"Yeah-yeah, get it out of your systems; I, the world-renowned Alureino: wife to the aloof man that is the head of the Saukreign dukedom, greatest rune scriber within the Ultracous Magikrouso, am your homeroom teacher... yada-yada-yada," Alureino announced larfargically, like some sleep-deprived bean, as she hobbled her way to the finely carved birch lectern podium covered in three-petalled, triangle-shaped flowers. "Don't think that being in the 'Top Dog' class means you can let it go to your head, you hear?"

  In the empty classroom, the teacher's voice boomed out like a doomday dragon's deathly howl; unobstructed thanks to its lack of furniture to wildly rebound off of, not a single student missed the woman's proclamation. All of them, with some semblance of self-consciousness, felt shivers of discourtesy claw at their very dignity.

  Although there was one girl, a girl whose mere existence hinged on being THE Top Dog no matter the situation, she took petulant issue with her homeroom teacher's words of wisdom.

  "But, Madam Saukreign, can it really be called 'going to your head' if you can back up what you're boasting about?" Yuuvia asked with a playful amount of noble alliteration to her announcements. The noble girl's words, painstakingly practised and ingrained into her very psyche and soul, slammed right into Alureino's senses, clawing into her very will to live.

  The words themselves didn't do much in the way of damage, to some extent, Alureino could agree that if what someone believes they can do matches what they can do, then they should boast all they want, even if she personally thought doing so was a pain; no, the real damage came from the nausiating amount of cringe of her recalling her teenaged self being overly pompus and flaunting her curio making skills to the point of parody.

  The memory alone urged her very being to crawl up in a hole and die. But doing such an act was the last thing she'd allow herself to do in front of so many youngsters, let alone such a pretentiously pompous brat.

  [Yuuvia Noutlyine is a slightly short, fifteen-year-old elunoatite girl: she has fluffy, hip-low radiant pure white hair with two shoulder-low strips of hair that have dark blonde drill-shaped ends. Pale lavender with glowing irises. Very fair skin. Slightly plump thighs that are heavenly soft to the touch. Chopping board-level of flat chest. And, a subtle grey glass panel-like effect on her body(hand palms, soles of feet, area on the outer sides of eyes, and spine). Her internal organs share the same glass-like effect as the rest of her body]

  [Yuuvia is wearing a fuzzy pale lavender fur headband. A pale lavender wool cardigan with frilly lavender sleeves over a white buttonless shirt. Frilly pale lavender cotton bracelets on her wrists. Dark lavender, form-fitting leggings with a thick glowing pale lavender ring on her left thigh. And, almost knee-high dark blonde snow boots]

  :Attributes:

  [Base]

  [Mana Capacity: SS]

  [Mana Control: X]

  [Mana Tolerance: X]

  [Advanced]

  [Affinity: Amplification]

  [Proficiency: Mana Solidification]

  Sitting atop a vaguely chair-shaped boulder of mana, Yuuvia exuded an air of confidence befitting that of a noble from a long line of a highly ranked ducal house. From every twirl of her hair to the sway of her feet, she was the spitting image of the picture-perfect noble girl who lives to excel. Inkaro lightly rubbed the back of his head, mildly convinced the pert girl's retort was a verbal mistake on her part. "Fairly sure that's the definition...right?"

  Like a glacier worth of ice had been shoved down the back of her shirt, Yuuvia snapped her vaguely animalistic and piercing gaze in Inkaro's direction. Yuuvia almost couldn't believe it, had someone, truly beyond expectations, critiqued her.

  "Who does he think he is? Why does he think I need correcting? Where does he get off on treating me... like a failure?" Yuuvia grumbled mentally, eyes burning with a fury refined from years of noble pressure. As she stared at Inkaro's face, which she found adorably dumb, Yuuvia felt something gnawing at her: a worrisome amount of a thing called 'Wanting to Incite Violence' upon the guy, like when seeing a cute animal.

  The mere fact that she couldn't made her want to explode, not in a metaphorical way but in an objective way. However, upon looking at his face, it did get her thinking. She recalled that little speed battle Inkaro and Lizu had back at the entrance exam. Not that their little back and forth tickled her fancy in the slightest, no, what had clung to her recollection of the events was what Inkaro had written. "How did he get such gorgeous and bewitching handwriting? What could I do to get around looking pathetic or a baby when asking him for calligraphy advice?"

  A low murmur of a hum breached her lips, pondering how she should go about broaching the subject without embarrassing or besmirching herself.

  "You know, if you challenged him to a duel, it might work. Heck, even in the totally impossible chance you lose, Inkaro seems like the guy to still give into your dem- request. Given you're bratty enough," a masculine, taunting voice whispered into Yuuvia's mind, like a tempting, intrusive thought made manifest. The girl's eyes lit up like the stars in the night sky, full of dazzling amazement as she folded to the voice's suggestion. "Really, not even a second thought? Is getting better handwriting that important?"

  The girl didn't even waste her breath appeasing the voice in her head, instead choosing to rise from her seat with splendid elegance. Following the mana chairs' dispersal, Yuuvia turned on her heel with dance-like flair before silently storming her way across the empty classroom, with anyone in her path parting so as not to get involved. "Wanna say that again, buddy boy? Only to my face this time, or is that brain of yours only good for magic making?"

  Yuuvia stuck her glassy tongue out at Inkaro, making a 'bleh' noise, with a musical chime to it, every other second as she pictured how mad Inkaro would be at the disrespect. Although she had her doubts about the plan from the freeloading voice, he wasn't one to meddle so openly in her affairs, but when he did, he usually knew what he was talking about.

  While she pondered on how she should phrase her challenge request and demands, Lizu watched her with a somewhat aloof and almost disapointedly disheartened glint in her eyes. Shaking her head, Lizu's opinion went fully unnoticed by her fellow noble, lucky for Yuuvia, since finding herself passed out on the floor would've surely followed.

  However, despite the dragolyte's thoughts on the girl's actions, Lizu almost felt sorry for the noble girl she had wanted to punch in the face seconds prior, because no matter how resilient Yuuvia's mental defences were, what Inkaro was about to say would hurt her brain far more than Lizu's punch would ever do to her body.

  At hearing the demand that barely qualified as a question, Inkaro tilted his head to one side, finding Yuuvia's attitude oddly familiar. It was the sort of familiarity someone would have when they get the faintest whiff of tangible memories, triggering every ounce of nostalgia in their body as they were violently ripped back to their childhood.

  "Oh, how right you are, you'd be surprised how accurate people back home seem to believe that is. Rather odd, don't you think?" Inkaro asked cheerfully, sporting a beaming grin that blinded the noble girl.

  One blink, two blinks, three blinks, followed by a half-open mouth.

  Yuuvia was truly left speechless, not even her brain could hope to process what she had just heard in a timely manner. She simply couldn't make sense of his response; the self-admittance of her bratty taunt at him, the smile devoid of impurities, and the lack of any irritation, let alone acknowledgement, at her provocation all melded together into a truly baffling shield against her attack.

  While Yuuvia was trying to make sense of things, another girl was fighting her own battle.

  Lizu mentally pouted, wishing nothing more than the measly chance to pinch Inkaro's adorable cheeks to force some sense into him, even if she readily accepted her reasoning was nothing beyond a silly excuse to make physical contact with Inkaro.

  What could have possibly been the reason behind such a desire? It was rather simple.

  Because of her blunder from getting jealous of Enetha keeping Inkaro from sleeping and the following bath basking, Lizu hadn't indulged in her morning ritual of talking nonsense with Inkaro. So now, the dragolyte could feel it building within her, a slowly simmering urge boiling at her core, ushering the girl to be overprotective and downright obsessed with keeping everyone away from Inkaro.

  Luckily for that Yuuvia girl, her puzzled expression was cute enough for Lizuranti to forgive her 'transgression' of showing hostility towards Inkaro. Not that I can say Lizuranti isn't a hypocrite for her current tune, I mean, Yuuvia's attitude wasn't far off from how Lizuranti acted to Inkaro, and with less provocation, mind you.

  Or maybe she's mad because she recalls that and so feels an immense amount of cringe at seeing Yuuvia acting like her younger self.

  "Inkaro, stop weaponising your taking-things-at-surface-level skill against Yuuvia," Lizu retorted snarkily, as she placed a raised finger to the guy's chin and pushed his head away from Yuuvia before assertively slamming her tail against the floor, silently enforcing public safety, in her mind. With the threat of the Inkaroness from spreading, she subtly snaked her tail across the floor, shooting it right in front of the fellow noble girl's feet. With about as much subtlety as the jealous and overprotective girlfriend that she was, Lizu continued to inch more and more of her chonky tail between the two, forcing Yuuvia to recede from the duo every time she felt the vibration of the tail against her boots.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Lizu's sudden actions were both vexing and a little annoying to Yuuvia. The mere act of Lizu defending Inkaro was baffling; it's not like she needed to: both in a personal sense and a literal sense. The noble, obsessed with her social appearance, just had to wonder, what was Lizu's angle?

  "As for you, do try to maintain some distance between people you're unacquainted with."

  Just from hearing Lizu speak and the use of unacquainted, it clicked in Yuuvia's head, and she giddily adorned her face with a sinisterly cute smile. It made sense now: The friendly competition, the vaguely similar handwriting, the arriving at the same time, and her defending him now.

  It was obvious as to the nature of their relationship, and how she hadn't used that fact to shoo her away was also telling; so, she intended to use both to her advantage.

  "Eh? How can you say that with a straight face? You're way closer to him than me, it's not like he's your fiancé," Yuuvia said with mock sass, her face a perfect blend of offended confusion and twisted delight at being so openly ridiculed, even if it's from the wrong target. She would much rather take the roundabout path if the straightforward path involved Inkaro's Inkaroness.

  Lizu remained stone-faced, unfazed by the counterattack: her tail, on the other hand, moments away from putting several dents in the floor.

  Even with her expression unchanging, Lizu's thoughts could be felt with each passing second as her mana was faintly leaking from her body. It was so obvious that her not-so-hidden annoyance couldn't be more clearer. And yet, Yuuvia couldn't take a hint or a hike. But as she considered how the girl could be so obnoxiously oblivious, another option came to mind, but the dragolyte mentally shook off the notion. She'd rather not think of the possibility, she said the word fiance deliberately, and not as a teasing remark.

  Lizu knew she had to think fast; otherwise, her relationship with Inkaro would get exposed early, and he'd be dragged into dumb noble political stuff.

  Thinking away, it struck her, thanks to looking at Inkaro for five seconds. She just had to say something so stupid it would fry Yuuvia's brain, like how Inkaro almost had a second ago.

  "Yeah? Well, I'm allowed to, it's that simple," Lizu stated boldly, verbally putting her tail down on the situation while hoping it'll work.

  It did.

  Priceless, that was just how adorable Yuuvia's baffled face was as she made a low chink noise with her mouth, and the look in her eyes made something abundantly clear: she wasn't following Lizu's line of logic in the slightest. Lizu wasn't surprised by such a reaction; she had foreseen it, but it wasn't enough to ensure her desired outcome, so she doubled down. "Look, I'm saying this for your own good, you might catch his 'Inkaroness'."

  Yuuvia would've recoiled from the absurdity that Lizu just spewed had she been able to glean the slightest clue behind those words. It left her mind whirling harder than if she were trapped in a whirlpool.

  "She's allowed too? For my own good? Inkaroness? ...Somehow the last one sounds like something she didn't make up on the spot."

  Every bit of what Lizu had said made absolutely no sense, utter nonsense. And, because of her inability to decipher Lizu's meaning, Yuuvia felt unbecomingly stupid: a dummy dumb-dumb, if you will.

  She would not be having any of that, not with her noble appearance and academic sensibility on the line. So, not wishing for such an occurrence to occur, Yuuvia raised a hand to her chin with feigned snarkiness before clearing her throat with a wind chime-like jingle.

  "What kind of nonsense are you spouting! Don't think that because you belong to the family of the current Grand Duke insinuates you can commence in the practice of fabricating an illness. That is the equivalent of me concocting the idea and diagnosing you with balloon bosom, which even I have to admit is far-fetched... right?"

  Lizu turned red, even as her expression remained unchanged.

  "Obviously they're real, just like how your thighs are!"

  Inkaro scratched his head. Now he was baffled.

  "Look, trying to put on appearances is hard when you go saying illog-heh?"

  Yuuvia seized up as she felt the cool surface of something poke against her leg. Given the thing's scaly texture, her mind instantly went to a snake being the culprit. But that made no sense to her; she hadn't brought any of her snakes to the academy, since she didn't want that kind of fanfare.

  But if it wasn't a snake, then what was the source of the sensation she felt? Phantom sense was one of her considerations, outlandish it might have been. As she continued thinking, she mulled over every option, few and far between that they were. But, no matter how hard she tried, nothing came to mind.

  Although for all her overthinking, the answer was staring her right in the face, it was Lizu, well, her tail. So, naturally, all it took was for Yuuvia to peer down. She felt the pace of her heart beat triple on the spot, hammering hard enough for the inner workings of her ears to feel the vibrations.

  Seeing no inclination of discomfort, Lizu decided to press on with her examination. With the tip of her tail sinking a little into Yuuvia's pliable skin, as if it were mere gelatin without any structure to resist outside influence. The girl's thighs really lived up to the fables she'd overheard all those jealous girls blabbering about. It seems the two of them shared that in common, at the very least. "They're surprisingly soft."

  Yuuvia had no formal response. Who would, if put in her shoes?

  Sure, Yuuvia had always had the deep desire to know what Lizu's scales felt like ever since she'd seen the dragolyte's tail during a noble banquet back as a kid. But she never would have been so brazen as to ask, even when the girl's status was lower than hers. It felt... oddly intimate to ask of those whom she could converse with. In her mind, some boundaries were never meant to be crossed, or so she thought as Lizu made her audacious stand on proving the idea wrong.

  "..."

  "..."

  The silence was deafening.

  Lizu pushed the tip of her tail a little further into the side of the other girl's thigh: truly, she was speechless, aside from a singular question. "Do you love honey too?"

  Yuuvia frowned, narrowing her eyes into only a half-annoyed frown, lowering the severity of her annoyance at Lizu's insinuation because the texture of Lizu's tails felt nice against her skin. However, the unintended insult would not go unaddressed, so long as it threatened to hurt her noble visage.

  "Are you calling me fat? That would be classed as a self-burn, Lizuranti."

  The two silently cast intense gazes between one another, the resulting ramifications of such a staredown unleashing a thick layer of tension through the barely furnished classroom: one girl bore frustration in her eyes while the other curiosity.

  "What is with other girls caring that they're fat?" Enetha murmured sleepily, her eye practically shut as she slowly poked her head out from her cocoon. She let out a low buzz-like grumbling noise as she unfettered her cloth-like appendages from around her body before fully scaling Inkaro's back to sit on his shoulders.

  As hushed whispers emerged of the fellow Star Course students' shock that Enetha had been the thing on Inkaro's back, the two noble girls huddled up for an emergency discussion.

  Lizu and Yuuvia nodded in sync, a silent truce of camaraderie forming for the moment, before they turned to Inkaro, united in their new shared goal: to try and convince Inkaro not to feed Enetha any more treats for the day, not having the resolve to demand a longer sentence in fear it would be applied to them. Enetha harshly vetoed the idea, citing that she was the last person in the room who needed such a ban placed on them. That reasoning, true as it was, annoyed the two girls to no end.

  "Um... Madam Saukreign, if I may ask, where are the desks?" the Nova, the red-haired princess, asked causiously as she repeatedly looked over her shoulder to check Lizu and Yuuvia's encounter hadn't devolved into them ganging up on Inkaro just to get to Enetha. Alureino, already done with all the bickering coming from the three girls, deeply groaned with such a murderous aura to it that it managed to make Nova flinch and shudder, along with making her hair return to a darker shade. "She isn't an Ultracous Magikrouso member for nothing."

  [Princess Novarala Knuno is a very tall, seventeen-year-old anokrubine girl; she has neck-low jet-black hair that's styled to look like bundled flowers. Light bronze-coloured eyes. Dark tanned skin. Shredded muscles. Slightly wide hips. A modest chest. Thin cyothine(a pale brown metal with a faint rouge-ish sheen) plating on her body[A thin ring around her wrists with two more a little further up her forearm. A large, thick armband-like ring around her left tricep. And, thick rings around the very top of her legs where they connect to her hips]. Cyothine finger nails. And, two thin five-inch-long cyothine horns protruding from each side of her head]

  [Nova is wearing a super fluffy black feather scarf that reaches down to her elbows. A form-fitting and sleeveless plain shirt with a large light bronze copy of the Krutaka Empire's insignia on the back: a circular spider head with diamond eyes and a sun-like circle around it]

  :Attributes:

  [Base]

  [Mana Capacity: X]

  [Mana Control: B]

  [Mana Tolerance: A]

  [Advanced]

  [Affinity: Fire]

  [Proficiency: Enchantment]

  After giving herself a second to breathe, plus a little flick to her red beryl wedding ring to make it spin on her horn, Alureino let out a small sigh as she addressed one of her more sane students, grateful at least some of them were indeed sane. "Your school emblems function both as school identification and a storage curio, which contains a desk/chair combo along with other school supplies."

  "I... appriciate that explanation, Madam Saukreign," Nova spoke with as much stilted politeness as she could muster while bowing her head, full of gratitude.

  Alureino nodded with equal gratitude for the princess's sensibilities before turning her attention to the scenario she'd rather ignore. Her demeanour quickly souring as she watched Lizu and Yuuvia grappling onto Inkaro while Enetha used her cloth appendages to prop herself on Inkaro's head, keeping herself out of the other girl's grasp."Now, can you three stop trying to turn him into a jungle gym? Otherwise, I'll have to rethink my teaching plans for you."

  Lizu, Yuuvia, and even Enetha froze on the spot, leaving Inkaro in a bizarre one-legged stance before toppling over with a triage of pained feminine grunts as he somehow landed on all three girls. Karma was the single thought the three girls shared in that moment.

  Given the woman's reputation and less-than-stellar mood, no one, not even the usually emotionally blind Inkaro, dared risk finding out what those rethought plans potentially entailed. So, wanting to ensure they didn't end up on one of those classroom fail videos, the students wasted no time dispatching their desks and chairs from their silver emblems before just as quickly sitting at their desks, their postures a little stiff from fear. "Any other obstructions? No? Good, then let's get attendance dealt with before I forget or someone tries to challenge any of you to a duel."