Chapter 12: Training With the Princess

Iris Blackthorn stood with perfect posture, violet eyes steady on Arthur’s face.

"I watched you answer Professor Frost’s questions yesterday. And today you took Instructor Vane’s full barrage with only Mana Skin. I misjudged you during the sorting. I apologize."

Arthur met her gaze without flinching. "It’s fine. I didn’t even notice you were looking at me."

A faint crease appeared between her brows. "I was. I simply assumed a Tier 1 from the Fringe would remain irrelevant. I was wrong. Can you teach me how you formed the Mana Skin so cleanly?"

Arthur opened Desire Sight for a brief second.

Pink-gold mist clung to her, thinner than Talia’s but still present.

[Repressed Desire: As a princess no one sees her for who she is. Wants someone who will]

[Lewd thought: Locked]

Mimi’s voice rose in confusion. "Locked? Why is the lewd section locked?"

Because she doesn’t have any yet, Arthur thought back.

He glanced around the platform. The remaining students treated Iris with careful politeness. They nodded, stepped aside, offered quiet respect. None of them stood close. None of them spoke to her the way Milo had spoken to him. She was surrounded by courtesy and completely alone.

Arthur closed the ability and nodded. "Alright. I’ll show you what I understand."

Most of the class had already left. Only a handful of students still practiced at the far end of the platform. Arthur and Iris found an open space near the edge. He explained the feeling of pushing mana outward and then locking it tight against the skin, the need for even pressure, the difference between a rigid shell and a flexible one. Iris listened without interrupting, then tried.

At first she remained reserved, every movement precise and controlled. The noble mask stayed firmly in place. Then her Mana Skin stabilized. A clean, even layer settled over her arms and torso. Genuine surprise flickered across her face, followed by a small, unguarded smile. For a few seconds she looked like any other eighteen-year-old who had just succeeded at something difficult.

Arthur watched that smile without meaning to. Iris noticed. The mask returned at once. Her posture straightened. The brief warmth vanished behind polished calm.

He spoke before she could rebuild the full distance.

"You should smile more. You look very beautiful when you do."

Color touched her cheeks for half a heartbeat. Then she looked away.

"Do not speak to me so casually. We are not familiar." She paused, voice quieter. "But... thank you for the instruction."

She turned and walked toward the Nova section of the academy, back straight, dark-blue hair moving in the wind.

Mimi appeared at Arthur’s side the moment Iris was out of earshot, grinning.

"Tsundere. Definitely a tsundere. The classic kind. This is going to be entertaining."

Arthur started to leave the platform. A broad-shouldered figure stepped directly into his path.

Julian Ironwood. Tier 7. House Dawn’s first-year captain. The same student who had drawn every eye in the Hall of Binding when his Mythic-tier book chose him.

Julian looked down at Arthur with flat disdain.

"Stay away from the princess."

Arthur said nothing. Julian seemed to take the silence as fear. He gave a short, satisfied nod and began to turn away.

Arthur’s voice stopped him.

"What does it have to do with you?"

Julian turned back slowly. The air around him tightened.

"There is a gap between you two that you clearly do not understand. She is the youngest princess of the kingdom. You are a Tier 1 waste who somehow crawled into the academy. Only someone on her level has any right to speak with her."

Arthur held his gaze. "Equal? Who? You?"

Julian’s eyes narrowed. "I am the only one in this year who stands on the same ground she does. For your own good, keep your distance. The next time I see you near her, I will not bother with words."

He walked away without waiting for a reply, boots striking the stone with deliberate weight.

Mimi floated up to Arthur’s eye level, expression unusually serious.

"Why not just kill him?"

Arthur started walking toward the dorm bridges. "I can’t. Not with what I have now. And the academy does not allow students to murder each other in the open."

"Then you need to get stronger," Mimi said. "That one is going to be a problem. Also, your Flame print is running out."

Arthur pulled the Eros Codex from his coat and opened it to the first page. The seal was still there, but a thin timer of pink-gold light now counted down at the bottom.

[REMAINING: 4 DAYS]

He closed the book and looked across the floating courtyards toward the instructor towers. Talia Vane’s office was somewhere in that cluster of pale stone and glass. She had already given him the invitation with her eyes.

Arthur slipped the Codex back inside his coat. A thin, focused smile touched his mouth.

"Looks like I need to add another ability."

Mimi’s wings beat faster. Her eyes shone with pure, hungry excitement.

"Yes. Please. Let’s go fill the next page and let me see the process."