She waved once before heading back toward the dormitory entrance. Several girls moved aside for her as she disappeared inside the building.

The girl on the bench gave me one last suspicious glance before returning to her notebook.

Yeah. Definitely still not welcome here.

I decided not to push my luck any further and walked back across the circular street toward the boys’ side. The guards visibly relaxed once I moved away from the girls’ dormitory, which honestly felt a little insulting.

I found an empty bench beneath one of the lanterns and sat down. "Man..."

A few minutes later, Ken stepped outside the boys’ dormitory while drying his hair with a towel thrown over his shoulder. His eyes scanned the area before landing on me.

"Yo," he greeted while walking over. "Did she join already?"

"Not yet."

He sat beside me and leaned back against the bench. "So your master plan was sitting here and hoping she magically appears?"

"I talked to Jelda already," I replied. "She went to get her."

Ken blinked. "Wait. Who’s Jelda again?"

I stared at him for a moment. "The girl who got attacked."

"Oh." His face immediately twisted with realization. "Right. Sorry. I’m exhausted."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"I walked across half the damn city just to visit my mother for thirty minutes."

"Then sleep early tonight," I said. "We’ve got practice fights tomorrow."

That part was technically true.

The rest of it, though? Not so much.

I still planned on throwing the match somehow. Fake an injury, surrender early, anything that kept me from getting beaten half to death while still technically obeying the Queen’s orders. But obviously I could not tell my teammates that.

"Man," Ken groaned while stretching his legs out, "I swear if they pair me against some giant Warrior-class freak tomorrow, I’m climbing over the arena wall and escaping the academy."

"You’d get caught in five minutes."

"Worth trying."

Movement near the girls’ dormitory caught my attention.

There she was.

Her short red hair shifted slightly with the evening breeze, and her wrinkled uniform looked like she had slept in it for hours. The faint exhaustion beneath her eyes made it obvious she had probably been woken up unexpectedly. Even from here, the scars across her face stood out clearly beneath the lantern light.

"That’s her," I said quietly, nodding toward her.

Ken followed my gaze.

"The redhead?"

"Yeah."

He let out a low whistle.

"Ambly’s hair... look at those scars. She definitely looks combat-tested."

"She probably is."

"What’s her class again?"

"Ranger. Same as you."

Ken frowned immediately. "No way."

"What?"

"She looks like she swings battleaxes for fun."

I shrugged. "Two Rangers in one team. You think we’d win?"

"Let’s pray to the gods that we do."

Just then, something walked past the edge of my vision and nearly made me jolt upright from the bench.

The... uh... the girl was covered in soft gray fur, with long feline ears poking through dark hair and a thick tail swaying lazily behind her. Her school uniform had clearly been tailored around her body type. The skirt sat lower to make room for the tail, and the sleeves hugged her arms tightly, showing patches of striped fur near the wrists. Sharp golden eyes glanced around the courtyard with a bored expression while small fangs peeked out when she yawned.

And everyone around her acted like this was completely normal.

Right. Fantasy world. Different races. I still wasn’t fully used to that.

"Ooh, a Jingi," Ken said immediately, staring shamelessly. "Man, I wanna pet one of their tails at least once in my life."

I blinked a few times. "A Jingi..."

That name clicked something in my head. The woman near Garmonna’s Lair had mentioned them before. She told me to stay away from Jingi women if it was my first time there. At the time, I thought she was just talking nonsense. Turns out she literally meant cat people.

This world really refused to let me relax for even a second.

"Ace."

Mio’s voice pulled me back. She had walked over without me noticing, stopping beside the bench with her arms crossed. Her short red hair shifted lightly with the evening breeze, and the scar running across her cheek looked darker under the lantern light.

"You called me?"

"Yeah." I stood up and gestured toward the empty spot beside Ken. "Sit down for a minute."

"How polite," she said dryly as she sat. "Expected behavior from an Ambly-blessed."

Ken froze. His head slowly turned toward me like his neck had rusted mid-motion. "Wait," he said. "The Ambly thing I heard in school was real?"

I immediately cut in before he could start yelling. "We’re putting together a team for the tournament, Mio. Wanna join us?"

Ken grabbed my shoulder hard enough to nearly shake me off balance. "Ace! You’re..."

"Please lower your voice," I muttered through gritted teeth.

Mio leaned back against the bench, completely ignoring Ken’s crisis. "Why the sudden interest in the tournament?"

"I just figured it’d be interesting," I answered.

She stared at me for a few seconds without blinking. "That answer sucks."

"It’s the truth."

"No, it isn’t."

Ken pointed at me dramatically. "This bastard hid world-changing information from me!"

"You found out five seconds ago," I replied. "Calm down."

Mio rested one leg over the other. "Tell me the real reason and maybe I’ll join."

I exhaled slowly. There wasn’t much point hiding it from her at this stage.

"The Queen wants me participating in tomorrow’s practice match," I admitted. "I still don’t know why exactly, but she specifically told me to join the tournament. So I need teammates."

"There we go," Mio said with a nod. "That sounds believable."

Ken looked between the two of us with wide eyes. "Hold on. The Queen personally talked to you?"

"Unfortunately."

"You’re living a completely different life from the rest of us."

"I’d happily trade."

Mio shrugged casually. "Fine. I’ll join. I was getting bored anyway."

"Nice." I nodded. "That gives us three people."

"Three is enough to register," she said. "If we can’t fill the remaining spots, Professor Veyra will probably assign random students into the team."

"That actually makes things easier."

Ken suddenly wrapped an arm around my shoulders again and shook me. "You seriously kept the Ambly thing from me? From your own roommate?"

"I met you like three days ago."

"That’s not the point!"

"Yes it is. I just don’t want more people knowing I’m Ambly-blessed."

Mio stood from the bench and adjusted her wrinkled uniform. "Honestly, I’m more interested in seeing your face when the tournament announcer tells the entire arena you’re Ambly-blessed."

My stomach dropped a little. "They announce that publicly?"

"Of course they do," she replied. "Your blessing, combat class, year, which color underwear you wore that day... everything."

"Oh, that’s fantastic. Exactly what I wanted."

Mio smirked faintly. "The Queen will be there too. Along with nobles, professors, and probably half the city."

"Even better."

She stretched her arms above her head before starting toward the girls’ dormitory again. "Meet at your dormitory’s training arena in a bit. I need to change first."

I gave a small nod. "Alright. We’ll wait there."

Mio gave a lazy wave without turning around and headed back toward the dormitory entrance, her boots clicking softly against the stone path.

Ken watched her leave, then looked back at me with a grin that practically screamed trouble.

"So," he said. "You gonna explain the whole ’making women climax with divine powers’ thing now?"

I stared at him.

"...No."

"Coward."

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