Lily sat on the ground in the spacious close-combat training field as she watched Tyler practice his drills. Well, not on the ground per se, since she was sitting on Tyler's school uniform. Her teachers would have some choice words if she walked into the classroom with a dirty uniform since she was expected to look 'prim and proper', and Lily wasn't in the mood to listen to her teacher's nag about her appearance. In contrast, Tyler was almost expected to have dusty and dirty clothes for some reason. Something about sweat and dirt equals hard work? Whatever the reason, Lily still missed the days where she could just wear whatever to her lessons and not be judged. "Do you ever feel like leaving Cidala was a bad idea, Tyler?" 

"Well, it is definitely not the forest, if that is what you are asking. The training field is great, though I don't really know how hitting a wooden dummy is supposed to teach me how to fight," Tyler said. His dummy was already rather worn and leaned heavily to one side. Of course, Lily knew that he had started taking more care once he found out that he would have to pay for a new one. "I miss our mentor's way of teaching. Practical, no-nonsense teaching and none of this 'Warrior's Ethics'. Did I tell you that Kevin actually cried after I didn't let him hit me? They called me a bully for dodging his haphazard blows."

"Haha! A bully! Next time you need to hit them. Then you'll advance from a bully to a brute!" Lily laughed as she made fun of her childish classmates.

"Har har, Lily. My reputation is already terrible here. The last thing I need is for everyone to ignore me." Tyler said aggrievedly. Lily stopped laughing. She knew Tyler wasn't having a great time right now, partially because of her. Her mother was right, there were a lot of people that had tried to suck up to her right from the start, just because her parents were rich and influential. Well, that and Lily was an only child who was set to inherit a lot of money. She handled that with ease, but then people started to spread rumors about Tyler. That was something she wasn't going to take lying down.

"Sorry, Tyler. It'll get better once Mother talks to their parents about it. You know she doesn't stand for groundless accusations."

  Tyler hit his dummy lightly once again, the dummy falling to the ground as it's support post broke. Lily winced as she noticed Tyler would not be able to fix his wooden dummy this time. Tyler sighed as he noticed the same thing. "Yeah, I suppose so. Or maybe I just need to try and make more friends? If that is even possible at this point. Anyways, Lily, how is your magic classes going?" Wiping his sweat off on his shirt, he frowned as he looked over at Lily, who was using his clothes as a makeshift cushion.

  Lily noticed his gaze and stood up, lightly brushing off the dirt that had embedded itself into the threads of his clothing. "Miss Mary is nice, but Mentor Zenith had already covered all of the lessons I've had with her so far. And she teaches weird. Like, really, really weird. She didn't believe me when I told her I wasn't paying attention to my mana spell cost."

"Spell cost? What's that?" Tyler asked a bit confused.

"It's something that Mentor didn't believe in. Miss Zenith said almost all tier three spells and below use about the same amount of mana, so I just have to count the total number spells I can use before I hit mana exhaustion. But Miss Mary said in class that the cost goes up exponentially as you use higher-level spells, so I would need to know what combinations of spells I can use instead." Lily knew Tyler was probably just as confused as she had once been. He had been forced to sit through all of Miss Zenith's lectures, and mana spell cost was something Lily was sure never came up in their lectures. And the times Lily had mentioned it, her mentor had just scoffed at that term and ignored it outright, so Lily never had the heart to bring it back up again. Still, she knew it was a thing since every library spell tome referenced the required cost to cast the spell listed. 

"Huh. So who is right?"

"I'll kick you if you ask that again. Mentor knows best. Plus, it's easier to just count the overall spells, so mentor must be right."

"Mhmm. Anyway, Sir Kenton asked us about our Party makeup again." Tyler said as they headed back to the classrooms. They had a little time to kill before the next class started and they wouldn't see each other again until the final classes of the day. Probably why he asked before they went their separate ways again. It didn't stop Lily from making a face though. 

"Ugh, I don't want anyone else in our Party. At least, none of our current classmates. Even the older classes had a few people trying to join our Party. Who made up that stupid rule of a minimum of three people to a party?"

"It's a good rule, Lily. And three people would help free up our roles. I can't be both an attacker and a defender."

"That's why I am here though. You remember the stories Miss Paige told us. There is no reason why I cannot be a "mobile magic fortress" as she liked to call it. Though, I think she made up those people just to tell us a story about different fighting styles. Father said there was no one called "Magic Fortress Haille" on record in any villages close to Castle Vaste."

"Hm, fake stories aside, Lily, I would feel better if there was someone else watching our backs."

"Okay. Once I find someone who fits our criteria."

They both nodded and spoke their own requirements for their new party at the same time; 

"Honest, can protect herself, and is a girl," Tyler said thoughtfully.

"Trustworthy, knows how to keep a secret, and most importantly, is a boy," Lily said seriously.

Lily and Tyler stopped and looked at each other. Lily frowned and couldn't help but ask again. "You did say 'is a boy, right?' I thought we agreed I would be the only girl on the team."

He shook his head in refusal. "No, that is a terrible idea. Our next party team member should be a girl."

  Lily could feel her eye twitching. Did Tyler really want another girl on the team? Why in the world would she allow someone else to try and fight her for Tyler's undivided attention? Not that she cared that much. Well, she probably cared more than she would like to admit at this point. Begrudgingly, she scuffed her shoes on the ground. "Okay, but you better have a good reason. Why a girl?"

"Because you already promised Markus he could join our team, remember? That would make our party two boys and one girl. Having one more girl would round out our team quite evenly in that regard. Remember, starting next year we will have practical lessons outside of the school. And Miss Paige said we should always aim for an even ratio if we are staying in inns since it would be easier to rotate guard shifts."

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"I suppose that is a good reason. Though, when did I promise Markus that?" Lily asked with a slight frown.

Tyler nodded. "You promised him a few visits after he temporarily joined our party."

"Did I? Oh, was that when Miss Paige found out Markus joined our party for a day?" Lily thought hard about it. Had she promised? But why couldn't she remember it?

"She wasn't really happy we did that. Though Miss Paige did look confused when she found out he was just a temporary member. Anyways, so after that, he was really bummed about it and you said once he got a Battle Class he could join us when he comes to school in two years."

Lily grinned. "I knew you would eventually warm up to Markus. He isn't all bad, you know."

Tyler reddened slightly. "Yeah yeah. I only reminded you about it because he is a better option than anyone here."

  Reaching the academic building, Lily took a sharp left while waving goodbye to Markus as she headed to her classrooms. "I guess we could both look for a good candidate. Who also happens to be a girl. But I get to decide if she is a good fit!"

Lily could hear Tyler call absently back as she headed toward her classroom, "Fair enough, oh great Party Leader. Choose well! I need to give Sir Kenton an answer soon."

 --

"A party member. Who is a girl. And who Tyler won't necessarily like better than me," Lily mumbled to herself as she sat down in her seat at the front of the classroom. Sitting upright in a good posture, Lily waited for her teacher to arrive and start lecturing before she let her mind wander. Even though she knew her material, it would still look bad on her family and her mentor if she lazed about and didn't look like she was listening during class.

  As the lecture started in earnest, Lily looked around her classroom discreetly, evaluating her female classmates with renewed scrutiny. Most everyone was too busy writing notes to pay attention to her, which gave her a good chance to actually look at her classmates. 'No, no, no, no, no, maybe, no, no, definitely no,' Lily checked each of her classmates and mentally calculated who she would be willing to be in a party with. Her wandering eye caught the attention of a few of her classmates, who shuddered when they saw that look in her eye and quickly looked away. Lily caught that too. Not many people were brave or strong enough to stand up to her, for better or worse. 'I probably have even fewer friends than Tyler,' she suddenly thought to herself. 'Acquaintances sure, but not very many friends. Is it because of my family? Or maybe it's just because I'm more talented than they are?' Lily knew that having a mentor made a difference, but what a difference it made! Etiquette and history aside, Miss Zenith had hit almost every topic imaginable, ranging the full gambit from theoretical to practical knowledge. If not for the fact that her mentor's grasp of history and local customs was practically nonexistent, she would have not even needed to go to the majority of her classes.

  Lily sighed as she finished looking over her advanced magic class. Of the twenty people in the room, over half were female and mostly older than her. But even then she was sure she could beat everyone in the classroom, teacher included. 'There aren't really any good choices, even in our advanced magic class. Even Marian over there is barely average. We need a good party to get into the Academy.'

  That was the other reason she hadn't shared with Tyler. Alduit Academy. That was her main goal for her party, at least before they become Adventurers. Getting into that prestigious advanced school would be tough for them, Lily realized, since it catered to the nobility of the Western Countries, but her father had mentioned that some parties could enter it directly if they could get approval from a Royal Family.  Of course, getting in as a full party was much harder to do, but it should still be possible with a good party. Lily had the feeling that she and Tyler could get into the school just fine, but this 'minimum party of three' requirement was really hard to get around. Even assuming Markus could hold is own in three years, by the time he could go to school she would already be forced to have another party member and would still have to figure out how to get into the prestigious school with her whole party still intact.

  Which led back to her original question. The best party member for her future party. 'They would have to be a mage,' Lily thought to herself ruefully. 'That would even out the front and back lines, but what type of mage would be best?' That question ate up the entirety of her attention; barely even recognizing that the class was packing up to leave for the last class for the day, Alcudian History. 

  Leaving the classroom, Lily stopped near the windows and looked out over the town, the sun above casting shadows over the training yard as it started to fall for the day. 'A team member that can get us into Alduit Academy. If we could get a recommendation there, I am sure we would learn more than we could here. Plus Mentor said I should always broaden my horizons. Should I look into other schools as well? Maybe mentors' school in Appealte?' Lily hesitated. Was Alduit Academy too lofty of a goal? '...No. Father said every country supposedly contributed a portion of their spell collection. I am sure they have some rare spells there that are dying to be read by me. And Peter Alduit himself wrote many of the tomes for the Skills he knew. That means Tyler and Markus can get stronger too, which will be a plus for our Party.'

  The ringing of a bell snapped Lily out of her reverie and she headed toward the large auditorium that was the location of the history class. She was sure Tyler would have saved her a seat, but it wouldn't look good if she arrived at the classroom late. Biting her lip, she circulated her mana and decided she could forgo the rules just this once. "Gust," she whispered lightly, concentrating her mana at her feet. Taking a step forward, she chuckled happily as her stride increased by almost three times. Miss Paige had suggested using the spell this way as a joke, but it really was fun moving this fast. Now, just to make sure..."Mana Sense: Active," Lily whispered, the world coming alive in color.

  It was hard to make sense of this spell, Lily thought to herself. Her teacher had said this skill varied from one person to another and even from place to place and use to use. If she was away from a city, activating this skill would let her see the ambient mana in different colors and allow her to see mana as it moved. But in a city or well a well-traveled area, it was a lot harder to make sense of what she was seeing. Something about the ambient mana not replacing itself fast enough or something, which was why it was important to have certain areas marked off for mages to train or meditate to not impact the overall ambient mana balance. Why this was important, Lily had no idea. But Miss Paige had nodded when her mentor had said that, so it must be an important reason. Maybe something to ask her teachers about?

  Anyway, that wasn't really important right now, Lily realized. She had to use the skill to make sure no one was coming her way. Using magic in this building was explicitly forbidden for some reason. The rumor she had heard from the upper classes was that there was an ancient treasure some of the teachers had found, and they hadn't figured out how to use it yet. But Lily thought that was nonsense. No one would keep a powerful artifact in a school..., right? Or was that the safest place since no one would think there was something valuable in a school.

  Lily slowed suddenly as the flow of mana shifted quite noticeably. Either something here was gathering and using mana, or a magic teacher had just passed by, neither one a good option for her. Stopping her skill, she blinked as the world returned to normal and she was in the middle of a darkened, nondescript corridor; one that she had to pass to get to the mage training fields. Peering suspiciously, she shook her head as she looked around for the source of the disruption. "No one down that hallway, and no one coming this way." Lily tilted her head in confusion. What had caused the mana shift then? Maybe there was some truth in that rumor...

  A ringing of a bell startled her once again. She was definitely going to be late at this rate! Filing this discovery for another day, Lily accelerated down the hallway, using all her mana to hopefully reach the classroom in time. 

  Quiet returned to the corridor as Lily left, the shadows of the setting sun basking the entirety of the corridor walls in shadows. A pair of eyes opened close to where Lily had stopped. Walking out of the shadows, the person looked over to where the young mage had gone. "Interesting. Very interesting. She actually noticed something was wrong... And she is not afraid to break rules and is quite confident in herself. Lily Thompson." The person said as they held up a student badge, one they had pocketed discreetly when the young girl had stopped. Dropping the badge on the ground, the person quietly chuckled. A plan was slowly coming together, something that would hopefully break the status quo...