*Four Months Later*
Students were walking through the hallways of Xymaris Royal Academy, some gossiping, some couples holding hands walking together, and some goofing off and laughing with each other.
However, the hall went near silent as two figures walked down the hall.
The two top students of the entire second-year group.
"That's them!" a girl said to her friend group.
"They're so beautiful but also just as terrifying." a boy student said to his friend.
"Don't look at them lustfully stupid; they'll castrate you." the friend responded.
"Wait, really?" the boy said.
"Yeah, rumor has it a guy named Spencer Highwind tried to be forceful with one of them, and well...he lost his precious jewels." the friend said.
"And just like that, I'll never look at them again." the guy said.
The two continued walking with each other, and after they entered the classroom, everything returned to normal in the hallways.
These two were famous around campus. The top two ranked second years made a lot of noise around campus, not just for their beauty but also for how strong they were. Eventually, a nickname went around.
The Ice and Lightning Empresses.
The two were undefeated in mock battles, but they never dueled each other by rule; after all, they were like sisters; why would they argue?
Many men had tried to approach them, but they accepted none of them, and the ones who tried to be persistent suffered the consequences for it. They were put in a mock battle and brutally beaten to the point of submission.
Each fought with different styles. The Ice Empress would fight with a sword that she covered in her ice and use her magic to create attacks, making her one of the rare magic swordsmen in her class. In contrast, the Lightning Empress rarely used her weapon of choice, which was a spear. Instead, she would overwhelm her opponent with relentless magic attacks. These two were a deadly combination, especially together.
The two empresses were sitting together in history class, writing a summary of the chapter the professor had just read in the history book.
"Hey Raven, do you remember who the Empire beat in the sixty-day war?"
"Were you paying any attention, Freya? It was the Draviel Empire; they were beaten so badly that the Empire fell to ruin." Raven responded.
"Oh yeah...sorry wasn't really focused." Freya said.
"Is there a problem?" Raven asked.
"No, just annoyed; my mother is trying to arrange my marriage to the Saville family. Which I've been denying, but she's just getting more and more annoying about it; nothing to really worry about." Freya said.
"You can't just say no to the proposal?" Raven asked.
"Yes, since my family name is more valuable than his, despite him saying differently, I can deny just about anyone I want outside of an elite class noble or a royal family member, but I doubt they'd ask me anything." Freya explained. She then smirked and looked at Raven. "Anyone ask your hand in marriage lately?"
"No, and it's not like I would let anyone force me into one either; the last guy who tried, well, you know what happened." Raven explained.
"Yeah, poor dude. You know, I heard his family went to live on his family's personal island now." Freya said.
"Who cares." Raven stated coldly.
Raven and Freya continued through class, and after it ended, they walked back to their dorm room.
They placed their bags filled with books on their desks and both sat on their beds.
"So what do you plan to do today?" Freya asked Raven.
"My mother asked me to visit home for the weekend, but today I don't really know." Raven said.
"Oh, that reminds me, you know how you asked to use my family contacts to watch for any sign of your brother?" Freya said while being excited to tell Raven.
"You know something?" Raven jumped up excitedly.
"I heard from a friend who's a member of the mercenary guild that a boy who fits your description was spotted taking jobs in the town of Woodpine, a town in the southern region of the Empire. He, along with three girls, hunted down a monster that was causing trouble in the area." Freya explained.
"Three....Three Girls?"
Raven's face distorted after hearing that; she had figured Claire went with him, and maybe this Adelia girl was also with him...but who would be that other girl?
"Did...they say what the girls looked like?" Raven asked.
"He mentioned two of them having blue hair, but the third one was a beastkin; he said she was a neko-beastkin, I believe." Freya said.
Raven was puzzled. What was Alex's relationship with her? She then remembered back when she was still in Lapis City Alex mentioned how he met a neko beastkin but she couldn't remember the name.
"Are you okay, Raven? Your lightning is showing." Freya said.
Raven looked at herself and saw purple lightning generating around her body.
"Oh, sorry, it's nothing." Raven said.
"Sure, Raven, whatever you say." Freya thought to herself. It was obvious it wasn't nothing; after all, who would generate lightning like that if it was nothing?
*Knock Knock Knock*
Someone was knocking on the door to the girl's room.
Raven walked over to the door and opened it, just to see an unwelcome face.
"Hey, my gorgeous angels."
Raven then shut the door in the man's face, but it was stopped by the man's shoe.
"That hurt Raven; is that anyway to treat a fellow student."
"What do you want, Isaac?" Raven asked the man.
Isaac Saville, the number three second-year and notorious playboy around the school.
"Well, I'm here to talk to my future fiance, isn't that right, Freya?" Isaac said.
"No, Isaac, you're not. I would never marry a conniving, incompetent, idiotic, and impotent man like you; after all, it's well known that despite your playboy tendencies, you're lacking in certain areas, isn't that right?" Freya said with a smile on her face.
"Who the fuck said that?" Isaac yelled out.
"Oh it's well known among the girls of the academy; one of the girls you tried to seduce told everybody she could about your little pecker." Freya laughed.
"You stupid bitch, it's perfectly average!" Isaac yelled out.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Freya teased.
"Well, it seems my business is done here; I'll leave you alone...for now." Isaac said as he walked out of the room.
"Was any of that true?" Raven asked.
"Not a word of it, but it was just too easy to get him all angry like that." Freya laughed.
"He really had to yell, 'it's perfectly average' hahahahahah." Freya couldn't stop laughing.
Raven had a smile on her face at her reaction.
Freya was very good at gaslighting people; it was one of her best skills. After all for a guy with a weak mind like Isaac, it was as easy as it could be.
"You know he's going to challenge you to a duel, right?" Raven said.
"No, he won't." Freya said with confidence.
"And how are you sure?" Raven asked.
"Because." Freya stood up and smiled at Raven. "He knows he'll lose."
*Elsewhere in the Academy*
"That damn bitch—who the hell does she think she is?" Isaac rambled on.
"She is just a lowly second-born daughter; she has no right.
In Isaac's mind, she was of lower standing than him; although the Crawford family had more influence, she was just a second daughter; it's not like she'll inherit anything. He was the firstborn son of the Saville family, after all. He gets what he wants—money, a woman, anything. He would not be denied this marriage. Thoughts flowed through his head about even taking Raven in as a concubine. After all, the Blackwood family had little influence; her mother was a widow without land; the firstborn son was killed; the secondborn son is missing; how could she refuse him of all people?
Little did he know that these thoughts would cause him much pain.
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