an illusion of mind

It's been 2 weeks, Regina's relationship with Adam had been the same, every time he'd try to initiate conversation she would ignore him and walk away. Her relation ship with Rica and Amanda had soured even more the two were trying their best to apologize but Regina just pushed them away, she thought it too much for them to be digging into her past.

"Regina-"

"Move." She spoke coldly as Amanda tried speaking with her, Arron almost spit his drink out of his mouth seeing the short interaction, Amanda winced from Regina's harsh tone and moved away letting her pass.

"..." Arron looked at Regina's back confused, he had never seen her that angry since the day he met her, hell he had never seen her angry, and for her to be angry at Amanda? Was he missing something?

"...What's up with that?" Arron asked raising an eyebrow taking a sip from his drink, Amanda rubbed her shoulder in guilt as she too a seat on a bench.

"I-It's... A long story..." Amanda spoke up as Arron sat next to her.

"Was it about that party? Ever since then I had never seen you talk with her." Arron said casually he didn't know what was up with the two but he was ready to hear Amanda out.

"N-No... It's something else..." Amanda's mind replayed the moment she had been convinced by Rica to look into Regina's diary. She knew it was a bad idea, that it was wrong to breach her privacy... But she did it anyways...

"I-I..." Amanda opened her mouth to speak feeling even more guilt at not wanting to admit it, "I looked into her diary..." She let out a long sigh closing her eyes and looking away in guilt.

"... She has a diary?" he asked a little surprised that Regina of all people has one, but then again everyone has things they want to hide from other people.

"Yeah, and I'm sorry... I just got curious and I breached her privacy and read a couple of pages..." Amanda admitted.

"That's... That makes more sense why she doesn't want to talk to you." Arron took another big sip of his drink, and remembered how harshly Regina spoke, her tone was not friendly, he had never seen her like that, she would always have a smile on her face but these days her smile had become less and less visible. If he didn't see her with a frown he would see her expressionless.

"she's really attached to her diary, and you reading it probably wasn't a good idea, why'd you do it?" Arron asked Amanda, he knew she wasn't the type of person to do something like that.

"I-I... I got curious... With her being all mysterious about her past and Rica convincing me I couldn't help but take a look..." Amanda said hiding her face in her hands from guilt and shame.

"... I can get behind that, she's certainly very obscure about her past, we all know she's from the Cearyn kingdom and it probably took a lot from her to reveal something like that to us you know... And you took it a little too far Amanda. you're my friend and all but there are times where even I should acknowledge you're in the wrong." Arron said as he got up.

"I can see you're trying to apologize and I have nothing to help you with except listen to what you have to say..." Arron said sighing as he turned around, "I got to go study mid terms are soon." Arron said waving her a goodbye.

Amanda just sat there looking back at her actions she was truly ashamed of what she did, she had been too blinded by curiosity to see reason and stop what she was doing.

"I... Fucked up..." She muttered under her breath as she sighed and stood up, "But what use is it to continue complaining without trying? I'll try my hardest to make it up to her after mid terms... I have to focus on those now..." Amanda said as she sighed.

"I heard mid terms are going to be in a forest setting." Amanda spoke to no one in particular as she walked back to the girl's dorms before she spotted someone familiar, one of her friends.

"Suzi! there you are!" Amanda ran up and hugged her Suzi was slightly startled but she turned and hugged her back while chuckling.

"Hey! What's up?" She asked as she pulled away from Amanda.

"Ugh... It's been fine... Just preparing for mid terms and all that..." Amanda rolled her eyes as she chuckled, mid-terms were two weeks away, and everyone was cramming to prepare for the written and practical.

"Haha! Same~" Suzi said chuckling as well.

"What's been going on in the group? I haven't seen us all together in a long time ever since that party..." Suzi asked curiosity apparent in her expression.

Amanda hissed, she had just talked with Arron about it and she would rather not bring it up again. The answer was all the same, all the problems stemmed from Regina, she was the main problem, her relationship between her and Regina had turned to shit basically, and Amanda swore she would try her best to make it up to her after mid terms.

"I'd rather not talk about it..." Amanda's expression turned a little sad as Suzi got the message and let out an 'oh' before she dismissed herself waving goodbye to Amanda as well.

"Bye~" Amanda smiled at her and walked into the dorm building making her way to her room.

"Gods... This has been so stressful..." Amanda rubbed her temple before she jumped into the embrace of her bedsheets.

Amanda could not deal with this anymore, her friendship with one of her friends was slowly falling apart, she had been kidnapped not too long ago, mid terms are approaching, demons are attacking the empire...

She just wished she had no responsibilities at all, like she was a being that has no responsibility so she can live her life without any consequences, She wished that were the case but wishes are wishes in the end.

She stood up and walked towards the kitchen that was provided to the royal class dorms, they were more like mini houses than dorms. She decided to whip up something to eat... But then she remembered she was terrible at cooking...

"Damn it! why does everything require a skillset?!" She yelled out slamming her fist into her thigh in frustration, nothing has been going her way since she read Regina's diary.

She decided to send one of the guards in the dorms to get her some food from a restaurant nearby, she was starving.

"Open the door." A cold familiar voice said from outside Amanda's room, her tone was harsh as ever as she knocked on the door.

Amanda jumped up hearing Regina's voice from beyond the door, Why is she here?! I thought she hated me!

"C-Coming~" She said as she took small steps forward hesitating as she put her hand on the door knob.

She slowly twisted it open and standing there was Regina, her expression was frowning as she looked up at Amanda, Regina was a little shorter than Amanda.

"H-Hey there... Why are you here?" She asked trying to keep her tone steady.

"Let me in, I have something to talk about." Regina said as she took a stop forward not really waiting for Amanda's permission. She made herself at home sitting down at the couch.

"Hey! I get that I wronged you but you can't just barge into my dorm like that!" Amanda yelled at her.

"Sit down, this is important." Regina said glaring back at Amanda.

Amanda reluctantly sat down opposite Regina scrutinizing her in slight irritation and guilt.

"Listen, I'm sor-"

"Save it, I'm not here for that." Regina said as she waved her hand in the air which caused Amanda to frown.

"I want to tell you," Regina trailed off narrowing her eyes on Amanda, "To be careful in the mid terms." Regina finished.

And Amanda was stumped by her words, was she genuinely worried for me...? Or is this another one of her games?

"I have a feeling something is going to happen in the mid terms... be careful." Regina said standing up and walking over to the door opening it and leaving a stumped and taken aback Amanda.

"What does she even mean by that?" Amanda was confused.

Far away at an auction house, sat Julian his azure coloured hair neatly styled with hair comb as he looked down from the VIP room listening in to the auction items that were shown.

None of them interested him, they were quite impressive really but it was honestly uninteresting, he came here to get a single item for his daughter, it is an item said to help ability users with their ability.

Next to him sat his two wives Briana and Fatima. Fatima had tanned skin with Brown hair that flowed down all the way to her waist, she was a beauty from the Slevia kingdom, a common trait from those kingdoms was their tanned skin because of the place they were situated in close to the great desert.

She wore a burgundy coloured dress which suited her Bronze coloured eyes well enough.

Briana was a beauty as well fit for a duke like himself she had long black wavy hair that shone in the light, her eyes were emerald green that suited her sparky green emerald dress.

"Your grace? Why must we wait here?" Briana asked tilting her head to the side in curiosity.

"It's for my daughter." He answered simply.

"That Evelyn? I think she has been pushing herself a little too much, poor thing~" Fatima said cupping her cheek in her hand.

"Don't you think you should be a little more lenient on her?" Briana put her hand on the duke's shoulder massaging it slowly.

"Haa~ Even if I wanted to, I can't go any easier on her else she turns out to be a lazy duke after she takes over..." Julian sighed rubbing his temple, he could not say he felt bad for his daughter but he simply could not go any easier on her, and the fact that she reminded him a little of his first wife... He did not want to remember that only bad memories came from it, her sudden disappearance leaving absolutely no trace behind magical or material...

"Skye... Are you thinking about her again?" Fatima looked at him slightly sympathetic, her relationship with Julian's first wife was not hostile, they were practically like sisters, Skye would often console Fatima whenever she felt sad she would help her with duchy duties she would take care of her kids when she didn't have the time... Fatima had to admit that she was perfect for being Julian's first wife and she could somewhat understand Julian's feelings, she had noticed the closeness between Julian and Skye back then being his second wife she understood...

As for Briana he had married her after Skye's disappearance so she did not know how she was like however she still felt bad for the duke her husband.

"I just can't seem to forget her... And Evelyn's looks don't help with that..." Julian sighed again, these days he had found himself sighing way more often than usual hearing about the demon attack did not help with that, the first thing he did was ask about his daughter and when he found out she was safe he was relieved, until he heard she was in the presence of a demon general. That new almost gave him a heart attack.

Evelyn was an almost identical copy of her mother the only difference being that she adopted Julian's hue of darker azure hair compared to Skye's light blue teal-ish colour.

"And for our high light of the night!" The host stole Julian's attention as he announced the item he was looking for.

"The chaos bird's enchanted feather!" He lifted the veil off to reveal and long and divine looking ethereal dark blue feather, it immediately diverted the attention of all the guests including the duke himself.

"It is an unknown item that was collected from a crash sight surrounded by ethereal blue energy! This item is presumed to date back to the calamity! The item was tested and it seemed to have some strange properties~~" The host added some spice to the back story of the item to attract more bids.

"We're going to start it off with 10 thousand gold!" The host started, the amount was not a small amount but compared to the duchy's safe?

"100 thousand gold." The duke submitted his bid from the VIP room which was overlooking all the normal guests, and the gasps and murmurs started once the host announced the bid submitted by the duke.

"Going once!" The host started and nobody spoke up, no one was willing to pay that much money for an item that barely even anyone knew anything about, except for the duke of course.

"Going twice!"

"And sold to VIP guest #3!" The host announced tapping his hammer and pointing it at the VIP room the duke sat in along with his wives.

This auction house kept the identity of the VIP's anonymous, the normal guests are provided with masquerade masks to remain anonymous as well.

"We got what we came here for let's go." The duke said as he stood up, his two wives got up as well and walked beside him to their carriage.

They would go on to claim their item later in the night.