CAERA DENOIR
I kept my face impassive, my tone leveled, and my posture straight as I strode into his class. After all, I was to be seen by others as merely a colleague, nothing more.
So why in the Vritra’s grace did I blurt out his name, announcing the fact that we know each other already?
Around me, the students broke out into shocked whispers as they tried to determine the relationship between us. My mind was already whirling with what my next words should be to hopefully quench any potential rumors that might spread from this room. Grey wasn’t a fan of attention, and I preferred not to start off on the wrong foot once again.
I attempted to make my way through the wave of pampered teens when a fierce young woman with short-cropped golden hair stepped into my path.
She gave me a practiced curtsy before speaking just loudly enough for her classmates to hear. “Lady Caera of Highblood Denoir, my mother and father asked that I pass along their well wishes to you and your blood should we meet in school.”
“You must be the youngest of Highblood Frost,” I affirmed.
“Enola,” the blond said proudly. “I’ve been a fan of yours since your earlier ascensions were made public. I strive to one day become an ascender as distinguished as yourself, Lady Caera.”
I gave her a nod. “Then you would do well taking notes in this class.”
The Frost girl, along with the students around her, frowned in confusion and offense as I walked past. The girl to Enola’s right, who stuck to her in a servile way that marked her as being of the Redcliff blood, gave me a quick bow before escorting her master out of the room.
The whispers grew louder as the students now tried to deduce what my last words meant, but my attention was on the golden-eyed professor standing with his arms crossed in the training ring.
Grey was silent, his face unreadable even as we locked eyes.
I feared that he already knew what had brought me to this school. But worse than that, I feared he didn’t know but naturally assumed.
“I apologize for my classmates’ rudeness,” a voice rang, pulling me from my thoughts.
The speaker, a lean young man with ebony skin and piercing eyes, shouldered past a couple of the others and held out his hand. “I am Valen of Highblood Ramseyer. We’ve never had the pleasure, but—”
“I have business with your professor,” I interrupted, ignoring his outstretched hand while sweeping a cold gaze through the crowd of students. “And as he mentioned…class is over.”
The Ramseyer heir’s jaw clenched as he recoiled his hand before strutting out. The whispers and murmurs only grew as the rest of the class followed suit. Only the last student to leave was wordless, his thin frame hunched forward as he struggled to climb the stairs, his gaze glued to his shoes.
I straightened my blouse as I began descending toward him. Now that it was only the two of us, my mind began racing, trying to come up with the next words to break this tension.
Letting out a sigh, I stopped halfway down the stairs and settled for the words, “It’s nice to see you again.”
Again, I was met with silence, the only change in his expression being a raised brow of suspicion.
I held up my hands in a placating gesture while also showing him my ring. “I merely came to say ‘hi’ and to catch up with a friend.”
“And here I was worried you were stalking me,” he answered, unwavering in his impacivity. The source of this content is lightnovelpub.com
I nodded seriously. “Oh yes. Because I’ve yearned for your grumpy, vaguely-threatening presence.”
The smallest twitch disturbed the corner of his lips. “I’m not grumpy.”
I let out a scoff as I sat down in the nearest seat. “Right…”
Turning his back on me, Grey began to fiddle with the controls of the training platform. Kayden’s classroom had something similar, so I should have guessed what was about to happen, but—
A sharp jolt of pain shot up through my rear end and into my back, causing me to yelp and jump out of the seat.
Grey stifled a laugh, finally dropping his cool demeanor as I glared down at him. “Too bad Regis is sleeping,” he said. “He’d have loved that.”
I rubbed at the spot where the pain-inducing rune had shocked me. “So childish…”
He had the good grace to look sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck—but still smiling like an idiot. “I was just wrapping up here. Want to go for a walk? We should talk about what happened.”
“No,” I snapped.
Then, I let out a sigh. “Yes, I suppose.”
After he locked up his office and haphazardly put away a few training implements, we left the building, walking slowly in the general direction of Windcrest Hall, where we were both staying.
“So…” I started after a minute of awkward silence. “Professor Grey, hm?”
“Yeah. It seemed…”
The golden-eyed ascender only nodded. “The surest way to lose a war is to a traitorous messenger.”
Regis shook his little head at his master. “He says such scary things with so little emotions…”
“Well, now that we’ve all caught up and have agreed to trust each other…” Grey leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, a fiery gleam in his honey-gold eyes. “How would you like to help me steal a dead relic?”
Chapter end
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