"Oh my... What's with the tension?"
Fahna was on her way to morning class but abruptly stopped and hid herself. Ahead, her First and Second Seat classmates stood facing several Elite Class students and, curiously enough, one girl from the Common Class. It seemed to be a staredown of sorts, although the other side significantly outnumbered her fellow Rose Holders.
Before she could decide whether she had stumbled upon an argument or the beginning of a class dispute, one of the Elite students stepped forward as though he had finally resolved to act, but Mr. First Seat moved at the same time, taking only a single step to put himself in front of his petty mistress.
"Hm? What's this, what's this? Is this going to become a clash between classes?" Fahna murmured excitedly. She rested her fingers against her cheek and remained quietly to the side, careful not to announce herself just yet.
'If those Elite students give Mr. First Seat trouble, maybe I can swoop in and leave him with a favorable impression.'
Just then, the only young man among them, an innocent-looking boy with an almost excessively approachable appearance, spoke.
"Can I speak with Lady Montagne?" he said. However, he wasn't looking at the lady, but at Xian, who had directly put himself in his path.
"Without you blocking me this time?"
Fahna turned her gaze to Mr. First Seat, who raised one hand before the young man could move any closer. The frown settling over his face made his already severe features considerably more threatening.
Fahna's interest sharpened.
'Hm. Is this not a servant acting out of line? More importantly, why is she just allowing him?'
She continued observing from the side, waiting to see whether the exchange might offer her an opportunity to exploit.
***
"Can I speak with Lady Montagne? Without you blocking me this time?"
"Speak from there."
"…" Adrian paused, stunned at Xian's quick assertion. "I was asking whether I could speak with her."
"She can hear you from there."
"Ugh..." Adrian's amiable expression finally began to strain into frustration. "I mean, don't you know what I mean?"
Xian knew precisely what he meant.
Adrian wanted him to step aside, allow him to approach Carmillia normally, and stop positioning himself like a wall between them. Unfortunately for Adrian, understanding the request did not give Xian any reason to accommodate it. He had no plans to let it happen under his watch unless Carmillia said so.
"You. Can. Speak. From over there." Xian repeated each word with clear intonation. "We can hear you just fine without getting close."
Adrian opened his mouth, closed it again, and looked as though he had run into a wall that made enough literal sense to be difficult to break through, despite being completely unreasonable in practice.
While the two men continued their increasingly tense exchange, the women had begun an exchange of their own.
Carmillia and Castreyja turned out to have begun a staredown of their own.
Castreyja stood beside Adrian with her shoulders drawn stiffly and her eyes narrowed behind the scholarly glasses that still looked strangely at odds with her currently brave and defiant expression. Carmillia met her glare without the slightest change in her face, regarding the hostility with little concern and mainly contempt.
Ruminaria, somehow in the group despite having a scuffle with Adrian, stood near Castreyja and appeared determined to participate as well. She raised her chin and glared toward Carmillia with all what her smaller height could muster.
Unfortunately, the villainess did not look at her even once.
Kyrin merely shifted uncomfortably behind them. Being blind, she could not exactly participate in the staredown taking place around her.
Castreyja was the first to break her gaze away, thinking only of getting Adrian away from Carmillia as much as possible.
She patted Adrian firmly on the back, slightly harder than usual, perhaps due to her mood, which had soured once she saw Carmillia.
"Hey, friend. Don't waste your time trying to mix yourself up with snobs like these. They're no good for you if you've got no wealth or use to offer." Adrian looked at her in surprise.
"Huh? What do you mean by snobs?" His eyes shifted toward Carmillia. "You mean, Lady Carmillia?"
For a moment, she looked ready to say exactly what she thought of Carmillia. The words nearly escaped before she remembered that Adrian knew nothing. Her eyes turned toward him, and whatever harsher remark had risen to her tongue was forced back down.
She knew enough of Adrian's personality to understand why he'd even ask.
Adrian disliked people being condemned without cause, and Castreyja, for all her hostility toward Carmillia, had no intention of making herself the object of his disapproval.
'Hooh, I should calm down, he hasn't seen how bad that bitch can get.'
"Um..." Castreyja adjusted her glasses with one finger, the movement poorly concealing her annoyance. "I mean, this isn't the right time, okay? We still have class to go to."
"Aren't you from Common Class?" Kyrin quietly chimed in.
Castreyja ignored her completely.
Adrian looked at Xian once more, then toward Carmillia, who showed neither acceptance nor rejection.
Clearly, he still wanted to speak with her, but he eventually sighed with reluctance.
"Maybe you're right."
Castreyja's shoulders loosened, but the relief lasted for less than a second.
"Since you said I can speak from there, then I will." Adrian spoke resolutely as if to show his persistence.
Adrian cheerfully smiled and leaned to one side, attempting to look past Xian's shoulder and meet Carmillia's eyes. Xian shifted just enough to remain in the way, but Adrian spoke loudly anyway.
"Lady Carmillia, if there's any chance at all, I'd like to walk together with you again! And keep walking by your side." Adrian blushed embarrassingly and hesitated before adding, "Um, preferably undisturbed."
Castreyja frowned and her cheeks puffed into a slight pout as she stared at the side of Adrian's face. Now, she was beginning to see how Adrian had ended up the way he was in her past life.
'Adrian… Adrian liked her enough to be this stubborn?'
Xian deliberately clicked his tongue loudly in annoyance, showing his fangs while gritting his teeth. Adrian faltered, though he continued trying to see Carmillia behind him.
Before he could say anything else, Castreyja caught him by the sleeve and pulled him back with enough force to turn his shoulder.
"Come on. We're leaving."
"Wait, I haven't heard her answer yet."
"You're not getting any."
"W-What?"
"You might not even be in her eyes."
Ruminaria moved with them, continuing to glare at Carmillia as she passed. She even twisted her head slightly to maintain the look for another few steps, though Carmillia still refused to grant her the satisfaction of being noticed.
Kyrin walked further back and slowed down.
When she drew near with Xian and Carmillia, her steps became hesitant. Her face angled toward Xian, and for a moment, it seemed she was considering whether to say something.
Her lips parted slightly. Then, as if deciding against it, she closed them and continued after the others.
Xian watched her go for only a moment before returning his attention to his lady, who continued to look straight ahead as if deep in thought.
"I don't remember." Just then, she finally spoke, her voice stopping the departing group.
Castreyja halted first.
Adrian looked back over his shoulder expectantly, while Ruminaria immediately turned around as if she had been waiting for Carmillia to acknowledge them at last.
Carmillia turned around, her attention focused solely on Castreyja.
"I don't remember you, red-haired girl. Nor do I recall severely punishing anyone who resembles you closely enough to be your kin."
A low, sinking feeling bubbled in Castreyja's heart once her eyes met Carmillia's.
"But if you insist on continuing to look at me that way, I wouldn't mind adding a few more families to my memory." Carmillia looked back at her, tilted her chin slightly, and smirked. "It would be quite the honor, wouldn't it? For someone at the bottom rung of both the academy and the kingdom to be remembered by me."
"What did… you say?" This time, Castreyja was the one who erupted.
Adrian caught her by the arm to prevent her from pouncing forward. Beside him, Ruminaria had already lowered her stance as though prepared for battle at any moment, only for Kyrin to seize the back of her sleeve and keep her in place too.
"This bitch! Are you threatening my family!?"
Castreyja's delicate, feminine voice came out rough and crass, carrying traces of the soldier she would eventually become. The harshness did not suit her scholarly appearance in the slightest.
"Do you think I can't reach your neck just because you're of higher status than me, huh? Your Highness?"
Xian immediately moved his arm across Carmillia's path.
"If you're about to do something foolish, don't blame me for retaliating."
His attention settled entirely upon Castreyja.
In her current body, she was nowhere near the monster she would later become. She lacked the training, conditioning, and hardened physique she had developed through years of survival and military service.
But she could already wield Aura, if only momentarily.
That brief difference was enough to make her lethal.
At this distance, a single explosive movement could carry her past an ordinary person before they understood she had moved at all. Carmillia was hardly defenseless, but after what Xian had learned that morning, he had no intention of allowing even the possibility of an attack to reach her.
"All right! Now, now, that's enough, everyone!"
Fahna's bright voice entered the confrontation before either side could move.
She finally stepped out from the adjoining corridor, lightly clapping her hands together as though she had only just arrived.
"You wouldn't want to cause a scene here, would you? Classes will be starting soon!" Her smiling gaze moved toward Xian and Carmillia.
"Especially you two, my fellow Rose Holders. If you don't hurry, you'll be late, and that might just close the gap between the third and second seats."
…
Everyone fell silent at the appearance of the Third Seat.
The hush lasted only a moment before whispers began moving through the students who had crowded the adjoining corridors.
"Are those students foolish? Why are they confronting the First Seat and 'her' of all people?"
"You don't say. That woman's a commoner, what could she be other than a foolish peasant?"
"Didn't she place second in the strength assessment?"
"That only makes her even more foolish."
Fahna carefully filtered the murmurs that reached her ears. Her smiling gaze returned to the red-haired girl, and she gradually recognized her.
She was the student who had arrived late yesterday, only to demonstrate enough strength to place immediately behind Xian.
'Right. How could I have forgotten someone with that much potential?' Fahna liked to keep tabs on which of the students in Rozenfall would be beneficial to befriend to gather connections. Unfortunately, the hostility on the girl's face did not appear limited to Carmillia alone. She seemed to regard the Royal Class itself with open resentment.
Across from her, Castreyja noticed Fahna, snapping her out of her rage.
"Hmph. Count yourself lucky today, bitch." She allowed Adrian to draw her another step away.
Fahna was a familiar face, and one Castreyja remembered rather favorably. But that didn't mean they were allies right now. At this moment, she remained a Royal Class student, the Third Seat, and another Rose Holder standing beside Carmillia and Xian.
Ruminaria was ready to fight, but Kyrin still held her back. Adrian had already placed himself between both sides, and the corridor was filling with students who would gladly testify against the Common Class girl who attacked first.
'The odds are against me.'
Castreyja turned away.
"Butler."
The single word stopped neither Castreyja's steps nor the restless murmuring spreading through the corridor behind her.
"Do you think she should simply be allowed to leave?" Carmillia asked, her amused voice now directed toward her butler instead.
Castreyja had enough time to glance back over her shoulder and see the smirk still resting comfortably upon Carmillia's lips.
"No."
The answer came without hesitation.
A single step sounded behind her.
Castreyja turned on instinct and saw that Xian had already crossed much of the space separating them. He swept past the stunned Third Seat and forced his way through the narrow opening in Adrian's group, his long strides carrying him down the corridor with enough speed that the students behind him seemed to blur together.
Silver flashed beneath his sleeves. Two stilettos appeared between his fingers before both hands snapped forward, one blade flying toward Castreyja's upper body while the other cut lower toward the leg she would need to evade.
There was no warning, nor challenge, and not even an anger-filled shout. The bastard had simply decided to attack, as if violence were merely the most efficient solution available to him.
Thanks to years of accumulated combat experience, Castreyja's body moved before she had time to think. She twisted away from the lower blade, feeling its point graze the fabric near her thigh, while her other hand shot upward and struck the hilt of the second stiletto aside just before its point could bury itself in her.
For the briefest instant, she thought she had bought herself enough time to recover.
The knives had never been the real attack. They had forced her feet apart, dragged one arm away from her centerline, and left her body in a stance poorly suited to defend against someone faster and overwhelmingly stronger. Her instincts had responded correctly, but the younger body carrying those instincts had not yet been forged through the years of fighting that had taught them.
By the time her sole struck the floor again, Xian was already upon her.
"Xian!"
Adrian shouted the butler's name for the first time and threw himself between them, both hands raised as he attempted to stop the charge. Xian barely seemed perturbed. Without breaking his advance, he lifted one leg and drove his foot directly into Adrian's stomach with a dull, compact impact.
Air burst from the boy's lungs as his body folded around the kick before being thrown backward into the students behind him. Several startled cries followed when they caught him and staggered beneath his weight, but even that brief obstruction had scarcely delayed the First Seat.
Castreyja backed away and reached for the stiletto she had knocked aside. Her fingers had barely closed around it when Xian reached her and struck her wrist aside. Her arm flew outward like that of a doll, offering almost no resistance against the difference in their present strength.
His other hand clamped around her throat.
Her back slammed against the corridor wall hard enough to shake the framed notice hanging beside her, and before she could recover from the impact, his second hand joined the first. Ten fingers locked around her neck, cutting off both air and movement as her scholarly glasses slipped halfway down her nose.
Castreyja clawed at his wrists. Her experience told her where to pull, how to twist her hips, and which direction would compromise his grip, but the body she had returned to simply could not produce the strength those techniques demanded. She knew exactly how to escape. Her muscles simply refused to obey the expectations of the woman she remembered being.
His face was close enough now for her to stare directly into his eyes.
There was no smugness in them, no satisfaction of an enemy who believed he had won, and not even the uncontrolled rage she might have expected after insulting his mistress. What she found instead was a severe, unwavering certainty, the expression of a hunter who had already decided that its prey needed to die and was simply carrying out the most efficient method of putting it out of its misery.
That realization chilled her more than the pressure tightening around her throat.
'What the hell is wrong with this bastard?'
Castreyja planted one foot against the wall and drove her knee upward, but Xian shifted his hips aside and crowded closer before the strike could develop any real power. Black spots immediately began gathering at the edges of her vision.
Someone shouted behind him. Ruminaria was struggling against Kyrin's hold, Fahna was calling for them to stop while apparently hesitating to throw herself between them, and Adrian was still coughing somewhere farther back. Carmillia was probably standing beyond Xian's shoulder watching everything unfold with that same infuriating expression.
Castreyja knew that bitch well enough to imagine she was enjoying every second of this.
None of those distractions loosened Xian's hands.
The fingers of her right hand curled as a familiar heat suddenly stirred beneath her palm. A faint red wisp leaked between her knuckles, then another, until crimson light accumulated brightly enough to stain her hand like flame.
'Wait.'
Aura compressed instinctively along the edge of her palm, stretching toward her fingertips and sharpening into the crude outline of a knife.
'Shit.'
Her body had remembered something her current Core could barely support.
Castreyja swung upward without thinking.
Xian noticed the red light immediately and released her as he recoiled. The improvised Aura blade passed across his chest, splitting the fabric along its path and opening a thin diagonal cut beneath before the unstable edge scattered into fading red wisps.
Castreyja dropped forward, one hand striking the floor while the other clutched her throat. Air returned in a painful gasp, followed by several violent coughs as loose strands of red hair fell across her glasses. Red marks had already begun forming along her neck.
Several steps away, Xian looked down at the slash across his uniform. The improvised blade had barely reached beyond the fabric, leaving only a shallow line of red underneath that was already beginning to fade.
Despite that, he remained expressionless.
No, not quite.
There was something akin to a pleasant surprise in his eyes now, as though the attack had confirmed something he had already suspected.
"Tch!" Castreyja forced herself upright. "Sneaky rat bastard. Did you think you could pull a fast one on me?"
The insult sounded confident enough, but her right hand told a different story. The fingers that had formed the Aura blade trembled uncontrollably at her side, unused to sustaining even that crude amount of power. The corridor tilted faintly beneath her feet, and a wave of lightheadedness forced her to widen her stance before anyone could notice how close she was to stumbling.
'Shit. I formed a knife on instinct.' She swallowed against the pain in her throat and immediately regretted it. 'That little bit already took this much out of me?'
Xian stepped forward again.
Before he could close the distance, Fahna rushed in from behind and locked both arms around his arms, pulling them backward against his sides. The sight was almost comical because of the difference in their size, but she planted her feet and leaned her weight away from him as though she understood perfectly well that strength alone would not be enough.
"I think if you still want to go at it, you might get enough repercussions to knock you straight out of those Rose Titles," Fahna warned, tightening her hold around his arms. "Let's stop here for now, okay?"
Xian remained rigid for another moment before Carmillia finally spoke.
"I never said you should attack them, Butler." Her tone carried all the shape of a reprimand, though the amusement still plainly visible across her face undermined most of its sincerity.
Xian blinked, looking for a moment as though he had only just emerged from a stupor. He drew a slow breath and allowed the tension to leave his shoulders.
"Forgive me, milady. I was too agitated."
Fahna cautiously loosened her grip.
Xian adjusted his uniform like nothing happened, then turned toward Castreyja and bowed with the same deadpan expression he had worn before trying to strangle her.
"I hope you'll forgive this grievance. I'll make sure to drop by your class and compensate you appropriately."
"Hah..." Castreyja rubbed her aching throat and glared at him through the strands of hair hanging over her glasses. "Shit. Hell no. You can take that compensation and shove it up your ass."
Adrian had already hurried to her side, hovering close enough to support her if she needed it without immediately grabbing her. The concern plainly written across his face improved Castreyja's mood considerably more than she wanted to admit after everything that had just happened.
"Let's go. We have more important matters to pay attention to."
Carmillia left as though the confrontation had already ceased being worth her time. She turned away without sparing Castreyja another glance, and after briefly straightening his damaged uniform, Xian followed beside her.
The casualness of their departure left several of the surrounding students staring after them.
Fahna did as well, though only for a moment before she turned toward Adrian's group instead.
"Hm, what do you guys even have against those two?"
Castreyja was still trying to recover enough breath to answer when Fahna shook her head.
"Never mind. Just don't cross them again next time. It's only the second day and things like this are already happening, sigh."
She did not wait for an explanation. The entire commotion had lasted only a few minutes, but more than enough students had gathered nearby to spread word of it, and there was no telling whether an instructor or one of the academy's enforcers had already been called. Fahna apparently had no intention of being present when they arrived.
"Anyway, classes are about to start. You should probably get yourselves moving too."
With that, she hurried after the two other Rose Holders, leaving Adrian's group to continue toward their own class.
They did not make it particularly far.
Castreyja managed several steps under her own strength before the lingering dizziness returned and her balance shifted beneath her. Kyrin noticed the movement and came closer, carefully drawing one of Castreyja's arms over her shoulder only after it became obvious that she was struggling to stay steady.
"Do you need help getting to the infirmary?"
"Nah, I don't need it. I've been through worse."
"That's not a good mindset," Adrian chimed in from her other side, his concern from earlier having yet to disappear. "We should at least get you checked."
Castreyja had already drawn breath to refuse out of habit. She had walked away from injuries far worse than a bruised throat and a little dizziness before, and some lingering part of her still found the idea of needing help for something this minor embarrassing.
Then she looked at Adrian.
"Uhm... if you say so."
She let herself settle a little more heavily against Kyrin.
"Grrrh! Kyrin, thou shouldst not have stayed mine hand! I knew well that those of that household could not be trusted!"
"Uhm, but you were about to attack too!" Kyrin protested.
"Then I would have lent mine aid to this maiden of the Common Class!"
"No, it would only worsen the situation."
"She's right," Castreyja muttered. Her fingers returned to the red marks around her throat as she remembered Xian's hands closing around it. "I underestimated that guy. To think all that strength was his raw power..."
Even without Aura, his physical ability had overwhelmed her completely.
Castreyja glanced toward Adrian and immediately seized the opportunity before the fool could somehow forget what had just happened.
"Anyway, do you see now? Those people are no good. Stop trying to associate with them."
"You're right..." Adrian answered after a moment of thought, and Castreyja immediately felt some of the irritation leave her. "Something is definitely wrong with that butler. But I don't remember doing something that would make him act like that."
Castreyja's relief disappeared almost immediately.
"...Really? What about Carmillia?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Adrian looked genuinely puzzled by the question. "Her butler is probably hard to control and causes problems for her."
Castreyja stared at him in disbelief.
Adrian, apparently interpreting her silence as confusion rather than exasperation, continued, "Ah, also, shouldn't you refer to her as Lady Montagne? She's a ducal heiress, isn't she?"
For several seconds, Castreyja could only look at his sincere expression.
"...Are you friggin' serious right now?"