[32]

Laying back in the steaming waters of my tub for the second time that day, I hesitated to wash my sweaty face. Before Elaine left for the evening, she kissed my cheek. It was certainly my imagination, but I could almost swear there was a lingering wetness from where her lips touched me. It felt wrong to scrub away the kiss until I understood how I felt about her; like doing so would forever wash away the fascination.

Or… I just want to cherish it, I thought, anxiety swelling in my stomach at my weakness.

Elaine was a woman of dreams, wonderful to behold and yet altogether illusory. I would never forget the first time I saw her exquisite pale face. Searching sky-blue eyes full of concern for an unknown ugly boy, forever seared itself into my mind. The pity that came after still angered me. Her money invalidated the only thing that I prided myself on. But how much of her care was real? Did she only act because other people were watching?

The thing I feared most was that she knew the effect she had on me. A perfectly laid kiss, from perfect lips to snare me further into her web of lies. My heart told me it was not true, but my heart was a fucking idiot. I already learned that the hard way.

Through our bond, Ugz could sense my turmoil, and must have tired of it. Water splashed across my face, going up my nose, and momentarily blinding me as the bastard newt crashed into the water next to me.

“Ahhgg!” I yelled, scrambling to clear my eyes with a nearby towel.

Glaring with crocodile eyes, the shelled mutant reptile-amphibian circled the tub in a looping swim directly over my private parts.

“Why are you mad at me?” I asked, confused.

Hungry, was the feeling I got from him.

“You are always hungry you miserable nuisance!” I said, dunking him underwater after I got out. If that bothered him, he did not seem to care, bobbing right back to the surface with no effort.

I hesitate to call what Ugz did as giving advice, but I took the spirit of his intent to heart nonetheless, redirecting my mental efforts to more immediate issues. Knowing from personal experience that the best way to deal with unpleasant emotions sometimes was to just work it off.

After dressing in cotton sleep-wear, I grabbed a snack for myself and Ugz from the kitchen, and caught a conversation between Raxx and Izzy in the living area.

“Nasty pukes. I did a tour in the orange, about… what was it, five years back? Anyhow, we came across a band of them on patrol.” Izzy stood up, raising her armor a few inches, and parting her robe to show burn marks along her stomach and waist.

“They look harmless, almost cute even, like green hedgehogs,” She continued. “But it’s all a ruse. The vicious turds spit acid and are really hard to kill. They’ll regenerate limbs and from being cut nearly in half. Only way to make sure they stay dead is to dice em’ up to mincemeat.”

“What are you guys talking about?” I had to ask.

“Slorpenshugs,” Raxx said, holding up his soul ledger. “Got assigned it for tomorrow’s presentation.”

I nodded to Raxx for his ingenuity, not because I had ever heard of such an absurd monster. Asking Izzy had been a good idea. We all knew the Harak hated reading—I suspected he had poor vision up close—so getting firsthand knowledge from someone that knew the monster would help.

Ugz and I ate our snacks on the bed. I spent the next few hours distracting myself with learning.

Reading had become an absolute pleasure since I bumped it up to rank A. Saewulf told me that any skill you get with a class is not equitable to anything a normal person has. Sure, classing up initially ranked you based around where it thought you should be, but the actual process of classing also filled in gaps that you did not know you had. Meaning, a person who could qualify to rank C in the sword without a class, was not as good as someone that actually had rank C. It was why people with non-ascended classes were still powerful compared to a normal person. Further adding to the disparity, regular classes had access to more skill points than even ascended, making them much more versatile than regular people.

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Rank A made it exceptionally easy for me to both pick up and keep information I read. Three quarters of an hour was all that took for me to find and read an entire book devoted to the Barghest pre-godswar, seven bestiary entries, and two journals from adventurers that encountered them. The Barghest book, I retained information from best, because I took a longer time to scrutinize its pages. Retention was not perfect, but I could damn near accurately describe the central point, and many of the details of each chapter of the book. It was a marvel, and I could not wait to use it to cram information on many subjects!

Another two hours in, I knew enough to give talks on seven other monsters on my list and five that were not, but my eyes were too tired to keep open. Forcing myself to stay awake, I went through my spell casting routine until I could not hold my head up any longer.

….

+1 Strength

+1 Agility

It was a wonderful thing to wake up to more improvements. I suspected I would never grow tired of it! Eventually, I would be capable enough that the points would not come so easily, but for the time being I reveled in it.

Before long, Raxx, Izzy, and I met up with Joy at our usual table for breakfast. Things were going fairly normally, with Joy and Raxx chatting about their presentations and Izzy mean mugging anyone that walked too close to our table. That was, until what I suspected might happen, happened.

“Hi!” Elaine said, giving everyone a cheery smile over a plate loaded with fruit.

I almost rolled my eyes at my “beloved”. Common folk did not eat fruit for breakfast. If we were really going to do this, she needed to know about bacon and eggs.

“Hello,” Joy replied cautiously. Last she knew, Elaine had disappeared after an attempted assassination. They had not met in person yet, but I knew Joy knew who Elaine was. Joy seemed to know almost everyone, even if they did not speak to her.

“Mind if I sit here?” Elaine said, giving me an exaggerated wink, then plopping down next to me before anyone could argue.

Joy gave me a look of alarm over the procession of events. Not being in the “know” she understood the Kestevs would be angry at Elaine’s forwardness and thus worried for me.

Raxx just laughed. The Sea Dog did not know the details, but he knew she visited me last night. His hearing might have penetrated into our conversation last night normally, but Elaine had used a magic item to ensure no one could eavesdrop.

“So, uh, this is Elaine Highrow. Elaine, this is Joy and you’ve already met Raxx and Izzy.” I said hesitantly.

“Nice to meet you!” Elaine said, nearly blinding poor Joy with her white teeth. “Hey, Joy, are you eating Hearth grubs?” Elaine asked.

A duke’s daughter asking a wildling about her breakfast did not happen often, and never for Joy. The normally combative Joy suddenly looked shy about her food.

“I was just asking because they are amazing with a white wine sauce. There is a restaurant in Harcourt that makes the grubs melt in your mouth. I happen to know the recipe!” Elaine said.

Damn, she was good. I suspected Elaine prepared that in advance, knowing Joy would be the hardest of my friends to win over. Growing suspicion creeped into my gaze, and I felt myself becoming nauseous.

Elaine looked up at me full of enthusiasm, and the smile on her face perished. She turned from me and began eating a plant I had never seen before.

“I think I would like that,” Joy said, bringing attention back to her. “Cooking isn’t one of my skills, but I am trying very hard to make it one. I would not trade growing up in a library for anything in the world, but the food my parents cooked left a lot to be desired. There are so many new things I’ve eaten since arriving here. Ashmere has been kind to me in that regard.”

“Well, it’s settled then! We can arrange a dinner for the boys this Sixday.” Elaine said, smiling again.

“Nope, we have parties to go to,” Raxx said.

“Wait, a dinner is a kind of party, we should do this instead,” Joy said, a little too insistent.

“Parties? As in more than one?” Elaine said, smirking at me.

“Well, yeah, four to be exact,” I said sheepishly.

“Four!?” Elaine said. “They invited you to four Start-year parties? I don’t get invited to four parties.”

Joy laughed.

“Well, you should come with us,” Raxx said, giving me a leering look she could not see, seated on the other-side of me.

“I would love to.” Elaine said. Then added, ”T-that is, I mean, if Harald doesn’t mind.”

“I don’t mind,” I lied. The upside was maybe Reynold would be at one of them, and we could end this charade. I was not sure if I liked Elaine anymore, but I knew for sure I did not enjoy pretending to court someone.

“I bet it will be an evening of fun!” Elaine said.