“Has anyone ever told you that you’re crazy?” Dolph asked.

Hildebrand thought of Erika, who had given her a brief lecture about not leaning on railings. Or pushing people over them. Erika hadn’t called Hildebrand crazy exactly, but it was easy enough to infer.

“No,” Hildebrand said.

“Then I’ll be the first,” Dolph said, his scowl grimmer than it had ever been. It was something else. “You’re crazy!”

“Sorry,” Hildebrand squeaked, pressing her lips together in a pout.

Dolph opened his mouth and raised a finger up, but it curled back down and he held his tongue.

“I’m sorry,” Hildebrand repeated, again. She lost count of how many times she had said. Maybe five now. She must have been close to her personal record. “I don’t know what came over me…” she said. She tried her best to look pitiful and small, bringing her shoulders in and lowering her head, trying to purse her lips into a puppy dog pout. She tried not to show Dolph her eyes, though.

Dolph quietly crossed his arms and closed his eyes, still glowering. He didn’t want to see it or hear it. She could tell. Had she still had the Saintess’s beauty, it would have worked wonders. Or maybe not. Dolph was one of the odd boys who didn’t fall so easily to Priscilla’s charms. Maybe he had different tastes. Maybe Hildebrand needed a different approach.

Hildebrand raised a finger up and poked his side. “This makes us even,” she said. “You did put me in the infirmary the other day.” She patted the bed he sat in. “In this same bed, even!” It wasn’t. “And the nurse said you’re not even hurt.”

“The doctor,” Dolph grumbled, confirming the important parts of Hildebrand’s words. He tossed the infirmary bed sheets off his legs. He had landed perfectly on his feet, and he was so light he probably didn’t even feel the weight of his own landing. He wasn’t the slightest bit hurt, not his thin calves, or his feet. Not even his slender ankles.

“I can’t believe you landed on your feet, though! That was amazing!” she said, putting on her crooked smile. “You were like a cat!”

“I got lucky,” he said. “I could’ve died.”

“You’re being dramatic. No one’s dying from that little fall,” Hildebrand muttered. “Hurt, maybe.”

“In what world?” Dolph grumbled.

Hildebrand raised a brow at his claim. Even a child could survive a fall from one story easily. Just how fragile did he think people were?

“This one,” Hildebrand said. She pointed down. “The one that we’re in.”

Dolph grunted and laid back in his bed, folding his arms behind his head. And when he did, his stomach grumbled.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Hildebrand asked. “We still have time for lunch.”

“I’m broke,” he said.

“Aren’t you a noble?” Hildebrand asked.

Penniless nobles weren’t all that uncommon. They weren’t rare, at least. But even they could probably afford the low cost of a meal at the academy. The academy only charged money to encourage students to work around the campus and have a taste of the hardships of labor, or so they said.

“Was,” he said, plainly. “I got disowned.” He didn’t seem very upset about it.

“Oh. A real shame,” Hildebrand murmured. “I can buy you lunch, since you’re a peasant now.”

Dolph sighed in exasperation. “Forget it,” he said. “You just worry about yourself.”

Dolph’s obstinate solitude annoyed her. He reminded her of an old man, someone she could never hit. But Dolph wasn’t an old man.

Hildebrand thumped her fist on his stomach. It felt pudgy, despite how thin he was. Or maybe it was that he had no muscle at all. The sensation of flimsy skin and fat almost made Hildebrand reconsider her plan to befriend him. She wanted firm allies. Not whatever this is, she thought.

But she had limited options. Even if she could gather up all the stragglers in the class who weren’t part of a faction yet, she wasn’t sure they would amount to anything in the face of adversity.

“Don’t be so grumpy,” she grumbled. “I’ll buy you lunch. You could stand to put on some weight.”

He glared at her.

“You’re nothing but skin and fat,” Hildebrand continued. “How are you going to have any energy if you’re this thin?” she said, encircling his wrist with her fingers.

“You sound like an old lady,” Dolph said.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Hildebrand’s brows furrowed, and she thumped his stomach again. “Erika said they’re serving fritters,” she said. “It’s mystery meat!”

“Is that supposed to be a good thing?” Dolph asked.

“Yes!” Hildebrand said. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?”

“No…” Dolph said, shaking his head. “No. Not really.”

Hildebrand groaned with frustration. He didn’t respond to anything. She settled back into her seat and pulled out her coin pouch. She dispensed with a small silver coin. “What’s this?” she playfully exclaimed, holding it up for Dolph to see. The coin didn’t impress him; his lazy eyelids laid flat just above his beady eyes, as usual.

With a flick of her hands, Hildebrand made the coin disappear and showed her empty palms for Dolph to see. Then she reached behind Dolph’s ear and exclaimed, “What’s this behind your ear?” and pulled out a large silver coin.

He didn’t look amazed like she had expected, but he was at least mildly amused.

“Cute trick,” he said, plucking it from her fingers.

Hildebrand hadn’t planned on that. He was deceptively fast, or deceptively hard to predict. He flicked his wrist, like Hildebrand had done, and like her, Dolph showed her his empty palms.

She was amazed. Amazed he knew the same trick.

He shook his hand, shaking the coin out from his shirt cuffs and into his palm. And he placed the coin back in Hildebrand’s hand before crossing his arms again.

The miscreant annoyed Hildebrand almost as much as Hugo did. But Dolph actually annoyed her. He had her miffed.

She pulled his hand, forcing his arms uncrossed. “Take it,” she said, placing it in his palm. “I don’t always feel so generous.”

Now he seemed amazed, even if he didn’t show it well.

“Isn’t this a lot of money for you?” he asked. “I thought you were a commoner.”

Hildebrand tipped her coin pouch open for him to see, and his lazy eyelids shot up in shock. He had on the expression she wanted to see.

“This is nothing. I get a stipend from the Church,” she said. “I think…” She had certainly received the money from the Church, more specifically Bishop Theodore, but she wasn’t certain there was more coming.

Dolph’s beady eyes focused pensively on the coin, his thin brows furrowing. His fingers hesitated to close around the large silver coin. But they did in due time. And the clouded judgment gathering on his face cleared. And he looked up at Hildebrand. “Ok,” he said with a slight smile.

***

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Dolph asked.

“Hugo? They gave him an on-site suspension. He’s around here somewhere,” Hildebrand answered, gesturing to the classrooms lining the hall.

“Huh,” Dolph muttered. “About Greg—”

“I don’t like it, but I’ll see what I can do,” Hildebrand said. “I can’t guarantee anything.”

“That’s fine,” Dolph said.

“You still need to tell me why you want them to be friends.”

Dolph stopped walking. “What did you mean by coming back from the future?”

Hildebrand flinched. “Oh that, I was just talking nonsense.”

“Did you regress from the future?” he asked.

Regress? She could surmise the word’s meaning. “No, hahaha. Hahaha! No! Hahaha!” She couldn’t help but laugh nervously. “That’s insane!” Hildebrand said. “Dolph, you’re crazy! I was just joking!”

“I don’t think it’s that crazy,” he said.

Hildebrand laughed nervously again. “It is!” she said in a pitched voice.

“You know,” Dolph said, leaning in a little closer, hushing his voice. “I’m actually from a different universe where this entire world is just a piece of fiction. And I’m not Adolph. I just woke up in this kid’s body last week.”

Hildebrand stopped laughing. “Huh?” She couldn’t tell if he was lying or not. If he was, he was strangely good at it. He was so convincing her blood ran cold.

“P-piece of fiction?” she asked. “Like a book?”

“A video game,” he said.

Then he smirked. And so did she.

“What’s a ‘VEE-DIO game’ supposed to be?” Hildebrand asked. “You’re just making things up!”

“Am I?” he asked.

Hildebrand laughed again, chuckling slowly. Dolph chuckled too.

“Yes! You are! That’s actually crazy,” Hildebrand said.

“Isn’t it?” he asked.

“Hahaha! Yes! It is!” Hildebrand laughed more freely. “What’s next? People lived on floating islands in the sky?”

“Some did,” he said. “They were called Cradles.”

Hildebrand rolled her eyes. “How in Altamea’s good grace could islands float in the sky?”

“Don’t some people live in airships here?” he asked.

Hildebrand pointed a finger in Dolph’s face. “Those don’t count,” she said. “Those are manmade.”

“Then no,” he said, “no one lived on floating islands.”

“That’s not very convincing, Dolph,” she said, giggling. She spread her arms upwards. “How about this: people living among the stars?”

“They did,” Dolph said. “Plenty of them.”

Even though he was joking, Dolph could deliver a line with such seriousness that he was frighteningly convincing.

“Dear Altamea,” Hildebrand muttered. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those nuts who actually thinks there are creatures living among the stars.”

“Not aliens,” Dolph said. “Humans. Across the galaxy.”

His words unsettled her, until he cracked the slightest smile. At least, that was what it looked like to her.

“Ha! Galaxy?” Hildebrand jabbed Dolph’s arm. “You’re making up words again!”

Dolph chuckled. “Open up a dictionary once in a while,” he said. “You might be surprised.”

“I’m very articulate, thank you,” Hildebrand said. “I don’t need a dictionary!”

Dolph nodded his head quickly and dismissively. “Whatever you say. By the way,” he said, walking again. “What did you mean when you said you needed me? I hope you didn’t mean romantically; you already have a boyfriend and—”

“You keep using that word,” Hildebrand said, staring at him with an arched brow. “I think you don’t know what it means.”

“It means you and he are…” Dolph rolled his head around, his beady eyes staring at the ceiling. “Are lovers.”

“What! Hugo’s my friend and a boy. He’s certainly not my beau! Or my sweetheart… Or my lover, or anything so intimate,” she said, her voice shrinking.

“Ok…” Dolph said, “Guess I was mistaken.”

“Anyway!” Hildebrand said, waving her hand. “I meant I’d like for us to be friends.”

Dolph held up his new silver coin and examined it carefully. It caught Hildebrand’s eye too, the way he held it up for her to see. “Is that a codeword for henchman?” he asked.

“No,” Hildebrand said, eying the coin curiously.

“Too bad,” he said.

She caught onto his suggestion. “But it can be arranged,” Hildebrand said. “For one Konradt a month?”

“Konradt?” Dolph asked.

“The coin I gave you,” she answered. “You could easily eat your fill for a month with that. But it might not cover tuition, or room and board.”

He nodded. “You don’t have to worry about those things,” he said, extending a hand. “It’s a deal.”

Hildebrand accepted it. “Deal!”

“I have to warn you, though,” Dolph said. “I’m not very strong.”

Hildebrand simply shrugged. “I know,” she said.

As they entered the dining hall, Hildebrand jabbed his side. “Hey,” she said. “Name ten stars.”

“Uhh,” Dolph murmured. “…Astrography was never my strongest subject.”

Hildebrand shook her head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”