Scarlet

“Let’s get down to it then,” the old man says, glancing between me and Allen in the process. “The Fall semester begins in a week, next Monday. You are expected to attend the Semester Opening Ceremony the day before the first day, on Sunday, where the speeches will be held by the faculty and the student council president, following which a tournament will be set up. During this, the Guardians may challenge other Guardians within their same Class and year. This is to set up the rankings for that year.”

My mouth parts open at the mention of rankings.

I knew the Guardian Universities were competitive, but damn… isn’t that a bit much?

“Many new Guardians tend to wonder why we do things with a ranking system, so I’ll just tell you this now. It’s there to inspire Guardians to go out and fight in the Fractures. Otherwise, many of our more spoiled students wouldn’t bother as they’re already given most of what they want in life without having to risk their own lives to get it,” the old man says, answering my unasked question as if it were normal. “You will be sent two uniforms soon, one of which has pants and the other a skirt. Which one you wear will be up to you, but you are only required to wear the uniform during social gatherings such as the Semester Opening Ceremony. And you do not have to wear it when in combat, such as the tournament that follows the Ceremony.”

I let out a breath of relief at hearing that.

Because I’m really not a fan of uniforms.

It’s also quite nice that the skirts aren’t required, because the one that Denise girl was wearing looked too short in my opinion. So even if I wasn’t against wearing skirts in the first place, that isn’t something I would be caught dead wearing.

The corner of the old man’s mouth twitches slightly most likely in amusement at seeing my visible relief before he continues, “The ranking you get in the tournament will decide what group you’re put into. The Regular one, the Advanced one, and the Top Class one. Each of these groups have different permissions across campus and are given different levels of assistance by the faculty. And the higher your rank is, the more priority you’ll get for the Fractures in the city. Since you’ll be temporarily working under the universities name alongside your work under the Silver Association while you’re a student here.” He pauses here to glance at Allen as he asks, “I’m assuming she will be getting combat training during this next week?”

Allen nods his head, prompting Alfred to turn back to me as he says, “Then I would also suggest you fight in one of the Fractures of the next Demonic Assault to get some more levels before fighting in the tournament.”

I nod my head, “Of course.”

His lips twitch again before he says, “The exact rules of the tournament will be announced at the beginning of it. So prepare for it.” He pauses for a second before glancing at me and adding, “Our Registrar will be seeing you within the first days of class to make a public apology for her actions. The woman has some… issues… with orphans in general. More so than most people. So please don’t hold it against her.” The man then nods his head towards me, then towards Allen and says, “Scarlet Wolf, Cipher. It was a pleasure.”

We both respond in kind, following which the man leaves us be with one final statement saying that anything else I may need will be sent to me via email.

Although I can’t help but frown at the use of that title. But if he’s using it, then the government probably already has me under that title. And since Guardians are symbols for peace and hope and all that, they aren’t really allowed to pick their own titles if one is chosen for them by the public. Assuming that title is an appropriate one that is.

They aren’t able to choose for themselves unless they’re at least Class III and they’re changing it, or the public never decided one for them.

After his departure, I turn to Allen and ask, “So what now?”

“Now we head back to the base,” he answers while walking over to the door.

It doesn’t take long before we’re back in Allen’s office with him sipping coffee and me having a soda.

“I still don’t know what you have against coffee,” Allen mutters as he stares at the soda in my hands.

I just shrug and retort, “Well I don’t know why you like that disgusting stuff. And I’ve never had trouble staying awake, so there’s really no point in having coffee.”

He scoffs and goes silent, understanding that the argument won’t go anywhere. Not if the past who knows how many times we’ve had it are anything to judge by.

We sit in silence for several minutes before he eventually says, “That went a lot better than I was expecting. But we’ll still be receiving the complaints of the other Associations, even if we got the other universities to shift their target from us to Lion’s Heart before they even learned of your existence.”

I nod my head, not really understanding some of it since he hasn’t exactly told me of all of his problems. Just that the other Associations and universities probably want me and don’t like how quickly I was ‘snatched up’ by someone else.

“You’ll probably end up being harassed a little bit by the other Associations as they try to ‘convince’ you to join them and leave the Silver Association. So tell me if they try anything you can’t handle,” Allen says, a serious look on his face. “And I mean it. Don’t just deal with everything yourself like you always tend to do.”

I purse my lips for a second before reluctantly nodding my head.

“Good. There’s nothing else for the rest of the day, so do whatever,” he says while getting up from the sofa and walking over to his desk. “I have a bunch of paperwork to get through thanks to you.”

I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at that, only to shrug a second later as I begin to walk out of the room. But right before I close the door, I tell Allen, “Thank you for all your help.”

He pauses and literally drops a piece of paper he had been holding before I shut the door, not giving him the chance to respond.

Allen’s helped me a lot in these past few days, even if I sometimes get annoyed at his assistance. And especially in the forceful manner he sometimes approaches it.

Guess he really does think of me as a daughter of sorts, just like Sage and Sylver keep implying.

A tiny smile makes its way onto my face at the warm thought before going away again as I begin walking down the hall.

Time to get breakfast, since I was never able to eat that. Although by now it’d be lunch.

Because I’m starving.