Chapter 220: Meeting With Elise!

Elara sat there for a long moment, staring at nothing, before she finally shook her head and stood up, deciding the cold tea was no longer worth saving.

She walked to the small kitchenette tucked at the corner of the dormitory lounge, busying her hands with cleaning the cup just to have something, anything, to do besides think.

It did not help.

“Join him too,” she muttered under her breath, mimicking Elise’s teasing tone poorly. “As if I would ever…”

She trailed off, scrubbing the cup harder than necessary.

Setting it aside, Elara wandered back toward her room, telling herself the whole exchange meant nothing.

Elise was just being annoying, like always, throwing out ridiculous comments to fluster her and dodge the real conversation. That was all. Nothing more.

Except her room offered no escape either. The moment she sat on her bed, her gaze drifted toward the small wooden chest at its foot, the one where she kept things she rarely touched.

Before she even realized what she was doing, Elara found herself kneeling in front of it, lifting the lid and rummaging through old notes, spare hairpins, and a cracked mana crystal she never bothered to replace.

“Where did I even put it…”

Her fingers brushed against a folded piece of parchment near the bottom, and she pulled it out almost on reflex.

It was a sketch Soren had given her weeks ago, a rough diagram of a noise-cancelling array he wanted her opinion on before he brought it to Isolde.

Nothing romantic about it. Purely practical.

So why was she staring at his handwriting like it meant something?

“Stupid,” she whispered, shoving the parchment back inside and closing the lid with more force than needed.

She stood, smoothing down her skirt, trying to compose herself, only to catch her reflection in the small mirror propped against her wall.

Her cheeks were still faintly pink, far redder than she would like to admit.

“It’s nothing. It’s absolutely nothing.”

She turned away from the mirror, pacing the small room instead, arms crossed tightly as if that alone could hold her thoughts in place.

“Join him, she says. Like I would ever consider…”

Her pacing slowed near her desk, where a spare quill sat untouched for days. She picked it up without thinking, twirling it between her fingers, then stopped abruptly when she realized what she was doing.

“Why am I even fidgeting like this?”

Groaning, Elara dropped onto her bed, pulling a pillow over her face in mild defeat. Muffled words escaped from beneath the fabric.

“This is Elise’s fault. Completely her fault.”

She lay there for a while, pillow still pressed against her face, until a small, treacherous thought slipped through her defenses uninvited.

What would it even be like, training alongside him? Watching him work, like Elise described, up close.

The moment the thought formed, she yanked the pillow away and sat up sharply, shaking her head as if that could physically dislodge the idea.

“No. Absolutely not. I refuse.”

Yet her hand drifted unconsciously to her cheek, still warm beneath her palm.

She huffed, lying back down properly this time, staring at the ceiling with a frown that did not quite match the soft, flustered look still lingering in her eyes.

“I am not falling for whatever that idiot is doing,” she murmured to herself, voice far less convincing than she intended.

Outside her window, the evening settled into quiet darkness, and Elara remained there, caught between irritation and something far more confusing, refusing to admit, even to herself, that Elise’s teasing words had planted themselves rather firmly in her thoughts and showed no sign of leaving anytime soon.

***

“Tch… so much useless talk. I am already late to meet Soren.”

Elise thought as she left Elara and walked along the corridor, quickening her pace as the torches grew sparser the further she went.

The east wing was always quiet this time of night, the academy halls mostly emptied, leaving only the soft creak of old stone and the occasional distant murmur of students retiring to their rooms.

She rounded the last corner, smoothing down her sleeve, when a familiar voice stopped her.

“There you are,” Soren said, leaning against the stone wall with that easy half smile she had grown far too used to.

“I was starting to think you forgot.”

“As if I would forget,” Elise said, crossing her arms.

“Elara wouldn’t stop talking, that’s all.”

“Sounds like her.” He pushed off the wall, closing the distance between them with unhurried steps.

“Walk with me?”

“It’s late.”

“Exactly. No one around to bother us.” His grin widened.

“Come on, Elise. Five minutes.”

She huffed, but fell into step beside him anyway, telling herself it was only because she had nothing better to do.

They wandered past the empty courtyard, the moonlight catching the edges of the old stone pillars, until he steered her toward a quiet alcove tucked behind the library wing, half hidden by overgrown ivy.

“What are we doing here?” she asked, glancing around.

“Nothing sinister,” he said. “Just wanted somewhere quiet.”

“For what?”

“For this.”

Before she could ask what he meant, his hand found her jaw, tilting her face up toward his, and then his mouth was on hers, slow and certain, as though he had been waiting all evening for exactly this moment.

Elise froze for half a second, startled, before her fingers curled into the front of his coat, pulling him closer instead of pushing him away.

He smiled against her lips. “Took you long enough.”

“Shut up,” she murmured, dragging him back down before he could say anything else.

The ivy rustled softly in the night breeze, the academy quiet around them, neither willing to be the first to pull away.

After a long moment, Soren finally pulled back, just enough to rest his forehead against hers, his breath still uneven.

“You know,” he murmured, “for someone who claims she was only here because she had nothing better to do, you certainly didn’t put up much of a fight.”