A DRAGON'S JEWEL: the Ancient Mage and the dark arts

Chapter 18: A Blond Boy's Heart (part 1)

"I see that bodyguard's quite committed to his job" she heard him scoff.

Alythia looked at the blond boy, who wore an unusually pained expression today, trying to figure out why he seemed to be in such a bad mood so early in the morning.

Since she didn't respond Damien clicked his tongue "be sure to pay him at the end of the month"

Alythia's eyes stretched wide at his taunting remarks.

'Eh? This little child, what's with that arrogant look in his eyes? Should I discipline him a bit? I mean if I just leave things be won't he grow up to be some sour old man whom everyone hates? I can't have my guardian angel turn out like that!!'

And with that resolution deeply engraved in her heart Alythia smacked Damien over the head – with quite a bit of force might I add.

The boy recoiled in pain and gently rubbed his head as he held it in between both arms.

"WHAT did you do that for??" he whined after the stinging finally died down.

"Disrespect" the girl responded with cold eyes. "Children need to respect their elders Damien"

He looked at her with a confused expression "You know I'm probably older than you right? My birthday is in January so I'm already 17"

Alythia only glanced at him briefly; her expression remained unchanged. "Age is not measured by one's years but by one's wisdom.... so I'm light-years ahead of Damien" she said with a smirk.

"HAAA!?" Damien's shocked expression turned sour. "Where do you even get the confidence to say something like that??" he asked before flicking her forehead and turning his head to the side.

As Alythia covered her head, guarding it from further onslaught, she stared at the moody boy in front of her and then suddenly thought of something....

"Damien!!" She exclaimed while slamming both hands on her desk. "THATS IT isn't it!? You're lonely and want a girlfriend don't you?"

The boy jerked his head back to look at her. His eyes were stretched incredibly wide – almost to the point of being inhuman – and his entire face was dyed crimson.

The poor little creature looked utterly distressed.

When Alythia saw his reaction a devilish grin appeared on her face. 

"I knew it!! Look I'll help you find a nice girl okay? As long as it's not RayRay coz... um how should I put it... you're a nice guy and all but let's try not to bite off more than we can chew... besides she's much too bewitched by that snake to ever consider dumping him. Plus that power-abusing serpent might go on a rampage if anything like that were to happen – he's so overly-sensitive he might even have you hanged for treason.... So let's just stay clear of that route shall we?"

Damien had grown completely unresponsive.

He simply stared at the pink-haired girl sitting next to him. But it was a special type of stare you know – the kind of stare a college professor would give an idiotic student who couldn't even do basic division. The type of stare that says: 'What are you doing here? How have you even managed to make it this far in life?'

"You know...." Alythia continued seeing as Damien didn't even see the merit in having a two-way conversation with her at this point "Karlyle's sister is coming to visit during lunch... so maybe---"

"NO!" he interrupted her. His eyes shone with malice.

'Eh? How did I manage to upset him even more??'

He clicked his tongue at her. "Alythia you're so dense, it's absolutely infuriating..." he murmured as he turned his entire body to the side so that she was now staring at his back.

Throughout the rest of the morning he completely ignored her but Alythia, for the life of her, could not understand why.

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After classes ended our pink-haired girl jumped to her feet and ran out the door.

She rushed straight to the cafeteria and busily got to work packing her picnic basket.

As soon as she was done she went to her dorm room to grab a blanket before heading to the garden.

'Ray and Kloeye must already have waited for a while so---'

But her thoughts were interrupted when she opened the door and saw Ray standing there with a blanket in hand and a picnic basket on her bed.

"Eh? RayRay weren't you supposed to meet Kloeye at the fountain?"

Ray looked utterly confused. "Ally, you said you would meet her at the fountain and I should prepare the blanket and snacks"

"WHAT!?" Alythia yelped "That means Kloeye had been waiting ALONE all this time!???"

And instantly both girls dashed out the room and down the stairs towards the garden.