"Well, I suppose you're skilled enough in the basics to not embarrass me in public," Instructor Nalai gave a resounding endorsement of Seifr's abilities with the sword. Compared to the things she said at the start of his instruction, that was a true statement. Seifr had been working hard at polishing his skills with the sword in preparation for the tournament coming up in six weeks, and unlike last time with him stumbling through learning advanced techniques, he had one of the best blademasters in the province instructing him.

"Thank you, Instructor. Your disciple will not disappoint you in the tournament," Seifr replied. That sounded very familiar, just now. Where do I recall it from... Oh, well. Seifr gave a short bow to Instructor Nalai before heading to the first floor of the 2nd Class Hall. He and Seth had plans to go grab dinner at a new fancy restaurant. Seifr had managed to save up almost a gold again, and he had checked ahead of time to make sure the prices were not exorbitant.

Seifr met up with Seth on the first floor and the two headed towards the campus gate. Seth eyed Seifr's sword at his waist, "Are you ever going to put that thing away? You're a good fighter, but your blood runs gold, my friend. Those of us of the more civilized persuasion do not need to always resort to our baser instincts to resolve conflict or make deals."

Siefr snorted at this comment. "Isn't one of the main selling points of the Heirn Caravan its professional mercenaries? And doesn't your father train them personally?" Seifr looked at his friend out of the corner of his eye.

"True, true. But if I become successful enough at business and maintain a respectable cultivation, when I take over one day I can just hire someone to do that for me. My dad's blood was not always gold. He started off as a mercenary. I don't have that handicap." Seth was full of confidence as he made these statements.

"I'm a little surprised at you. You fight with such ferocity and seriousness whenever you spar or compete, yet here you are disdaining the very nature of cultivators," Seifr said.

"This is easy to understand. I am expected to excel at the academy, so I put forth the effort necessary to be one of the best, if not today, then at least one day. As for the competitions, come on, man, those have rewards. Everything I do is based on compensation. Are you sure your surname is Kyian?" Seth poked Seifr in the ribs as he needled him a little bit.

"Maybe you haven't found the right inspiration, yet."

"Maybe you'll let me borrow that pointy stick at your waist one of these days soon so I can see what the fuss is about," Seth said with a grin.

Seifr stroked his chin in contemplation as they walked along. Finally he replied, "Maybe I will, at that." The two continued on in companionable silence. They were almost at the gate when Celia came bounding up to Seifr. She waved enthusiastically before she skipped forward and gave him a quick, brief hug.

"Heya, stranger. I haven't seen you in a couple of days. What're you up to?" Celia asked.

"Oh, not much. Just Seth and I about to grab something to eat off campus for a change. What about yourself?" Seifr enquired.

"Me too! Well, I'm not going with Seth, obviously, but a friend invited me to go get dinner tonight. I'm on my way to clean up and change right now. Can't go out all sweaty and gross like a boy, now can I?" Celia stuck her tongue out as she waved and skipped away.

Seth looked at Seifr askance before saying, "Is that the girl you've been spending all your free time with?" Seifr nodded at this question. "I hate to break it to you, man, but don't you know she's engaged?"

Seifr looked over at Seth sharply and swatted at his shoulder. "Hey, cut it out. Don't tease me like that, this is the first time you've even seen her. How could you know?" Seifr thought Seth was pulling a prank on him, but Seth's expression never changed.

"This is the first time I've seen her with you, but almost everyone knows who she is. I mean come on, her dad's a deputy director for the governor, a fairly well-known nobleman. You think the higher ranked peerage don't arrange marriages for their children? Trust me, it's public knowledge that she has an arranged fiance. Just nobody knows who it is, because it has yet to be announced officially."

Seifr felt a stab of panic in his heart at these words. What he says makes sense. And I've never made known exactly how I felt about her, either. But she's given me clear signs of interest, and she's never mentioned anything either. I don't know, I don't know. Seifr cursed inwardly as he scolded himself for being a coward.

Seth eyed his friend as his facial expressions flickered about between emotions. "We could spy on her. She just said she was about to go get dinner with a 'friend,'" Seth ventured.

Seifr pointed at his friend as he responded, "No. I will not do that. That seems a violation of her privacy. Let's just go get something to eat, and after I've calmed down and thought things through, then I'll go find her and verify that she is not actually engaged."

Seth shrugged his shoulders in acquiescence. The duo continued their journey out the gate and across town. They started talking about different things again, and Seifr slowly began to relax. They soon found themselves at the new restaurant and were greeted by a young lady in her early twenties. Despite being several years older than the both of them, she was a commoner only in the 1st Mortal Realm. Most people couldn't focus on cultivation, especially the ones who had to work harder to make ends meet. They just did not have the free time or energy to spare. It was quite telling that some of the weakest members of society used to be seven stages above what Seifr had accomplished when he had initially enrolled in the academy. Knowing that it was obvious why others would treat him with disdain and assume he was weak.

The pair were quickly seated by the hostess on a balcony on the second floor overlooking the street below. When Seifr had previously been to the restaurant to check the prices, he had made a reservation for the less crowded outside table. The restaurant was not only new, but apparently employed some good chefs, because it was certainly crowded. Seifr was quietly happy that he had had the foresight to make a good reservation.

The two quickly looked over the menu. Restaurants were able to keep their food stock in supply by purchasing an icebox from ice-attributed cultivators or clans. Obviously the more common restaurants could not afford such a luxury, but for the higher end ones that could, it paid for itself in considerably less spoiled food. Cultivators were quite ingenious with overcoming obstacles using their ki manifestation.

Seth continued to look at the menu as he said, "This duck recipe looks promising. I think I'll get the duck." He kept reading the menu to see if there was something else that caught his attention.

"I thought we were men! You want to eat duck? We need to eat beef - Real meat for real men!" Seifr pounded the table for emphasis. Seth looked his friend in the eye, and then they both burst out laughing. "But seriously, I'm going to get the beef."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

They placed their orders and continued to chat amiably, the concerns about Celia from early all but forgotten. When their meals arrived, they dug right in and both were definitely happy with what they ordered. Seifr and Seth both took turns trying to steal food off of the other's plate when they thought they could get away with it, and they continued to joke around and laugh. They were not being obnoxious about their behavior, so the others at the restaurant did not really pay them any mind.

As the meal was coming to a close, Seifr glanced down the street from his vantage point and saw Celia step out of another restaurant down the way. Having forgotten about the discussion from earlier, Seifr was about to lean over the railing and call out to her to get her attention. Just as he was raising his arm and sucking in a breath in preparation to yell, her "friend" stepped out of the restaurant behind her.

Kohl.

The blood drained from his face as Seifr watched Celia turn around to face Kohl and then wrap her arm within his much like she did with Seifr when they were together. Seth saw the look on his friend's face and leaned over the railing to get a look at what caused such a drastic reaction. He cursed under his breath when he discovered what it was.

"Are you kidding me?! That bastard is the one she's out with? I can't believe... Woah!" Seth had turned his head to address Seifr, and when he saw his friend he could not help put call out in alarm. Where Seifr's hand had gripped the railing, the iron of the railing was crumbling into dust, and it had spread out a little from where he had a hold of it. Where the destruction ended, it appeared as if the iron was ancient. The wooden chair Seifr was sitting on was noticeably turning gray, and then it collapsed under him, breaking him out of the trance he had been in. "Are you ok, buddy?" Seth asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

Seifr looked up at Seth blankly for a second before responding, "Yeah, just surprised is all. There's gotta be another explanation for this. Maybe they started off in a group?" Even Seifr knew this excuse sounded weak.

"I don't know, Seifr. I don't want to see you in pain, but if you think about it... It makes complete sense that they would have an arranged marriage from their parents. I'm almost 90% sure she's already engaged, and this just makes sense."

Seifr hung his head in dejection and almost started to hyperventilate. He focused on remaining as calm as possible, and he started circulating his internal ki to give his mind something to focus on. He was astonished to find that he had nearly expended all of his ki in his dantian. Ki was like a sponge. When it was not in use, it was saturated in Spiritual Energy. When a cultivator used ki, the Spiritual Energy would become exhausted and need to be circulated through the meridians several times to regain the energy for it to be usable again. Cultivators did not lose any of the ki that was expended, it just became temporarily inert.

"I feel light-headed. I don't know what I did, but I'm exhausted. Let's pay for our meal and get out of here. I need to think," Seifr said as he stood up. The pair of friends signaled a waiter and paid for their meal before heading out. On the long walk back to campus, Seifr was completely silent and lost in thought. Seth tried to engage his friend a couple of times, but he eventually gave up when he noticed he was not getting through.

At the gate to the campus, Seth pulled Seifr to the side by his sleeve, breaking him out of his reverie. "Listen. You're not going to be in any shape to train with that sharp stick for at least several days. Why don't I go ahead and take this opportunity to borrow the sword like we talked about earlier, and you can focus on pure physical exercise to clear your head. Okay?"

Seifr pondered for a minute. He thinks I might hurt myself. I'll go ahead and humor him. I could use a break to focus on other things. "Sure," Seifr agreed as he removed the sash and belt binding the scabbard in place. He handed the sword over to his friend who clutched it carefully. "Thanks for being here for me, I'll come get the sword back from you in a couple days. I'm beat, so I'm going to go ahead and go to bed." Seifr was truly grateful to his friend.

"Sure thing, Seifr. It's not too late, so I'm going to run on home to my parent's house and store the sword there for the night." With that explanation, Seth turned around and walked off away from the campus.

Seifr slowly entered the campus along the main pathway. His mind was moving a million miles a minute, but it was only capable of replaying that scene of Celia grabbing a hold of Kohl's arm over and over. He nearly walked straight into someone as he made his way towards the 2nd Class dormitory. He looked up to apologize and realized it was Celia he had almost ran into.

"Hey... You alright? You don't look so good," Celia inquired. Her voice and expression were genuinely concerned. Seifr was not capable of human speech at the moment and just stared at Celia. "Hey, come on. We already went through this once before, don't get lost..."

"I saw you with Kohl," Seifr interrupted her. Celia was taken aback slightly at the sudden announcement.

Celia furrowed her brow as she responded, "Yeah, well I would have told you that was who I was going to see if..."

"Is he your fiance?" Seifr interrupted her again.

"What? Why would you ask me that? I don't..."

"Is he your fiance?" Seifr was insistent.

"Seifr! Get a hold of yourself. I..."

Seifr slammed his hands together in a loud clap. "It's a simple yes or no question, Celia! If you've been lying to me already, why can't you simply lie about this and say, 'no?!'"

Celia stuttered for a moment before she could get her thoughts in order. She finally looked Seifr in the eye and answered, "Yes, we have an arranged marriage."

It felt like a thousand needles stabbed into Seifr's heart, tearing his soul apart. Tears came unbidden to his eyes as he asked in a thick voice, "Why? Why didn't you tell me?"

Celia crossed her arms. She looked away from the tears forming in Seifr's eyes as she replied, "I found out you two hated each other, and I didn't want to lose a friend."

Seifr guffawed before asking, "So I'm just a friend to you? I'm telling you now, I was really falling in love with you. But now, to find out this...this..." Seifr trailed off, unable to complete the thought.

Celia recoiled slightly before turning to look at Seifr once more. "Love? Seifr... you're a commoner. We're not the same, you and I. It's ok for us to have friends of common blood, but even if I wasn't already engaged, you and I could never have worked. We were never going to be anything more than friends."

Seifr was taken aback by this revelation. "I didn't think you cared about such things. You've never shown any kind of hint at disdain towards us of lower birth. Why should marriage be any different than other relationships with commoners?"

"Why?" Celia seemed legitimately puzzled at this question. "Quite frankly, you're beneath me. I'm sorry, but it's the hard truth. And you'll do well to realize it now." With that Celia turned and strode off. Gone was her exuberance and the skip in her step. Seifr watched her walk off and saw her shoulders moving up and down, almost as if she was chuckling to herself.

Seifr turned to go to the dormitory, his world crumbling around him.