Sévir Is A Pariah!

Short Pitiful Reunion

The giant doors of the academy have opened. She has returned. She has returned with the Undefeated Octet (--however, excluding Minerva as she stayed in the academy), she peeks through the gaps of the crowd, seemingly trying to find someone.

Damon notices her peeking through but stays silent about it. Instead, he starts walking followed by the rest, the crowd makes way for them.

"Thanks for that, Damon." She whispers to him with gratitude on her voice.

He makes a disgusted face, looking away. "I didn't do it for you, we just had to move at one point. And don't thank me, it's disgusti-"

Noelle interrupts him by clearing her throat. "Anyway, let's head to the chamber. Assemble the whole Undefeated Octet there after their last classes end."

...

After all their classes end, the eight members of the Undefeated Octet assemble in their chamber.

"Good afternoon everyone, thank you for letting me use your time for this meeting." Noelle grabs a piece of paper from her bag. "This piece of paper is a letter that was sent to Meredith, it says here that a certain someone has returned."

The Fifth Undefeated raises his hand. "So who is this 'certain someone'? You would have beat around the bush if I didn't ask."

She chuckles as she unfolds the paper. "Alright, alright. So this certain someone is Sévir van Doren."

Most of them give a confused look to each other. The Seventh Undefeated raises his hand. "The Pariah Prince..? Isn't he dead?"

"I thought he was dead too, but as the letter and the students state, he's alive."

The Eight Undefeated raises his hand. "What if it's a fake?"

"Who would actually try faking as Sévir van Doren? I see no benefits pretending to be the Pariah Prince. Anyway, it should be fine that he's here," she puts down the letter in the table, "however, we will keep an eye on him, surely he has some ulterior motives by joining this academy, and as a former prince whose entire family was killed in the coup.. I think you get my point. Consider this as a mission."

The Fifth Undefeated raises his hand. "Please grant me permission to lead this mission."

"Why?"

"I am confident in my skills regarding this type of mission, you have sent me to do these missions when we suspected new and old academy students alike multiple times."

"I won't. Minerva has been with Sévir longer than us, it would be a bit strange that the Octets are approaching him after they returned, he has no reason to suspect Minerva much since she's been with him for a while now. So, we'll let her lead the mission." She and Minerva glance at each other.

"Well, that's all for today, you're all dismissed. Meredith please stay for a minute."

Everyone but Meredith stays, the room is filled with silence until Noelle clears her throat, pointing at the letter.

"Meredith, why was the letter sent to you and not me?" As she asked Meredith, her eyes narrowed with suspicion, her hands clasped.

"Well you aren't the only one here who has an informant when we're away, my informant just so happened to be the quicker one." She makes a straight face as she stands her ground with no sign of backing off.

"..Okay. Well, do you have anything to do with Sévir?"

She turns silent for a few seconds, seemingly picking her words carefully. "..Back then."

Noelle looses up. "Alright then. You can go now." She backs off from suspecting Meredith and leans back on her chair.

Meredith nods, leaving the room without anything else to say.

As she leaves the room, she leans on the door and a big sigh escapes from her mouth. The Princess is suspecting me now, this is NOT how I wanted things to be. She grabs a mysterious necklace and ring from her pocket, staring at them for a moment, lost in her thoughts.

The mysterious necklace is a golden necklace with a green gem in the center, most likely emerald, whereas the mysterious ring is a golden ring with a red gem, most likely an Arcane Ruby as the center stone, surrounded by small black diamonds.

She gets back from her thoughts and returns them to her pocket, quickly walking away.

Sévir, Zephyr, Minerva and Sanguinex find themselves in the room from yesterday (see Chapter 7), Sévir is deep in thought after receiving the news of the Undefeated Octet returning.

Minerva leans forward to look at Sévir in the eye. "So, what will you do now? Wait, how did you find out Meredith is part of the Octet without any clues?"

"When you told me she's a student in this academy, I just had a feeling she's an important student, the Galena surname is quite the big news after all.

Regarding what I'll do now though, I really don't know. Maybe I'll try avoiding her."

She raises an eyebrow when she hears "Maybe I'll try avoiding her.". "Why would you try avoiding her though?"

"I'm always avoided by the other students, not that it's a big problem for me, but I get piercing glares from them all the time. I'm quite the celebrity in a bad way you know? It will raise all sorts of questions if she tries approaching me."

"Wouldn't that be the same case for me then? I approach you when you have time."

His speechless mouth leaves itself open as it tries to find words to counter what she said. "Well.. You have a point, I guess you can say having all sorts of questions about you and me is more than enough. I don't need more."

"I see.. Alright then." She stands up and walks towards the door, but as she reaches for the door knob, she looks back at the three. "You guys tell me when you need help, alright?" She opens and closes the door as she leaves.

He clicks his tongue as his anger, not annoyance rises very, very quickly. "Help..? Is she looking down on me!?" His sudden burst surprises Sanguinex and Zephyr, they quickly turn to him.

Sanguinex hurriedly puts her hand in his shoulder. "Hey, calm down! She obviously didn't mean it that way!"

He stands up and immediately leaves the room, slamming the door shut as he leaves.

Zephyr lets out a disappointing sigh as she covers her face with her hands. "I completely forgot brother blows up when someone offers him their help..."

"Well, nobody's offered him help in quite a while so it would only be natural we'd forget about it.. Though I thought he was over it already."

"Well, what do we do now?"

"I'd say we leave your brother alone for a while, surely he'll calm down in a few minutes."

Sévir finds himself outside the academy building, sitting in a bench, looking at the orange sky as he tries to calm down. I completely lost it again.. I've been trying my best not to explode when someone offers their help to me, but it still doesn't work! He pinches the bridge of his nose.

As he calms down, the voice of a girl can be heard calling out his name, it quickly catches his attention, he glances around until he spots the girl calling out to him, walking closer and closer to him as the seconds pass by.

Huh? Her voice.. It sounds so different but so nostalgic.. Her aura.. It feels so different but so nostalgic.. Is that..? As she gets closer, it becomes more and more apparent to him, it's...

Meredith... He hurriedly stands up when she stops right in front of him.

"..I- It really is you... I knew you were alive!" Her excitement can be heard through her voice, she closes the distance, wrapping her arms around him tightly. This was the moment she's been waiting for.. The moment to meet him and hug him tightly.

Ehehe.. This is all real.. He's alive! I knew he didn't die, it was just impossible to believe! Tears start rolling down her cheeks the longer she hugs him. I've been waiting for this for 7 years.. The Gods have finally granted my wish! As more and more tears roll down her cheek, she starts to sob silently.. Oh, if she can only stay this way with him forever.

Her tight hug.. It bring back memories.. His arms move by itself, about to wrap itself around her, it wants to wrap itself around her.. But he stops his arms in time. No. I have to keep her away. Instead of hugging her back, he nudges her away.

They look at each other, it's painfully evident that Meredith is confused. "S- Sévir?"

He turns around and digs his hands in his pockets. "I suggest you don't approach me anymore, the students will ask all sorts of questions.. Sorry Meredith." Without anything else to say, he walks away.

Meredith is stunned by what just happened, moreover by what he just said. W- What's happening..!? Why is he walking away!? Is he not happy to see me!? All sorts of thoughts quickly enter her mind. As he shrinks more and more from her sight, her chest starts to feel heavier and heavier.

From a distance in a window, Minerva sees what's happening as she was just randomly passing by, she may not know what they're saying but she understands what's happening. Oh, I really wouldn't want a life with a fiancé shutting me off, distancing himself from me like that. She looks at Meredith with pity, but it quickly goes away as she goes on to continue her own business.

In the end, all she can do is let out a heavy sigh and return to the dorms, dejected as if the world has just turned its whole back on her. For her, that is the case. For her, her biggest wish for these whole 7 years since the coup d'etat have come crashing down in such a way she didn't expect.

As she enters her room and changes out of her uniform, she drops to bed with all her energy seemingly gone, and with having room all for herself, she has the whole night to do whatever she wants to do. She can sing, she can dance, she can stay depressed all night without anybody disturbing her.

The next 2 days, the Undefeated Octet are called and assembled in their chamber once again.

"So, how was your day everyone?" Noelle glances at all of them with an expectant look, however, they do not answer her question.

"Alright, fine. Well I called all of you here to ask if you've gained any information about Sévir van Doren these past 2 days. Has he been acting out of the ordinary?"

"He's been acting completely normal as far as I've observed." said the Fifth Undefeated.

"Same here, Sévir's been acting like Sévir, nothing odd." said Minerva.

"In that case, I assume it's the same for the rest?"

They all nod.

"Alright then. For others matters, let's see... Oh yes, the tournament!"

This went on for a while..