Utopian System

Zara watched Elio descd from the sky, her heart beating with relief and anxiety. 'You're safe, where have you be?' she thought, fighting the urge to run towards him.

♢♢♢♢

As Elio landed, memories flooded Zara's mind, transporting her years back to a day that would change her life forever.

Zara, barely years old, sat alone in a corner of the school yard, her knees scraped and clothes dirty from wrestling with the boys. Her mother's words echoed in her ears:

"Wom shouldn't aspire to be strong, to fight. That's not our place, Zara. You must learn to be a mother."

But those words clashed with her father's teachings, a man who had longed for a son and who, having only daughters, had poured all his hopes into Zara, his youngest child. He had raised her like a boy, teaching her to fight, to be strong, to fear nothing.

"You can be whatever you want, my little warrior," he always told her. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Zara felt divided, trapped betwe two worlds, not knowing where she truly belonged.

But a few years later...

Her father, frustrated by never having a son, took a second wife... And she gave him a son.

Zara's mother, devastated by not fulfilling her divine duty and convinced that the young woman's son would take Zara's place, intsified her efforts to turn her into a "real woman."

"You don't need to be a 'man' for your father anymore, Zara. Learn to be a lady before it's too late."

Zara was more confused than ever. Should she forget everything her father had taught her? Should she give up her dream of being a strong and brave warrior like summoner Sele now?

'I was so confused,' Zara thought. 'I didn't know if I should hate everything my father had taught me because it was no longer useful or cling to it because I now liked it.'

It was in that momt of confusion wh Elio appeared, that lonely guy she had never spok to. Skinny, weak, and always with a distant look, he approached her with a shyness that contrasted with the determination in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sitting down beside her without waiting for an invitation.

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Zara looked at him, surprised by his audacity. "Do I look okay to you?" she responded brusquely, hoping to drive him away.

But Elio didn't flinch. Instead, he looked her straight in the eyes and said:

"You don't look okay. You look like a damsel in distress."

Zara, annoyed, punched him in the arm and knocked him down. They wrestled, and Zara won easily.

Elio was skinny, weak, but with an inner strgth that Zara couldn't ignore. Like the warriors she admired...

Despite the fight, they reconciled, and Zara decided to tell him about her situation.

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"I don't know who I'm supposed to be," she admitted, tears threating to fall. "A lady like my mother? A warrior like my father? What am I supposed to do, Elio?"

"You're not your mother, or your father," Elio had told her. "You're Zara. You can be what you like."

Those words were like a ray of light in the darkness for Zara. For the first time, someone saw her for who she was, not for what others wanted her to be.

From that day on, Zara and Elio became inseparable.

Micah, another school frid known for his sarcasm, used to joke: "Look, there goes our brave knight Zara, protecting her damsel in distress, Elio."

At first, Zara was annoyed by the commt, but over time, she began to see the truth in those words. Elio had become someone she wanted to protect, not out of weakness, but because of how important he was to her.

'My damsel in distress,' Zara thought with an internal smile, remembering how she had promised herself to protect Elio.

The memory of a particular conversation echoed in her mind.

"Why did you talk to me that day? Why did you push me to make my own decision?"

Elio, always thoughtful, took a momt to respond. "Because I saw in you something that I wished I had after I lost my father... Strgth, determination. You were everything I wasn't, ev as a woman. And I thought if someone like you doubted herself, what hope was there for someone like me?"

Zara was speechless. She had never thought she could inspire someone, much less Elio, whose eyes always seemed to shine with courage beath his shy facade.

She, gathering all her courage, inspired by Elio, had asked:

"Will you let me push you to a decision wh we're older, just as you pushed me to be who I am?"

And Elio, without hesitation, had responded: "If it's you, I'll let you push me to whatever you want. My decisions are at your mercy."

"Why?" asked Zara, surprised by the intsity of his response.

Elio smiled, a sad smile that Zara didn't understand at the time. "Because I trust you more than I trust myself. And because I probably won't live long ough for it to matter."

Zara felt her heart stop. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Zara," Elio said, his voice resigned. "You know the odds as well as I do. A skinny boy like me, with no resources to buy equipmt, who can't do anything against that guy Varick but stay quiet... How long do you think I'll last on the wall?"

At that momt, Zara made a silt promise. Not only would she protect Elio at school. She would protect him from everything, ev from himself if necessary. She would become the strgth he needed, just as he had be her support.

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Wh Elio tried to change the subject, talking about the mana deposits, Zara felt something inside her break.

'How can he think about that now?' she thought, frustration growing. 'Doesn't he see what he's doing?'

The pang of jealousy she felt took her by surprise. 'No,' she told herself. 'I can't be jealous. Elio isn't... isn't mine but...'

"Not relevant?" she interrupted, her voice rising. "How can you say that? Don't you see what's happing here? You're behaving like Fathoran, are you going to make your own harem now?"

The momt the words left her mouth, Zara knew she had gone too far. She saw the pain and anger in Elio's eyes, and part of her wanted to take it back immediately.

'I didn't mean that', she thought. 'Elio, I'm sorry, I...'

But her pride, her pain, wouldn't let her back down.

'Will you remember now, Elio?' Zara wondered, watching as the one who had once promised so much now seemed so distant.

"You hav't promised anything?"

Elio's words cut through Zara like a knife. 'How dare you?' she thought, rage and pain mixing inside her.

The memory of that promise, so precious to her, seemed to mock this momt.

'You promised me your decisions would be at my mercy, Elio. Have you already forgott?'

The betrayal she felt threated to drown her, but she forced herself to keep her composure.

"You can't just go out with whoever you want. You have responsibilities, you have to fulfill..." She stopped abruptly, realizing how bad it sounded. 'This isn't what I mean,' she thought desperately.

'Elio. I just want you to remember your promise, to understand what it means to me.'

But the words coming out of her mouth seemed to have a life of their own, judging and dictating, contrary to what she really felt in her heart.

A part of Zara was screaming inside. 'What are you doing? Stop. You don't want this.'

But it was too late. She saw how Elio tsed, how anger grew in his eyes. And wh he finally exploded, his words were like daggers.

"You have no right to judge me, Zara. You're nobody to tell me who I can or can't go out with."

Zara felt as if she had be slapped. 'Nobody?' she thought, the pain threating to choke her. 'Is that what I am to you, Elio? Nobody?'

"You know what? Yes, I'll go out with Lila. In fact, I'll go out with whoever I want. It's of your business, Zara. Or anyone else's."

Each word was a blow, shattering the hopes and dreams Zara had harbored for years. 'How did we get to this?' she wondered, feeling tears threating to spill.

"Fine," she managed to say, her voice barely a whisper. "I guess you're right. It's of my business."

With that, she turned a, unable to bear Elio's gaze for a momt longer. As she walked away, the memories of their promise, of those momts shared at school, seemed to mock her.

Flare, ssing its owner's pain, hissed one last time at Elio before disappearing with Zara. The salamander's warmth was comforting, but it couldn't alleviate the cold that had settled in Zara's heart.

As she walked away, Zara fought the urge to look back. Part of her hoped Elio would call out, stop her, say it had all be a misunderstanding.

But the call never came.