Teo was standing in front of the mirror looking doubtful and worried.

She looked down at and tilted her head, in the palm of her hand was an earring with almost the exact same design as the one her older sister started wearing after she received it from the first prince as a gift...

How did Teo get her hands on the piece of jewelry almost identical to what Veo received...?

Well- that actually was quite a shady event in and of itself.

After Miriette gave her the rest of the day off, the short brown-haired girl didn't just return to her room and decided it wouldn't be a bad thing to simply take a walk – there was a small town very close to the academy and for a sturdy earth magician such as Teo, the trip would be a breeze.

Still, even as she was already on her way back, she definitely didn't feel anywhere near as refreshed as she hoped for...

Maybe she should have gone with Miriette's method of relieving stress after all...?

Although, there should be a limit of how much one person can do that in a single day, right...?

While thoughts just like that one were passing through the brown-haired girl's head, a rather peculiar carriage passed her,

It was very big and looked like part of it could open and transform into a merchant's stand.

Though, the peculiarity of it didn't come from that.

The thing was, the horses pulling the carriage had actual armors on, and the windows seemed to be painted black so it was impossible to take a look inside.

The horses themselves also seemed eerie for whatever reason...

...they didn't seem to move around as living animals should either, having this peculiar flowiness that made them seem almost otherworldly...

It was eye-catching enough to make Teo stop and look at it in bewilderment from the side of the road.

But then the carriage was stopped by its coachperson – cheerful-looking young short-haired woman appearing to be only a couple of years older than Teo.

The black-haired young woman – who called out to the brown-haired girl cheerfully and beckoned her to approach her.

Apparently, she and her family were traveling merchants mostly selling jewelry – they wanted to try their luck offering their goods at the Aspakeony Academy, but with the absence of the headmaster, the teachers didn't allow them to set up their stand y the entrance so they were going to try their luck in the town from which Teo was returning.

The two girls talked a little bit and Teo ended up admitting that she works at the Academy – to which the young black-haired woman responded that she doesn't seem to faze about the color of her hair.

It was a reasonable question, after all, being the traveling merchant the young woman must have received her fair share of discrimination towards the darkness magicians – who she undoubtedly was.

To that, Teo merely shrugged her shoulders revealing that a person she looked up to – in more ways than one – was a darkness magician too and that she isn't really bothered about the opinion of others – which seemed to make the black-haired young woman very happy.

So happy in fact that after a few more minutes spent on idle talk, she offered Teo to pick one of her wares for free.

At first, the brown-haired girl wasn't keen on the idea but when the other woman mentioned earrings, Teo was instantly reminded about the one her sister received...

So she described it with all the details she could remember, thinking that she could use that as an excuse to not accept the kind but unnecessary gift – after all, the jewelry wasn't easy to make, and receiving something merely because of having a small talk seemed really unfair...

Teo simply didn't want to take advantage of the female darkness magician minutes after they talked about the difficult financial situation that she was in...

That's why the brown-haired attendant was extremely shocked when the black-haired woman simply turned around, reaching inside the carriage through a small, jet-black window, and pulled out the exact earring that she had described her...!

Flabbergasted Teo received the beautiful earing and was lost for words – she hurriedly tried to pay for it, reaching out for her purse, but the other woman didn't even want to hear about it, and drove away, waving at her with a cheerful smile.

...and that us back to the Aspakeony Academy, where Teo was standing in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection with hesitation.

The beautiful earring was glittering in the light of the magic crystal lamp beckoning for her to wear it...

The only problem was, Teo didn't have either of her ears pierced.

"...

"

the short brown-haired girl nervously pinched her earlobe and sighed miserably.

Having one's ear pierced is not that big of a deal, not normally, not for normal people.

But it was a problem for Teo.

She only acted tough and confident as a front to cover her shortcomings.

The truth was the younger of the twin attendants was afraid of darkness, she disliked bell-peppers, she was surprisingly short-tempered and was awfully stubborn to the point that her name should replace the mule in the popular saying.

And also... she was really, really afraid of pain, even the quick little prick with a needle.

Her older sister was the one who somehow got most of the good qualities, well, the character-wise, at least.

"Pffft...! ...ah...

"

Teo laughed at the thought but then she felt disgusted by herself.

Veo wasn't able to do many things because her arms and especially hands weren't working properly because of what happened in the past...

If the rocks and dirt never crushed her arms...

If she, Teo, was a bit quicker with clearing out the debris...

Veo would probably be a much better attendant than her younger sister was...

"...haaa...

"

Teo took a deep breath and picked up the thick needle that she borrowed from the servants' resting room.

The thin, sharp tool shone menacingly and the short brown-haired attendant felt her stomach cramping.

"If I do that, we will be the same once more...

"

She said looking herself in the eyes.

Honestly, Teo's behavior was childish, she didn't want to admit she was wrong and hated even the idea of apologizing for her behavior only trying to make everything go back to normal by acting as if nothing happened...

"She will understand me if I do that, right? And Patishi will also realize that I'm not such a bad person after all...!

"

Teo declared in a pitiful voice trying to convince her own reflection.

If Zoemi, or while we're at it, anyone else would hear her, they would most certainly say that, no, getting your ear pierced does not equal repenting for anything at all.

Definitely not in that situation – not without even trying to apologize to the other person the normal way.

But Teo wasn't quite herself...

The beautiful earring seemed to have occupied her thoughts more and more until she got herself at the spot where she was now...

And so...

...she pierced her ear...

"Ughiii...!

"

Teo squeaked like a small animal and trembled gritting her teeth in pain as her eyes filled with tears.

It really wasn't anything that painful but for Teo who couldn't even remember the last time she got hurt - it was enough to make her cry.

"...!

"

Blood started dripping from the place she pierced - the brown-haired girl was prepared for that and quickly blocked it with a piece of cloth.

She waited a bit without removing the needle, her ear was feeling like it was on fire, and when the flow of blood almost stopped she replaced the needle with the silver earring just as she was told when she asked another servant about the process.

"...uuuu... uuugh...

"

Teo sniffled a few times and wiped out her tears.

She looked at her reflection and made a disheartened expression.

"It looked much better on Veo...

"

She murmured to herself lowering her head in shame.

Well, the intricate earring indeed didn't go well with her butler's uniform, plus her left ear was now completely red and contrasted with her pale face – sure, but for the most part, the girl's disappointment had nothing to do with the actual looks of it...

"Will they like me again now...?

"

Teo sniffled and asked her reflection but it didn't look convinced at all.

... in the end, it was only her own reflection and nothing more...

Only the beautiful earring changed a little bit - the empty pace suddenly filled with perfect silky darkness that definitely wasn't there earlier - but unfortunately, Teo missed that detail completely....