Even when I was at the castle, I never had to worry about dressing nicely for parties or events. In fact, I was expressly forbidden from even leaving my room during those sort of things. Because of that, I had no real idea how to dress for these sort of things. The dress instructions were ‘formal, no uniform,’ so I had to go out of my way to get myself something to wear a few days ago. It was a pair of blue-black slacks and a blazer and shoes that all matched. They all fit wonderfully and, wearing a plain, white undershirt under the blazer, looked better than I had thought they would.

Standing in front of the tall mirror mounting in my room, I checked my appearance. I had been neglecting to get my hair cut since Hazel and I had come to the College, so it had gotten long. Not just that, the color had gotten redder, going from a strawberry blond to a deeper, almost ginger color. It had also gained a kind of glossiness to it that make it almost shine.

No doubt this change came from the Dragonstone in some way. Hazel had gone through a similar change, though hers had been far more drastic of a change. I welcomed the idea of not picturing my father every time I looked in the mirror, as we have very similar features, the main one being how our hair used to be identical in nearly every aspect.

Grinning, I tied my hair back behind my head and took one last look in the mirror before leaving my room.

Even after all this time, Avery had not come back to our room. The ceremony started in around twenty minutes, and it would take barely less than that to get there. I wasn’t worried for him. Rather, I wanted to get his opinion on how I looked, but I would have to find out once I got there.

Leaving the room, I found a crowd moving through the hall, everyone dressed very similarly to me. Seeing this, I figured that I looked fine and walked with confidence.

The ceremony itself was being held in a building called the grand hall at the very back of campus. Its size rivaled the coliseum and stood tall enough that there could easily be three stories to it.

Arriving in front of the enormous, stone building just in time to enter, I watched as two faculty members approached the main doors and grabbed onto the long, vertical bars. The doors slid smoothly along the front wall, making an entrance wide enough for the students to shuffle into the building comfortably. I recognized that one of the faculty members was Karst. I met the mans eyes as I slowly walked toward the building. The man grinned slightly and nodded his head, which I returned in kind before stepping past the doors and into the enormous room of the grand hall.

Before, when I had thought that this building could have three stories, I was sort of correct. The center of the room went all the way to the top of the building where an enormous skylight let in the light of the moon. The surrounding this, however were levels that all looked down into this center area. To the far left and right were large sets of stairs that climbed up to these floors. Beyond the support beams for these higher floors were dozens of large, round tables covered in silverware and flowery decor.

Seeing the obvious evidence of dinner being served to us, I felt a twinge of guilt for having engorged myself before.

Feeling myself being pushed forward by the crowd trying to enter, I hurried to the stairs and ascended to the third floor as quickly as I could to avoid being trampled.

Both of the higher levels, just like the ground level, had the rounded dinner tables filling it. Finding a spot near the edge of the balcony, I sat down and looked through the bars of the guard rail, watching people flood into the building. Seeing people move in groups made me slightly envious of their friendship. Turning my thoughts and attention away from them all, I noticed a few people standing on the ground floor opposite the entrance. In the group, I recognized Madam Luce among the group, along with Amara Leonte and a few others.

Among this group was one person who stood out. Standing proudly among the group of staff and administrators was a woman. She was taller than everyone in the group and dressed in a tight fitting, red dress that stopped just below her knees, her light, brown hair flowing down her back in loose curls. Even from this distance, I could see the pleasant smile across her face as she chatted with her group. Turning from her group, she looked directly at me. Our gazes meeting, I noticed that her smile turned mischievous as she winked at me with her brilliant, emerald eyes before turning back to her group.

After staring blankly at the ground floor for some time, a tap on the shoulder startled me to attention.

It was Avery. He was standing just behind me, dressed in black slacks and a white shirt. It was simple, but it oddly fit him. Gripping tightly onto his arm was the girl who had given me the notes this morning. She wore an all black dress with blue-black accents around the hem. This girl hadn’t acknowledged my existence, instead holding tight to my roommate and staring at him, no doubt trying to take his attention away.

I had no idea why women just seemed to flock to Avery. At every turn, there was one trying to talk to him or get his attention. Hundreds have tried at this point, yet despite all of their attempts, he’s hardly shown any of them any real attention. He was always polite and attentive, but kept them at arms length the entire time. I would occasionally peek out from my room whenever he had a girl over and learned that every one of them was for tutoring. Most were almost throwing themselves at him, yet he acted completely oblivious. I knew otherwise, though. After sending them off, he would close the door and breath a heavy sigh before doing his own thing.

Seeing how desperately this girl acted, I could only pity her. She was probably thinking that she was going to be the one to finally get him, but I could already tell that he had no intentions of doing anything with her. From our interactions this morning, Avery had probably asked her to take notes for me, and she offered to do it if he would accompany her here. Thinking this, I felt touched at the lengths that he would go to for me.

“I knew that it was you. Even from all the way down there.” He joked. “That hair of yours sticks out, no matter where you are.”

I couldn’t help but touch my hair at his words.

“I can’t really do anything about it.” I replied, feeling slightly self-conscious.

“Oh it’s nothing to worry about. In fact, I’m worried for the future.” He grinned, patting me on the shoulder. “You’re gonna have to fight the girls off with a stick.”

You’re the last person to be saying things like that. I wanted to call him out on his words, but I couldn’t get the words out. I was more grateful for his words than frustrated. I guess I was more anxious about my appearance than I had thought.

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“In fact, you probably should have brought something tonight.” Avery continued.

“What do you mean?”

“You haven’t noticed?” He smiled. “I keep seeing all the young ladies around glancing over here. They all must want a piece of you.”

Looking around, I met eyes with several girls around my age, all of whom blushed and quickly turned away.

Smiling to myself, I quickly steeled my nerves. I couldn’t afford any distractions. Faria takes first priority.

Avery reintroduced his date to me, though I couldn’t be bothered to commit her name to memory.

Someone called out to Avery from a short distance away and my roommate waved back and stepped toward them. Despite her tightening grip on her dates arm, Avery slipped out from her grasp with ease and stepped away.

“We’ll sit at this table too, so don’t go anywhere.” He called back to us, though I couldn’t tell which of us he was talking to.

Sighing, the girl slumped down into a chair and stared off into space.

Seeing that I was looking at her, she turned and grimaced at me. “Don’t interfere.” She threatened.

Her true self was finally revealed. The chances of it actually happening are extremely low, but it would be a pain for this girl to frequent our home.

Wanting to retort, I immediately responded. “I don’t have to.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She snarled.

“You’re just like the rest of them.” I explained, trying to hold back a smile. “All the other girls who keep trying to get at him. They all fail spectacularly.” She seemed to know what I was talking about. She was frowning deeply. “What makes you so special?” I finished.

Breathing deep through her nose, I could see her face turn a shade redder. She looked like she wanted to say something back, but her mouth stayed shut.

Regardless of if she said anything or not, she knew that I was right. She couldn’t deny it at this point. And making a scene would just put her lower on the rung than all the others she was trying to compete with.

Closing her eyes, she stood straight and stormed off.

Grinning to myself, I watched her disappear down the stairs just as Avery came back.

“Where’d she go?” He asked, turning to look around.

“She said that she had something that she needed to do and left in a hurry.” I lied.

Shrugging this off, Avery sat down at the table and chatted with me for a while.

A short time after, I felt a strange pulling sensation in my chest that disappeared as soon as it had appeared.

Then, I sat frozen in my seat as Hazel came up the stairs. She spotted me immediately and hurried over.

She wore a plain, white dress with nothing but a sash wrapped around her waist that matched her burgundy hair. It altogether reminded me of a pristine, white handkerchief dipped in wine. It was breathtaking. To me at least.

Avery and I stood as she came over. “You must be Avery.” She spoke, stopping at the table. “I’m Hazel, Mal’s sister.” She introduced herself before sitting down in the seat beside mine.

I sat down, my eyes still locked onto Hazel.

“I guess good looks must run in the family.” Avery stated. He was still standing, his eyes moving from me to our newcomer. “Though I must say, you two don’t look like siblings.”

I was frozen. I didn’t know how to respond. Nobody has questioned our relationship before now.

Hazel was quick to answer. “We have different mothers.” She brushed off Avery’s statement expertly. It reminded me of how Lord Claude would do the same when questioned about his relationship to my mother, brushing it off like it was something completely ordinary.

Even looking away from her, I couldn’t get Hazel’s image from my mind. Locking eyes with Avery, the boy cocked an eyebrow, but couldn’t say anything before a loud voice permeated the grand hall.

“Thank you all for coming today!” I recognized the voice as Madam Luce’s. Her voice boomed through the entire building with almost no effort.

From our vantage point, it was impossible to see anything going on on the ground floor.

“We would like to congratulate this year’s winner of the seniority bracket for a hard fought victory. After winning ten consecutive battles, she has earned the title of baron which will be bestowed upon her at the end of the year. Do you have anything you would like to add?”

There was a moment of silence before another, powerful voice resounded through the building. It was a voice filled with conviction and pride, one that seemed to revel in the victory and the recognition. But underneath all of that, there was a solemn, almost noble presence.

With a mighty voice, Regina spoke. “I owe my victory to my family. They were slaughtered in the war, preparing a way for me to escape to safety. That day, I promised myself that I would do my part to protect the families who would be broken by the fighting. And I plan on keeping that promise.” She finished.

After she finished, someone clapped from nearby and dozens of people flooded onto the floor, carrying trays topped with food that made me feel even more guilty for stuffing myself earlier. It all smelled divine and, from what I was able to eat, tasted amazing as well.

I could have eaten more, but I kept getting distracted. My mind kept turning to Hazel, who sat beside me, eating and savoring the food. It had been some time since we were last able to sit and eat next to each other. Not only that, but just her in general took over my thoughts.

“You okay?” She whispered.

“Yeah.” I replied quickly, startled. “I ate a lot before coming here.”

Nodding, she turned her attention back to the scraps left on her plate and finished them off faster than she had started.

It made sense that she would enjoy food like this to such an extent. She lived in poverty until she was sold as a servant to the castle, where they were fed off of the scraps left from the kitchen. To go from that to something prepared by what I could only assume was a team of professional chefs must be mind blowing. That she’s kept this up for so long is what is truly surprising. Lord Claude’s chefs were definitely not lacking.

Before I could realize it, a half an hour had passed as people began to gather back down on the ground floor. There was something of a dance going on, though the crowd was still quite small.

Feeling the night pulling on my mind, I decided that I’d had enough for today and wanted to get to bed. I’d used quite a bit more mana today than I usually did, so I needed to make sure to get all the rest I could.

I stood, quickly being followed by Hazel.

“I’m gonna head to bed. I need all the strength I can get for tomorrow.” I explained.

“I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to.” I said sheepishly.

There was a look of confusion in her eyes before she spoke again. “I have something I need to talk about.”

Nodding my head, I started toward the exit, pausing to glance at the dance floor, just like many others were at the moment.

Regina, the woman who had won the seniority bracket and had just declared how she intended to live, was dancing oddly in the center of the crowd. I’d never seen something like it, her moves were wild, yet very coordinated. Looking at it made me more tired, somehow.

Shaking my head, I stepped through the exit and into the cool, late-spring air.

Making sure that we were far enough from everyone else, Hazel pulled an envelope out from her bag and handed it to me.

In the envelope was a letter, stating that she would be able to meet the person she was looking for if she won her bracket. At the very bottom of the letter was the signature of Miss Calli.

“How?” I muttered.

“I got that letter this morning. I think it’s legitimate. Have you heard of this woman?” She asked.

Pulling myself to the conversation, I explained to Hazel what had happened with my own experience with this woman and how she had promised me the same thing.

Frozen, the both of us paused before turning back to the letter. How had this woman known that Hazel was looking for this Aaron with me?

Tired and unsure of where to go from here, I shook my head and stated. “Well then, let’s both give it our best!”

Smiling, Hazel nodded her head before we started walking toward our respective dorms.

Climbing half conscious up to my room, I stripped off my clothes, changed into my night clothes and collapsed into bed.

In the moments before I fell asleep, my mind was flooded with dozens of images, all of them of Hazel.

Some distractions are definitely harder to turn from.