Morning came and Asta woke up with Lily still sleeping in his arms in the same position they both fell asleep in after a steamy night in celebration for getting into a Magic Knight Squad. Asta carefully removed his arms from around her, trying not to wake her up. But he ultimately failed. He sat up in bed, followed shortly after by Lily.
"So it's real, I wasn't dreaming." Asta said as he stared at his Black Bulls robe on top of his desk.
"Of course it was real you dummy!" Lily said while lightly punching Asta's shoulder. He rubbed his shoulder as she sighed contently.
"We really did it, huh? We finally got into a Magic Knight Squad!" Lily said happily as she excitedly hugged Asta who chuckled and returned her embrace.
"Yeah we really did, didn't we?" Asta said as she hummed in agreement. She let go of Asta as he got up to change out of his pajamas and into his clothes for the day. He proudly put on his Black Bulls robe and opened the door to his room. Then he started to sprint off, followed by her walking out the door behind him.
"Right! Yeah! I'm ready to- Ghah!" Asta said as he smashed right into a column that Lily could have sworn wasn't there yesterday. Asta seemed to think so too, voicing his thoughts on the matter out loud. Just then Magna approached him.
"Hey newbies. How's it hanging?" Magna asked Asta. Lily found it odd that he didn't ask why she was coming out of Asta's room.
'Oh God! Does he know what we were doing last night?!' Lily thought to herself, starting to blush from the thought that he might have heard the two of them last night.
"Oh uh I'm good, thanks. Can I ask you though, about this column?" Asta asked Magna.
"Yeah, what about it?" He replied.
"Well it's just I don't think it was here yesterday." Asta told Magna who didn't seemed fazed by Asta's odd claim.
"Probably because it wasn't. That's nothing though. This building shifts around all the time." Magna answered.
"It does?!" Asta practically yelled as Lily just looked at Magna with a puzzled expression on her face.
"Eh, you'll get used to it." Magna reassured the two of them casually. Asta murmured about how he thought there was something off with the place.
"Well come on. Let's go." Magna said as he gestured for the two of them to follow him.
"Sure thing!" Asta said with enthusiasm.
"You're lucky enough to have me as your tour guide. There's no one better to show you the secrets of the Black Bulls hideout." Magna said just as he was about to head out with Asta. But Lily was still in her pajamas because she had spent the night in Asta's room and didn't bring a change of clothes.
"Wait, I still need to go back to my room and change into my clothes for the day." Lily said as Magna turned around to her.
"Okay you can go get dressed. But we've got work to do so don't take too long. Asta and I will wait right here." Magna said as Lily nodded her head and went back to her room to change. When she got to her room, she went inside and locked the door and changed out of her pajamas and into her clothes while Magna and Asta waited outside Asta's room for her. Once she was ready, she met up with Asta and Magna again and the tour of the Black Bulls hideout began.
"Well Asta, Lily, ready?" Magna asked Lily and Asta as he began jogging with the two of them jogging along with him.
"Ready!" Lily said with enthusiasm.
"Yeah, I'm ready! Let's go Mr. Shades!" Asta said with an equal amount of enthusiasm. Magna gave him an annoyed look.
"What? No! It's sir, twerp!" Magna corrected him.
"Right! Got it Sir Twerp!" Asta said in response.
"D-D-Drop the twerp!" Magna said with annoyance in his tone. Lily just giggled.
"Sir Twerp... hehe." Lily muttered to herself under her breath, trying to keep her composure. First Magna showed them the dining hall. Next was the communal bath where the three of them took time to wash off and soak for a while. Obviously, the men's side and the women's side were separated. Lily was done bathing before Asta and Magna so she went on back to her room to change back into her clothes in private. Right after their baths, Magna showed Asta the way to the women's rooms but didn't lead him through the hallway to the area.
"And there's where the women's rooms are. If a guy goes in there, the trap magic will kill him." Magna said to Asta.
"Whoa! Serious security. Hey, why isn't there any trap magic on the way to the men's rooms?" Asta said, still wrapped in his bath towel.
"Because us men don't mind women walking into our rooms. Don't you agree Asta?" Magna said as he winked at Asta whose face became a little red remembering what happened between him and Lily last night.
"Uhh... I guess not." Asta replied as he and Magna went to their own rooms to get dressed again. After the three of them were all dressed, they met up again and the tour resumed.
"And this is the bathroom!" Magna said while opening the door to see that it was occupied by Captain Yami.
"You're dead." Yami said with a deadpan look on his face. Magna and Asta ran away apologizing and Lily followed their lead. Next up was the beast room where Yami's "little pets" were kept. Magna passed down his duty to feed the beasts to Asta. He gave him a slice of meat to give to the beasts. Asta cautiously approached the beasts and held up the piece of meat Magna gave him and offered it to them. One of the beasts stuck his head out of the cage bars and chomped onto Asta's upper body and he began to freak out. Eventually he got free and then Magna showed Lily and Asta the library then the rec room. After that, the two boys ran like lunatics through the hall with Lily following close behind them. Suddenly, Magna just stopped in his tracks, causing Asta to bump into him roughly. Lily crashed into Asta.
"Sorry Asta." Lily apologized to Asta as she attempted to dust him off.
"It's okay Lil. Don't worry about it." Asta said to her with a smile. Then he turned back to Magna.
"Geez give a guy some warning. What the-? Who is she?" Asta said to Magna as he looked ahead and noticed why he stopped. There was a girl with light lavender hair styled in twin tails. She had purple eyes and was dressed elegantly, like a royal. Her clothes were actually almost exactly the same as Lily's, just a different color. Lily wondered if she got her clothes from the same chain of stores as she did.
"Well whaddaya know? It's your fellow rookie. She's our other new member this year." Magna said looking at Lily and Asta.
"Cool! Another newbie. Glad to know we're not alone. How's it going? I'm Asta from Hage Village. Let's give this all we've got. Whaddaya say?" Asta said, introducing himself to the girl. But instead of shaking his hand, she slapped it away.
"Don't speak to me so casually you little insect of a commoner with barely any mana." The girl said condescendingly.
"Little insect?" Asta said, seeming a little shocked.
"Geez, a commoner?" Magna said, seeming a little offending by the terminology she used.
"My name is Noelle Silva of the royal Silva House." Noelle introduced herself. Asta started freaking out, a bit shocked that there was a royal in front of him. Lily just sighed. After all, she was royalty back in the Spade Kingdom. Then Asta started groveling in front of Noelle until he finally registered he was called a little insect.
"Wait who're you calling a little insect?! We joined the Magic Knights at the same time, didn't we? Who cares if you're royalty!" Asta said loudly.
"Yeah, that's right Asta! You tell her! Being royal doesn't matter here!" Magna said just as loudly. Lily just kept her mouth shut.
"It does very much so." Noelle said in a very condescending tone.
"And what makes you so sure?!" Asta and Magna said in unison and Noelle sighed.
"Foolish commoners. I suppose words aren't enough to make you understand. The difference in our magic power should get the point across." Noelle said as she formed a large water ball.
"Don't forget your place again!" Noelle raised her voice and aimed the water ball at Asta and shot it at him. But at the last second, it changed direction and hit Magna. Noelle scoffed, but Lily could sense some dissatisfaction with the result in her expression. When Magna got back up, he started scolding Noelle about attacking a senior member of the Black Bulls. Then Noelle countered him by saying that he was already standing in the way of the water ball.
"What kind of crazy are you? I'm your superior here!" Magna said back.
"That's nice, but I'm royalty." Noelle used the royalty excuse again. To be honest, it was getting a little annoying to Lily.
"Well I don't care if you're royalty or the sister of the Silver Eagles Captain. Yami's the only person I know that would ever take on a crazy chick like you. So you might want to show some gratitude. I was holding off cuz you're a woman, but I think it's time for your baptism." Magna said aggressively. Then Noelle took her Black Bulls robe off and threw it on the ground.
"Don't bother! I quit this stupid squad!" Noelle said and stormed off. Magna picked up the robe and asked Noelle what the hell she was doing. She stopped and replied by saying that she was quitting before the filth of the Black Bulls had a chance of rubbing off on her and that it wasn't a place for a royal like her. As Noelle continued walking away, Magna went on a rant, telling her to apologize over and over again. Meanwhile, Asta stared in her direction in shock, saying that he gave everything to get that robe while she threw it away like it was nothing. He just couldn't comprehend what happened at all.
~Time Skip~
Lily was in her room, tidying it up since she didn't have time to do it all yesterday. Then through her window she noticed a huge ball of water suspended in the air by water tendrils that were wreaking havoc on the ground. She joined her fellow squad mates and outside to get a better look at it. Noelle was inside the giant water ball struggling. Captain Yami went through options on how to deal with the situation. First he turned to Finral and sarcastically asked if he could use his spacial magic to get Noelle out of the water sphere. Finral didn't quite get his sarcasm and said to be more reasonable.
"Man if there were only someone around here that could cancel out magic." The Captain said sarcastically as he nudged Lily with his elbow. Just then, Asta suddenly flew out of the woods into his hand soaking wet. He must have been flung by one of the water tendrils.
"Oh, you picked the right time to drop in, kid. You guys see that? Do something about it." Captain Yami said while pointing up at the giant water sphere. Asta agreed, but then questioned how he was going to get up there.
"I don't want to hear your excuses. Suck it up newbies. Think deep and push past your limits!" Captain Yami said as he threw Asta then grabbed onto the back of Lily's shirt and threw her too. As the two of them flew towards the giant water ball, Asta grabbed his sword and Lily grabbed her scythe from their grimoires. They both slashed through the water together. The three of them started falling fast towards the ground. Lily used her temporary newly acquired water magic to create a water slide for herself to get down to the ground safely. She was about to use water magic to help Asta and Noelle too, but a portal formed beneath them before she got the chance. The three of them made it down safely.
"Yeah! I didn't die!" Asta practically yelled, all pumped up from the adrenaline. Then he walked over to Finral and thanked him for the portal.
"I was about to use water magic to save you and Noelle, but Finral used his spatial magic before I could." Lily said to Asta with disappointment laced within her voice. Asta approached Lily and suddenly kissed her on the lips. Her eyes widened in surprise.
"Thanks anyways Lil. It's the thought that counts." Asta said as Lily blushed from the kiss.
"You pulled it off kids. Good job!" Captain Yami praised Lily and Asta.
"Thank you!" Lily and Asta both said in unison.
"Hey Noelle." Asta said to get Noelle's attention. She seemed startled then looked down like she was dreading something.
"You know... You've got yourself some crazy magic power! I mean it's freaking amazing! Really! I'm totally jealous of you. I don't have any magic power, like none! All you need is some training to get it under control. You'll be strong, unstoppable!" Asta said, complimenting and encouraging Noelle just like he had done for Lily countless times. Noelle started to sit up.
"Little inse- A-Asta." She said quietly.
"Man I'm screwed. I'm gonna have to work extra hard if I'm gonna keep up with you." Asta said with a slightly troubled look on his face.
"What, is that all? You were running away because you couldn't control your magic power? You should've said something sooner you royal failure. I mean come on. This is the Black Bulls after all. We're a whole squad of failures! So maybe you got a weakness or three. That doesn't matter to us you big dummy." Magna put in some encouraging words of his own in his own style.
"You know you're not the only royal misfit here. I'm a royal too, but I have no magic power just like Asta here." Lily said to Noelle, swinging her arm around over Asta's shoulders.
"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about that. The fact that you're royalty." Asta said as Lily shook her head.
"Seriously Asta?" Lily said, sighing while looking at Asta.
"What? It's not my fault you blend in with us common folk so well, Lil." Asta said as Lily rolled her eyes.
"I'm just gonna assume that was a compliment." Lily said as she laughed for a brief moment. The rest of the squad started talking to Noelle, accepting her as she was. Asta then approached Noelle.
"Now come on! We'll do our best together!" Asta said, lending a hand out to Noelle. Her heart was touched to the point that there were tears in her eyes.
"I'm looking forward... to working with you." Noelle said as she took Asta's hand and he helped her up.