Kaze was in the middle of his studies when he got interrupted by Lunaria.
"Kaze, do you have some time to hear me out? I want to go through the schedule of our exam with you," Lunaria asked him in a hushed voice, considering they were in the library.
"Um, yeah, sure," Kaze looked around before nodding at her. "What's up? It's not like you to be nervous about exams."
"Oh no, I don't mean it like that. I meant I want to make sure that you don't score something average under my watch," Lunaria pretended to be angry at his words, plopping down on the seat opposite him like usual.
"In the first place, what is 'average' for you?" Kaze gulped at Lunaria's expression. "The only reason I ask this is because you scored 95% on your test and said it was bad."
"It could have been 98%, but that's beside the point," Lunaria blushed lightly at his words because she knew what he said reflected her stubborn attitude. "I have been tutoring you for 3 months, of course I don't want to see my effort going down the drain. I have set a goal for you: get at least 85% on every paper, including practical."
"Wait, that's already raising the bar too high. How about 60% on average?"
"85%."
"65%?"
"75%, no more bargaining."
"… What happens if I can't meet the goal?"
"Then, it's more hell for you."
"Geh… study hell is scary," Kaze shuddered at the fact that Lunaria was smiling but her eyes reflected a different emotion entirely.
"Hehe, it's necessary for you to have good grades after all," Lunaria opened one of her notebooks while saying so. "What about the individual examination? Have you prepared a strategy?"
"Um… not really. I was thinking of just performing well on the day," Kaze felt a chill running down his spine knowing that Lunaria probably already planned for that too. "How else can you plan for it other than studying the map?"
"Hmm, I suppose you haven't really thought it through then," Lunaria sighed softly before smiling. "It's alright, I understand. I won't nag you for that since everyone has a different approach to it. However, I won't be going easy on your studies alright?"
"Like I said, how are you so capable…"
After another gruelling afternoon of studying, Kaze and Lunaria headed back to their dorms. By now, the two had gotten used to the stares that they received from them walking together. If anything, Kaze wondered how people weren't tired of being jealous of him for being Lunaria's friend. They could if they tried hard enough, but he knew Lunaria had her reasons for sticking with him most of the time too. It was most probably because he saved her that one time and she didn't want to trouble him, but Lunaria seemed to just want to stay with him. It was like how Yuuji chose to stuck to Kaze even with how many friends he had too.
"Kaze, want to get something to eat on the way back?" Lunaria suggested, completely disregarding the vibes they were getting. "We can take a short detour to the market area."
"I'm fine with that, but I'm a little tight on money so I will just watch you eat," Kaze nodded.
"Ehh, then let me treat you. I don't want to make you watch," Lunaria hooked her arm around his, attaching her close to him so that he wouldn't escape.
Kaze knew that when Lunaria got like this, she wouldn't change her mind no matter how hard he tried to bargain with her. As such, all he could do was nod helplessly and allowed her to lead the way.
"K-Kuh, Lunaria-sama is pulling that guy's arm again…."
"I want to be him…"
Various grunts and complaints could be heard once Lunaria began dragging him off with her. Kaze found it a little embarrassing that a girl such as Lunaria was so easily ordering him around and dragging him without a care for the world.
They quickly arrived at the marketplace. Thankfully, Lunaria had stopped holding onto his arm and had decided to maintain a suitable distance away from him to show that they were merely friends. If word got out that Lunaria was constantly holding onto him, rumours would destroy both of their school lives. In the first place, Kaze wondered why no rumours about him had already started. It could probably be due to Lunaria's indirect interference, or because the students didn't dare to go up against Lunaria after the first incident.
"Here you go," Lunaria passed him a paper bag containing some fried chicken balls.
"Ah, thank you," Kaze accepted it properly from her and used the pointed stick to poke the chicken balls. "Dragonkins really do eat a lot huh?"
"Yes, unfortunately it's true," Lunaria nodded, her mouth already filled with chicken. "I have to take care of my image in school so I can't eat much. This is the duty of a princess as well."
As the two walked off the main street, a red-haired girl suddenly stopped in front of them.
"What are you doing with Lunaria-nee?!"
The girl had her arms crossed across her chest, glaring scarily at Kaze.
The first thing Kaze noticed about her was her hair. It was flaming red, somewhat reminding him of a flower back in his hometown that was known for its eye-catching colour and beauty. Aside from her sharp features such as her long eyelashes and well-groomed appearance, his eyes automatically locked onto her ample bosom without realizing it himself. Her black knee socks only helped to accentuate her sexual appeal, although her outfit covered most of her body other than her lower half.
"Oh, Lunatea," Lunaria widened her eyes at the girl. "What are you doing here?"
"I came over to visit you, Lunaria-nee, but here I find that you are walking together with another guy," the girl whom Lunaria called Lunatea responded roughly. "Are you on a date?"
"W-Wait, it's nothing like that," Kaze hurriedly tried to defend himself. "We were on our way back when Lunaria decided to stop by for some food."
"Let's take this someplace else," Lunaria muttered. "We're attracting too much attention."
With a snap of her fingers, the three were suddenly shifted to a different location. They were now back in Lunaria's room, a place that by right should not have been possible to simply teleport into considering the magic defences in place. However, Lunaria was someone who should not be taken lightly and it was to be expected of her that she was able to easily crack through the defence.
"Lunaria?!" Kaze turned to her, wondering why she teleported them. "You can teleport?!"
"You… dare step foot in Lunaria-nee's room?!!" Lunatea didn't seem bothered by the fact they were in a different location from earlier and approached Kaze.
Lunatea reached over to his collar and pulled him towards her. The moment she did that, Kaze's fighting instincts kicked in. The anxious look on his face disappeared and he swiftly grabbed hold of her arm, one hand on her radius and the other on her humerus. With a quick breath inward, he lifted her entire body using her arm and slammed her onto the ground in an astonishing 180-degree swing.
"Wha-?!" Lunatea only reacted when she was mid-air.
However, she wasn't going to allow him to defeat her so easily. Just as she was about to hit the floor, she used her other hand to twist her body so that her feet could touch the floor while still keeping hold to his arm. Kaze was surprised that she managed to react so quickly, considering he took her by surprise.
Making use of the fact he was still gripping her arm, she twisted her body a little and tried to drop a back kick into his stomach. Kaze managed to narrowly avoid it, but Lunatea continued her attacks. She focused a few more low kicks at his inner leg, wanting to disable his mobility so she could drop him to the floor. Kaze wasn't going to allow that, moving backwards and shuffling between her kicks with great difficulty due to how hard she was squeezing his arm.
"Stop dodging! Just accept your punishment for getting too close with Lunaria-nee!" Lunatea shouted in frustration at Kaze, twisting his arm sideways so he would bend to his knees from the pain.
"Like I said, I didn't do anything wrong!!" Kaze shouted back, flinging his elbow towards her from the front.
Lunatea was forced to avoid it by ducking below. This gave Kaze the opportunity to retract his arm from her. Pulling her forward in the process, she got knocked onto the floor as a result. To ensure she did not try anything funny, he pressed his knee against her stomach with enough pressure that he didn't cause her to choke.
"W-Wha…." Lunatea, still stunned by the swift action that was taken by Kaze, was unable to form her words properly. "H-How did…"
"Mm, as you can see Lunatea," Lunaria smiled proudly at the outcome and bent down next to her pinned sister. "I can trust Kaze."
"Oh, um, so sorry about this," Kaze quickly got off of Lunatea and gulped. "L-Lunaria, please forgive me for fighting with your sister."
"I enjoyed watching it personally. I have never seen you fight without your sword before," Lunaria patted his head as though she was trying to comfort him, which was all the more demeaning considering she was a little shorter than him. "It was a good experience."
"Please stop us from fighting next time," Kaze sighed and shook his head.
"L-Lunaria-nee…" Lunatea slowly got up from the floor with Kaze helping to pull her up. "Why…?"
"Why did I say that I trust Kaze based on the fact he managed to pin you down?" Lunaria raised an eyebrow, guessing the rest of the sentence. "I don't think I can convince you to trust him the way I do, but I can assure you he isn't a bad person."
"… If Lunaria-nee said so, then it might be true after all…" Lunatea mumbled and turned to face Kaze. "U-Um, your name is Kaze right? I'm Lunatea Arve Rentaria, the second princess of the Rentaria royal family. I'm… sorry for assaulting you and accusing you. It was dumb of me…"
With her words, Lunatea bowed at Kaze as a form of apology.
"Please, don't worry about it. I was a little freaked, but I guess you can say I got used to it," Kaze smiled wryly as he scratched the back of his head, feeling bad that he got an apology from Lunaria's sister. "I haven't been treated any better at school."
"Hm? Wait, are you by chance someone without any social status?" Lunatea asked and sighed when she received a silent confirmation from him. "Ah, I can see why Lunaria-nee took pity on you then. I'm sure there are other people who suffer from the same problem like you did, but Lunaria-nee must have chosen to be friends with you for your kindness and good faith."
"Uhh… I don't know how much of what you said is true, Lunatea-sama, but I trust your words more than I do with my perception," Kaze smiled wryly at this.
"Lunatea will do. If Lunaria allowed her to call you without any honorifics, I will allow you to do the same," Lunatea stated and looked away. "B-But don't call me that in public, I don't want you to sully my good name."
"Sorry, Lunatea's a bit of a tsundere," Lunaria giggled at her sister's usual antiques as Kaze felt baffled by her contradictory statement. "Once you get closer to her, she opens up a little more."
"M-Mou, I'm not a tsundere, I'm just not as open to strangers as you are Lunaria-nee," Lunatea pouted a little at her elder sister's words, her tail wagging in slight frustration behind her.
Seeing that the situation had calmed down, the three of them sat down together and began talking, though it was mainly about what Lunaria had been doing over the past 3 month and who Lunatea was.
"Kaze, I haven't told you about the rest of my siblings yet, have I?" Lunaria suddenly remembered. "So Lunatea here is only the second of my 5 sisters. The third princess is Lucentia, followed by a pair of twins. They are Lunaea and Luniel."
"Um… okay, that's a lot to take in," Kaze nodded slowly. "So… the royal family of Aravel has no sons?"
"Unfortunately, that's the case," Lunatea sighed, shaking her head. "It's not like we bother since we can still be future rulers, but the real problem is finding a suitable marriage partner."
"I'm sure you have heard of this topic from me before, so let's not mention it again," Lunaria looked a little glum at this topic, knowing it was something unavoidable.
"Um… so, that aside, what about your sisters?" Kaze quickly shifted the topic aside as it was clear that Lunaria clearly wanted to avoid talking about it. "Lucentia, Lunaea and Luniel."
"Yes. All of them have their respective strengths and weaknesses, which is what makes all of us different even though we were brought up in similar environments," Lunaria nodded, feeling a little better that the mood had changed. "For example, while all of us have graduated from school a long time ago, we all have different interests. Lunaea and Luniel are both excellent researchers who help to develop the country's most advanced tech."
"Oh wow, that's impressive," Kaze smiled at the mention of this. "I can tell that you are all talented people."
"Mm hm, but it was really because mother and father are both very considerate dragonkins who allow us to expand on our interests," Lunatea admitted without shame. "But honesty, I don't think I'm talented at anything…"
"Now, now, aren't you being humble?" Lunaria nudged the red-haired dragonkin lightly. "For someone who has developed her own sword style, that is not an easy thing."
"You developed your own sword style?" Kaze widened his eye at this, for he knew how difficult it was to create a sword style from scratch in the first place, which was also the reason why many chose to imitate and learn already existing sword styles.
"I-It really isn't like that. I just added magic here and changed a few techniques from already existing sword styles, that's all…" Lunatea muttered, blushing lightly at the praise she was receiving. "I was never good in school or paperwork, so I did what I could."
"While it might sound a little hard to describe, it is indeed an amazing achievement," Lunaria happily explained to Kaze. "Lunatea combined a few existing sword styles from history into one complex mechanic, and then expanded from there."
"Huh, that explains why your hands felt different," Kaze grinned at Lunatea, showing his respect to her. "It had the feel of someone who worked hard, someone who was clearly refined and talented with the sword."
"… I will accept your praises, but don't think that this will cause my personal evaluation of you to increase."
"Hehe, I got it. What about Lucentia? Is she a writer or a tamer?"
"Nope. She is actually an excellent performer. She dances and sings well, which is something we all don't excel at."
Lunaria and Lunatea smiled at the thought of her younger sister. It was clear that the two of them were proud of each other, even though they were different and didn't share the same interests.
"Ah, but without a doubt Lunaria-nee is the best. While Lunaria-nee does not have anything she specializes in, she can do everything we can," Lunatea explained.
"A jack of all trades, master of none," Kaze chuckled. "That sounds like Lunaria alright."
"I would say that it's more like Lunaria is a master of everything, but that is alright too," Lunatea nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with Kaze.
"Why are you two teasing me so much now?! Just a while ago, you two were fighting and now you are working together," Lunaria blushed brightly at this and looked away, hugging her own tail to bury herself in shame. "I'm not that amazing…"
"You know that isn't true," Kaze had a serious look on his face while saying so. "I mean it. You are amazing both academically and physically. Combined with your beauty and sword skills, I don't think there isn't anyone who wouldn't agree with me that you are near perfect."
"F-Fwah?!!"
At his words, Lunaria's blush only further deepened to the point that even the tip of her pointy ears turned red. While Lunaria was used to decades of praises and compliments thrown at her, this was one of the few times that she felt too abashed to respond properly. She couldn't even remember the last time she felt this way, making it one of the times where her weak and natural self was exposed unintentionally.
Lunaria reacted to Kaze by diving under the covers of her bed, throwing the blanket over her entire body and curling up into a ball. At this point, she didn't have the courage to face Kaze after all he had said. Kaze had to look away when she did this to prevent himself from seeing her upskirt by accident.
"Ahh, there she goes," Lunatea giggled, noticing the tip of Lunaria's tail sticking out from under the covers. "You went overboard Kaze."
"E-Eh?? But I thought that Lunaria was used to these sorts of praises all the time…" Kaze faltered at the response given, feeling a little devastated by it.
"Lunaria-nee probably won't come out for another half an hour, so I suggest you to leave," Lunatea told Kaze, standing up. "I will be here for a bit more before heading back."
"To Aravel? Ah, dragonkins can transform and travel quickly in your dragon form," Kaze quickly agreed and got up.
"Mm, I had to get permission from father for this because we aren't allowed to cross the borders between nations so easily," Lunatea sighed. "I used magic and travelled way above the detection limit of Tristania, so please don't report me to the authorities."
"I understand, Lunatea," Kaze nodded. "Please give Lunaria my apology, if I said anything wrong."
"Ah wait, you can't leave from the front door," Lunatea stopped him from opening the door. "We are in the girls' dorms, aren't we? Unless you want to give Lunaria-nee a bad impression, I suggest you allow me to teleport you. It was nice meeting you, Kaze."
With a snap of her fingers, a magic circle appeared under Kaze's feet and he was back at the alley where he met Lunatea earlier. It seemed that the teleportation spell could only send one to places that they had memories of, but it also required extra effort to bypass problems like magical barriers or cover far distances. Since Lunatea only remembered where she met him and Lunaria, she sent Kaze back there where no one could see him suddenly appearing out of thin air.
Once Kaze had left, Lunatea turned around and began convincing Lunaria to stop hiding already as it was just the two of them. Even then, she still needed a good 15 minutes before Lunaria reluctantly removed the blanket over herself.
"So, Lunaria-nee, who is Kaze?"
Lunatea prompted the said question to Lunaria before they went to bed that night. Since she needed to leave the next day, Lunatea decided it be best to find out from Lunaria herself to prevent any lingering doubts.
"Hmm? Umm… where do I start?" Lunaria muttered, stripping naked as she prepared to take a bath with Lunatea.
"Well, you have only known him for 3 months, so it probably isn't that hard to explain," Lunatea shrugged and got in the bath as well. "I have to say, you really didn't have to modify the bathroom to have such a large bathtub."
"I-I couldn't help it okay, you know how much I love soaking in bathtubs," Lunaria fumbled with her words. "But back to the topic. From what I know, Kaze was raised as an orphan in a church far up north. He grew up in a small town there and left to Tristania to study."
"Oh? So, he's an orphan huh," Lunatea muttered, her silky hair flowing down and covering her ample bosom in the water. "He sure doesn't seem like it, based on his mannerism and speech pattern."
"Yes, he must have received good education," Lunaria nodded, her gaze stuck on a faraway place. "His accent was a little strange at the beginning, but he has adapted to speak normally like us."
"Still, a church. Do you think it has anything to do with mother?" Lunatea asked. "I don't know the extent of influence her doctrine has on the human nation."
"I don't either, but all I can say is that he grew up in a good environment," Lunaria smiled at this. "Plus, he seems to be attached to Tiel-sama. It's not obvious since he isn't a devout believer, but he does uphold the values that are equivalent to what Tiel-sama's believers would teach."
Tiel-sama, or Goddess Amitiel, was one of the few goddesses that the human realm believed in. While she didn't have a specific title or class, it was said that Goddess Amitiel would descend to the human realm from time to time to deliver her teachings or to simply visit the humans and beastkins alike. Until now, no one had seen Goddess Amitiel up close before but the churches that were established around the area worshipped gods and goddesses equivalent to Goddess Amitiel for the same reason.
"What about his sword skills? I think he should be quite good based on the way he fought with me," Lunatea continued her questions. "He could also tell that I train based on the condition of my hand from a simple touch."
"I would say it's… unique," Lunaria answered after a bit of contemplation. "We fought once seriously before, and our training swords shattered upon impact."
"Shattered??? Do you mean it broke apart or it completely broke down?" It was Lunatea's turn to be baffled by Lunaria's words.
"It was a pure display of brute power," Lunaria gleefully nodded her head. "I was even forced to use reinforcing magic, but I was a little too late as I never expected that sort of impact."
"B-But... that means he… didn't use magic?" Lunatea's voice gradually became smaller until the last word was barely audible. "He didn't even look capable of doing something like that…"
"Lunatea, maybe Kaze does not know how to use magic in his attacks, but I don't think that could be considered a handicap in itself," Lunaria stated softly. "If he continues to develop down this path, what do you think the outcome would be?"
"… But that would mean he can be easily countered," Lunatea gulped. "Magic attacks from afar can take him out easily. The reason why magic is incorporated in sword skills is precisely the reason to make up for that flaw in the event that there are no rear guards."
"Hehe, wouldn't you like to try and duel with him one day? We both know that while you have developed your own sword style, your true ability lies in your magic casting," Lunaria patted her sister's head. "Come on, help me to scrub my back and I will wash yours."
Unable to respond to Lunaria's question, Lunatea picked up the sponge and mindlessly scrubbed Lunaria's back. She knew that Lunaria was right, that she was interested in Kaze now. However, what that didn't register to Lunatea's mind at the time were Lunaria's words that came after. She was too preoccupied thinking about the conversation they had to notice the change in Lunaria's expression.
"… maybe, just a bit…"
Lunaria muttered softly, a small smile unconsciously crawling up the sides of her mouth as her hand grasped her chest gently.