Didi stared at the open textbook on her desk without reading a single word.

The instructor was lecturing about mana circulation theory at the front of the classroom, drawing elaborate diagrams on the blackboard while the other students scribbled notes.

She should have been paying attention since this was one of her weaker subjects, but her mind had been somewhere else entirely since she sat down this morning.

’His exam is today,’ she thought, her fingers tapping lightly against the edge of the textbook. ’Right now, he’s probably already at the guild.’

She pictured him walking through those big double doors with that relaxed posture of his, hands shoved into his pockets like he was strolling into a tavern instead of a life-altering examination.

’He’ll pass,’ she thought, feeling more confident about it than she probably should have. ’He carried me out of a forest with a monster that killed Sir Gazel and an entire squad of royal knights. Whatever the exam throws at him, I doubt it’s worse than that.’

But the confidence didn’t last long because her mind immediately jumped to the banquet.

Her father’s celebration dinner was coming up fast. All the major noble houses were expected to attend, and the King had made it very clear that he wanted Hajin present as the guest of honor.

The problem was convincing Hajin to actually show up, because she knew with absolute certainty that if she asked him directly, he would find some excuse to avoid it.

That was exactly why she had gone to Juna.

’And I completely ruined it,’ she thought, her tapping fingers going still as the memory hit her.

She remembered standing in Juna’s room at the palace, the brief moment of genuine conversation they had shared before she opened her mouth and asked the worst possible question.

She remembered the way Juna’s entire body had gone rigid, her ears pinning flat and her claws sliding out while the warmth in the room vanished in an instant.

’Are you his slave?’

She winced internally, the embarrassment still fresh even after all this time.

’I wasn’t trying to insult her,’ she thought, her gaze dropping to the desk. ’I genuinely didn’t know, and in the royal court, beastkin companions are almost always bonded servants. That’s just how the world works here, but she didn’t hear a curious question, she heard me reducing her to property.’

She thought about the look on Juna’s face right before she bared her teeth. It wasn’t just anger, it was hurt, the deep, raw kind that comes from having an old wound ripped open by someone you were just starting to tolerate.

’She definitely didn’t ask him about the banquet,’ she thought, a heavy sadness settling in her chest as she stared blankly at the textbook. ’Why would she do me a favor after I made her feel like that?’

The worst part was that she couldn’t even fix it. She had no way to contact Juna directly, no way to apologize without going through Hajin, and dragging him into the middle of it would just make everything worse.

’If he doesn’t come to the banquet,’ she thought, ’my father is going to be disappointed, the nobles will talk, and the one person I actually want to see there won’t even know I was hoping he’d show up.’

She sank a little lower in her chair, her chin almost touching the desk.

A hand suddenly landed on top of her head and roughed up her hair hard enough to mess up the careful styling she had spent fifteen minutes on this morning.

She flinched, sitting up straight while her hand shot to her head. "What the, hey!"

"There she is," a voice said from behind her, bright and completely unbothered by the fact that they were in the middle of a lecture.

Didi turned her head and found Bekky leaning over from the desk behind her, grinning wide with her chin propped on one hand.

Her pink hair was split into pigtails that hung all the way past her waist and nearly touched the floor, an absurd length that she refused to cut because she claimed it made her look "iconic."

Her eyes were the most striking thing about her, the pupils shaped like tiny four-pointed stars instead of normal circles, giving her a look that constantly drew attention whether she wanted it to or not.

"You’ve been acting super weird lately," Bekky said, not even pretending to whisper. "Always spacing out, looking sad and staring at nothing. What’s going on with you?"

"Nothing," Didi said quickly, smoothing her hair back down. "I was just thinking about the lecture."

Bekky glanced at the blackboard, then back at her. "You haven’t written a single note in the last thirty minutes."

"I’m memorizing it."

"You’re a terrible liar, you know that?"

The instructor paused mid-sentence, looking up from the blackboard with a tired expression. "Lady Bekky, if you could please save your conversation for after class."

"Sorry, Professor," she said, not sounding sorry at all before dropping her voice just low enough to stay under the radar while leaning closer to Didi’s ear. "Seriously though, is this still about Sir Gazel?"

Didi’s shoulders stiffened slightly at the name.

’Of course she thinks it’s about Gazel,’ she thought, feeling a complicated knot form in her stomach. She was still grieving him, that hadn’t gone away, and it probably wouldn’t for a very long time.

But the sadness she was showing right now wasn’t about him, and she couldn’t exactly explain the real reason without opening a door she wasn’t ready to walk through.

"I’m fine, Bekky," she said, keeping her voice steady. "I just didn’t sleep well."

Bekky studied her face for a second, her eyes narrowing slightly before she let out a small sigh.

"You know," she said, her voice losing the playful edge entirely, "it’s okay to still be sad about it. He was with you since you were a kid. Nobody expects you to just get over that in a week."

She reached forward and gave Didi’s shoulder a firm, solid squeeze.

"But you can’t keep carrying it alone in your head like this," she continued, tapping the side of Didi’s temple with one finger. "You’ve got me, your dad, and like a hundred palace staff who would literally die for you. Lean on someone already."

Didi looked at her for a moment, then felt a small, genuine warmth push through the heaviness in her chest.

’She’s wrong about the reason,’ she thought, ’but she’s not wrong about the advice.’

"Thank you," she said quietly, offering a small smile that was real enough to satisfy Bekky.

"Good," Bekky said, immediately switching back to her usual grin. "Now copy my notes later because I actually wrote stuff down and your page is completely blank."

"You wrote notes?" Didi asked, genuinely surprised.

"I drew pictures of the diagrams," she corrected proudly. "Close enough."

The guild was silent when Hajin walked through the front doors.

There was no crowd morning rush or any adventurers at all. The hall sat almost completely empty with the long tables pushed against the walls while the main floor had been cleared into a wide, open space.

A handful of other people were scattered around on benches near the walls, sitting alone or in small groups of two or three. All of them looked like fighters, scarred and carrying visible weapons, every single one radiating tension.

He walked to the front desk, paid the ten gold registration fee, gave his name and found a bench near the far wall. Juna sat beside him, her arms crossed while her eyes slowly scanning the room.

"Any of them look strong to you?" he asked quietly.

Her ears twitched, "a few."

"Good, this won’t be boring then," he said, before leaning against the wall and closing his eyes, letting the silence settle.

A door suddenly opened at the top of the grand staircase. Followed by footsteps descending slowly, each one carrying the presence of power that was unmistakable.

He looked at the other applicants and smiled, ’the old man sure does know how to make an entrance.’

A few seconds later, Allen arrived at the bottom of the stairs and just stood there, staring at them.