Royal Knights Academy – Near The Common Dorms

I sat at a bench with my arms crossed, humming idly by myself as I watched the skies above. The try-and-beat-myself-up training was pretty productive, I would say. My shoulders still ache slightly, the good kind of ache. My strikes carried some weight, it seemed. 

My bodies hadn’t sweated this much ever since I last saw Mother and her last-minute drilling.

Of course, I took a quick bath to make sure I wouldn’t smell. After all, I was planning on meeting someone.

As I waited silently, the chirping of the birds quietly fading away, a set of energetic footsteps approached my way.

“Feyt!” a voice called out.

I turned to see Ricent jogging toward me, waving. He was still in his uniform, his cloak dusted with dirt from his class, or rather, the arena.

I got up to meet him. 

“Your class is finally over, huh? So? Did you get yelled at for being late?”

“Totally!” he beamed, skidding to a stop a few paces away, his smile undimmed.

“You say it like it’s a good thing…” I gave my shoulders a roll as I asked. “So, you sure you want to go through with the tour? You just came out of class, didn’t you?”

He placed a hand on his hip, raising his chin proudly as he gave me a thumbs-up. “No problem! Besides, if I don’t take the tour now, I’ll be late for tomorrow’s class too!”

“Good point. Well then, let’s go. But do remember, I only know the important stuff myself.”

“Lead the way!”

And so began my second tour of the academy, but this time as the guide. 

—

The calming wind. The fluttering of the academy’s banners. The rustling of leaves. And a beautiful orange sky to match. It was a scenic moment of the day, a great time to take a look around the academy. Of course, that meant there wasn’t much time before the sun set, so the tour was unfortunately on a time limit.

“As you can see, that is the main building.”

“Wow, it’s huge!” Ricent shielded his eyes, trying to sneak a peek at the top. “It’s as big as the castle out there!”

“Not even close.” I chuckled. “But seeing as this is your first time in the capital, I can see why you would—”

“—Hmm? No, I’ve been here a few times with my mom.”

“Eh?”

Right, Aunt Diane did mention visiting the capital a couple of times. And my memories do show me moments where Ricent was absent along with her.

So visiting the capital for a trip was a regular thing for them, huh?

How fun…

Wait, what am I getting jealous for?! I live in a goddamn mansion for god’s sake!

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts, and gave a sharp, forced cough.

“A-As you can probably tell… You can find normal classes there, as well as a lot more facilities or… uhh, rooms. If you need to find an instructor, they’re most likely there, too, in their own offices.”

Ricent’s eyes widened as he hit his palm. “Oh! So that’s where that instructor told me to meet with her! But it’s already past the time… Oh well, I guess I’ll go tomorrow then!”

I froze in my tracks. Ricent took a few more steps before stopping and turning back, his face a picture of confusion.

“Feyt? What’s wrong?”

I stared at him. “What you said earlier… an instructor wanted to talk with you? After class?”

He nodded nonchalantly. “Yeah, after I arrived late, she was all like, ‘Come see me in my office after class,’ or something like that.”

Oh no…

He’s doomed!!

Not only did he arrive late on his first day, made an enemy out of a Student Council member, and now he flaked out on an instructor’s summons?!

I couldn’t help but see the aura of ruin looming over him.

“Feyt? Why did you look pale all of a sudden?”

The better question is, why aren’t you?!

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I didn’t expect his first day would be this rough. And now, I didn’t even know what to do with him.

Should I stop the tour early and tell him to meet the instructor? Should I let it ride and have him learn the consequences of his actions? Either way, he was doomed.

“…”

I let out a slow, calming breath. Panicking here wouldn’t help anyone. If an instructor really wanted him that badly, she’d hunt him down herself. Probably. Or maybe that was just me coping.

I dropped my hand from my face and let out a sigh. “Well, since we’re already here, might as well finish the tour.”

It wasn’t like his first day couldn’t get any worse. The best I could do was to make sure he enjoyed some parts of it, at the very least.

Ricent blinked, unaware of what was about to befall him, then shrugged with a grin. “Sure, let’s go! I want to see the horses next!”

—

The horse stables were calm, as they always were.

The staff at the stables must have taken care of these horses pretty well, since I had never seen this many horses this calm before. A few swayed of the horses idly in their stalls, hooves clopping softly against the ground, the occasional low neigh drifting through the air. It was quiet and peaceful.

Even so, Ricent looked amazed. He moved closer to the fence, eyes sparkling as he watched the horses eat through their buckets.

“Wow!!”

Let me remind you, this was coming from someone who should’ve seen plenty of them back in the village. It wasn’t like horses were that rare or anything.

“There are so many,” he muttered. Then, he turned to me with sparkly eyes. “Let’s get a closer look, Feyt!”

I immediately shook my head firmly. “The stables are closed at this time of the hour. No can do.”

“Wha—?! But… I want to try riding them…” He looked at the stables with longing eyes, as if they might disappear the moment he looked away.

I let him have his moment before gently steering us away. He followed with a slight pout, dragging his feet as we walked.

“We really can’t ride a horse?”

I shook my head again. “You either need a class scheduled for it or explicit permission from an instructor.”

“Aww man~!”

I am absolutely not letting you dig yourself an even deeper hole.

To be honest, this wasn’t how I imagined our first day as fellow academy students would go. I felt like an older brother wrangling a reckless younger sibling… which was impressive, considering he was older than me.

 As we walked, I exhaled slowly.

“So…” I braced myself. “How did your class go?”

“Hm? Oh, it went alright!”

“Alright? What did you do during class?”

“Hmm… I sit around.”

“…”

I waited.

We took several more steps. I stepped on a dry leaf, crunching it under my boot. The wind carried more leaves, flying past both of us.

Even so, he didn’t add anything else.

“…That’s it?”

“Yeah. I don’t know any spells yet, you know? And I kinda joined halfway through the lesson.” He shrugged, then flashed a grin. “But I made friends with some of them though!”

“I see…” I said carefully, resuming our walk. “That’s good. I’m surprised you found friends that quickly.”

“Yeah!” His voice brightened. “One of them even asked me to meet her tomorrow after class!”

My foot froze mid-step. A strange, unpleasant yet familiar sense crawled up my back.

“…Meet after class?” I parroted reluctantly.

Ricent nodded enthusiastically. “Mmhmm! She was really excited about it, too. Kept talking about how we should ‘settle things properly’ and how she’d ‘teach me manners’ or something like that.”

I turned to him.

“Ricent,” I said, choosing each word with care, “what is the name of this… ‘friend’ of yours?”

He hummed thoughtfully, placing a finger against his chin as his gaze drifted up to the sky.

“Let’s see… I think it was… Mirabelle?”

I dragged a hand down my face.

Challenged to a duel on the first day alone.

I can’t believe it with this guy.

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