Chapter 8: Chapter Eight—Lessons

What was Chloe doing? I had been sitting here watching this girl fumble around cleaning for over an hour. She had long passed the point of having anything to do. I didn't mind her coming in daily, but at the same time, her overstaying was awkward because I didn’t comprehend socialising. 

After realising she wasn't leaving, I got up from my couch, picked my key card up from my desk and stuffed it in my pocket. I turned to Chloe, and we stared at each other awkwardly. "Thanks…" I said as she nodded at me intently in her black and white maid attire, which I was doing a fantastic job of keeping my eyes from her cleavage following our first interaction. It required iron focus, but these urges would not defeat me.

Chloe nervously swallowed, putting her little hand dusting thing behind her. “The room’s good, right?”

“Satisfactory.”

She blinked at me a couple of times with those golden eyes. “You sound unhappy.”

I closed my sketchpad. Chloe didn’t need to see my drawings of her. If she did, I think I might just throw myself out the window. “I am satisfied with the cleaning, but I must go to class. Let the door lock behind you,” I said hastily, making my way out of the room and down towards the elevator. A few teachers from my classes nodded at me as I travelled through the hall, and I returned the gesture probably awkwardly; socialising was still an area that needed improvement.

Finally, I came to the call button, pressing it as Edwin stepped up next to me. “We need to have a chat about someone,” he said in such a stern tone I knew I was about to get yelled at again.

My head turned to Edwin with theatrical confusion. “Who would that be?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Edwin hissed.

“Did you hear that someone attacked me on the roof? It was so scary.”

Edwin stared at me as the copper doors opened. “You attacked him.”

I stepped through the door, rotating around. “He attacked The Divinity first.”

“He pushed The Divinity… your response didn’t match the minuity of the situation.”

I tapped the seventy-two on the operating panel, causing it to illuminate. 

The elevator was about to close, and Edwin stuck out his arm, interrupting it shut. Edwin stepped in, standing next to me with his hands behind his back. “I’ll chat with The Divinity on the subject. Please refrain from attacking royalty. You already have a lot of attention because of your unknown element. As an enchanter, you wield a power many don’t deserve or can control. Remember that.”

The elevator stopped, letting a group of people in. We stayed quiet before coming to my floor, and I glanced over at Edwin. “I will not be bullied here. Royalty or not,” I said, stepping out and continuing down the busy hallway with students. The staring was less now but still present. For the first month, it felt like I was a rare creature wandering past them.

As I crossed the threshold to my classroom, a man bumped into my shoulder, making me drop my book to the marble floor. I leaned down to pick it up, but he kicked it, and I sighed, glancing up. “Can you not?”

Phoenix stared down at me with his annoying copper eyes. “Watch where you’re going, monkey.”

“You see that forest? There’s a tree working very hard to create oxygen so that you can breathe. I think you owe it an apology.” I said, picking my book up, as I pointed out the glass wall towards the forest-covered mountain far outside the city boundary. 

Phoenix narrowed his eyes. “What?” he asked as I saw the wheels turning.

“You’re taking up oxygen, so—you know what, I don’t have the time to explain this to you.”

Jolene stepped up next to us in a black skirted suit. “Is there a problem?”

Phoenix glared at me before sliding his stare to Jolene. “No,” he replied, walking away irritated.

“My hero,” I said with a grin.

Jolene sighed. “The people who tolerate him on an everyday basis are the actual heroes,” she said, staring at me for a creepy amount of time without blinking once. “Are you coming later for training?”

“Yeah. You don’t mind?

Jolene shook her head. “No. I think it is good that you participated more than is required,” she said, walking off.

Jolene was so odd.

Continuing my previous path, I entered the classroom archways to Danelle, ecstatically waving at me in the lower part of the amphitheatre. There wasn’t much seating with easy over a hundred students in here. I contemplated not sitting next to her but lost that battle with my conscience and went over, taking a seat at the curved table.

Danelle gave me a wide grin, her elbows on the table, and her chin resting on her palms. “Hey, friend.”

“Hello”—I flipped my astronomy textbook open to the page written on the massive, curved chalkboard—"is May and Covic not in this class?"

Danelle shook her head. “Nope. They chose a different elective.”

“Ah, so this was a choice,” I sighed, staring forward. Edwin probably chose a different class to punish me for the rooftop incident. Edwin was going to be the passive-aggressive type. It fits his personality well, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

“Did you not pick it?” Danelle asked, scooting closer to me, flipping her side braid to the other shoulder.

I glanced over at her advance, wanting to move away. “No, Edwin picks all of them for me,” I answered, and she just nodded at me. 

Danelle was good-looking, but her hyper… everything gave me anxiety.

“Do you like to read?” she asked. 

“I haven’t read anything but textbooks in a while.”

Danelle nudged closer to me. “I’ve got some good… novels.”

“Is that a name for a drug?” I said, and she stared at me, utterly confused. “It was a joke.”

“Oh—so would you like to come to my dorm after this? I’ll give you a few novels before you leave?”

I paused for a while, unsure if she was asking me to grab books or visit. “Are you asking me to hang out with you?”

“I mean, if that’s what you want?” Danelle asked as her hand slid up my leg under the table.

Her touch caused my knee to slam into the bottom of the table. A few students glanced over at us, whispering.

My mouth opened and closed a few times, attempting to form words. I wanted to say hell no, but she was May’s friend, and I wanted May to be happy. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound bad.”

Danelle’s face glowed with excitement as she looked forward, doing her little scoots towards me as our shoulders touched, and I cringed. After that, I folded my arms, staring at the chalkboard. Was it normal for people to be this touchy?

Doctor Rangrez drew a circle on the board. “This is our sun, simply drawn, but you get the point. Does anyone know the radius?” He asked, surveying around. “Nobody? Cyrus, what is the radius?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging, and Rangrez stared at me blankly. “174,085 kilometres,” I sighed.

“Correct”—his chalk tapped against the board, jotting the numbers down—"What’s the temperature?"

“3100 Kelvin, roughly.”

“Eurus rotation around the sun in how many days?”

“Eight and a half days.”

Rangrez nodded at me as he went back to the board. He continued with lectures about the other planets in our system, and I zoned out until I felt an intense gaze burning into the side of my head, and I glanced over at Danelle.

“You’re really smart,” she smirked.

“Anyone can remember those numbers?”

“Yeah, but you knew it even before the first day,” Danelle said, tilting her head at me. “You’re pretty cool.”

“Thanks,” I replied, trying not to show the cringe I felt from her saying I was cool. 

I returned to the lecture for the next couple of hours, and I watched Danelle completely ignore what was being discussed and draw cats on her notepad. Danelle caught me staring and lifted the paper with a wide grin—she had an attractive smile.

“Like my cats?” Danelle asked and nodded.

“Are cats normal here?”

Danelle put her finger to her chin. “Yeah, but less so in the city. My family’s farm had a couple. Did you have one?”

“Yeah, he had a completely black coat.”

Danelle’s hand anchored itself to my forearm. “What was his name?”

“I called him ‘Wesa’, which just means cat.”

Danelle gave a suppressed laugh. “So, your cat’s name was cat?”

“Yes—”

“That is it for today,” Doctor Rangrez dismissed the class, clearing the chalkboard as people left the lecture theatre.

Seeing the professor closing for the day, Danelle pulled me to my feet, urging me to move faster as we made our way through the hall. Of course, I had little say in this as she practically dragged me down the corridor with people curiously staring.

We arrived at an elevator, waiting for it to open, and the blonde girl next to us rolled her eyes at Danelle, but said nothing. 

“Can I help you?” I asked, not caring for the glare she gave Danelle.

“Uhh, no?” she answered as if I had asked her the most annoying question on the planet.

Danelle sighed. “She is upset that her boyfriend tried fucking me.”

“You fucked him. There was no trying.” The girl turned to Danelle with her fists and jaw clenched.

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“Two inches really doesn’t fuck anything,” Danelle shrugged.

I was worried this would get physical, but the blonde girl didn’t seem to have the courage. “Whore!” she stormed off, probably to find a different elevator.

The copper doors opened, and we stepped in with a few people. “He told me they broke up,” Danelle clarified, looking up at me.

“I wasn’t judging,” I responded, and Danelle nodded with a smile, glancing at me every so often.

After taking the elevator to one of the lower floors, we arrived at her dorm, and she ran her school ID over the door pad, stepping into a relatively small room with a single-person bed and a desk against the wall. Danelle's bookshelf was filled with so many novels that she had started a tower on top of it. She picked up some pieces of clothing that I couldn’t figure out the purpose of.

“What is that for?”

Danelle smirked, holding up a bright pink article of clothing. “You don’t know what… It’s a bra.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

She cups her breast, “it holds my tits.”

“Oh.”

“And this is a thong. It’s underwear,” Danelle explained, holding up what I felt was nowhere near enough fabric to call it a garment. My facial expression must have been amusing because her smile grew. “Oh, you’re so pure. I can’t wait to show you my—books,” Danelle wolfishly grinned.

I didn’t like the sinister expression it conveyed. 

She tossed her things under the bed before walking over to her bookshelf, browsing through her selection. Then, after some contemplation, she pulled a book out and bounced over to the bed. Danelle jumped on the mattress, patting it, and I reluctantly went over, sitting next to her on the dark blue sheets. “This is a good one to start with. It’s not too graphic, but you can definitely imagine things well,” Danelle explained, handing the open book to me.

My eyes ran over a few paragraphs Before I slammed it shut, and Danelle bursts out laughing. “This is… I don’t know the word.”

“Erotica,” Danelle smiled, and her hand met my thigh, squeezing. “Do you want to fool around?”

“Pardon?” I asked as she clearly glanced down at my crotch and subtly licked her lips before bringing her dark brown eyes to mine.

“Would you? Hmmm… how do I say it nicely… Do you want me to suck your cock?”

These words take some time to process, but I launched myself up from the bed when the connection was made. “I think I should leave.”

Danelle jumped up and stepped in front of me before I got to the door. “It was a joke. Please don’t tell May about this… joke, Okay?”

She looked genuinely scared of May finding out. “I won’t say anything,” I assured her. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about this, let alone May.

We stared at each other for a moment. “Let me give you some books,” she said, returning to her shelf and grabbing four hardcovers before handing them to me. “These are good ones.”

“Thanks.” I glanced down, taking them from her.

Danelle sighed. “I won’t make any more jokes if you stay? I could use some help with studying, please,” she said, putting her hand together like she was praying.

I glanced over at her clock on the wall. “I could probably stay for an hour or two,” I said, and she nodded at me happily.

“Okay!”

Danelle and I sat on her bed, going over her schoolwork. She was smart, just easily distracted by everything. The moment she paid attention to me; the concept was trivial. This wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. I could tolerate Danelle as long as she wasn’t asking to do strange things with me.

After getting a massive hug from Danelle, I left the room to Covic, approaching. He stopped, tilting his head at me. “Enjoying my sister's company?” he asked, and I imagine this might’ve looked suspicious. 

“She needed help studying, and wanted to give me these sinful books,” I said, holding up the small stack in my hands.

“Don’t let Danelle get you in trouble with May,” Covic said with a sigh. “I love my sister, but she—”

“Can’t keep it in her pants? I think that’s how you use it, right?” 

Covic tittered. “Yeah, that's how you use it—you think you could help me later with studying too? Somehow, even with her attention span, I think my sister got the brains. I’m afraid I might be the dumb one.”

I gave Covic a nod. “Yeah, I am busy today, but we could make plans.” 

“Thanks,” Covic said, patting me on the shoulder as he made his way into Danelle's room.     

I returned to my room to change into something more flexible for training. I read the first few chapters of one book, getting slightly interested. Sexual things were so far out of my knowledge, and these books were doing a decent job catching me up, even if they sometimes felt cringy. Sure, I knew how reproduction works, but I was naïve about the foreplay and romance aspect of it. When I decided to do what May wanted, I didn’t want it to be a complete disaster on my end. It was still likely to be embarrassing no matter what, but if I didn’t build my confidence up, it would never happen.

After tossing some shorts on and a tank top, I made my way to the training hall. I stopped at the gymnasium's stone arches, gazing at the statue of Gelida Winsung that stood out front. Her long hair flowed back as she stared forward intensely, with her thin-bladed sword protuding from the ground, her palms resting on the pommel. If the artist had accurately depicted her face, she would have been as intimidating as the books described. She wore a fitting chest piece that accentuated her breasts. I read this was because she wanted men to know a woman was massacring them on the battlefield, as she often wore a protective helmet concealing her gender. Unfortunately, she died fighting The Liche King. I would have wanted to meet this woman in person. 

I passed some of the martial arts instructors. Jolene was in the corner, stretching and bending over in ways far from necessary on a large square mat. She was unnaturally flexible. Just watching her was giving me back pain.

Jolene glanced up at me as I arrived in front of her, bending her spine backwards like an arch.   “Hello,” she greeted as her short blonde hair touched the ground. She always wore such fitted fabrics for sparring. I had thought denim was awe-inspiring at one time, but the flexible materials used for functional clothing were amazing.

“You know, I could just sit in with the preceptors.”

“Or you can get taught by the second-best fighter in the world.”

“Who’s first?”—Sitting down on the blue mat, grabbing my toes and stretching—"Immortal?"

“He’s ranked number one Hero, but that doesn’t make him the best fighter,” Jolene said, slowly standing up straight and sliding her legs into a split, putting her elbows on the mat and her chin on her palms. “Honestly, I would put money on my mother beating him in a fight with no anima.”

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

Jolene moved her chin to the floor, showing off. “Not really. You should get more flexible.”

“Why isn’t your mother a Hero then?”

“Because she leads the sunbourne armies along with most of my siblings, and they despise humans.”

My head tilted. “But you’re half-human, right?”

Jolene sighed. “So short story, my mother fucked a prostitute in the Archon Domain and then banged a few of her soldiers on the same trip and got pregnant. She didn’t know whose it was, so she came to terms with being disappointed—that woman is so obsessed with her bloodline”

She just dropped that information in my lap like it was a casual conversation piece. “Oh—how did you come here?”

Jolene sat up, crossing her legs. “I asked to live here when I was eleven. While my mother and I relationship wasn’t bad, she had no problem with me leaving. She was too busy gushing over my younger brother Jonik to care,” she answered, jumping up. “The Lord Magister saw my importance, and that is all that matters.”

“Why was she in the Archon Domain?” I asked, and Jolene put her fists up.

“Peace talk, that went nowhere. How about we speak less about my pompous family and more about training?”

I spent the next four hours getting slammed into the light blue mat over and over. Jolene took no pity on me, as I used what little magica I had stored from May to make it to the end of training. She would twist around my limbs, pushing joints in the wrong direction and laughing whenever I immediately tapped out. Sometimes, I thought she wanted me to come, so she had a punching bag.

Jolene snaked one of her arms around my neck while she landed body shots into my side, keeping me still with her locked legs around my waist. After a few whimpers from the punches, she squeezed her wrist between her bicep, pulling up.

“It’s so cute when you whine like a puppy. It simply makes me want to choke you to death,” Jolene mocked before tittering at my expense.

My fingers clawed under her forearm. “Can you not. Edwin would—” I said as her grip got tighter. “—Be upset… I think.”

I tapped her arm, and she chose to hold it a little longer before releasing me to gasp for air. Jolene hopped up, staring down at my broken and sweaty self. “That is good enough for today. Your defence is getting better, but your offence sucks.”

“You never let me get into offence.”

Jolene shrugged. “Get good then.”

“You’re a horrible teacher.”

Jolene winked at me. “Well, at least I am a hot one,” she spun around, exiting the hall.

I limped back towards my room, and as I strolled through the hall, Rachel completely ignored my meek wave and sped past in her black school uniform, clearly annoyed. A woman in church robes desperately tried to keep up with her fast pace, looking flustered.

Finally, reaching my room, Edwin stood out front in his stiff stance. “If you’re going to yell at me. Can you do it tomorrow? I am tired.”

“Beatrice Sawyer, the Princess of the Empire, will be helping you grow your anima pool, starting next week,” Edwin said, turning to me. “She is a good person and I expect you to treat her as such even if her brother is Phoenix.”

“Anything else?”  

“The Divinity said you defended her,” Edwin responded, but it didn’t feel like he would praise me with how his voice communicated disappointment.

“You’re welcome. Look at me being a hero.”

Edwin stared at me. “I don’t care if The Divinity is in danger. You keep to yourself. Understood?”

“Oh no, what are you gonna do? Take me to your office for a stern talking too… again,” I answered, rolling my eyes as I opened the door with the key card and slamming it behind me. I half expected Edwin to bust in, but he left me alone for the night.

With some free time left, I got comfortable in my bed, staring at the next chapter of my smut marathon. Luckily, I didn't have school the next day. I had read throughout the night and the sun peeking over the horizon made me realise I needed to get some sleep in. Almost falling asleep, I heard a knock on my door. I irritably got up, tossing a shirt on before arriving at the doorway and opening it to Chloe. 

"Hey…" she said with a meek stare. "Can I clean?" 

I tiredly stepped to the side, gesturing her in. "Yeah."

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