Chapter 332. You Abandoned Your Mind Three Sentences Ago

A short distance away, Clara sat cross-legged with her journal balanced on her knees, her quill scratching rhythmically against the parchment.

She didn’t interject, but her eyes darted between the two combatants with clinical interest, a faint, amused smile playing on her lips as she documented the verbal sparring.

Beside her, Ellie had completely given up on maintaining any semblance of decorum, dissolving into helpless, musical giggles at the spectacle of Kaela’s escalating frustration.

The teasing continued, a familiar dance of sharp tongues and competitive fire. Both women seemed to be drawing energy from the rivalry, their voices rising and falling in an escalating rhythm that felt more like a game than a genuine argument.

But then, as if sensing the conversation had reached its natural peak, the tone shifted. The playful lilt vanished, replaced by something sharper, something edged with a genuine need for validation.

"Anyway," Kaela said, straightening her spine with obvious effort, determined to salvage some dignity from the exchange. "At least my accomplishments are entirely my own."

"I didn’t need anyone’s help or anyone’s protection to get where I am."

Lia’s expression didn’t falter.

"Neither did I," she countered immediately, her voice cool and steady. "Instructor Wade trained me."

"He pushed me. He guided me. But when the steel came out, when the blood was on the line... he didn’t fight the duel for me."

"I stood there alone."

Kaela’s jaw tightened. "That’s not what I meant, and you know it."

"Do I?" Lia asked, tilting her head. "Because you seem to be implying something considerably pettier than what you’re actually brave enough to say out loud."

"I am not being petty!" Kaela snapped, her face flushing. "I am being competitively motivated."

"There is a fundamental difference between petty jealousy and the drive to surpass one’s peers."

Lia raised a single eyebrow. "Is there?"

Kaela opened her mouth to deliver a crushing retort, but the words died in her throat. She closed her mouth, jaw working silently, then opened it again, searching frantically for a comeback that continued to elude her.

The silence stretched, becoming heavy and charged. William, watching from his spot on the grass, saw the shift before anyone else did a mischievous, predatory spark flickering across Lia’s features.

A sudden, cold sense of foreboding washed over him. He knew that look, and it was the look she got right before she executed a perfect, devastating strike.

"Speaking of accomplishments," Lia said.

Her voice carried a deliberate, almost singsong lightness, a tone so casual it felt dangerous. It immediately put William on edge, his heart giving a strange, nervous flutter.

"I suppose I should also mention something else."

She paused, letting the anticipation build until the air itself felt taut.

"I suppose I should also mention that instructor William Wade is officially my boyfriend now."

The words didn’t just land; they detonated. It was as if someone had hurled a boulder into the center of a still pond, sending shockwaves through every person present.

The casual afternoon air seemed to freeze mid-motion.

Kaela’s mouth fell open completely, her eyes blinking rapidly as though she were trying to physically process the syllables she had just heard.

"I’m sorry... what?" she stammered, her voice cracking. "What THE FUCK did you just say?"

"Instructor Wade. My boyfriend." Lia repeated it slowly, each word dripping with unmistakable, unrepentant satisfaction.

She leaned back slightly, crossing her arms, clearly relishing every second of Kaela’s stunned, speechless expression. "Since a few nights ago, actually."

"We decided it was... time."

Kaela’s head whipped toward William with startling, predator-like speed. Her eyes were blown wide, pupils dilated with a mixture of shock and something far more volatile.

William, meanwhile, had gone utterly rigid. His face burned with a deep, mortified crimson that spread down his neck, his mouth working silently like a fish out of water.

He had been braced for a verbal sparring match about career prospects, not a full-scale emotional ambush.

"Instructor William Wade," Kaela said, her voice climbing rapidly toward genuine, disbelieving panic, cracking on the last syllable. "Is this true? Tell me she’s lying."

"Tell me this is some twisted, elaborate ploy to get under my skin."

"I well—I mean—" William started, but his brain had seemingly short-circuited.

The words died in his throat, leaving him stranded in a sea of mortification.

Desperate for an anchor, Kaela’s gaze snapped toward Catherine. She looked at Catherine as if hoping for some kind of grounding, sensible confirmation, or some royal authority to step in and declare this all a hallucination.

But Catherine didn’t intervene. Instead, she simply smiled serenely, her eyes bright with amusement, and offered a small, deliberate nod of confirmation.

"Wait." Kaela’s voice climbed another full octave. Her hands flew up to grip the sides of her own head as if trying to physically hold her brain inside her skull. "Wait, wait, wait..."

"You too? Vice headmaster agreeing to... are you also—"

"I’ve been part of this arrangement for quite some time now, yes," Catherine interrupted.

Her voice was terrifyingly calm, almost conversational, as if she were discussing the weather rather than dismantling Kaela’s entire understanding of their social circle. She clearly found Kaela’s escalating bewilderment far more entertaining than it was prudent to admit.

"This arrangement," Kaela repeated faintly, her voice barely a whisper.

She stared between William, Catherine, and Lia with eyes so wide they looked painful. "What arrangement?!"

"Since when is there an arrangement?!"

"How... how did I not know there was an arrangement happening right under my nose!?"

"Well, you’ve been somewhat preoccupied, Kaela," Lia said.

She looked entirely too pleased with herself, leaning back with the satisfied posture of a general who had just won a decisive campaign. "Hunting monsters for sport, obsessing over training schedules, and competing with me over every conceivable minor detail of existence."

"I suppose romantic developments simply weren’t high on your list of priorities to notice."

"That’s not fair!" Kaela shouted, her hands dropping from her head to fists at her sides. "I notice things! I am hyper aware of my surroundings!"

"Really?" Lia challenged, a razor-sharp grin spreading across her face. "Because you once spent an entire week convinced that Ellie and Catherine’s kitchen fire was some kind of secret, covert combat training exercise."

"That was a reasonable assumption given the circumstances!" Kaela shot back defensively, her face flushing pink. "Explosions, smoke, screaming—it sounded tactical!"

"There were no tactical circumstances, Kaela," Lia deadpanned. "It was burnt bread."

"It could have been bread used as a cover story!" Kaela argued, waving her arms emphatically. "A distraction! A smoke screen for a clandestine operation!"

"For what possible purpose would anyone need a cover story involving charred sourdough?" Lia asked, dead serious.

"I don’t know!" Kaela yelled, her frustration finally boiling over into pure, unadulterated exasperation. "That’s why I was investigating!"

"I was being thorough!"

Beside them, Ellie had completely surrendered to the chaos. She was doubled over, clutching her stomach, her face flushed crimson as she dissolved into helpless, wheezing laughter.

Every time she tried to draw a breath to speak, another peal of giggles escaped her, leaving her gasping for air like a fish out of water. The spectacle was simply too much for her to bear.

Meanwhile, Clara remained the eye of the storm. Her quill moved with terrifying speed across the parchment, the scratching sound sharp and rhythmic against the backdrop of Kaela’s meltdown.

Her brow was furrowed in intense concentration as she scribbled furiously, occasionally pausing to mutter something under her breath.

"...subject exhibits acute signs of cognitive dissonance and emotional hemorrhaging... fascinating... documenting for scientific posterity," Clara whispered to herself, her eyes darting between Lia’s smug grin and Kaela’s horrified expression.

The realization that she was being treated as a specimen finally snapped Kaela’s remaining restraint.

"Are you... are you actually writing this down right now?" Kaela demanded, spinning around to round on Clara with enough force to nearly knock over her own chair. "Are you seriously recording this humiliation?!"

Clara didn’t even flinch. She didn’t stop her pen.

"This is a historically significant moment, Kaela," she said in a flat, clinical tone, never once lifting her gaze from the journal. "The collapse of a royal ego in real time is not something one sees every day."

"Future readers of this journal will want to know exactly how you reacted to the specific pitch of your voice, the loss of motor control in your hands, and the sheer scale of your denial."

"Future readers of your journal are going to think I lost my mind!" Kaela shrieked, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Her pride was wounded, her worldview shattered, and now she was being turned into a case study.

Clara finally paused, the quill hovering millimeters above the page. She looked up at Kaela with a gaze that was unsettlingly calm, almost pitying.

"Oh, darling, you didn’t just lose your mind," Clara said matter of factly. "You abandoned it entirely about three sentences ago."

"I’m simply recording the aftermath accurately."