Crimsonic Maiden

Chapter 1

“Mira! Mira!”

I turned around to see whoever was calling my name. And there she was. It was just my one and only noisy friend. I could only shake my head as soon as I see her never fading grin that almost reached her ears. She approached me and sat across the desk in front of me.

And the librarian approached our desk and faced her.

“Please refrain shouting and noisy here miss. This is a library, not the arena.” the librarian warned her.

“Understood,” She nodded and smiled. The librarian nodded at her and briefly looked at us before turning away.

I grinned as I look at my friend.

“That’s what you get, knowing this is a library yet you were shouting like you swallowed a whole speaker.” I said.

“Sorry, I was just excited…” She giggled.

I turned a page on the book I was reading and brought my eyes to her again. “So, what’s going on this time?”

“Oh my God! You–” Her voice suddenly raised again.

I immediately covered her mouth and gestured not to be so noisy around the library. She just nodded and I removed my hands from covering her mouth.

I sighed. I guess she’s excited for whatever may this reason again.

She cleared her throat. “It was… it’s…”

It was obvious that she was excited over something or someone, probably another man that she found striking and gave butterflies in her stomach.

“Take a breath and relax. I won’t be able to understand what you are saying at this rate.” I closed the book I was reading and put it down in the desk.

“It was Deven!” she exclaimed. Realizing that her voice went up again, she curved and covered her mouth. The people in the library brought their gazes to our direction and we could only bow our heads to them hoping they would let it pass again this time. Thankfully, they just went back to their own businesses.

“So, what about this guy again?” I asked.

“The thing is, I crossed paths with him in the lobby.” She grinned.

“And?”

“And… and I said hi to him.” She leaned closer to me.

I leaned back to my chair and sighed. “Let me take a guess… he just went past you and didn’t bother to reply.”

She chuckled. “No… no! you are mistaken lady, actually when I said hi to him, he stopped and turned to me and smiled… and he said hi to me as well.”

“Oh? I suppose that’s good enough.” I picked up the book and started to read again.

“Oh, come on, can’t you just be happy for me?” she protested.

“I say to you, that man is actually a jerk… he’s just hiding it.” I replied, my eyes still glued to what the book.

“You always talk bad against him to me. You always say negative things to him, even if you don’t actually know him at all.” She snorted.

“Even so, looking at his face it is obvious that he is a total jerk. You’ll know that all he does are silly things.” I darted my eyes to her.

“You’re always been a hater.” She sighed.

I just rolled my eyes to her and continued reading the book.

“What are you reading again this time?” She stood up and peeked on the book I was reading.

“History…” I replied.

“Boring…” She sighed and returned to her seat.

“Do you remember that we will be having a quiz later, and our instructor left us with something to research about? Or did you know, or actually listened?” I asked her.

“Oh, we’ll be having a quiz?” she replied, with her eyes looking at the ceiling. Probably trying to remember if there was actually one or none.

“Whatever Torry, you’re always like that…” I replied.

She giggled. “Sorry about that…”

“You may take your leave now… you are distracting me.” I said.

“Ouch! So, I am just a mere distraction for you?” She puffed her cheeks.

“Yes, you are.” I replied. And just went on reading.

I noticed that she didn’t left and she wasn’t making any sound. I put the book down and gazed at her. Well, it was like a trap. She made a huge grin at me. I could only sigh and closed the book again.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“The thing is… let’s head together to the arena. And watch Deven’s match there.” she said, while still smiling at me.

“Uh… how about, you go there alone?” I asked.

“Oh, come on… you’ll let me go there alone?” Her brows crossed.

“And what am I going to do there? You can handle all the cheering alone. You already know that I don’t fancy those things.” I said.

“Just come with me… I know you like watching battles.” She hugged my arm and pleaded.

I sighed. “Sheesh Torry, if only I don’t care to you…”

“Yey! I love you too best buddy…” She giggled.

I packed my things up and carried my back pack. We headed out of the library and went to the arena together. After arriving in the arena, we immediately looked for a vacant seat and sat there. I was just quietly watching every match, while this girl beside me was very loud. It felt like she stored a lot of speakers inside her body and turned all of it on at this moment. She was cheering like she’s watching some kind of action movie really.

And so, there were five stupid people who dared to think about challenging him. If their minds were just right, I bet they won’t try to challenge this guy into a duel. They were plainly wasting their strength and efforts. Ever since I started coming to this school, I always hear news that someone challenges him into a duel.

Seriously what’s with this guy? Is he a magnet of this things? He’s always the one I watched fighting in this arena. Was he always this troublemaker? But at least, the good thing was the number he fought in this arena has started to drop.

Well, I could enjoy the match but my blood just begins to boil as soon as I see that guy. I feel like throwing my katana to him so he’ll just drop dead right now. His face was just as annoying as it had always been.

“Are you okay, Mira?” Torry gently poked me in my shoulder.

“What?” I was a bit surprised when he poked me.

“It seemed like you were burning in fury there.”

I didn’t realize that I was already being obvious.

“Maybe I am just so mad to that guy that I can’t contain it.” I replied.

She sighed. “So, would you tell me why?”

“I already told you that his attitude is really bad.” I replied.

“That sounds confusing to me, when you don’t really know him.” she said.

“You know Torry, I spoke with that guy once and he was as annoying as hell.” I crossed my arms.

He brought a finger to his lips and tried to remember something. “Oh, was that the time I saw the two of you talking? That your face was as red as an apple? And you said that you were angry to him?”

I just nodded to her.

“But it’s odd that I don’t think it was because of anger or something like that. You were rather like a woman that had a crush on him and heard something from him that’s why you went all red on your face.” She grinned.

“So, are we repeating this thing again Torry? I hate that man.” I resolutely replied.

“Don’t be shy Mira, you can just confess it to me. It’s not like I’ll be mad or something. I mean it won’t be so surprising as you see, almost all girls here were enchanted with his charm and charisma.” Torry rubbed my back gently.

“Please Torry, don’t try to recruit me there. And besides I don’t really see what you are all seeing to him why all of you are head over heels to him.” I snorted.

“In denial mode…” She chuckled.

“Whatever Torry.” I replied.

“I heard that he’s the new president of the Student Federal.” Torry said.

“How did it happen when an election never took place?” I raised an eyebrow. And if that election happened, I’m sure not to vote him.

“I heard it was through a duel…” Torry said.

“Look at him on how much of a troublemaker he is…” I said, and leaned on my seat.

“Well you are mistaken… it appears that he wasn’t the one who started it but the former president challenged him.” she replied.

“If he did reject you Mira, just forget it and don’t plant it in your chest. Move on, as what they say…” She grinned.

My eyes went wide upon hearing what she said.

“What did you say?” I asked grabbing her arms.

“Mira, you know he’s popular and there are probably plenty of girls that confessed to him and got rejected. So, don’t be so mad, there were a lot of you. You don’t need to take it alone.” She said.

“Just shut up Torry, there might be people who hears you and begin to entertain that funny idea.” I protested.

She just erupted into laughter.

“Please let us quit talking about that stupid guy and focus on the match.” I said.

She just brought her gaze to me, smiling as he shook her head. My friend was really that crazy. I focused on watching the match. Well, I cannot deny that this guy’s so good in fighting. His moves and quick decision making in battle was excellent as always. The way he held his sword and swung it like he was dancing. He mastered his art of fighting with sword that it seemed like the sword had connected on his body.

All five of them charged straight to him at the same time. And in a blink of an eye, they fell down to the ground all at the same time as well. That’s how strong he was, you cannot beat him by just throwing numbers at him.

Well, his enemies weren’t dead but just unconscious. It was just a mock battle, so killing was strictly a taboo. You can defeat your enemy by either rendering them out conscious or destroy the pendant that was attached on their uniform. Or force them to surrender in battle.

“Why is he so damn good!” I couldn’t contain it but praise the guy. Well, my ever noisy and annoying friend caught on that and brought her gaze to me with the widest smile she can give.

“I told you right?”

I could only shake my head to her and brought my gaze back to the arena where the guy stood. Those skills and moves, I wonder where he learned that.