"And Lily, you'll be paired with Crassus."

A proclamation of impending doom should not be spoken in such a cheerful tone, Lily Arvensdaughter thought to herself. Anyone else in the classroom, or even in the school, would have been preferable to Crassus de Mortegard the Third, eldest son and heir to Baron de Mortegard. Pairing the worst student in the class with the top student to the semi-annual offensive magic tournament was just needlessly cruel. Why would...

Lily caught the look on Crassus' face, as well as a brief, knowing glance between Crassus and the teacher, and Lily immediately knew what had happened. Her teacher, who had treated Lily harshly from the first day that she'd arrived and not hesitated to express their disdain over having to teach magic to a lowly commoner, had conspired with Crassus to create this situation. What better way to humiliate Lily into leaving the school than to pair her with her worst bully for the tournament three days from now?

The Royal Academy of Sorcerous Studies (RASS for short), was the top school of magic in the nation and had for generations been a nobles and royals only establishment. However, the current king was thoroughly fed up with the elitist attitude of the current generation of nobles and had insisted that if the nobility was going to crow about how great they were, it was time to prove it. As such, the king had required that commoners be allowed to join many academies and organizations that were normally royal and aristocracy exclusive.

This was one of many reforms the king was working to implement for the betterment of the kingdom. Rilmgard was a kingdom that the king himself had announced was stagnating in comparison to others, including the elves. And if the elves themselves are making more social progress than a human kingdom, it was clear that things were going badly.

RASS was an enormous and beautiful school, and even the basic classrooms, like the one Lily, currently attended, were exceptionally luxurious, with marble floors, glass windows with silk curtains, and even the seats they sat in had velvet cushions. It was a school built by nobles, for the children of nobles, so of course, everyone had to be comfortable and surrounded by flawless beauty.

However, as her father once said, 'You can build an outhouse out of gold, but no matter how beautiful it is, it's still full of shit'. Half a year in and Lily understood what that meant. No matter how beautiful this school was, it was still filled with the children of nobles, and even if the king proclaimed that noble and commoner should get along, it didn't stop nobles from treating commoners like shit.

She fought an urge to raise her hand and protest, but she had no allies here. While Crassus and her teacher were the worst offenders and did nothing to hide their bullying and mistreatment of the only commoner student in the class, the other students were apathetic at best, or enablers at worst.

However, Lily was surprised when one of her fellow students raised a hand, and said, "Madame Goldentone, I'm afraid I must protest." The speaker, Madeline de Alvorin, was the daughter of an archduke, which meant that in the peerage, her family held superiority over just about everyone else's in the classroom. Tall, slender, and beautiful, the tanned blonde young woman was the sort that most men dreamed of and made the green and gold trim uniform of the academy look beautiful and fashionable, and Lily, short, chubby, bespectacled, and freckled, looked about as common as her dirt-colored hair and eyes implied in comparison.

"A protest?" Madame Goldentone, the spinster sister of an earl, asked, raising an eyebrow. While she was nearing her sixties, there were still signs that she had once been quite a beauty in her youth. How it was she had never married was often whispered among students, but if Lily had to guess, it had everything to do with her personality.

"Yes," Madeline stated, her musical voice carefully neutral. "The point of the semi-annual tournament is to show the growth of our students to the king. Pairing Crassus with Lily is hardly going to be a fair fight. A duel less than ten seconds long will hardly be a proper demonstration of the skill of either contestant. I feel that it would be better to pair Lily and Crassus with students closer to their respective skill levels so they can have a better chance to demonstrate what they are capable of. Otherwise, it stinks of someone wanting to give Crassus an easy win in the first round, and implies that he isn't actually capable of anything other than bullying people much weaker than he is."

Lily wanted to jump up and shake Madeline's hand, even if the noble's argument made the young commoner's self-esteem shrivel up and die. Yes, pairing a student who was only able to create defensive barriers against someone infamous for being able to toss fireballs around effortlessly was a definite mismatch, especially since Crassus was also an expert at using the Fire Bullet spell, which could easily pierce through most barriers.

Lily had tried to learn offensive spells, but none of them seemed to work for her. Most wizards had a specialty, and beyond that specialty, they struggled to perform the most basic spells. Defensive spells and healing spells were all Lily was capable of, which wasn't a good thing at a campus that focused on combat magic. While those would certainly be useful spells for some people, a student of RASS was expected to be capable of becoming an offensive powerhouse, not cowering behind barriers like a frightened turtle.

Madame Goldentone, her grey hair bun bobbling as she gave a haughty laugh, replied, "Well, darling, the first round is traditionally meant to quickly cut the wheat from the chaff. Watching the weakest students fight one another is boring and often drags on into a battle of attrition. As such, it's better to pair the strongest and weakest together, to give the skillful students a warmup before the main event, so to speak. It also ensures that the matches to follow will be much more entertaining and exciting. Don't worry, child, you'll get to face Crassus in the second round, which will be a far better test of both of your skills."

The worst kind of argument, the kind that was logical, based on tradition, and made sense. The fact that it was being used to justify bullying a student of a lower social class didn't disqualify it from being a sound defense of the teacher's decision.

Madeline looked slightly dejected, then turned back to look at Lily and mouthed, "I'm sorry. I tried." Lily wanted to hug her fellow student and tell her it was alright. Even if she'd failed, it was the nicest thing anyone had done since the day she was first admitted.

Regardless, Lily's fate was sealed. She had three days before the tournament, a full weekend to make her peace with the gods before Crassus humiliated her in front of everyone.

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An hour later, after classes...

Lily cowered in a corner, Crassus standing over her with a vicious sneer on his face. A full eight inches taller than her, powerfully built, and undeniably handsome with long, flowing raven black hair, the sixteen-year-old might have been dreamy if he had not been such an absolute nightmare to her since the day she'd first come to the school. He stroked his cleft chin as he said, "Well, I hope someone isn't getting any ideas of running away."

If any of the students or teachers walking by noticed this blatant display of bullying, they willfully ignored it. No one cared, and no one was going to rush to her rescue. Six months in this academy had taught her that.

Lily, wishing that she could somehow phase through solid matter so she could sink into the stone wall behind her to escape, whimpered, "No, no no no of course not."

Grinning evilly, Crassus said, "Good little dirtborn. Don't get any ideas of trying to run away, or playing sick to get out of attending, or anything else like that. I know who your parents are, and where they live. It would be a terrible shame if someone bought their quaint little office and their pretty little home, then forced them to live out on the streets. Or perhaps if someone set fire to it while they were locked up inside. After all, it is a dangerous world we live in."

His grin grew wider as he added, "Not to mention how terrible things can happen to a young girl with no family and nowhere to go."

Crassus cracked his knuckles, causing Lily to cower. The brute had no problem striking a girl, as the bruises on Lily's body could testify to. The bully seemed to take pleasure in his victim's terror, and stood there, enjoying the sight of Lily being at his mercy.

After a moment, Crassus stated, "Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything to you. Not yet. Not until the tournament. I want you in top form. The king needs to see just how pathetic a peasant like you is compared to the elite. I'm going to spend a long, long time humiliating you in front of the entire kingdom. And you're going to take it, however long I decide to play with you." With a low chuckle, he added, "So go practice your shields and your healing spells all weekend, little dirtling. It would be boring if you break too soon."

Crassus stepped back, and Lily immediately took off at a dead run, the noble-born teen's mocking laughter chasing her down the hallway. As if to add insult to injury, a teacher nearby scolded her for running in the halls.