Lunchtime arrived.

  Even though we’re in the same class, I usually walk to the dining hall alone. Today, however, Vincent had already packed up his books before class even ended and was waiting for me at the exit—alone. Resigned, I greet him.

  "Hello, Vincent. How kind of you to wait for me."

  "Bianca, you have a lot to tell me. Let’s go."

  He starts walking toward the dining hall, and I follow at his side.

  "Are you talking about the chest?"

  "I didn’t see another boss in that room. Then we all left—except for Ronan’s bear and, apparently, your little pup. And somehow, those two managed to take down a boss that gave you an elite chest? None of the other three bosses gave us anything like that."

  There’s only one thing I can say to him. During the remaining classes, I couldn’t help but go over it in my head, and I decided this was the best approach. I put on a serious expression.

  "Vincent, the headmaster and the colonel have selected me as one of the academy’s promising students. Since you’re part of the royal family, you know what that means, and you also know I signed a confidentiality agreement. The dungeon wasn’t an official mission, but if I tell you how I did it, I’d be revealing my secret."

  We walk slowly, and other students pass us by. None join us, though, because Theodore, Alistair, and Darius are acting as a shield, intercepting anyone who tries to approach. Like Mary, who sees us and makes a move to come over.

  "So, that’s how it is," he replies, and I can sense his disappointment. "I understand that you can’t tell me, but I like to know who’s in my party and what I can count on."

  Damn, I feel bad… Worse than I thought I would for lying to him. The truth is, I didn’t want to let him down. I guess I’m a coward, but this isn’t just about being imprisoned or executed—it’s about much more than that.

  The rest of the students have already passed us on their way to the dining hall. Theodore and the others, seeing there’s no one else around, pick up the pace and move ahead down the corridor. I stop walking and look the prince in the eyes. I hate hiding things from him and deceiving him like this.

  "Vincent, I’m sorry. I really am. I wish I could tell you."

  There must be something in the genuine emotion in my voice or my body language because his demeanor shifts. He relaxes, exhaling slowly. His eyes trail over my face, lingering on my lips.

  We stay like that for a few seconds.

  Finally, he looks back into my eyes and replies:

  "Don’t worry. It’s not like I don’t want you in my party for dungeon runs. I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. Promise me that when you can, you’ll tell me."

  "I promise."

  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to tell him, but if the time comes, I’ll keep my word.

  "Come on, let’s eat. We need to hurry so we can check out our loot later."

  I nod and follow him to the dining hall. I still feel awful, and on top of that, something strange happened when he looked at me. He’s supposed to fall for Mary or one of the other main female characters, but when his eyes lingered on my lips, I felt completely exposed. And not because I was on the verge of tears from lying so blatantly—no, it felt like he was trying to understand me, and somehow, despite my silence, he did.

  The meal goes by quickly and in relative silence since we’re all eager to see what materials were brought back from the dungeon. We still have to divide the loot from the chests, too. The only real conversation I have is with Mary, who reminds me that we still need to go shopping.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  "For what?" Darius asks.

  And that was a quick, relatively quiet comment from Mary, who’s sitting beside me.

  "Don’t be nosy. It has nothing to do with you," I reply before Mary can get flustered—especially since it’s about the ball, and Theodore is here and so is Vincent. "Girl stuff."

  The truth is, it’s hard to find a time for her. My schedule is packed with classes and training sessions. So, I tell her that if she doesn’t mind, we can go next Saturday morning. The ball is about fifteen days away from then—if the seamstresses are fast, they’ll have time to make the necessary alterations.

  And the goblins? I really want to check on them now that I have my sword. But they’ll have to wait until the afternoon.

  She smiles at me in gratitude, and we continue eating at a pace that’s almost a race. The two redheads undoubtedly win. They finish dessert while the rest of us are still on the main course.

  "I asked my valet to make sure the items we pulled from the chests were taken to the treasury," Vincent tells us once we’re all on our way to the treasury office. "That way, we can divide everything at once."

  The treasury office is in a different wing of the academy. The treasurer allows us into one of the workrooms. It’s a spacious room with several tables and bookshelves.

  There, they’ve arranged all the materials that baronet Jorund’s men brought in—mostly scorpion parts (primarily meat and chitin plates), but also a few mummy claws and other alchemical components that honestly make my skin crawl a little. The gigantic pincer from the scorpion boss has been cut into pieces so it could fit through the academy doors, and it’s stored in an adjacent warehouse.

  On one of the tables—the largest one—is everything we personally collected from the dungeon.

  "We’ve appraised the materials," the treasurer tells us. "They’re of good quality. If you’d like us to handle the sale, we can offer you 898 gold coins, minus a 10% commission, which covers the cost of dismantling the creatures."

  Vincent looks at us, and we all nod.

  Goodness, that’s a lot. I think I could buy a house with my share alone.

  I realize that running dungeons at this level is incredibly profitable, but it also increases social inequality. A farmer, who has no magic and is born with lower stats, would find it nearly impossible to level up. Not to mention, they wouldn’t be able to afford the gear needed to survive in even a novice dungeon—assuming the military even lets them enter one.

  "Perfect, thank you," Vincent says to the treasurer.

  "I’ll be in my office—the third door on the right. If you need me, just call," he informs us before leaving.

  "Look!" Alistair points out the oil jars to Darius—just like the one he had been lugging around in the dungeon. "My jar… I would’ve loved to use it—throw it at the scorpion, break it with a fireball, and then watch it burn as the oil poured over it."

  I saw him practically making heart eyes at that jar even when we were leaving the dungeon. I can’t help it—I burst out laughing.

  "Do you want to keep them?" Theodore asks.

  "No, no, the chance to use them is gone. Better to sell them."

  "Now, let’s see how we handle your sword, Bianca," the prince says thoughtfully. "Maybe you’re going to have to pay us for it..."

  "You’re joking, right?" I tense up for a moment.

  Sure, I already expected to get a small share of the loot, but pay them?

  "No, but don’t worry—we get it. We’re not going to leave you empty-handed. It’s just… we’ve never encountered a bound item before. What do you guys think about excluding it entirely from the loot division?"

  "As if it never dropped?" Alistair asks.

  "I’m fine with that," Ronan says, who had been rather quiet until now—as he usually is.

  "And so am I. Poor Bianca—it wouldn’t be fair otherwise," Mary adds.

  I don’t know if she’s saying that because she’s naturally generous or because, like Ronan and me, she’s one of the poorest in this elite group full of marquesses’ children and even a prince. For any of us three, having to pay for the sword would mean going into debt. I don’t see my count parents, who give me a minimal allowance, pawning part of their estate to help me. I don’t even want to imagine how much my sword would be worth if it were sellable.

  "Anyone opposed?" Vincent asks.

  Theodore looks at him thoughtfully but says nothing.

  "Well, it stings a bit, but I think it’s fair. And hey, next time, maybe I’ll get lucky," Alistair says.

  "Perfect. We’ll handle things this way from now on."

  And here begins the debate about how to divide the rest of the loot —mainly over a certain cloak that grants +2 mana. In the end, Ronan keeps it, while Theodore, who also wanted it, takes the socketable +1 mana gem instead. Honestly, I’m not sure which of them got the better deal, since the cloak emits that eerie mist, while the gem can be transferred between different items.

  From the ten life gems that have already been extracted from the golem’s core (Vincent has been handling everything quite diligently), each of us takes one, except for the prince and the two red-haired warriors, who each take two.

  Since no one wants the ring of water affinity—the one for water breathing—Ronan takes it. I assume he knows that if you’re breathing water, you can’t breathe air. That’s the only reason I didn’t choose that spell from the water school and instead went for the minor breath control spell.

  The naga swords were already distributed in the dungeon, and the two antidotes go to Mary.