Lyanna lifted her head and looked around at all the boys hiding at the entrance of the classroom.

  She knew they were trying once again to prank her brother, Ronan.

  Smiling slyly, she returned to reading the book in her hands.

  Around her, the boys dressed in padded leather gear stared at the classroom door, waiting for Ronan.

  This behavior was a common practice among the children of Mirewood Village. Every time a new student joined the village's combat class they would suffer some kind of prank.

  The adults said this tradition started as a joke long ago.

  It had always been the village's custom. Until three years ago, when it was Ronan's turn to be the victim.

  At the time, Ronan was only 10 years old. Since the village could only accommodate a single class for all the children, a group ranging from 8 to 14 years old was formed in the classroom.

  Excited to keep the tradition going, the older students gathered to plan a prank that would work on Ronan.

  To their surprise, however, Ronan was never caught off guard, no matter how much they prepared. It was as if he already knew what awaited him before he even entered the classroom.

  The older students didn't give up easily and kept trying to surprise Ronan. This went on for three years without success.

  At some point, as the older students graduated and the younger ones took their place, pranking Ronan stopped being a matter of tradition and became a matter of competition.

  Everyone wanted to be the one who could catch Ronan off guard. They gave up on trying to prank him and now only sought to surprise him.

  "He’s coming!" shouted one of the boys, who was watching through the window.

  All the others quickly got ready and took their positions.

  Knowing the time was nearly here, Lyanna looked around again. This time, she made sure to take note of everyone's position among those hiding in the classroom.

  Once she was certain she hadn't missed anyone, she sighed and couldn't help but feel sorry for the boys. They had no chance of surprising Ronan. Not while Lyanna was there.

  However, as they waited eagerly, the time passed minute by minute, and there was no sign of the door opening. Everyone looked at the one responsible for monitoring the window.

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  The boy shook his head, signaling that he had lost sight of him.

  Suddenly, one of the boys remembered a time when they had planned something similar to surprise Ronan. That day, Ronan found an excuse to never come to class, making everyone’s wait pointless. It was not impossible for Ronan to do it again.

  Unable to wait any longer, he approached the classroom door and made hand signals to the others, indicating what he intended to do.

  Reaching the door, he took off a wooden sword from his back, its tip covered in a dark sticky liquid. As per the combat class standard, the students used equipment covered with this substance. It was meant to prevent serious injuries during training.

  When someone was hit by something coated in this liquid, the impact would leave a mark on the target, clearly showing where they were hit. This way, there was no need to fight until more serious injuries occurred.

  The other students saw the boy's actions and decided it would be better if they also went outside. After all, there were so many of them and only one Ronan. It was very unlikely he would be able to dodge all the attacks.

  Opening the door, the first boy peeked outside, checking the corridor. Noticing no one was there, he signaled to the others before opening the door fully and stepping outside.

  The others followed him, all trying to make as little noise as possible so they wouldn't alert Ronan, wherever he was.

  Lyanna watched all of this, trying her best to suppress her laughter. While the boys’ approach made sense, that would only be the case if Ronan didn't already know their plan.

  When the last boy exited through the classroom door, Lyanna sent a signal to Ronan. At that moment, the classroom window opened. Outside, there was a 13-year-old boy, his facial features strikingly similar to Lyanna's.

  His messy black hair, tousled by the wind, contrasted with his neatly dressed clothes. He smiled at Lyanna as he effortlessly hopped through the open window.

  "Good morning!" he shouted, greeting the other students still in the classroom. The others laughed and greeted him back.

  They weren’t students of the combat class, so they weren’t interested in catching Ronan off guard. On the other hand, they had grown accustomed to seeing Ronan arrive in class without any problems every day.

  They couldn’t help but feel sorry for the other boys.

  Ronan sat down next to Lyanna casually, not paying attention to the others' conversation. In an angle no one else could see, he raised his fist towards Lyanna. The girl responded with her own fist.

  This was their routine. Lyanna would go ahead to the classroom and observe which preparations were made to catch Ronan off guard. With Lyanna's information, Ronan always managed to escape, and he was never surprised.

  As for how Lyanna managed to pass this information to Ronan, that was tied to the twins’ greatest secret.

  Ronan and Lyanna were twins. And from birth, 13 years ago, they shared a special connection no one else knew about. A phenomenon only known to the two of them, they could share all five senses with each other.

  Everything one heard, saw, felt, or smelled, the other felt the same at the same time. And there was another ability they shared, the power to communicate telepathically, no matter the distance.

  This was how Ronan managed to avoid being caught off guard for three straight years.

  The twins wouldn’t tell anyone about their uniqueness, so everyone else assumed they were just smarter than other children of the same age.

  Ronan and Lyanna stopped their secret communication, and looked at the classroom entrance, where the boys that just went outside were returning.