It was yet another day, and another final bell had tolled. The end of the week was fast approaching, and my brain felt like jam spread across a rotten piece of toast.

  It seemed there wasn’t enough of me to go around anymore. The direction of my days had become authored by Evangeline and Cynthia and their random, demanding text messages. To add to that, Mizuki had been uncharacteristically absent from my life. In the days that followed Evangeline’s training, my best friend had been ignoring me for reasons unknown to me.

  I had decided I would wait and see how things played out before making a big deal of the situation. But, yet again, another school day had come and gone, and Mizuki had both walked to St. Cirelia without me and avoided me in class. I had given her and time space to come to me on her own, but since that hadn’t happened, it was more than time to address her about her worrying behavior. But before I could do that, I had to meet with Eva once again for more training.

  The crazy, camouflage-clad girl promised I would see progress in the next session. I had my doubts about that, but time was running out and I didn’t have the luxury of refusing to show up. Cynthia had delivered the awful news that an announcement of my first opponent was on the horizon, which meant it was time to speed it up. I needed to at least surpass a child’s level of spell casting if I was going to stand a ghost of a chance in the gauntlet.

  With a heavy sigh, I stepped out onto the sports field behind St. Cirelia. For the first time in the whole week, the person who had summoned me was already in the place they asked me to meet them.

  There, bathed in the citrus glow of the early evening, was Evangeline Dioli. Outfitted in her green camo attire as usual, she stood in the middle of the field, executing an impressive martial arts routine. Her skilled dance was comprised of a flurry of punches and spinning kicks. One of her fists was encased in an earthen glove, while the other burned in a hot flame not unlike the ones she swiped at me with during our “fight” back in detention. Her boots left ice trails behind with every kick, pulling together a stunning demonstration of her mastery of the elements.

  Even for someone as bad at spell casting as I was, I knew the spectacle before me was incredible. It was difficult for even the most proficient at magic to wield multiple spells at once, let alone spells of different elemental natures. And yet, there she was, making it look easy. Somehow, a girl who seemed so ridiculous at times was performing a masterful display of martial arts prowess, all the while perfectly envisioning the names and magic circles of three different spells. She really wasn’t kidding about being a prodigy.

  At the conclusion of her display, Eva expelled a breath and noticed me standing across the field, dumbfounded. A smile grew upon her lips immediately.

  “Hey, there you are!” she called.

  “I hope you’re not about to accuse me of being late, because you have no place to speak.”

  “Ah, I don’t care about that today. Just get over here!”

  I closed the distance between us and said, “that was something else. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Why, thank you~” she giggled bashfully. “By the time I’m done with you, that will be you.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “Okay, well maybe not exactly that, but something close.”

  “Right. Anyway, I’m ready to train.”

  “Perfect! Then let’s go to where our training will take place for the day!” She grabbed my hand and began guiding me away from the field.

  “What are you doing? Aren’t we training here?”

  “Nope. Today’s training will be a little different than the other day.”

  Confused, I surrendered myself to her guidance which brought us to the outdoor storage shed where most of the gym equipment was kept. She pulled the door open and swung her hand in a rolling motion, indicating for me to step inside. I did, and she followed, shutting the door behind her.

  “What are we doing in here?” I asked.

  Eva walked past me and hopped onto a stack of gym mats. She patted the spot beside her, prompting me to join her. Reluctantly, I did.

  “Today’s training is psychological, my protégé,” she explained.

  “Psychological?”

  “Yes. I took some time to think about our Morning Dew fight the other day. I analyzed every move you made, and it made me realize something.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “Shinsuke, I’ve seen your grades. You’re smart, right? So, if you’re smart, then why would you have trouble casting spells? At first, I thought maybe you just had a low aptitude for magic. After all, you did say you have trouble channeling your magical energy. But when I saw your behavior after the game, it told me all I needed to know.” She poked me in the forehead. “The problem is this.”

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  “What?”

  “I’m saying that you’re in your own head too much. I had a talk with Mizuki after you left the other day that reinforced that theory. So, the goal for today is to do a little connecting!”

  I wasn’t exactly sure what she was getting at, but the mention of Mizuki’s name had puzzled me even further. I had almost forgotten that Eva insisted on walking Mizuki home that day—the last day that I had spoken normally to my childhood friend. Could the conversation about my spell casting situation have caused her strange behavior? I would have to follow up on that later.

  “You mean like a team building exercise? I’m not sure I’m understanding any of what you’re saying right now.”

  “I’m saying that if we’re going to get you over this hump, we need to get to know each other a little better. It’s important to getting you out of that head of yours.”

  I ground my teeth a bit and shifted on the uncomfortable stack of mats. The crowded shed amplified the heat of a day that was already the warmest of the week. Humidity was starting to cloud around me, making me feel sticky and gross.

  “Okay, that’s all well and good,” I said. “But couldn’t we have done this at a nice café or something? Why do we have to do our ‘bonding’ or whatever in this hellishly hot shed?”

  She laughed off my question without even an attempt at a response. Apparently, I had said something rather funny, but she didn’t seem to be interested in letting me in on the joke.

  This girl…

  Just as soon as she burst into laughter, however, her demeanor calmed. For the first time since meeting her, I watched the corners of her lips droop into a frown. “The other day you asked me why I’m helping you train for the gauntlet…I think it’s time I told you a little about that.”

  I nodded and allowed her the grace of silence.

  “You and I aren’t all that different, you know,” she started. “You’re engaged to the Princess of the Kingdom of Steylia against your will, and I’m engaged to the Steylian Royal Army against mine.”

  The articles I read about her flashed through my mind. Every one of them made mention of her being the youngest recruit of the Steylian Royal Army, but I had never seen anything about it being involuntary.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve always been good at magic. Like, really good,” she said, leaning back on the palms of her hands. “I just took to spell casting like a fish to water. I learned all kinds of advanced spells at a very young age, much younger than normal. You should have seen how impressed my teachers always were. Not just them, anyone really. I would flaunt my magic in public all the time. I was quite the little show off.”

  She chuckled and paused for a minute; the smile that accompanied her laugh faded as fast as it appeared. Her blue eyes stared at a shelf, and I could tell that her mind was every bit behind her as the arms that she was putting her weight on.

  “Anyway,” she continued. “It didn’t take long for the Steylian Royal Army to catch wind of me. They heard all about the ‘talented kid’ who could perform spells far more complex than should’ve been possible. They seemed shocked when they found out my family was so poor we were living in a slum.”

  “I had no idea…”

  A glint of tainted nostalgia flickered in her eyes.

  “The men that came to our house offered a contract. It said that if I agreed to join the SRA immediately after graduating high school, my family would receive a large sum of money. Mama and papa were tired. They had been poor all their lives, so…”

  “So they signed it,” I said through gritted teeth. Rage was building quickly inside of me.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “Though, unlike your White Knight Contract, there’s no opt-out clause for me. Not only will I become an official soldier the day I graduate, but I have to serve for at least fifteen years before I can leave. No exceptions.”

  “What the hell?!” I snapped, finally losing my composure. “How could they spring a screwed-up contract like that on a child? And those terms are insane, you have less rights than someone joining the SRA of their own volition! How could your parents even sign you into something like that?!”

  “It’s okay, really,” she assured, her somber tone betraying the weak smile on her face. “I’m just glad that I could help my family.” She concluded with a shrug.

  I wanted to call out her obvious insincerity, but it was clear she knew she hadn’t fooled me. What she said had been to fool herself, not me. Bursting her bubble would have been cruel, so I remained silent and ground my teeth into dust instead.

  She linked her gaze with mine and continued. “When I saw your outburst at that press conference, it inspired me. Seeing you so fired up that you would defy the will of the King and Queen like that on international television got me going like crazy. I may not be able to change my own fate, but I can help you escape yours. So, that’s why I’m doing this. If I can help you get out of this with something nice for you and your family, I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  I said nothing for a moment. Instead, I studied her expression, searing the determination in her blue eyes into my brain. She had meant every word she said. Not one single ounce of reimbursement was expected from her, yet it was still a selfish endeavor. She wanted to live vicariously through me, opting to help me for the purpose of pretending she was triumphing over her own albatross. That was Evangeline Dioli, it seemed. The most selfish unselfish.

  “Eva, listen to me. I will win this gauntlet. And when I do, I’m going to free you from your contract too.”

  Her lips quivered, slowly curving upward into a smile that became a chuckle. “Shinsuke, you don’t have any say in that.”

  “Yes, I do. The Princess would be dead right now if I hadn’t pulled her out of that car. She owes me enough as it is, but when I win this gauntlet, she’ll owe me even more. I intend to collect on that debt. Your freedom is just another price she’ll have to pay for the mess she got us into.”

  “Shinsuke, I…”

  Her eyes widened with what I guessed was disbelief, and those same blue pools looked more like dams that might overflow at any moment. She kept trying and failing for words, until she settled on her preferred method of communication: launching a punch right into my shoulder.

  “Ow! What was that for?!”

  She thanked me, her voice wavering. “I knew you had a kind heart under that cold exterior.”

  I smirked at her remark, and she immediately put her finger on my lips.

  “I made you smile~”

  “Tch, yeah, I guess you did, didn’t you?”

  “You know what this means, right? Both our skins are on the line now. We can’t afford to screw this up, so your training will be brutal from here on out. No more kiddy games!”

  I groaned. “Yeah, but I guess that’s fine. It’s not like it’s a surprise anyway, you seem to enjoy getting me sweaty. Even when we’re just talking, apparently.”

  “Are you admitting that I get you all hot and bothered, Mr. Watanabe? I’ll have you know I’m your teacher~”

  The heat smothering my body attacked my cheeks as I hopped off the mats and onto my feet. “Give it a rest. Could we get out of heatstroke central already?”

  “Sure thing!” she agreed, following my lead out of the shed.

  Ah, fresh air.

  “Hey, Shinsuke. Where’s Mizuki been? I haven’t seen her since the other day, and she hasn’t answered any of her big sis Dioli’s texts!”

  I frowned and looked up at the slowly darkening sky. “She hasn’t been talking to me either. I think it’s time I got to the bottom of that.”