It was a beautiful morning today. Leila brought me some wonderful breakfast and a nice cup of tea to start the day. It didn’t take long for me to prepare myself for the day ahead, with Leila helping and all.

Carine’s body was still a bit sore, especially around the arms, perhaps from tanking Lecther’s strikes yesterday. It was manageable, but it was pretty noticeable.

I began preparing to leave as Feyt as well. Straightening my uniform, tidying my hair, and doing a little warm-up.

Before long, I began my long trek to the classrooms from my dorms.

As I walked past several students heading the same way, I took note of their reactions.

Some greeted me with polite greetings. Some bowed and curtsied. Some gave me a respectful nod as they passed me.

So far, I hadn’t noticed any particularly weird expression.

Good, no new rumors sprang up.

It had been a day since I won that duel with Lechter in class. After I said my piece, Instructor Liz separated us and began lecturing Lechter on what he did wrong. His footwork, his stance, everything.

While Instructor Liz was telling him all that, he kept his head low, eyes wide, and almost trembling.

I wondered what it was that I said that made him react that way.

I merely told him that he… probably never trained properly on swords before.

I still remember his aptitude test from back then. Not just the results, but his efforts to achieve those results, too. I could tell from the way he moved, the way he lifted, the way he ran… it all reflected years of training. I could tell because those were the things I was trained in as well.

Of course, his results far outweighed mine, but that was besides the point.

The point is… he was definitely trained and didn’t rely on pure strength alone. His family must’ve hired some high-class instructors or such to train him from a young age.

So why did he fight so basically with a sword? To the point, he overcommitted almost everything. To the point he fell for the most obvious of feints. It didn’t make much sense.

The most logical explanation I could think of was that he… never trained in swords. Perhaps he had a Talent or preference in another style, and that was probably what he was trained in before he came to the academy.

So why did he choose swords as his discipline?

I briefly wondered if he did so just so he could be in the same class as me. Or perhaps there were some other reasons.

Putting that aside, though, there was no denying that I won. My technique outweighed his raw strength.

If I were to face him in the arena in the future, if he continued to stay at this exact level of skill… I had no doubts I could win against him.

But what if he were to actually use the skills he actually trained?

At the very least, there weren’t any unsatisfactory rumors circulating around this time. Last week’s abuse rumor was enough hassle for my mind.

I still wondered who spread that rumor about me in the first place. Quite frankly, it could be anyone. Someone jealous. Someone who just wanted to gossip. Maybe even one of Nicholas’s lackeys. Without any further clues, I couldn’t really pinpoint anyone specific.

As for the motive… it, too, could be anything. It could be some personal grudge. Needed to make up a story to tell while gossiping. Or maybe just for the hell of it.

Whoever they are, or whatever their reason was, it seemed the thunder didn’t strike twice. I hoped, at least.

As I approached the main building, I sensed that Carine was being watched. Sensed, as in, I saw a pair of eyes staring rather intensely at me in the distance. The eyes appeared to be from a window in the main building, and after a quick glance, it turned out to be none other than Nicholas.

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As soon as he noticed me staring at him, he turned his head in a jerky motion and stepped away from the window.

The fact he was demoted from the Honors class to a standard one must’ve hit him hard, huh? But if he was going to blame me for this whole thing, then that was his problem.

—

“Lady Carine! Morniiiing~!!” Lionne yelled from across the room.

Someone’s chirpy today.

I approached the empty seat between Lionne and Eveliana and sat down graciously, resting my legs after the agonizingly long trek.

“Good morning, you two,” I greeted them.

“My, Lady Carine,” Eve said. “You look worse than usual. Is something wrong?”

“Do I?” I asked.

“Does she?” Lionne mirrored. “Oh, it must be because of the duel yesterday!” she clasped her hands. “Listen, Eve, did you know that Lady Carine dueled Lechter and won?”

“Lechter?” Eve parroted. She moved her gaze to the front seat, where Lechter was usually sleeping. I followed her gaze and found the seat empty. He hadn’t arrived yet, it seemed.

“His aptitude test showed how quick and strong he is; fighting him must be tough,” she muttered. “But, with your skills, Lady Carine. I’m sure he wasn’t much of a hassle.” She flashed a gentle, tilted smile. Almost a smirk.

“I… beg to differ.”

As the class began filling up with students, I noticed that two seats… were vacant.

The first was Ravilenna’s seat. The place where she would usually sit was occupied by nothing but air today. She wouldn’t transfer class until next week, if I remembered the notice correctly. So… perhaps she couldn’t bring herself to come to class?

As for the other vacant seat, it was the same vacant seat that Eve and I had glanced at earlier. Lecther’s.

Even after the instructor came in… even after the class started… even after we packed up our bags…

…He never did come to class.

I would chalk it up to him embodying his sleepy, couch potato persona he always displayed whenever he was in public. But despite that persona of his, he never once arrived late in class, let alone skipped it. In fact, he usually arrived early. Sometimes before me, sometimes right after me.

Did losing that duel yesterday affect him this much?

Or was it something I said?

—

Lunch break

I was heading to the cafeteria with some of my classmates, exchanging small talk about the assignments we were given. Then…

“Feyt, Feyt!” a familiarly loud voice echoed down the hall. “There you are!”

I turned around and found a figure rushing over at a rapid pace.

“Ricent?”

Shouldn’t he be in class right now?!

He jogged his way up to me and stopped with a heavy stomp. He held a piece of paper in his hand as he caught his breath.

“Hey, why aren’t you in class?” I asked, my tone a bit hurried and worried.

“I—D-Don’t worry! My class… huff… won’t be for another hour…”

“Dude, how long are you running for? You look like you might pass out.”

At least he wasn’t breaking any rules this time.

“S-Sorry…” he said, finally managing to inhale a normal amount of oxygen. “I was looking for you everywhere… ran up and down the stairs like three times…”

Talk about commitment.

“Well, you really should stop running around the halls,” I said, crossing my arms as I glanced down the hallway. “If a Student Council member catches you making a racket again, they aren’t going to let you off with just a warning this time. You remember what happened last time, right?”

I was still relieved that the Student Council Secretary girl left us with only a couple of glares.

“Oh, t-that…” Ricent chuckled, as if it was a pleasant memory. “Don’t worry! I was being careful while running around… this time...”

I somehow doubt that.

“So, what’s the emergency?” I glanced down at the crinkled, abused page in his hand. “It’s something related to that paper, I assume.”

“Oh, yep!” He straightened up, suddenly bursting with energy, and thrust the paper into my face. “I saw it this morning. I knew you’d want to see it, so I got it for ya!”

“Really?” I gently rescued the scrunched-up, aggressively folded piece of parchment from his grip. “What is it?”

I unfurled the paper slowly, flattening out the wrinkles. Then, I began to read.

Immediately, my eyes widened. Not with shock, nor terror. But excitement.

“Finally…” I muttered, a slow smile breaking across my face. “The Tournament is officially starting.”

Up until this point, the tournament existed only as rumors or whispered talks. I knew it was coming, but without any official confirmation, I hesitated about what to actually train for.

Now that I knew that it was coming, though, I felt a small sense of relief. I finally had a strict deadline to keep in mind and the basic set of rules of the tournament.

My relief was cut short, however, when my eyes drifted to the edges of the parchment.

There were four distinct, jagged tear marks around the corners. They were perfectly aligned with where tape, or perhaps tacks, would have held it securely to something. Something… like a notice board.

A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck. I looked from the mutilated paper to Ricent’s proud, grinning face.

"Hey, Ricent..." I started, my voice dropping low. "How exactly did you get your hands on this?"

"Oh, it was perfect timing!" he beamed. "I saw a guy pinning it up on the main notice board by the main lobby. The moment I saw it, I knew you would love to see it, so I grabbed it for you!"

You ripped it off a notice board?

In front of a faculty member?!

"Ahem." A cold, agonizingly familiar voice echoed from right behind my shoulder. "I just heard from a faculty member that a student aggressively ripped an official notice off the main lobby board and caused a disturbance by running around." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Before I could even begin to throw Ricent under the bus that he had personally called for, a firm, heavy grip clamped down on my shoulder.

“By my authority as the Secretary of the Student Council, you are both coming with me. I suggest you cooperate silently."