February 7th, 2012 — 3:18 PM

Upper District — Meridian Hall Cafe

Perspective: Elfina

The world stopped.

Not literally — the canal light still moved on the windows, Vivienne’s pen was still in her hand, the flowers in the small glass vases were still cream-colored and small. Everything was technically still happening.

But I had stopped receiving it.

She is the most beautiful girl in the world, and I don’t care if you don’t think so. She’s my Elfie, and I’ll always love her, no matter what.

His words.

In this room. In front of all of them.

I couldn’t look at him. My eyes were fixed on the grain of the dark-lacquered table. My face felt like it was on fire. Not the blush I usually felt around him, the manageable kind, the kind I could press my scarf against and pretend wasn’t happening. This was different.

This was the kind of warmth that starts behind the eyes.

Don’t cry...

My hands were still gripped around the edge of my skirt under the table.

I loosened them, one finger at a time.

The table, it turned out, had not stopped with me.

"Excuse me?" Delyra said. Her voice was precise, dangerous. "What did you just say?"

"You heard him." Kayla observed, her tone entirely neutral.

"I heard him say something that contradicts everything he said 30 seconds ago!" Vivienne’s pen hit the table again. She was sitting very straight. "You just told us, with your whole chest, that Elfie doesn’t deserve the 8th rank. Now you’re saying she’s the most beautiful girl in the world? Which is it?"

"Both." Kai said.

"That makes no sense!"

"Are you lying now to cover what you said before?" Delyra cut in, her voice cold and exacting. Her violet eyes had narrowed to something very close to contempt. "Is that what this is? You said something cruel and now you’re trying to walk it back because we reacted? Because I need to be clear, Kaiser, that doesn’t work. Apologizing with a compliment after the damage is done isn’t an apology."

Kai looked at her.

"I don’t need to make myself look better in front of you." he said. Simply. Completely. As if the concept of needing her approval had never once occurred to him.

"That’s not something I do."

A brief, thin silence.

Then he turned. And he looked at me.

"Elfie is the most beautiful person in this entire world." he said.

Not I think. Not in my opinion. Not the kind of qualifier people add when they want to be kind without committing to the claim.

He said it the way he said things he’d already decided were simply true...

"You—" Delyra started.

"He has a point." Kayla said, quietly, from beside me. She was looking down at the table. "He hasn’t changed his position. He’s clarifying it."

"Clarifying it?" Delyra repeated, as if the words had a strange taste. "He said she doesn’t deserve the 8th rank. Now he says she’s the most beautiful person in the world. Those aren’t clarifications. Those are contradictions."

"Are you even listening to him?" Kayla said.

"I am clearly the only person at this table who is thinking—"

"He’s saying she doesn’t deserve 8th." Kayla said. "He’s saying she deserves more than 8th. He’s saying the list is wrong, not her place on it."

A silence that landed differently than the others.

Rigel had gone very still across the table. Xavier’s expression dropped. Espen was watching Kai with his quiet, calculating gaze.

Delyra’s jaw set. She looked at Kai.

"So you suddenly have opinions." Her voice was flat. "The boy who sat at this table and told us his dream was a sleep schedule and his greatest fear was running out of money — that boy is now speaking about Elfina Lunaris in terms that would make a poet blush. And we’re supposed to believe it’s real?"

"I’m not asking you to believe it." Kai said.

"Then what are you asking—"

"Nothing." He picked up his tea. Set it back down. "I’m not performing for you. This isn’t a conversation I was invited to. You asked who I voted for."

"And now you’re in love with her?" Delyra asked.

He looked at her. Then he looked at me.

And what he said next—

I want to write down exactly what happened to my body, because I think I need to understand it later.

My hands had gone still. I wasn’t gripping my skirt anymore. I had stopped doing every small, private thing I use to manage myself when the feeling gets too big.

"You’re the girl I dream about when I’m awake," Kai said, "and the dream I want when I’m sleeping."

"Every part of you — your mind, your heart, your soul — is perfect to me."

"I don’t love you despite your insecurities."

He paused.

"I love you including them."

The canal light moved on the glass.

"When I look at you, I don’t see flaws or things to fix. I see the girl who makes me believe kindness and beauty can exist in this world."

"Everyone else might be beautiful. But they’re not you. And I’d never want anyone else, or see them in your light."

A beat.

"Even the moonlight," he said, "is a pale shadow compared to your light."

Silence.

Vivienne’s pen was on the table. She had not written a single word.

Serena had stopped eating her bread.

Leena’s hand, which had been wrapped around mine under the table, had gone completely still.

Kayla’s eyes moved from Kai to me.

Delyra’s mouth was slightly open.

For the first time since I had met her, Delyra Nysira had absolutely nothing to say.

I was not crying.

I want to be clear about that. My eyes were very full, and the back of my throat hurt in the specific way it does when you are working very hard not to cry, but I was not crying. I was keeping my face very still...

I had spent a long time being someone who tried not to need things... Until Kai.

I had needed him from the first moment I understood what needing someone meant. And I had carried it carefully.

"Wait—" Serena said. She had straightened up entirely, her small demon horns tilting slightly as she leaned forward. "Is that, was that a love confession?"

"He literally just confessed." Serena said. Her voice was absolutely delighted. She looked at Espen. "That was a confession, right? I’m not—"

"Confessional in structure," Espen agreed, very calmly.

"Kaiser." Serena looked at him directly, with the same fearless curiosity she turned on everything. "Are you two—"

"My feelings for Elfie are more than that."

He said it simply. Without looking at Serena.

He was still looking at me.

"There are no words for what they are. Certainly no words that anyone here would understand."

I had stopped breathing.

Temporarily.

I corrected this.

"I have my eyes only on her."

"Right..." Delyra said.

She had recovered. Or was performing recovery.

"Right. Let’s—"

"His point..." Kayla said, before Delyra could redirect. "About the list."

Delyra’s eyes moved to her.

"He said Elfina doesn’t deserve 8th," Kayla said. "He hasn’t explained what he meant."

Delyra’s jaw tightened. But she turned to Kai. "Fine. Explain your point. Before I explain why you’re a rude, thoughtless—"

"Rigel," Kai said, ignoring the second half of that sentence. "Show everyone your voting screen."

Rigel frowned. "Why?"

"Because I need you to."

"That’s not a reason—"

"Rigel."

Rigel looked at him for a moment. Then, with the long-suffering expression of a person who had long ago accepted that being friends with Kaiser Everhart came with a certain number of unexplained requests, he pulled out his Dwarvian Phone and held up his voting screen.

Three entries.

Leena Grelynn. Delyra Nysira. Rose Valentine.

"Now pull up mine." Kai said.

Rigel blinked. He looked at his phone. He navigated something, frowned, navigated it again, and then went very still.

"...Huh?" Rigel said.

"What?" Delyra leaned forward.

Rigel turned the phone around so the table could see.

Three votes. Same voter ID.

Elfina Lunaris. Elfina Lunaris. Elfina Lunaris.

"Ooooo..." Serena breathed.

"He voted for her three times." Vivienne whispered.

"The rule was each boy had to vote for at least 3 girls." Kayla said, her eyes moving from Kai’s phone back to him. "If you only submitted one name three times, the system should have flagged it."

"Should have." Kai said.

Rigel was scrolling. He made another sound — the sound of someone doing math and not liking the answer.

"His username," Rigel said slowly. He turned the phone toward the table again, scrolling backward through the voting server history.

Username: koolboy223 — 1 vote for Elfina Lunaris. Rejoined.

Username: Iloveyouelfie — 1 vote for Elfina Lunaris. Rejoined.

Username: ilyelfie4ever — 1 vote for Elfina Lunaris. Reverted to koolboy223.

"He changed his username three times," Rigel said. "His user ID stayed the same, but the voting system doesn’t sort by ID, it sorts by username. It didn’t recognize him as the same voter. So he rejoined the server under a different name each time and cast a new ballot. Three times. Then changed his username back."

He looked up at Kai.

"That is," Rigel paused. "That is actually a very clean exploit."

"That’s the stupidest, most romantic thing I’ve ever seen in my life," Serena said. She looked like she was struggling with something. "Those usernames."

"Iloveyouelfie," Espen repeated, very carefully, looking at the screen. "That’s — yes. He did do that."

Oh no.

My face.

My face was doing something I had absolutely no control over.

I pressed both hands to my cheeks.

The warmth was so intense it had moved past embarrassing into something else — something that felt like standing too close to a fire and not being able to make yourself step back. Something warm and helpless and entirely wonderful.

koolboy223. Iloveyouelfie. ilyelfie4ever. Back to koolboy223.

He had planned this?!

In advance. With forethought. Using a Dwarvian Phone username exploit.

I was going to—

I didn’t know what I was going to do.

"Smart." Espen said, with his characteristic composure.

"Really smart." Serena agreed. "So — the usernames." She pointed her finger at him. "You’re telling me you voluntarily had the username iloveyouelfie active on a public server with all of Year 1’s boys for the entire duration of the vote?"

Kai said nothing.

"You just didn’t care?"

"I don’t compare Elfie to anyone."

"So you don’t see anyone in comparison to her?"

Serena stared at him. She opened her mouth. She closed it again.

She looked at Espen.

Espen nodded slowly, as if this made perfect structural sense to him.

"Right..." Delyra said. Again. With more force this time. "I’m glad everyone found that very moving. But I want to address something."

She set both hands flat on the table.

"Kaiser," she said. "You said Elfina doesn’t deserve 8th. You voted for her three times. You told us you love her including her insecurities. All of that, I can process."

Her voice was controlled. But her eyes were not.

"What I cannot accept is the fact that you looked at a list, a list that put Elfina in the top 10 of the entire first year, and chose that moment to tell her she didn’t deserve it. In front of her. When she was already struggling with how she felt about it."

She held his gaze.

"You do not have to put others down to praise the person you love. You could have simply said she deserved first place. You could have said the list was wrong. You could have said it to her privately, at any point in the last ten minutes, rather than watching her shrink into herself and choosing that moment to be cruel."

She exhaled through her nose.

"What exactly was the purpose of doing it that way? In public? With that specific phrasing?"

Kai was quiet for a moment.

"The list," he said, "isn’t a beauty contest."

"That’s not what I—"

"It’s a popularity contest."

"The girls at the top aren’t there because they’re more beautiful. They’re there because they have wider social circles. Rose Valentine is the crowned princess of Asura — every boy in Class A voted for her because not voting for her is socially dangerous. Sylvia Somerset has half of Class B in her orbit. Cecily runs the academic committee. The voting reflects influence, not appearance."

"That’s a valid point—" Rigel started.

"I know." Kai didn’t look at Rigel. He was looking at Delyra. "The list made Elfie feel like she was ranked 8th in beauty. She wasn’t. She was ranked 8th in how many people owed social debts to the girls above her. Those are different things. The list is meaningless."

Delyra opened her mouth.

"The reason I said it the way I said it," Kai continued, his tone perfectly even, "is because you were using the list to comfort her."

A pause.

"You told her she deserved the rank. You told her the boys had eyes. You told her she was beautiful and that the list validated it." He tilted his head slightly. "But the moment you let her believe the list meant something, you also let her believe that the 8th was meaningful. That there were seven girls more beautiful than her. You tied her self-worth to a number on a server. And she believed you, because you wanted to."

Silence.

Dead silence.

Even Kayla had gone very still.

"You weren’t comforting her," he said. "You were making yourself feel better for saying the right thing. The comfort was for your pride, not for her."

Delyra’s face had gone through several colors.

"That is—"

"And before that," he said, "you read the list aloud. You told the table who ranked where. You compared the numbers. You declared yourself the highest in Class C with the energy of someone who had been waiting to do exactly that." His gaze didn’t move. "You knew how Elfie would hear those numbers. You knew she would compare herself. You did it anyway. And then when she struggled, you comforted her with compliments that presupposed the list was real."

"You—" Delyra’s voice had gone tight. "You are saying I did that intentionally?"

"I’m saying you did it."

"I was trying to help her!"

"You were doing something that felt like helping. There’s a difference."

Delyra’s hand closed around her teacup. Closed and did not let go.

The table was very quiet.

Xavier was looking at the wall. He seemed to have decided the wall was the safest thing to look at and was committing to this decision fully.

Leena had gone quiet beside me.

Rigel was looking at Kai.

I hadn’t moved.

I was sitting in my chair with my hands pressed to my cheeks and I was looking at Kai and I was thinking — He had said I was the most beautiful person in the world.

He had said it in front of all of them.

He had changed his username to iloveyouelfie on a public voting server.

And then he had stood in front of Delyra — who was popular and aristocratic and terrifying when she wanted to be — and he had said the things he’d said, calmly, without raising his voice, without needing anyone in the room to agree with him.

I kept thinking about the inside of my chest.

They felt like they were from different worlds.

Maybe they were.

Kai stood up.

"Delyra," he said. "Don’t let people use the list to define something that isn’t theirs to define."

Delyra looked at him for a long moment.

"Calm down Kaiser!!!" Serena said helpfully, from across the table.

"He’s calm," Espen noted.

"He looks calm. That’s different."

Kai stared at Delyra in a way that made her visibly flinch.

"Don’t try to make Elfie feel small again."

Delyra’s chin lifted. Her eyes were still burning.

"She’ll forgive you," he said. "She forgives everything. That’s who she is."

"But I won’t."

Then he turned.

He walked the length of the table — past Espen, past Serena’s bread, past Xavier’s notebook, past Rigel, who had gone very still — until he was beside me.

He looked down at me.

I looked up at him.

"Elfie," he said. "You’re coming with me."

The way he said it.

I stood up.

I didn’t say anything. I just stood.

He took my hand.

He looked back at the table.

At Delyra.

"Enjoy your rank," he said. "It’s temporary. The exam results will change that. Your pride will find a way to survive the reality, I’m sure."

"You—" Delyra started, her voice rising in anger. "You cannot just walk out—"

"He can." Cressida said flatly.

"Cress!" Delyra said.

"He said his piece. He said it clearly. Let him go."

"He insulted me—"

"He rage baited you." Cressida said flatly. "And you fell for it."

Delyra’s mouth closed. Opened. Closed again.

Kai didn’t wait for the rest.

He walked to the cafe door, my hand in his, and he held it open.

I stepped through.

---

The upper district was warm. The afternoon had shifted while we’d been inside — the canal light had gone gold instead of silver, the sky above the commercial row a shade lighter than blue. The street smelled like pastry from the shop two doors down and the stone-and-water smell of the canal below.

He hadn’t let go of my hand.

I looked at the side of his face.

He was looking straight ahead, the way he always was — unhurried, not particularly concerned about anything, the same expression he used for everything from dungeon strategy to eating the cheapest item on a menu.

He said he loves me including my insecurities.

He said the moon is a pale shadow compared to my light.

He changed his username to iloveyouelfie.

In front of everyone.

He held my hand.

He walked out with me.

He said my name like it was the only word in the sentence that mattered.

I looked at him for a long moment.

He glanced down at me.

"Your face." he said.

"What about it?"

"It’s very pink."

"It is not."

"It is."

He is the most infuriating person I have ever met.

He is also—

We stopped at the edge of the canal, where the stone railing curved and the afternoon light came fully through. He turned to face me.

He put two fingers under my chin.

Gently. Just enough to tip my face up toward his.

I looked at him. He looked at me.

"You don’t have to be perfect to be loved by me." he said. "You already are enough."

"Out of everyone in the world." he said, "you’re the only one I take seriously. The only one I cherish."

I am going to cry.

"When someone loves someone deeply." he said, "they write poems for them. Confessions. Songs. They fill books with it."

He looked at me, and something in his expression shifted — not much, barely, just a fraction of the usual distance gone.

"For you, there wouldn’t be enough words. There aren’t enough words in any of the many languages I know. The ones that exist were made for ordinary things, and you’re not that."

He held my gaze.

"So don’t care about some list. Don’t carry a number someone else assigned you. In my world — in the only world that matters to me — you’re the best there is. There’s no rank above you. There isn’t one."

A beat.

"Now." he said, "come on. I’m going to buy you a strawberry shortcake. And you’re going to eat it and stop making that face."

"What face?"

"The face you make when you’re trying not to cry."

"I’m not trying not to cry."

"Your chin is wobbling."

"It is not—"

He turned and started walking, still holding my hand. I followed, because I would always follow him anywhere and I had accepted this about myself a long time ago.

---

Perspective: Leena Grelynn

The cafe felt weird.

I looked at the empty space where Elfie and Kaiser had been sitting. Then I looked at the door they had just walked through.

Now what?

"I didn’t think he was that type of person," Serena said, breaking the silence. She was leaning heavily on her elbows, her tail flicking slightly behind her chair. "He just sat there eating the entire time."

"I thought he was going to remain quiet the entire time too," Kayla responded, her voice returning to its usual flat cadence. "He usually does."

"That was..." Xavier started, his eyes wide with leftover shock. "That was intense. I didn’t know what to do."

Espen turned to him, his posture still perfectly rigid. "Why were you so pale? You stopped talking."

"I had absolutely no idea what to say!" Xavier said, his voice pitching up nervously. "He told Delyra he wouldn’t forgive her. What do you even say after that?"

Serena reached for another bread roll. "Wasn’t he being a bit excessive, though? He even claimed Del was trying to make Elfina feel bad on purpose."

Rigel, who had been staring at his hands, finally looked up.

"No," Rigel said quietly. "He wasn’t being excessive. I maybe know why he reacted that way."

We all looked at him.

"Think about it," Rigel continued, leaning forward.

"We all complimented Elfina. We told her she was beautiful, that she deserved the rank. But did you see her face? None of it was working. She didn’t believe a word we said." He paused, his expression softening.

"I don’t want to gossip about her, but I think she has some very deep doubts about herself. We were unknowingly making her feel more doubtful by focusing on the list. So Kaiser pulled that stunt. He pulled all the attention and anger onto himself, completely shattered the importance of the list, and gave her a reason to believe him instead."

Rigel looked toward the window. "Did any of you notice her smile when he took her away? He knew exactly what he was doing."

Rigel.

He always notices things like that.

I looked at the space where Elfie had been sitting, my chest aching with a sudden, sharp understanding.

When my family left me at the edge of the human village, people tried to comfort me too. They told me I would be fine, that I was strong, that it wasn’t my fault. But their words always felt hollow because they didn’t understand the specific, suffocating weight of being told you don’t fit.

Elfie feels like she doesn’t fit.

She smiles so brightly, and she’s so warm to everyone, but underneath it, she’s terrified that the moment people look closely, they’ll decide she isn’t worth keeping. Compliments don’t fix that kind of fear. They just make you worry about the day the compliments stop.

But Kaiser didn’t give her a compliment. He gave her a certainty.

Rigel used to do the same thing for me when we were younger. When the human kids would stare at my ears, he wouldn’t tell me my ears were pretty. He would just stand in front of me and glare at them until they left.

"He’s still a rude, arrogant person," Delyra snapped, interrupting my thoughts. She was glaring at her teacup like she wanted to shatter it.

"He has no tact. No grace. He lacks any basic understanding of societal decorum. You can’t just speak to people like that and walk away!"

"He truly does not care what others think of him," Espen observed calmly.

"Whether the assessment is positive or negative, it simply doesn’t see it as relevance to him."

"But it’s still so unique," Serena said, pointing her bread at Espen. "Think about it. Most boys our age can’t even look a girl in the eye to say they like her. They buy stupid chocolates and leave anonymous notes. Kaiser just boldly confessed to her in front of us like it was nothing."

Serena shook her head, genuinely amazed. "His confidence and communication skills are completely off the charts. And his words, too! Not once did he fluster or blush. He just stated it all like it was a universal law."

"Yeah," Xavier agreed softly. "They had deep meaning. You could tell he wasn’t just reciting something."

Serena leaned her chin on her hand, sighing. "Honestly, it makes me feel slightly jealous. Elfina already has such an intensely protective person watching over her. Boys like that are incredibly rare now."

"She’s right," Cressida agreed, taking a slow sip of her tea. "Most people only protect what benefits them. Kaiser gains no social or academic advantage from defending Elfina. If anything, he made enemies today. He did it purely because of her value to him. That level of loyalty is rare."

Delyra scoffed, a harsh, dismissive sound.

"You’re all romanticizing him!" Delyra insulted, crossing her arms. "I don’t agree with any of this. Have you seen his academic scores? His physical benchmarks? They’re god-awful. He’s at the absolute bottom of the entire year. He has words, and nothing else to give. When real danger comes, words won’t protect her."

Serena chewed on her bread, considering this.

"You might be right," Serena said, shrugging. "He might not have anything. But he’s clearly willing to risk everything he does have for her. I find that romantic."

She looked toward the window, her mismatched horns tilting. "Elfie is still too young, though. I don’t think she fully grasps the meaning behind the words he just used. But maybe... maybe in the future, she will."

The table settled into a quieter, more reflective silence.

I leaned closer to Rigel, keeping my voice down to a soft whisper.

"Rigel," I asked, looking at the door. "Do you think they’ll be okay?"

Rigel looked at me. The tension in his shoulders had eased, and his brown eyes were steady.

"They will be," Rigel whispered back. "I trust Kaiser. Don’t worry, Leena."

I smiled, feeling a genuine wave of relief wash over me.

"By the way," I added, my voice dropping even softer as I looked down at my hands. "Thank you. For voting for me."

Rigel froze.

A bright, sudden flush spread across the back of his neck. He immediately looked away, turning his face toward the wall and coughing loudly into his fist.

"It— it was just a personal choice...." he muttered, his voice cracking slightly.

I couldn’t help it.

I smiled, a real, bright smile, and reached for my tea.

---

Perspective: Kaiser Everhart

February 7th, 2012 — 8:12 PM

Upper District — Commercial Row

It was slightly past eight in the evening.

The gold of the afternoon had long vanished, replaced by the vibrant glow of the upper district’s nightlife. Light-crystals of varying hues—vivid pinks, deep violets, and soft ambers—hummed inside wrought-iron lanterns along the canal. The streets were heavily populated, a dense flow of wealthy citizens, off-duty officers, and academy students walking past open-air terraces. The air carried the rich, heavy scent of roasted nuts, cinnamon glaze, and cheap floral perfumes from the commercial shops.

Crowds filtered in and out of the high-end lounges, their laughter mixing with the rhythmic sloshing of the water against the stone embankments.

Beside me, Elfie was walking with a light, almost bouncing step. She was holding the empty paper container from the strawberry shortcake she had finished ten minutes ago, swinging it by its string.

"Kai!" Elfie said, leaning her shoulder against mine as we navigated past a group of Class A students.

"Hey, Kai. Look at those blue lanterns over there."

"Don’t they look like the starlight orchids we saw?"

At least she’s happy now.

"Kai? Are you listening?" She bumped my arm again. "Hey! Look at me. I’m talking to you. You’re doing the quiet thing again."

I kept my eyes forward, navigating the crowd.

The dark shadow that had settled over her in the cafe was entirely gone. Elfie was fragile when it came to her past. The cold memories of the orphanage and the kids who called her a freak had left marks that didn’t heal just because she wore a Class C uniform now. Today’s meaningless beauty list had drag those old doubts back to the surface...

"Kai! Seriously!" Elfie puffed out her cheeks, stepping directly in front of me for a split second before falling back into step beside me. "What is so interesting about the floor? Hey, answer me!"

She has always been like this.

Seeing her pull me away from Kayla this morning by the wrist had reminded me of how little she had actually changed since our childhood. Since we arrived at the academy, I had been highly selective about my interactions with other girls. It wasn’t because I cared about the social politics, but because making Elfie upset carried a high emotional pain that I had no interest in paying.

I could still recall the good old days back at the orphanage.

There was one specific afternoon when the older caretaker had forced the children into a social integration game. I had been sat down at a small wooden table to play house with some girl. The moment Elfie saw us, she had abandoned her drawing, sprinted across the dirt yard, and thrown herself between us.

She was furious. And crying.

"You’re a cheater, Kai!" 8-year-old Elfie had screamed, her face red, tears spilling over her tiny cheeks as she grabbed my collar. "You can’t play with her! Only I get to play the wife! Go away, we don’t need outsiders! He’s my Kai!"

I smiled faintly at the memory.

She had been so possessive and selfish back then, treating me like a flower she had claimed from the garden and refused to share under any circumstances.

"Kai, you’re smiling!" Elfie’s voice cut through my thoughts. She grabbed my arm with both hands, halting us near a stone archway.

"Why are you smiling? You’re ignoring me and smiling at nothing. It’s creepy. What are you thinking about?"

I had asked her how to make it up to her that day.

She had crossed her tiny arms, pouted until her lips turned white, and demanded: "You have to hug me. Right now. And you can’t let go until I say so."

She hadn’t let go for an hour and 12 minutes. I had calculated the time because my left arm had gone numb.

She was such a cutie back then.

She would pull on my sleeve and make her tiny, selfish demands one after another.

"Kai, read the book to me."

"Kai, play with my hair until I fall asleep."

"Kai, pat my head. No, not like that, do it gentler."

"Kai, you have to hold my hand when the lights go out."

"Kai, eat the crusts of my bread, I don’t like them."

"Kai, tell me I’m the prettiest girl in the world again."

I had sat with her for hours, reading those dense texts while my hand mechanically patted her head. It was an incredibly simple routine, but it was one of the few parts of my life that didn’t require a strategy to navigate.

"Kai!" Present-day Elfie shook my arm, her blue eyes narrowing. Her face was a perfect mix of irritation and rising jealousy.

"Who are you thinking of? You’re still smiling. You never smile like that unless you’re planning something awful or thinking of someone else. Are you thinking of Kayla? Or Delyra? Or is it that demon girl Serena?"

I really want to test the waters.

I wonder if she has actually grown up and changed since those days, or if the core feelings remains exactly the same.

"Yes..." I said, finally looking down at her. "I was thinking of my childhood friend. She was really cute."

Elfie froze.

Her eyes went wide, the pink-colored paper container slipping slightly in her grip.

"WHAT?!" she gasped, her voice drawing a brief look from a passing couple. She stepped closer, her face flushed with sudden panic. "What do you mean, childhood friend? I’m your childhood best friend! I’m the only one who was with you at the orphanage!"

"No," I said, keeping my expression completely flat and serious. "The one I had before you. She was so adorable playing house with me. I really miss her."

Elfie’s jaw dropped.

Her cheeks puffed out to their absolute limit, her pink hair practically vibrating with offense. Her eyes flashed with a mixture of betrayal, jealousy, and sheer disbelief as she stared at me, trying to process the concept of a rival she didn’t even know existed.

"You’re lying!" Elfie demanded, her voice rising in pitch. "We were at the orphanage together since we were 6! Who is she? What was her name?!"

"I’m not lying," I said, keeping my tone perfectly conversational. "Her name was... Lily. She had curly blonde hair. Very quiet, unlike you. She used to let me read my books in peace."

"Lily?!" Elfie’s face went redder, her hands clenching into small fists at her sides. "That’s a fake name! That sounds like a name from a cheap storybook! And what do you mean unlike me?! I let you read!"

"You poked my cheek every five minutes to ask if I wanted to play, Elfie. Lily just sat next to me. When we played house, she would make fake tea and say ’Welcome home, dear’ in a very sweet voice."

"I-I can say sweet things too!" Elfie protested, her eyes starting to glimmer with moisture. "And I played house with you! I was the only wife! Why would you play house with a... a blonde girl?!"

"Because she asked nicely," I said, shrugging. "And she didn’t throw a wooden block at my head when I forgot to say her fake tea was delicious."

"That was one time! And the tea was delicious, you just said it tasted like dirt to be mean! You’re making her up to make me mad!"

"I’m not. She was very precious to me. Honestly, if she were here at the academy, I probably would have been friends with her instead of you."

Elfie’s breath hitched. The angry, defensive posture she had assumed began to falter, her shoulders trembling. "Kai... you... you wouldn’t."

"I would," I said, doubling down on the lie. "We had a lot in common. Maybe I’d even be spending my time buying her cakes instead."

That was the breaking point.

I had calculated the reaction, but I had misjudged the limit.

Elfie’s face crumpled. The empty pink paper container fell from her hands, clattering onto the damp cobblestones. Big, fat tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over her cheeks, catching the violet light from the street lanterns.

"I-I hate you!" she sobbed, her voice cracking as she took a step forward and smacked her hands against my chest. It didn’t hurt—she wasn’t using magic—but she was hitting me with frantic, uncoordinated slaps. "Y-you... you’re a cheater! You’re c-cheating on me!"

"Elfie, wait—"

"I hate you, I h-hate you!" she mumbled, burying her face into my chest, her hands clutching my uniform jacket tightly. Her shoulders shook with heavy, gasping sobs.

"Y-you’re so mean... how could you s-say that? I’m your... I’m your best friend..."

Several passing students and citizens stopped. They turned their heads, staring at us with highly critical expressions. A senior nearby gave me a look that suggested I was about to be reported to the disciplinary committee for public harassment.

This is a big problem.

But no problem.

I quickly grabbed her hand, wrapping my arm around her trembling shoulders, and guided her away from the main commercial street. I pulled her down a narrow, quiet alleyway between two brick buildings, where the noise of the crowd faded into a dull hum.

She was still crying. She wouldn’t look at me, her head tucked against my chest, her tears soaking through the fabric of my shirt.

"Y-you’re not allowed to do that!" she sobbed, her voice muffled against my chest. "You’re c-cheating... you’re not allowed to have another childhood friend! I’m the only one! I don’t l-like it, Kai... I hate it!"

"Elfie, calm down. Take a deep breath."

"No! I won’t! You want to buy c-cakes for Lily! Go find Lily then! Go play house with her!"

Her accusations were completely irrational, driven by a pure, unfiltered emotional panic that defied any logical reframing. I tried to speak, to explain the error in her deduction, but she just cried louder, her hands gripping my back now as if she was terrified that if she let go, the fictional blonde girl would materialize and take her place. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

I let out a quiet breath.

There’s only one way to resolve this.

I wrapped both arms tightly around her, pulling her small frame against mine. I rested one hand on the back of her head, gently smoothing down her soft pink hair, letting my fingers pat her head in the slow, rhythmic cadence she had demanded when we were kids.

"There is no Lily," I said softly, my voice right next to her ear.

Her sobbing stuttered. "W-what?"

"I made her up," I said. "I’ve never played house with anyone but you. I don’t even know anyone named Lily."

Elfie went completely rigid in my arms. The crying stopped, replaced by a sudden, tense silence.

"You..." she whispered.

"I was joking," I said. "I wanted to see how you would react."

Elfie slowly pulled her head back, looking up at me. Her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks wet with tears, and her expression was a mixture of absolute fury and profound relief.

"You’re... you’re the worst!" she shrieked, though she didn’t let go of my jacket. In fact, her grip seemed to tighten even more. "That’s not funny, Kai! I was so scared! I thought you actually hated me!"

"I don’t hate you," I said. "I bought you cake."

"That doesn’t make up for it! You’re awful! You’re an idiot! I’m going to freeze your shoes to the ceiling!"

She muttered several more angry threats, her voice thick with residual sobs, but she buried her face back into my chest, holding onto me like a barnacle.

I rested my chin on the top of her head, watching the gold and violet light flicker at the mouth of the alleyway.

Yeah.

Some things will never change.

---

February 8th, 2012 — 8:28 AM

Asura Academy — Class C Homeroom

The morning sun cut through the tall arched windows of the homeroom, casting long shadows across the rows of wooden desks.

My desk was near the wall, a comfortable position that allowed me to be unseen. The atmosphere in Class C was surprisingly composed today. Over the past few days, the groups had standardized their exploration routines and practiced their combat formations until they could run them blind.

Elfie had worked herself to near exhaustion coordinating the overall strategy, and the class felt ready.

Beside me, Elfie sat with her chin resting in her hands, a light smile on her face.

Her posture was relaxed, a stark contrast to the red-eyed panic of yesterday evening.

She had clung to me all night.

Even after we returned to the dorms, she had refused to go back to her own room, saying I must make up to her by letting her sleep in my room.

I had spent the night sleeping while holding her in my arms, I can’t lie, I really enjoyed it.

At least she had slept soundly.

The heavy double doors of the classroom swung open.

Aisha Olyvra, our homeroom teacher, walked in. Her red coat billowed slightly behind her, her posture as rigid and commanding as ever. She carried a thick clipboard in one hand, her heels clicking sharply against the stone floor as she stepped up to the podium.

The room went instantly quiet.

"Good morning, Class C!!!" Aisha said, her sharp eyes scanning the room. "The practical dungeon exploration exam begins tomorrow. Today is the final deadline for group submissions. I assume you have finalized your coordination sheets."

A ripple of confident nods went through the classroom.

"Excellent!" Aisha continued, tapping her clipboard. "You have put in a respectable amount of effort. Your formations look sound, and the representative issue has been resolved."

Hearing the praise, Elfie’s smile widened slightly. She sat up a little straighter.

"However," Aisha’s tone dropped, the temperature in the room seeming to fall with it. "There is a final directive from the administration. Three students from this class will not be allowed to participate in their pre-arranged groups."

The class froze.

Rigel’s hand stopped writing. Leena tilted her head, her smile fading.

"Excuse me?" Delyra was the first to speak up, her brow furrowing. "What do you mean, Instructor? The entire class strategy was built around 5-group synergies. Removing three students disrupts the balance of multiple groups."

"The exam has selected 3 students to be placed into a single, separate group." Aisha declared flatly. "They will explore the dungeon as an independent group."

Shock and confusion immediately rippled through the classroom. Whispers broke out among the desks.

Aisha turned around, picking up a piece of white chalk.

"This was a hidden factor of the exam," Aisha said as she began writing on the blackboard. "The academy does not train you to fight only with those you choose. In the field, you do not select your comrades. You adapt to the assets available. This is a test of your real-time adaptability."

"That’s unfair!" Elfie stood up, her desk rattling slightly. "The groups have spent days training together. If you pair students randomly without synergy, you’re setting them up for failure! What if the students are paired unfairly?"

"The pairing is not random," Aisha replied, without turning back. "The administration selected these three based on a specific metric. They represent the exact middle average of Class C’s benchmarks in academics and physical capabilities."

She began writing the first name.

Axel.

Axel blinked, his mouth dropping open. He looked around the room, completely startled. "Me? But I’m the class’s secret weapon!"

Aisha wrote the second name.

Scarlet Hearst.

Scarlet’s eyes widened. She stared at the board, her hands clenching onto her lap. "Instructor... I’m supposed to be Group Three’s primary damage dealer..."

And finally, Aisha wrote the third name.

Kaiser Everhart.

The classroom went entirely silent.

Every head in the room slowly turned toward the back wall. 22 pairs of eyes stared directly at me.

Elfie froze. She looked at the board, then at me, her face pale.

"Kai..." she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "It can’t be..."

I sat back against the wall, my face remaining completely flat.

Oh man, I just love being lucky.