It was the next morning, and Ashrosaliera was walking around the library with Cinderella Twilight.
Something was different, she was wearing a necklace this time, the necklace of [Fire] that the guidance counselor made. Used to alert him and her parents whenever Ash uses [Fireball]
And good news was... He allowed her to take it off whenever she went on an honorary duel, under his strict spectatorship, though.
The half-elf wanted to pick up some books to prepare for the school year and to further train her [Water] elemental control. Ash was bored waiting for 8AM, so she tagged along.
"How many spells do you know currently?" Ashrosaliera asked, skimming through a book called [Philosophy of Water], which was full of long paragraphs and was not of interest to Ash.
With her eyes darting upwards to think, Cinderella answered:
"Well, I could use two basic spells when I was 5. Now I know four basic and one advanced. Everything started around F-Rank, but now my basics should be at least D-Rank. But I don't think that's my ceiling yet."
"How envious," Ash commented casually with a straight face, "I could never rank up my skills through practice."
Cinderella was confused; she looked at Ash as if the girl had just tried to assassinate the king or stepped on a cat.
"What do you mean? Everyone could improve their ranking through practice, right? Unless the [ceiling] of all your spells is E or F-Rank and you couldn't ever improve… But that wouldn't be the case because you did that thing at the park." Cinderella said, reminding Ash of when she burned her three schoolmates alive.
"Uhh, it's complicated… What about the advanced spell?" Ash changed the topic.
"I just learned it last year, so not much progress, I believe it should be around E-Rank right now. Oh, and Ashrosaliera, you told me you needed some advice? What is it?" Cinderella asked.
"Ah, I'm going on a date and wondering if you could help."
Ash casually replied and kept walking, but Cinderella had halted her steps, and the book in her hand dropped. She stared into Ash with utter shock.
"You got a date?!" She exclaimed, lowering her voice after realizing they were in a library, "Is he from the first year?"
"No…" Ash replied
"Second?" Cinderella pressed.
"Not it…"
"Third?"
"Still no-"
"FOURTH?! Oh, Ashrosaliera, I didn't know you'd get down like that." Cinderella cupped her own cheeks while smiling with her mouth open.
"I just needed to entertain him for one date, and that's it," Ash explained, wording it the way the quest said.
"Entertain for one day… Oh my my, you're being paid? A rental date? You sly dog."
"No, I'm just-"
"Shh, it's okay, I understand the struggle, it happens to the best of us. Well, not me, it doesn't sit right with me, but I don't judge."
Cinderella seemed especially enthusiastic and knowledgeable about this type of stuff, which was concerning. The half-elf immediately grabbed Ash's hand and dragged her away from the library.
"You come with me this instance; we'll talk this through at the dorm."
"But your books…"
"I'll get them later! Just come!"
Ashrosaliera was kidnapped back to her dorm, where Zofia was probably reading somewhere, and Tarnisha was training. Only she and Cinderella sit across from each other on Cinderella's top bunk bed.
"Tell me everything you wanna know about this man and your intention with him, I'm going to make sure you get every second of your time worth."
"Okay, here goes." Ash took a deep breath, continuing. "He has a female name… I was really confused when I first saw him, but apparently he's very strong, he's not ugly or smelly, but the guy looks like he doesn't take showers or groom himself…"
Ash continued.
"You met my dad, right? They have similar beards, but while my dad had sharp strands around his mouth, this guy only has some under his chin. He's very uncoordinated, too. He bumped into me once, and when he picked up something on the floor, he bumped into something else behind him. Yeah, that's about it."
"Mhm… I see." Cinderella closed her eyes, listening intensely. "I see, guys like that usually pack-a-punch… Lucky haul."
"What does that even mean?" Ash asked.
"You'll know when you see it." Cinderella smirked, "Now, he sounds like a bookworm, so let's give you a cutesy, nerdy makeover to appeal to your first date!"
"No way! I wanna entertain him, but I don't want to go that far!"
Ashrosaliera then heard something familiar.
===
New Quest Available: Date Gone Right [1]
Detail: Make Tanya Nrägèjmul smile
Reward: 0.03 System Points
Status: Ongoing
===
The system message suddenly popped up, defeating Ashrosaliera's spirits. "Yeah, alright fine. Let's do a makeover, could you help me?"
"My pleasure!" Cinderella answered. The half-elf girl then rummaged through her bag, and after a short while, she brought out a pair of glasses. "These are stylistic glasses with no actual sight modification, you'll still see fine wearing them."
Cinderella continued with great excitement, as if she had just found a doll to play dress-up with. "Then we'll give you this, and that… Then this… Oh, you can borrow this today; it's fine. Here, stand up, make sure to pose like this, and walk like this. Oh my gosh, you're so cute!"
…
Ashrosaliera arrived at around 7:50 and waited inside the park, on the nearby benches, as they promised.
It was an excruciating half hour of changing her style and learning a new posture to appeal to a random guy. But Ashrosaliera arrived at the sixth-floor park with an entire makeover:
Ash's short white hair was tied even shorter to a ponytail, exposing her ears. She wore a pair of giant round glasses with lenses as big as her palms, making her look adorably ridiculous. She hugged a romance novel about a [Fire] and [Water] getting into an unfavorable relationship despite parental opposition. Cinderella had this lying around for some reason.
The most absurd part was that Ash was wearing a cute black beret with a pink bowtie that Cinderella also had.
To seal the deal: A brown book bag.
Cinderella told her it was mandatory that Ash learned to walk with short strides and stand with her knees together in a sheepish, cute way. This was especially needed considering she couldn't change her clothing on school grounds to present herself as a cuter girl.
"I'm going to kill you if I still fail this quest after all the trouble," Ash muttered, blushing as people walked by and stared at her.
"Ashrosaliera? Is that you?"
A voice called out for her from behind. She recognized Tanya's voice, so she stood up and turned around.