Another day at the Institute, and Arcus was presently accompanied by Charlotte Cremelia, daughter to a count. She was showing him around. The students had been paraded inside the buildings and around the grounds on a “tour” on their first day, but it’d skipped a lot of the details. Furthermore, students had their own etiquette when it came to using the facilities that needed to be learned. Charlotte, who had been at the Institute for a while, was giving him a rundown on these extra facets.
Arcus had been keeping an eye out for Sue, whom he hadn’t seen at all recently. It was like she had gone into hiding. He had also invited Lecia to come along, but she apparently had business with some other noble children.
Left as a twosome, he and Charlotte were currently walking the courtyard cloister. The noble girl wore her long caramel-colored hair in a half-up style. She held herself in a highly ladylike manner, like she was the Chronicles’ Jacqueline by the Windowside come to life. With her slender, well-proportioned frame, the Institute’s uniform complemented her perfectly. She came from a martial family, and so enjoyed rapier fencing. In contrast, her body was pleasingly abundant in feminine curves—particularly those related to motherhood—which had become more pronounced recently. She was still a little taller than Arcus. It would take a short while longer until they could walk shoulder to shoulder.
“You take part in the lectures too, Charlotte?”
“Yes. They are essential, even for nonmagical students.”
Her background meant it was highly likely she would be called to war at some point in the future. At that time, there could be magical troops within both her own army and that of the enemy. And so it was tacitly understood that she would have to learn how to combat magic, even though she was not a user herself. That was presumably why her family had enrolled her in the Institute. Although perhaps Arcus was reading too much into it, and it was simply a cultural thing. (In this world, women were sent to war just as men were. What mattered was the soldier’s quick-wittedness).
“There are classes on classical martial arts too, right?” he asked.
“Oh, yes. The lecturers who lead them are really quite skilled.”
“Yeah?”
There was no doubting it if Charlotte said it was so. Arcus thought it might be a sound idea to take one of said classes, or maybe one in fencing. It would be a good alternative to magic if he ran out of aether in a fight.
As they were walking and she was telling him more about the Institute, they spotted a strange throng on the other side of the fountain. The group was a bit shy of ten people, and there seemed to be a leader in the form of a single well-dressed girl. Standing in their midst, she had shimmering blonde hair tied up in a chignon. She carried herself with as much grace as Charlotte and had a perfect calm about her that was typical of higher-ranking noble girls. She seemed to be at the height of her development, with curved and straight lines in all the right places. It seemed that her uniform had been subtly retailored to accommodate her growth. Her smile was amicable as she conversed with her followers.
Charlotte dropped her voice, urging caution from Arcus. “That is the empress; this whole Institute is under her thumb. You ought to commit her face to memory.”
“Empress?”
“Yes. Lady Claudia Saifice, heiress to the dukedom.”
Meaning she belonged to one of the Four Dukedoms, just as Sue did—one that hadn’t been in attendance at the launch party. Despite her designation as an “empress,” the generous way she smiled at those around her lacked the arrogance implied by the term.
“She looks rather charming,” Arcus remarked.
“Yes, she looks it, doesn’t she?”