The rest of the test went well, or about as well as the examinees could have hoped. Besides Jyn and Lilia, there were fifty-odd other fighters who were accepted by the end of the day.

An announcer stood in the middle of the arena, calling out names.

“And that is all,” she said. “All who were mentioned, please stay for an announcement.”

There were murmurs of disappointment, and people started filing out of the arena. As soon as most people left the place, a different person took to the center. She had an air of authority hidden behind her apparent youth—a half-elf?

“Congratulations, all of you who had passed. I’m the Director of this branch, Kara-shon. There will be a general orientation in three days. Please be there. That is all.”

“Wow,” Kalender remarked. “That was amazingly straight-to-the-point.”

“That, she is,” Zee said. Kalender and Page turned around, surprised at who’d turned up. Zee and Jyn were coming down the stairs.

Wait…down the stairs? Page was pointing down at the arena and up to the top of the stairs. “Teleportation magic?!” she said.

Zee chuckled. “I sure fuckin’ hope so, but no.”

“We spoke at length outside,” Jyn simply said.

“Where’s Lilia?” Kalender asked.

“She was with us, but she spotted Minimine making off with an inordinate amount of farm produce,” Jyn answered.

“ ‘Minimine’ ?” Zee said. “Is that the kid? Someone still names their kids like that?”

Kalender shot Jyn a look, wondering why on Gaia operational security just flew out the window.

“I cannot, for the life of me, call her by that nickname,” Jyn flatly said, “and look, no one thinks too deeply into it.”

Kalender considered it for a moment. True. Her identity’s already blown within two seconds in front of anyone with Appraise…

“What are you two talking about?” Zee said.

“She’s a strange kid,” Kalender said.

“And you’re a weird one, too. Where’d ya get those guns, anyway? You Artemian?”

“Ah, no, you see…” Kalender pulled out one of his airguns and explained it all away.

“Using air magic to get the same effect as earth bullets? That’s an idea…” For a moment, Zee explored the idea of using the same principle on her longsword…though, there were already far-more-efficient sword magics for manipulating momentum, so she dropped the idea. “Or not.”

“Ah…Zee, right?” Kalender said. “I can just call you Zee?”

“Aye. What?”

“What’s that about an orientation in three days? I don’t think anyone said anything about that with the mages yesterday.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Huh. Of course we announced it”—Zee’s face turned pale—“or not. Fuck. I-I’ll fix this.” She groaned and turned around, waving her hand behind her. “Catch ye some other.”

“Sure,” Kalender said. Page just waved bye-bye.

“Another time, Hunter Zee,” Jyn said.

“Zee is fine,” she said, then she left.

Lilia and Minimine came down the steps at the exact moment Zee left them. “Wasn’t she?…” Lilia asked. Minimine had a basketful of potatoes balanced on her head.

“She was,” Jyn said. “As you might infer, all is well.”

“Now what?” Page asked. It was a little bit past noon. There was actually still going to be another batch of applicants in a few hours, but they were pretty much done for the day.

“Hmm, well, Page and I talked about how useless she is in a fight,” Kalender said.

“Kal! How! Dare!” Page complained, hitting him in the shoulder to the beat of her words.

Jyn smiled wryly, but her lips weren’t fully up.

Kalender noticed this. Page saw the off-hues in Jyn’s color.

“So, we were thinking of checking out the Research Guild,” Kalender continued, “though…maybe tomorrow would be a better day for that.”

Kalender and Page shared a look.

Page hopped up on her feet. “Lilia! Let’s go around?” she said, also grabbing Minimine’s mini-hands. Lilia just managed a “Huh?” before being whisked away with Page’s unrelenting momentum, leaving Kalender and Jyn together.

Kalender stood up. “Come on, we might lose them,” he said. He walked up beside her, looking to her with asking eyes.

Only when she’d started walking up the steps did Kalender start going up as well.

Jyn’s mind was quiet as they walked. The fight was unexpectedly tiring. Kalender had been paying so much attention to Page—ah! What am I thinking! She sighed.

“What is it?” Kalender asked.

“Nothing,” she said.

“Is it really?”

Jyn didn’t say anything. Just from the silence she gave, she knew that he already inferred there was something. Still, Kalender didn’t push it. Something like half-assedly forcing oneself into someone’s emotions never felt right.

She was grateful for that. Something like being jealous over him spending time with Page…made no sense to her.

Page was a friend, or at least, an ally. She and the noble girl never really made a deep connection, at least not one like between herself and Kalender. Looking at Page was like looking at a child, and the fact that she had a hand in training her only reinforced that feeling.

Being jealous over a figurative child…made no sense.

Kalender wanted to bring her somewhere—but not the ice cream place, not the rooftop cafe, and not the museum. Jyn looked tired, more than he thought a seasoned knight should be after a short match like that.

“Ah! Kalender and Jyn. What a coincidence,” Arpeggio greeted as they reached the top of the stairs—which was on the opposite side of the viewing platform reserved for VIPs. She was followed by Seldi and some other royal guards. A few people glanced their way, but in general, no one stared at royalty.

“Ah, uh, Prin…cess?” Kalender weakly said. Beside him, Jyn lightly bowed, and he quickly followed at a shallower angle.

Arpeggio blinked. “Let’s perhaps dispense with such a charade.”

“If that’s what you want,” Kalender said. “Well—hello!” He waved hi. Arpeggio waved back.

“Your Highness, as a Knight of Lyrica, I simply cannot avoid acting with decorum before you.”

Arpeggio cocked an eyebrow. “That is superfluous to the intent. Besides, a Knight you may be, but you are not a Knight of ‘Lyrica’…oh? Might it be, you haven’t checked your status?”

Arpeggio snickered and, in a blink, completely disappeared. Her guards panicked and spread out to look for her. “Good luck, Jyn!” Seldi briefly said before joining her comrades.

What is with them? Jyn thought. Her Highness mentioned something about her status…

***

Occupation: Knight of the Champion

***

A-ah. When she turned to Kalender, he was facing her, but his hand was covering his mouth.

They met eyes.

They looked away.

Though he considered her deeply, being implicitly attached to someone’s Occupation was a bit—was very embarrassing. Even if, on some level, he was happy, he still couldn’t help but think about what it implied about what was going on in Jyn’s mind.

Meanwhile, Arpeggio passed by Page in a crowded street. The two met eyes—and gave each other a thumbs up.

Kalender looked at Jyn…and put his hand on her shoulder. She snapped around to look at him. All he did was smile at her.

But that smile was enough to assuage the turmoil in Jyn’s heart.

“Let’s grab something to eat first,” Kalender said.

“Of course.”