Mahon checked himself in the mirror of their living room. Zac arrived and tapped on his shoulder to get his attention.

“Looking great, sir!”

“Shut up! I just look like you!”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

They both looked at each other and chuckled. Tonight was their last free night together, and all the roommates had agreed to move out together to a tavern. Tomorrow was the banquet night marking the beginning of the duels and since the First Red each had different targets, they would all end in different houses.

So they had planned this last night together before their efforts would bear fruit and they would be separated after two months of joyful collocation. And since Allen had insisted they should be nicely dressed for the occasion, Zac had lent Mahon one of his jackets. Mahon had never worn any formal clothes in Ratho before and he couldn’t tell if he liked it or not. It gave him some style for sure, but he also looked like a noble and somehow, it didn’t feel right.

“Let’s go, we will meet the others there.”

“Where are we going?”

“Guess.”

“The Alligator tavern?”

“The Hungry Alligator Inn!”

“I wonder who suggested this…”

“Haha... whatever, let’s go.”

Both friends left the residence and chitchatted on the way to the tavern. The streets were peaceful and serene for now, but they knew better what a few drinks and night hours would soon do to them.

“So what happened with Yordar?”

“You know, since the meeting with Rym, I had been thinking about what he said regarding different pacing and tempo in Ratho and Nightmare.”

“Really? I didn’t know!”

The sarcasm didn’t escape Mahon, who talked about this every time he and Zac were alone. That is to say, every day. For hours.

“Now that we started practicing larger scale simulated battles, it jumped to me that something was off. When Yordar says the situation looks fine, I just want to turn over and flee. When he says there is time for such a move or a switch of formation, I can only stop myself from screaming there isn’t enough. When he talks about…”

Mahon stopped as Zac was giving him that look. Like he had heard this story before. Dozens of times.

“Anyway... I went to see him and asked for mentoring. I know most of the strategy and stuff he teaches us. But I can’t even gauge the situation properly to know which to use because everything seems just… off.”

“Will you finally tell me what he said, or will you ramble all the way? We’re almost here and I want to know!”

“He said no.”

“Ah…”

“But he said he would judge me himself at the next strategy test and see from there.”

“So… not that bad?”

“Yes, I have a good feeling. I think even if Yordar doesn’t give a shit about Rym, there are still processes he needs to follow. He can’t favor me out of the box, so he needs to do some work around.”

“Really?”

“Yes. In fact, he looked almost eager to teach me. He said ‘Took you long enough’ when I asked him.”

“Couldn’t you just start with that? It would have saved me your endless digressing.”

“I know. But where is the fun in that?”

Zac turned his head to face a mischievous smile and hit Mahon on the shoulder in false anger.

“I swear I’m gonna leave you alone in Slander’s rings next time. We’ll see who is laughing.”

As he said so, Zac pushed the door of the Hungry Alligator Inn and went inside with Mahon. They soon localized their roommates on the second floor at Zac’s usual spot near the alligator and joined them. Seeing that the table was still empty, Zac gestured to a waitress and loudly announced to the table.

“What do you want to drink? First round is on me!”

"Yippee!" Allen instantly exclaimed. “I will have a beer!”

“Two!”

“Another one here!”

Mahon sat beside Allen and Zac took the last empty seat, closing the circle around their table of five. They started discussing one thing and another, purposely avoiding subjects related to the school, as they wanted to enjoy that feeling of fellowship they had started developing on the first day of school.

“Is it really ok to bring an instrument to a tavern?” Allen asked.

“Yeah, don’t worry. Once the kitchen closes and only the bar stays open, you are free to play, dance, sing or whatever.” Zac answered while tapping his sitar. “Except if they already hired a group of musicians, but it’s not the case tonight.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“You know this place pretty well, Zac. You come there often?” Kali asked the obvious question. The man was in front of Mahon and he was playing with the salt pot, rolling it on one side and the other without paying attention to what he was doing.

“My father owns the Inn so… yeah, I used to come there a lot. It’s the best one there is around here!”

“Because you know a lot of taverns?” Mahon teased, well aware of the answer.

“No, just this one.” Zac answered, unashamed.

They laughed at the answer and in between two chuckles, Allen seized the opportunity to engage in his speciality. Stupid, useless and futile arguing. But fun arguing.

“Then how do you know it’s the best if you only tried this one?”

Zac smiled and rose to the friendly challenge.

“Hey! I trust my father's judgment on this. It’s not because you didn’t try that you don’t know what to expect.”

“Oh really? Let’s say you’re…”

The debate that followed was close to meaningless in its substance, but they didn’t care. They had fun talking and that was all that was needed. Their exchange was interrupted only when the waitress brought their drinks and they all toasted and cheered.

The man took the opportunity to inform them about the various meals they had prepared for tonight’s menu. Most of them were things Mahon had never heard of. By chance, the waiter gave them time to ponder and said he would come back later to take their order.

“What is a carpaccio?” Mahon asked at the table.

“Carpaccio? It’s a kind of culinary technique that consists of slicing a meat or fish really, really thin. And it’s served raw. With some condiments or sauce, of course.” Zac answered.

When he saw the grimace Mahon made at the description, he laughed.

“Hey! It’s very tasty! You should try it!”

“But the waiter said it was a carpaccio of pears. I’m confused now… Why would they slice a pear and make it a meal?”

This time all the roommates joined Zac in his laugh. In between two chuckles, he managed to explain.

“No, no. You got it all wrong. It’s not a pear, it’s a butcher’s pear! It’s like the adductor muscle of a beef. It’s very soft, and it’s considered a delicate piece.”

“Uh… To be honest, I didn’t get a word out of two of what he said.” Mahon laughed.

“Hahahaha, don’t worry Mahon. I will help you to choose. First, what would you prefer, fish or meat?”

In the end, Mahon ordered a piece of some kind of swordfish called eshiomber. It was grilled with perfection, and it was without doubt the best thing he had eaten in his life. After the tasteful dinner, Allen offered the second round of drinks.

“To a pleasant company and the best jokes!” He toasted.

And soon enough, with the stacking of drinks, they were almost back to that first night together where they had shared without restraint. Zac grabbed his sitar and let his hands glide along the cords, without paying any real attention to it. The man had a contented smile as he let his imagination run wild to create a pleasant background noise. Calm notes that he held for long, naturally interweaved to shape a smooth melody.

As the party went on, they could not stop themselves from talking about the future and how they would advance to the next ranks. Most would go to First White, but Wyrran was encouraging Kali to aim higher, directly to First Green. The rules of the dual enabled you to duo duel another duo if the opponents accepted. The strategy part was still two one versus one, but the fighting part turned into a duo versus duo battle. It enabled a duo to stay together while grinding up the ranks. If the challenged duo refused, then it was just two independant duels.

Allen was immersed in their conversation while Zac was slumped in his chair, eyes closed, focused on his music. Mahon was not interested to know if Kali would attempt to duo duel with Wyrran or not. What was on his mind was the consequences of their promotion. There were two ways of entering school. One through hard work, the only possible options for low ranked nobles as his roommates. The other was through a letter of recommendation, the one Mahon had used.

Most high nobles used the second option, which was simpler. But that meant there were always some of them that were just slacking little rich kids. They were allowed inside of the school because of their letter of recommendation, but they actually had the worst grades. Since the opening of the school, they had been ranked by nobility. So these kinds of nobles had been near the top and they had enjoyed lots of benefits, whereas the hard working ones had been at the lower end.

With the opening of the duels, however, it would thoroughly change that. The hard-working students would rise while the slacking nobles would fall. That means his actual roommates would all be replaced with high nobles who don’t give a damn about training. They are here because it’s the most prestigious school in all of Ratho, but they don’t care about its teaching. They don’t plan on being an officer, they just want to say they graduated from the Pine Hill Officer Institute.

Except for Zac, the other students thought the same about Mahon. He was a commoner instead of a high noble but otherwise he was as weak as them and got there because of a letter of recommendation and not his own merits. And now he would naturally be stuck alone with these kinds of weak high nobles until he managed to rank up. And he was not looking forward to it. Even the idea of being paired with one of them for the ring fights made him shudder.

There was no way he would have a good time.

As he was lost in such unpleasant thoughts, Zac hit his foot to draw his attention. Mahon looked up to his friend and realized he had opened his eyes and was looking at him. Zac was back in his automatic music mode, where he could let his hands do whatever they wanted while he paid attention to his surroundings. Zac raised his chin in an interrogative gesture that Mahon could easily identify after two months spent together.

“Uh, nothing… I was lost in useless considerations...”

“Care to share them with me?”

Zac showed his usual gentle smile and Mahon knew he could not shirk from his friend’s perceptiveness.

“I was wondering who would take the place of the leaving.”

Mahon tilted his head to indicate Zac and the other roommates, and Zac nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, you’re totally not ready to live with high nobles. You even managed to fight with the first one you met.” Zac joked.

“And you said Jorik is not the worst one?”

“Yeah, I think so. Although he is harsh, he mostly tries to avoid you. But there are those who instead come at you endlessly. It’s like they can’t tolerate your existence, so they try their best to make your life the most miserable. It’s these ones that are the worst.”

Mahon winced but tried his luck nonetheless.

“Surely the school in its great discernment didn’t accept any of these, right?”

The sad look he got from Zac conveyed the exact opposite, and Mahon sighed.

“Hey, we should not worry about that. We came here to enjoy ourselves, didn’t we?”

Zac focused back on his instrument and started a lively music that brought the table’s attention to him. They started to clap their hands, following the rousing rhythm and soon they were singing the refrain at the top of their lungs.

Mahon didn’t know most of the lyrics, but Zac had taught him some popular ones in exchange for Mahon’s guidance. Living in Ratho tips for strategy advice, that had been their deal for the last two months. And tomorrow it would be over.

It would be hard to find another person such as Zac within his future high nobles roommates. He would still be able to talk with Zac, even if he was in another house, but they would not be able to train together so Mahon’s part of the deal would be null. And Zac would have another duo so he would not have that much time anyway.

Mahon chased away his dark thoughts and immersed in what was probably his last enjoyable evening for a long time.