For some reason, Magnus sat beside Blythe in Botany but barely spared her a glance the entire lesson. She’d been filled with dread the moment he plopped himself on the workbench beside her, but he’d simply acted like she wasn’t even there.

  When the class ended, he got up and left without looking at her.

  Weird.

  When it came time for her last class of the day, Blythe’s steps were light. She’d gone through a whole school day without having to talk to Magnus or enduring his glowering.

  She was looking forward to getting her Kirmilese class over and done with. She’d learned that the original Blythe had taken this extra elective because it was the only foreign language class offered in Novalbus that Magnus wasn’t taking. Since she was his fiancée, she wanted to complement him and cover his ‘weaknesses’.

  Honestly, this was the one good choice the original Blythe had made.

  Unfortunately, the partner-rotating arrangement for their speaking practice was still in effect. She’d been speaking Kirmilese with classmates who’d seemed equally apprehensive to practice with her. On the bright side, they were all very cooperative and followed their professor’s instructions well.

  When Professor Greene announced Titus as her class partner today, Blythe saw Titus instantly turn around in his seat and look for her.

  Once everybody was free to stand up and move around, Titus got his feet and gestured for Blythe to stay there and wait for him. Half of the class was shuffling around to get to their assigned partner as well. She took the opportunity to flip through the pages of her textbook, trying to run through the new stuff she’d recently learned.

  Using the pre-existing knowledge in the original Blythe’s memory bank for her language lessons was one thing. She somehow already ‘understood’ those words, although some initial prodding in the form of hearing the language or reading it was required. But there was no way for her to use these new grammar points and vocabulary the original Blythe had never known without actually committing them to her own memory. The amount of things she was supposed to learn and remember just to not stick out in class seemed to keep stacking.

  “Hi, Blythe,” Titus said in Kirmilese, pulling a chair from a neighboring desk to hers. “How did the rest of your workout go this morning? I apologize again for what Gavin did.”

  The aforementioned raccoon was riding on his shoulder. After Titus sat down, Gavin clambered down onto his lap and lounged there.

  “No, it’s not your fault. Thanks for bringing me the replacement drink.”

  They were supposed to discuss their upcoming general plans for the week, and to make up some plans if they didn’t already have any.

  He smiled. “Well, let’s talk about our plans. Since the Hunting Race is in a few days, I intend to practice my archery skills after school. I’ll be using the targets set up at the stadium.”

  “Could you do well without the last-minute practice?”

  “Rather than practicing at the last minute, I view it as … not slacking off. Most of the participants have been training regularly. The school is only providing us a more convenient and accessible way to do it in these last few days leading up to the race.“

  “That makes sense. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”

  “Oh, no, I’m fine,” he said breezily. “I’m not too bothered about it. It’s all good fun.”

  She remembered hearing that he was likely to vie with Magnus for the top spot. “Aren’t you one of the better participants?”

  He laughed. “I suppose you could say that. It’s more about the fun to me, though.”

  Blythe pitied the other participants who actually did want first place for having to compete with someone like Titus.

  “If winning isn’t that important, why practice before the competition?”

  “I like archery,” Titus said. “I’m in the archery club, you know.”

  “That’s fair.” She inclined her head. “I’ll be in the stands with my friends after school. I might do some reading while I’m there.”

  “And cheer Magnus on?”

  She wanted to wipe that amused look off his face. Being teased for her non-existent crush was even more irritating than being teased about an actual crush.

  “Sure,” she said, giving him a fake smile. “After that, I’ll probably go back to my room and study.”

  “Study?” He blinked a few times, but he didn’t comment any further on that. “What about the rest of the week?”

  “I might go swimming during one of the weekdays.” She’d just try to avoid Daisy.

  Professor Greene passed by Blythe’s desk, gave them an approving nod, and proceeded on to the next desk.

  He hummed. “Because you no longer hate exercising. Are you going to alternate between the pool and the training hall in the mornings?”

  “No, I’ll stick to evenings for swimming.” Daisy pretty much only went swimming in the mornings, so Blythe had a good chance of not running into her if she went in the evening. “Is alternating between the two what you do?”

  She had bumped into him at the pool that one time she’d gone there after all, and today he was in the training hall.

  “It depends on my mood. If I exercise in the morning, I like to take a quick nap before classes start. I do exercise in the evenings too.”

  “But you’re likely to focus more on your archery training now that the Hunting Race is coming up, right?”

  Some of his pink hair fell into his eyes as he nodded. “I doubt I’ll be swimming for the next few days, but I’ll still go to the training hall in the mornings.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Blythe wondered what it was like to have pink hair. It looked so soft and fine. She was a little jealous of all the people here who were born with a weird hair color. She wouldn’t have minded if she had lilac hair like Jessica.

  “Any plans on Saturday?” she asked, brushing the thought out of her head.

  This morning, she’d received a VocAvis from her father informing her that she was allowed to stay the weekend at Novalbus if she wished. He expressed awareness of how most boarders stayed at school over the weekend because the Hunting Race took up a large part of Friday. It wasn’t practical for her to rush to leave school right after the event.

  It was too much hassle to go home on Saturday morning and then return in the afternoon on Sunday.

  “I might polish my first-place or second-place trophy and then lie around all day.”

  The skeptical frown on her face made him crack a grin.

  “That was a joke,” he said.

  “Confident, are you?”

  “Maybe. It’d be interesting if someone other than Magnus or a senior took the trophy from me, though. I heard Jacqueline is participating this year.”

  She wondered if he was genuinely implying Jacqueline had a shot at beating him. Both he and Jacqueline were in the archery club, so it wasn’t unreasonable to assume he had a sense of Jacqueline’s skills and capabilities.

  “It would be interesting,” she agreed. “I’d like to see how she does."

  “Same here. What will you be doing for the weekend? Are you going home? Magnus mentioned you go home on the weekends.”

  “I usually do, but not this time because of the Hunting Race. I might go to the library and spend some of my Saturday there. The Reading Space is really nice.” She would probably go swimming in the evening too.

  “It is, isn’t it?” Titus said. “I prefer to use the recording rooms, though. You’ve made me want to go to the library now, but I’ll have to save that for after Friday.”

  “So instead of lying around all day, you’re going to the library instead?”

  “You omitted the part where I polish my new trophy. I like counting my chicks before they hatch.”

  “Why would you polish a new trophy? It’d already be shiny.”

  His lazy grin remained unchanged. “You can if you simply want to.”

  She snorted before even realizing she was about to do it. Belatedly covering the lower half her face with one hand, Blythe turned her head away. That was the opposite of being ladylike.

  To her shock, there was a flash of green.

  Why?!

  “It’s almost like you’re not Blythe,” he commented. “I’ve never heard you snort.”

  She cast her mind around for a reasonable enough response. “I was so taken aback by your ridiculous statement that … I forgot myself. It won’t happen again.”

  Actually, the chance that it would was fairly high. She used to do it quite often as Mira. The only reason she hadn’t done it more as Blythe was because she hadn’t had the chance to be comfortable enough and encounter something that was snort-worthy.

  Blythe had to try to actively remind herself most of the girls around her wouldn’t, and she shouldn’t either.

  “Shame. And I was about to say something conceited again, too.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, but Titus didn’t lose his smile as he started a new line of conversation.

  ???

  When school ended for the day, the girls all seemed to be rampaging in one direction—the stadium. Blythe, seeing the pandemonium in the hallways, hung back in the classroom and waited for the crowd to clear a little.

  Even the boys looked intimidated, glancing at each other and then back at the flooded hallway right outside the classroom.

  Professor Greene merely gathered her belongings and marched out of the room with a dignified air. The girls nearest to her seemed to gain some awareness and kept an appropriate distance, creating a little bubble around the professor as she walked.

  Jessica’s little quaker parrot flew above their heads into the room towards Blythe. In Jessica’s voice, it informed her of where her friends were seated in the stands so that she could find them.

  “Wish I was participating in it,” one of the boys muttered glumly.

  “Weren’t they worried you’d trip and fall and get mauled by one of your game targets?”

  A few of the other guys laughed, and the first guy’s face soured.

  “Very funny. I don’t want to hear that from someone who didn’t even dare to try again after failing to get in last year.”

  Jeers rose up from among them right as the attention shifted to the second guy.

  “Alex, that’s harsh. At least he didn’t apply for it just to get girls’ attention.”

  “Is that so bad?! I just want a token! A beautiful girl’s handkerchief!”

  The few girls remaining in the classroom shot extremely unimpressed looks at Alex. Blythe had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

  Before going to the stadium, Blythe popped by her room and replenished her stock of cookies. If she was going to spend the next couple of hours out there, she wanted to be prepared.

  Sophie and Jessica waved to her, their faces lighting up when they saw her approach. There were far more girls here now than there were during lunch. They massed in a large section of the stands rather than choosing to spread out more comfortably across the rest of the available space. A few guys were here as well, although they all sat away from the girls in smaller groups of twos and threes.

  To Blythe’s dismay, her friends had chosen to sit right smack in the middle of the crowd.

  “Hey,” she said, gingerly shuffling past the knees of a few girls in the same row.

  The girls she passed by all bowed their heads and greeted her. All around her was a constant buzz of girls talking to each other or over each other. If she strained her ears, she could make out some words and sentences. They were mostly talking about who they thought would win the competition, and how amazing some of the competitors this year were.

  “Hey, Blythe,” Sophie chirped, grabbing her bag off the chair she’d saved for her. “I think they’re about to use the power bows. I have my eye on Edward. He’s so good with them.”

  Sitting down on the wooden seat, Blythe rested her bag on her lap.

  “He’s a sixth year student,” Jessica said from Blythe’s other side.

  “And your point is?”

  “He has to be good. He’s had more years of practice.”

  “There are plenty of sixth and seventh year seniors who would beg to differ. Besides, Titus and His Highness are in our year, and they’re even better than most of the seniors.”

  “Yes, but they’re exceptionally talented, so they’re outliers.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes. “Just watch Clyde and let me enjoy looking at the people who know what they’re doing.”

  Blythe leaned over and whispered to Sophie, “What are power bows?”

  Sophie’s eyebrows shot up before furrowing.

  “Did you—You forgot …” She broke off into a whisper. “Power bows are bows with elemental gems embedded in them. You know, like how arrows released through bows enhanced with wind gems come with extra force and effects. There are two different categories the participants can win in—the regular hunt and the power hunt. The power hunt win is determined by who gets the biggest catch, and they use a power bow for that. They can only use a regular bow for accumulating the highest overall score in the regular hunt.”

  While she spoke, Blythe watched a staff member wheel out a cart of bows for the boys on the field to choose from. Magnus was already there, picking out a bow and walking away from the rest of the guys.

  “Thanks,” Blythe whispered back, eliciting a smile from Sophie and a flash of green light.

  “Anytime.”

  “Oh, there’s Jacqueline,” Jessica murmured to Blythe. “She looks so confident.”

  Even though she was the only girl with a bow on the field, Jacqueline stood upright and carried herself with an assertive air. She drew her bow. The instant the arrow hit the animal-shaped target that was several feet away, ice encased it.

  Blythe’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.