Aegon walked out from his room with a smile on his face. Inside, Kuro was walking around normally, barely showing any signs of his previous injury, the poor beast had been confined to Aegon’s room since they returned from their mission two days ago and he was itching to get back to his usual freedom, though before he could cross the door Aegon squatted in front of him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Nodding his head with a caring smile, Aegon signaled for Kuro to get back in. ”Not yet, you’re still not fully healed, maybe tomorrow…”

Kuro turned his head away clearly stating his displeasure but ultimately obeyed his owner ‘s words.

With Kuro back inside Aegon walked leisurely down the path towards his first class of the day, he couldn't help but recall the mission, sleeping during both trips, trying to take advantage of the girls at the river only to end up being the one who got the short end of the stick, fighting in the streets of Miríande, it was an eventful journey….

Aegon smirked and unconsciously straightened his back. [I must have looked pretty cool back then!]

…The fight with the alpha and …

[Fenrir…] His earlier smirk vanished when he thought of those deep red eyes he saw back at the cave, he had seen the entire creature but in the end those eyes surrounded by darkness had left him with the deepest impression.

As he was busy pondering, Roy silently approached and walked side by side with him without speaking a word, noticing his presence Aegon snapped from his musings and happily slapped his friend’s arm, his blabbing not stopping the whole way .

They soon arrived at the amphitheater where they had their first battle class a few days prior and took their place in the central seats, a few rows to the back.

This time there were many fewer people than last time, with only half the disciples attending.

As soon as they sat down Miss Julia waltzed into the amphitheater from behind the stands.

“Good morning everyone, today is our third class in swordsmanship.” Looking around and noticing Aegon, Roy and some other disciples that had missed the previous lesson she added.

“I see some new faces here, since that's the case I'll just give you a brief resume of what we’ve been doing in the previous classes.” Miss Julia turned on her feet with incredible agility and retrieved a wood sparring sword from her ring.

She faced the center of the stage with a serious expression and adopted a high guard position.

For a few seconds she seemed frozen still, her breathing slowed to a crawl, the only thing that betrayed the notion of their teacher having become a statue was the rustling of her clothes from the breeze.

And then, her body erupted into a flurry of movement, her sword switching between motion and stillness as if she was parrying an invisible opponent, she rolled and ducked, ran forward and retreated backwards in what Aegon could only describe as a fighting retreat. It was all so descriptive and realistic, so genuine, even her face showed immense concentration, the droplets of sweat gluing her fringe to her forehead only added to the sense of urgency and reality that would be present in a real sword fight.

When suddenly… it stopped. Her feet stuck to the ground and refused to move anymore.

She stood there for a few moments, the power her presence exuded gave an otherworldly feeling to all the students, every time her clothes fluttered with the wind students would hold their breath thinking she was going to move again.

[ Amazing…] Aegon was mesmerized by her display, it shifted his earlier assessment of her beauty, maybe she was average but at that moment she was an angel of battle incarnate, the most ethereal of beings.

Snap.

The sound of fingers snapping broke the spell which had bewitched the students, Miss Julia had at some point moved up closer to the stands with a confident and proud smile still lingering on her face.

“Last class I assigned sparring partners to each of you based on what you showed during the first class.” She looked around and pointed towards the girl Aegon had spared during his first battle.

“You.” Anna stood up seeing the teacher point at her. “I seem to recall that you don't use a sword. Daggers right?”

The small girl, feeling the pressure of being the center of attention, only nodded in response.

“Hmm I see, I assume this is yet another year with not enough students using the dagger to form a class?” Anna was close to answering affirmatively when Miss Julia pointed to another student.” You…are you the one with the twin swords?”

Anna followed the direction Miss Julia pointed and ruefully smiled. A tall, handsome youth sporting emerald eyes was sitting around that area, but he wasn't the target of Miss Julia's inquiry.

A boy stood up from a seat next to the handsome youth, with tanned skin, brown hair and of average height, he would be the epitome of unremarkable if only he didn't have that pair of distinctive blue eyes.”Yes I am.”

Disappointment filled Miss Julia's thoughts. [You should have abandoned that by now. This is one of the few things you should accept yielding.]

She shook her head slightly to dispel her thoughts. “ I'll pair you together since both of you are the only practitioners of your weapons and the rest are already paired up. You would have had equally bad results with a partner who uses a sword so I'm trying to cut my losses from four to two, I hope you can understand.”

Aegon turned to look at his new sparring partner and nodded with a derisive smirk, his expression screamed [ Are you seeing this bitch’s gall?]. That earned a small smile from the girl who nodded in understanding.

Turning back to the teacher, he couldn't help but think. [But I appreciate your honesty, and after that display of yours my heart has softened to you Miss Julia. Ahhhh, beautiful women really are the hard working man’s bane.]