24:

  As Lucan strode through the main reception hall of the Belvedere, he couldn’t help but notice that the nobles lounging on the ground floor had sharply dropped in population and the few that were there lowered their tones and turned their gazes away from his general vicinity. This time, no one barred his way or attempted to mess with him, which Lucan supposed was the singular upside of pissing off the entire Noble Student body.

  He’d take it.

  Alistair opened the main door for him, but didn’t follow after Lucan as he stepped onto a cobblestone pathway. A little distance away from him, perhaps because the young lady in question did not want to get too close to the Noble accommodation, was Lucan’s first introduction to a woman Silvas had gone out of his way to mention in his dying breaths.

  The first thing Lucan noticed about Cynthia Vex was the colour of her hair, for it matched his own— a common black, fit for those who were commoner in status. It was that black hair that had decided Lucan’s fate since he was a child, announcing clearly to the world that the Velmoria blood in him was clearly not the dominant trait.

  Yet Cynthia’s dark hair that was cut short, in defiance of the prevailing preference of long and graceful style that was so prevalent in Noble Society and thus, eventually passed down as a desiring trait to the nouveau rich and the aspirational commoners. It was straight and without frills, but still longer than the regulation required for Aura Knights so it didn’t look overly formal. Their gazes met and Lucan realized that her eyes were brown, but they only matched Lucan in color— for hers were sharp and radiated with an intensity that was similar to the one he noticed multiple times in his journey, in the eyes of the Aura Knights that were tasked to defend him.

  If there was a difference, Lucan supposed that her gaze lacked the viciousness contained in the Aura Knight’s gazes, the readiness to kill that came with experience. Instead it was analytical, as her gaze shifted from his face, to his right fist, then to his wand before doing a quick scan of his boots, as if she expected him to be hiding concealed weapons.

  Her features were sharp, with high cheekbones and an angular nose and she wore what Lucan knew to be the Imperial Academy’s uniform. A lightweight tunic woven out of an opaque white silk with its border trimmed in gold with its sides slit to allow for maximum breathability and unhindered movement, worn over fitted trousers that were held in place with a custom belt that held at least one loop to hold a wand, for he noticed Cynthia’s wand peeking from the slit in the side of her uniform. Couple that with her well-toned body and Cynthia looked more like a seasoned general instead of an eighteen year old student, except….

  Well, Cynthia was looking up at him.

  To put it more bluntly, Cynthia was… kind of short. No, she was definitely short, maybe two or three inches shorter than average female height.

  She’s cute, Lucan couldn’t deny the thought. Really cute. She’s like a cat, has the heart and claws of a mana beast but lacks the size.

  “Are you Lucan Velmoria?” Cynthia Vex addressed him by name.

  “And?” Lucan replied, his tone coming out more gruff than he wanted it to in his efforts to suppress a laugh at his own utterly bizarre line of thought. “I haven’t heard of anything about being assigned a mentor.”

  “You certainly lack respect for a junior and an apprentice mage at that,” Cynthia replied, her tone one of reprimand.

  The gears in Lucan’s mind began to turn and he studied her closely, if only managing to do so for a few seconds.

  She certainly doesn’t seem annoyed, He noted. Of the two of us, I’m the noble here. She doesn’t have to bow before me in the academy or, well, ever if she remains a mage under the crown’s protection, but that doesn’t mean that she can go around hazing nobles.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Respect is earned in the north,” Lucan replied casually.

  “Is that why you knocked out the son of a Marquis? Because he wasn’t worthy of your respect?” Cynthia asked, allowing just a little contempt to leak into her tone.

  Instead of replying immediately, Lucan studied her uniform, noting the golden crown embroidered on her left chest pocket, the crest of the King, instead of the various Noble Crests he had noticed embroidered on the students that resided in the Belvedere.

  “You know about that?” Lucan chose to take the inquisitive route.

  “Entire academy does, by now,” Cynthia replied with a scowl. “A first-year sent to the infirmary before the orientation and it’s the son of a marquis. What did you expect?”

  “He started it,” Lucan replied with a dismissive shrug.

  “Were you not made aware of the formation spell cast on this city? You were in no real threat.”

  “I was,” Lucan answered. “But it didn’t stop that prick when he tripped me and besides, if the formation spell was going to trigger at casual physical contact, this city would be unlivable. So I tested that theory.”

  “By punching him in the face?”

  Lucan studied the blue armband she wore on her left shoulder, it’s edges trimmed with gold and on its surface, a golden wand was painted over next to the number ‘one’.

  “By punching him in the face indeed. You’re not valedictorian for nothing, Miss Cynthia.”

  “Are you mocking me?” Cynthia asked.

  “No more or less than you are trying to intentionally aggravate me,” Lucan curtly replied.

  “And they told me that you were unfamiliar with the workings of noble society,” Cynthia muttered under her breath.

  Lucan smiled.

  “No impulsive challenges to a duel. No using your status to try and bully me. No subtle threats to go after my family, either. No attempts at duress, intimidation, insults or even insults directed at my status. You are quite alright, Lucan.”

  Lucan blinked, finally caught off guard by the valedictorian. Too curious to hold back, he asked, “What if I had done any of that?”

  “First, I would accept and crush you in an official duel. To the second, I will tell you that I plan to become an instructor in the imperial academy after graduation and thus, will be under the protection of the crown. To the third, I am an orphan, so I have no family that can be used to threaten or leverage me. And for the fourth, well, insult my status all you want, I will still be the better mage,” She replied and Lucan wasn’t sure if he hallucinated the wink she gave him at the end.

  “All of those things have happened then,” Lucan muttered, more than a little dumbfounded.

  “Multiple times, multiple people. But none of them bother me anymore.”

  “I… see,” Lucan muttered.

  “To answer your question about the mentorship part, well Lucan, the academy is aware of your situation. Or, they usually should be. As I understand it, there are certain lacunae in your education.”

  Lucan nodded.

  “Each Imperial Academy student is to be held to a certain standard after graduation and in the case of nobles, they have to graduate or it reflects poorly on the ruling class as a whole. Very poorly, indeed. So the academy asked for second-year and higher students to volunteer and I was chosen.”

  The most surprising part about Cynthia’s revelation was that people had volunteered to tutor him.

  “Other people volunteered?” He asked, his surprise audible.

  “Nope!” Cynthia cheerfully replied, the first bit of cheerfulness she had shown since their conversation had begun. “I was the only one.”

  Lucan just stared at her.

  “Why?” He finally asked.

  “Isn’t that obvious?” Cynthia asked.

  Lucan stared at her as if she’d grown a second head.

  “It’s because you’re the most interesting person on campus.”

  Lucan’s surprise was cut short by Silvas Anderle’s voice making it’s presence known in his mind.

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