Another day, another request! Mei didn’t rest these days. She had been working a little too hard to earn money for her parents, which was great for her parents and all, but it was starting to bore her. Most of the things she had to do were pretty menial tasks, so she felt like she wasn’t using her potential to the highest. However, that was the type of jobs she was capable of at this rank. Once she had enough experience, however, she might be able to take higher ranked quests. Mei hadn’t been practising her magic much so she barely used it. Seeing how her jobs required almost absolutely no use of magic, she didn’t feel like she had to anyways.

Today, however, the request she had taken was from a fellow mage who needed a partner to practice. She had a weird name, ‘Seheda’ was it? Like what kind of name was that, right? Mei had like a one syllable name that rhymed with the name of the month May, but what the heck was ‘Seheda’? She couldn’t even guess what that could mean. Of course it had to mean something, though. Everyone’s names had meanings to them. Mei’s name, for instance, meant beautiful. Although it wasn’t a very unique name that would wow people or something, she embraced it. It’s the name her parents gave her. Mei also didn’t think of herself as beautiful. She was too modest to think that. In fact, she thinks of herself as anything but beautiful. Cute - she could accept it. Pretty - maybe. But normally, when people called her cute or pretty or beautiful, she would just say that that wasn’t true and laugh about it.

Mei reached the forest outskirts of Orchidia, which was their meeting place. She didn’t see anyone there, so she was probably here early. Seheda would be here any minute now, she assumed as it was already about fifteen minutes to their meeting time when she left her house and rode her bike there. Recently her father purchased a bike for her to use so she wouldn’t have to be walking around in the sun to do her jobs. So this was convenient. She rested her bike against a tree and waited for Seheda while she looked around. She hadn’t been here before, and if she had it wasn’t for long. Plus it was too quiet at the moment she almost thought she was at the wrong place before Seheda showed up. She was dressed in an outfit for combat, while Mei wasn’t really prepared that way. She was in her attire for exercise, which made her feel light and active.

Seheda literally came running, probably thinking she was late or something but Mei didn’t really mind if she was late because she was the client and the one who needed help. Mei greeted her with a smile and a bow. “Hello! It’s nice to meet you,” she said, giving her a bit of an awkward wave.

Seheda was panting when she arrived, making Mei feel slightly worried. She didn’t even have the energy to greet her back, so Mei asked, “Are you okay? I guess you were in a hurry here. Take long, deep breaths.” She was starting to feel more than worried as Seheda didn’t reply to her again, now even nodding at her and panting, which made her look like she was about to die of exhaustion. Mei raised an eyebrow and bent her knees slight so that she was leveled with Seheda who was also bent, her hands on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath. Mei straightened up again, hoping to find a way to help her, but it was hopeless. She hesitantly placed a hand on Seheda’s back, patting it gently as the panting got slower and she was breathing fairly okay again. “Are you okay now?” she asked and Seheda started to nod again. “Thank god!” she exclaimed with a small laugh. Mei then retracted her hand and waiting for the other mage to straighten up and say something.

“I’m sorry about that, I didn’t want to be late,” said Seheda with a nervous laugh.

“Ahh, don’t you worry about being late I don’t mind at all. I’m ready when you are!” said Mei enthusiastically. Seheda grinned widely, making Mei feel super relieved. She seemed excited to start this training exercise. Mei waited for Seheda to give her the instructions on how this training session would go, which she did soon after she caught her breath and everything. Mei nodded and listened carefully so that she didn’t mess it up for Seheda.

So the training session began. Seheda wasn’t so bad, according to what Mei observed, the only problem was that she was too talkative and paid less attention to the task at hand than she should. Even Mei was more focused on the training than on replying to what Seheda was telling her. It was mostly about how she felt when she kept getting rejected by the academy and she was starting to lose motivation but then she had some kind of sudden realisation and she would prove them all wrong. Mei nodded and agreed with her. Seheda also told her how much being a mercenary meant to her and that she wanted to make it into the academy this time. “I’m sure you will. I believe in you!” Mei told her. That’s what she was good at, being a cheerful girl and encouraging everyone to chase their dreams.

The training session ended eventually and Seheda gave Mei her reward for helping her. Mei didn’t even feel like taking it, but she did anyways since it was a request after all and maybe it was rude to not take the reward. “Seheda you’re actually really good, I don’t know why they rejected you. Maybe you should pay more attention to the task at hand and talk less? I think that’s my advice for you,” Mei said, feeling a little bit bad for saying that she talked too much. She then said goodbye and rode her bike back home.