Bookbound Bunny

Lily and Arakil spent the rest of the day doing some minor trials with the chalk. The first thing they discovered was that anything drawn in chalk was only able to be used once—even if Lily put in a switch to turn the glyph off.

The chalk itself practically destroyed itself once activated, unlike its inky counterpart. It was a little unfortunate as Lily wanted to be able to make it last as long as possible, but the disposable nature of these glyphs went against her wishes.

It wasn't all bad news, though, as the chalk could also be used in different scenarios, such as drawing on the floor or a wall, where her ink glyphs were ultimately limited to paper and parchment.

Sure, thanks to Arakil, Lily had a seemingly infinite supply of paper, but she couldn't always find a surface suitable for her needs. The chalk, on the other hand, could seemingly be used roughly anywhere and could even work for hastily drawn glyphs.

If Lily was in a dire situation, she could scribble out a glyph and then use her Mana to "fill in the gaps" to activate it. Sure, a small part of her would die on the inside at creating such a subpar glyph, and the Mana wasted in order to fix it, but it could be done. Although the high standards that Arakil had instilled in her meant it would only be under truly foreboding circumstances.

The next morning, Lily left her room bright and early after cleaning up and was pleasantly surprised to see Beatrice was already at her desk. After exchanging morning greetings and pleasantries, she got down to business.

"I want to register for my three electives before it's too late," Lily said firmly.

"Three? Are you sure?" Beatrice asked with notable concern. "You will have to eat into your weekend time, which could be spent having fun or going to Kaeling or even just relaxing."

Lily gave a determined nod, "I'm absolutely positive. Firstly, I'm expecting a reduction in Spellcasting Fundamentals lessons. Secondly, I expect to give up my Bloodline Focus slot for an elective, as I'll focus on it privately. Finally, I've already had an alchemy apprenticeship, so unless I'm mistaken, I think the class will be almost a freebie for me."

Beatrice blinked a few times before ultimately sighing and giving up, "Very well, it sounds like you've really thought this through. I just hope there won't be any crocodile tears about this later..."

"Thank you. I'm most looking forward to Hearthcraft and Household Charms!" Lily said excitedly.

"Good, I'm glad you took my subtle hint…" she said with a wry smile. "It's gotten even more value in recent years with Aura's appointment."

"Maybe if enough students catch on to her baking skills, we can have her menu swap," Lily suggested.

"I wouldn't put too much hope in that. The daily menu is quite strictly set by the school, as there's supposed to be conformity with the same exact meals between all three cafeterias."

Lily frowned, "All the wasted food though… and I'd argue there's already a disparity in the menus. Aura's creations have already transcended whatever the original food was supposed to be."

Beatrice gave a hearty chuckle, "Transcended… that is certainly a way to describe it."

"I was being serious… wasting food isn't good," Lily pouted.

"My apologies, but you're under a little bit of a misunderstanding. The food is made to order, so if no one orders, then technically, there's no wastage."

"How? Assuming they did eat her food, surely she would need more time to serve that many kids…"

Beatrice didn't respond and instead raised her eye and gave Lily a strange look. It didn't take too long for Lily to realize her fumble, and she blushed in embarrassment.

"Magic… she uses magic," Lily whispered.

Beatrice smiled, "Don't worry, I'm only teasing you. I'm presuming you've only recently come into your magical abilities, so some blunders are to be expected."

"Thanks…"

"You're welcome. As for your suggestion, run it past Aura, and who knows? It's definitely better than having hungry or sick students."

Lily nodded, and after confirming her three electives one final time with Beatrice, she left to go to the cafeteria and grab some food. Even though it was still relatively early, the cafeteria was strangely deserted, and she instantly figured out the reason—Aura.

Guess it's something baked for breakfast. Maybe some bread rolls? While I'd love to have another sweet pastry, I don't think it would be good for me.

Lily walked over and greeted the vulture-cum-phoenix; the woman, who looked half asleep at her post, seemed surprised.

"Customers?" she asked, confused.

"Well, I'm not going to the main cafeteria yet, so you're my only option," Lily pointed out.

"Oh! It's the bunny," Aura said happily. "Nice to see you again."

"Good morning, Aura… can I buy some bread rolls or something similar that's light for breakfast?"

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"Ordering off the special menu again, I see," Aura said with a wink. "Sure, I'll whip something up for you in a jiffy."

Lily placed a few coins on the counter and then sat down, engaging in small talk with Arakil, who lay flat on the table while she waited.

In hardly any time, Aura came out with a small basket full of varying types of bread rolls.

"Fresh out of the oven!" she said proudly. "I hope you enjoy them."

"They smell divine," Lily answered honestly; her stomach had already made its presence known when she caught a whiff of the freshly baked goods.

"Anything for my number one customer!" Aura joked and took a seat opposite Lily. "Let's eat and talk," she said while gesturing at the basket.

Lily didn't need to be told twice and grabbed one of the first rolls that caught her eye.

"I still can't believe there's magical cooking," Lily mumbled before enjoying a delicious first bite out of its crispy surface.

"It's pretty useful unless your magic is tied to your emotions like mine is. Then all you get is… well… you've seen my cooking."

"Your baking is delicious, though," Lily pointed out before taking another bite.

"True, there's that at least. So, speaking of magical cooking, have you gone through selection and electives yet?" Aura asked.

"Mhm…" Lily mumbled with a mouthful of food before realizing her mistake and nodding yes.

Aura paid it no mind and continued on, "Hope you picked some fun ones. I picked Sorcerous Warfare because I thought it would be fun ordering people around—big mistake! It should honestly be renamed Cardio Warfare with how much they made us march around."

Lily giggled before coughing abruptly as she nearly choked on a bit of her meal.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, didn't mean to cause you any harm," Aura said frantically and quickly moved over to pat Lily on the back.

"I'm fine…" Lily coughed out.

"Well, that's a relief… moving on to more pleasant things. Have you made your decisions yet? I can offer a bit of advice if you need it."

"Actually, I handed in my three choices to Beatrice this morning already; I didn't want to lose my spots."

"Wow, three choices? Wait, no, don't tell me I want to guess!" Aura said before retaking her seat. "Hearthcraft, Beasts and Farming?"

"Well, you got the first one right, at least," Lily answered.

"Really? You didn't take Beast Handling? I thought every little girl under the sun wanted to meet a unicorn."

"And ruin the magic by having to clean its dung? No thanks…" Lily answered bluntly.

Aura gasped in feigned outrage, "Unicorns don't poop; their food turns into rainbows."

"Really?" Lily asked, tilting her head curiously.

"Of course. How could such a majestic beast ever do something as foul as pooping," Aura answered matter-of-factly.

[Unicorns do, in fact, poop,] Arakil chimed in.

I'm thrilled I didn't pick it. Lily thought as she continued eating.

"So what did you pick then? I really hope you didn't get lured in by Warfare."

"Alchemy and Enchanting," Lily answered between bites.

"Ew, nerd stuff…" Aura whined exaggeratedly.

"I already can do both, so it seemed like natural picks. Alchemy might even be a freebie," Lily explained.

"Ah. So you wanted to be able to slack off… smart! I guess even bookworms like yourself have some street smarts from time to time."

Before Lily finished chewing and swallowing her current bite to refute Aura's comment, there was an interruption.

"Hey? Where's the bird lady? I'm starving!" a girl's voice yelled out.

Lily flinched a little in surprise; however, Aura appeared to be the most shocked as her eyes went wide.

"Someone actually wants to eat food?" she said out loud and turned around.

"I mean, it is a cafeteria," Lily pointed out.

"Sorry, Lily, be back soon," Aura said with a wink.

The girl at the counter had long, black hair that was well past her waist and nearly reached her ankles, as far as Lily could see. She was either ordering a lot of food or having trouble deciding, as it seemed to be taking far longer than expected.

Eventually, she turned around, and Lily saw her holding a rather strange lizard between her arms, presumably her Familiar.

The lizard was large and heavy-looking, its greenish scales mottled like lichen-covered stone, and two curved horns jutted from its head. It blinked slowly in the girl's hands, entirely unmoving, with its thick tail draped over and around her arm like a rope.

The girl spotted Lily and began walking over to her. Now that she had a better look at the girl, she noticed her striking golden eyes and blackish scales, which were present on her limbs and partially on her neck.

"Hey, mind if I sit with you?" she asked while simultaneously taking the seat that was previously occupied by Aura.

Lily noticed that the freakishly long hair appeared to be partially concealing a thin reptilian tail—black glossy scales that looked like polished obsidian, tightly packed like diamond-shaped tiles.

I don't think she's a Dragia… Rose's tail was a lot chunkier, and the scales were different too.

"Hello?" The girl asked again.

"Oh, sorry, that was rude of me. I guess you can sit there, but Aura might have a problem when she gets back," Lily replied.

"I guess that explains why the chair is so tingly warm," she said gleefully.

Lily wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she hid her awkwardness behind eating another bread roll. The girl placed her lizard companion on the bench next to her, who lazily laid its head down on her lap.

"Where'd you get the bread rolls? I didn't see them on the menu. Did you bring them in from outside? I guess with the food they serve here, that makes sense… my name's Lotte, by the way, and this overgrown lizard pretending to be a housecat is Jade."

"I'm Lily," she replied after swallowing this time. Then she pointed her finger at Arakil, who was resting on the table. "And that's Arakil."

The book fluttered up in response; Arakil was clearly willing to put on a performance to prove his existence.

"Wait—you're a student?" Lotte asked with surprise. "And your Familiar is a book?"

"My Familiar is a ghost living inside a book. And yes, I am a student here."

"Ha! And I thought I was going to be the strangest new girl this year, but I guess I've got some competition," Lotte said jokingly.

"Oh? Why's that?" Lily asked.

"Well, from what others have told me, I've apparently got an extinct bloodline. It baffled my family and the researchers for years until they found some old texts," she answered. "However, if you're the very first magic bunny, then I guess even an extinct bloodline looks small by comparison."

"What bloodline is it?" Lily asked curiously.

"Basilisk," she answered.

"Sorry, never heard of it," Lily replied honestly.

"Well, it wouldn't be extinct if you did," Lotte teased.

[Basilisks actually have two legendary origins. One is that they have the power to kill with a mere gaze. The other is that they held such terrifying venom that even their mere presence caused the land to become poisoned. Both, however, were known as the king of all snakes.]

"Serpia?" Lily mumbled in response, accidentally thinking out loud.

"Hey, you guessed it on the first try!" Lotte exclaimed. "Most people think I'm some type of Dragia due to all the scales."

Lily flinched a little, gazing cautiously at Lotte. She really hoped that Arakil was either exaggerating the basilisk's origins or that it had changed since his time asleep.

Killing with a gaze or venom so intense it leaks to the world… I don't know which one is worse!

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that? I don't bite," Lotte said as she ran a thin, forked tongue over a set of protruding fangs.