Lucian's gaze had already darkened. The moment he heard the rustle of pine needles, he planted his lead heel into the dirt and pivoted upward, catching the motion just in time: a wooden cleaver swinging horizontally at waist height.
TWHACK!
His left forearm, reinforced by Hardened Skin and Dense Bone Frame to roughly the level of a Rank 2 body, took the full impact. Shockwaves rattled the pines, and his skeleton absorbed one hundred percent of the force without so much as shifting. Karin's amber-gold eyes widened slightly. Before she could react, Lucian's right hand snapped forward like a steel claw. The friction boost from Hardened Skin let his fingers clamp onto the wooden blade-spine and lock it in place, his knuckles white, the veins along the back of his hand standing out.
"Karin Blake! What are you doing?" His ash-gray eyes narrowed as he shouted. And yet his breathing was steady, his face calm and indifferent, a far cry from the reputation she had built of him in her head.
Her thoughts were a mess at the sight of it. She had only wanted to use this against that cripple, to teach him a lesson. After all, he had hoarded the secret for himself and never told her what made the meat so delicious and actually edible!
She couldn't accept that. But then...
"Attacking an unarmed fellow student from behind. Is this the proud chivalry of House Blake?!"
The moment he said her house name, she flinched. Her teeth ground together as she tugged uselessly at the trapped cleaver.
Right, she had used the wooden one, not the real thing. She wasn't trying to kill him. She was just annoyed.
"Shut up! You Croft, you turned your back on a formal challenge! In..." the words died in her throat as she met the cold stillness of his gaze.
"When did I accept your challenge?" he said calmly. "According to the Academy Code, you have violated Code 2, striking without formal acceptance. The worst penalty is immediate expulsion."
At that word, even Karin, muscle-headed heroine that she was, shrank. Her retort died before it started. She bit her lower lip, looking up at him with something aggrieved in her eyes, and slowly stopped pulling at the cleaver.
Lucian released his grip and finished turning to face her. She dropped her gaze.
House Blake, unlike House Croft which had been demoted to Baron, was from Iron Vale, the western border of the kingdom. Like House Croft, they had held the line against massive subterranean beast stampedes. Seven years ago, Karin's father and older brother led a suicidal rearguard defense. The city was saved. Her family and their knights were wiped out. Without backing, the house went bankrupt.
"I crossed the line," Karin finally said after a long silence, raising her head. Her eyes were full of guilt. "I took your food, and I attacked your back. It was dishonorable, and it disgraces my house name." She bit her lower lip, drew a slow breath, and lowered her head again. Her untamed, shoulder-length wolf-gray hair swung forward with her bangs, baring her eyes as she stared down at the dirt.
"Please forgive me, Croft. Punish me however you see fit, but please don't report this to the student council." She pleaded, and Lucian went quiet.
Sigh... Looking at her now, Lucian let out a slow breath. He of course knew Karin's situation.
It's just... this muscle head is really hard to reason with unless I bring up her family name.
In short, she was saving every coin she could and sending it straight home to whoever was left.
Lucian shook his head. "Stand up, Blake." He used her house name, not her given name, as was common among the nobility.
She kept her head down and wouldn't raise it, perhaps waiting to hear him accept the apology. Her shoulders trembled, and her breathing had gone ragged.
"Relax. I'm not reporting you to the Student Council." He added that when he saw she wasn't moving, and she snapped her head up and looked at him with a smile.
"Really?! Thank you, Croft!" she started, but he cut her off.
"If I report this, the Disciplinary Committee gets involved. Seraphina gets involved. The last thing I want is a dozen council watchdogs sniffing around this forest and prying into my business. Your stupidity stays between you, me, and these pine trees." He said it, then looked at her face and took a slow breath.
"In short: I don't want this spreading to anyone outside the two of us." This time Karin nodded.
"Also, your punishment." At the word, she flinched again. She steadied herself and met his eyes.
"P-punishment?" she stammered. "But you said..."
"I need a beast. Fresh, Rank 1. I'll purify the meat and cook it, we split it." He pushed it all into one flat breath.
Karin was a Rank 3 Aura Knight, a full rank above Derrick. Tracking down whatever had slipped out of the underground drains or the unsealed gashes was nothing for her.
Still, when she heard him, her brows climbed.
Punishment?
This wasn't a punishment. Wasn't this the exact thing she had been asking about? Why Lucian's meat was so delicious, how he could turn a carcass into something worth eating?!
She stared hard at his face, searching for a smirk, a tell, anything to suggest he was joking. His expression was clear.
Which made her think he was just plain stupid. She swallowed hard, her chest tightening with an overwhelming rush of feeling, and then: "Deal!" She shouted it, her voice trembling even as she fought to keep it firm. "I swear on House Blake's name, Croft... I won't let you starve." She nearly said something else and caught herself.
Lucian smiled and waved her off. "Good. Bring your own salt next time."
As he walked away, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out.
A text from his beloved fiancée.
"Darling, tea at my private pavilion at 5:00 PM today. I've prepared your favorite pastries, don't be late."
He stared at the screen. She blatantly provoked someone to kill me back then and just stood by and watched. And now she's inviting me over like nothing happened?
What am I? A dog?
Perhaps the old Lucian, still in love with her, would have agreed without a second thought. But him?
His lips curved up. "Not coming. I'm focusing on my health today, my love," he replied.