"Are you okay, Raine?" The empathy bled through Ren’s expression before the words had fully left her. "You haven’t said a word since the results."

By the window, where frost had traced delicate crystalline patterns across the glass, the hanging fern above her cast diaphanous shadows over her coat.

Raine held herself like someone asking for solitude, all demure edges and self-effacement, but the architecture beneath gave her away.

Her table was set at the far end of the room, tea freshly hot, its steam drifting her way in slow curls, warm enough to answer the heat massed at the other end. Beside her, an air conditioner breathed cold through copper pipes that ran the length of the walls, fed by a plant that kept the air just this side of chilling.

Ren puffed out a breath.

"Say something, would you?"

Raine, whose gaze had been wandering the walls: armour, firearms, ammunition, and swords arranged in the way of someone who took such things seriously, before drawing back to the counter, to the door behind it, where the blacksmith had disappeared moments prior.

"Calm down. I was just thinking about why my armour is taking so long at the blacksmith’s."

Her conflicted thoughts left no mark on her expression and found no crack in the heaviness of her throat. None of it was enough to fool Ren.

Ren lifted her cup and held it there, letting the steam fog the rim. Then, unhurried, she brought it toward her cheek and let the warmth ghost against her skin, measuring it, almost, before she took a sip.

"Is this because the young master ended up in fifth place? They said he had changed, did they not? We should give him the benefit of the doubt."

Raine’s crimson eyes had grown lighter, the richness quietly bleeding out, and moved toward Ren. Hardly noticeable. Impossible to miss, for anyone who knew her.

"I do not believe someone can change this much overnight. Unless he had always possessed this side of him, but even that seems impossible. If he had, no one would have called him a lout, and I doubt even his own siblings would have been able to use him as a pawn."

Her palm settled against the cup. Her eyes narrowed, finding her own reflection in the surface of the green tea and the sadness sitting there, behind everything, visible only because she knew to look.

"Whatever happens to him doesn’t matter to me. I failed the Realism exam and ended up in fifteenth place. I failed to make logical decisions... As a cadet, that’s not something I should have."

What reached Ren was simply the crack in her lady’s voice. Nothing else. Raine was bottling it up, had been for some time, by the look of it, and she would break if someone didn’t do something soon.

"This isn’t the outcome you wanted, but there’s a bright side: you ended up in first class. Let’s work hard and make it back into the top five for the end-of-term exam."

Raine frowned. The sadness was real, but the results had nothing to do with it. Those, at least, were something she could fix.

After flashing Ren a forced smile, her gaze dropped to the back of her left palm. The magic circle sat there in white, quiet against her skin, her grimoire sealed within her, the contract between herself and her entity made permanent in ink she hadn’t chosen.

Bringing her family honour had always been her priority. The St. Claires had once been formidable, one of the most powerful holy families the kingdom knew, but time was a thief and humanity was cruel, and what remained of their legacy had been quietly dismantled by the plots of a handful of families with something to gain.

The Church of Change, once counted among the twelve churches of the Firstlight Goddess, was now largely ignored. And Leon City, the very city the St. Claires had spent ages protecting, had long since stopped pretending to remember that.

She was even willing to marry Leomaris Runerth, good-for-nothing son of a Duke, if that was what restoring her family’s honour required. A boost in status had its price. She had decided she could pay it.

More importantly, she sought revenge for her family and to bring them honour during her days as a cadet at this academy. That faith in herself had been steady, until yesterday when the contract with the Seer Entity changed things.

It had granted her the ability of Vision, yes. But the price had wounded her deeply, in a way she was still learning to carry.

The false smile had been in place for a while now. Ren was still talking, still cracking jokes, still trying, and so Raine let her have it. A smile. The kind Ren was working so hard to earn.

’I’m sorry, Ren. I don’t think I can share this with you. I don’t even know how to say it without sounding pathetic...’

The blacksmith emerged from the small room behind the counter not long after. He was nearly seven feet of muscle, the kind of man who made doorframes look modest, and yet the great overgrown ginger beard softened all of it somehow, giving him the look of a dwarf from a distance.

Each step of his massive boots shook the ground, and the metallic safe he carried in one hand looked almost small, which said more about him than it did about the safe.

Both of them looked up at once, attention caught by the grin already spread across his face.

The blacksmith bowed in appreciation. "Thank you for choosing the Forge of the Ninth Bell. I really appreciate it."

He straightened after and rested the suit rack beside Raine with quiet care.

"Please don’t worry, Mr. Tae. I’m already grateful for your service."

Ren opened the container at Raine’s word. Within it was the black armour, a chest piece , bracers, kneecaps, and greaves, each piece exactly as requested, dark and clean against whatever lined the inside.

Tae’s smile came out awkward, and despite everything his size suggested, he looked almost like a child just then.

"Since I hardly get customers, I put everything I had into it. I don’t think even a double-action revolver bullet could penetrate it... and you know that kind of revolver can drop a lion with one shot. I dare say I’m pretty proud of myself."

Raine nodded, then let her hands move across the armour, feeling the weight of each piece, the warmth the metal held, and the elegance worked into it.

"If you find it uncomfortable later, please feel free to return it for improvement. I’ll be happy to help you."

Raine motioned positively. Ren set about fitting the armour, her hands going through the motions while her attention stayed fixed on Tae.

"What about the sword? How long will it take to finish?"

Tae’s smile disappeared. "Don’t worry, ma’am." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

His voice carried something steadier than reassurance, conviction, perhaps. "I won’t send out a sword that loses its edge after a few swings. A few more days is all I need."

Ren’s grin came easily. "Good. That’s exactly what Lady Raine deserves."

She gestured pleasantly toward the back. "Thank you for your service. Back to work, if you would."

For a moment Raine stared into the distance, thoughts absent. Then Ren said something imperious to the seven-foot behemoth beside them, and Raine rather wondered if the woman was afraid of anything.

Tae obeyed without question, oddly enough, but before he could reach the counter, two figures appeared at the entrance.

The young man was dressed in brown, finely cut. Golden-haired, golden-eyed, with the kind of stature and presence that announced nobility before he’d said a word. The confidence in his bearing left no room for argument.

Tae gulped bile.

Beside him stood a young lady in a navy gown, long black hair, and blue eyes, giving her the look of something carefully made — a doll, almost, in the best possible sense. Her beauty was the kind that stopped a room.

Tae couldn’t remember his last customer before Ren. That had already felt like enough. A noble of this caliber in his shop was a different problem entirely, and panic took him before he could think better of it.

Before the panic could settle, the young man stopped. His gaze found Raine, and whatever confidence he’d carried through the door left him at once. Sweat broke across his brow. Terror replaced everything else, and all Raine had done was glance at him.

Something about Raine, it seemed, was eating him alive.

"What the...?" The young man said with a panicked tone.