—
After finally gaining some distance away from the Dancing Whistle, Iris began to regain her breath from the erratic running. She'd never been faced with such forwardness by someone in her group growing up. As they'd be instantly turned away or turned off from her attitude. Iris looked to the ground in relief to be out of such a troublesome situation, though she felt her heart beating intensely from such forwardness.
"Why'd he have to touch my hand, I can't handle stuff like that!"
She looked down to her hand which was adorned by her trusted gloves, she'd worn them for as long as she could remember, but it seemed to be somewhat of a comfort to her. She let out a sigh as she looked at the clock tower close by.
"I can't focus on things like that though…! Sunsets coming…I could get back to the dorm to work on some spells…I have to prepare diligently for this Dungeon Walk. It's a big grade after all, yeah!"
She began to motivate herself as she started to walk back in the direction of the campus, but shortly heard footsteps approaching from behind her, her eyes tensed up after hearing a familiar voice.
"Oh, look who it is, my darling younger sister…Iris!"
"Oh…hello Rowan…"
A taller boy with clean-cut olive-colored hair was followed by two other boys. They began to chuckle as Rowan continued to speak to his younger sibling.
"What're you doing wandering around, don't you have a big assignment to be preparing for…? If I'd known any better, it looks like you're slacking off."
"That wouldn't be good, you guys have a reputation to uphold."
"Wait a minute, look at her cloak!"
One of the boys pointed at her cloak which showed her ranking on the back as they began to laugh out loud. Rowan's face turned stone cold as he grabbed her cloak and examined it.
"H-hey!"
"What is the meaning of this…Iris…?"
Iris' eyes were as tense as ever as her voice began to waver, his grip on her cloak was strong enough to practically pick her up off of the ground if he wanted to. She held onto his arm as she pleaded to be put down.
"P-please brother…just let go of me…"
"I won't tolerate failure in this family Iris. You of all people should understand that loud and clear."
"Yes…I know."
"That doesn't explain why you're donning this rank so happily."
"I-I–"
"No excuses. Maybe you need a demonstration to remind yourself what it takes to carry the Laurier name…"
He suddenly lifted her as veins popped out of his head, the two friends following him had faces that changed to ones of worry as they slowly began to reach out.
"H-hey man, you don't wanna get caught doing something like this in front of authorities."
"What if the knights see you…we should just go…"
Rowan looked at the two with intense eyes as he held Iris up by her cloak. He slowly began to set her down as she began to cough and try to readjust herself. Tears welled up in her eyes as he turned away from her and began to walk in the opposite direction.
"Don't let me catch you doing anything that'd bring shame to our family's name. I won't be so nice next time Iris."
"C'mon let's get outta here."
"Right behind ya."
The three walked off as if nothing had happened, shortly after Alma had seemingly caught up to Iris, breathing heavily due to how far she ran.
"I finally…caught up to ya…Iris…!"
Iris looked away as she dusted herself off. Alma looked confusedly as she stared at her back, noticing her clothing seemed a bit more wrinkled than before. As she began to speak, Iris interrupted her.
"Hey…thanks for the talk. It helped a ton…I'm gonna go and study a bit, to prepare for the assignment, okay?"
"Uh…yeah, no worries Iris."
Iris turned to Alma and gave her a small smile as she went on to walk back to the campus. Alma scratched the back of her head as she walked off, wondering what caused her to seem so ready to prepare. Though she felt it may be good for her, that she can be motivated even with everything that transpired after the Tavern. She began to walk off and wonder to herself.
"What could those two teaming up possibly look like…hopefully he can handle someone like Iris!" she laughed to herself as she walked on her way.