A Journey Unwanted

"Mikoto got detention yet again." Ruby started; her words were directed to William, who sat across from her at the long wooden table within the academy's cafeteria.

"So he did. It seems he has a knack for angering my father." William spoke with a dry chuckle. His father always had a short temper, especially when things did not go his way. They were the Gregory's, the proud family blessed by the great Goddess of Prosperity and Creation, Isadora. Within the kingdom of Galadriel as a whole, they were important to the nation. The Familial Arts that came with being the spawn of the Goddess Isadora were valuable—the ability to create life with just your imagination. Think of the composition and structure of a creature, and then you create it, with only your imagination being your limit.

It is easy to see why this ability and the Gregory's are held in such high regard. Unfortunately, he himself was never held in any positive light for all his life because he lacked the blessing of the Goddess Isadora. That might not seem like a big deal, as blessings from God's were rare in themselves, but when you were part of a family that prided themselves on said blessing that followed for generations, it was more of a big deal.

("Failure. Why were you even born?") William silently mused about what he was used to hearing from his dear father and others'. He was ordinary with decent talent in magic, but that was all. His father could not even be bothered to acknowledge his existence; if not for his mother, he would have been thrown to the streets. But that was the extent to which his mother could stand up for him; his father was a cruel man. Those were simply the perfect words to describe him; the hellish training that concerned Agatha is the reason she is like she is. Cold and uncaring.

"You seem as though you have something on your mind." Ruby noted with a small frown. "And it seems to be nothing good."

"It's nothing, just thinking of something." He merely waved it off with a smile as the small girl tilted her head.

"Tis about your father?" She deduced as he stiffened slightly at the mention. It seems this girl was not as clueless as she liked to appear. "He is quite the ass hat." She bluntly stated: "I wish for Mikoto to teach me his ways. So that I might one day strive to annoy him without doing anything." He could only send the girl a wry grin upon hearing her goal.

"Maybe I'll join you with that." He admitted, with a chuckle, the approval of his father was something he had long since given up on. He did not care for the man, and he did not care for him; it was all very simple. But there was something he could not give up on. Williams emerald eye's scanned the large cafeteria, passing all the bustling students', and it landed on someone in particular.

Agatha, as always, was seated in the corner of the cafeteria on her lonesome while she read a book. She received various glances from the student population, but all were much too hesitant to approach her.

"Why not go to her?" Ruby's question caused him to blink a few times before he turned back to the girl.

"What do you mean?"

"Your sister. She seems quite lonely; why not bid her to join us? It is quite boring without Mikoto here, no?" She stated those words as if it were the most simple conclusion. William could just heave a sigh.

"My sister hates me." He bluntly stated that, he might not have known Ruby for long, but it was not as if this little bit of information was really important or secretive.

"And why's that?" The girl asked. "You don't seem to be a twat. I quite enjoy your company, and I'm sure Mikoto does as well."

"Thanks?" He was quite glad he was not seen as a 'twat' by one of his only friends'. "But it's complicated between the two of us, and it's all thanks to our dear father." William heaved another sigh. They used to be close too. But with Agatha being the only child with the blessing of Goddess Isadora, naturally, more pressure was placed on her.

"I see, Professor Gregory sounds even more like a prick than usual." The girl dryly stated as he merely sheepishly chuckled.

"You know, for someone so aloof, you sure do swear a lot." The small girl had quite the vocabulary, especially when it came to Professor Gregory. But he did not blame her; he had quite a few choice words for his father.

"Swearing is fun." She said it with a small smirk. "But I merely wish your father was not such an ass. I prefer Professor Melisande to a much higher degree than said ass hat."

"Is it because she's too timid to lecture you if you slack off?" William asked with a wry smile.

"Yup."

"Yeah, I figured as much." With the faculty here, there were certainly a fair few interesting individuals, from Professor Fergus to Professor Elizabeth. But as he pondered this fact, he took note of a small commotion forming. The array of students seemed to be surrounding a crying and kneeling girl; she had fuzzy gray hair with salmon eyes. But what caught his attention were the two horns sticking out of either side of her head.

A sneering boy stared down at her, tall with dark hair and green eyes.

"Look everyone! The beast is crying!" He mocked the crying girl as a few chuckles escaped the surrounding students that encircled the supposed spawn.

"Stop crying, hell spawn!"

"Yeah, it makes you more hideous!"

"You should've stayed in the hole you crawled out of!" It seems no one had sympathy for the girl, as various insults flew from everyone around her.

"P-please stop..." The girl begged, but to no avail.

"And now it's begging." The boy from before sneered deeper. "You are a spawn of the demon ÆĢŘÆXƏ§. We are merely giving you just what you deserve, you thought could prance around here just like you wanted?"

"Yet another ass hat." Ruby mumbled as William shot up in his seat with a frown.

"No one's even doing anything about it, and just because she's 'his' spawn." It disgusted him, and that is why he would do something about it.

"His?" Ruby questioned.

"I'll fill you in later, for now..." He turned back to the scene as he took note of someone being way ahead of him. He could not help but look on in surprise at who it was.

____________________

[Earlier]

As she stood in the heart of the forest, she merely focused. Her body pulsed with intense energy as the air around her seemed to bend with her expanding mana. She opened her eyes, and the pupils glowed with a bright blue light. Concentrating with great intensity, she raised both her hands in the air, and her palms began to emit electric sparks.

Suddenly, the clouds above began to swirl, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground a few meters from where the girl was standing. As her spell began to take effect, the skies opened up once again, and the clouds enshrouded the forest, blocking out any other kind of light.

In a split second, the sky roared, and several bolts of lightning erupted from the clouds and slammed down into the earth all around the girl. With a great flourish, she summoned all the bolts of lightning into one charge, and it entered her body. A sudden jolt of energy ripped through every fiber of her being, yet she did not even wince.

Gritting her teeth more so to minor annoyance at the minor inconvenience, the girl directed her will towards the most massive tree in the forest's center. With a gesture of her hand and a single word of power, she commanded the lightning to surge out of her in an immense, concentrated beam. It hit the base of the tree and traveled up the trunk, burning everything in its path as if the entire tree were drenched in gasoline and set alight.

The impact of the lightning bolt was so strong that the ground shook, and the very air trembled from the power of the spell. With a deafening roar, the trunk of the tree split in two, causing a massive explosion with flames and debris flying everywhere. A wave of pure force emanated from the tree, shredding every piece of foliage and uprooting every shrub in the vicinity.

The sound of the destruction was incredible, and the girl's spell seemed to echo through the forest for miles around. The trees for hundreds of yards around the spot where the girl stood were torn asunder, and the air was filled with the smell of burning wood. The force of the lightning bolt had shredded leaves and branches into minuscule pieces, scattered by the wind in a frenzied frenzy that was almost violent.

The girl looked around her, surveying the aftermath of her spell. The trees burned and crackled around her, and the forest floor smoldered with ashes and embers.

"Tch, this ain't what I was hoping for." Mirabella clicked her tongue in annoyance as she stared at the destruction surrounding her. "I was hoping to just take out that huge tree." She heaved a sigh. Being the spawn of a God of destruction, she had attributes such as the ability to excel in anything related to destruction. Be that merely using spells or merely utilizing physical prowess. She excelled in those things; when she was eleven, she could already vaporize entire mountains.

But that came at an apparent cost: lacking perfect control over any of her spells, she had to use glyphs for most. Hence the training she had to do far away from the academy due to the destruction of her spells. Even a weaker one like this nearly completely evaporated the entire forest; she could not even use the academy's personal training area due to her less than satisfactory output control.

("Damn it, this stupid stupid fucking trait.") She cursed; despite all her power, forming more complex spells like healing was way beyond her. She did not know if the positives of being a spawn of Aragorn outweighed the negatives. But either way, she was still pissed; this was a problem that seemed to have no remedy. ("It's like swinging a huge ass club, all destruction and no skill.") An apt analysis.

Magic could be a complex subject or an extremely simple one. Weaving a number of elemental spells was an easy task, but depending on the user of said spells, the difference in output would be noted. For instance, a simple flame could burn as hot as the sun's core, or could be a barely flickering flame; it all depended on the output.

"That mask bastard seemed to have good control; he even did that oxygen bullshit of his. I still don't know what that is, though." She recalled the fight, though it was more of a short scuffle. When the masked boy had attacked, he weaved strikes of lighting that sailed through the air smoothly and in complete control. They did not cause much destruction, but they served their purpose well. She was trying to replicate that, but creating pure lighting via magic was way more difficult than conjuring flames or water.

So she altered the weather with the simple action of spreading her mana into the atmosphere, changing the very makeup of the world, and influencing it so a thunderstorm could begin. Then she merely harnesses said lighting, though with her absurd mana reserves, the output of the strike nearly evaporated the entire forest.

"Ah shit, I can't do it. Fuck..." It really was something annoying to deal with; she could not help but scratch her head in frustration. "Sis would be disappointed." She murmured before shaking her head, clicking her tongue, and a large circular glyph formed beneath her feet. Though teleportation was still way too complex for her, Galadriel was practically her domain. Domains are what are owned by a person via a transparent and invisible contract, the contact that gives various advantages. Such as easy teleportation, among a few.

So her whole form was engulfed in a bright blue light as, in the next instance, her view changed from the destroyed forest to the hallways of Luminare Academy, her sudden arrival frightening a few students passing by.

"Holy shit!"

"T-the princess!?"

Mirabella merely ignored the plebes as she made her way to the cafeteria. She was looking to gorge herself on some good food. Training all day left her quite famished; the food here truly was something else. She would have to steal away whoever the chef was. She mused over those thoughts as she entered the cafeteria, but she quirked up an eyebrow as she took note of a commotion.

"You should've stayed in the hole you crawled out of!" She heard a quite annoying voice announce, and with her interest peaked, she moved on to the commotion. Merely pushing those in the way to the side, they tried to protest, but upon noticing who she was, they wisely kept their mouths shut.

"P-please stop..." She heard a girl beg, but to no avail.

"And now it's begging." A boy sneered at the timid girl. "You are a spawn of the demon ÆĢŘÆXƏ§. We are merely giving you just what you deserve, you thought could prance around here just like you wanted?"

("Oh? A spawn of his? I always wanted to meet one.") She mused those thoughts as she stepped to the center, the crowd now dead silent as the boy who was Isaac was yet to take note of the presence of Mirabella.

"So...you like picking on little girls'?" She mocked as she glanced at the girl on her knees, the latter's eye puffy and red from crying.

"Who the!!-" Isaac snapped his head back to look at the cur who would dare to call him out, only to immediately pale as he took note of who it was.

"P-princess." He immediately got down on one knee and bowed. "Forgive me; I did not notice you there."

"I asked you a question." She dully stated.

"Pardon?" He uttered , and Mirabella merely sighed.

"Have you gone senile, boy?" She mocked as a few snickers escaped the surrounding students. "I asked if you like picking on little girls'."

"N-no, princess. This cur is a demons spawn!" He quickly defended, as Mirabella merely sent him an annoyed glare.

"You there, girl." She turned her attention away from Isaac and toward the still-kneeling girl. "You're the spawn of ÆĢŘÆXƏ§, correct?"

"Y-yes, your majesty." She answered timidly and with some hesitation as her eyes fell to the ground in shame.

"What is your name?" Mirabella asked.

" J-Juliana." The horned girl quickly answered.

"All right, you lowly dogs, listen up!" Suddenly directing her attention away from Juliana, she turned to the student's gawking at the scene. "I see anyone so much as looking at Juliana the wrong way, then I'll beat the ever-living shit out of you! Understood!?" Juliana blinked in confusion at the spiky-haired princess.

"That includes you, beansprout." Mirabella spoke, throwing a cold glare Isaac's way.

"U-understood Princess!" He quickly shouted out fear quickly overcoming him.

From afar, William and Ruby watched the scene.

"I'm surprised the princess of all people stepped in." William murmured thoughtfully.

"Yes, I expected her to be another ass hat." Ruby, as ever, bluntly stated her thoughts.

"Good thing she isn't, huh?" William spoke with a chuckle.