As luck decided to have it, the secret in the southwestern region had already been uncovered. By who, though? No one knew.
"I'd like to believe that it was John who slayed it, but something's telling me it wasn't." Dignitas thought.
Even if there were next-to-no details given to the students, this mysterious person still managed to track down the beast and kill it.
That was a feat worthy of recognition, for sure.
Dignitas turned to Lorelai. She, too, had found the announcement to be shocking. As far as she knew, other than Dignitas and the members of John's party, there was no one else in the class who exhibited a great deal of potential.
Perhaps this was because the school year had just recently started. No one knew each other all too well unless they had had prior connections before.
"Hey, you good?" Dignitas waved his hand in front of her face.
This brought her back to reality. After shaking her head sideways multiple times, Lorelai turned to Dignitas once again.
"Where were we?"
"You were in the process of telling me how to listen to the wind," Dignitas replied.
"Right, I forgot. Get back into position, and we'll continue from where we left off."
After a minute or so of steady breathing, Dignitas was able to reenter his earlier state.
"The wolves' howls, can you still hear them?"
"...yeah, it's there."
"Good. Then next, try to pinpoint the location of the sound. Let yourself be encapsulated in the wind."
The art of listening to silence was difficult to get right on a person's first try. One had to be able to distinguish the many different sounds present in the air at all times.
"...it's over there." Unaware that he had raised his hand, Dignitas pointed his finger in the direction of the sound.
"I think so too. Should we head on, then?" Lorelai urged.
"Yeah, I wanna get this over with, too. John's probably already finished."
Lorelai had noticed this between the two. Both Dignitas and John often talked about the other.
They both held a sword, so she just thought they had something in common to talk about.
"Speaking of John, since when did you two get so close?"
"Close? Does it look like that?" Dignitas asked.
"Mhm. Like you guys were best friends in your past lives."
"Huh. Well, the first time I met him was back during the tournament. I don't see why it would look like we were close."
In truth, Dignitas had known John. It wouldn't be too far off the mark to say he had known him for a considerable amount of his life.
"That so? It looked to me that you two were good friends. Lifelong companions, even."
"Well, thanks, I guess?"
As the pair continued talking, they made sure to make their way in the direction of the howling.
There were only about two hours left before the assignment ended.
Thankfully, they were able to make it to the source of the howling in less than half an hour.
But what exactly greeted them was something else entirely different from their expectations.
A boy with ashen gray hair sat on top of a pile of wolf corpses. A great deal of blood had splattered onto his student uniform, making him look oddly menacing.
His hair was messy, very much like Dignitas. His bangs seemed to have a boundary of their own, as they quite literally almost covered his eyes.
What caught Dignitas' eye wasn't the hair or the calm look on the boy's face, however. It was the black walking stick that he held onto very tightly.
"Who's there?"
Somehow sensing that there were people close by, the boy spoke up.
He didn't stare at Dignitas' eyes straightly, but rather only pointed his head in his general direction.
This led Lorelai to believe that the boy was blind. Perhaps it was the sound of their footsteps that had given their location away.
"Dignitas Qwerdan. I'm here with Lorelai Seraph."
"Ah, the class couple?" The boy giggled. It was an almost playful laugh.
"...what?" Lorelai's eyes widened at this.
"You heard what I said, miss Seraph. But I'll repeat it just so that we're all on the same page."
"The whole class thinks of you two as the class couple. And as for why, perhaps it is due to the astonishing spectacle you both portrayed for us during the matching segment."
"Hmm, but where are my manners? Aiden Lullpos, at your service." Aiden leaped off the small mountain of wolf corpses and bowed.
"This can't be… me, with him?" Lorelai pointed to herself, then to Dignitas.
"It's just a small label. No need to worry. Besides, the title may be taken from you two by John Ailey and Curie Mortem."
Dignitas nodded at this. John always did have a soft spot for Curie. They were two peas in a pod.
"That's enough of that, anyway."
Dignitas hurried to change the subject. He wasn't too keen on experiencing another outburst from Lorelai, especially with how hard he had worked to keep her calm.
He could just imagine himself as a bull tamer who had spent hours easing the anger of an enraged bull, only for a bystander to destroy their temper.
"Aiden Lullpos, was it? Nice to meet you. If I may ask, where is your partner? I believe Professor Shib gave each cadet one." Dignitas inquired.
"My partner? Oh, yeah. He's asleep at camp. Never wants to get up unless he smells a girl."
"Speaking of girls, hey, why don't you two come back with me to camp?" Aiden asked.
"And why would we do that?" Lorelai replied.
"For one, it'd help me out. I can't submit my special hide unless Warren's with me."
"...you're the one who slayed the hidden beast?" Dignitas could barely keep his mouth from widening in shock.
"Not me. Warren did. He's proficient in battle, so that makes him a dependable partner. His only problem is that he sleeps. A lot."
"And if it'll increase the chances of you two coming with me, I'm prepared to give away some spare hides. I happened to gain much more than I needed from these wolves."
Dignitas waited no longer. Free hides, just for going with them to camp? It was too good to be true.
As he opened his mouth to utter his reply, he was suddenly stopped in his tracks by Lorelai, who had slapped his lips shut, quite harshly.
"I know you were just about to accept his offer, hmph. But don't you think you're leaving out the actual person required?"
"Ah–" Dignitas opened his mouth to speak once again, only for him to be shut down by Lorelai interrupting his words.
"As a hunter, I don't feel it right for my game to be received from someone else. It takes away from the whole feeling of accomplishment."
"Fair. But I thought you wanted to get this over with quickly." Dignitas replied.
"That doesn't mean I'll be throwing away my morals. We'll get those hides before the period ends. And as for you, Aidan…"
"Aiden." The boy interrupted.
"Yeah, sure. Aiden. You can keep your hides to yourself. We'll be heading our way now."
Without giving Dignitas time to properly make sense of what was happening, Lorelai had, unknowingly, grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him in the opposite direction.
"See you later, Aiden. I hope you wake your buddy up!" Dignitas shouted.
As Aiden watched the figures of both Lorelai and Dignitas disappear into the horizon, he chuckled to himself.
"Looks like the title of the class couple isn't shifting pairs quite so soon, heh. I should head back now… though I do wonder how I'm going to wake up Warren…"
***
"That was uncalled for, Lorelai."
"How so?"
"Well, for one, I didn't get to say a proper goodbye."
"Goodbyes are never final. You'll have plenty of time to say them later on in life."
"That's true, but how about in death? Goodbyes can't reach a person if they're in another realm of exis–"
Dignitas swallowed his words immediately. This topic would surely hit close to home for Lorelai. Especially since one of her family members was terminally ill.
Noticing this, Lorelai nodded.
"I'm glad you stopped before you finished."
"Yeah, sorry."
"Shut it. Leave the apologies for later. For now, we've got a job on our hands. How about I teach you how to hunt?"
Dignitas felt unsure whether to accept.
"Why are you hesitant? Do you not feel like learning?"
"Well, it's not that. It feels like you've been giving me a lot lately, while I haven't been reciprocating." He said.
"How about I teach you something, too? Is there anything you want to learn from me? I'd feel bad if I just kept on receiving from you."
"Hmm… in that case, teach me swordplay."