Chapter 297: How Long Have You Been Eye-Kissing Frieda Castleloft?
Lancet slept well that night.
He sank into the mattress the moment his back touched it and stayed there, buried beneath the sheets as though the bed had claimed him. After five days of sleeping on stone, dirt and whatever flat stretch of Kestrel’s mountain had hurt the least, his bed was a cushion of clouds.
Heaven.
By morning, most of the ache in his arms had dulled into manageable strains. The Academy returned to its usual rhythm around him. Bells rang. Students hurried between buildings. Instructors started the day by threatening latecomers with punishment they rarely had time to enforce.
Lancet joined Min Tu, Kasto, Anita and Luke for breakfast in the cafeteria.
Luke was slowly reintegrating himself into the group. He still acted annoyed most of the time, but he had stopped finding distant tables whenever they entered the room. That counted as progress.
Their table was crowded with bowls of peppered rice, fried eggs, strips of roasted meat and fresh bread still warm from the kitchen. Kasto had also taken more sausages than anyone needed and was defending the plate with both elbows while Anita tried to steal from it.
"You already have four," Kasto said, slapping her chopsticks away.
"I had four."
"You ate them."
"Exactly. So now I have none."
"That is how eating works."
Anita reached again. Kasto dragged the plate toward his chest, and she switched targets fast enough to steal a piece of meat from his rice instead.
He stared at the empty spot.
Lancet took a bite of egg. "You were protecting the wrong border."
Kasto gave him a warning glare and Lancet made an "I’ll back off expression."
Min Tu ate without joining them, though the slight movement at the corner of her mouth suggested she was listening. Lancet had nearly finished his rice when Kasto leaned back and looked him over.
"So what do we call you now?" he asked. "The best Summoner in the year or the best Specialist? Beating Renan technically makes you the best Specialist as well, no?"
"How about the best Awakener?" Lancet said.
Min Tu groaned. "That victory made him worse."
Kasto chuckled. "Is about time you started showing off a little, Lancet. I know I would."
Lancet didn’t say anything. He reached for his drink and spotted Frieda across the cafeteria.
She sat two sections away with Renan, Sienna, Amira and a new surprising face. Renan was saying something to Amira while Sienna picked apart a piece of bread and Frieda listened beside him, one hand around a cup.
The new face was Stacey Blue. She sat at the end of the table.
Lancet remembered her too well.
The Mind Mage had once followed Kallan Kallahan around with the rest of his little pack, using her power to torment people who could not fight back. She had tried the same thing with Lancet until he turned her own ability against her and left her terrified of entering his head again.
Now she sat among Renan’s group with her shoulders lower and none of the old smugness on her face.
Renan had done it again.
He had taken another bad egg, looked at her with those honest main-character eyes and somehow dragged her toward decency through the unmatched force of his heavenly seduction.
His harem kept growing as if the world itself was filing applications for him.
On another note, Frieda looked better.
Her eyes were not swollen, and she was eating instead of staring at her food. She even responded when Sienna said something to her, though Lancet could not hear the words from where he sat.
Hopefully, what he had told her yesterday had helped.
She was a great Awakener. That had never been the problem. She only needed someone to remind her that struggling with control did not erase everything she had already achieved, and encouragement cost Lancet nothing.
Then he remembered the other promise hidden inside their conversation.
He’d told Frieda someone would be coming to see her soon.
Lancet had to start creating his new Heroine as soon as possible.
He had spent part of the previous night working on the first draft for a Fire Mage. He had the outline of a woman in mind, along with several ideas for her history, abilities and temperament, but he had refused to rush the creation.
It wasn’t smart to make a Heroine for the sole purpose of teaching Frieda how to control fire.
That would leave the woman without a real place in his roster once Frieda no longer needed her. Lancet had promised every Heroine more than temporary usefulness. Whoever he created next had to matter to his plans, especially with the path ahead leading toward the first Human Citadel and whatever waited beyond it.
She needed a reason to remain.
A goal of her own.
A future beside the others.
Frieda looked up while Lancet was still thinking.
Her eyes found his across the cafeteria, and when Lancet realized, he froze for a tiny bit. For one second neither of them moved. Then she smiled.
Lancet spent far too long deciding what kind of smile he should give back. Too broad would make it look like he was excited to see her. Too weak might make it seem like he regretted talking to her.
In the end, he settled on a simple one and nodded once.
Frieda looked down at her food again.
Lancet returned to his breakfast and found Kasto staring at him.
He regretted everything instantly.
Kasto slowly turned in his seat and followed the direction Lancet had been looking. His eyes passed over two tables before settling on Frieda.
Then he turned back with a grin.
"Hey, hey. What’s this?"
Lancet sighed. ’Fuck.’
Kasto slapped one palm against the table. "I just caught Lancet and Frieda giving each other the eyes."
Anita’s head snapped around. "What?"
"There were no eyes," Lancet said.
Anita found Frieda across the room, then looked back at him with immediate delight. "Oh."
"There it is," Kasto said. "You saw it too."
"I saw the lingering presence of it for sureeeee."
Lancet set down his spoon. "She smiled at me. I smiled back. That’s how people behave when they know each other."
"People also wave," Kasto said. "You two stared."
"We did not stare."
Anita leaned toward him. "Lancet? How long have you been eye-kissing Frieda Castleloft?"
Lancet’s eyes bulged. "Eye-kissing?!" he gasped. "I smiled once. Just once."
Luke took a drink and looked at Lancet over the rim. "You do know she and Renan are together, right?"
"Exactly," Lancet said. "Which is why nothing is going on."
Kasto chuckled mischievously. "Maybe he thinks defeating Renan means he gets to take one of his girls."
Anita covered her mouth, already laughing. "Winner claims the sword and the Fire Mage."
"That is not a tournament rule, but it should be!" Kasto jeered.
Lancet just stared at them. "What is wrong with you guys?"
Across the table, Min Tu had gone quiet in a way that was different from her usual silence. She continued eating, but her eyes lifted once toward Frieda before returning to her plate. Her chopsticks pressed hard enough into a piece of meat to split it in half.
Lancet noticed and decided not to notice.
Anita rested her chin on one hand. "Fine. If there’s nothing going on with Frieda, who do you have a thing for?"
Lancet frowned. "What?"
"You’ve been at the Academy for months and you don’t have a girlfriend."
"Yeah," Kasto added. "That is suspicious."
"What business is it of yours who I’m dating?"
The heat reaching Lancet’s face betrayed him before the question finished leaving his mouth.
Anita’s grin widened. "You’re handsome, popular and apparently the strongest fighter in the year now. No one would even be surprised if you were secretly dating the Student Body President."
Lancet raised an eyebrow. "That Ice Mage?"
"Yes."
"She’s stuck-up."
The table laughed.
Even Min Tu looked up at that.
Anita nodded. "She kind of is."
"Obsessed with winning too," Kasto added. "Still, people have dated worse."
Lancet picked up his spoon again. "I’m not dating her."
"Then who?" Anita asked.
"No one!"
Luke finished chewing and glanced at Lancet. "Imagine if he was dating one of his Summons."
Lancet froze with the spoon halfway to his mouth.
Luke continued, "Astensia, perhaps. That would be funny."
The sound around their table died.
Anita’s chopsticks stopped above Kasto’s plate. Kasto’s grin faded by degrees. Min Tu paused with her cup close to her lips.
When Luke heard what he had said, he paused as well.
They looked at him.
Then at one another.
Then back at Lancet.