A few weeks had passed since Kaze got introduced to Shiro.
Within that time period, Kaze had gotten to be a little more familiar with Shiro as well as Lunaria. Not only that, but Lunaria's three friends had also became close friends with Kaze. While they did not necessarily talk to him as much as Lunaria would, they were still friendly enough that they would randomly talk with him.
Even though Kaze had made significant improvements with his newfound group of friends, nothing had progressed with him and his classmates. While Kaze could have tried to approach them, he made the conscious choice not to other than during class activities and such. It wasn't like his classmates hated him, but they weren't that friendly with him. As such, it didn't create a toxic environment but rather became somewhat of a boring time in class.
Still, that didn't bother Kaze at all because he could always count on Lunaria to be his partner for the day, be it eating, studying, or just plain talking. It helped that Lunaria could choose who she wanted to hang out with most of the time due to her authority as a foreign princess, so she made time for Kaze daily. Perhaps she still did feel bad about Shiro biting his hand, but it was clear that both held good consideration for one another.
Today was the day where monthly tests would be conducted on students. Other than reading and writing within the boundaries of the classrooms, physical examination would be made on students by their teacher to see if they had kept up with training. As such, it didn't matter if one was weak against another student in physical combat, since they only had to show what that had been taught during class to score points. Of course, winning against another classmate would give one more points, but it was not enough to drastically change one's grades. Furthermore, magic tests would be judged based on one's affinity towards certain aspects.
Needless to say, it was a very complicated system but made easy with the help of magic. Teachers only needed to record down the marks and allow the pre-programmed system to do the tallying of marks before individually graded. The final results would then be double-checked by the class teacher and then told to the students. Since it was only a monthly test, it didn't count towards the final examination but served strongly as a reminder to both students and teachers on what they needed to work with.
"How did you do?" Rena asked Kaze. "I don't think you performed well, considering how you look right now."
"I don't really care. I didn't come last, so that's a relief," Kaze sighed, taking back his student report from the elf's hands. "I just need to work harder, that's all."
"Your physical tests aside, it seems like you have a really bad time with the more theoretical subjects," Lunaria commented carefully after she had examined his grades. "Do you need help? I can tutor you."
"Please do," Kaze grabbed Lunaria's hands in plea. "I'm already starting to get lost."
"What are you weak in? Exams here function differently than Aravel's, so it is hard to know how to teach you without me knowing what you are bad at," Lunaria nodded, taking out her notebook to make some notes on Kaze. "We will meet up in the library later today, okay? Yuuji, do you want to join us?"
"I'm fine without tuition, but thank you for the offer," Yuuji smirked at Kaze. "This is coming from someone who topped in class, so take my advice Kaze: just have Lunaria tutor you in everything, whether or not you got average or bad marks."
"I'm pretty sure she plans to, whether Kaze likes it or not," Shoko giggled as Kaze started to turn pale. "Don't worry, Lunaria isn't a monster. She is a pretty good teacher and an even better student. Wait till the first term exams come, I bet you will see Lunaria's name in the top 5."
"Top 3, at least," Lunaria corrected her friend before looking at Kaze. "Don't worry, I won't make you weaker than the nobles in your class. Besides, it is great to have study friends even if I am fine studying alone."
"You get to experience first-hand the difference between Aravel's teaching culture and Czech," Rena proudly declared. "While Sera and I came from Yvel, there was a point in time where we studied in Aravel with Lunaria before, so we know the difference immediately."
"If Lunaria wanted, she can qualify as a temporary teacher here," Sera pointed out. "That just goes to show you how capable our Lunaria is."
"Stop it you guys, you don't have to praise me so much," Lunaria smiled at her friends. "But it is true. Even if I do qualify to be a teacher, I can't imagine the hassle I have to deal with, so I figured being a student is probably better. Besides, mother and father feel better for me that way too."
"Woah, so Laevia-sama was involved in all this?" Shoko widened her eyes a little when Lunaria mentioned her parents. "I guess that's how we got transferred here in the first place huh?"
"Laevia-sama? Is that your mother or father?" Kaze asked Lunaria upon hearing an unfamiliar name.
"My mother. She is regarded as an important figure within the temples of Aravel and possibly mentioned in the history of the World too," Lunaria explained. "Remember how we talked about the war that took places hundreds of years ago? My parents took part in it and became one of the many major roles that influenced the tide of war. As such, mother had been revered as a Holy Saint due to her being an amazing medic."
"Oh, wow, so the records were true?" Yuuji raised an eyebrow at Lunaria's story, showing that he was impressed. "I have heard history records speaking of a certain saint, but I never expected it to be your mother. I guess it makes sense, considering that you are quite formidable yourself, Lunaria."
"Thank you for the compliments, but yes," Lunaria giggled. "I haven't even talked about my father yet."
"Woah, you probably don't want to go there unless you want Kaze to faint," Rena sighed, seeing that Kaze was already starting to look lost at the history of Lunaria's family. "Here's a simple explanation though, her father's a war hero in a sense."
"Heh~ it does make me wonder why Aravel is still so conservative with outsiders even though they seem to have quite the powerful rulers," Yuuji mused at this.
"We… have our reasons," Lunaria plastered a smile on her face while Sera and Rena glanced at each other nervously. "If you ever do get invited or have permission, you will know why."
Later that afternoon, Kaze headed over to the library with Lunaria after lunch. Yuuji and the others tagged along since they had nothing to do either.
"Alright, let's see," Lunaria huffed as she went through the list of subjects with Kaze. "Let's start with history. It is supposedly something easy to understand but I can see why you would be weak at it."
"I guess? I just don't like how there are so many details cramped together," Kaze told Lunaria his problems with said subject. "It is interesting when there are parts with stories, but then you have to memorise details like how many people made this, who did that…"
"Yes, I can see that," Lunaria smiled at him complaining, finding it normal for his sort of problem. "I will devise a way and teach you how to memorise easily. If this was truly your only problem, we don't have to worry about it. I'm sure more problems would surface in the future though."
"Erm, next would be Magical Perception," Kaze tilted his head and went down the list. "I don't know why I scored lower than expected for this. I thought I did quite well with my theory work."
"Ah, most probably due to the way you answered the questions," Lunaria immediately spotted his problem when she looked at his worksheet. "I can tell it's not that you lack the knowledge, but rather you don't have the technique to answer. Here, for example this…"
"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said she was good at this," Yuuji sweatdropped as he watched Lunaria in teacher mode. "I sort of want her to teach me now too."
"You can request her help if you want," Sera shrugged, flipping through her textbook. "But I doubt you need it since you are a 'top-scorer'."
"It's not like I undermine the effort I put in, but I think it would be beneficial for me to learn too," Yuuji chuckled at this. "Well, let's see how I perform in the first term exam. The upcoming tests should be fine."
"We shall see. The test this time had good questions in it too, but it is likely the difficulty will continue to rise in anticipation of the exam," Shoko smiled. "Not that it would be a problem for us. I guess living a long life helps."
"But the quality of education and the contents are slightly different from nation to nation," Rena reminded them, careful not to distract Kaze from Lunaria. "So, Shoko, please don't embarrass Lunaria in the exam. We know how you tend to flop papers due to your inconsistent studying attitude."
"I got it, I will try not to flop then," Shoko giggled, leaving the study group to continue working for the rest of the afternoon.
After a while, some of them decided to leave first since they had other work to do too. Not to mention that they had registered for school clubs as well, they had their extra-curricular work to do too. It wasn't compulsory to join a club based on the rules, but it would give one newfound experience and friends.
Kaze didn't join a club so he wasn't too busy, but Lunaria was already part of the student council. While this meant that she would be much busier, she seemed to be managing her time well enough that she was able to stay the entire afternoon with Kaze until they decided to leave.
"How's student council work?" Kaze asked Lunaria as they left the library. "I figured you would be occupied with work."
"Oh, it's nothing much for the time being," Lunaria shrugged. "I'm new there, so not much work has been delegated to me. They did offer me a higher position, but I don't know whether or not I want to commit yet or switch clubs. There are a variety of interesting clubs after all, so it might be better not to accept their offer just yet. What about you Kaze? You don't seem too busy yourself too."
"Oh, I don't have a club," Kaze smiled wryly at this. "I'm not sure whether or not I should join one."
"Why not? It's not like you have anything better to do other than studying," Lunaria stated. "Here, let's go and find you a club now."
Dragging Kaze along with her, Lunaria brought them to the bulletin board located in the main hall of the school compound. Clubs and other activities would have their registration and details pasted on the bulletin board to attract the students to join them. Especially since the club opening week had commenced a few days ago, clubs were still in the process of attracting newcomers,
"Is there anything that catches your eye?" Lunaria asked Kaze, who was aimlessly looking from paper to paper. "If you want to, you can join me in the student council too. We manage a range of work, but mainly help to host big events that happen throughout the year."
"Nah, I don't want to deal with more paperwork when I already have schoolwork," Kaze shook his head at the proposal. "Maybe we should mark down a few clubs and check them out."
"Sure, that would work too," Lunaria nodded. "Maybe the Magic Research club, the horse-riding club, Astronomy club…."
Over the next few days, Kaze went around school checking out some of the clubs that seemed to have caught his interest. As Lunaria had not fully set on the student council yet, she decided to follow him and explore the available clubs. Students were not limited to one club, but they had to commit to whatever club they decided on, so they were advised to choose wisely. If Lunaria wanted, she could also choose to join 2 or even 3 clubs at the same time, provided that she was interested.
Each club they went to, most of the members freaked out when they realized the dragonkin princess came to their doors. Needless to say, they were desperate to have the talented Lunaria join them. As such, Kaze and Lunaria had to deal with endless bombardments with relentless persuasion from each club whenever they were ready to leave. Bribes and positions were offered to make them stay, but none worked as the two continued to move on.
Heading over to the training grounds, the next club they wanted to look at are the archery club and the sword fighting club. Both were sports-based, so it made sense they would be held at the location where students had their physical classes.
Upon arrival, Kaze and Lunaria were not surprised to see the number of students in the sword fighting club. It made sense that many people were interested in such a club, since everyone wanted to hone their individual fighting skills while taking a break from studying all day.
"L-Lunaria-sama, are you two here to register for the sword fighting club?" One of the male seniors who noticed them immediately started stammering when he realized the two approaching.
"Oh no, they're joining our club," a member from the archery club stated aloud. "Lunaria-sama, may I interest you in-"
"We haven't decided on joining a club yet, but I am only here to help my friend to find a club," Lunaria interjected before things got out of control. "Please, we are interested to have a look around and a brief rundown of what both clubs have to offer."
"Certainly," both members nodded and began showing them around.
"The sword fighting club itself is pretty standard," the male senior explained first, bringing them to the area where their club session was conducted. "We have activities two to three times a week, twice on weekdays and once on weekends. You can choose to come on either one of the days on weekdays, but it is compulsory to attend on the weekends. Now let me introduce you to some of our prominent members and committees."
Moving from one member to the other, every one reacted exactly as both Kaze and Lunaria imagined they would when they saw her. Some were surprised to see Lunaria, some acted confident, some wanted to show off their sword skills and such. At this point, it had gotten normal for the both of them that they began to treat the senior's excited words as background noise at this point.
"… And here we have a new member who just joined," the senior moved on to another female. "She is none other than the daughter of the Knight Commander of Tristania: Noel Severn Oste."
"Noel?" Lunaria's ears perked up at this. "Isn't that the friend Yuuji was talking about?"
In response to her question, Kaze merely shrugged as he wasn't sure as well. While the name certainly was Noel, he hadn't seen her before so Kaze could neither confirm nor deny the fact.
In front of them stood a girl holding two swords in hand. From the way she stood to the way she swung the swords, it was clear that she was a dual wielder, a sub-class of swordsman that focuses on offensive power more than defensive. The cons of using two swords far exceed that of using one, but it works extremely well for one who had put in the effort to master the craft of dual wielding. One reason for using a single sword was that it was hard enough to control the weight and momentum of swinging a sword, so dual wielding only made it harder.
In order to combat this issue, many dual wielders chose to use a different type of sword as compared to the normal ones used. While there were several types of styles that one can choose to wield, the one thing in common was that the swords were lighter than normal swords. In exchange for making it weigh less, the swords itself were more brittle and did not have as much endurance. People who could afford the material would switch to use higher-end ores like orichalcum, that was naturally light yet durable.
Kaze and Lunaria watched Noel practising her fighting style. With a magic dummy in front of her that was capable of self-repairing after being destroyed to a certain extent, she swung her swords skilfully at the dummy. Since the dummy had the capability to defend itself, it served to be a challenge for the combatants. This didn't seem to be a problem for Noel, who brutally powered her way through the dummy by slicing off both of its arms and ending it with a forceful kick. The dummy got blown away instantly, flying backwards against the wall.
"Ooo," Kaze widened his eyes at this and Lunaria lightly clapped for Noel.
Noel, who was now unoccupied, noticed her guests and approached the two.
"Lunaria-sama," Noel bowed lightly to her and turned to Kaze. "Is this your friend?"
"Yes, this is Kaze," Lunaria introduced him to Noel. "He is here to consider whether or not to join the sword fighting club."
"Hm, are you good?" Noel asked Kaze, narrowing her eyes at him. "I want to hear it from you, not her."
"Erm… I'm pretty good I guess," Kaze nodded, wanting to be humble since there could very well be people leagues ahead of him. "I can hold a fight with Lunaria."
"I would say we are evenly matched, but we don't have the chance to go serious so I can't say so too," Lunaria agreed with Kaze.
At her words, Noel merely nodded and threw Kaze a sword. Kaze instantly knew what this meant the moment he caught it, meaning that Noel wanted to test out his abilities by herself. Lunaria and the others who were near them backed off normally, not wanting to be caught up in the trial run.
"Go easy on him Noel," one of the nearby members called out to her. "We don't want you beating up another person this week."
"Shut it, I can control myself," Noel sighed and raised her sword at Kaze. "Ready when you are."
At her words, Kaze held the sword firmly in his hand and ran towards Noel. He could tell that this was not like normal training sessions, but something that would determine how he ranked in Noel's eyes. Kaze did not know if this would count as an entry test to the sword fighting club, but he was interested in how strong Noel was from Yuuji's words alone. Being the daughter of the Knight Commander, she must be that strong to be able to serve as Yuuji's escort.
When they came into contact, Noel's blonde ponytail fluttered behind her violently at the force exerted by Kaze's swing. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise and quickly deflected it when she felt how heavy his single swing was, twisting her wrist sideways and changing the direction of his sword. Kaze was quick to recover from the deflection too, doing a frontal flip in the air to quickly manoeuvre behind Noel.
Thrusting his sword forward, Noel rolled herself forward on the floor and at the same time used the back of her foot to kick his sword upwards, giving herself space to retreat. Once she regained her footing, she twirled twice while remaining close to the floor and swiped Kaze off of his feet, causing him to fall and Noel to pounce on him. Instead of separating his head from his body, her sword caught his as Kaze was quick to catch himself. Noel did not stop there but continued to apply pressure on Kaze, swinging down her sword repeatedly at different parts of his body.
Once Kaze found an opening, he pushed himself off the ground with one hand and began pushing forward now, facing off against Noel head on. Noel wouldn't allow Kaze to gain the advantage just like that, prompting her to receive his exchanges too. With each swing, Kaze was beginning to feel ecstatic as he knew that Noel was someone very formidable. Noel felt the same too, her breathing starting to get heavier as time went on with their never-ending exchange.
"Should we stop them? They are using real swords after all," one of the members who was watching nearby nervously asked the male senior.
"Shouldn't it be fine? Plus, I don't have the confidence to step in," the senior shivered. "One wrong move and I would be injured too."
"It's fine, we can watch," Lunaria smiled calmly at this. "It is almost over anyway."
As Kaze swung downwards to try to break their consecutive exchanges, Noel leapt back this time since she didn't want to fall under one of Kaze's powerful strikes again. Kaze didn't let this stall him, instead changing the trajectory of his sword and sending a powerful gust of wind right at Noel. This blew her back slightly, but it was enough for Kaze to keep on the pressure.
"Should we end this?" Kaze asked, panting lightly as sweat trickled down his brow. "I don't feel comfortable fighting in our school attire."
"I'm fine with it," Noel smiled, brandishing her sword. "In exchange, allow me to present you with one of my moves."
Running towards Kaze, Noel brought forth a second sword in hand since she had been fighting with one sword this whole time. What this meant was that she intended to take him seriously, causing Kaze to furrow his brows in alert.
What that happened next left most people with their mouth agape. As Noel was about to strike Kaze, her body disappeared and reappeared behind Kaze. It looked as though she had used magic along with her sword skill to face off against Kaze, since there was no way anyone would be able to move that fast in front of so many people. While Kaze was caught off-guard at first, he quickly turned his body around and was barely able to catch one of her swords. However, since she was dual wielding, Kaze lost from her second sword ending up right next to his neck.
"I win," Noel made a satisfied smile at this before retracting. "Thank you, this was a good fight."
"Damn it, I didn't know you can use magic," Kaze chuckled as he stood back up. "Or was that a special skill."
"It's one of the sword styles I developed myself," Noel nodded at his words and shook his hand. "I'm surprised you reacted to the first strike. Kaze, I will acknowledge you. It just goes to show I have a lot to improve on."
In the end, Kaze ended up joining the sword fighting club even though he lost. If anything, he was able to hold his own against such a formidable opponent, so it was no surprise that the club welcomed him with open arms. Lunaria did not choose to sign up though, causing some of the members who claimed to be her 'die-hard' fans to sob as the two left.
"… Kaze, why did you hold back?" Lunaria asked him once they had left. "At the last part, when she made an illusion of herself. I could see you reacting much earlier to it."
"Ah, that? It's not like I wanted to, but I couldn't get used to her sword," Kaze scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "It was unlike mine or the wooden swords we used, so I wasn't able to match it to my own reaction."
"Hmm, alright then, I will believe you," Lunaria nodded. "But it was a bit of an unfair fight since she could dual wield."
"Not necessarily," Kaze looked at Lunaria. "There are ways to counter her dual wielding, but I will accept this loss."
"Noel, how was the fight?" One female member came up to Noel after Kaze and Lunaria left. "It was natural to assume that you won."
"Did I?" Noel answered back with a sigh. "Look at this."
Noel showed the member the sword that she lent Kaze, seeing that upper part of the blade had a minuscular crack in it.
"Is that crack from the violent exchanges you two did?" The member asked quizzically.
"No, it was from the first strike," Noel laughed aloud. "Ahh, who knew that there would be someone able to chip my sword from a single strike alone? I wish we had been able to cross swords longer if it was not for you."
"Don't make it seem like it was my problem," one student approached Noel from the corner with a grin. "You were the one that didn't want to show me your sword style, no matter how much I requested of you."
"Well, you are my rival after all, it would be inappropriate to allow my rival to gain advantages on me," Noel pouted at him. "Plus, I can also comment on how you never show up to club before. If you want to see me fight, then face me seriously."
"Hmm, I wonder about that. What do you think of Kaze?"
"As I said, I want to be able to fight him again."
"You will be able to, now that he has joined the club. Was I not wrong about him?"
"…."
"Come on, you have to admit he is interesting."
"…. Fine, I will admit you are right… again."
"Alright then, I will be off now~"
"Hm?! Come back here Yuuji!!"