Chapter 172: No Reason to Look Away

The room was still dark. The small lamp on the desk cast just enough light to show Chloe digging through a pile of clothes in her underwear, her blonde hair still a tangled mess. She found one of her uniform stockings and started pulling it on while reading over a loose sheet of healer notes.

Arthur squinted at her from beneath the blanket, still barely awake.

"You actually function this early?"

Chloe glanced over her shoulder. "Some of us have work."

Arthur sank deeper into the pillow.

Chloe went back to getting dressed, pulling on her pale infirmary blouse.

Once she was ready, she climbed back onto the mattress and leaned over to kiss him. Her mouth tasted like mint and coffee. Arthur grabbed her waist, dragging her weight down to pull her back into the bed.

Chloe laughed straight into his mouth. She planted a hand on his chest and pushed herself free.

"Sleep," she told him, picking up her bag. "Just lock the door when you leave."

The door clicked shut behind her. Arthur closed his eyes and went straight back to sleep.

He eventually dragged himself out of bed, grabbed a shower, and showed up at the dining hall much later than usual.

Cedric and Felix were already at a table. Emily was sitting across from them, chewing on a piece of tough bacon. She watched Arthur drop his tray onto the table and sit down beside her.

Emily noticed the bite mark showing above his collar and poked it hard with one finger.

Arthur grunted.

"Chloe?" Emily asked.

Arthur nodded, picking up his fork.

Emily snorted softly and went back to eating.

Felix looked from the bite mark to Emily, then quietly went back to his eggs.

After breakfast, Arthur headed out to one of the smaller, empty practice ranges on the western side of the campus.

At the firing line, Arthur formed a Mana Quiver arrow while deliberately holding back some of the mana he normally dumped into it.

The arrow still came together cleanly.

He fired, called up another, and did it again.

After a few rounds, the difference was obvious. He wasn’t bleeding nearly as much mana into each shot, and forming the next arrow no longer took as much concentration.

Arthur started mixing Phantom Shot and Mirage Shot into the practice to see how well the change held up once he stopped shooting plain arrows.

Arthur was working Phantom Shot into the drill when Elara arrived at the range.

She took a spot a few lanes down, unslung her recurve bow, and started her own target practice. Neither of them talked for a while. They just kept shooting.

Elara eventually lowered her bow and looked over as he formed another spectral arrow.

"You’re pulling them faster," she noted.

Arthur let the arrow dissipate. "They cost less, too."

He turned toward her. "Any more letters from home?"

Elara pulled another arrow from her quiver and turned it between her fingers before answering.

"One," she said. "Patrols near the outer groves have doubled. The guards are checking merchants twice before letting anyone through the tree line."

"Did they say why?"

"No." Elara notched her arrow. "My mother told me not to worry."

"Which means you’re worrying."

"Obviously," Elara said, raising the bow. She drew the string back smoothly and released, driving the shaft perfectly into the center of her target.

Arthur didn’t press her for more. He summoned another arrow and went back to shooting.

Later that afternoon, Arthur was cutting across the central courtyard when he spotted Emily sitting on one of the low stone benches near the pathways. Chloe was walking out of the healer building on the other side of the grass at almost the same time.

Arthur expected Chloe to walk over to him. Instead, she changed direction and walked straight toward Emily.

Arthur kept walking and caught up to them just as Chloe reached the bench.

Chloe was looking down at Emily’s hands. She reached out and casually grabbed Emily’s wrist, turning her hand over to inspect a set of scraped, bruised knuckles.

"Again?" Chloe asked.

"Heavy gauntlet drills," Emily muttered, letting Chloe examine the bruising.

Arthur stepped up behind Emily and dropped his hand comfortably onto her waist.

Chloe looked up from Emily’s bruised knuckles. Her eyes dropped to Arthur’s hand at Emily’s waist and stayed there.

Emily noticed.

"You stare a lot."

Chloe looked at her. "You care?"

Emily shrugged. "Not really."

Chloe smiled. "Good."

Emily leaned back against Arthur. He caught her chin and kissed her, his other hand still resting at her waist.

Chloe watched them openly.

When Emily pulled away, she caught Chloe still looking.

A faint smirk crossed Emily’s face. She grabbed Arthur’s shirt and pulled him down for another kiss.

Emily kept a fist tangled in Arthur’s shirt until she finally let him go.

Chloe was still watching, smiling now.

Arthur ran into the rest of the guys outside the main combat halls later that afternoon.

Cedric was sitting on a low wall with a little sphere of condensed mana hovering above his palm while he talked to Felix. The sphere collapsed again when Felix asked him something, but Cedric rebuilt it almost immediately and kept talking.

Felix was kneeling on the grass, fighting with one of the heavy leather straps on his new defensive gear.

Leon and Alicia walked up together. Leon dropped his bag onto the grass. Alicia pulled a spare bracer strap from her pocket and tossed it to him.

Leon caught it. "I knew I forgot something."

Alicia gave him a tired look.

"The board is getting updated tonight," Felix said, yanking a stubborn buckle tight. "They’re posting the practical rotation teams for the term."

"They’re mixing the groups," Cedric added, letting his mana sphere dissolve. "Rumor is they’re forcing combinations based on roles and recent performance rankings."

Arthur crossed his arms. So that was the point. Throw everyone into unfamiliar teams and see who could still function when their usual people weren’t there.

"I hate it," Felix grumbled. "My entire gear setup depends on knowing exactly who is standing behind me."

"You’re a shield," Leon pointed out. "Stand in the front and don’t die. It’s not that complicated."

Felix flipped him off.

Toward evening, a crowd of students started gathering around the main notice boards in the central plaza.

The academy notice was finally up.

Arthur stood near the back of the crowd with Emily, reading the heavy print over the heads of the first-years. The actual team assignments wouldn’t go up until tomorrow morning, but the rules for the rotations were finalized.

The notice made one thing clear: nobody was keeping the same team for long. Groups would be mixed by role, matched to different dungeons, and changed again whenever the instructors felt like it.

Felix groaned out loud, completely miserable. Cedric looked nervous. Leon looked interested. Alicia stood near the edge of the crowd, reading the fine print at the bottom of the mandate.

Emily leaned against Arthur’s shoulder. "Bet you get stuck with idiots."

Arthur looked at her. "You’re assuming you’re not one of them."

Emily elbowed him hard in the ribs.

The crowd slowly began to thin out as students headed toward the dining halls.

Arthur and Emily turned to leave. Chloe was walking up the path from the direction of the infirmary, heading toward the dorms. She slowed down as she passed them, stopping briefly near the edge of the plaza.

Chloe’s eyes dropped to Arthur’s hand at Emily’s waist.

Emily caught the look.

She reached down, took Arthur’s hand, and deliberately moved it higher against her side while looking straight at Chloe.

Chloe held her gaze.

Her mouth curled into a grin.

"She’s doing that on purpose now."

Emily turned toward the dining hall, caught Arthur’s hand, and pulled him along with her.

Arthur glanced back once.

Chloe was still grinning.