Xigelika

The midday sun shone through the trees onto the ground. It was summer, so the weather was fairly hot.

The three of them were walking down the path to the cafeteria. Wuling and Calcharo walked in front, with Lingyang bringing up the rear. He still hadn't entirely recovered from the ordeal of being pranked by the two that morning, and he eyed them warily from time to time.

As if sensing Lingyang's gaze, Wuling turned around and gave him a wickedly charming smile. The sight of that smile, almost identical to the one from that morning, made Lingyang shudder. He turned his head slightly away, not daring to meet Wuling's eyes, and the tips of his ears flushed red.

Just then, however, Calcharo suddenly spoke up.

"Rover, Snow Leopard, don't you two think something's a little off around here?"

"What is it?"

The two turned to look around at the same time, but no matter how they looked, they couldn't see anything wrong. It was just a perfectly normal stretch of woodland. Wait, woodland?

They finally realized what was wrong. Weren't they on their way to the cafeteria? Why were there trees everywhere? There wasn't a soul around, either, so they couldn't even ask for directions.

"Did we take a wrong turn?"

Lingyang sounded a little uncertain.

"Be more confident. Drop the 'did we.' We definitely took a wrong turn. Who in their right mind builds a cafeteria in a forest?"

Calcharo looked around and spoke helplessly.

"But didn't we follow the signs? How could we still have gone wrong?"

Calcharo and Lingyang shook their heads, indicating that they didn't know either.

"The main problem is that there's no one around to ask. How about we go back the way we came first?"

"Wait, look over there. Isn't that a person?"

Calcharo interrupted Wuling and pointed to a narrow path ahead. The other two looked where he was pointing and sure enough, saw someone walking toward them.

When the person drew closer, the three of them could see that she was a girl with orange hair.

The girl wore a uniform that faded from white to purple, paired with black shorts. The fabric was light and flowing, with delicate embroidery on the collar and cuffs. Its cut was graceful and neat, with a touch of pastoral softness. On the outside of her thigh was a mysterious, pale-purple rune mark, its intricate, uncanny lines standing out against her fair skin.

Her hair had been carefully woven into several fine, delicate braids that hung down her back and swayed slightly as she walked.

Wuling hurried forward to ask for directions. The girl had apparently noticed the three of them as well and was walking toward them.

"Hello. You look like you're freshmen this year. Is there something you need help with?"

The girl stopped about three or four steps away from Wuling and asked. Her voice was sweet and soft, gentle without being affected, clear and pleasant to listen to.

"Hello, senior. We are freshmen this year. We were going to the cafeteria for lunch, but we didn't know the way, so we followed the signs. Somehow, we ended up here."

After hearing Wuling's answer, the girl nodded thoughtfully.

"All right, I understand. There must be something wrong with the signs. Something similar has happened before. I'll report it to the academy's logistics department later. How about I take you there? I was going to the cafeteria anyway, so it's on my way."

"Really? Thank you so much, senior."

Wuling thanked the girl and beckoned to the other two behind him to follow.

"It's all right. We're schoolmates, so we should help each other. Oh, my name is Xigelika. You can just call me by my name. There's no need to call me senior."

"All right, Xigelika. Oh, my name's Wuling. He's Calcharo, and he's Lingyang. We're all roommates."

The three of them smiled and introduced themselves to Xigelika, who smiled back.

"You seemed so close just now. You must have known each other before, right?"

Xigelika's eyes curved into a smile, her clear, bright gaze full of gentle amusement. Her voice was as pleasant and natural as an autumn breeze brushing through the leaves.

She spoke softly and slowly, with a distinctive, sweet gentleness that carried no trace of distance between strangers.

Calcharo immediately chimed in, boasting shamelessly, "More than just knowing each other, the three of us are great buddies. We're not brothers by blood, but we're closer than father and sons. Senior, you have no idea. You won't find another group in the whole academy as in sync as we are."

As he spoke, he deliberately raised a hand to pat Wuling on the shoulder and arched an eyebrow at him.

Lingyang followed behind them and couldn't help quietly exposing him, his voice full of exasperation. "What teamwork? We spend every day setting each other up. Those two just teamed up to prank me this morning."

Xigelika couldn't help laughing softly at that, her little laughs gentle and light.

"That's wonderful. You got to room with good friends right at the start of school, so you don't have to worry about not getting along with your roommates."

She walked slowly down the path, her long orange braids swaying gently with her steps. Her white-to-purple uniform had a soft sheen in the gentle autumn light, lending her figure a few more touches of beauty.

As they walked, Wuling casually chatted with Xigelika. "By the way, Xigelika, are you one of the Royi? Your clothes look a lot like theirs, and that mark on your thigh—don't the Royi paint a similar mark during their coming-of-age ceremony?"

Having her racial features recognized at a glance, Xigelika paused slightly, a hint of surprise flashing through her clear eyes. Then she nodded gently, her tone turning a little serious.

"I didn't expect you to know so much about the Royi, Wuling. That's right, I am one of them."

"The rune on my leg is a mark of my people, but it isn't an ordinary coming-of-age pattern."

Xigelika lowered her voice a little, giving it a faint air of mystery.

"There are different kinds of Royi marks. I received mine when I was sixteen. Besides receiving a mark upon reaching the designated age, Royi who meet certain standards before turning eighteen can also receive one. That mark is different from an ordinary one—more complicated and more mysterious, rather like mine. It shows that the bearer is a genius of the Royi."

Calcharo's interest was piqued. He immediately took two steps closer and studied her curiously.

"I had no idea, Xigelika. You're a child prodigy! You got your mark at sixteen, a whole two years early. If I remember right, any Royi who receives a mark early seems to qualify as a candidate for the Secret Sun Six Seats, right? Looks like the Secret Sun Six Seats have a successor."

At those words, the breeze in the woods seemed to pause for a moment.

Xigelika, who had been smiling, gave the faintest flutter of her eyelashes. The gentle, pure smile at the corners of her lips didn't disappear, but it was as if the autumn breeze had quietly faded it, leaving it a little less genuinely bright and a little more strained in its softness.

She continued walking slowly forward, the ends of her orange braids swaying gently. Her movements, her steps and her expression looked no different from before: gentle and proper, polite and composed, without the slightest apparent sign that anything was wrong.

"I'm not that amazing."

Xigelika shook her head gently. Her soft voice was still pleasant, but she spoke a little more slowly than before, her final note dipping slightly as the earlier lightness faded.

"I only managed to meet the standard by luck. I wouldn't call myself a genius. A seat among the Secret Sun Six Seats is too great a burden. I... I'm only barely holding on to my position."

Neither Calcharo nor Lingyang noticed the change in Xigelika. They simply thought she was being modest.

But Wuling, who had been quietly observing her, caught that fleeting irregularity.

He watched Xigelika's slightly lowered lashes, the light quietly fading from her eyes, and the moment her gaze went blank even as she smiled. He clearly sensed that perhaps Xigelika wasn't being modest.

She truly, from the bottom of her heart, felt that she wasn't worthy of that honor or that seat.

Her seemingly calm response, her deliberately understated tone, the slight tension in her shoulders—all those tiny gestures revealed the unease and inferiority she hid deep in her heart.

She carefully maintained her composure, unwilling to let others glimpse her cowardice, unwilling or perhaps afraid to shatter her image as a "genius girl," and even less willing to have people she'd just met see through her feelings.

Wuling understood, but he didn't say a word about it.

He merely kept his expression calm and gentle, smoothly taking up the conversation and steering it away from the slightly heavy subject without drawing attention to it.

"The Secret Sun Six Seats are reserved for the most capable. The fact that you can hold on to your seat is proof enough of your strength."

"Besides, neither Star Torch Academy nor the Secret Sun Six Seats has ever valued empty titles. What they value is your own ability."

Xigelika paused at his words and raised her eyes to meet Wuling's brilliant golden ones. The boy's gaze was clear and calm, open and gentle, filled with sincerity and utterly devoid of pretense.

For an instant, the taut string in her heart quietly slackened a little.

She didn't know why, but for some reason, she felt as though the boy before her had understood her unease just now.

But he had gently and tactfully kept her secret without drawing attention to it.

"Thank you."

Xigelika's eyes curved gently as she smiled again, and this time there was finally a little genuine warmth in it.

Behind them, Calcharo and Lingyang hadn't noticed anything amiss and continued chatting back and forth.

The four walked slowly along the winding path. As they continued, the deep, quiet woods gradually opened up. The rustle of wind through leaves was no longer the only sound around them; faint chatter and laughter from students rang out in the distance, lively and clear, dispelling the loneliness of having wandered into the dense woods.

Passing through the last patch of shade, they came out onto a broad main campus road. Green trees lined both sides, and students streamed past without end. Boys and girls walked together in groups of two or three amid a lively hubbub, and in the distance was the destination they had been looking for.

"Here we are. The cafeteria is just ahead."

Xigelika didn't stop walking. She continued forward while patiently explaining things to the three of them.

"Star Torch Academy has complicated terrain and lots of branching paths through the woods. Even many upperclassmen take a wrong turn now and then."

"If you have time, you can look on the academy's official website. There's a detailed map of Star Torch Academy there that you can check whenever you need it. But try not to come into these back-mountain woods alone. There are too many forks, and a lot of the little paths aren't marked on the map, so it's easy to get turned around."

"All right, got it! We'll count on you whenever we get lost!"

Calcharo laughed heartily.

Xigelika nodded gently, not minding at all. Her soft voice was as gentle as ever.

"Sure. If this happens again, I can take you there."

As they spoke, they reached the entrance to the cafeteria.

The three looked up. Sunlight fell on the cafeteria's white exterior walls, making them look bright and grand. Since it was lunchtime, there were quite a lot of people.

After all that trouble, they had finally found the right place, and they all let out a great sigh of relief.