Another week had passed since my talk with Eli. In that time, I continued to train daily with Evangeline. We had decided to move our training to the empty warehouse full time to avoid the potentially prying eyes of my opponents in the gauntlet. Thankfully, we didn’t have any more run-ins with riffraff like the goons who harassed Mizuki the last time we were at the warehouse.

Only one week remained until the face-off and fight with Emil. In light of that fact, I found it strange that I hadn’t heard from Cynthia since the morning after my ill-fated trip to the casino. According to Eva, the princess had kept in contact with her every day to get updates on my training, but she hadn’t texted or called me once since our disagreement about Siegfried. I figured she was still angry about my suspicions towards him.

For that reason, I was shocked when I awoke to a text message from the princess that read:

There will be a team meeting today. I rented out a café in Valport and have included the address in the link at the end of this message. Everyone is to meet me there at 12:00 pm and not a minute later.

From silence to meeting in person. Not awkward at all.

Unsure of what to say, I replied, understood.

It would be a while until that planned meetup, so I slept for another hour and then took plenty of time to get myself cleaned up, dressed, and ready to go.

About half an hour from the time I decided on leaving for the café, I stepped out of my room to find my mom standing in front of an easel, working on a painting in the living room. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, and her apron was splattered in various colors of paint.

“Hey mom,” I greeted her.

“Good morning, Shinsuke. What are you all dressed up for?”

“I have to meet Cynthia at a café soon.”

“Oh. Send her my regards, will you?” mom asked in surprisingly muted fashion. Her focus was very clearly on the project in front of her.

I grabbed a carton of apple juice from the fridge and poured myself a small glass. As I sipped it, I peered over my mom’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of her work in progress. She was constructing a beautiful piece that looked to be a lake in the woods at sundown. One would be forgiven for believing that the picture was an actual photograph.

“Like it?” she asked.

“I love it. Is this some place you’ve been to before or something?”

“Not at all. My client asked for a piece based on nature.”

I analyzed the painting further, still in disbelief that someone could make something so realistic with just a brush and some paint. “How do you do that without a reference photo?”

She laughed and replied, “it’s easy to paint without a reference if you trust yourself and allow your interpretation to be the truth. People pay for the vision of an artist, not an exact snapshot. If you stop worrying so much about trying to perfectly recreate something, you can make something truly special.”

“I see. That’s an interesting way of looking at it.”

I meandered over to the pantry and checked inside: not a single pudding cup to be seen.

“Hey, still no pudding?” I whined.

“Your father still can’t find any at the store! They must be in pretty high demand lately,” mom speculated. “Sorry, Shinsuke.”

Dejected, I shut the pantry doors and finished my juice. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream at the irony of my favorite snack being in high demand at the same time it seemed everyone in the world wanted something from me.

Mom set her brush down and wiped her hands on her apron. She turned to me and glared. “Oh, and Shinsuke? One more thing. Make sure you answer your texts while you’re out this time. Or else.” She punctuated her request by kicking her slipper up into the air and catching it perfectly.

“Y-yes mom…”

***

The time to set out for the café arrived in the blink of an eye, and I met up with Mizuki so we could travel there together. Neither of us had ever been to the place Cynthia asked us to meet, but following the directions she provided, we arrived at the café without issue. The Princess and Evangeline were already sitting at a table, waiting for us. Aside from staff and Cynthia’s security, the rest of the establishment was completely empty.

“There you are!” Eva exclaimed.

I checked my phone to find there was still five minutes until the arrival of the afternoon. “You say that like we’re late. It’s not even time yet.”

Eva grinned and declared, “see, that kind of thinking is the problem with all of you. I was the first one to get here today. Wanna know why? Because these things are a race and I’m always ready to go!”

“…Eva, what the hell are you talking about?” I asked, pulling out my chair. I sat across from Cynthia and Mizuki sat across from the girl that was speaking nonsense.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Enough goofing around,” Cynthia interrupted. “We’re all here, so let’s start the meeting.”

“Yes ma’am!” Eva said with an emphatic salute.

“Let’s start with a status report on his training,” Cynthia requested.

Eva placed an open notebook on the table and slid it in front of the princess. “As I’ve outlined in my daily reports, Shinsuke has made very fast and impressive progress in his hand-to-hand combat training. You can see all the training goals he’s met here.”

Cynthia’s green eyes rapidly scanned through the notes. “I see. Any progress with magic?”

“Um,” Eva rubbed the back of her head and chuckled nervously. “Not exactly…”

The princess slammed the notebook shut and turned to me for the first time since my arrival. “Shinsuke, Eva, is a prodigy—one of the top spellcasters in the world. How are you still unable to cast a single spell despite studying under someone of her capabilities?!”

“He’s trying his best,” Mizuki replied before I could, her voice stern and her eyes fierce. “She already told you that he’s improving quickly, so back off.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, scrounge.”

Mizuki shot to her feet and hissed, “you are now.”

One of Cynthia’s guards began to approach Mizuki but was quickly signaled to stand down by the princess.

“Okay, scrounge. If you want to be humbled, go ahead and try whatever you’re thinking right now,” Cynthia dared.

Eva rose from her chair and put herself between the bickering girls. Her playful demeanor was absent as she looked between the two and said, “there will be no fighting, verbal or otherwise. Mimi, please sit down. This isn’t helping Shinsuke.”

Mizuki eyed the princess again with an ice-cold glare, but begrudgingly complied with Eva’s request.

Eva turned her attention to Cynthia and continued. “Your Royal Highness, I accept all blame for Shinsuke’s lack of magical ability. But, with all due respect, fighting with Mimi and chastising Shinsuke isn’t going to change anything.”

“You don’t say?” Cynthia snarked. “We only have a week left for him to get this. So, what do you suppose will help this situation?”

“It’s funny you should ask.” Eva took her seat again and flipped through her notebook until stopping on a specific page. “A short time ago, Shinsuke and I had a run in with some thugs who were trying to harass Mimi. During that scrap, I think I discovered Shinsuke’s hidden strength—something that could be his ace in the hole.”

Come to think of it, she did mention something like that at the time. I can’t remember doing anything special during that fight though.

“All right, let’s hear it,” Cynthia commanded.

Eva passed the princess her notebook again and said, “I don’t want to psych him out by saying it. But I did make a note of it for you here.”

The blonde swiftly looked over the page from top to bottom and then eyed Eva with an apparent skepticism. “You seriously believe this?”

“I do,” my mentor confirmed.

“I have my doubts,” Cynthia remarked. “But, even if this is true, he still can’t cast spells. How do you expect him to defeat Emil without magic?”

“We can only work with what we’ve got,” Eva explained. “Tomorrow, I’m taking Shinsuke somewhere that will put his abilities to the test. There’s a chance he could find success with magic there. If not, all we can do is refine what I’ve taught him until the day of the fight.”

“Where are you taking me, exactly?” I cut in to ask.

“You’ll see!”

Helpful.

“Anyway,” Cynthia began, “as you probably know by now, the fight will be taking place at Royal Stadium.”

“Yeah, I saw the king’s announcement about it,” I groaned. “Ninety-thousand people actually paid to see this circus…”

“And it’s all sponsored by Guardia Cola! ‘Defending your body from thirst~’!” Eva chimed in.

Cynthia shook her head and said, “I mentioned that to let you know I found out some information about the battlefield.”

I felt my brows furrow as I spoke. “Battlefield? Isn’t the fight going to take place in a ring or something?”

“Nope. The battle will take place in a specially constructed environment with various hazards and elements. Think small forests, rocky areas, pools of water—things like that.”

“Oh, that’s just great.”

“It makes sense,” Eva noted. “This isn’t exactly a run of the mill boxing match or something. A fight like this involves high level magic and will require quite a bit of space to operate for a battle with no restrictions and for the safety of the audience.”

“Exactly,” Cynthia agreed. “Also, let me know in advance how many people you’re bringing with you to the event so I can send an adequately sized car to pick you all up. Anyway, that’s it for today. Meeting adjourned.”

Cynthia rose from her chair and Eva whined. “Aww, you’re leaving? I thought we were all going to have some tea together!”

“Order whatever you like, everything here is on my tab today,” the princess said in a fashion more nonchalant than charitable. “But I don’t have time to sit here with all of you.”

With that statement, she began making her way towards the exit.

“Hey, wait,” I called out to her. “I need to ask you something first.”

“What is it?”

I motioned to a corner of the café with my eyes and the princess followed along. Once we were out of earshot from the others, I said, “are you still mad at me?”

Cynthia crossed her arms and raised a golden brow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You haven’t contacted me in a week. You’ve been on my back about this, so the sudden silence just seemed…”

“I’ve had nothing to say to you,” she stated matter-of-factly. “You’re already doing what I told you to, and anything I’ve needed to know I’ve gotten through Eva.”

“So, you’re not mad about the conversation we had in the garden? You know, my suspicion of Siegfried?”

The blonde began tapping her finger against her arm. “It’s for the best that we don’t talk about that. It’s in the past. I’m not mad. After all, you’re free to think what you want. Now, stay focused on the fight and do whatever Eva tells you to. Are we done?”

“I guess we are.”

“Good. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

And just like that, Cynthia exited the café.

“Shinsuke.”

The second the princess was out the door, I heard Eva say my name right behind me. I flinched and said, “what?”

“No training today, I want you to rest your body and soak up everything you’ve learned so far. Tomorrow is going to be a very big day, so prepare yourself.”

She grinned deviously and I felt my heart sink a little. A day off from training felt too good to be true, and I could feel in my gut that whatever she had planned would be nothing positive.

“Whatever you say,” I replied with a sigh.

The three of us stayed at the café a little longer to eat and drink some tea. Eva gushed for a while about yet another Raven Blackwell film, and Mizuki ordered an alarming amount of food to-go since it was all on Cynthia’s tab. But in the midst of it all, I found myself zoned out as ever. Time was ticking, and the meeting hadn’t done anything to make me feel any closer to being prepared.

I had no idea what Eva had in store for me, and her secret observations of my “hidden strengths” made me nervous. Whatever she thought she noticed about me, I definitely hadn’t noticed in myself. I had the feeling she was putting too much faith in me, and sky-high expectations never led to anything good. Besides that, despite Cynthia’s “reassurance” that she wasn’t mad, it was clear that she was. The last thing I needed was even more fractures in our already shaky alliance.

It felt like the bottom was about ready to fall out. But I would have to put my trust in whatever Eva had planned, no matter how nervous I felt about it.