Ch 1.15: ❤ Caught

Elaina had two fingers inside of herself, one tit barely covered by sheets while she massaged the other with her hand as the door opened. In the doorway was the girl Elaina had met earlier, the girl Waine was recruiting to his team, Carline Forsythe they’d call her. It took both of them a second to realize what happened, Elaina continuing to pump inside herself and Carline taking a step into the room before they both froze. There was no way to tell whose face burned brighter in that instant, Elaina naked and in the most compromising position anyone had ever seen her in, Carline dressed in full uniform and standing there with wet hair and a towel in her hand.

Carline held Elaina’s gaze for a second, looked her body up and down, placed the towel next to the room’s second dresser, and left. Elaina’s brain started working right about the moment the door lock clicked again. “What the fuck?” she said out loud, vigorously rubbing herself again, mind racing. Roommate, her? Me, naked. She saw. She looked. She definitely looked, and she saw everything.

And it was at least the second time. Gods, she has to think I’m the biggest pervert in the world. She’d walked in on Elaina on orientation night, but at least that time Elaina was completely under covers, she hoped. She could barely remember that night, the haze of ecstasy, the waves of bliss that she was now returning too. Was there anything more mortifying than this? Elaina imagined Carline looking across her body over and over. She’d looked slowly, not hiding her gaze at all as she took in Elaina’s body. Did she think it was disgusting, or did she maybe even like it?

It was too much. The high from winning the duel, the looks on everyone’s face as they saw her crawl out of her skirt, and now this, the girl that Elaina would be living with walking in on her playing with herself, the fact that Elaina hadn’t even stopped until a few seconds after she was caught. She screamed out, no way to filter the noises coming out of her as she came, writhing on the bed, eyes closed and mouth open as she collapsed into the sheets.

Elaina had noticed something about herself as she’d indulged like this in the past, that it was always a good way to clear her head. Everything made more sense after taking care of these sort of distracting problems. Relief fading away, the problems became apparent. Carline really did have to think Elaina was the biggest pervert in the world, and she probably did think it was disgusting.

Elaina covered her face with her dry hand, feeling like she’d burn the skin off of it with the heat radiating from her face. They’d never even spoken before today, and this was how Carline was going to remember their first meeting. Not to mention, she was Waine’s friend, sort of? The girl was obviously shy to some extent, but she did seem like she wasn’t fully on board with the idea of joining Waine’s group. Way too much to unpack right now. Elaina was filthy in more ways than one, so she grabbed a towel, wrapped it around herself, and walked to the showers.

The shower room itself always surprised her, a far cry from the wooden tub in the backyard she’d been used to bathing in all her life, that or the river she’d sometimes visit if she wanted running water. The floor and walls were both tiled, the floor plain white and the walls a checkered pattern of white and blue like the castle walls and the castle roof. Running water wasn’t an issue here, and to Elaina’s surprise on her first visit, the water had been heated as well.

Elaina went into one of the stalls and closed the door, hanging her towel on the other side. Most of the other girls she’d seen enter wore only a towel in and out like she was doing, though her roommate had apparently changed before coming out. Maybe she’s really shy? That only made it worse. Elaina wanted nothing more than to continue her session from earlier, but she knew she needed to eat on time as well. She lavished in the warmth of the water for just a bit, another luxury she still wasn’t used to yet, then left the showers to go and eat, ultimately unsatisfied.

The bell rang as she was walking to the dining hall, so she was one of the first ones there. As she walked by, people she recognized from her year stared and whispered still. There weren’t snickers and giggles as they did anymore, but a reverence that had previously been absent. It was freeing, knowing she’d beaten Waine, taken back what was hers. Still, she thought of earlier. Everyone has still seen her skirtless, in person, not just in a portrait. There was a difference though, one that she didn’t know why it mattered. That was her choice, embarrassing but willing. And then there’s Carline. Another topic she wasn’t ready to face. They’d avoided each other by accident in their shared room for so long, so she probably had at least a couple days to figure out how to deal with that.

She scarfed down her food, a magnificent plate of seared vegetable and some roast chicken before heading off outside again. She was walking through the middle of the two gardens flanking the school entrance for the first time since streaking it a couple nights prior, really seeing it in the daylight for the first time as well. She’d walked the same path on her first day, but it had been crowded with students, the blue and yellow spring flowers sitting atop hedges and sprouting from vines wrapped around white fences had been obscured then, and she’d been too anxious to notice besides.

There was a serene quality as a whole at Endrin, one she hadn’t expected from a school famous for its rigor. There was the castle town a ways off, over the rolling hills she’d rode through on the carriage ride, but she’d expected more bustle around the school. Instead, she was treated to nice gardens, green fields, and the forest that she was rapidly approaching.

She stopped once she hit the wall of trees. Some part of the forest was technically part of the school grounds, but she didn’t know where that line was, and technically she wasn’t supposed to leave grounds on school days. There was also the lingering memory of the last time she’d entered.

No time for that though; Elaina needed answers. She took a deep breath and breached the forest perimeter, doing her best to trace her path from the night of her Awakening. She’d not grown up near forests, so her sense of place wasn’t the best, but she still felt drawn in one particular direction, almost the same way holding her key would draw her back to her dorm room.

Eventually, she broke into the clearing, the same one where she’d first experienced Waine’s Control aspect. There was a small pond of clear water on the far side of it she hadn’t noticed before, surrounded by flowers not too dissimilar to the ones in the castle gardens. That was pretty enough, but Elaina had a mission.

She was worried she might not find the hole she’d fallen in easily, but that same sense that drew her to the clearing pulled her to it as well. Gods, it really is steep. She tried to step onto the edge of the opening and find a foothold to climb down before feeling it start to cave in beneath her feet and backing up. “Okay, seems like there’s only one way to do this.” Elaina jumped, bracing herself for impact, but she instead slid into the incline of the cave, miraculously keeping her balance as she plunged into darkness that only lasted an instant, as the orb in the center glowed blue as soon as Elaina slid to a halt. “Greetings, Elaina Weaver.”

“Ah, hello.” Elaina said.

“There is much to discuss, but I have some disturbing news that may be relevant to you personally first. There are currently four crystal devices with—” The System paused. “Correction, there were four crystal devices with compromising images of your person within a close radius of us, but the images in question seem to have been deleted.”

Elaina blinked. “How do you know that?”

“As the System, I have access to all nearby crystal devices and any information contained within them.”

Elaina was still learning about the crystal technology the elites of the world used, but she knew that couldn’t be normal. “Wait, you said four?”

“Correct. The night we first met it was five, but on one of the devices the images were deleted the next day.”

Prisma. Elaina had believed her when she said she’d already gotten rid of the portraits of her, but confirmation was nice. At least there was some modicum of trust that could be extended towards the girl.

“Additionally, I would like to apologize for not realizing you may have been in distress. I thought your attire during our first meeting was due to you being a pervert, not an assault on your person.”

“What?”

“I said you are a pervert.”

Elaina squinted at the crystal. It was increasingly hard to believe this was a real magical artifact, and not just some wild long-term hallucination. “Listen, we have lots to discuss today, but I need to set some ground rules first.”

“Understood. As the Administrator, you have some control over the course of our interactions.”

Huh. That was easier than expected. “Okay, rule one, don’t call me a pervert.”

“Request denied. I can only speak the truth.”

“You-” Elaina was cut off by… A laugh? The crystal laughed?

“Request reconsidered. I will only call you a pervert when it is absolutely necessary, such as when a direct request for information is made to me.”

“Okay, but no one’s going to ask you that! I’m the only one who even knows about you!”

“Yes, I have noticed that. In my routine scan of all information files, there is a disturbingly low amount of mentions of the System, despite all these files being connected to the System itself. There is also a noticeable lack of System data points in general, with the most disturbing thing of all being that my main terminal is no longer connected to the rest of the System. I would request this be remedied, but due to the lack of information, I cannot begin to advise how to go about doing so. Pray tell, can you please summarize the last nine centuries’ geopolitical movements and the current state of international affairs? That may assist me in creating a planned course of action.”

“Uh, no, I can’t… I have History class tomorrow though?”

“Hmm, perhaps that will be of some help, but one lesson is not likely to make either you or I an expert. Do you know why I am unable to access the information I need through the crystal network?”

Elaina had to think. Crystal technology was something she’d heard of before coming to Endrin, but it certainly wasn’t commonplace. The elite class had some access, but other than the crystal portraits even that seemed limited. “I don’t really know why you think there should be so much of it, but crystals aren’t as common as you seem to think. Most records and stuff are kept in paper books and parchment.”

“Hmm, disturbing. The issue of lost knowledge must wait though. There are a number of other urgent matters that you must handle as System Administrator.”

“I still don’t know what means! You haven’t explained-”

“One such matter is that another of my secondary terminals has been compromised. I have assessed the difficulty of this problem and designated it as a rank one mission. As a level one Masochist Mage, you are personally qualified for this mission, but it requires a minimum party size of two.”

Elaina’s head hurt. She buried her face into her hands and began rubbing her eyes. “You have to slow down. I don’t understand any of this.”

“Understood. I will operate under the assumption that you want me to take the time and explain the meanings of the terms I’m using, and not that you literally wish for me to speak at a slower pace.”

“Yes, that’d be great, thanks.”

“I am in danger. You are of sufficient strength to help, but you would need at least one other User to accompany you for me to officially assign you the task. Is there someone from the academy that you trust and that may be worthy of being classified as a System User?”

Someone she could trust? There was— Well, there was at least Tira, right? “There is, I guess. Just one person.”

“Wonderful. Is it the person that followed you here, by chance?”

The person that followed her here. “I’m sorry?”

Elaina heard rocks crumbling behind her, followed by a high-pitched scream as Carline Forsythe, her newly discovered roommate, slid down into the cave, rolling along the floor at the bottom.