If King Esthar saw through our game, he didn’t show it. He nodded when his daughter told him how painful it was for her to make me slay someone who felt like a relative to her.

“What do you think, Great Hero Al?” he asked.

I watched my body language as I pretended to be convinced by the whole story. Saegorg was a madman and Kossi was too dangerous. For the sake for the Brealian kingdom, we had to get rid of both. No matter how much I hated the idea of killing a dragon who clearly loathed what he was made to do, I understood it was our only option.

Be convincing. Stand straight. Don’t look away.

As a hero without fighting skills, I said, I suspected I might have natural magic, so I wanted to seek advice at the University of Magic Arts.

At this point, the king sighed.

“Had Kossi not been under terrible influence, he could have told us. Gold Dragons can sense native magic in humans.”

He sounded so sad that I almost felt sorry for him. Had he not decided to murder his friend, I could have shown compassion.

“Your Majesty, we can’t risk running out of time. I wish to go to the University today and learn how I can sort out the situation.”

Princess Nigella nodded.

“I suggest we make it look as casual as possible. This operation is secret, is it not?”

“Of course. We need the element of surprise.”

“Then, Al should go with a simple escort. Chess would be a good choice.”

“Chess?” King Esthar looked into Princess Nigella’s eyes. “Of all available cadets, why choose them?”

She sighed. “Because they are loyal, competent, and do not get along well with their class. They have no one to share gossip with.”

Heartbreaking as it was, that last argument convinced the king. When I walked out of the palace after a light lunch in the small dining room, Chess was waiting for me in the courtyard. They stood straight, but their teenage features showed incomprehension. We walked out of the main bridge together, then we headed west.

“Why did you ask for me specifically, ma’am? I was a terrible escort yesterday.”

I shook my head.

“No, you weren’t. Vilo Jozin cheated with his magical ability. There was nothing you could do to prevent him from taking me away.”

“Thank you for your kindness.”

Why can I hear a “but”, even though they didn’t say it?

“Look, Chess, your name sounds just like a strategy game from my native world. If you’re uncomfortable with my choosing you, you can pretend it’s the actual reason.”

The cadet walked next to me, looking everywhere for a potential threat. They showed me across the river Rekario, then along wide cobblestone streets, until we found the University.

The building stood by a bridge that crossed a narrow tributary of the Rekario. It was made of cream-colored stone, not overly large, but obviously designed to make a statement, with ornate pillars and sharp blue roofs. Only about twenty students graduated each year, I remembered. At least they studied in a majestic place.

As soon as we reached the double door, a sorcerer with a brown beard pointed at Chess’s scabbard.

“Wait a second, young man! You’re not drawing this in here. Let me fix that.”

Chess winced at the word “man”, but kept silent.

The sorcerer spoke a few words of the same strange language Sir Pernel had used after my summoning. Then he nodded.

“What business do you have here?”

I gave him my best business smile.

“We want to check the library, sir.”

“End of the hall, corridor on the left, last door on the right. Do not walk into classrooms or amphitheaters.”

He waved us away, seemingly convinced he had better things to do than to help visitors find their way inside.

“What did he do?” I asked once we were out of earshot.

Chess didn’t even look. Their eyes had a look of been there, done that.

“He sealed my sword, to make sure I do not draw it. He’ll free it when we walk out.”

I squinted at the scabbard and made out a symbol that glowed faintly.

“Oh, I see the spell now. Nice shape.”

“Do you? I don’t…”

Angry voices interrupted them. At the end of the hallway, we should have turned left, but a group of five teenage students in identical gray robes stood in another corridor, near a closed door. They were the ones shouting, and I cringed at their aggressive attitudes. Gestures, voices, words, everything screamed bullying to me.

A white-haired boy stood one step away from the other four, like a supervisor.

“I knew you were a thief, like all of your kind!”

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

There was a faint protest, some shoving and a little kicking. I looked around. No teacher, no adult.

“Mind if we interfere?” I asked Chess in a whisper.

The cadet shrugged. “I’m following you.”

“What can you tell me about their uniforms?”

“Gray robes are first-year students, ma’am.”

So, statistically, most of them will drop out soon. Good to know.

I walked straight to the students. The white-haired boy made a show of ignoring me, until I cleared my throat and caught his friends’ attention.

“Hello, what’s going on here?”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the Great Hero Al. Nice to meet you.”

The students moved away from a thin red-haired girl I hadn’t seen before. She was curled up against the wall, her arms shielding her face. Her gray robe was the same as the others’, but it was too big for her frame and showed years of use. The leather bag she carried over her shoulder had seen better days too. She wore a very simple necklace, made of a braided string with two identical wooden pendants.

“She stole my bottle of green ink!” claimed another girl, pointing at her.

“No, I didn’t…”

“Yes, you did! You’re a thief, just like all other Zimeons! You don’t belong here!”

Zimeons? I took a better look at the girl. In her thick mane of bright cherry-red hair, two rounded ears protruded, similar to those of a mouse. Or maybe a rat.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

She lowered her delicate hands, revealing a triangular face with big terracotta eyes and a nose with a rosy rounded tip. It wasn’t a teenager’s face. Rather a young adult’s. And this face smiled at me.

“I’m Catalin, Great Hero Al. Catalin Robi.”

A colleague from my first life had a pupil named Catalin, but I think it was a boy.

“What happened, Catalin?”

“The bottle of ink fell into my bag during a lesson. I gave it back, but they won’t believe me…”

“Because she’s a Zimeon and Zimeons are liars, everybody knows that!” snapped the white-haired boy. “Go back to your factory and steal from the likes of you!”

Catalin coughed, fists clenched. I extended my arms to symbolically push the others away and give her some air.

“Factory?” I asked.

She nodded. “To pay my tuition.”

All right. This must be why she’s older than the others. Her family couldn’t afford to pay her tuition, so she worked for some time, to set money aside. In such a context, stealing is possible, but I wouldn’t bet on it. She’d risk exclusion and she certainly doesn’t want that.

I turned to the white-haired boy who apparently led the group.

“What’s your name, young man?”

“I am Loenn Gimon, Great Hero Al.”

Like Lord Gimon, the advisor? The one who didn’t listen to me this morning? It’s best to pretend I don’t know the name.

I drew closer to him. “To be honest, Loenn Gimon, I only arrived here two days ago and I’m not familiar with this world yet, so please, I need an explanation. Why do you claim that Zimeons are liars?”

His face turned red. “Because they are, of course!”

“Did a Zimeon ever lie to you?”

“No Zimeon ever dared to speak to a Gimon, until she did!” he protested, pointing a finger at Catalin.

“So that’s it.” I turned to every teenager, one by one, in a half-circle. “What I see here is five people ganging up on another one, who may, or may not, have stolen a bottle of ink, which I guess could be easily replaced. Why didn’t you report her to the headmaster, instead of being brutal to her?”

Loenn Gimon clenched his teeth. I shook my head.

“If having to share a class with someone from another community is enough to outrage you, you should get tougher, quick, because life has way worse than that in store.”

At this point, I suspected only Chess’s presence and my Great Hero status kept the teenagers from jumping at my throat. The five of them glared at me as if I was trespassing every social norm they knew. Which I might be doing, but I didn’t care.

“Report her if you want, but don’t touch her again.”

Catalin coughed once more and took a step. Nobody moved.

Good. She’s probably not safe from them, but at least, they’ll leave her alone for a while.

Just as I thought my job was done, another student extended a leg and tripped her up. As she tried to regain her balance, Loenn Gimon pushed her hard. Catalin fell to the floor with a cry of pain, and her necklace snapped. One of the pendants slipped and fell near her hands. The other one bounced a bit further down the corridor.

Chess jumped at the boy and pinned him to the wall with both hands.

“I tried not to interfere, but you’re going too far!” they said in a low voice, heavy with barely contained rage.

“I’m all right…” said Catalin, grabbing her bag.

I shook my head. “No, you’re not. Let me help you.”

I picked up the pendant that had bounced away and kneeled on the stone floor to give it back to her.

She stared at me. The rest of the group, Chess included, gazed at us, holding their breaths. I could have heard a pin drop. Did I do something wrong?

Then Catalin smiled the brightest smile I had ever seen, with rat ears twitching and tiny tears at the corners of her terracotta eyes. She took the wooden pendant from my hand. Then she picked up the other one from the floor and dropped it in my palm, as if trading it for the one I’d returned.

“Yes!” she said.

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Yes, Great Hero Al, I accept your proposal! I will be your wife.”

I looked at Chess, searching for a confirmation. They nodded with an uneasy face.

“Zimeon tradition,” they explained.

The five teenagers in the gray robes were grinning at me. Undoubtedly, they’d chuckle as soon as I walked away. Was it all a trap? Did they all set me up? I sprang up in panic, and it took all my will to stay there and not run away.

“How is it… We don’t know each other, Catalin! Surely you don’t…”

She coughed.

“I do, but let’s talk about it somewhere else. What brought you here, Great Hero Al?”

“I wanted to go to the library.”

“Then follow me.”

As she took my hand, the girl who’d accused her of theft giggled. “Invite us to your wedding!”

Is that all it takes? One faux pas and I go from threatening to ridiculous. How could I guess that handing her back a simple wooden pendant counted as a proposal?

Catalin led me to the corridor the first sorcerer had talked about, the one that branched at the end of the main hallway. Her hand was thin, but her grasp was strong.

“Wait!” I protested. “The others can’t hear you, now, so you can talk freely. I understand there’s a tradition, but I can’t get engaged to someone I don’t know. This is just not how things work in my culture. Besides, how old are you?”

“Twenty-two.”

“I could practically be your mother!”

Catalin’s pace slowed, but she didn’t stop. She clenched her second wooden pendant in her hand with a stubborn look on her face.

“You don’t understand, do you?”

I frowned.

“What should I understand? What do you really want, Catalin?”

She looked over her shoulder, at the other students who were spying on us from a distance.

“I want to keep learning magic, even after the other ones drop out! I worked hard for it. They think I don’t belong here and they want me to break down, but with someone like you to back me, I’ll be stronger! Who’d abuse the Great Hero Al’s fiancée?”

She’s using me. Of course she is. But I have no time for this, I have a dragon to save and a war to avoid!

I opened my mouth, but Catalin was faster.

“Great Hero Al, I didn’t plan for you to pick up my pendant. I didn’t even know you were unaware of the tradition. Everyone knows a Zimeon who carved two identical pendants expects to have them used in a proposal!”

“Everyone except me.”

She nodded and coughed. She was beautiful, and bold, and sick. And she’d trapped me. I knew I should be mad at her, but something was holding me back, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Why did I get that gut feeling that she was sincere?

“What do you expect from me, Catalin?”

She had a sad smile.

“Not much. A little support, maybe? I know it sounds like a trap, but I didn’t expect someone like you to propose to me. It’s not just a solution to my problems, it’s a dream come true. I didn’t set you up, but I’m so happy things are turning out this way, Great Hero Al.”

Her smile got warmer. Was it true happiness shining in her eyes? I shook my head.

“Look, you seem like a nice person, but I’m on a mission right now.”

“Of course. Before you decide what to do with me, let me help you first. What are you looking for?”

We’d reached a wooden double door with carvings that would be considered Art Nouveau in my native world. Catalin opened it with a flourish.

“Welcome to the library!”