Once again, Allen was looking forward to another week at the academy. Although he is still stuck in the F rank, he still likes his class and his friends in it, and always looks forward to training with them.
However, the weeks following ahead will be different compared to before. Not only are they already a full month in, but Allen's first duel with Nathaniel Rivertide will be coming up soon. Nathaniel has yet to reach out to Allen about their confirmed date, but he figured he would be soon.
Allen wanted to find a day to meet up with William to talk to him about the duel. He wants advice on the matter, anything at all. While William will be limited to what he can do for Allen, he can at least offer advice. Their training days may be over, but their bond they formed over that course of five years still stands strong, even if they hadn't seen each other for a few years.
Allen was once again back in his class after touring the great city of London with Thomas and Cecily over the weekend. He sat next to the two as Ms. Florence was teaching. It was surprising, but Ms. Florence had begun to teach a bit more than usual. Either she had finally gotten bored of that same book she's been reading, she finished it, or maybe she just decided out of nowhere she wanted to teach more for whatever reasons she may have. Either way, Allen was glad to be learning more at the academy.
"So Allen, how'd you think of London?," Thomas asked, as class was now over.
"It was great, I enjoyed it a lot," Allen exclaimed.
"Would you want to go again someday?," Thomas asked. "Perhaps next time I'll have enough to buy some food for all three of us!"
"Sure, but I doubt you'll even have enough for yourself next time," Allen joked. Cecily started to laugh in the background as Thomas was caught off guard once more.
"I wouldn't mind going again," Cecily added as Thomas fell silent for a moment.
"Well, even if I don't get enough money, I hope just walking around the city is fun enough for all of us," Thomas said.
"Yeah, we can always eat at the cafeteria beforehand anyway. I don't mind, as I don't have any money either," Allen shrugged.
"So Allen, were you up for some training before we head back to our dorms?," Thomas asked.
"Actually, I have plans to meet up with William," Allen responded.
"William? Oh yeah, he was your mentor. I keep forgetting about that," Thomas said as he got lost in thought.
Crap, I said his first name again, Allen scolded himself.
"You forget everything. If I wasn't here, you'd forget what day it is," Cecily giggled.
"I-, you're right," Thomas agreed after realizing the truth to Cecily's statement. The three began to laugh again.
"What's it about? Is it about the duel?," Thomas guessed.
"Actually, yes it is. I was wanting to ask him for some advice. It is my first duel, after all," Allen said.
"I see. We'll see you later then," Thomas said as he and Cecily waved off Allen.
Allen began to walk towards William's office, remembering where it was since he has already been there twice. Previously, he was taken there by a student council member the first time, and Rose the second time, but this time he would be going there by himself.
He wasn't entirely sure if he could just walk in and talk to William, since he was the head director after all. The previous two times he was specifically requested to go and meet with him. This time, William isn't aware that Allen is going to see him.
Just as he arrived outside William's office, he could hear talking from inside. It sounded like William was talking to someone female, as he heard a middle aged feminine voice. Perhaps a teacher?
The conversation sounded very friendly, as both seemed to have friendly tones, and they would occasionally laugh sometimes. Allen couldn't quite tell what they were saying, he could only hear their voices.
Suddenly, their voices stopped for a moment. Allen was unsure why. Perhaps they finished talking? But why was it sudden?
"You can come in, Allen," William's voice was raised so Allen could hear him from outside the door. Allen was so surprised for a second he almost jumped in place. He was not expecting William to suddenly know he was there. Then again, this is William, so it shouldn't surprise Allen that much.
"I'm coming in," Allen said as he slowly opened the door. The door creaked as he opened it.
As Allen walked in, he saw two people in the room. The first one was, of course, William. He sat at his desk, with his head resting on his hands, the usual thing he did when he sat at a desk talking to or observing someone. It always gave him a sort of intimidating look, but Allen knew William was genuinely a nice person.
To the right of his desk was what looked like a middle aged woman. She must've been the woman that William was talking to. She was rather tall, almost as tall as William when he stands. She had beautiful blond hair, with blue eyes. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, and strands of her hair fell next to her eyes, like little tails dangling. There was a small blue ribbon tied to the left side of her hair, small enough to not notice if you didn't look closely but large enough to see from a decent distance. She looked pretty similar to Rose, Allen noted. Perhaps she was related to her in some way? She wore a formal blue suit, which looked similar to what the other teachers wore, but it looked a bit nicer compared to the normal teacher outfits.
"Welcome, Allen," William greeted him.
"Hi William," Allen greeted him back as he closed the door behind him.
The woman standing next to him had a confused look on her face. Most likely due to a student who she didn't know suddenly coming into the room.
"William, who's this?," she asked, gesturing towards Allen. "It sounds like you know him"
"I do know him. He's the one I've told you a bit about. He was the boy I mentored some years ago," he explained to her. "Go ahead and introduce yourself, Allen"
"Nice to meet you, my name is Allen Fleming," he introduced himself politely. If there was one thing his step-father taught him, it was how to politely introduce yourself.
"Wait William, this is him?," she asked, still having a confused look on her face as her eyes paced back and forth between William and Allen.
"Don't you think it's a little impolite to not introduce yourself first?," William asked her, with a slight grin on his face.
"Oh, I apologize," she said, as she lowered her head and with a hand on her chest. "My name is Martha Clark, and I am one of the vice directors of our academy. But you can call me Ms. Clark. Nice to meet you as well"
Allen suddenly remembered her from the entrance exam. She was one of the people sitting up next to William. During the entrance exam she had a bit more of a blank but curious expression on her face. Now however in William's office, she wore more of a relaxed, happy expression.
"Now that you two have been introduced, I must ask you a question Allen," William said as he directed his attention towards him. "What brings you here?"
"Ah about that," Allen said, remembering why he came there in the first place. "I wanted to talk to you about something that came up"
"And what that might be?," he asked while Martha was looking at both of them with a curious expression on her face.
"Ah, that's the thing," Allen said with a slight, embarrassed look on his face. "I wanted to ask you advice about duels"
William raised his eyebrow for a moment, and then his face immediately looked like he understood the situation even though Allen had barely said anything.
"So, who challenged you to a duel?," William asked, not averting his eyes away from him.
"Wait," Allen began to say as he was suddenly stunned. "I hadn't said anything about a challenge to a duel ye-"
"Allen, I know you very well. If you are asking about duels this early on, the only assumption is that someone has challenged you to a duel," he said, as he relaxed back into his chair. "So, who was it?".
Allen was planning to tell William about the duel, but not until after asking him a bit about duels beforehand. But it seems William had already figured him out from the beginning. He figured William probably knew the student he would be dueling since he was a Rivertide, so he went ahead and decided to just tell him in a straightforward fashion.
"I was challenged to a duel by Nathaniel Rivertide," he said as he scratched his head in embarrassment. He knew what he said would be a surprise.
After a slight moment of silence in the room, William finally sighed and put his hand on his forehead. "Of course you would," he said, as if he expected something like this.
Ms. Clark went from a curious to a surprised look on her face, as if she couldn't believe what she heard. "Nathaniel challenged you to a duel? And you accepted?"
"Yes, I did. This is the main reason why I am here," Allen responded.
"Well, it seems you will have quite the handful," Ms. Clark told William. "I will return at a later date to discuss what we were talking about"
"That would be best. I will see you later, Martha," William smiled at her.
"If you'll excuse me," she said as she started to slightly rush out of the room. For a second, it looked like her face was flushed. Was she blushing for a second?
"Well Allen, why don't you take a seat?," he gestured towards a seat in front of his desk.
Just like last time, Allen sat down in front of him. He waited for William to say something.
"Well, let me make it clear I won't ask you why you accepted the duel. I know Nathaniel, and I know you as well. I can already see the various possible reasons that would result in a duel between you," he explained. "So I will go with this instead. When is this duel?"
Suddenly William's office door was flung open. It hit the wall for a second, then slowly started to close. But the person who had just walked in had stopped it with her foot.
"William, I'm here," the girl stood at the doorway, crossing her arms. It was Rose Marion.
"Rose, what have I told you about banging that door open? The door's almost broken, and we just fixed it," William sighed as he put his hand back on his forehead.
"That door is already broken," she laughed as she pointed to the door, which Allen just noticed had all sorts of marks on it.
Her face turned white real quick the moment she noticed Allen was in the room, sitting in front of William's desk. "Wait, you're here?"
"Hello Rose," Allen greeted her with a wave.
"You're a bit earlier than I expected," William said with a grin. "Go ahead and take a seat. I will talk with you after I speak with Allen. It shouldn't take long"
Rose just stood there, stunned. It was like she had completely forgotten that Allen existed, or perhaps there was nowhere in her brain that expected Allen to ever drop by the room unexpectedly. Either case, she stood there dumbfounded and her face was flushed.
"William you didn't tell me he was going to be here!," she had raised her voice while pointing at Allen. Her voice was loud, but not overly aggressive. It was like the fact Allen was here wasn't the problem, more of the fact that he's here without warning was the issue. Allen couldn't tell exactly why him being here would make her act that way, but he just decided to let it go.
"Allen came here a bit, unexpectedly. Either way, we can discuss what you wanted to talk about a bit after, since you are still a bit early," William explained. "As far as I am aware, you're caught up on your student council duties, so I hope I won't be intruding on your time if you wait"
"I-, that's fine. But what is Allen doing here?," she asked, finally calming a bit down.
"Well you see," William began to say, clearing his throat. "Allen here was challenged to a duel by Nathaniel, and accepted"
Allen thought William said that a bit weirdly. It's as if he almost didn't want to tell her, but wouldn't be able to avoid the question. For a moment Rose stood there in silence, almost as if she was thinking to herself. The look on her face seemed to harbor a bit of regret. Allen wasn't sure why, but he would have to assume it had to do with Nathaniel in a way.
"YOU DID WHAT!?," Rose suddenly yelled, looking at Allen as if he blew up an entire town. Both William and Allen stood there for a moment, stunned at what she just did.
"Rose, there's no need to yell. You're going to collectively get all the teachers here at the academy to suddenly rush over to my office wondering what's going on," William tried to settle her down.
"My apologies," she said with an embarrassed looking face.
"Why don't you take a seat and we can all talk about it," William told her, gesturing towards the open seat to the right of Allen. "I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about it, provided you don't destroy my office in the process"
Allen wasn't sure exactly what to think about what just happened. It wouldn't be unlikely that she has some sort of history with Nathaniel. He's a Rivertide, and has a nasty personality. He and Rose may have had an altercation in the past before.
Her face was still a little flushed as she sat down in the chair. She readjusted her gloves and her skirt she wore once she sat down, then proceeded to comb her hair a bit with her hands. "So, care to explain?," she looked both at William and Allen, like they were in major trouble.
"Well, where to start," Allen began to think. His mind began to process what happened about a week ago or so. The altercation he and his friends had with Nathaniel.
"Why would you even accept a duel with Nathaniel Rivertide? Do you realize how powerful he actually is?," she looked at him with a serious yet concerned face, and spoke like she knew him a bit well.
"I could tell that he's stronger than he seems. My friends told me that he's apparently regarded as 'The Infamous C Ranker'," Allen explained.
"So why would you accept a duel from him knowing that?," she asked him. "Even with your sword, your magic is very weak. Nathaniel can exploit tha-"
"It's because he insulted my friends," Allen explained with a frustrated tone. "He said all kinds of rude things to them, and I couldn't stand it. He tried to use it as leverage to get me to duel with him too. I won't abide by someone who does such rude things to anyone. In the end, I accepted his duel because I want to defeat him and get him to stop being rude to my friends, and perhaps other people too"
Rose and William sat there for a second, taking in what Allen just said.
"Well, that's just like you Allen," William sighed. "But that's one of the reasons I like you. You're willing to step up for people you care about, and not many people can do something like that. It reminds me of-"
William had immediately cut off his sentence the moment he had started it. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but wasn't able to.
"Anyways even if he's like that, he's just someone you do NOT want to duel. As insulting as he may be, accepting a duel from him can be fatal," she explained in a slightly angry tone.
"Why do you say that?," Allen asked. "You say that as if you have dueled him yourself"
Rose was quiet for a moment. She seemed to have an irritated look on her face, but that irritation didn't seem to be directed at Allen. William also remained quiet, his eyes seeming to watch both of them.
"I did duel him… once," she finally said. "I dueled him last year, when I was a second year and he was a first year. The duel was… unpleasant to say the least"
"What happened, if I may ask? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Allen had asked while looking over at her.
"I- I can't say. Not because I don't want to, but because it was one of the conditions if I lost. If I lost to him, which I did, I can't tell anyone how he won," she explained, lowering her head.
Allen was thinking for a moment. Nathaniel wanted her to not tell anyone how he won? Perhaps one of his methods of winning is either something he wants to keep a secret, or is cheating in a way. It also almost sounds like he was already expecting to win. That just made Allen more pissed off at him than he already was. If Rose was an A rank and a year above Nathaniel, what chance does Allen have against Nathaniel? All he can hope for is to continue training and work hard.
"Nathaniel is a rather odd student, minus the bad things about him," William explained. "He purposely stays at his current rank even though he could easily be B rank or even A. He doesn't participate in any academy based events, and he certainly didn't participate in the Annual Magical Knights Tournament last year. Either he has a disdain for elemental magic, wants to just do what he feels like, or perhaps both"
"Seems like this will be a tricky matchup for me," Allen said while the three were all thinking. "I planned to train as hard as I could and as much as I could until the duel, but I'm not sure how much time I have. Nathaniel has yet to tell me the official date, but I feel like it is soon. I'm not entirely sure what to do, which is why I came here to talk to William about it…"
Allen went back to thinking again. What could he do? What could William do? There's only so much the head director of the academy could do for him without showing him favor. He also didn't really want to outright ask Rose for help, it wasn't her duel to begin with. He had been planning to train with Thomas and Cecily, as they offered to help train with him. The three had been training together recently anyways, so it wasn't too much different from what they are used to. Maybe if William told him a bit more on how duels work?
"Alright I've decided," Rose spoke confidently, as if she had just made up her mind.
"What might that be?," Allen asked her as he looked back at her.
"Ah, it seems it turned out as I thought," William chuckled.
Rose glared over at him for a moment, but chose to ignore him. She stood up from her seat quite suddenly and then looked at Allen. "I will train you, Allen Fleming," she said with a smile.
"Wait, what?," Allen looked at her, suddenly caught off guard and confused.
"But, only until your duel with Nathaniel. Once you finish dueling him, win or lose, that will be the end of our training," she explained.
Wait, Rose wants to train with me?, Allen thought, in disbelief. He took another moment before giving her a response.
"Alright, I'm fine with that. As long as you're okay with training me during that time, and you continue to train with me, I will try my best" he smiled back at her.
For a moment, her face went red. She probably wasn't expecting Allen to say what he did. After a brief moment, she cleared her throat and her face went back to normal.
"But, understand," she spoke with a confident, yet snarky-like tone. "These won't be your average training sessions. We will be training everyday after classes, from the moment it ends till the sun sets. It will be hard and vigorous training, so be prepared! Don't worry, this sort of training is nothing for me, but for you it may be a lot!"
"That doesn't sound too much different than my usual training, so count me in. I look forward to training with you then, Blue Rose," he responded back with a smirk on his face.
Her face turned even more red than it had been before. William was really trying hard not to laugh in the background, as he covered his mouth. Allen wasn't sure if Rose noticed him almost laughing, but Allen certainly noticed.
"H-how do you know about that nickname?!," her face was still red as she raised her voice.
"I heard it at the opening ceremony. Apparently that's what they call you. Interesting nickname, to say the least," Allen said as his smirk grew larger
"Oh right, I didn't think about that. E-either way, your training won't be easy. Prepare yourself, Allen Fleming!", she raised her voice as she pointed at him, before finally turning around and already leaving the room.
"I'll see you later then," Allen waved her off as she exited the room. She then slammed the door shut, and they could hear her footsteps once more as she got further away from William's office.
"Well, aren't you the lucky one Allen. Not only are you getting to train with an attractive female student, but she's also your senior as well," William teased Allen as he chuckled.
"I-, William, why do you always say such things? Even when you were training me when I was younger, you'd always tease me like this," Allen sighed.
William proceeded to chuckle again after hearing what Allen had said. Allen soon laughed afterwards. No matter what William teased Allen about, Allen always seemed to laugh afterwards. He knew William never meant harm by it, just a means to tease him.
"Wait, wasn't she here to talk to you as well?," Allen asked, remembering what Rose had said when she first walked in.
"Ah, that's right. She was here to talk to me about-," he stopped suddenly, then continued. "Well, I suppose she and I can talk on a later date. That, or she'll come back once she realizes why she was there in the first place"
"That also reminds me, I never really asked you about how duels work, did I?," Allen asked.
"Well you did ask, but Rose had intruded much earlier than I expected. Guess she was in a little of a rush like she is usually," he shrugged. "Well, we can talk about it on a later date if you wish. You still have the rest of the week to randomly intrude in my office again without a heads up"
"Yeah, maybe I should've told you that ahead of time," Allen looked away from William in realization.
"Ah, it's fine. But I hope you don't let other students see you and make them think it's ok to just come see and talk to the head director whenever they want. We wouldn't want that, now do we?," he asked as he smiled.
"Yeah of course," he responded. "Well, I'll ask you about it on another day, most likely this week. I'll also inform you when I hear back from Nathaniel when our official duel is"
"Looking forward to it," William smiled as Allen was heading out of his room. "Oh, and have fun with those training sessions with Rose now!"
"I-, it's just training!," Allen said with a slightly red face as he closed the door. The last thing he saw in the room was William laughing as he was waving Allen out of his room. It was going to be a long, several weeks ahead for sure.