"Wow! Teacher Levris, that was awesome!" Ten minutes later, we were all sitting in the cafe Asura and Vina was enthusiastically praising the teacher. "Finally, someone put him in his place! Maybe we should start selling your souvenirs too."
Vina seriously considered such a possibility, but it only confused Levris.
"Noooo, please, don't do that!!"
"But why? After such a spectacular battle, you'll have many fans, and among your students, there will surely be those who admire older girls, hehe," Vina shot a sly glance at Grain and smugly stroked her chin.
"No, don't!! Please, it's embarrassing!" The teacher blushed, but it was unlikely to deter the greedy merchant.
"Alright then! Why didn't anyone wake me up? Everyone ran off somewhere so early, leaving me alone in the house?!" I looked around discontentedly.
"But we did wake you up!!" Katrina banged the table angrily. "I personally woke you up three times, but you didn't even grumble in response! In the end, we decided to shake you off the bed, but that didn't work either! So we just left you there."
"Really?" I looked at the others, and Grain and Algo nodded affirmatively. They probably were the ones assigned to wake me up and bring me to the table. "That's strange; I don't remember any of it. But I woke up just a little later than usual."
"Grrr, I suggested throwing him out of the window, that would've definitely woken him up," Ragni crossed her arms in dissatisfaction, and Seleria and Vina nodded in agreement.
"You're just a paragon of kindness," I teased her.
"We couldn't wake you up, but we decided not to have breakfast without you! OF COURSE, I'M ANGRY!" The dragoness angrily drummed her fingers on the table, leaving dents on the wooden surface.
"Alright, alright, enough bickering. The food is ready," Asura, accompanied by Werner and Miriam, brought our meals and sat at the available spots. "There aren't many people here now, so we can have a meal together."
"Do you mind if I join too?" A girl in an armor-like uniform, with a massive axe on her back, approached us with a clinking sound.
"Princess Hilda? Would you like something as well?" Asura quickly got up from her seat.
"Hmm, well, maybe a light breakfast, a small boar, a couple of partridges, and of course, a mug of good ale, or at least some beer," the girl lightly placed the axe on the ground and plopped down on an empty seat, creating a sound comparable to a fallen butler carrying metal dishes.
"Uh... We don't have that, and we don't sell alcohol to students," Asura replied.
"Tsk, what uncivilized customs. Well, what do you have on the menu?" The valkyrie was obviously accustomed to more relaxed customs in Nordrune.
"Mainly fish and other seafood. Some we catch ourselves on the Academy's shore, but most of it comes from the eastern islands."
"Hmm-hmm-hmm," the princess thoughtfully studied the menu, quickly flipping through the pages. "I see, I see, I didn't understand a single name. Bring me something better and bigger. I have no idea what portions you have in this country."
Now, princesses of all kinds gathered around our table: the coquettish and playful, the brave but somewhat naive and crude, and even a slightly masculine one. Although Ragni could also be considered a princess, she was the perfect fit for Hilda's best friend role. And now they clashed in a battle with forks, trying to divide the biggest portion of sturgeon.
"Well, everyone's here, and there are two days left until the next round. We need to prepare for the next battle," I said.
"Yeah, especially after what you did to my spear, I still need to get used to it!" Vivien banged the tip of her fork on the floor in annoyance.
"Well, that's not a problem; you can train with familiar mages and get used to it," I replied.
"Yeah, but I don't have that many familiar mages," Vivien took a sip of hot tea.
"Why not? Look around you. Of course, during the tournament, you can't fight with active participants, but the rules don't apply to those who have already been eliminated," I nodded in the direction of Leira and Algo.
"Really? Lyrie, I need your help!" The girl rushed to the noblewoman, almost choking on her words.
"Huh? Sure, I'll help you, no problem," Leira replied.
"Alright then, has anyone else decided who they will train with?" I asked.
"Ragni and I planned to train with Seleria," Katrina raised her hand first.
"Hmm, and what will you be training?" I inquired.
"Well, Seleria is pretty good in hand-to-hand combat, and I think I need to improve those skills," Katrina replied.
"Surprising. Why would a princess want to train in martial arts?" I glanced at Seleria, and she averted her eyes slightly.
"Well, I had a lot of acquaintances, and they taught me combat skills. I don't see anything wrong with it. Besides, who said that princesses wouldn't need these skills?" The red-haired princess snorted in dissatisfaction.
"Yeah, yeah, it was precisely my hand-to-hand skills that saved me when I first went after a bear," Hilda casually dropped a remark as she devoured a sizable piece of fish.
"Eh? You have the same tradition too?" However, Vivien's response startled me even more.
"Same? Well, in the north, a warrior must fight a wild beast barehanded to prove their strength and earn the title of a warrior, the most privileged class in Nordrune," the princess washed down her portion with tea and moved on to the next one. "Depending on the type of beast you catch, your position in the warband will be determined. But the trial is counted even if you fail against a wolf. Of course, catching a white bear would be the best. Though, the most prestigious catch is a white dragon, but we've been in alliance with them for many centuries, so hunting them has long been a forgotten tradition."
"Grr, " Ragni growled in annoyance at the last statement. "So, we're just simple animals to you?"
"No, of course not. This tradition dates back to a time after the first dragon war, but then one of my ancestors decided that it was wrong to exterminate such noble creatures, and since then, we've had peaceful relations. I even have a few acquaintances among the white tribe, although only five or six dragons can coexist over Nordrune at the same time; otherwise, they won't get along together," Vivien explained.
"Hmm, whatever it is, it is," the black princess calmed down and returned to her food.
"Do you have a similar tradition too?" I turned to Vivien.
"Well," Vivien pondered while scratching her chin.
"This trial is only for the heir of our school," Miriam spoke up on behalf of her sister. "Our father runs a very old school that has trained many of the king's finest soldiers. While we may be far from the masters of the Academy, our students have often achieved high ranks in the army. And it is customary for the current head to pass the school to his eldest son."
"Mmm, the thing is, in our family, we are the only children, and both girls at that," Vivien said sadly, staring at the bottom of her cup. "Though it goes against tradition, our father agreed to pass the school to us, but then a second problem arose."
"We are both the eldest, and we were supposed to decide who would become the head through a fight to the death," Miriam looked at her sister and smiled. "But we'd rather run away from the family than fight each other, so our father proposed an alternative."
"An ancient trial that every head must undergo. We had to go into the woods alone and kill the largest and most ferocious bear," Vivien gripped the handle of her spear. "We were allowed to use weapons, but the bears in our forests are the most terrifying on the mainland. They say they were infected with cursed blood, making them even stronger and more malicious than any other creatures."
"Well, using weapons would make it less interesting," Hilda crossed her arms in disappointment.
"You simply haven't seen this monster," Vivien began to gesture animatedly while describing the bear. "Standing on its hind legs, it reaches five meters in height, with huge claws not only on its paws but also on its back, making it a formidable opponent. And, of course, its keen sense of smell and relentless territorial defense made the task even more challenging."
"To each their own," Miriam calmly sipped her tea.
"Oh, come on, you didn't even get close to him. I was the fool who went into his den," Vivien continued.
"But you still managed to deal with him," Miriam said.
"Yeah, after two hours of fighting, I was all bruised, but I still managed to drag him back to the village," Vivien pointed to three scars on her shoulder left by the beast's claws.
"And Miriam probably couldn't handle him, right?"
"Well, at first, we thought the same. She left at dawn and didn't show up all day."
"Can't blame her; hunting isn't necessarily a test of brute strength," the girl calmly sipped her tea, recounting her adventure. "I left in the morning to track where he would go. These bears hunt at night, so it made sense to go to the forest before dawn, when he was tired and returning to his den. I picked a spot where he wouldn't be able to scent me, and where his kin wouldn't discover me, and then I just laid with my bow ready until he went hunting again."
"You laid there all day?"
"Yeah, it's a natural thing for an archer to do."
"But you could have gone into the den and killed him while he slept!"
"Unlikely. Like my sister said, they have an excellent sense of smell; they can sniff out anything that comes within a kilometer of them. Plus, from a close range, I wouldn't have been able to kill him with a single shot. So, I had to sit on a vantage point a kilometer away from his den and wait. Luckily, he emerged right before it got completely dark, or my hunting might have ended quickly."
"Yes, I was really worried about her then, but she returned past midnight, looking satisfied, although she didn't bring the carcass."
"What could I do? He wasn't the only one who woke up that night; I couldn't have dragged him all the way home."
"In the end, I managed to handle him significantly faster, but she did a slightly better job," Miriam said, slightly annoyed. "So, our father couldn't decide who would become the new heir and left it up to us to decide."
"And when we were in the city, we encountered recruiters from the Academy, showed off our skills, and decided to delay our decision a bit."
"And what will happen to the other one?"
The sisters exchanged glances.
"The one who won't become the leader of the school will have to find a nobleman to serve. The main thing is to find a worthy person," Miriam said.
I glanced at Asura; perhaps the girls were helping her because they wanted to serve a master like her.