"Really, you know him?"
"His ears are quite long you know."
He watched me again silently.
"I guess you really are a friend to all races."
"We best not speak his name, he hears all, or so he says."
We laughed at the elf kings expense.
"Alright well I'll contact you when the commission is finished, but where should I send it? New students don't have dormitory assignments yet."
The spirits told him. Nothing I can do now.
"Just make it out to the magic course vice dean, I'll let her know ahead of time."
"Even her huh? You are really quite connected for a boy so young."
Well a 10's maybe 100's of playthroughs do that. I practically have every major test question memorized as even though there were many, they're the exact same in every playthrough, so any multiple choice exams should be a breeze.
"Then I'll leave the replica with you."
"Sure. I'm certain it won't be very long before I see you again."
"Not at all."
Certainly I was going to be back. After all Sarah and the auction house wouldn't be able to satisfy my needs.
With my goals for the day finished I paid, since I wasn't a student, for a gate to the Svarmet mansion in the capital.
I entered the gate and was spat out into the front door of the mansion.
Thank Nyx above I was registered here, otherwise I would have been eviscerated. Many places like the academy have Spatial magic locks or dimensional locks, but the mansion only has a spatial restriction, and it's based on mana signature.
It isn't because the duchy can't afford a lock, but because collapsing a portal connection with someone inside, or closing a portal while an intruder is halfway through it will do serious damage, if not outright kill them.
I thought this over while opening the door and walking through the main hall.
As I walked up the main stairwell, she appeared and did not look happy.
***
*Aurelia's Pov*
That was a long and exhaustive brochure. It was amazing.
"My lady, you've been staring at the brochure for at least 2 hours now."
"Really? Then I guess I should eat now."
I left my room and went to search for Luke.
I came to his room and knocked on his door and he wasn't there.
He could be somewhere else in the mansion, so I guess he decided to train or explore?
I left to the main hall to see if I could find his whereabouts.
As I went down the stairs I ran into him. That's weird. The main hall only leads into the courtyard, and the mansion's exit.
Did he go somewhere without me?
Was the brochure just a ruse?
Why did he hand me the brochure if he wasn't going to look over it with me?
Surely he couldn't have looked at all of it while we were being flown around.
"Where were you?"
He looked startled. He's done something wrong. He knows it.
Perfect time to tease him.
"And where were you Lucas?"
I could see him swallow nervously.
He was definitely thinking along the lines of
'She called me by my full name!'
"I got bored of my room so I went on a walk?"
Unlikely, the Luke I know usually asks me if I want to go.
Although it's possible he didn't because I was going through the brochure still.
However, he went on a walk instead of joining me, so I will continue to pressure him.
I can sense he's not being fully truthful.
"Liar."
I was going to find Lucy and see where he went.
"Wait, now that you're here we can go to the city and get food."
Hm. That's not good enough to pacify me anymore, Luke, I'm not 8.
"I get that my proposition won't pacify you, you're not your 14 year old self anymore."
Hey, that's mean. How did I go from trying to tease him, to being bullied.
"Lucas isn't cute anymore."
"Hold on, let's get out and eat, and I'll tell you what I really did."
Luke called out for some gate magicians and I went to get dressed for an outing.
Nighttime was already approaching, and we were still going out.
It was like a dinner date.
I immediately called Lucy to help me dress up, and she called in a few maids I wasn't very familiar with.
Despite this they got me ready in just 5 minutes.
Luke somehow managed to get ready by then too.
It was surprising. He looked quite handsome.
As I walked down the stairs to the main hall, Luke put his hand out.
"If you would, my lady."
I gladly accepted his hand and we turned to walk towards the gate.
***
*Lucas' Pov*
As I reached my hand back to Aura, I spied the maids watching us, and squealing.
For them it must've been like watching a romance huh?
Perfect. I need to escape here with Aura before she does any serious damage, in anger or otherwise mischievous feelings.
The only ones not smiling were the gate guards who's faces were covered by masks, and Lucy, who seemed to have a stoic servant face.
Despite how she looked, I could tell she was enjoying this too.
Good.
Now to teleport out the gates.
"Knight captain Lucas and young lady Aurelia away in ..3 ..2 ..1"
And we were back in the city.
Aurelia had a good memory, but I doubt she could remember all 214 locations inside the city for activities.
Therefore I brought her to a real hole in the wall.
It's a place where you can enjoy the view of the imperial capital and have dinner.
It's on the west side of the city, so it's alright to walk rather than gate to the other side.
I'm worried about a few things though.
There is in fact a demon in hiding here.
The city wasn't able to detect it, since it was quite good at masking it's mana signature.
However, he is quite weak, so there shouldn't be any issues.
Even Aura could handle him, only problem is that, he can morph into other people.
Not in a eat them, or kill them, he can just turn into them, which is why he's so careful in the city.
He wouldn't be able to prove he's the real person and be outed as a demon fast.
Despite this we should be okay. He didn't start his plan until after our class inauguration.
As we entered the restaurant I realized there were many people there.
It wasn't packed, but they had a decent amount of people they were serving.
The waiter showed us to our table and we sat down and began our ritual of scouring the menu, looking for something the other liked.
"The front's all seafood, Aura, so skip past it."
"The second page has some eggrolls, if you'd want those."
"Sure."
I flipped to the third page.
"They have burgers and chicken here in the fourth page. Its where it says entrees."
"Got it"
"And don't bother with the last page, it's all alcohol."
"On the third page it says there's a brownie sundae."
She wasn't listening was she.
We called the waiter back to the table and gave him our food requests.
She had the chicken with fries. I took to something lighter.
The food there was pretty good. Nothing noteworthy, but better than decent.
The check came to 46 credits perfect. I paid with credits, as Aura tried to understand why they wouldn't take her money.
The waiter patiently explained.
After that Aura gave me a frowny face for not telling her earlier.
I stood up and told Aura I was headed to the restroom to wash up before we walk and talk.
"I give you permission."
I snickered at that.
***
*Aurelia's Pov*
Why would he not tell me about credits. what a meanie. I was going to flick his head when we got out of the restaurant.
He came out the restroom faster than I thought.
I couldn't even finish my thought. Whatever.
"Let's go"
He smiled and held out his hand to me.
It was a little colder than normal, I guess a normal thing after washing your hands under cold water.
We left the restaurant and he surprised me.
"I have a gift for you."
"What a surprise I do too!"
I flicked him on the forehead.
"There, and for the other surprise, my inauguration speech, concludes with the information about your duel."
"Oh, ok, here take a look first."
He handed me a purple baggie.
All that was inside was some powder.
***
*Lucas' Pov*
I left the washroom, and to my surprise Aura wasn't sitting at the table.
"Hey, do you know where the girl sitting here went?"
I asked the twin girls sitting near us.
"She left with you I thought?"
"Yea, she took your hand and you led her out of the restaurant."
S@!&.
"The demon took her."
I wasn't dumb. I could smell the demon. Possibly a side effect of the dragon elixir that Fiadh had given me.
He was staring at Aura. I kept my talking to a mum as I didn't want him imitating me and taking her.
I assume he must've found our dynamic anyways. A 5th circle mage, feeding a 3rd stage demon like him. Things could have gone pretty bad.
"There's a demon involved?"
The twins looked at me seriously.
I nodded.
We all ran out of the store as I started tracing Aura's mana signature. Difficult with all the people standing and moving around.
We made introductions as we moved through the crowd.
"I'm Armoria."
"And I'm Kimoria."
"I've met you."
I said to Armoria.
"Really, when?"
"We're both taking the magic course."
"Oh wow, you're with my sister, I'm personally in the knights course."
"Good to know."
It was. Maybe I could have her find the protagonist for me.
"How are you tracing her, you have an artifact?"
I did, but not on me, I was using my nose and heightened sense to find her.
"Yea, I am."
I lied, it would far more abnormal to suggest I wasn't using one, and I need to not draw any more attention from the academy and demons right now.
We found her in an alleyway, facing off against the demon.
She was all scratched up and was probably dealing with the drug's aftereffects.
Malton, also known as Crebustus, the demon. A third to fifth stage demon, depending on when you take the quest for him.
He is a shapeshifting demon and uses magic drug powder to lull his victims into unconsciousness, where he eats them.
"We have to stop meeting like this."
"So we've met before human?"
"What, no. I'm talking to her you crustacean fuck."
That got him angry. I pulled out my key, much to the dismay of the twins and began to twist fire and water into a jet.
"Dual cast.
I nearly killed him with just the two.
I asked the twins to hold him off while I retrieve Aura.
I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder.
She wasn't very awake at that point.
I walked over to Armoria and asked her to hold onto Aura for a little bit.
I was going to murder him.
"Close your eyes, otherwise this might hurt."
Well I warned them.
Single cast.
I eviscerated his body. All that was left was a measly 3rd stage demon core.
I tossed it to them and told them to keep it for their troubles.
"Good to see you got your girlfriend back, but instead of the core, could you tell me how you cast a third circle lightning spell without a chant or name?"
"An I would like to learn some of the footwork you used. It was definitely a knights movement."
They were perceptive.
"I can do that."
"But later."
"I need to get her home."
"We get it."
With that we said our goodbyes and left.
***
*Aurelia's Pov*
I felt really out of it during his fight with the demon.
The girl was channeling mana through me, I guess stimulating my self healing.
After the fight though, she called me his girlfriend, and what's more he didn't deny it.
It sobered me up really fast, but I pretended to be drunk to stay with him a little longer.