"Fancy meeting you here." Mikaela greets.
"Looks like you having a girlfriend was the only truth." She looks at Andressa.
Karl steps forward. "Cut the talking. What do you want?"
"A rematch."
"Huh?" Both Karl and Andressa are confused.
"I heard that you are fighting in the knight succession tournament. I will defeat you there and regain my respect." She announces.
"But, you two are from the same academy doesn't that make you allies?"
Mikaela looks at Andressa. "Yes, we won't fight at the start. But I am sure that this scum will somehow survive till top 10. There I will defeat you infront of every knighthood and sentinel."
Karl smirks. "Sure, I will be waiting."
Mikaela also glares at Karl with her golden eyes.
Andressa grabs Karl's arm. "Hey. We are in the public." Karl looks around and sees that almost every shopkeeper is outside looking at them.
"I see you in the ring." Mikaela notices her surroundings and walks away.
To escape the attention, Karl and Andressa comes out of the mall. The moon shines brightly in the dark sky. Majority of malls and stores are closing now. "What will we do now?" Andressa ask in concern.
"Go home?"
"Not that idiot. About Mikaela."
Karl proceeds to walks forward followed by Andressa. "What about her?"
"She wants a rematch which means she will actively hunt for you in the tournament."
"To be honest, I am glad that Mikaela is the one targeting me. As she is too prideful to use any underhanded tricks and will fight as fairly as possible. Any other person from a different knighthood would have been too much."
Andressa nods in understanding. "You got a point. But she will be definitely stronger than before and last time she underestimated you, this time she won't."
"So what? I am stronger too. I even learned a new spell."
"But-" Just as Andressa is about to say something, Karl turns around and pinches her cheeks.
"You worry too much."
He releases it. "I am still here. Trust me. I will win."
Andressa grabs her cheek and pouts. "Don't ever do that." She hits Karl's back.
"Sure. Sure."
Andressa suddenly stops. Karl turns around. "Promise me. That you will always win and come back."
She tightly grips her pants. "Promise me that you will never leave me or Layla and Lock."
Andressa feels a touch, she looks up and Leonard hugs her. "Yes mam."
Karl and Andressa comes back to the academy. At the gate, the guard sees Karl and opens the gate. Bunch of bags in Karl's left hand and Andressa's hand in his other hand. The road is empty and the night is young. They both walk silently. A cold wind blows by and the trees shakes a little. In the blue moonlight the white leaves flies by and it looks beautiful. Andressa's entire focus is Leonard. She hopes that this road never ends. She cherishes every step they take. But unfortunately, they finally reach the girls dormitory and Andressa releases Karl's hand.
"I had so much fun today." She speaks.
"Me too."
A couple seconds of silence passes. "We should do this often. It would be fun." Karl suggests.
Andressa remains silent. Karl looks into her eyes. They look too charming; her face becomes too vibrant and the sweet smell of her enters Karl's nose.
Andressa leans in for a kiss.
Karl can't move. She closes her eyes. Just as their lips are about to meet, Karl looks away. Andressa opens her eyes and takes a few steps back. Karl looks back and notices the sad expression on her face. He immediately turns back and walks away.
After walking a bit far, he starts to run at full speed. He sprints all the way to his dorm. He runs up the stairs and opens the door in hurry. Inside, he tosses the bags on the bed and crouches down. Panting heavily.
'What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing?'
He grabs his hair tightly. 'I am not doing it. I am not. I am not-' He looks ahead and sees himself standing in the mirror.
"You said you would help me." Karl makes a horrified expression.
"hElP mE." A distorted voice comes. Karl screams.
The sun comes up in the sky and a new day begins. Unlike yesterday, people are coming out on the streets. Making the city lively again. The academy is the same, every instructor who went to the federation came back early in the morning.
8:54 am. Karl opens his eyes. He is on the floor near the door. Everything seems normal. He looks into the same mirror and sees nothing unusual. He gets up and removes his shirt and puts it on the mirror, covering it. He goes straight to the sink and washes his face. His head hurts a bit. Lastly, he takes a deep breath and calms down.
'Fuck. What was that?' He looks at the covered mirror and then his stomach growls. 'Shit, I missed the dinner.'
He checks his watch and it's 9:00 am. He decides to attend the mess. Karl stretches his body as he takes his clothes off. He puts on a pair of boxers and goes upstairs to take a shower. After a good cold shower along with his daily necessities, he comes down and puts on some jeans and t-shirt which he bought yesterday. He also sorts his new clothes into the shelf.
Now he is ready to go out, he opens the door and his watch rings. It's Ian. Karl picks up the call. "Hello."
"Hey, were you sleeping?"
"No, I just woke up."
"Good, remember that breakfast treat I offered you?" Ian asks.
"Yeah. I am down."
"I text you the location, I meet you there."
"Sure." Karl cuts the call and checks Ian's message. A news notification pops up.
It says [VICTORY! THE FEDERATION DEFEATED INVADING THE VAMPYERS.]
'Federation won that? Cool.' Karl checks Ian's message. It's a link showing shortest path to Ian's location. Karl taps on it and follows the route. The location is within the campus.
7 minutes later, Karl finds himself infront of a small café which embedded inside the tree. The tree is around 11 meters in height. There is a wooden panel just above the glass front door which says 'Bloom & Brew Café.'
Karl walks to the entrance and opens the door. Inside, there are many wooden tables and a wooden bar-like area. On the celling there are vines and colourful flowers adds the touch to the plain brown colour. The sweet fragrance of coffee goes inside Karl's nose.
"Good sir, you can't enter this café." A boy wearing a waiter's uniform with long ears grabs Karl's shoulder. He is just a little bit taller than Karl. His hazel-coloured eyes and dark blonde hair gives it away.
'It's an elf.'
"This café is reserved for knights only. Commoners cannot enter this café. I will escort you out." Karl who is mesmerised by the boy's long ears doesn't give an answer.
Before the waiter could kick Karl out, a voice comes. "Wait. I invited him."
A hand comes up from the corner table. Karl turns around and sees Ian siting there. "Forgive me. I didn't know that he was your guest, master Ian." The young waiter bows deeply.
Ian waves his hand and the waiter walks away. Karl sits infront of Ian. "This is such a magnificent place. It feels good to be here."
"Yes, there is a bit mind magic involved. Anyways, want to order something?" Ian asks.
"You decide for me. I don't know much about coffees anyway."
"Sure, light or strong?"
"Strong."
"Okay, then this one." He calls the waiter and that boy comes again.
"Yes?"
"Bring a Strong devil's eye latte and a sweet cream flavoured milk for me." The waiter notes the order and goes away.
"Leo, have you been sleeping well?" Ian asks in concern seeing the dark circles under Karl's eyes.
"Well, few things happened-" Karl tells Ian about Mikaela and his shopping with Andressa. He leaves the intimate stuff. Ian smashes the table in anger.
"That bright fool! How could she ask for a rematch. After you won by a landslide, she should be asking for your forgiveness."
Ian is furious. But to other people even his tantrum looks majestic. 'Someone take this enchanting creature away from my vile hands.' Karl enjoys Ian's reaction.
"Anyhow, we have to clash with her in the tournament. Any plans?" Ian asks.
"Don't worry. I got this."
Ian senses overconfidence in Karl's voice. "Leo, I know that you are strong. But we are not talking about only Mikaela here, other students from different knighthoods would be there. Unlike, Mikaela who became Principal Estha's disciple just few months ago, there will be monsters who were trained from their birth. Even you need to be carefully."
Karl thinks for a second and asks "Then, what do you think I should do to become stronger?"
"Currently there is no time to learn any new techniques or spells. You should improve your current techniques and spells."
"How?"
"By gaining experience. The tournament is only five days away. You should go on few short adventurers to gain experience. Also, you are going to attend that auction, right?"
"Silver Chamber? Yeah."
"Good, text me when you and Andressa will go. I tag along."
Karl's face changes expression. "Well about Andressa, I don't think she is going to come."
"Why?"