Following my spar with Professor Walt, I infused my mana toward his body, repairing the burns he had gotten from my dark flames.
"You can... heal too?" he asked with surprise. However, I felt like I should just move on, so bowing toward him, I said, "Thank you for guiding me, Sir Walt, and I'm sorry for my behavior too." As if on cue, the bell rang, and I walked out of the room, leaving the entire class's eyes wide and jaws slack.
"Lucas," I heard a soft voice from behind me. It was Cecilia running toward me with Bran and Diane following behind her.
"Ah, the eminence who planned for this to happen!" I said as I greeted them with a smile.
"Hey! Mind your words, Mister!" Diane was protective of Cecilia as always.
"I have to admit, you were impressive back there, Lucas. Seems like the training wasn't for nothing after all, brother!" Bran patted my back with a smile, but his face looked a little disheartened.
Putting an arm on Bran's shoulder, I said to him, "Well, if you slack off, I will just surpass you, brother. Don't forget our sparring today!" with a cheerful smile.
"Of course, I won't," Bran replied with a smile.
I turned to Cecilia, who was still a bit shaken up. "What happened, your eminence? Spacing out?" I said to her, flicking her lightly on the forehead.
She looked at me in utter shock, and even Bran looked a bit panicked.
"You, damn Lucas, how dare you flick our beautiful Princess Cecilia's forehead. I will kill you—" As Diane was yelling at me, Cecilia cut in with a curious face,
"Lucas, can you be my partner?" she asked.
I don't exactly understand what she meant by being partners, but, "Nah, I'm not interested." I plainly rejected her as I turned back to Bran, "Well, see you both later!" I left the place, dragging the bowing Bran towards Cecilia while leaving.
...
After the Practical Battle Class, Bran and I went to the cafeteria for lunch before meeting our mentor, Gladius, for our one-on-one lessons and preparations for the exams.
"Hey, Lucas, don't you think you were behaving coldly toward the princess?" Bran asked as he munched on his bread coated with jam and butter.
Well, bread doesn't sit well with my appetite as I just took the meat I got from the suppliers and started to stuff it inside my mouth. Well, mortals' food tastes are kind of peculiar and interesting, I must say.
"What do you mean? Do you have a crush on her or something?" I asked Bran with a chuckle while stuffing the meat inside my mouth.
"Well, I would be lying if I'm not interested, but you know I'm already engaged," Bran said as I let my meat fall down to the plate itself with a shock.
Even though I had Lucas's memories, I couldn't just jog up the events without initial interference. Now, getting to know my brother is engaged? I'm kind of feeling awkward for some reason.
"Hahammm," I replied as I took my meat again and started eating.
"So, you've got to ask her about what she was saying, Lucas!" Bran said with a serious expression.
"Oh? Why should I?" I replied bluntly.
"Don't act like a kid, Lucas. She is an important person—" Just as Bran was saying his sentence, a group of piss-ant looking lessers cut in.
During our meal, both of us could tell that people were conversing about us, with looks being shot every now and then from random people. However, none of them actually came up to us until these guys showed up.
A group of students walked up to our table, completely ignoring Bran's existence. The leader of the group, a tall male with wavy brown hair that was parted in the middle, stuck his hand out to me.
"My name is Henry Dickenson, born from the famous Dickenson Family. I'm sure you've heard of it, right? I couldn't help but notice how strong you have become, Lucas. I'm being especially courteous today in letting you be in our group." His chin stuck out, confident that I would take his hand.
If I do remember correctly, wasn't he the idiot who mocked me while running a month ago?
"You should be honored to be part of the Dickenson Group," one of the groupies echoed in the back.
"The Dick-and-son Family? Never heard of a family with such cursing words, have you, Bran?" I looked at Bran with a very clueless look, making Bran spit out his bread on Henry's face, with his laugh bursting out.
"Brother Lucas, we shouldn't shame others. We are all nobles here, right?" Bran said while controlling his laughter.
"Well, you are right. We are all nobles here. What do we say we do, now that this Dick-and-son boy is talking to us?" I replied with a comic face.
Some of the students nearby who were listening in on our conversation started snickering.
"Y-You... How dare you mock a prestigious family like the Dickenson House?" Henry slammed his fist on our table, emphasizing his house name, which made them laugh even more.
"I reached out to you, a weakling, because I didn't want a noble kid with power, but you instead spit in my face like this?" His hand was already twitching to reach for the wooden staff he was carrying on his back.
"Wow, is that a Dick-and-son log I see there!" I said with a mocking expression, pointing at Henry's staff.
"Now you've done it!"