“Your Aria Bck right? I’m a huge fan”

  Nyx was right in front of Aria, and grabbed her hands. She looked very much like a faing their idol.

  “Um, yeah. I’m Aria Bck.” Aria respoo the girl. “Wait, Aren’t you Nyx, the singer?”

  “Yeah, I am. Are you a fan?” Nyx stated. “I ’t believe that Aria Bck is a fan of my music” she said with a massive smile.

  “I mean, a little. My brother is a bigger fan” Aria said, bringio the versation. This wasn’t great.

  I’m not good with new people, and this isn’t just a regur person. Nyx is a celebrity I have been following for years. I ’t just talk to her.

  So instead I decide to hide behind Aria until they're done and we go back to party stuff.

  But almost instantly, uncle Gideon ruins my pns.

  “Hey, Aria, I talk to you about something? It's important.” Uncle Gideon said.

  “What's up?” Aria said.

  “It’s something to talk about in private” he said.

  “Anything you have to say to me you say in front of Zenith”

  “It has to do with stuff I ’t tell him without permission.”

  “Oh, this is about me.” Nyx said. “It’s ok. He was the other ht?”

  “The other what” Aria said. I could hear that whatever was going on had to do with me, but didn’t uand what it could be.

  “Well, Nyx here specifically requested you to help with her orientation and thanks to some special circumstances, we agreed to ask you.” Gideon said.

  Aria looked iweewo of them. “What are the circumstances?” Aira eventually asked.

  Gideon looked back at Nyx and she nodded. “When Nyx was gettiered we did the tent magic test on her and it broke the measuring device, just like with Zenith. I believe her skill is extraordinarily powerful, just like Zeniths”

  This caught me off guard. I knew about the weird circumstances around my innate magic tests, but I had never heard of anyone else having it happen.

  “Really, what does it do?” Aria asked.

  “I ’t tell you that” Gideon said.

  But right away, Nyx spoke up. “I think I turhings into something like summons. I don’t know I’ve ried it”

  “Really? That seems like it could be strong, like really strong” Aria said, moving into a hunter mi.

  But hearing her words makes Nyx blush. She seemed very excited about Aria giving her praise.

  “Well, I think so as well. So how about it, help her out in the orientation?”

  “Yeah sure, seems fine.” Aria said. “So, Nyx does the sed work for you? I am already ing to the association that day”

  “Really, so soon. I thought it would be like a week. I’ll be here anytime” Nyx said with a massive smile. “ I ask why you were ing here on the sed? Is it an important dungeon dive, or a meeting with another S rank, or something like that?”

  “Oh, no. nothing hunter reted. My brother here is taking the test to skip the rest of high school” Aria said, once again pullio the versation.

  I still had yet to say anything and was still trying to hide behind Aria. I was even thinking of using magic to hide even more.

  “Really? That test is supposed to be really hard, right? Are you really that smart?” Nyx said to me, in a very sweet tone. I was pletely petrified, lost in the idea that someohat famous was talking directly to me.

  And I couldn’t say anything to her. No answer came out of my mouth.

  After a few seds of all three of them looking at me, Nyx started again, “Is everything Ok?”

  “Uh…” I started, finally making noise. "Yes, I'm really that smart” I finally said, while looking at the ground. I felt weird both talking to her and bragging about myself. I don’t normally talk to anyone about myself.

  “Don’t mind him” Aria said, spinning around and grabbing my arm. “Zenith is really shy around new people. And, he is a big fan so this might be weird for him”

  “Oh, well that makes sense. You two are quite close aren’t you” Nyx ended up saying.

  “Yep. Super close” Aria said with a lot of pride.

  “Well, now that we settled the orientation stuff, I have other people to talk to. Aria, if you see Aell him I said hi. And Nyx, please enjoy yourself” Uncle Gideon said.

  And like that he left, leaving just the three of us where we were talking.

  And after he left, Nyx looked over at Aria and me. “Um, Ms. Aria. I spend the party with the two of you? I don’t really know anyone else here.”

  With that, Aria got a suspicious smile, and answered, “Of course! Let's have some fun!” she said, grabbing Nyx’s hand as well and pulling the two of us bato the party.

  ?

  Aria speime dragging the two of us to do a lot of things together. When Nyx asked why Aria was ok with bringing her along, Aria said it was funny seeing me so flustered.

  We did basically everything that was avaible at the party. Any game they had, we had to try.

  On one of the other floors they had several things for huo try out. Games that used magic to shoot down targets.

  The games were kind ed for people with higher intelligend high mana. I scored very poorly. Since she had yet to do any hunting, Nyx couldn’t do this one.

  And Aria showed us all up, sg the highest for everyone in the building.

  We tio a lot of different pces in the building. The party had a lot more attras than I saw ing.

  But eventually we made it back to the main party floor, a few minutes before midnight.

  Whe up there, I decided to take a moment to breathe. Outside of the first thing I said to Nyx, I haven’t been able to talk to her, so I've been pletely quiet since we started going around the party.

  But even when I had gotten a moment to myself to breathe, and not feel an overwhelming sense of self sions, someone had to go and ruin it.

  “Um, excuse me, Zenith” Nyx said, followio where I was catg my breath.

  Hearing her, I jumped. “Oh, umm… what's up?” I said, still uo look at her.

  “I wao ask you a question. Your uold me that you also broke the measuring device when your tent magic was tested. I was just w what your skill is?” She asked me.

  “Oh” I said, gettied. Ever since awaking absolute creation, I really ealking about my skill, even just to myself. “It's called absolute creation. I ’t do much with it yet sis only level one and requires like, a lot of MP” I tell her.

  “Pfff.” Nyx ended up ughing at my expnation. This in no way made me feel good.

  Notig that I had a rea to that, Nyx quickly expined. “I’m really sorry. It’s just that, that was the first time that you looked right at me and talked without stuttering. I tell how much you like talking about skills.”

  “Oh, I didn’t even notice” I said, once again looking away from her.

  “And there you go again. You know, I'm not going to hurt you.”

  “It’s just hard. I mean, I am a big fan of yours. I don’t really know how to talk to you” I expined.

  “Well, I see where you're ing from. So how about I ease you into this. Tell me about your sister.”

  “Aria? What do you want to know?”

  “Basically everything. You know how you said that you're a fan of mine. Well, I’m a fan of your sisters. If you don’t know, she is super popur as a hunter. One of the fastest S rank hunters, and one who did it as a solo hunter. Inspirational” she said, with a huge smile.

  “Oh, I mean, I’ve seen posts about her online. But to me, she is really just Aria. I know she is a powerful hunter, but she doesn't really talk about it anymore. I don’t really know why”

  “Really. So what is she like at home”

  “Lazy” I say as a joke. “She sleeps a lot, and makes our brother and me do most of the chores when our parents are gone. But she is also really nid sweet. She is always there when I am having problems.”

  “That's good. But what kind of problems is she helping you with?” Nyx said, digging deeper.

  “I have panic attacks. They kind of just happen. And she used to pick me up from school when I was getting bullied, just to make sure I was ok”

  As I was talking about Aria, I could feel a smile f on my face.

  I really did care about Aria a lot, probably more than anyone, maybe even my other family.

  Maybe even Mana.

  “She really is that nice, huh.” Nyx said with a smile on her face as well.

  “Well, I think so” I say. It took me a sed to realize that we were having a versation without me freaking out. “Thank you, Nyx”

  “Hmm, thank you for what?”

  “For having a versation with me like this”

  “Oh, well, I did get to learn more about Aria because of it”

  “Are you, ied, in my sister?”

  “Oh, no nothing like that. I just am her fan”

  “Oh. Is there anything else you want to know about her?”

  “Not much. I think I just want to be her friend” Nyx said.

  “Well, I’m ok with that” Aria said, walking over to both of us.

  “Really?!” Nyx said, with a huge smile.

  “Yeah, I mean, you're o Zenith and if you weren't I would have said no. But you seem cool, and I do like your music” Aria said.

  “Yes. I promise you won’t regret it. Ah” she said, now looking at me, “I hope we be friends as well”

  This causes me to blush again, and like before, look away.

  “I think I have to agree with you Aria, he is pretty cute whes flustered” Nyx said.

  Refreshed from the break I took, and the versation about Aria, we made our way bato the party.

  It was right as a slow song started to py.

  Nyx looked over at me and asked, “Hey Zenith, want to dance?”

  This caught both me and Aria off guard. And before I could respond, Aria spoke up.

  “If anyone is going to be dang with him, it’s going to be me” she said.

  “Oh, e on. Just this one, and you share the one” Nyx said.

  It was a sed before Aria responded. “Fine, but no funny business.”

  “Got it” Nyx said, and she dragged me onto the dance floor.

  Out of the er of my eye, I could see Anthem and Madison dang as well.

  I was really flustered about this.

  “Just take it easy. I’ll lead for you” Nyx said.

  “Um… OK”

  And with that, we started to dance. All I had to do was follow Nyx’s lead. I k was normal for the man to lead, but this was the first time I had ever danced.

  I was stantly looking down just to make sure I didn’t step on her feet.

  “It's alright Zenith, just take it easy” she said.

  I didn’t know why, but when she said that, I felt a calming feeling.

  As the song was ending, the Mc stated the tdown to the new year.

  “Hey, I tell you something” Nyx said.

  “Um, sure” I responded.

  “I don’t know how to say this, but when I first saw you, I felt an instant e. I am really happy we are going to be friends. So, please don’t read too muto this.” she said.

  And right as the Mc said 0, Nyx kissed me, ever so lightly on the lips.

  And a few seds ter, I heard an explosion somewhere in the building.

  NamelessAlter