After a few minutes, they reached near the girls’ dormitory.
The students around them started whispering that could be heard clearly.
"See, I told you, didn’t I?"
"Snow is Lord Prince’s girlfriend!"
"It seems Elisha and Lord Prince broke up."
"Don’t you think they are quite romantic?"
"Lord Prince never held Elisha like that before."
As Snow’s only friend in the academy saw her, she quickly rushed straight, and stopped before Prince.
"What happened to her?" Flame looked worried as she asked.
Indeed, Snow’s only friend in the academy was Flame.
’What a nice pair, Snow and Flame.’ Prince thought.
"She won’t be able to move forward for a while. Her legs are completely numb. Can you help her get to her dorm room?"
She nodded in agreement.
Prince slowly released his hands from her thighs and placed her down.
Before turning back, Prince looked at Flame, his face grew serious. "If her condition gets worse, then take her to the infirmary and make sure to tell me too."
"Yes, Lord Prince."
"Well then," he raised his arms upward. "Take good care of her."
He intentionally said that last part loudly, so that everyone would listen to him.
Whispers of students covered the young dark-night.
"Did you see that?"
"I knew it, Lord Prince likes that fallen noble Snow!"
"Do you think I have any chance with Lord Prince?"
"Of course. If Snow can, you are 100 times better than her. Hehehe~"
He ignored the whispers and walked under the starry sky, straight to his room.
’Tomorrow’s our next test, and here Snow got injured by dark magic.’
’Did that bastard Kale already know that Snow would perform well in this test, and that the victory would be ours?’
’I need to become strong! Strong enough to overpower his Narrative Authority!’
With these big thoughts in his mind he slept in his dorm room.
Next morning.
He suddenly woke up as if he had a nightmare.
He turned towards the clock to check the time. But the time was not in his favour. Yes, he had woken up late.
10:15 am.
’I think I’m gonna get scolded by coordinators.’
He hurriedly got dressed and, rather than bothering with the door, he jumped straight out of his window.
He used Shadow steps to reach faster in the assembly ground.
As he arrived, what he saw left him stunned, there weren’t nearly as many students around.
No mage stood ready by the teleportation gates.
No coordinators paced the front lines barking instructions like they usually did before a task.
Only students stood in scattered groups, talking amongst themselves, as if they weren’t sure whether the next task would even happen.
He moved forward and stole a glance around. ’What’s going on?’
It was already 10:19 am, and his assembly time was 10:00 am.
He joined a group of students near him, and asked. "Isn’t today our new test?"
"Ugh yes, Lord Prince." Students bowed slightly. "But it’s delayed by half an hour. 10:30 am."
"Delay? What is the reason for the delay?"
The students changed glances, and didn’t look at Prince directly. "It’s because—"
Prince stopped the student in mid sentence, "Hey if it isn’t..." and looked past the student standing in front of him.
He caught a familiar figure in his vision.
"Shadow steps."
He reached near the familiar figure and saw her, sitting in a wheelchair, silver-white hair with blue highlights falling across her back, gleaming brightly as sunlight landed on her.
He struggled to find the words, finally managing to force them out. "W-What happened to you, Snow?"
Snow’s condition was too bad that she needed a wheelchair, supported by Flame. "I’m fine. I can walk."
"Ohh and how will you walk?"
Snow tried to stand up, by holding Flame’s arm for support. "See. I’m fine."
Flame looked at Snow’s leg, giving direction to Prince to look over there. "At night her condition got worse, so we quickly took her to the infirmary."
"The doctors said she’d taken serious damage from the dark magic."
Prince hadn’t noticed her feet at first, but Flame stepped aside to let him see.
Snow’s smooth skin was half-covered in dark violet magic all the way up to her knees.
"So why are you here, Snow? You should be resting in your room." Prince looked worried.
"I can participate in the next test. I’m not that much injured."
"And how will you participate? You can’t even walk properly on your own."
"That’s what I’m saying to her but she’s not even listening to me, Lord Prince." Flame added.
Snow let go of Flame’s arm, her legs holding steady beneath her, and walked past him slowly, smoothly.
Snow turned back and looked at him with a small, defiant smirk.