She took my hand and led me to the dining hall.
Given how much she hated dealing with people's stares, I'd assumed she wouldn't like a place like this—so I was a little surprised she'd brought me here so boldly from the start.
The academy was vast enough that it had all kinds of dining halls, and the one she'd chosen was a quiet spot up north.
"Go in ahead."
"Oh… sure."
I stumbled over my words again.
I stepped inside to find a few students already gathered, chatting among themselves. I'd barely ever come to the north dining hall during the semester, so I had almost no idea what was on the menu.
For now, I went with the beef steak—the one thing I vaguely remembered being good.
*Elline, though…*
She'd figure out her own order, wouldn't she?
Better to just buy my own than pick something wrong and get an earful for it.
Actually, wait—
Should I get hers too?
Hmm… Back in the library, when Ross was reading that dating advice book, I'd spent a good while making fun of him.
I should've read it with him.
I was starting to regret that.
It hadn't fully sunk in yet, but maybe it was because we were a couple now—every single little decision was starting to feel loaded.
"Fine."
I ended up ordering two.
If she said she didn't want it, I'd just eat it myself.
I scanned the dining hall, looking for a good seat.
Elline always preferred spots away from people, so a table by the window caught my eye—just right.
*That one.*
No sooner had I settled on it than a booming voice rang out from the counter, and when I turned, two generous servings of beef steak were waiting for me. The juices pooling over the well-seared meat, paired with the rich, savory sauce—it looked delicious even before the first bite.
Academy food always managed to look appetizing, no matter when you saw it.
I carried the plates over to the spot I'd picked and sat down.
I didn't start eating.
Waiting to eat together was the most basic courtesy there was.
"…"
Actually, now that I thought about it, maybe just ordering ahead was the wrong move?
Right—I should've just sat down and waited.
*Idiot.*
I wouldn't normally make a mistake like this, but I kept slipping up. Think normally, Rutess. Please.
While I was lightly pulling at my own hair, the chair across from me scraped back with a loud drag.
Elline?
"Oh, sorry. I went ahead and ordered—"
It wasn't silver hair.
"Hey there, Rutess."
A male student with golden hair. A shade brighter than Ross's—almost aggressively so.
"Ugh…"
Beron.
Beron Lucian.
He settled into the chair across from me with an easy, unhurried air, and the moment I saw his face, my appetite vanished as if it had never existed.
If there was a talent for it, his was this: every single movement he made felt unpleasant.
"What brings you here?"
Beron tossed the question out with that slick, self-satisfied tone of his.
"Came to eat. Is that so unusual?"
He was the second son of House Lucian, a third-year at the same academy—and someone I had no particular fondness for.
Whenever I looked at that signature greasy expression of his, I felt vaguely nauseated.
"Oh? Two steaks. Big appetite, huh?"
"We're not close enough to be keeping tabs on each other, are we?"
He let out a low chuckle.
"Ah, sorry. I just can't help sticking my nose in."
Can't help it, he says.
Right. Absolutely can't help it.
Completely unnecessarily.
More accurately, he was probably dying to show himself off. The insignia pinned to his shoulder was so ostentatious it was almost painful to look at.
"Hm? Ah, so you noticed."
Who wouldn't notice, when you've hung it there like a sign that says *look at me*?
"Well, as you can see—I've been promoted to Alpha Class."
I know.
"Yeah. Impressive."
I said it flatly, and his eyebrow gave the faintest twitch.
"You're not even trying to hide the jealousy."
"Yeah, I'm jealous. Very."
I shot back again, and he ran a hand through his hair.
Until just last year, we'd both been in Beta Class—but he'd always carried on about how he was destined for Alpha, how he was a cut above the rest.
For two years.
The whole time.
So even when we were in the same Beta Class, he'd always looked down on everyone around him.
And now that he'd finally made it, of course he had to rub it in.
"I told you, didn't I? You and I are different breeds."
Are we plants?
"Yeah, congratulations."
I'd congratulated him and admitted I was jealous—he could leave now.
"Rutess."
"What."
"Don't you think you owe me an apology?"
The ease in his voice was giving way to something else now—a slow creep of contempt.
"…?"
"You were always like that. Picking apart everything I said, pushing back every single time."
…Was I? Thinking about it, maybe so.
He and I were both in the support branch.
Well, technically he'd transferred in during second year, but—
Anyway, what I'd gathered from sitting through the same theory lectures as him was that he had an absurdly inflated standard.
*If you were in Alpha Class, you wouldn't do it that way…*
*That's exactly why you'll never make it to Alpha Class…*
With that kind of commentary tacked onto everything, how could there not be friction?
And it wasn't just me—he'd clashed with plenty of other students too, I was pretty sure.
He might have been technically correct in theory, but how do you expect ordinary sparrows to fly like phoenixes?
So even when things went well, he complained—and whenever his own performance fell short, he blamed everyone else.
"I was just offering adjustments."
As in: dial it back a little, lower your expectations just a notch.
"Adjustments. No."
He flicked his insignia with a finger and fixed me with a stare.
"You were wrong, Rutess."
He began to smile—a mean, thin smile—and the students behind him started to snicker along.
"Your petty pride and ego just couldn't stand to acknowledge me, so you picked holes in everything I said. Isn't that right?"
This guy's unhinged.
"Is that so?"
"That's right. I proved it. With ability."
Ability. Even a passing dog would laugh.
I hesitated to judge anyone so bluntly, but the level of magic I'd seen from Beron was not Alpha Class.
At best, upper-mid Beta.
I couldn't say he hadn't put in effort—but most students probably knew.
Just how desperately he'd scraped his way up at the final evaluation of second year.
The reason he'd transferred into the support branch was tied to that, too.
Unlike the attack and defense branches, support had far fewer students and far less prestige—which meant the bar for Alpha Class promotion was comparatively lower. And on top of that, the nature of support magic meant your scores often depended less on your own ability and more on the strength of your teammates.
I had no idea how much money his family had spread around, but at that evaluation, his group had included three Alpha Class students.
In that strangely convenient arrangement, there was no way Beron wouldn't stand out.
Naturally, the exam results came back excellent, and he'd secured his place in Alpha Class.
*Proved it with ability.*
I nearly laughed out loud at that, but I held my expression as flat as I could, not wanting to give him anything to latch onto.
Still, one of the students behind him caught my reaction and snickered.
"Oh, Rutess actually has some pride, huh?"
"Seriously. I would've just apologized."
He'd moved up to Alpha Class—I'd figured I wouldn't have to run into him much anymore. But the way he was looking at me now, it felt like he'd been waiting to corner someone.
*Got you right where I want you.* That was the look on his face.
"Well, I get it. Hard to admit it, I suppose."
Beron smiled that thin, oily smile and glanced at my steak—then stabbed his fork straight into it.
"I know the type. No real ability, but all the pride in the world."
Is he describing himself?
"Exactly like you."
He laughed softly and began dragging the fork—still skewering my steak—across the iron plate with a grating scrape.
Annoying was one word for it. Tedious was another.
Either way, it was deeply irritating.
Like swatting at a fly that just kept coming back no matter what.
Though I had to admit, it did have one useful side effect: it swept away all the complicated feelings that had been swirling around in my head.
And they had been complicated.
My mind had been running at full speed since the early hours of the morning.
Because of Elline.
…
Right—Elline.
She should be here by now, shouldn't she?
I turned my head to look for her.
And then.
My gaze landed on the other side of the room.
Standing there was a girl.
As naturally as if she'd always been there, without anyone noticing when she'd arrived.
Whether it was because I'd suddenly turned my head, Beron and the other students followed my gaze.
As more and more eyes drifted toward her, one by one they began to look startled.
"That's Elline…?"
"Wait, really?"
The unexpected arrival set off a wave of murmuring, but Elline paid it no mind whatsoever—she simply walked past them all, calm and unhurried, making her way toward us.
One step,
two steps,
and she came to a stop directly in front of Beron and me.
Her expression was as unreadable as ever, but somehow that made it more unsettling. Her eyes moved in small, precise arcs, taking in the situation.
Whatever tension had been crackling at the table moments before drained away with startling speed, and silence settled in its place.
At the center of it all, Beron was the most visibly shaken—something shifting and churning behind his eyes.
*What—why is Elline here…*
Elline.
Back in first year, when Beron had shared classes with her in the attack branch, he'd caught just a glimpse of what she was capable of—and from that moment on, she had existed in his mind as something to be feared.
His transfer to the support branch had been driven, in no small part, by the weight of her genius.
And this was the first time he'd ever faced her at such close range. His body had begun to tremble before he even realized it.
*No, wait—*
But the shock lasted only a moment. Beron steadied himself and thought it through.
*Why am I scared? I'm Alpha Class now, too.*
He was no longer someone who could only watch her from a distance. He was a student of the same standing as Elline.
An equal. Someone she could speak to on level ground.
He was no longer the version of himself who'd spent years tiptoeing around her.
He straightened his insignia, rose from his seat, and offered a polite greeting.
"Hey, Elline. I'm Beron Lucian—just got promoted to Alpha Class this term. Nice to meet you."
Beron smiled and looked at her.
"…"
Her eyes moved slowly, and when they settled on him, the ease he'd been wearing moments ago began to sweat right off him.
"Oh, maybe you don't know me… haha. I know you pretty well, though. We'll be in the same classes this semester, so…"
"…"
"Oh! For the group project this exam period, we could—"
"Get lost."
The dining hall went silent in an instant.
Beron's group.
The students nearby.
Me—I looked at Elline too.
Just to make sure we hadn't misheard.
The most rattled of all was Beron, who'd heard it straight to his face.
"What…?"
Elline's expression didn't change. She opened her mouth again.
"I said, get lost."
Her eyes looked at him the way you'd look at an insect.
The dining hall fell quiet, every gaze converging on the same point.
Her voice was flat, but something was rising beneath it—slow and unmistakable—and at the sheer finality of her words, the students around them began to edge backward.
Beron, the one it was directed at, stood rooted to the spot, his face flushing red.
"I… no."
*…This isn't how it was supposed to go.*
He was rattled.
He'd always told himself the reason Alpha Class students looked down on him was because he'd been in Beta. That once he was promoted, the way people saw him would change.
But Elline's eyes hadn't changed at all.
If anything, they felt colder than before.
The dining hall wasn't exactly crowded, but the students around them were already whispering, watching—and Beron, who was always acutely aware of how he looked, clenched his fist and trembled.
"…"
In the end, Beron seemed to feel the weight of all those eyes. He fled the dining hall as if escaping.
Glaring at me until the very last moment.
Why are you looking at me?
The commotion was over.
Once he'd finally retreated, the dining hall gradually settled back into its usual rhythm—but the moment Elline sat down across from me, every gaze in the room swung back toward us.
Because no one had ever seen Elline eat with another person before.
And because the person she was sitting with was a student most of them couldn't even place.
"…What's that about?"
"Elline's eating with someone…"
"Who is that?"
I'd expected it, but feeling the stares in person was still a little much.
Being watched while eating was a new experience, and it made it hard to chew properly.
Even so, I glanced up—and Elline was eating just fine.
"Is it good?"
"Mm. It's delicious."
As if she were completely used to being stared at.
"…"
The way she ate in small, careful bites looked no different from any other student.
Right. I should stop worrying about it and just eat.
Beron's little performance had done a number on the steak, but the juices hadn't gone anywhere.
If anything, the meat had been torn into smaller pieces, which made it easier to eat.
I took a bite. Rich, savory juices and the warm scent of butter spread across my tongue.
Still delicious.
I finished the steak thinking that.
Then I looked up, and Elline was staring at me.
That same displeased expression from before—the corners of her mouth pulled down just slightly.
"…What?"
"Don't let people like that sit down with you next time."
People like that…?
…
"Beron?"
She stabbed her steak with her fork and gave a small nod.
She must have found it genuinely unpleasant—her brow was furrowed in a way she wasn't bothering to hide.
Elline, of all people, looking displeased.
"…"
It was a first.
Something warm and soft began to bloom in my chest.
"Got it."
A smile came on its own.
I should have felt bad that she was irritated—
But the fact that she was making that face because she was worried about me, for some reason, looked almost endearing.
Cute.
It was the first time I'd ever felt that way about Elline.
I'd always thought of her as a girl made of ice, but I supposed that was what years at the same academy would do.
The moment we stood up from the table, the stares were already on us again.
We made our way naturally to the tray return, cleared our dishes, and then Elline, just as naturally, took my hand.
"…"
It was only the second time, but I held her hand back.
My heart was pounding like it had lost its mind, of course.
I could feel the stunned stares from behind us, but I decided not to care about that right now.
I still didn't know why she'd accepted my confession.
But at the very least, I could feel that she cared about me.
So I wanted to let go of my doubts about her.
Setting aside the doubts was one thing—it was still hard, in its own way.
But either way, the first date was over.
On a peaceful weekend evening after we'd parted ways, I was sitting alone working through chess puzzles without much else going on.
The quiet sounds and the low, settled atmosphere of the dormitory at night put me at ease.
But.
Bang!
Before I could even enjoy the peace, someone flung my door open hard enough to break it off its hinges and came storming into my room.
"…Hm?"
When I turned, standing in the doorway were Ross—and the three other friends who'd been part of the bet.
"Grab him."
"Kill that bastard."
…?
Before the thought had even finished forming, all four of them were already charging straight at me.