And since their campuses were quite far away and Chaeyeon wouldn't even thought of visiting the mage-apprentice faculty again; if not for attending a mixed course. Chaeyeon was baffled on a certain Miyawaki Sakura's changes. Chaeyeon had not met Sakura for six months now. Well, there was her guardian apprenticeship and then the academy break. 

But for the harsh and straightforward Kkura (not to mention her arrogant self-proclaimed geniusness), to be surrounded with her laughing classmates had baffled Chaeyeon to no end.

Chaeyeon was a year ahead of her supposed-to-be seonbae but since Sakura were mostly absent, she couldn't advanced for her next grade. Sakura, like Chaeyeon, was supposed to be on her last year this spring. However, she was one year behind her and was at the brink of her expulsion.

Only Heavens knew why the pink haired mage agreed to attend the Wide Hunt last Summer at the low sector--it granted her a pardon to resume her remaining academy years--but Chaeyeon was glad nonetheless. Sakura's return to the academy meant her final year's scholarship secured.

Long story short, Chaeyeon's sponsor (a.k.a. the dean of mage-researcher faculty) had given her an almost impossible task to save the funding of her education. 

"This time, Chaeyeon-kun, you simply need to persuade our Kkura to resume to her study."

Oh-boy. For once, Chaeyeon regretted her deduction was correct. She was suspicious of the word 'simply' used by the dean. (Perhaps Kkura's arrogance had rubbed on Chaeyeon but) if she wasn't as smart and as capable (with a tinge of desperation for fundings), Chaeyeon would've opted to take a year of academic-leave and worked her off to save enough money for her last-year tuition fee.

Locking Chaeyeon in Loki's puzzle maze with less than the minimum provision. Not even fireflies runic, not even drink. Normally, students would be stuck a week to finish that maze solo. Thank heavens Chaeyeon actually listened to her grandpa's repetitive nostalgia that she could find shortcuts in that maze. And what did Chaeyeon do to receive that treatment? Well, nothing but kindly knocking on Sakura's "private" quarter (the mage apprentice also live in the academy's dorm just like any other students but due to her personality, students preferred to let Sakura had the shared room for her own).

When Chaeyeon flew away with all her might, escaping from a frostbite wyvern's breath towards the exit portal, she crashed into a pile of trash (read: Sakura's game consoles) inside a dark and rather stinky room--her highness genius mage's private quarter.

Here was the first thing Sakura said, "No! My children!"

The audacity of trapping somebody in Loki's maze like it was nothing. That maze could be the end of Chaeyeon's life, "Excuse me? You just threw someone into a freezing death row and not even an apology?"

"Shut up you sunblasted-wings!" said Sakura shoving the guardian apprentice with no care. "No... It took me months! Years! to get these! My Chrysalium Edition XV.... the Pro-shooter too!"

She continued to mourn the unfamiliar names like it was some unknown runic chants.

What a meeting. Truly. Under general circumstance Chaeyeon would try her best to stay respectful to just anybody, even those who mocked her. 'Sunblasted-wings' was already a common term in Chaeyeon's ears. Like the name, that trait was evident on her wings (if not hidden), but more over to every hair on her being. It refered to the fact that she carried a defect since birth, her spotless white wings which was inferior to the normal golden-brown Falconfolk wings in general. She was used to be verbally bullied for having a spotless wings among the other Falconfolk, but boy, "What a ing racist..." She cursed, and Chaeyon didn't regret that one bit.

"At least this racist didn't just barge into somebody's room and destroyed her things without even apologizing!"

"You--" the falcon-girl yanked the mage by her colar, her hood fell down, revealing her pointed ears and pink locks, "--I've almost died!"

Irked and remained unapologetic, the pink hair quick-casted an electro shock to her assailant's hands. "This bird! ...She's a brute too!" Sakura coughed twice and rubbed her neck once she was freed from the tight hold, "Well guess what bird? I'm so smart I won't let a student killed by a mere trap door." Sakura flicked her fingers and the door to her room opened, "I've installed a safety measure to teleport you out of the room before Lizzie could even froze you."

And by Lizzie, Sakura meant the frostbite wyvern. She called it like some pet she owned, Chaeyeon thought innitially (in one of their frequent meetings afterward, Chaeyeon finally believed that Sakura had tamed a baby wyvern. Well. Its age didn't matter. It's still a wyvern!).

"Stop pretending to be hurt by some bolts, get out, you know where the door is," The half-elf pink hair nonchalantly said. Though, hypotethically she was right. A person who could beat Loki's maze wouldn't die from her second degree jolt. Yet, it did not erase the fact Chaeyeon felt the pain and was still croughing on the floor, recovering from the electro-shock. 'Hurt' was an understaetment, her body trembled for the next 30 minutes after the pain subsided. "Come on! Chop chop! You can exit Loki's maze on your own, you can exit my harmless room too!"

"What an insufferable woman!" the falcon-girl activated her berserker trait for the first time in a decade.

And basically, the two of them brawled until the aademy's security unit brought the two of them down.

Long story short, that was how Chaeyeon spent her entire three months of convincing Sakura to attend the academy's lessons. They would fight. Verbally, physically, magically. It was hard for Chaeyeon to admit the mage-apprentice genius trait at first, but fighting Sakura did give merit for her. She was