Beyond?

“The Southern countries are a conglomerate of small nations and kingdoms which are in constant quarrel with each other. Some of them rise and fall within a commoners lifetime. There is no sense in trying to create a lasting treaty with them.

It's questionable if their situation is their own fault, or simply the natural state of things. We don't know if Nict's unity is only upheld by the Gates, or a result of our favourable geographic location.”

-Natum Tinn, Emissary of Nict.

***Free City States of Nict, Nict***

***Azir***

Another week passed and there weren't any more assaults. It seems like the group which attacked me consisted of the main perpetrators behind the bad rumours about Stella. I didn't even hear a word from her that more of her stuff went missing.

My special friend Lulu is even making a big circle around me and bows properly when I walk past her on the corridor. The same goes for her friends.

But there is another problem. As of today all of our work will be conducted within a group of five people. It's to teach us to work in a team.

“So? Now your refusal to stay away from me will finally lead to your downfall.” Stella grumbles in her seat beside me. “The whole group will get an overall score. Since I am who I am and you are in the same pit as me. We'll surely get the worst team mates possible with whom nobody else wants to team up with. They'll pull down our score.”

I smile and nod. “But only if we don't search for suitable team mates beforehand. It's still early in the morning and the class will not start for another twenty minutes.”

Stella slams her head onto her desk. “And how are we going to persuade someone to join hands with us?”

“Isn't it obvious?” I grin and pat Stella's back who flinches a little upon the unexpected contact. “Misuse of authority!”

I get up and walk over to a certain girl who is talking with a boy. She has dark brown hair and looks a little thin. The boy at her side has blonde hair and is of normal build. “Talia Zaitus?”

The girl looks at me like I am a ghost. The Zaitus are a branch family who belong to my clan. Everyone with a direct blood relation to the clan head bears the name Zait. Relatives with a more distant relationship have an additional syllable behind their family name. So the longer your family name is, the farther down you are in the pecking order.

That means that even though I am a guy, I can still command members of my clan's branch families around as I please.

“Yes?” The girl answers stiffly.

I decide to explain the situation to her. “I need you for the upcoming group work. So you'll join us. Luckily there are more than enough free seats around us. So you can immediately pack your things and come over.”

“Why should...”

“Your name is Zaitus?”

“Yes, but...”

“What do your parents do when a Zait giv...”

“I already promised Karsen to work with him.” She grabs the boy's arm.

“Perfect, he can come too.”

The girl starts pulling on Karsen's arm and he doesn't seem to be pleased at all. “Hey, I don't want to be pulled into this!”

She grabs his bag while not giving a shit about his complaints. “I won't go alone! You'll follow me to exile!”

I turn and walk into the middle of the classroom while I ignore the curious glances all around me. Hmm. One more person. Unfortunately there aren't any more members of my clan here. Nobody whom I could command. So I'll have to intimidate someone. That's actually a little hard to do in front of the entire class. I don't want bad rumours about me.

Unless... my eyes wander to a certain Siorda girl. “Lulu!”

Lulu ignores me while she is sitting with her back towards me and converses with one of her female minions.

“Lulu!” I tap on the back of her head and she finally takes notice of me, turning pale.

“Lulu. We need one last member for our group. You'll fill that spot.” I point towards Stella who is being joined by Taila and Karsen. They are taking the seats in front of her.

Lulu gasps twice. “Why should I? AND MY NAME ISN'T LULU!”

“Oh, does that mean that you refuse? And your name is Lulu until I decide otherwise.” I try to make my voice as intimidating as possible which isn't easy at my age. “Do you want another training session?”

Lulu grabs her bag and runs over to Stella's corner, taking the seat to my right. I nod and walk back to my seat and sit down.

All eyes of the group are on me and I smile to defuse the situation. “My name is Azir Zait, pleased to meet you. I hope that we can work together from now on.” I point at Taila. “Your turn.”

“Taila Zaitus, pleased to meet you.” Taila answers.

My eyes wander to Karsen.

“Karsen Anja, Hi.” Karsen grumbles.

I point at Lulu. “And that's Lulu.”

“I am Louise Siorda!”

I furrow my eyebrows.

“... but Lulu is my nickname. Call me as you like.”

I smile at Stella who eyed the scene while her forehead got more and more wrinkles added to it with each spoken word.

She finally decides to introduce herself. “My name is Stella Sable. Thanks for working with me.”

I clap my hands together. “And now that the tense introductions are done, we can finally work on the real purpose of this group and become friends!”

***

I skip while I am on my way back to my carriage through one of the school's hallways. My skills with people are simply fantastic. Who would have thought that it was that easy to find three people for my group.

Our work with each other also went smoothly. I didn't care much about their skills because I thought that randomly choosing people is better than ending up with some leftovers.

“~Azir!~”

Someone bulldozes into my side, but the voice alone is enough to recognize her.

I try to pull myself free while Annice keeps holding onto my arm. “Stop that! What do you want?” She doesn't let go, even though I have my hand on her cheek and push with all my might.

“But we haven't seen each other for so long and you keep avoiding me.” Finally she lets go.

“I don't know what you are talking about. And I am not interested in that kind of relationship.” I keep walking.

“But my mother said that it is better to start early.” She follows me.

“We are five! Learn some common sense!” This is really ridiculous. “What did your mother teach you?”

“That some men can be acquired with a command and others have to be swayed.” She answers with a sweet voice.

I shake my head. “Look. I don't know how you got this idea...”

“You were the first man ever who opposed me.” She plays with the tips of her index fingers while she is looking away.

I grumble. “That's not hard! I doubt that you had any contact with men besides me up until now.”

Annice blinks. “That's actually a valid point. I've to eliminate this shortcoming of mine.” She turns and is gone.

I watch her disappear around a corner while being baffled. What will this little girl do to increase her experience with men? What did I do? What if...

NO!

Not my business!

I continue on my way without looking back.

.