[Hani's dorm]
Back at Hani's, Emma accompanied her to talk to the dorm admin. It was way past midnight, and with Hani's tendency to break rules, Miss Blight had expected her to be loitering somewhere. Emma helped explain the situation, and the misunderstanding was all smoothed out after talking.
With a sigh of relief, Emma walked with Hani into her room. Emma entered Hani's room for the first time ever. Stepping into it was a normal-sized room with a bed, a table, and piles of books everywhere. Emma let out a smile as she saw the mess of books on her table. While everything else was tidy, a drawer was ajar and trashed like she had thrown everything in there. It's exactly as I expected it to be. Clean on the outside, but inside was truly messy. Emma laughed to herself.
"Eh, why are you laughing?" Hani squinted at Emma as she sat down on the bed.
"It's nothing." Emma sat at the desk, looking through her books and notes, which were full of scribbles of their lessons. "I can see why you improved so quickly, Hani, so many notes. I'm proud of you! I feel like an accomplished teacher now, I must be a natural at teaching!" She picked up the sheets, grinning towards Hani.
"Pshh, of course, it's because I am such a genius student!" They both looked at each other and chuckled, finally able to relax from the hectic day.
"I actually have something for you, Hani. I came here today to give you this when you were missing." Emma took out a weapon with her skill. She presented Hani with a beautifully crafted dagger. Holding it, Hani found it absolutely perfect, balanced and fit like it was made for her.
"Oh! This dagger is so great! But I cannot afford it, Emma, it seems like it was made by your family, which is too expensive for me!" Reluctantly, Hani held out her hand, offering Emma back the dagger, unwilling to let go.
"Too bad then." Emma teased Hani, saying, "I made it specially for you, but you don't want it. I guess I will just have to let it be scraps then." As Emma grabbed the dagger to take it back, Hani's grip on it got stronger. With a mini tug of war over the dagger, Emma squinted her eyes at Hani. "Are you not letting go?"
Emma's family, the Wang, were well known for being a powerful Hero family. They were also well known for helping the community and taking in anyone regardless of status or rank if they had a valuable talent. Their power is hard to rival due to being a weapon manufacturer for nearly every high-ranked hero out there. Hani received their one-of-a-kind custom weapon, which she could never have imagined touching before.
Hani, on the verge of tears, bit her lip, gripped onto the dagger even harder, "You can take it back, Emma!" Her words contradicted her actions, Emma let go of the dagger as Hani fell backwards on her bed.
"Keep it, you idiot! Haha!" Emma found Hani's childish actions amusing. "I must go home now, but I'll let the school dean know about your situation. You do not have to go to school today, so you can rest and get that weapon permit. Take care of that dagger well, since you are determined to go through with that tournament, you are going to need it!"
Emma said her goodbyes, leaving Hani to lie on her bed and go to sleep, hugging the dagger close to her through the night.
---
[Next Day]
Hani woke up, still clinging to the dagger. She saw it first thing as she awoke, and she squealed in excitement and kissed it. "You are so beautiful! How can something so exquisite exist in the world? A light that rivals no other than Stella!" Hani kissed the sheath multiple times, "I need to give you a name, right? Hmm... Yes! I shall call you Sparkle cause you sparkle at every angle!"
After another few minutes of examining the dagger in awe, Hani decided to get ready to go out. Since she woke up around noon, there was not much time before the weapon registry closed at 3 pm. She was not so pleased that the weapon registry happened to be in the library, others were just too far to travel to.
A locked case in hand with the dagger inside, she made her way towards the same dreadful place where she was attacked the very day before. I am gonna make sure to also file my complaint right away! That librarian is going to get a piece of my mind too, such a prejudiced woman!
Hani reached the front of the stairs with nearly 30 minutes till the registry closes. Anger spiked thinking about the incident from yesterday as she stormed into the library. " I swear I am gonna make them pay... they better get on their knees and beg for forgiveness!" Hani huffed and puffed as she muttered under her breath.
Once she got inside the building, the receptionist recognised her. "Oh, Miss Hani! We have been expecting you. I would like to offer my deepest apologies regarding the incident that took place yesterday!" The girl bowed down with a genuine apology.
Hani was flustered by this unpredictable behaviour. "Um.. Yeah, well, it's not your fault, so stop bowing. It's not your mistake to apologise for!" She cleared her throat as she felt awkward, having never been in this type of situation before.
"As a worker here, I feel some responsibility, so I hope you do not bear too much ill will towards the staff... Well, I believe you are here for a weapon registry, as we had been informed by Miss Wang. Please let me assist you!" With a bright smile, she took the case from Hani's hand and led the way. "This way, Miss Hani."
Hani followed the receptionist towards the elevator. "Um... May I know your name?" Hani asked the receptionist.
"Of course! My name is Quinn," she replied cheerfully.
"So what happened yesterday after I was taken away, Quinn. I mean, it's not like you guys randomly started treating me like a VIP when I have been here many times." Hani asked, unsure what had happened.
"Oh! It was actually very cool! Yesterday, Miss Wang arrived and finally collected the group of workers who were not doing their jobs properly! The security guards had not reported anything wrong cause they had been bribed, and the head librarian was famously known for being a mean, judgmental woman. So when Miss Wang gathered these people and threw the evidence at them, they were swiftly arrested and taken away! Our whole staff system was changed in a couple of hours, and dirty roots were removed and replaced! Finally, we don't have to deal with that old hag anymore. Hehe." Quinn explained to Hani what occurred after she was taken away as she laughed innocently.
How is she laughing while calling someone a hag so innocently? That head librarian must have been a very hateful person! Hani stared at her with wide eyes, just nodding along.
"After Miss Wang had gotten rid of everyone, she then started to make sure the whole staff knew who you were, and Miss Hani is protected under the Wang group! She made sure everyone knew your face and told us how you are a special customer here and how Miss Hani should be treated as she is Miss Wang herself." She grabbed her face as she had gotten infatuated by that situation, "She was so cool!"
"I see! I guess I really have to thank Emma then." Hani gave a knowing nod. Yeah, Emma can be really cool when she is being domineering towards bad people. I understand how Quinn feels.
After taking the short elevator ride and registering her weapon in a few minutes, Hani was free to go. I guess there is no need to file a complaint cause they don't even work here anymore. Nice ~ Less trouble for me!
As Hani walked out and was bid farewell by Quinn, she decided to drop off at the cafe and talk to Miss Ivory.
Walking in the door, the bell rang as Miss Ivory turned around. "Oh hey Hani, how nice to see you come here. Come to give me a helping hand?" she grinned at Hani.
Instantly, Hani shook her head frantically, "No! I am just here to chat, Miss Ivory, and to remind you it's this weekend, I won't be coming in due to my school festival!" Hani sat down at the table close to the bar. There are quite a few people left here now, but Ivory worked fast and efficiently and sat down with Hani with two drinks on the table.
"So, come to chat about that weapon, have you? It's the first time I have seen you with one, and it looks pretty good quality!" Ivory eyed the weapon. Is that from the Wang blacksmiths? How the hell did she get her hands on that?
Sipping the drink, Hani explained to Ivory all that had happened the previous day, and hearing the outcome, Ivory laughed, "I cannot believe it! Who knew you had connections with someone in the Wang family? I am glad you are okay, though. I would not want my best worker arrested now, would I?"
"Miss Ivory, I am your only worker," Hani said as she pouted.
Ivory patted Hani's head as she stood up, cleaning the now finished drinks. "Well, now I have to come see you this weekend. Being trained by the one and only Miss Wang, I have to see these skills that beat those three thugs." Ivory gave a thumbs up as she went to clear the other tables.
Sighing at Ivory's carefree attitude, Hani was still happy that someone was coming to watch her. Never really having anyone do this in the past made her happy.