Hazel casually walked back to her seat and stood by James's side. She looked over his head to have a clear view of Richard, who instinctively looked at her.
She relaxed into a melancholic state as she asked, "Are you okay? We should have intervened sooner."
Richard nodded like a woodpecker, still stunned by her fight with Lucas. Could it even be called a fight? Hazel was handling Lucas like a test dummy.
He finally found his words as he nodded his head, "Yeah, I'll live. Thanks."
She responded with a terse smile and subtle nod, before taking her seat beside James.
They all turned their heads down toward the court, where Master Kincaid stood with a casual smile.
Although the gauntlet match was messed up already, Master Kincaid wasn't ready to end it like that. He wanted everyone to participate and have some fun. He also needed to access their strengths and weaknesses before their final exams.
He raised his arms to the side as he smiled, "Now, where were we?"
The other students took turns in the gauntlet match, and it was quite fun like it was intended to be. There were some intense moments, but no one dared to cross the line. Everyone shuddered when it was Elora's turn. She easily beat the current gauntlet holder and held the title till the very last person.
The other students weren't weak, the princess was just better.
She struggled a bit against James though.
At the end of the match, Master Kincaid gave a short speech and dispersed the students. He made sure to keep Lucas and his lackeys in the hall though. Chaos would ensue if he allowed them to go outside.
"That must have hurt," Richard said, noticing James walking beside him. The latter wouldn't stop turning his left shoulder socket.
Still continuing in the act, James replied with a groan, "Bro, she threw me in the air, close to the ceiling and allowed me to fall from that height. I might have died if I didn't cushion the fall with my left side."
Richard chuckled, "You wouldn't have died. You have the toughest skin and you're also the most durable in our class, if not the entire academy. I don't know why you keep forgetting that."
James ruffled his brown hair, "I couldn't really think while fighting Elora. And it takes quite a lot of mana to harden my entire body. It was supposed to be a friendly match, I didn't want to waste my little mana."
"Wow," Richard said with a sarcastic tone. "If you have little mana, then my mana reserve is so full, it sometimes overspills."
James chuckled tersely and rubbed the back of his head. He understood that his friend was being sarcastic. He also understood why.
"Sorry. I didn't mean it that way. I tried to defend against Tusk's attack this morning and I took a lot of damage. It took a lot of mana to heal myself," he explained.
'Tusk,' Richard muttered inwardly and repeated it a few more times, trying to remember who or what Tusk was. He got a rather vivid image of Tusk three seconds later. It was a beast that assumed the build of a silver back gorilla, though four feet taller. The beast had elephant tusks curving out of his mouth.
"Oh," he blurted. Then his face went pale as he imagined what must have happened when Tusk collided with James.
"Oh," he muttered with a much deeper and compassionate tone.
"Yeah, but I'll try it again this weekend. You'll be there to trace me to whatever town my unconscious body must have been flung to," James said it so casually that Richard wanted to laugh, but the situation was dead serious.
Coming from a long line of Berserkers, James was burdened with the responsibility to live up to his ancestors' might and strength. His father never went easy on him every blessed day. Due to James's compassionate character, his father called him too soft. His father once said that James had cursed his mother during his birth, since her womb got damaged in the process.
She couldn't conceive another child, putting all hopes and responsibility of being a perfect heir on James's shoulders.
That was why he was always eager to get stronger at any chance he got. He stumbled upon Tusk during one of his intense trainings in the Blood forest.
'It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one having it tough in this realm,' Richard noted inwardly.
"What about you? Any idea on how you're going to increase your mana reserve?" James asked as the lecture building came into view.
A space of over a hundred meters separated the class building from the recreational hall that they just left. It was quite a long walk.
Richard sighed. He had also been thinking about it, likewise the former Richard. From what he could see in the former Richard's memories, none of his attempts at it worked out.
"I'm still working on it. I think about it every day nonstop," Richard answered. Then he added, "Or maybe that's the kind of Mage I'm meant to be."
James raised a brow and sized his friend up with a discomforted gaze. He scoffed, "Nonsense. You wouldn't even be called a Mage if your mana hadn't passed the threshold. And if you continue to wallow in depression, allowing your mana to deplete any further, the Masters might tell you to drop out."
"Uh," Richard scratched the back of his hair. "Was that an advice, or were you just scolding me?"
"A little of both," James said. He exhaled to relax himself, "What I'm saying is, it'd be boring if you don't make it to graduation. You can't expect me to spend my last days at the Academy with Hazel. She'd kill me."
"I would?" Hazel snickered, finally making her presence known beside James.
The two boys could almost shriek as they moved away from her in shock.
Panting, James's eyelids dropped as he saw the smiling Hazel. He stretched a hand towards her while looking at Richard, "See? She does this every time. My anxiety is at the brink of collapse."
Richard chuckled along with Hazel. He too was startled by her sudden appearance, but he found James's overdramatic gestures and words funny.
He could also feel a mild warmth in his chest. Something he hadn't felt for as long as he could remember. Most of his foster parents and siblings almost drove him to commit suicide a few times.
But he endured till his graduation day, when he'd be finally free to live as he liked. He found himself in Ostaria immediately after.
He didn't know why, but he was in some way glad that it happened. He'd have had hustle two to three jobs in order to raise money for college. Life wouldn't have been easy.
Maybe the universe finally smiled on him and brought him here, where he had an original family and genuine friends.
Hazel's groan pulled him out of his thoughts. He and James faced her with creased brows.
"I have to go home now. My mother calls me," she said, waving at them.
"You can hear her voice at home from here?" Richard couldn't help but ask, still fascinated by her superior ability.
She chuckled softly, "Of course not. I'm only a Chorister with a very limited range. She's at the Academy's entrance."
"Oh, right," Richard muttered with a nod. He had forgotten that she was only a student like him, and not an all powerful Mage.
She quickly turned her eyes toward James. She always felt uneasy whenever she looked at Richard.
She moved closer to James and tapped his shoulder, "Don't forget to make it home before nightfall."
"Aye. I won't," James nodded.
She hummed softly and walked ahead of them.
Watching her figure vanish into the lecture building, Richard couldn't help but lean toward James and ask, "Why do you have to get home before nightfall?"
James shrugged, "You know, Elves and their shenanigans. They'll be going on a Meelo hunt this evening, in the Blood forest."
"Oh," Richard cut in as he instantly got the full image. "They need you to keep Tusk away from them."
"Yes. I'll also be their shield if any irregularity happens," James said.
"But why hunt Meelos though? They're small, cute and very fluffy creatures," Richard said in smiles as he imagined sleeping on a cluster of Meelos.
"I don't really know why myself," James scratched his hair. "But Hazel said the black ones are bad fortune or something. They spring up at least once a year, and it's the elves' job to capture them before they fully mature."
"Elves and their shenanigans indeed," Richard scoffed.
They finally got to the lecture building's back entrance, but they stopped once they saw Elora waiting by the entrance with folded hands.
"Elora?" Richard muttered.
"Your Highness," James gave a slight bow.
Richard saw this and bowed too. Maybe it was custom to always do that whenever a commoner encountered a royal.
Elora rolled her eyes, "I've told you to stop doing that, James. You too, Richard."
The two of them raised their heads and chorused, "Sorry."
Elora simply sighed in exasperation before facing Richard, "We really need to talk about what happened yesterday."
"I guess I should go now. I might still be able to catch up with Hazel," James hurriedly said and dashed into the building before the other two could say anything.
They were too focused on each other to even give him any attention anyway.
'God, I still can't remember what happened between her and the former Richard yesterday,' Richard racked his brain, ruffling his hair. 'Did they kiss or what?'
He gave up after a few seconds and came clean, "Um, sorry, but the fight with Lucas has made my head all fuzzy. What happened yesterday?"
Elora narrowed her eyes and sized him up in scrutiny, humming in contemplation, before answering, "If this is a joke, it isn't funny, Richard. I'm going to be abducted today."