Yes, I could afford one friend.
Thirty minutes into the class, I only just realized Elias was sitting behind me when he began braiding the hair on the back of my head.
A thing we used to do together — when we both had long hair and played dress up in their manor. But now, my hair only reached up to my shoulders; there wasn’t much material to work with.
When he started stroking his fingers at the back of my neck, I wanted to stop him since it was sending unnecessary tingles straight to my core. It distracted me from the introductory lesson, and wasn’t that my favorite word nowadays?
A whole bunch of distractions.
Speaking of distractions, another one came through when the door suddenly opened and a male student walked in, breathing hard like he had run across the city.
“Sorry I’m late, professor,” he gasped between breaths, while also laughing like a madman. “The Crown Prince intercepted me and —”
Our sagely professor waved a hand at his direction, looking displeased but also detached. “Yes, yes. I know about you, Claude Wescott. Take a seat.”
Claude, a guy with side-parted, medium-length golden hair and bright ocean-blue eyes, locked on to our corner of the room and grinned widely, and it dawned on me that Elias had a free seat next to him. As he walked over to our area, his mannerisms reminded me of a main protagonist in a typical RPG; cheerful, energetic, hyper. He kinda looked like one, too. Thegood boylook.
He plopped down on the empty chair as I turned back to face the professor, but I felt a presence on my shoulder.
“Hello, ladies,” he crooned, his head placed between me and Dahlia. I gave him the side-eye while Dahlia didn’t pay attention to him at all. He chuckled as he sat back again, but not before he stared right into my eyes.
Elias continued to play with my nape, and I deeply wished I were by myself at the library instead, reading about teleportation magic.
After History class was Language class, because it was important to learn proper grammar and diction when casting spells, and then Introduction to Elemental Magic afterward. This set of classes was separated into the four elements: water, earth, fire, and air.
There were also special classes, like Recovery Magic for those with the affinity to it, Divine Magic which I had no idea what was about, and External Magic, which was basically a catch-all foreverythingelse magic that didn’t fall in the previous categories.
Displacement magic, or teleportation, fell under this category. Naturally, I added the class to my schedule, even though I doubted the class would start discussing teleportation from the start. Like Lord Grimwald pointed out, that sort of magic was too advanced for a first year like me.
The Elemental Magic: Water class was first, then lunch break, and then the remaining three elements.
I was also made aware that whoever was in my class from History would be the same set of classmates I would have for the remainder of my education. Surprisingly, I also discovered that more than half of the students were commoners with strongenough magic. The flow of mana was getting stronger every day or some such. I thought significant mana was a rarity among the citizens; my info was outdated.
While we stayed in the same room for History and Language, we had to change buildings for Elemental Magic. As soon as we arrived in this room, I made a beeline for the backmost corner seat. Dahlia sat next to me, as she had for our first two classes. Elias shrugged and took the seat in front of me.
That should have been it, but Claude followed too, sitting next to Elias.
Claude turned in his seat. “Why do you refuse to talk to me?” He was genuinely confused. Was he not used to people ignoring him?
Based on his story when he was late earlier, he was personally acquainted with the Crown Prince despite being a commoner. That was enough to boost someone’s ego.
“I think you’re a little insane,” Dahlia exclaimed, and I couldn’t agree more with her.
Claude laughed out loud, attracting the attention of our other classmates. Kathel and Mera in particular could only glare daggers at me. They hadn’t tried anything yet. I noticed they also kept glancing at Elias and Claude; were they the reason those girls wouldn’t go near me?
“I’m not, though I was told I’m very passionate about everything I do,” Claude smiled wide, looking at the three of us. “I learned a lot about nobility these past weeks. Like, this guy is definitely Elias Drakon, and you’re Dahlia Phortho.” He gestured to Dahlia and then gestured to me. “But you, I don’t know you. But I’m certain you’re also a noble.”
“Maybe keep it that way,” I snarked, because I didn’t need more complications and distractions!
He didn’t listen to me. Instead, he looked me up and down, and another laugh came out of him. “I know! You’re Alecsander Havenglow’s sister. Beatrix, was it? Bea?”
I grimaced at him, while Elias rolled his eyes and gave me a look that said, “Can you believe this guy?”
“You know, ‘Bea’ sounds kind of like ‘baby’, so from now on I’ll call you baby girl,” Claude announced like it was a perfectly normal thing to say. Dahlia held in a laugh, but Iheardthat.
“You will not,” I growled, but that only made Claude grin wider.
“Is she always this feisty?” he asked Elias.
