Before the grand entranceway of Solicrave Academy, a magnificent marvel of architecture, created by the unification of medieval and ancient Roman styles to form a most peculiar city-sized fortress that had been refurbished into an academy, stood an impassable obstacle. Arms crossed in an all-too-practised way of a girl who'd long since embraced her tsundereness, Lizu guarded the large archway into the academy's extremely spacious atrium, detailed with all manner of intricately carved dark bronze marble pillars and dark oak fixtures from Victorian-style walkways and floors.

  The sheer intensity of the pressure she exuded sent tremors of terror and doubt through all in her presence, likening it to the eternally blazing guardian to the gates of the phantasm realm. In their minds, at the very least, it was an impassible obstruction. One so seemingly immovable, only an unforeseeable outside force could hope to clear the way for the desperate students-to-be.

  [Lizuranti Feubread is a very short sixteen-year-old dragolyte; she has knee-low deep pink gradient hair that gets paler after halfway down, her hair is styled into two large ring-shaped pigtails, dark purple eyes, fair skin, two large dark pink dragon-like wings, breasts as large as her head, two thick dark pink gradient plated horns on her forehead, slightly large thighs, and a long chonky deep pink dragon tail with dark pink plating on the upper half]

  [Lizu is wearing a charcoal grey fur cloak with a super fluffy dark teal collar(the cloak part can retract into the collar and turn the whole thing into a scalf), a light blue sleeveless shirt, dark blue trousers that get slightly baggy near her ankles, her trousers are covered in a scale pattern made of slightly darker lines on the left leg and slightly lighter lines on the right leg, and pale violet fur boots with dark purple fluffy fur cuffs]

  Of the more timid soon-to-be students, none of them dared to test their luck by going anywhere near Lizu, while those who feared the consequences of being late for the entrance exam booked it past her. Hacking for air from how aggressively they forced their bodies to move past their physical limits, the students disappeared into the academy.

  Up above, overlooking the scene with a perfect view to see everything.

  "That's her, isn't it, the noble girl whose academic achievements and prowess rival those of the Authorian prince and Euthphine princess?" a blonde female first-year asked excitedly as she leaned out of a second-storey window with a hand on each of its frame to keep herself from falling all the way through.

  Forced to bask in his classmate's overbearing excitement, the dark-red-haired male first-year rubbed at his ears as he uttered, "Why are you spouting common knowledge like I don't know who she is?"

  "Practising my skills for keeping viewer retention, not everyone will be captivated by my beauty, unlike a certain multi-wielder, right, Xythio?"

  Xythio scoffed at every conceivable part of the girl's teasing noises that barely qualified as a question in his eyes. And deeming any further forms of conversing a threat to his mental stability and sanity, Xythio spun on his heel to free his sight of his friend.

  After crossing his arms, making the girl chuckle and call him an edgelord, he immediately uncrossed his arms. "Hmph. I'm going back to the examination hall."

  "Ooh, guess I'll come with then, maybe we'll get to see whoever's got that girl acting like a hawk."

  Ignoring the grumbles of the guy's disapproval, the girl gleefully skipped after him. "Can't you go five minutes without exposing yourself as a reincarnator, Myendi?"

  The only retort the blonde cared to humour the question with a snark-filled giggle, going completely against the guy's hopes of getting a serious answer, but reluctantly embracing the impending nonsense of an answer.

  "But if I were more careful, then we wouldn't be friends~"

  "Friends... is a bit of a stretch."

  Only occurring right at the end of the duo conversation, somehow finding issue with the latter part rather than the former part. Raising "Given it's you we're talking about, the relationship between us would be considered soulmates."

  "Stop talking now."

  Back on the ground, Lizu hadn't moved a single bit, like she'd frozen herself in time. Enough time had passed for even the timidest of the prior crowd to finally muster the courage to finally brave the task of passing Lizu, letting out all the air in their lungs in a single breath the second they cleared her by a mile.

  Seeing how she didn't pull as much as a feint on anyone, the many-to-be students came to the bizarre conclusion that Lizu must have been intimidating them, like a strong monster would, to check if they had what it took to push past their nerves and not end up throwing their lives away. All that once was fear transformed, turned into nothing short of silent adoration, finding her selfless sacrifice of risking her social status to ensure their further safety worthy of endless praise.

  Lizu mentally scoffed.

  From a small distance away, standing as the only remaining person in the academy's entrance area other than Lizu, one guy remained. The aforementioned Prince Myendi had mentioned causely hovered close to Lizu, treating her like. Made clear by the way he moved, his interpretation was clearly moulded by first-hand exposure as opposed to simply hearing the notorious rumours associated with Lizu.

  [Prince Myhail Authorian is a very tall sixteen-year-old male human; he has slick black ultra saturated dark brown hair that's styled to look like waves at the back, and piercing blond eyes]

  [Myhail is wearing a huge, regally fashioned and detailed, thick white coat made of an ultra-malleable metal that acts like cloth, a dark grey button-up shirt, blue jeans with fluffy fur leg cuffs, and black fur boots]

  "Lizu... would it be too much to ask for you to accompany everyone else, I know there's an officially arranged time for this, but the entrace exam's aren't going to start if a child from one of the highest ranked noble families isn't present... not that I have much of a foot to stand on by being here myself and making me a hypocrite. However, if we dally any longer...."

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Lizu's face remained unchanged, like the prince's entire spiel had gone right into one ear and out the other, as she mouthed off something silently herself that a lip reader could interpret as 'honey'.

  She'd prefer to keep her focus entirely on the lookout for Inkaro.

  Even if the guy beside her was the prince of the kingdom she lived in, he didn't rank anywhere close to the top three things on her mind, in the moment. But even in her current honey-deficient mental state, Lizu didn't feel the urge to leave anyone on read, especially in person. So, after a sharp shake of her head, one so violent it made the guy jump, Lizu turned to face the prince, her dazzling eyes filled to the brim with conviction. Having got the word honey out from the front of her mind for a brief moment to respond, Lizu used her lax body language to convey she'd only acknowledge him, a singular time. So, the prince put on a professional flair. Inkaro walked by.

  "If I don't stand in an obvious location, my fia- food delivery will no doubt miss me; so, I'm staying right here!" Lizu stated boldly, her stern tone breaking for the smallest split of a second, before resuming her previous stance, "And, stop calling me that, we aren't kids anymore, Myhail."

  His shoulders slumped, having expected such a food-related reasoning; however, the cute break in her usual demeanour did surprise him, but given the current time constraints, he didn't really look too hard into how 'fia' could never spell 'food' in any language.

  "Dang... the prince got shot down again..." the gossiper girl that was Myendi whispered to her friend, only to be bonked on the back of the head by said friend.

  "What did I just say?" Xythio uttered exhaustedly as the pair of them walked down a set of stairs. Despite receiving such a devastatingly soul-damaging blow, Myendi remained steadfast on watching the scene play out, hoping to see something straight out of a romance novel even as she was being dragged by the collar with enough force to turn her faintly blue... bluer.

  Seeing this, Xythio found himself yet again forced to speak. "Unlike those two, you should be more like that guy with that monsterously unkempt hair; at least he seemed inclined to get to the exam on time despite being the last to arrive."

  It was so outlandish Lizu almost didn't believe it until it hit her. The sweet nectar that was the second thing to soothe her soul: sweet honey. At its call, she snapped her head around in such a rapid motion she would have done a perfect hundred and eighty turn if her body hadn't followed the lead of her head. Her eyes bounced around like those of a frenetic animal, scanning every conceivable spot behind her as her eyes shone brightly from the mana in her body spiralling through them.

  Then she spotted the twinkling end of Inkaro's chain slinking behind a corner, practically teasing her to chase Inkaro.

  "He got past me!"

  Her outburst of shock didn't go unnoticed by the prince, especially when the strong gale of wind hit him as she rapidly departed. Had he been standing a foot closer, Myhail was convinced the force generated from Lizu's powerful burst of speed would have knocked him cleanly out of the academy's premises. However, the prince wasn't about to question this lucky occurrence; so, he simply thanked whoever the passerby was for getting Lizu to move as he slowly shuffled to the same destination as the duo.

  Rushing down the large hallways, Lizu managed to catch up to Inkaro without breaking a sweat. "Why'd you wait until my guard was down? That's sneaky."

  Her tone carried an evident frustration, but what little was there was easily drowned out by the surge of delight pushing past all other feelings, despite her face not showing it. With a playful snap of his fingers, Inkaro decided to humour Lizu's mood by giving a cheeky retort instead of a factual one. "Can't have you getting a sugar crash right before an exam."

  Lizu didn't even bother to argue with it; instead, she properly thought it over, added with how she hadn't had anything sweet in over three days, a sugar crash was bound to happen if she even as much as saw the jar containing the honey. It was too risky. Even the sugar rush before the crash ran the risk of Lizu making an utter fool of herself by either going klutz mode or... the other mode.

  "Fine...," Lizu grumbled in a pout before swiftly snagging one of Inkaro's hands and forcing the guy to a stop. "It's this one."

  Turning his gaze, Inkaro looked into the large auditorium of a practice/training hall that had been repurposed for the entrance exam: half the room filled with workstation set-ups, while the other half was populated with evenly spaced out devices that were hard to make out from all the people in the way.

  "How mentally stimulating."

  That comment got Lizu to scoff as she lightly tugged Inkaro towards her and fully stole his attention. The act was so pitifully cute, Inkaro had no hopes of ignoring her now, not that he would in the first place.

  "Try not to cause a scene," Lizu murmured sulkily, allowing herself to squeeze Inkaro's hand a handful of times to appease and satisfy her Inkaro exposure requirement. She found it otherwise ethereal; if the chatter from the examination area didn't constantly peel at her focus, she'd gladly just stand in place for hours as she soaked the sensation in.

  The mix of feeling her subtle hand squeezing and her gall to caution him on being a scene setter, forced a faint smirk out of Inkaro. If he had to rank it, he would place Lizu's current antics a four out of five on cuteness. He found it so obnoxiously endearing and couldn't help pointing something out in the most teasing way possible. "You mean like how you holding a commoner's hand would, if any of them saw?"

  She had no retort prepared for such a remark, not that she'd want to, given her voice would undoubtedly crack with how red her cheeks turned. Her mind swiftly turned into a whirlwind of a mess as she struggled to reclaim her ability to think, worsened by the prolonged physical contact with Inkaro, but she managed to stutter out a single word. "Fair."

  Watching the bashful look creeping over the hand squeezer's soft features, Inkaro heard a voice in the back of his head. Usually reserved for whenever he found anything new pertaining to grimoires, the voice unquestionably ordered him to squeeze Lizu in her pout-practised cheeks.

  But Inkaro knew he didn't have the luxury of fawning over Lizu's cuteness, so he resigned himself to doing it later. But, as he thought on it, it was statistically impressive how Lizu's attitude and demeanour towards him hadn't changed all that much since the first day they met: bashfully and aggressively forward about her true feelings while tacking on an insult to try and be aloof.

  Inkaro didn't mind.

  In his honest opinion, it's one of the things he liked about her, allowing him to fully drop his guard around her and not fear getting betrayed(brought on from all the novels/mangas his teacher showed him, where the MC's first friend of the opposite gender would always betray them). He eventually got over such paranoia when he turned twelve. However, that continuous form of outward expression made the things on the inside that much harder to detect for Inkaro. Inkaro being Inkaro, he would never have noticed anything if the other kids hadn't pointed it out at the time.

  If he had one complaint for her.

  He wished the point at which Lizu's shared interest in grimoires turned into infatuation for him was clearer, but that's something he'd never get out of Lizu anytime soon.

  In truth, Lizu had no clue herself. Unimportant or something is what she'd say if asked. However, I think it was around the nine-month range after their first meeting or the second after Inkaro's spontaneous gift confession, no inbetween.

  But that's just my ghostly guess.