Violet places her hand into my own and gently smiles. “You saved my life, so perhaps just this once.”

  A giant grin spreads across my face. The gentle warmth of her hand in mine is nice. It is comforting, but also exciting.

  “On second thought, that smile is creepy, nevermind.” Her smile grows wider, counter to what her words say.

  “Nuh uh, that isn’t how this works.” I grip her hand tightly and drag her towards the dance floor. “You said yes, such promises cannot be so easily broken.” I say, the smile on my face growing.

  She doesn't try to resist as I drag her towards the dance floor.

  As we move through the crowd, it seems to magically part before us. But, I can feel many eyes on me. I simply ignore them and focus on Violet’s hand, grasped in my own. I feel very warm, almost like I am boiling alive. But it is pleasant somehow.

  We reach the dance floor right as the song changes, perfect timing. Violet seems to hesitate on the boundary, but I yank her forward.

  I gently put my hand in hers and above her waist, my fingertips brush against the silky fabric. It feels soft and light, and I can feel the warmth of her skin through the fabric. All thoughts seem to vanish from my mind.

  “Hey, umm. I do not know how to dance.” Violet says sheepishly. I think her face turns a bit red, but it might just be the lightning. If she were to actually blush, it would be far too cute.

  “Well that is fine, since I have no clue how to dance either.” I say, smiling.

  She hesitantly places her hand on my waist. It feels gentle and reassuring. Unlike that one time where she was trying to break my ribs. When she places her hand on my shoulder, I nearly keel over and die on the spot.

  I take a breath through my nose and notice she smells quite nice. A nice lavender scent fills my mind. It is super calming, like a late summer breeze just slowly drifting along. I look at her slight smile as she tries to figure out where exactly to place her hand. She is so cute when she is fumbling around. Though if I said that, I would likely end up with a broken jaw.

  I try to lead us in the dance, only for me to trip. By some miracle, Violet ends up catching me in her arms. But she quickly pushes me away and turns her head in the other direction. “Imbecile. You did that on purpose.”

  For a brief instant. I felt an odd sensation. Almost like my entire life yet to come flashed before my eyes. I can’t remember what happened, but it felt both sad and happy at the same time. I am unsure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. But at this moment, I am happy, so I can only hope it will continue forever.

  “Would you blame me if I did?” I smirk at her.

  She punches me lightly in the chest, but it doesn't hurt. It feels kind of nice in fact. “Imbecile.” She turns her head back and looks me in the eye. My red eyes stare deeply into her blue eyes – which are beautiful, by the way. It's almost like they are an endless blue sky, just waiting for someone to dive in and fly about. I wonder what sorts of things one could find in that endless sky.

  Suddenly, she jerks me forward and starts moving. I push my brain into overdrive, just trying to match her steps as we fly across the dance floor. The music intensifies as though responding to our own dance.

  I hold her tightly, making sure not to get lost. Though, I do step on her toes a few times, to which she glares at me for. She also steps on my toes, which causes her face to tint red and she looks away. Guess even the perfect fencer is bad at something.

  But we are both bad, which just makes it all the more fun as I draw her into a spin and then into a lean and dip. I look down into her eyes and she smiles back at me. It seems she is having fun, which is good. For having such a wonderful smile, she doesn't smile nearly enough. I will fix that singehandedly, I must.

  I bring her back up and she ends up tripping and falling into my arms. I don't push her away though, and she lingers for a moment before pushing me away. “Dummy” she says, as though it wasn't her that tripped. “Imbecile. You are enjoying this far too much.”

  “Don’t try to pretend you aren't enjoying it. Your eyes are a dead giveaway, you know.” She immediately looks down at my chest, trying to hide her eyes from me. I make a bold move. One that might cause my death today.

  I move my hand to her chin – which is super soft and warm – and lift it up gently.

  Her eyes meet my own again and they look mad. But underneath I can also see a bit of sadness. But, she doesn't try to kill me, or even push my hand away.

  Someone nearby loudly coughs and I realize the music has stopped, not that we were even dancing anymore. I turn and look to find Stephen, awkwardly standing around. Leaning on him is a very drunk looking Liv. Shockingly, Moxie is also leaning on him looking very drunk as well, maybe it was a bad idea to leave her with Liv.

  The rest of the hall? It's pretty much empty, aside from a few stragglers that seem to be blackout drunk and hunched against various pillars.

  Violet shoves me away and then acts like she is brushing herself off. Perhaps trying to cleanse herself of all contact with me. Her wonderful smile turns back into her typical scowl she usually uses when looking at me. Without saying a single word, she walks away and exits the hall. Though, that only serves to give me a nice view of her open back, which is super hot.

  “So uh, did you guys have fun?” I ask the others.

  “Oh hell yeah!” Liv says, “You shoulda seen Moxie, she was like great. Many a people went home cryin.” She slaps Moxie on the back, which causes her to look a bit sick.

  “*hicc*, not true. You punched them.” Moxie says. It seems she is able to talk far better while drunk. Must be the social lubrication in effect.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “I never said you were the cause.”

  “Touché.” Moxie replies.

  “Alright girls, let's get you two home before you start punching each other. Wouldn't want any team infighting today.” Stephen says, a hint of a smile on his face. “Also Maka, you are aware that like, everyone was watching you two, right? Also what the heck was that? Calling it ‘dancing’ is an insult to dancers.”

  My face lights on fire, and I am sure I turn a nice shade of red. But, I manage to come up with what I think is a good retort. “No clue what you're talking about, I was having the time of my life.”

  “Oh, don't worry. We all saw that. Uh, good luck with that one.”

  “Thanks, I think?” Then all three of them start laughing, and I join in. Though I am pretty sure I am laughing at myself.

  They all head back, Stephen somehow managing to keep both Liv and Moxie from falling over. I get a feeling he is used to escorting drunk people home. I don't know what it is, just something about the skill with which he does it.

  I also head back to our room, but I quickly change into my armor and head into the training gym. I have gained a lot of stat points lately, but I have yet to train them up. Plus my physical stats were lacking to start with.

  Color me surprised when I enter the training room to find Violet. Her lovely dress is gone and replaced with her armor, looking suitably badass. Apple, her dragon, is sitting off to the side lazily doing some sort of scale grooming activity. I didn't even know dragons needed to groom themselves.

  Maintaining one’s scales is important. They are both our source of energy and primary defenses. Lemon says. I too, would like to be let out. Perhaps I can glean some interesting information from Apple that shall help you in your journey.

  Huh, good to know… now about that last part. I don't like that way that sounded, don't you two go doing anything weird, ya hear me?

  I watch for a few seconds as Violet repeatedly strikes at a target. It seems to be almost the exact size as me, what a coincidence. It is quite hypnotizing to watch her hit it again and again, always hitting exactly in the heart with strikes that look quite fatal.

  Suddenly, a dagger comes flying straight at my head. A split second before it kills me, I Blink out of the way. Only to be met with the super duper sharp end of Violet’s rapier right at my neck.

  She looks quite mad, “What, are you some creep that enjoys watching people train?” Her point doesn't waver as it prepares to turn me into a nice piece of skewered meat.

  “While it was definitely enjoyable to watch, it was also very educational.” I say, smiling a bit. “Your technique is very on point, I didn't even know you had that dagger.”

  She pulls a dagger from somewhere and twirls it around casually in her other hand. “A woman must never reveal all of her secrets. Now, should I end your pathetic life for being a creep?”

  In response, I Blink just behind her and draw my dagger, aiming right for her exposed side.

  Just as I am about to get a good stab in, she sidesteps me and then grabs my wrist and twists it painfully. I drop my dagger and then she instantly places her own at my neck.

  “Hmm, you are much better at this type of dancing.” I remark.

  I watch as her face immediately turns red, clearly visible under the bright lights of the gym. Taking the opportunity, I twist out of her grip and manage to get around her such that I can get my own blade pressed to her neck.

  “As are you.” She says weakly. “But, I am far better.” In a move that seems to defy convention itself, she bends downwards and somehow kicks off from the ground and ends up behind me. I don't think it was some sort of system skill, guess her data entry wasn't kidding when it talked about her three dimensional movement talents.

  I Blink behind her, only for her to reach back and grab me. She then proceeds to throw me all the way over and slam me into the hard ground. I feel like these floors should be at least a little bit padded, though I guess the academy isn't really concerned with safety that much. Not when their idea of an ‘induction ceremony’ is to kill all the cadets.

  “Are you done yet?” She asks, looking down at me with a scowl. It is one of her cute scowls though.

  “Nope.” Then I try to form a spell – something I've never actually managed to do – and it works. I close my eyes and flow a bit of mana through and a large flash of light fills the room. Violet is blinded and I immediately spring up and sweep her legs out from under her.

  I flip her around and manage to pin her to the ground. Her long hair splays out on the ground and her blue eyes look up at me, seemingly filled with a deep fury. “It seems that you have a few tricks of your own.”

  I smile, “Perhaps I do. So, whaddya say, I teach you some tricks and you teach me some in return?”

  “Absolutely not.” Then she pushes me and I go flying and hit the ground with a thump, landing right on my ass. With a flick of her wrist a dagger flies and lands a millimeter above my head, I think it even shaves off a hair or two. “You are simply too pathetic.” She calls Apple and they both promptly leave the gym.

  Maka, that girl is dangerous. You should be careful. Lemon warns.

  I think I am already far past being careful at this point. I sigh. I simply must get stronger. Maybe one day I will be able to match her.

  However, in order to do that I must train.

  So, that is exactly what I do. For the rest of the day I do nothing but training. I abuse the training dummies quite heavily with my daggers. To the point where I actually have to enter the healing pod in order to repair my daggers. I also do a lot of lifting and running around the room. A full body workout. I make sure to use Blink as often as Lemon can supply me the aether. I even try casting spells occasionally, but my success rate is still almost zero, not something I can rely upon. I am no genius like Moxie.

  I also end up allocating all of the unspent stat points once I see what I can train up. I split them evenly between vitality/strength/endurance/aether capacity/mana capacity/intelligence.

  I also manage to level up Blink to 5, and it seems to get much easier to use. Plus I can now teleport shorter distances for much cheaper aether-wise, which will come in handy I expect.

  After that, Lemon and I are both thoroughly exhausted, and we collapse gratefully into the immense comfort that is my bed.

  Stats

  0 unallocated points

  Vitality: 19/37

  Strength: 20/37

  Endurance: 18/37

  Perception: 15/52

  Dexterity: 30/82

  Agility: 34/82

  Intelligence: 23/42

  Mana Control: 1/13

  Mana Capacity: 6/33

  Aether Control: 1/11

  Aether Capacity: 6/22

  Resources

  Health: 95/95

  Stamina: 90/90

  Aether: 150/150

  Mana: 150/150

  Next Chapter: Orientation

  If you are enjoying the book, I would really appreciate it if you dropped a follow or comment!

  Checkout the official