“Seems like quite the line,” Adion said as he and Sell spotted the administration building by the Old Academy further down the road.

“You have to turn in your choice before noon tomorrow, so it’s not strange that a lot of people get here at the same time with such a short deadline,” Sell said.

“True,” Adion nodded, “I guess everyone has already made their decisions before coming here, so it should be a quick process.”

“Yeah,” Sell nodded, “And it’s not even noon yet, so we have plenty of time to train.”

Adion and Sell lined up after the other students outside the administration building. A few people turned to look at them as they arrived. Something Adion had noticed people doing ever since he met up with Sell.

Is it because she is beautiful that people can’t help to turn and look? Or is it because of that rumor Aiden was talking about? Well, it doesn’t matter. It would just be nice if other students assumed we were together. As long as we can plausibly deny it, anyone with power will have trouble causing us problems over us being friends.

“Watch it, Brendtord,” A man’s voice rang out from somewhere ahead of the line.

“I didn’t even touch you,” Another man’s voice sounded, “Are you so weak that just my presence rattles you? Looks like it’s going to be an easy fight when I challenge you.”

“An earth mage like you think you have a chance? I’ll make you wake up to reality in the tournament.” The first man responded.

“What’s that all about?” Adion asked Sell in a low voice, tuning out the argument.

“Brendtord is a Noble family from the Delovan Empire that has sided with Onden. I’m guessing they are from opposite sides of the conflict,” Sell said.

“Oh, right,” Adion said. He had noticed a few tensions between those two groups in particular. “Seems like they don’t dare do anything outside of an official fight, though,”

“No one would be that stupid,” Sell said. She then turned to look up at Adion with narrowed eyes, “Make sure that you don’t use your powers on anyone outside of an official fight. Even if they bother you.”

“I thought you said no one would be that stupid,” Adion questioned.

“And then I thought of you,” Sell responded with a teasing smile.

“Even I know that much,” Adion muttered, “I didn’t even trip that Vels guy after he challenged you, remember?”

“Wait, you were thinking about tripping him? So you admit you’ve been doing that?” Sell asked, smiling.

“No,” Adion refuted, “Those other guys were all just clumsy. Vels would have been the first.”

“Haha,” Sell laughed, “Of course. Well, I’m glad you didn’t. Even if it wouldn’t have been easily noticed, you-”

“Sell, Adion, fancy meeting you here,” A girl’s voice rang out from behind them, interrupting Sell.

Adion and Sell turned around to see Felicia coming towards them with another elven girl beside her. She had curly dark brown hair and looked a little shy, walking a step behind Felicia. She was also a middle Bronze mage, but Adion didn’t recognize her from the people he had seen in diamond class.

“You said you would be busy the entire day,” Felicia commented to Sell as she stepped up behind them in line, “So you had plans with Adion?”

“We are going to train together after submitting our classes,” Sell said.

“Is that so? Are you also a fire mage, Adion?” Felicia turned to Adion and asked.

“I am,” Adion nodded, “Sell has stronger concepts in her fire than anyone I’ve ever seen. So I learn a lot from her.”

“You’ve trained together before?” Felicia asked.

“Only a little,” Adion said.

“I’ve never seen your fire, Sell,” Felicia said, turning back to Sell, “Do you think I could join your training?”

“No,” Sell said, shaking her head, “It doesn’t work.”

“Why?” Felicia asked, “I just want to watch. I won’t get in the way.”

“It just doesn’t work,” Sell said.

“Oh…” Felicia said, turning silent.

“I have a few secret moves that I don’t want to show anyone before the tournament,” Adion made up an excuse.

“Even with a Gift like yours?” Felicia questioned.

“It’s not like it’s a guarantee I can win with it. Someone might have come up with a counter,” Adion argued, “That’s why I asked Sell for some private practice.”

“I see,” Felicia slowly nodded.

“Who is this?” Adion asked about the elven girl next to Felicia.

“This is Lastia Isryn,” Felica introduced.

“Hello, I’m Felicia’s and Sellitha’s roommate,” Lastia said, not looking Adion in the eye.

“I’m Adion Remori, nice to meet you,” Adion responded.

“She is a little on edge because a boy from her class has been bothering her lately,” Felicia said to Adion.

“Not so loud,” Lastia said to Felicia.

“You’re a Noble,” Sell said, “I’m sure you can just ask you not to bother you, right?”

“He seems like the persistent type,” Felicia said with a smile, “He even gave her a bouquet of flowers after the introduction yesterday. It has become quite the talking point in the gold class.”

“Who is he? Is he also a Noble?” Sell asked.

“What was his name Lastia? Astor Tyllen, right?” Felicia asked.

“Mm,” Lastia nodded.

What?

Adion turned to look at Sell to see her standing with her mouth open. Adion had already told her about his encounter with Astor after he fled Dorbarta, so she knew Astor was even more unpleasant than she had experienced for herself.

“You know him?” Felicia asked, looking at Sell.

“I visited the Tyllen family when they were introduced to the Nobility a few years ago,” Sell answered.

“Oh, what do you think of him?” Felicia asked.

“He was bothersome,” Sell said.

“Haha,” Felicia laughed, “I can imagine.”

“What should I do,” Lastia sighed.

“Work hard in the tournament and advance to the diamond class,” Felcia said, putting a hand on Lastia’s shoulder. “Then you won't see him as much, and I’m sure he’ll eventually give up.”

“What if I can’t make it?” Lastia asked.

“Then enjoy the free gifts,” Felicia laughed.

So Astor is in gold class, despite his confidence in making it into diamond class. I really hope he doesn’t climb ranks during the tournament, or I will have a hard time following the rules of the school.

“Anyway, what classes have you decided on taking?” Felicia asked them.

“I’m taking the Headmaster’s aura class and ‘Inexplicable Magic’ by Professor Haul,” Sell said.

“‘Inexplicable Magic’ and a beginner class on runes,” Adion answered.

“‘Inexplicable Magic’?” Felicia asked, “I would be careful if I were you. Professor Haul seems…Well, I lost 20 credits to him just during my admission.”

“He seems a little loose with credits,” Adion agreed.

“So you’re really not taking the Headmaster’s class, Adion?” Felicia asked.

“Not at the moment,” Adion shook his head.

“Adion’s grandfather just advanced to the Soft Soul stage,” Sell said, “So he will have a good private teacher in aura going forward.”

“Really? So your family has become Noble now?” Felicia asked.

“Mm,” Adion nodded.

“Congratulations,” Felicia said with a smile.

Stolen story; please report.

“Congratulations, Adion,” Lastia joined in.

“Thanks,” Adion said.

It would do me good to train aura with Grandpa, and it has been a long time since we trained together. It will also be a good excuse if someone notices my out-of-the-ordinary aura control.

The group finally made it to the front of the line and were able to turn in their class choices. Most classes were limited in number, but as students of the diamond class, Adion and Sell weren’t worried that they wouldn’t make the cut.

“I’ll see you guys later,” Felicia waved goodbye as they finished. She headed in a different direction along with Lastia, who was still looking over her shoulder, watching out for Astor.

“Astor knows about you and me,” Sell said worriedly as they started walking to the training area. “Well, not everything, but he knows some of it.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Adion murmured, “He might cause us some trouble. But still, as long as no one from your family finds out, we should be fine. And it would take more than just us spending a lot of time together to be proof of anything.”

“But it will come out that we already met years ago, that we were in the Outskirts together,” Sell said.

“I guess that’s possible,” Adion nodded, “But is that so bad? It actually explains better that we’re spending a lot of time together, since we already knew eachother.”

“But won’t people question why we’ve lied?” Sell asked. “Why did we even lie about that?”

“I’ve never lied about it,” Adion said, looking at Sell, “I just never mentioned it.”

“I guess I never outright lied about it either. But it will seem like we’re hiding something,” Sell said.

“Well, I’m sure people will forget about it eventually,” Adion said, “There’s too much for people to focus on here at the Academy for them to waste time thinking about us.”

“Maybe,” Sell sighed.

“And worst case scenario and everything is revealed,” Adion said, “We will still be fine as long as we stay here at the Academy. We’ll have time to figure something out before we graduate.”

“That’s true,” Sell nodded, “Let’s not worry about what we can’t control and focus on getting stronger.”

“Mm,” Adion nodded.

It didn’t take them very long to arrive at the training area. It was located close to the arena, and the main fighting pit was empty at the moment as no classes had started yet. There were also several smaller fighting pits in the area that students could rent for credits, which is exactly what Sell had done.

“This is the one I have reserved,” Sell said as they arrived in front of a walled-off fighting pit. There was a gate barring their way, but Sell had already received the keys to open it when she made the reservation.

As she opened the gate, Adion saw that there was nothing spectacular about the fighting pit, just an area with dry earth and a few rocks scattered, surrounded by stone walls on all sides. There was no roof, but that was something Adion appreciated.

“How sturdy are the walls?” Adion asked.

“They should be pretty sturdy,” Sell said as she put away the bag she had carried with her, and locked the gate behind them. “But don’t try to attack them. I think they are mostly there to stop any stray attacks, as well as give privacy for any students that don’t want their training spied on.”

“Mm,” Adion nodded. He then turned to Sell with a smile, “What do you want to start with?”

“Space sense!” Sell yelled excitedly, “And I want to teleport!”

“Haha,” Adion laughed, “Okay. As long as you give me your fire to study later.”

“Of course,” Sell nodded. She picked up a blindfold from her bag and tied it over her eyes. “I brought plums. Don’t hold back.”

“Alright,” Adion nodded and went to pick up some plums and rocks with a content smile.

Finally back to practicing together. I should work hard for credits so we can rent one of these fighting pits to train in more often.

Adion immediately threw a plum at Sell without warning her they would start. Sell gracefully dodged it, surprising Adion.

“Ha! I knew you would do that,” Sell said with a victorious smile.

“Well done,” Adion said, “I won’t go easy on you then.”

They spent the next thirty minutes with Adion alternating between throwing rocks and plums and occasionally attacking with his sword or fire. When Sell started breathing heavy, Adion decided they should take a break and do some teleportation.

“Let’s teleport for a while,” Adion said, “I think it might be a good idea to place pieces of paper around the pit, with different numbers on them. You can then try to guess where we are as I teleport around.”

“That sounds fun,” Sell said, removing her blindfold and squinting her eyes at the light.

“I’m not sure if it will work in making your spatial awareness improve, but I think it will,” Adion said, “And we should be able to notice the improvement. After a while we can add even more numbers around the pit until you can tell exactly where we are.”

“That will probably take a lot of time,” Sell said.

“Not up for the challenge?” Adion teased.

“Of course I am,” Sell said, pulling out some paper and a pen from her bag. “I won’t give up until I have a better sense of space than you.”

“Then we will have to do this for a very long time,” Adion said.

“That’s fine,” Sell said, smiling as she drew numbers on the pieces of paper. She drew all the way up to 20 numbers, but Adion thought they should start with just 4, one for each wall, and work their way up.

Adion placed the papers as Sell put on her blindfold once again.

“Ready?” Adion asked, grabbing Sell around the waist and pulling her close.

“Mm,” Sell nodded, blushing.

Seems like it’s still hard to focus when she is this close. Adion thought as he grabbed hold of the space by the number 3, trying to change the space between there and where he and Sell were standing.

“I feel that we changed places,” Sell said as Adion successfully teleported them. “But how am I supposed to know where we are?”

“Try to feel the space around you,” Adion said, “Even if these places don’t differ much, there are subtle changes you can feel to make a guess. But let’s start with giving you a feeling for each spot. This one is 3, so try to remember what it feels like, the wall behind us, the ground and small rocks, our position in relation to the gate and our bags.

“Okay,” Sell nodded.

Adion continued teleporting around, Sell making a guess each time after trying to feel the space around her. Unfortunately, she only got a slightly better result than random guesses.

“This is so hard,” Sell said, taking off her blindfold again, “The only place I was pretty sure about was 1, and that was because of the gate behind us. I even got that wrong once.”

“Well, it will take a lot of practice,” Adion said, “I think it’s pretty impressive you could even tell that much.”

“Maybe,” Sell said, “Do you want to take a look at my fire now?”

“Yes,” Adion said excitedly.

Sell smiled and conjured up a flame. Adion grabbed as much of it as he could using his Authority, which wasn’t very hard as Sell didn’t fight him over it.

“This is incredible, Sell,” Adion murmured, “How can it be so much stronger?”

The flame was so hot that Adion had to keep it a distance so he wouldn’t get burnt. The flames were also flicking strangely, one moment moving slowly, only for them to the next moment flicker somewhere else in an instant. It almost looked like snakes, moving slowly and gracefully through the grass, and then attacking their prey in a lethal attack.

“I worked hard,” Sell said, sitting down beside Adion, “But my fire still has a long way to go.”

“With this fire, I’m afraid you’ll kill anyone you hit during the tournament,” Adion said.

“I can hold my concepts back a little,” Sell said, “But yeah, I shouldn’t aim for the head.”

If this is the fire that the mana in her fire core produces, just how powerful are her Words of Truth? I feel like I wouldn’t stand a chance against Sell if we were in a life-and-death battle. I guess I really can’t afford to relax.

Adion continued scrutinizing the fire while Sell watched.

“Okay, time to move on,” Sell said after almost an hour had passed with Adion playing around with Sell’s fire and trying to gleam the hidden concepts within it.

“Let’s do this again tomorrow,” Adion said, more excited to work on his own concepts than ever.

“The tournament is tomorrow,” Sell said with a smile.

“We’ll have time while the lower classes fight,” Adion said.

“And tire ourselves out? Not even I’m confident enough to fight other students with an exhausted Will,” Sell said.

“I guess you're right,” Adion said. “After the tournament, then.”

“Mm,” Sell nodded. “Now. Let me see how long you can hold me still.”

Sell jumped up to her feet and faced Adion in a fighting stance. “Hold on as long as you can.”

“Okay,” Adion nodded and got up as well. He took control of the space surrounding her and froze it, only to feel how Sell immediately fought against it.

Looks like it won’t be so easy.

After almost four seconds had passed, Sell broke free despite how much Adion struggled to hold her still.

“So fast?” Adion asked aloud, shocked.

“It took forever,” Sell muttered grumpily.

“I’m a Silver mage, you know? No Bronze mage has ever come close to four seconds before,” Adion said.

“Still,” Sell said, “Let’s go again. I feel like it’s a good way to temper my Will. And I want to get below one second.”

“Alright then,” Adion smiled. It would be good practice for him too.

It was very high-intensity training, so not even 10 minutes after they started, they were completely exhausted.

“Okay, let’s take a break,” Sell said, lying down on the ground, sweaty from the effort.

Adion wasn’t much better off. His Will had truly been pushed to the limit, so he laid down beside her.

“You were able to hold me still longer and longer with every effort,” Sell said.

“Giving up?” Adion asked.

“Never,” Sell said, turning to look at him with a brilliant smile.

Adion thought that smile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

He looked into Sell’s deep red eyes, and then to her lips. Suddenly his body was filled with energy again as his heart started beating wildly.

He brushed some of Sell’s hair away from her face behind her ear, and pulled her into a deep kiss. Sell accepted the advance and kissed him back.

Since there was finally no risk of interruptions, they could both relax in each other's embrace, and Adion got to experience more than ever before as his tongue met Sell’s.

Screw everything else. All my credits will be used on private fighting pits in the future.