So, I made some precious discoveries. One, as long as I worked decently well, I could make enough money to live here indefinitely thanks to my connections. Two, Mike was the second son of a Duke and he didn’t like the church but he wanted to prove daddy wrong, part of why he didn’t wear the high noble uniform and just stuck to navy. As long as I can convince him, operation ‘Screw Askavan’ was a go. And three… there was a problem.

How was I going to convince Mike, the son of a Duke to abandon his beliefs and start something new with me? Sure, we became fast friends. But what would stop him from betraying me?

Hmm… it can’t be my idea then.

With all that in mind, I carefully laid my plans out. First, I’d spend nearly all day with him and get close. Second, I’d slowly mention how maybe ‘doing this’ or ‘doing that’ would have been better for the church. And then eventually, I’ll hint on how we could influence the church once we were older or something. Of course, reality wouldn’t be that simple. Plans would fall apart and maybe our friendship wouldn’t go far enough for me to use him. But in the end, I could just start over with maybe Nisa.

And who knows, if I waited a year, maybe some prince or princess would come to study here.

“Focus!” Mike yelled.

I’d been practicing thrusting with him every evening. We went to the church together at morning, cleaned up the place; Mike took things seriously and was getting decent at cleaning and often stayed behind to learn more! I came back and attended classes. We played in the early afternoon, cleaned the church again in the late afternoon and practiced in the evening. Once done, I went back to the dorms, caught a break and then moved to the library to clean the place. I didn’t show up for morning cleaning sessions but since I was studying and learning how to read the Sea tongue at a fairly decent rate, the librarian didn’t say anything. She was back to her old age and steadily losing the years again.

“Focus Sol, focus. What are ya doing,” Mike smacked my but with his spear handle and sighed. “When thrusting ya got to move your legs and upper body and always stay vigilant!” When we were around nobles, Mike would use proper language, when it was just the two of us or our friends, he would always resort to country side language. Where the hell did he even pick that up?

He wasn’t a great teacher but he was at least trying. I couldn’t say the same about Den. That dude didn’t give me any instruction- no wait, he did teach me how to use the bow. I didn’t have time to actually use it though.

“Do you know how to use a bow, Mike?”

“Nope. Impractical for me.”

“Hmm…”

Maybe I’ll practice with that every now and then.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I just had a long pole but Mike had an actual spear. Kind of crude but it looked heavy. Yet he moved it around with ease. This guy would eventually grow up to be a literal monster, that was for sure. I was glad he was my friend.

The sun set and the campus lit up with Magical Devices. Some of the students were going back to their homes, some to the dorms. “Do you live in the dorms, Mike?” Usually, he kept on practicing for hours longer. I never saw him leave before me.

“No, I have an apartment over there,” Mike pointed. We could actually see the building. It was dark but I could tell the building was big. Three floors. And looked pretty good too. “I’m on the third floor. It’s pretty spacious.”

“Oh, cool.”

“If you’re ever in a bind, you’re welcome to stay-”

“It’s cool. I appreciate the thought. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah!”

We fist bumped and I headed off to the dorms. It’d been a week since classes started but I already made a lot of progress with both Mike and the money-making business. If things kept going at this rate, I’d be able to-

Oh… fuck.

Blood. There was blood before me. A kid was lying there on the grass, as fresh blood spilled out of the three distinct streaks on his back.

“ARGHHH!!!” A kid screamed. Followed by some others. They all surrounded the corpse and although some did stare at me, none accused me. I mean, I just came here.

But… Someone died here…. Someone with hopes and dreams like me. Someone with goals in life. And someone… with family, and perhaps someone to go back to. And it could have been me.

In a split second the world clouded over. Yeah, this was a new world… this was a cruel, unforgiving world.

And there was no redo.

***

We didn’t find out who the murderer was but it was said a giant Panther had killed the boy. Judging by the massive claw marks I saw on its back, I didn’t doubt their claim; but if it was a Panther, where the hell was it?

I was one of the first to notice the dead body so they questioned me thoroughly but since I saw nothing, that led to nowhere.

Gerar had warned me about a black cat but it was a panther? And hadn’t he said the thing was harmless?

Then what the hell?

We had a new curfew in the dorms. Students were no longer permitted to out after the afternoon. There went my evening practices. How long would this curfew last? I had no idea but Shia came to visit one evening and told me some things. Apparently, she’d seen the cat a few days prior and it wasn’t feeling good.

“I’m telling you, they’re just overreacting. That cat never harmed anyone before,” she said, entering my room. “And given how sick it was, I doubt it could have done anything to begin with.”

Calling a Panther a cat was pretty brutal but oh well. “But now it has. I saw the marks sis. They were definitely from claws.”

“But cats aren’t the only thing with claws you know. There are many mercenaries who use claws as their primary weapon. Some assassins too.” Shia made herself comfortable on my bed, legs crossed. I took a seat on my chair instead.

“But why would anyone kill-”

Why would anyone kill a student? The moment I was about to ask the question, various possibilities surfaced.

“He probably had a bounty on his head. This place is safe for nobles and commoners. But what if you pissed off an arrogant noble back home or a brat here? They couldn’t do anything to you at school but they could very well hire assassins and, you can guess the rest.”

“Huh…” She was damn right. “Guess, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Don’t worry, the Barack family will protect you. I mean, we wouldn’t want to kill one of our own,” leaning closer, she whispered and giggled. “And most hired help knows who not to mess with.” She winked.

Wait, wait, wait… did she just imply… We have assassins in our family! And hired help? So they collaborated with each other and stuff?

Holy shit this family was scary as fuck. What did you even get me into Den?