She chose to decline to answer me, and instead, she shut her eyes and smiled innocently at me, stirring her tea before elegantly bringing it to her mouth and taking a sip. She’s really such a sore loser.
“By the way, it’s really rare to see you eating here. Shouldn’t you be in the fourth-year cafeteria?”
“Strictly speaking, there may be three dining halls; however there is no restriction on who eats where. That being said, this one is closer to the student council office.”
“What does that matter? We have portals.”
“Is there a problem with wanting to stretch my legs a little?” she asked innocently, crossing her long, slender legs, which were wrapped with clean black stockings. She then leaned her elbows on the table, resting her face in her hands.
“There’s always a reason behind everything you do,” I sighed, narrowing my eyes with suspicion.
“Ever the cynic. Perhaps I simply wish to share a meal with my beloved underclassman and friend?”
“You say that, but I swear you only ever wanna hang out when Karen’s around. It’s like you feed off the chaos you cause with the pointless arguments you have.”
She giggled. “That’s not true. I absolutely have no problem being around just you. As proof, see? I’m here right now.”
“Yeah, because you have some kind of reason to be. I know how you operate by now. You always have some kind of ulterior motive,” I sighed, leaning back in my chair.
“Oh my. Am I being interrogated here?” she asked, tilting her head, a mischievous smile spreading across her face. “I don’t crack that easily, detective,” she teased.
“Have you done something that needs interrogation? Sheesh, I’m just curious. Not interested in playing detective.”
“Are you sure there isn’t a reason you can think of? One that requires me to meet with you alone like this. It’s taken a lot of preparation on my end to work up the confidence to be here and tell you what’s on my mind. Perhaps it’s simply the lack of sleep talking, but I felt like I had to tell you right away after I realized what I wanted to do.” She rested her head in her hand and flashed her vermilion eyes at me. “Would you like to know?” she asked, innocently tilting her head.
I felt my heart skip a beat. Sure, President Victoria was a beauty. Even with how frightening she could be, her very mature proportions, sleek black hair, and deep, alluring vermilion eyes made her a very desirable individual.
I shook my head, dispersing thoughts about her from my mind. There’s absolutely no way she’s here to flirt. I knew her too well. Ever since Karen and I’d gotten here, for some reason, she’d really liked to hang around us and mess with mostly Karen, and then me. This has to be some kind of trap.
“I’m here to ask for your hand,” she said softly.
“Huh?” I was so surprised that I swore my jaw was on the floor.
“Oh, I see I’ve invited a misunderstanding. Silly me. In the midst of my fatigue, I’ve failed to complete my thoughts. I’m here to ask you for your hand in assisting with the placement exam today. It just so happens that the new student will be enrolling in the combat track, and I’d love it if you could attend since you’re the leader of the third level. Right now, the tentative time is at three in the afternoon.”
I glared at her. I know. I know that I shouldn’t have fallen for that, but still, who couldn’t get their hopes up even a little?! I wasn’t particularly infatuated with her so much as I admired her strength and intelligence, but if someone like her asked me out, I’d have to at least think about it even if I didn’t have any romantic feelings for them. Seeing her flash an innocent smile at me, I knew that behind it, she was laughing at how she’d successfully flustered me.
I grumbled before answering her, “Is there any point for me to be there? Nobody usually makes it past Rhand.”
President Victoria simply smiled at my statement before continuing, “Well, I’d be there if I were you. However, if you’d prefer, I could forcefully drag you out there. Maybe by the hand?” she snickered teasingly.
“You’re gonna get wrinkles,” I muttered under my breath. I felt a sharp kick to my shin under the table, making me yelp and jump a little. “But also, what do you mean ‘out there’? It’s not gonna be in the usual indoor practice room?” I asked, massaging my shin. Good grief, she hurts.
“It’s still under renovation, so the placement exam will be at the outdoor practice grounds. Also, for the record, I’m rooting for the transfer student. It’d be nice to see new faces in the fourth and fifth levels. Right now, it’s just the same stale faces of those who were already in those levels before you came.”
“Sheesh, with friends like you... Also, if you’re so tired of the ‘same stale faces,’ can’t you just bump me up to the next level, then?”
“You need to actually take the advancement exam for me to do that. I’m not going to move you up just because you’re being a gatekeeper.”
“I’m not being a gatekeeper, I just...” I don’t really know if it’s okay for me to try and go any higher. The better I do, the more it’ll confirm everyone’s belief that I’m the Blade Saint. But I can’t be. It can only be Soreya...
“I’m sure you’ll come around to living up to your potential someday,” she sighed, taking a bite out of her scone. Though it was for a split second, I swore I’d seen her face melt into one of pure bliss. “Coasting along on your superhuman-level reflexes and ability to read your opponent will only get you so far. Maybe what you need is someone to push you a bit to actually try and live to your full potential—a partner of sorts.”
“Pass,” I said grumpily. Like there’s anyone who could ever match Soreya.
I gazed outside the window, not intent on continuing this topic any further. The sun had fully risen at this point, making me squint.
“Oh, is it already this time?” she said, looking out the window as well, her eyes glinting like rubies in the morning sun.
No matter how many times I see this, I’ll never get used to seeing a vampire simply shrugging off the sun. I know she’s special, but still...
“Well, I won’t stay for long. Lots to do this morning,” she said, taking one more bite from her scone. “Be sure to arrive at the training grounds by three.” Then she drank the last bit of tea in her cup and passed the remainder of her scone to me. “Unless you’re squeamish about eating something that I’ve already put my mouth to.” I looked up at her with confusion, but she explained herself not too long after. “Eat it. You’ll need your strength,” she said, licking a crumb off her finger.
Then, with that, she left the cafeteria.
“So much for the good premonition I had about today being a good day.” I reluctantly took a bite out of the scone and scowled slightly. It tastes good.
Placement exams were usually nothing to really worry about since they involved running the gauntlet—fighting each level’s leader from first to fifth. Most of them ended with Rhand at the second level, which made my job easy as the leader of the third level.
But if I did have to fight...well, it’d never gone well for the challenger. Naturally, this had led to a lot of frustration and resentment on the part of my challengers. After all, how had they been losing to some rando with nothing but a sword? It’d earned me the title of “gatekeeper” and also a lot of unwanted attention. Part of me wanted to lose at this point because having to constantly deal with the snide comments and duel requests was annoying to say the least, but there was a reason I wouldn’t let myself do that.
I’m not going to lose to anyone but you, Soreya. After all, you’re the real Blade Saint. I’m not going to let any shame come to that name, especially not when it belongs to you.