Darksteel

Chapter 22; A short trip to the town of Roses.

Days passed, and in honor of the Harvest Festival, the boys were given a short break from their lessons. Yet for all the joy the festivities brought, Asta continued to feel uneasy about being a Monster Lord, or, at least, he tried to, for it is rather difficult to feel uneasy when one is allowed to stuff their face with pumpkin muffins for breakfast.

Which was exactly what Asta was doing now.

 "Boys," Mr. Potter said proudly then, "How would you like to go down to the town of Roses today and buy some masks for the Masked Ball? Asta, I'm sure you would love the quaint village, intelligent boys like you always do."

 "Mmfffhh." Asta replied, his mouth full.

 In truth, the boy had hoped that his magic wardrobe would simply provide him with an outfit to the Masked Ball, but it looked as though that would not be the case. 

It was a shame, really. Now he would have to put effort into what he was going to wear, and he didn't want to get into the habit of putting effort into ANYTHING.

Yet, sure enough, after breakfast Mr.Potter seemed determined to drag them out to this town whether they liked it or not and, as to be expected, they did not.

The only people who looked excited to go were Nico and Jeremiah-- yet besides them, Blue was grumpier than usual and Adar was glaring at Asta like this was all his fault.

Simply wonderful.

Unfortunately, Mr.Potter could not be stopped, and once he had piled piled into a coach--which was horribly cramped-- he proceeded to pretend like they were having a good time. 

It was almost unbearable.

Yet what made the entire amtter worse was that the ride was rather long since apparently Phineas Adalain couldn't have been bothered to build Adalain Academy closer to any villages. 

Thus, the only entertaining things to do while being jostled about in the carriage was either giving Mr.Potter a rough time or it-- which Adar was doing splendidly-- or sleep.

Most chose the latter.

 At one point, Nico, who was crushed up against Asta, fell asleep with her head on his shoulder. For a moment, he thought it was quite adorable and was just leaning in to put his head on top of hers when the carriage jostled and she awoke, startled, her head snapping up and knocking Asta in the nose.

 "My face!" He yelped, "Oh, it's all been ruined now! I'll never look in the mirror again!"

But after Mr.Potter inspected Asta's nose— meaning he jabbed his finger at it while asking, "Does this hurt?" until Asta wanted to punch him in the face— he declared that it was not broken.

 "I'm so sorry, Asta." Nico said miserably, "I thought the worst I could do while sleeping on your shoulder was drool on you..."

Asta shrugged. "I'd rather have my nose broken by you than anyone else." He smiled at her then; there was something about the way her eyes blinked at him while she was apologizing that made him want to forgive her immediately.

She could break his whole face for all he cared and he would be the one who ended up apologizing for having his face in the way in the first place.

Thankfully, however, the rest of the trip passed without incident... unless one counted when Mr.Potter fell asleep and Adar stuck two small pieces of rolled up paper up his nostrils so that he woke up coughing and sputtering.

"I thought the Adalain Academy boys were supposed to be well-mannered!" the Guild master complained. 

 "Well, we are..." Jeremiah replied, shaking with laughter, "Perhaps we're just polite when you're not around."