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"I\'m not mad at him," Joanne refuted. "I\'m just worried."

Hecate smiled before moving to hug her close friend, and patted her head.

"Sir Ethan is strong," Hecate said. "You should be more worried for the safety of those bad guys who might mistake him for a Raven of the Academy."

Joanne closed her eyes and allowed her friend to pamper her.

\'Is this what it feels like to have a big sister?\' Joanne thought as she buried her head in Hecate\'s chest, making her feel warm and happy.

Soon, the young lady fell asleep in her arms, making Hecate giggle.

"You always look defenseless whenever you\'re around people you trust, Joanne," Hecate said softly as she gently laid down her close friend on the bed and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Good night and sweet dreams."

She then covered Ethan\'s sister with a blanket before walking toward the window of her room.

The young lady then opened it, letting the cold breeze pass over her body.

But despite the cold, Hecate stayed there and kept on gazing in the distance, her eyes glowing faintly.

Her Raven, Xena, was following a good distance away from Ethan, who was currently in his Raven Form.

Whether Ethan sensed Xena\'s presence or not, he didn\'t make any move to ask her to go away.

\'Make sure to follow him regardless of where he goes, Xena.\'

\'Don\'t worry, Hecate. I will not let him out of my sight.\'

After her Raven had given her words of assurance, Hecate returned her consciousness inside her body and slowly closed the window of her room.

Her body had become a bit chilly, but as soon as the windows were closed, it quickly returned to normal temperature.

Only after she was certain that her body was no longer cold to the touch did she slip back into her bed and hugged her friend, who was sleeping soundly.

The next day, Hecate woke up just as soon as the sun rose up in the sky.

The young lady in her arms was still sleeping soundly, looking more defenseless than ever.

Joanne would never show this side of her to people she didn\'t trust, so Hecate felt happy to know that the other party trusted her enough to let her see it.

\'There\'s still no classes today because the Professors are still dealing with the Raven incident,\' Hecate thought. \'Maybe it\'s a good opportunity to go to that place…\'

After making up her mind, she decided to do a little bit of exploration in a place that not many in Dud Manor knew about.

She wondered if she should take Joanne with her, but it didn\'t take long for her to decide that there was no harm in bringing her along.

Also, she believed that the Founder of Brynhildr Academy wouldn\'t mind if she and Ethan\'s sister were to poke their noses into a place where they didn\'t belong.

An hour later, Joanne finally woke up, and the two of them decided to take a bath together.

This was their third time doing it, and she was the one who initiated it when Joanne decided to sleep in her room for the first time.

Perhaps because she missed her best friend, Ramona, Joanne agreed to take a bath with her. She wasn\'t unfamiliar with this, for she and her best friend always showered together when they were still in the Magdar Kingdom.

After taking a bath together, Hecate told Joanne to accompany her back to the Manor after breakfast.

Although the younger girl didn\'t know where they were going, she readily agreed because she had no plans for today.

When breakfast ended, the two returned to Dud Manor and headed straight to its small library.

Hecate led her to the portrait of Fortis Dud, who was looking at the two of them as if he was finding naughty kids who planned to steal things from him.

It didn\'t take long for Joanne to realize that there was something unusual about the painting.

There was a keyhole right under it, which sparked her interest.

Hecate, on the other hand, took out her wand and inserted its tip on the keyhole.

"Are you going to blow it up?" Joanne asked with concern. "Won\'t we get in trouble if you do that?"

"Don\'t worry. I won\'t blow it up," Hecate replied. "Just wait for a bit."

The young lady then shifted his attention back to the painting and smiled with confidence.

"Those who don\'t believe in Magic will never find it."

Hecate turned her wand as if it was a key. A second later, a faint clicking sound, like that of a lock being unlocked, reached their ears.

The wall where the painting was at slowly parted, revealing a staircase that led underground.

Joanne became excited. Ethan told her that Brynhildr Academy had many secrets, and by the looks of it, she was looking at one of them right now.

"How did you know?" Joanne asked.

"A little fish told me," Hecate replied as she held the younger girl\'s hand. "Use light magic and lead the way."

Joanne nodded in understanding because she knew that Hecate\'s magic wasn\'t reliable.

If the older girl were to cast any spell, even if it were only a simple light spell, an Elemental would suddenly appear and attack her.

She found this quite hilarious, but even after pressing the Saintess for answers as to why, she didn\'t get any.

As Joanne took the first step down the staircase, blue torch lights appeared, illuminating the way, making her turn around to look at her friend, who asked her to use light magic.

"I didn\'t know that there\'s something like this here," Hecate replied with a faint blush on her face, clearly embarrassed by her lack of information. \'I\'ll kill that fish later.\'

Since a source of light was already available, Hecate led the way down the stairs as she and her friend entered a place where the two of them didn\'t belong.

——————

A/N: Only one chapter today. Will post three chapters tomorrow as compensation.