your own good. We have to look at the chapters first. We will talk later. I promise." Amy stared at the woman in front of her. Her chest was tight with a mix of frustration and anger, and she felt like she might snap at any moment. But looking into those red eyes and seeing the desperation hidden behind the cracking facade, Amy knew arguing would only waste what little time they actually had.

Letting out a slow, defeated sigh, she nodded silently, and the next thing she knew, the book in her hands started shining.