A week went by in a flash. The make-up exam was a breeze for Wolf, just like always, meaning for everyone else it was twice as hard as the regular test. Young Miss Charter grumbled because the examiners ruined her mood a day before her birthday, but, thanks to Wolf’s help, she didn’t doubt for a moment that she would pass.

As soon as she turned in her paper, Barbara dashed home to prepare for her birthday party. Before leaving she made sure to remind everyone they had to attend the ball. She did it very loudly and repeated the invitation four times, just to make sure she got her message across. Then the birthday girl left muttering about how she didn’t have enough time to get everything ready.

When Barbara left, the gang split up. Matilda and Wayde went to their dorms, while Anna and Wolf went to the Mission Hall to pick their missions.

The agreement was that the two of them would leave on the morning after Barbara’s birthday and that they had to get back in less than five months, meaning before the end of semester exam. Anna wasn’t like Wolf and she didn’t want to cause herself more trouble for no reason by taking the more difficult make-up exam.

She chose a four star mission to investigate the sudden death of miners in a rural area about a month south-west of Silver City. Once his girlfriend picked her poison, Wolf went to the five star Mission Hall.

There, excited Mandy immediately dampened Anna’s high spirits. Just that shout of “Lord Mage” as soon as she spotted Wolf was enough for Anna to hate the invasive clerk’s guts.

Wolf pretended he was oblivious of Anna’s mood. He took the tablet and went through the available missions, letting Anna stare daggers at Mandy. The clerk pretended not to notice. Instead she fully focused on Wolf all bright smiles and…

Is she wiggling in her seat? Anna thought with outrage as she noticed Mandy’s subtle movements. That bitch! I’ll throttle her.

“This one pays well,” Wolf said as he pointed out a mission. It wasn’t exactly close to where Anna had to go, but it wasn’t all that far away either. If they didn’t fool around too much they should be back in three to four months.

“Sir,” Mandy started, aware of Anna’s hateful glare. “That mission has an additional reward issued by the Ducal palace. It means it’s very hard and in two months it will probably be moved up into a six star mission,” the woman explained worriedly.

“Also, considering this mercenary band’s reputation, there’s way too little information on them,” Mandy tried to point out the irregularity, however Wolf didn’t care.

“Thank you for the warning, but if I don’t take care of them now how many people will be harmed by these savages?” Wolf asked. “It says the group is threatening to overthrow Baron Iowan, and might even threaten the county.”

That means this gang is powerful, Mandy wanted to say, but this was probably another political play. Am I being too unreasonable, not wanting him to go out where he might get hurt?

Even though her conscious mind hesitated, Mandy failed to stop her mouth.

“Please, Sir, reconsider,” she pleaded.

“Murder, rape, arson, kidnapping,” Wolf started listing the Band of the Fox’s crimes. “It will take over a month to get there. That might mean tens of ruined families, dozens of women who’d gone through living hell and gods know how many orphans. If I ignored them and left the mission to a higher Order Mage, how many innocents would suffer such miserable fates?”

Also, there was always a possibility there was more to the story than what meets the eye, like with the Raging Ghosts. The difference being, Raging Ghosts didn’t have as many hateful crimes to their name. Their biggest sin was not letting Count Baskerville collect his taxes.

But Wolf didn’t mention his ulterior motive. Instead, his heroic words made Mandy’s heart flutter. If someone like him had appeared back then, her family might not have been slaughtered on the road, leaving her lost and alone.

Anna on the other hand felt nauseated by this righteous display. Who cared about the lives of random commoners. Worse still, the eyes of the dumb goose sitting behind the counter started glowing even brighter.

She wanted to order Wolf to avoid this stupid tramp from now on, but even she found this demand too unreasonable.

“Good luck to you then, and may the gods watch over you,” Mandy blessed her client while blushing.

Even the other clerks rolled their eyes at her pathetic display. Luckily, it was late in the afternoon and the giant chamber was more or less empty, otherwise this shameful performance would’ve damaged all their reputations.

Anna dragged Wolf out of the room as soon as Mandy entered the details into his Student ID. Even though he didn’t show it, Wolf also found Mandy’s overly emotional display too weird.

“See you tomorrow?” Wolf said as he and Anna parted ways.

“Yup, see you at the party,” Anna replied with a nod, her forehead still locked in a displeased frown. “I’m going home in the morning to prepare for the party.”

“Um, will we also spend the night—” Wolf started, but Anna just turned around and headed towards the female dormitory.

“Good night Wolf. I’ll pick you up tomorrow evening,” Anna said curtly, still angry about the Mandy thing from a couple of moments ago. And the cheeky fellow had the nerve to ask something like that after such an open display of womanizing.

Wolf sighed and went back towards his room.

It’s not even that late, he thought dejectedly. We could’ve at least taken a walk around campus, watched swans at the pond, or something couples would do. Maybe I should be more forceful? Choosing where we go and what we do, and not just passively go with the flow?

As he entered the dorm room Wolf saw Wayde, lounging on the couch, reading a book. Should I mention the bordello? Do I need to remind him?

Wolf then shook his head. No, he’s already aware of everything. Besides, tonight is no good. We’ve got a party tomorrow evening and then I’m leaving on a mission with Anna.

“Why are you just standing at the door, staring at me?” Wayde asked as he lifted his book enough to see Wolf.

“Sorry, I, I,” Wolf mumbled, not knowing what to say.

“It’s fine,” Wayde replied calmly. “Did Anna pull something else to drive you nuts?”

“No, no, everything is fine,” Wolf blurted out, embarrassed by Wayde’s words. “I was just thinking about something.”

Wayde shot him a look which seemed to ask Why are you standing at the door then, but he said nothing.

“Aaaany way, I’m going to my room. Good night,” Wolf hurriedly walked into his room and slammed the door shut, causing Wayde to roll his eyes once more.

“When will he learn how to use doors,” the young Duke muttered as he got up and went to close the door of their dorm room, which Wolf had left wide open.

“I have to stay on the couch like an idiot, just to make sure the door is closed and locked after you get back,” the youth grumbled quietly. “I’m not your mother you know…”

Wolf could hear Wayde’s monotone drone behind the closed doors, but didn’t awaken his senses to make out the exact words.

Instead he went to the corner and settled down comfortably to meditate. However, for the first time in a long while, Wolf had trouble focusing.

Stray thoughts about going alone with Anna on a three to four month long date kept him from focusing on refining his eighth column. Finally, after a quarter of an hour, Wolf calmed his mind and got back to work.

***

Wolf and Anna rode the coach alone.

The youth tried to fondle his girlfriend. “Get your hands off me, you’ll ruin my dress” was her answer.

Then the youth wanted to kiss her. “You’ll ruin my makeup,” she said, turning away.

For a moment, a very long and frustrating moment, Wolf felt like shredding the dress and washing Anna’s face clean. He really wanted to do it, but couldn’t. Then he remembered the words South planted in his brain. Whores are the best. And for the first time Wolf kind of agreed with those typical South words and burned with the desire to give it a go.

But he decided to calm down. Starting tomorrow morning he would be alone with Anna on the road for weeks. Away from prying eyes and away from rules of propriety, decency and all other senseless pretending people do for the sake of others.

Wolf glanced at Anna’s well padded bra, wondering who she was doing it for. If it was for him, wasn’t she just setting him up for disappointment? If she was doing it for others, wasn’t that against propriety, decency, or whatever?

Unfortunately, the ride was too short to contemplate the moral or amoral nature of undergarments. The carriage slowly pulled to a halt, interrupting Wolf’s important rumination. Recalling he would most likely dance tonight, Wolf adjusted his height and robe, then left the carriage after Anna.

“Good evening Mademoiselle Didot and Sir Wolf, welcome to Young Miss’s gala,” a Dobby in training greeted while performing a well rehearsed bow.

Anna ignored the standardized specimen of the butler breed and confidently walked into the lavish building. Wolf followed after her like a lost lamb, staring all around. Unlike Anna’s birthday party, when Wolf was so out of it that he had no idea where and how he’d arrived, the young man now had the time and presence of mind to check his surroundings.

The building was ancient, covered in evergreen vines with white patterns on leaves. The building was also enormous. It was as big as Wolf’s and Wayde’s elite dormitory building and probably had at least a hundred rooms.

The pathway leading inside was covered with a silver colored carpet and even though there was no security anywhere, Wolf couldn’t track the number of menacing gazes focused on him. They weren’t exactly hostile, and Wolf took it as the healthy paranoia all bodyguards should have.

The number of gazes drastically lessened as they entered the lavish building, in which a flabby man in his forties and a decade younger attractive woman greeted their guests.

“Ah, you must be Barbara’s friends, young man Wolf and Didot’s daughter,” the round man said with a sincere smile. “Young man, I need to thank you for all the care you’ve been showing my daughter. I never would’ve guessed she would remain in the elite class for this long. It truly is a miracle…”

Count Charter droned on while shaking Wolf’s hand. However, he barely spared Anna a glance. It was almost as if he didn’t care about her presence.

I guess Barons really are treated like commoners by those above them, Wolf thought while returning the polite greeting and following Anna out of the foyer and into the ballroom.

“Do you want to dance?” Anna whispered as soon as they’d entered the ballroom. However, the dance floor was empty and even though Wolf could hear soft music nobody was dancing.

“Is that all right?” he asked, looking around like a country hick. “Isn’t Barbara supposed to dance the first dance? That’s how it was at your party.”

Wolf was very eager, especially if the dance would be similar to the one from Anna’s birthday. However, to dance like that on an empty stage with only some distant music would be way too conspicuous.

“Silly,” Anna said with a soft laugh, “There’s a side room for dancing. It’s much smaller and the orchestra isn’t as good, but it’s fine to dance there. Or if you want, you can go around and suck up to various important people, or wait for those less important than you to come suck up to you.”

When Anna put it like that it really wasn’t much of a choice.