Sight-Infused

Even sleep couldn’t help me this time. For some reason, despite waking up early for today’s entrance ceremony, I didn’t feel tired. I ended up tossing myself back and forth to no avail. I couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard I tried.

Since today was the first day, the teachers gave no homework. I should probably spend the first week socializing or doing something better than tossing around in bed, while the schedule was still empty. Next week I probably won’t have time to do anything else other than studying. I changed into my casual clothes which consisted of a shirt under a jacket with long pants. The school’s rule regarding clothing differs between inside and outside the school buildings.

You need to wear a uniform when entering the school building or the administration building’s east side. Inside your own dormitory room you were free to wear whatever, while if you walked around the dorm building itself, the cafeteria, or the garden then you needed to wear something that fits the social standards. The school didn’t list exactly what kind of clothing you could wear, but they probably assumed most of the students understood the norm anyway.

I checked the clock, which showed the time,

Five ten in the afternoon.

Too early to grab dinner. Since I didn’t wear my school uniform, I would be banned from entering the school buildings either. My only options would either be the cafeteria or the outside world. I stepped out of the dormitory, looking up at the yellow afternoon sky. Birds flew high in the calm skies, singing their song as they went about. Not many students hung around the dormitory itself, most sat outside on the park bench, talking to their friends. One of them could be seen working on her laptops, a large witch hat covering her head. White earphone cables extended from her laptop to her ears. While I didn’t want to judge, I couldn’t help but wonder what was the point of working outside when she used earphones like that. Could you really take in the vibe when both your eyes and ears focused on the laptop like that?

“So, you are curious about her as well?”

I looked at the origin of the voice and found Antonio walking away from the school building, heading my way. He wore a lab coat above his school uniform, despite no laboratory related activities taking place that day. He turned around and stood beside me.

“Wearing headphones and working on a laptop while sitting outside the park bench alone. Why would she not just spend her time in her own room?”

“Do you need to emphasize the word alone?”

“Would it not make sense if she worked with someone?”

“Well, maybe she’s waiting for someone? Or maybe her roommates are disturbing her? She’s pretty busy, after all.”

“The room argument seems plausible until you consider the fact that she is a noble.”

Damn, another noble?

“How do you know she’s a noble? And how are you certain that she’s living alone?”

“You are not from here, so I understand your lack of understanding.”

He leaned on the dorm’s wall, beside the main door, and flipped open his trusty notebook.

“Eliysya Zumbadel. His dad, Martin Zumbadel, is the second son of the Zumbadel family. The first son now leads the city of Cutarvir, while his brother led this school. Safety and privacy is a priority for nobles, so it was natural for me to consider the fact that she lived alone.”

He closed his notebook, leaving me entirely unsure on what information it stored and which of the things he just said came out from his general knowledge.

“... Why are we even talking about this?”

“As a researcher, I found myself spending more time searching the answers to my questions, not asking why I am asking said questions in the first place.”

He said as he glanced at Eliysya. Eliysya seemed oblivious to our conversation and continued her work undisturbed. There was a rather far distance between us and her, after all. She sat on the side closer to the school building, right next to the stairs, while we stood beside the dorm’s door.

“Isn’t knowing why you’re asking a question is a good thing? I mean, people tend to write the purpose in the first chapter, things like that.”

“Do not misunderstand me. Knowing why you are asking a question in the first place is a good thing. What would you do after you find the answer? How would you apply that answer to your life? How would it improve your life? What I meant is I myself do not spend a lot of time thinking about that. What is important for me is getting an answer. If I have a reason to ask that question, then good, I then have myself a solution. If not? I simply move on.”

He answered casually, as if he had been waiting for this very question. It made me wonder why I am bothering with him in the first place.

“Ultimately, there is only one question you must ask. Who are you doing this for? If you are doing research for the world, for the sake of humanity, then you must conform to the rules of society. You must follow the norm in stating your reasoning for investigating the matter, so that other researchers would have an easier time understanding your research, and applying it to the general population. But if it is for yourself? You have no obligation to explain your findings to the others, nor do others have an obligation to understand you.”

He continued, his words started to make me dizzy. I looked down at the ground and let out a sigh, giving up on understanding him. How words just felt so heavy, something a kid his age shouldn’t be saying.

“Research isn’t my thing.”

I said, looking for an easy way out.

“Then what is your thing?”

The way he worded his question felt off after his long paragraphs.

“You literally talked about it earlier today. I’m a nobody without any unique skills.”

“Is that so? Then why are you still here?”

“Because I have one month?”

“Why are you still here? Why are you wasting your time rotting away in this place, with no friends and no goal? Aliya is not here with you, she is spending time with her new friends.”

How did he even know I have no friends in the first place? He pulled himself from the wall, looking at the school buildings that stood higher than the dormitories.

“If you simply accept the fate that had been bestowed upon you, why would you stay here? If you have no interest in changing your future, why are you still here? You have nothing to gain from this school, only time to lose. Time that you will never get back. Think about it. The time limit is one month, but that does not mean you need to wait for one month before you can stop. You can stop today, and unless you have something you want to gain from this place, I suggest you stop, before you regret spending one month here with nothing to look back upon.”

He said as he turned around, waved and walked away into building C of the boys’ dormitories. I watched as he entered the building, disappearing behind its walls. I turned my attention back to the beautiful, clear afternoon sky. Birds chirped happily as they soared through the sky, without a care in the world.

I wish I could be free like them.

Fly wherever they want, do whatever they want. No responsibilities to bear, no one to expect anything from them.

“Even the birds have expectations…”

“Huh?”

I looked to my left, where Mina watched the birds fly past.

“Mina?”

The second she heard my words, she looked back at me, her eyes suddenly went blank.

“Is… everything alright?”

“... Eeep!”

She yelped and took a step back.

“I’m… I’m sorry for barging in!”

She bowed her head, her body shaking. I thought of replying with ‘no, it’s fine’ or ‘it’s alright’, but thought it would be better if I kept her in the conversation.

“What made you think that?”

“H… huh?”

“What made you think the birds had no expectation set on them?”

“Umm… it’s… it’s just, I heard… stories of the mothers… pushing their child off the nest. They, they expect them to fly.”

She said, despite clearly struggling to push the words out.

“Is that so?”

“... Yeah.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you not with Aliya?”

“Aliya said… she said she had something… something to do outside… I couldn’t contact her.”

She still stuttered. I wonder which side of me scared her, or was she just scared of boys in general?

“Have you tried calling her?”

“... No.”

I brought out my phone and dialed her through the messaging app. Across from us, Eliysya took out her phone and brought it up to her.

Wait, does she?

I didn’t even know why I thought she would have Aliya’s phone, but she soon answered and started talking, while my call hadn’t connected. She closed her laptop, turned off the call, and walked away, all while I still waited for Aliya to pick my call up.

“Huh, weird…”

She didn’t normally ignore my calls, not that I call her often anyway. We did message each other a lot, albeit the frequency of those messages significantly decreased in the last few days.

“She didn’t…?”

“No, she didn’t pick up. Wanna look for her?”

Mina fell silent. She still wore her school uniform, so she could enter the school grounds. I hadn’t put mine in the laundry, either, so I could just go and get changed. Eventually, she nodded.

“Wait here.”

I ran back upstairs and got changed, before heading back down. Now with my uniform, I had free access to the entire school.

“Where… where should we look first?”

“Let’s check our class.”

I walked ahead of her, leading the way. She walked behind me, careful to not be in my sights. When I looked to the left, she would move slightly to the right. When I looked to the right, she would move to the left. I wonder why she did that. Just what happened in her past that made her this fearful? We entered building A, which still saw some traffic from other students. I looked around the open classes, looking to see if Aliya was in any of them. Not finding anything, I proceeded to the second floor. Some classes were populated by clubs, others had a group study inside them, while some were empty.

I arrived in front of A23, only to find the class completely empty.

“She’s not here.”

I said, Mina peeking behind me.

“Where… where should we look next?”

“Let’s see if she’ll pick up now.”

I tried calling her again. This time, someone picked up, but the voice I heard wasn’t her. Instead, it was the voice of a boy.

“Aliya, someone’s calling you.”

He yelled before handing over the phone to Aliya.

“Ranold? What’s up?”

“Mina said she was looking for you.”

I was about to hand over the phone to Mina but she shook her head and took a step back.

“Ah, sorry! I’m a bit busy with something.”

She whispered something to the other people with her, before returning to the phone.

“You want to come here? We’re in the music room, Building D floor four.”

“Alright.”

I stepped away from the door, heading back to the stairs.

“You’re coming?”

Mina didn’t answer. Instead, she simply nodded lightly and followed behind me.

We entered Building D, the building that stood on the other hand of building A, literally the farthest school building. It had been cleaned up after today’s ceremony. Several students stayed around, helping with stuff alongside the teachers. Despite walking in front of her, I could somehow see Mina shrinking everytime she passed another student or teacher.

“Good afternoon, Ma’am.”

“Good afternoon.”

And it didn’t only happen to the boys, either. She also shrunk when she met a female, both teachers or fellow students. All she could muster up was a nod and occasionally a very silent greeting. Eventually, we got in front of the music room. Unlike the brown or gray classroom door, depending on the building, the music room had a bright blue door that separated it from the hallway. For a second I wondered about the meaning behind that color. I was about to knock on it, the question about the color pushed to the back of my mind, when Mina’s hand reach out to hold me.

I was surprised and looked at her, she immediately freaked out and let go, taking two steps back while at it.

“Umm… sorry, but I think we shouldn’t bother them…”

“Why? Aliya asked us to come here.”

“Hello.”

The door suddenly opened, Aliya standing on the other side. She probably saw me through the small glass and came to open the door for us.

“Come on in.”

I followed her inside, Mina following closely behind. Inside the room two girls sat surrounding a table, with some books in front of them. The only boy, who I assumed to be the one who picked up the call, sat behind the drums.

“You’re in a band?”

I asked as she closed the doors.

“Kinda?”

She looked at the three other people in the room.

“Technically not yet.”

The girl closer to the window took a sip out of her water. She had long black hair, tied to the side with a pink flower headpiece.

“Not until next Saturday.”

The girl beside her continued. She had pink colored hair tied in a bun.

“Our vocalist and pianist graduated, so we were left without a vocalist.”

The boy behind the drums commented. He followed up with the ba-dum-tss sound, despite nothing he said could be considered a joke. He was the only one in the room to wear a hat. He didn’t seem to have any hair peeking from under his hat, though.

“Anyway, I’m Zriat Kortion, the drummer.”

“Layumi Sara, the lead guitarist.”

Hearing her friends’ introductions, the pink haired girl sitting beside Layumi, who was previously looking at music sheets on the table near the window, lifted her head.

“Hello, I’m Plona Inasiris, and I’m the bassist.”

“This is my friends, Ranold Laydi and Mina Poverlista.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Hi…”

Mina’s voice was so low that even I, who stood beside her, could barely hear her.

“We would be borrowing your friend for a while. I hope you don’t mind.”

Zriat said. Plona then stood up and picked up her bass.

“Since you’re here, should we give them a little show?”

“Nice idea.”

“Fine.”

All the other three get into position. Aliya nodded and picked up her guitar. I knew she could play the guitar, but I always hear her play the acoustic version. I never saw her pick up the electric guitar, yet she reached for the guitar with great confidence.

“Here we go.”