"Princess, you were correct. That boy is special since he gained the favor of Great Emperor Cortez" Alain recalled questioning her judgement 6 years ago when she ordered him to protect the boy. In hindsight, it was foolish of him to underestimate the boy
"You've done well. You may return to your original post as the Royal Guard." Felicity showed Alain out and laid down on her bed.
'Bruce, I really want to see you again' Felicity smiled and fell asleep.
The next morning.
"Bruce hurry up or we'll be late!" Deion barged into Bruce's dorm only to find him still sleeping.
"You idiot, wake up quickly!" Deion smacked Bruce on the head. Bruce opened his eyes slowly and grumpily stared at Deion.
"Let me sleep for another 30 minutes" Bruce pushed Deion away and went back to sleep. He had spent the entire night researching rune magic. The only thing he wanted to do at the moment was sleep.
"Don't blame me for this"
Deion pulled out a bucket of ice water from his storage ring and threw the cold water onto Bruce.
"You fucker!"
Bruce was absolutely livid after getting soaked by icy water in the morning. Bruce smacked Deion on the head and before he had a chance to slap his face, Deion yelled out.
"Don't hit my handsome face! I have a date today"
Bruce finally snapped out of his rage after hitting Deion a couple times and finally got ready for the date.
"You're buying me all the snacks at the Firestone Bar for this!" Bruce begrudgingly put on his uniform while washing his face and mouth.
"Sure whatever, it's not like we'll ever run out of money anyway" The two had a fortune after obtaining so much wealth from the yearly exam.
Both of them left Bruce's dorm and headed out to the dating spot.
"Hey Bruce, when are you going to revert back to your original face?" Deion was curious about Bruce's real appearance. It's been 6 years and he had never seen Bruce's real face.
"You better wish that the day I reveal my true self is delayed. Otherwise, all the girls would fall for me" Bruce chuckled as he too was curious about his real face. He had modified his face artificially to hide his appearance. He didn't know what he looked like now.
"Oh I can't wait for that day. You've been hyping up your real face for so long. I'm guessing it's not that much better to the one you have right now"
"Ow"
Bruce punched Deion on the side out of spite.
"I have you know that back when I was 10, all the girls fell for me" Bruce began to tell the tales of his past glory.
"You know that your mom doesn't count right?"
"OW"
The two friends kept talking along the way as they traveled to the meeting spot.
When they arrived at the meeting spot, they found two beautiful girls in the Imperial Academy uniform waiting for them. The first girl had brunette hair, slim figure, and a beautiful smile.
"Hey Deion!" Chelsey greeted.
Chelsey turned to look at Bruce. Her first impression of Bruce is that he's an average looking person. She felt bad for him as he'll have a rough time today with her friend.
"You must be Bruce Pendragon, let me introduce you to my friend"
Chelsey pulled the other girl forward so that she was in front of Bruce.
"This is your lucky day Bruce, you get to have a date with Meredith Lockwood."
Bruce was surprised that his blind date was Meredith Lockwood, the princess of the water kingdom. Her beautiful light blue hair flew down to her waist. She had a beautiful face with a cold expression. Her chest had developed significantly over the past 6 years.
Her popularity in the Imperial Academy was extremely high. Many geniuses tried to woo her but all failed. Bruce couldn't understand why she agreed to a blind date.
"Chelsey, I told you that this isn't a date" Meredith coldly corrected her best friend.
Truth be told, Meredith couldn't let Chelsey be deceived by Deion, a natural born playboy. So, she forced Chelsey to bring her along on the date. She didn't know that Deion would also bring someone with him.
"Meredith, don't be mean to Bruce! Why don't you get to know him while I chat with Deion?" Chelsey grabbed Deion's hand and the two went forward to look for a restaurant.
Deion looked back at Bruce and gave him a thumbs up. Even Deion wouldn't want to be in Bruce's shoes right now. Meredith was known as the ice queen. Going on a date with someone like her is torture for an outgoing person like Deion.
"Looks like it's just the two of us" Bruce looked at Meredith with a grin.
"Don't get your hopes up. I'm just here to make sure your friend doesn't do anything dirty" Meredith glared at Bruce.
"Deion won't do anything that Chelsey is not comfortable with. He isn't that type of person." Bruce didn't like it when Meredith spoke down on Deion.
"We'll see about that" Meredith walked forward to keep track on Deion.
"So, what do you do for fun?" Bruce started the conversation again.
"You know this isn't a date right?" Meredith was annoyed that Bruce kept talking to her. For some reason, she found his existence extremely annoying. It's like she's speaking with the accursed Bandit of Solitude.
"Oh ho ho, you seem to be awfully prideful for someone who got defeated by the Bandit of Solitude every year" Bruce brought up her sore spot as a counter.
"YOU!" Meredith released her aura, middle stage Soul Manifestation, to the surrounding area attracting everyone's attention.
"Calm down, you're too hot headed" Bruce wasn't one bit fazed by her outburst.
"How about this, name something that you think you're better than me at, and we'll have a small contest"
"If you win, I won't talk to you again today and you can spy on Deion as you wish."
"If I win, you'll have a real date with me" Bruce smoothly brought up a favorable condition to Meredith.
"What are you even thinking? You're way lower ranked than me on class ranking, I can beat you in anything" Meredith found the contest to be favored toward her heavily.
"That's the more reason why you should take the bet" Bruce grinned at her.
Fine, I pick water manipulation"
"Whoever conjures the largest water bubble wins" Meredith coldly looked at Bruce. After all, water is her specialty and if Bruce didn't have affinity with water, then that's too bad.
"How evil of you princess, you picked your specialty without even knowing if I have affinity to water" Bruce pretended to look defeated.
"You did say I could pick anything" Meredith thought she won the bet by default because Bruce didn't have water affinity.
"Okay, let's do it. By the way, people hold hands when they go on date" Bruce pointed out the couple in front of them happily holding hands.
"Fine, whatever" Meredith didn't even think about the possibility of losing this bet. In her class, Meredith is ranked 6th while Bruce is ranked 845th. Even if he has water affinity, he was bound to lose to her regardless.
Meredith conjured up a water bubble and gradually expanded it in size. The bubble expanded until it reached the size of a dome before it burst.
"You win if you can conjure up a water bubble that's bigger than the one I just made" Meredith folded her hands and her beautiful eyes stared at Bruce.
"Sure, not a problem"
Bruce held out his hand and conjured up a water bubble. The bubble didn't only take the water in the nearby lake but also the air around them. Eventually it grew to the size of a building. Not wanting to get everyone around them wet, he threw the water bubble to the lake.
Splash
"Looks like I win" Bruce smiled at Meredith.
"Impossible!" Meredith was absolutely shocked that Bruce was able to beat her at water manipulation.
"You must have cheated!" Meredith refused to believe that someone like Bruce could perfectly control the water to that extent. His control far outstripped even some Divine King experts.
"Oh? How did I cheat?" Bruce refuted her claim.
"I don't know…" Meredith gave up as she couldn't think of anything.
"Then let's get started on our date" Bruce grabbed her hand gently and headed toward the restaurant that the couple in front of them was heading to.
'And that kids is how I met your mother'