“Let me ask you something; do you think you did well?”

After drinking at least five glasses of water, I chewed some of the herbs that woman gave me, to help with the pain in my shoulder and my leg. They were both wrapped with bandages, so I couldn’t see the extent of my injuries, yet I knew it would be a mistake to limp my way to Professor Bel.

The Professors’ Lounge was completely vacant when I arrived, an eerie silence crawling around the space—hiding its presence only when one of us walked.

When he first saw me at the door, the man said nothing at all. He simply left the door open and went inside. After I followed, he pushed down a chair with his feet and threw himself on the sofa, spreading his arms and legs around as if he were in his own house.

Perhaps if we had talked before, his question would have hurt me. Would’ve made my heart stop its beating, and my stomach drop. Yet after my encounter with Alantra Harris, I felt far too small and insignificant.

My heart too numbed to feel anything but a rotten coldness.

Still, that coldness found its way to my voice. To make sure my words would scrap and hurt my throat once again.

“I’m not stupid, nor do I lack self-awareness,” I chuckled, the sound rash and dead. “I couldn’t control a fucking toy you guys made to entertain children, of course I sucked. This is what you wanted to show me, isn’t it? The reason why you are against me being here.”

Professor Bel eyed me in a way that made me take a step back, no more ironic smiles and a mockery gaze. At a point, I began to wonder if I had spoken my words out loud, or if somehow the man hadn’t heard one thing I said before he straightened himself—his eye never leaving me.

“How long?”

I furrowed.

“How long, what?”

“Since you’ve been riding. A year?”

I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks, unsure if I was condemning myself even more. “Around three months.”

“Did you get some help? An instructor, or coach?”

I nodded briefly, clenching my fists. There was a sharpness in his voice that was not present before. A seriousness he had been lacking on every occasion we spoke.

“You mentioned before you used some potions. To improve your physical conditioning, right? What did you use?”

My heart began to race, afraid I was about to get expelled for a completely different reason than not knowing how to ride. Yet the professor’s gaze compelled me to speak, the story unfolding little by little as I mumbled and hastily explained what me and Emrys had done with the little time we had.

Belenus Kairon said nothing as I finished, much less when he stood up. It did not take long for the silence to creep in again, the uncertainty its nature carried slipping into my bones and flesh.

The silence became so grand I couldn’t even hear my heart or breathing, as if the moment I was able to perceive a sound—no matter how small—my fate would be forever sealed. As if my fate had already been decided, and all left for me to do was wait to receive the news.

So I waited.

Professor Belenus Kairon paced around the room, looking down as if pensive, with his back at me. And when he finally broke the silence with his voice, I couldn’t help but flinch—my hand grasping at my shirt, as if it could somehow shield my heart from his words.

“Sponsors reach out to Ergos to see talent. Students who could ride dragons better than you in their first week, students who excel in almost every aspect as professional riders. Students that, even before they graduate, are already being scouted by the best teams and leagues—real, unmatched talent. You, you are not it.”

It was as if my soul detached itself from my body, leaving only the empty husk of a body. A body that felt at the same time weightless and unmovable.

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“With that said,” the man opened some cabinets, taking out two glasses and a bottle. “You managed to get here in a considerable amount of time. And you may stink at riding, yet you have the brains for it. For now, this is not enough…but if you show the same guts for the next months you had until now, there is a chance you can turn into something with a better stench.”

I had to shake my head and blink a few times to make sure I was hearing it right.

To make sure that moment, right there, was real.

“What made you change your mind?”

The professor turned back at me and laughed, holding a glass filled with a light liquid.

“I didn’t change my mind. You stink—I don’t approve of you.” But then his smile faded, his eye turning darker as he stared at his glass. “You started to remind me of someone…and after hearing the reasons why you stink, I realized you do have some potential. So I want to see how much you can actually grow. That’s all there is to it.”

Belenus drank his glass in one go, pouring the beverage again—for both glasses this time. He walked over in my direction, handing me over the other glass.

I frowned. “Don’t tell me it’s a past lover or something?”

“Who they are doesn’t matter. You want to get better or not?”

“…I do.”

He smiled at me then, clinking our glasses together with a wild glow crossing his eye. “Then you better do what I say, when I say, exactly how I said it. If you don’t pass my class, you’ll be out of here for good.”

We drank at the same time, yet while Professor Bel kept going until his glass was empty I paused.

“Are you allowed to serve alcohol to your students?” I did have my suspicions, but to think it was actual alcohol…

Belenus leaned closer to me, his gaze wilder than before.

“I can do whatever the fuck I want. Just be at the gymnasium in five minutes.”

I could almost hear the sound of my heart skipping a beat.

“By the gymnasium, you mean…”

And somehow, it felt like I would never again be able to forget the grin on Professor Bel’s face at that moment.

“You already know how I feel about lateness, right? If you wish to be on time for your first elective, you better hurry—I don’t play favorites.”

----------------------------------------

There were two electives taught by Professor Bel that I was so desperate to enroll. One of them would only begin in a couple of months, though the registration had already opened. Yet the other one would start in three days.

Tactical Equipment And Resource Strategy.

Or T.E.A.R.S.

Somehow, I knew deep in my bones Professor Bel had been the one to choose that name.

For someone at my level, I needed more knowledge about maneuvers. How to pull the reins in a way to make my dragon do what I wanted it to do. However, there was still a way for me to aid Styx, and myself, without relying on flight control.

Support tools.

I had already used glowers during the underwater lane, yet there were many others I could take advantage of. Tools that would be able to buy me time, or block attacks I wouldn’t know how to instruct Styx to dodge.

To my surprise, when I got to the gymnasium, there was already a group of students there.

With their dragons.

By the bands in their arms, I knew they were in their second and third years. Yet even if there was no uniform to give me some insight about them, by simply watching them from afar I could tell. They had experience.

They knew what they were doing.

As I watched from one of the pillars, the daylight practically gone at that point, I sensed a presence near me. I didn’t have to turn to know who was it.

“Any idea why I told you to come here?”

Belenus Kairon was not looking at me. He gazed at the other students, some dragons crossing the metal rings spread around the gym with insane speed while others kept flying and hitting the painted targets on the ground.

It was not that difficult to guess what the professor wanted from me, at that moment. I didn’t have Styx with me, and the elective T.E.A.R.S. was only going to start later this week. However, I was still lagging behind.

So Professor Bel brought me to watch one of his other electives—with his more experienced students.

“Observe and learn. This is one of your flight control classes, right?”

The man grinned, his smile being reflected by the lights. “I like that you are not stupid. Observe and learn, yes, but that’s not all. I want you to write a report to me.”

I raised an eyebrow, a bit confused.

“About what? The things I learned?”

He looked at me then, his uncovered eye sending shivers down my spine, a rush in my veins. Lighting up a flame I thought I had forgotten.

For it was not a hateful gaze, much less a mocking one.

“Anything and everything. You like watching races, don’t you? Show me how you can improve from that.”

It was a gaze that kept challenging me.

One that was looking forward to the things I could do.

“…is there a due date for the report?” I asked, barely containing my excitement.

“I want it in my hands tomorrow morning before class starts.”

The smile flourished on my lips, my heart racing again.

“Considered it done.”

For observing and learning from races was something the Jackal knew how to do best.