It was two in the morning.

Ara had managed to find her way back after almost three hours of trying to follow her footprints that were imprinted in the mud. She also looked for trees that bore a single, thick scratch on the middle of their trunks. Thank god Ara had kind of explored the vicinity before, back when she was fifteen. Her Aunt had touched on the topic of cards again that day, and the young girl had decided to go out for some fresh air.

When the exhausted teenager returned to her house, she breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that nothing was displaced, since she had left her doors open in a hurry. She locked up and made her way up to her room. Aunt and Uncle Chae would not be back till twelve in the afternoon.

After shutting her door, the eighteen-year-old took out the card that she had tucked safely into her shorts pocket. Ara could feel her body tingling with excitement.

“I wonder what rank you’re gonna be,” Ara mumbled to herself as she traced her trembling fingers along the intricate designs of the card. “Honestly, I’d still be happy even if you were a C-rank.”

I should probably bond to it.

Ara searched around her room for a sewing kit, finally finding a sharp needle. She poked the tip of her index finger gently, and let the blood slowly ooze out.

She carefully placed her wound over the surface of the card and watched silently as her blood began to dot the small, rectangular piece of plastic-covered paper. After three drops, Ara removed her finger and brought it to her lips, on the wound gently.

The card began to glow after a while, and the bright light that seemed to shine from within the card spread out slowly from the middle to all corners of the card within a few seconds. The light wasn’t blinding and had a rather warm glow actually, and stopped glowing after a while.

After that, the four symbols in the centre of the card blurred out, and the lines that decorated the card retreated back to its edges. The card glowed again, but this time in a golden-ish hue.

Ara could feel her jaw slowly slack open as she watched the scene before her. An image of a man began to materialise in front of a black background that was bordered with gold. Even though it was just his side profile, Ara could tell that the Warrior had sharp features, and a magnificent, defined jawline that looked sharp enough to cut. Blond hair framed his face, and his brown eyes were looking directly at her.

Ara let her gaze follow the line that was spelling out something at the top left corner of the card. Her eyes never left that corner even when the letter was finished and the card stopped glowing. A pair of eyes doubled their size.

A deep, golden letter ‘S’ rested nicely at the edge of her card. Ara let out a shaky breath.

A-an ‘S’ rank?

A dimpled smile broke out on Ara’s face, and Ara wasted no time to place her lips on the card. Nothing happened for a while, and Ara was millimetres away from kissing her card again until a deep voice spoke.

“Master.”

She would've been lying if she said she wasn't at all startled, and Ara jumped upon hearing a new voice in the quietness of her room. After recovering from her shock, Ara turned around to find a mob of hair in front of her face. The crown of her Warrior’s head was visible, and Ara realized that this guy was bowing to her.

Ara instantly stood up to her full height.

“U-uh, you can get up now,” Ara awkwardly commanded as she brushed herself off. The blond Warrior stood up at her words, and Ara instantly felt small when he straightened himself. The guy was a whole head taller than her!

His face also became visible, and under the light, Ara marvelled at how handsome he was. His face was sharp, and his features looked even more defined in real life, if that was even possible. He had fair skin, and there was not a single flaw that Ara could find. The man’s eyes were cold, but that didn’t mean that Ara wasn’t mesmerised by his deep brown irises.

“Master?”

Even his voice is captivating.

Ara snapped out of her reverie, feeling the heat rush to her face. She’d been staring.

“O-oh, yeah uhm,” Ara tried to find her words. The distance between them was distracting, and Ara had to take a step back.

, what do I do now? Ara her lips and whacked her brain. What did the books say about this situation? Oh! Commands. Right, she had to give her Warrior commands.

But wait, I can’t give him commands without his name. Right. I’ll ask him for his name.

“What’s your name?”

The Warrior slightly raised an eyebrow. That was the first expression Ara saw on his poker face. “Master, you can address me however you like.”

What? Address him however I liked? Of all the books Ara read, they never mentioned about this part. She was caught off-guard. Ara wasn’t good with names.

“I-I’m not good with names,” the eighteen-year-old wanted to smack herself. Why was she stuttering? “Can’t you just pick one?”

At her words, the nameless Warrior kept his face of indifference, but Ara could clearly see the curiosity and confusion whirling around in his eyes. “It’s a rule to name Warriors, Master. You have to name me.”

Ara let out an annoyed puff of air. What kind of rule was that? But since it was how things worked, she would just have to think of a befitting name for her Warrior. Although it may sound stupid, since she was horrible at naming.

The eighteen year old thought about it for a good five minutes, conjuring and then eliminating potential names left and right. She rubbed at her temples as she thought. At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if she got a headache.

She couldn't just think of a name on the spot. His name had to be good, powerful, and befitting, which she had no idea how to incorporate that. His name had to match his look, his power, and most of all, shouldn't make them both look like idiots. Ara huffed. 

Seeing as how the unnamed Warrior was still patiently looking down at her with his unmoving gaze, Ara felt her head go into a whirlpool of panic. She really didn't want to name him something she would regret, especially since she had no idea whether it was against the rules to change your Warrior's name mid-way.

After contemplating for a further ten minutes, with her new-found Warrior still standing still in front of her, Ara couldn't deal with the pressure anymore, and just decided to avoid naming him altogether. She would figure something out in the future when her emotions weren't skyrocketing and her feet weren't stinging.

"I'll just not name you for now. I'll think of something later."

The unnamed Warrior kept his look of indifference, but the slight quirk of his eyebrow accompanied by the swirl of confusion within his eyes suggested otherwise. 

"As you wish, Master."

“Great, now,” Ara wiped off the smile she had on her face and straightened her lips, making the most stoic face she could muster. After all, a Dealer had to be strict to her Warriors, no matter how different her real personality was. “Go find me a first-aid kit,” Ara ordered as she pointed her finger towards her door. She had noticed the gradually increasing stinging on her feet, probably from running through the rough terrain barefooted. The Warrior nodded promptly and immediately left the room.

Looks like I can get the hang of this. Ara smiled to herself as her Warrior left. She then picked out some clothes to head into the shower, wanting to wash off all the grime and sweat that had stuck onto her.

With a card now, Ara thought, I can finally fit into this world.

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧

“Ara!” the said girl was woken by the loud voice shouting her name. She groggily sat up from her bed, her hands immediately reaching up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Yawning, Ara grabbed her digital clock from her bedside table and looked at the time. It was twelve in the afternoon on a Saturday. Damn, she had slept her whole morning away. But who could blame her? After all the adrenaline from chasing her card down and the excitement from attaining her first card, Ara felt she was entitled to get a good, long sleep. So who could be the one that was disturbing her slumber?

“Ara! Kim Ara!” came the voice again. After sitting up for a while, her brain was slowly starting to reboot and process the voice that was calling for her. It sounded like a female, and as the seconds passed by with the cogs in her brain turning faster, Ara realised that the shrill voice was sounding more and more familiar. Her eyes doubled their size as she looked at the clock in her hands again.

It was twelve. Her aunt and uncle should be back by now.

Realising their presence, Ara hurriedly threw off her duvet cover and swung her legs off the bed as the footsteps to her room thundered closer and louder. Just as she threw open her door, Aunt Chae stood before her in all her 48-year-old glory, with a stern look on her face. Ahra understood that her aunt and uncle didn’t like her sleeping in when she was supposed to greet them the moment they stepped through the front door, and was about to apologise for it, before her eyes landed on the figure standing next to her aunt. Ara recognised the blond head of hair that was bowing slightly at her.

“Do you mind explaining why there was a man in the house?” Aunt Chae inquired as she roughly shoved the Warrior towards Ara. Despite that, he only stumbled a few steps before he stood his ground.

Seeing him still keeping his head down due to respect, it finally donned on Ara that after treating her wounds with the first-aid kit her Warrior found for her, she hadn’t summoned him back into his card and had instead fallen asleep. Her Warrior must have been standing guard downstairs or something. Ara was about to explain to her aunt about her new found Warrior when the boy opened his mouth before she did.

“Master.”

His voice was soft and firm as he uttered out that single word that instantly had Aunt Chae freeze up in surprise. Her eyes widened as she stared at the Warrior with her lips slightly parted before directing her gaze to her niece.

“Master? You’ve finally found a Warrior?” Aunt Chae asked in disbelief, almost not being able to believe that her weakling of a niece, the disappointment to the family, had finally found herself a card.

Ara rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, instantly regretting not setting an alarm to wake herself up and prepare before formally introducing her Warrior to her aunt and uncle. “Well, yeah, I found him last night and-“

“Oh. Honey, come up here!” Aunt Chae called out to her husband before Ara could finish her sentence. The now eighteen year old internally let out a sigh. Her aunt really didn’t like to bother with details about her.

Footsteps thundered closer as they travelled up the stairs and before she knew it, Uncle Chae was right beside her aunt in a jiffy. “Yes, honey?”

“Ara has finally found a card,” Aunt Chae let out a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Her tone held surprise, but there was not a trace of happiness or pride for her niece. Her exclamation was because of relief that the family would not be tied down by the disgrace of having a non-Dealer. Ara knew she wasn’t even trying to mask her lack of happiness either. She was her aunt after all.

“Really?” Uncle Chae directed his gaze from his wife to the young Warrior standing beside her. He instantly grabbed his shoulder so that he would half face him as he scanned the Warrior. “That’s great, what rank is he?” Uncle Chae finally landed his eyes on his niece.

Ara let a smile grace her face, dimples showing. She was getting attention! Although its really because of her card and not really because of her, Ara was still happy. “Well, he’s an S-rank.”

“Really?” Uncle Chae looked at him once more, an approving smile on his face. The whole time, the Warrior didn’t even look up, instead opting to have his head remained bowed, even though his neck was beginning to feel slightly sore. “Well then, that means you will be heading to the Academy,” Uncle Chae removed his grip from his shoulder and dug into his pocket for his phone. “I want you there first thing Monday morning.”

“Wait, what?” Ara had expected to be sent to the Academy, her dream school, but she didn’t expect that her uncle would want her out that soon. Its not like she really minded though, the sooner she could catch up with the others, the better. Uncle Chae didn’t seem to take note of her quiet exclamation, and just proceeded to punch in the digits of the Academy’s number. After a few rings, the other side picked up, and Uncle Chae begin walking back downstairs as he discussed about Ara’s enrolment.

At the same time, Aunt Chae had just stood there scrutinising Ara’s Warrior the whole time the conversation was going. After realising her husband was gone, she crossed her arms together and looked sternly at Ara. “Since he’s an S-rank, and you are still a member of this family,” Aunt Chae started, with a sigh as she mentioned about her relationship with Ara. Oh. Ara knew where this was going already. “I expect that you do not embarrass the name of the family that has kept its reputation for years.”

Ara knew that for some unfathomable reason, her aunt really disliked her. She honestly didn’t know what she did wrong, besides not having a card. But now, she did. And it is even an S-rank! So why did her aunt still speak in the same…disappointing tone as before? Was it because it took her eighteen years to find a card? And that the family had to keep the secret of having a disgrace from the public that put her family as the centre of its attention? Ara was at a lost on what to do to get her aunt’s recognition.

But she was certain, that from this day onwards, she would work hard to fit into her world, to gain the recognition of those she called family. Now that she had a card, and an S-rank at that, she was determined to make sure no one looked down on her again. Ara stared into her aunt’s eyes with newfound determination.

“Yes, Aunt Chae.”