After seeing a mysterious package lying outside her room, Carissa confusedly glanced into the hallway, having not ordered anything.

All personnel and packages had to be checked by security guards before entering the building, so the box had to be someone else's.

Wrong room?

Just when she was about to close the door and leave it to rot, her eyes suddenly caught sight of a single sentence written on the package.

"Property of Anna."

Her pupils instantly froze in place, her hands uncontrollably trembling as she subconsciously reached down.

Anna was the name of her mother, who had long passed away from an illness when she was a child.

Scooping up the package, Carissa shut her door and hurriedly placed the box on her completely unused counter.

With her usual sense of composure gone, she ripped open the package with her hands...and paused.

"a... book?"

Within the package lay an old, small crimson-red book, with no words or anything on the cover.

Confused, she hesitated for a moment before finally opening the book...revealing a blank first page.

In fact, as she picked up the book and quickly flipped through the pages...not a single page was written.

The pages were completely empty, not even a single trace of ink or lead visible.

It was a blank notebook.

Sighing, Carissa closed the book and placed it back on the counter, turning around with a disappointed expression, her eyebrows lowered and mouth dropping.

She had hoped it might be an old keepsake of her mother, but no, it was empty.

However, just as she took a step forward, the faint sound...of a pencil soft scribbling entered her ears.

A normal person or even Athen wouldn't have noticed this faint sound, but being a bow-user with world-class observational skills, Carissa immediately turned around, her head grasping the notebook.

And...when she opened the notebook, she saw it.

Something...was writing.

Pencil lines were simply appearing on the first page of the notebook, a faint sound echoing.

However, that wasn't what mattered to Carissa.

With her perception and incredible memory, she easily recognized the writing.

It was the same writing on her permission slips back in elementary school; it was the same writing that appeared in her lunchbox every day.

It was her mom's writing.

It was Anna.

Carissa's pupils dilated, her hands trembling uncontrollably, as tears began forming in her eyelids and dripping down her face.

Her emotionless mask crumbled as she gazed at the notebook.

Finally, after a minute, or what seemed like eternity to Carissa, the write sound halted, completing about two lines on the book's first page.

[Four Axis Academy Week 1]

Tuesday: Classes were boring today. Doctor King was strict and only called all of us to answer a question. Thankfully, my summer studying paid off!

Wednesday: Friends...they're hard to make with my rank. Hopefully, practicals go well next week. I'm scared...I'm all alone; all I do is go to class and my dorm every day. I have to sit alone every day. Future-me...does it ever get better?

Thursday: I wonder how Dad is doing...is he working without me? How are the dogs!? How are Ace and Dixie? I can't wait for him to write back to me...But I know he's busy.

Saturday: Today, I joined a club! I love Dance...but making the team seems so hard. I don't think I'll be able to do it...

Sunday: Back to school tomorrow...I should probably start training, but I can't. The training hall is always too full of people...I can't handle it.

[---]

Gazing at the writing before her, Carissa dropped to the ground, the book falling to the floor with a resounding bang.

"I-it's her h-her diary."

Having only seen her mother as a child, Carissa didn't remember many things.

She was so carefree...and unprepared for life. With a smile, she simply ran through the garden, ignoring her parents, and basking in the wealth amassed by them.

Everyone had told her, at the funeral, that she couldn't blame herself, yet Carissa did...so much.

That's why her mask was always on

I don't deserve to be happy...

Carissa regretted her childhood so much that she longed to travel back in time — just for a day—to talk to her mom and have a proper conversation.

But...as she picked up a pencil and looked at the writing, waterfalls of tears uncontrollably fell down her face.

She could do it now...she could learn all about her mom. She could make up for her childhood.

The pencil wobbling in her hands, barely clinging onto her fingers, slowly descended upon the notebook.

Slowly, Carissa wrote in the notebook, perhaps wanting to officially claim the notebook by adding writing, her usual delicate handwriting distorted into that of a child due to her hand trembling.

[I miss you.]

However, at that moment, as her pencil ascended from the paper, invisible ink lines appeared on the notebook, right next to the question.

[Who are you!?]

Carissa jumped back, like someone seeing a ghost, falling backward onto the ground.

The notebook...it could talk to her! She didn't just have to read.

Jumping back and forth instantly, she paused before writing, a sense of fear apparent in her brain.

[Who are you?]

Just like last time, lines began magically appearing next to her question.

[Are you a four-axis student, too!? What year are you!? Did you see what I just wrote!? No, who cares, can...you be my friend? Wait, no, I have classes now! Wait for me, please.]

Breaking into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, the memory of her stern mom overlapping with the anxious and scared person she imagined was writing, Carissa wiped away her tears.

She...could talk to the younger version of her mom, learn all about her!

The sense of fear within her eyes completely vanished, overtaken by an indescribable joy.

With a smile, she wrote back.

[Of course, I'd love to be your friend.]

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.