he next day, Lance got up early. He had asked Kade to coach him on how to use a blade, and as much as he dreaded the upcoming training, he knew he needed it.

  Before heading to the training grounds, Lance stopped by an on-campus restaurant and picked up two meat cakes—one for himself and one for Kade. When he finally arrived at the stadium, Kade was already there, stretching lazily with his usual smirk.

  "You actually brought me breakfast?" Kade’s grin widened as he grabbed the meat cake. "Lance, I might start thinking you like me."

  Lance rolled his eyes. "Don’t get used to it."

  Kade wolfed down his food in record time, then cracked his knuckles. "Alright, newbie, let's see what you got."

  What followed was nothing short of torture. Kade had Lance running laps around the arena until the sun had fully risen, claiming it was all about endurance. William, of course, found the entire thing hilarious, his laughter echoing in Lance’s mind every time he slowed down.

  By the time Kade finally let him stop, Lance was drenched in sweat, panting like he had just fought a war. But there was no time for rest. Kade tossed him a wooden training blade. "Now, let’s see if you can actually hold a weapon without embarrassing yourself."

  Kade started with the basics, demonstrating how to grip the blade properly, how to swing without losing control, and how to stab without leaving himself wide open. Then, after making sure Lance could at least hold the sword without fumbling, he moved on to throwing knives.

  Lance was… awful. His throws wobbled, he kept dropping his stance, and his footwork was a mess.

  William, of course, was absolutely no help.

  Your technique is as graceful as a drunken squirrel.

  Oh, that was tragic. Did you mean to hit the ground?

  Lance, I didn’t think it was possible to miss that badly, but you’ve proven me wrong.

  Kade, on the other hand, was patient. Frustratingly so. "Relax. You’re overthinking it. Your body needs to learn the movement, not just your brain. Keep at it."

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  Eventually, after an exhausting amount of repetition, Lance managed to get a proper stab in, and even landed a decent knife throw.

  "Finally," Kade said, crossing his arms. "At least now you won’t stab yourself by accident."

  Lance groaned. "Are we done?"

  Kade smirked. "Yeah, yeah. Go take a shower before you traumatize someone with all that sweat."

  Lance dragged himself back to his dorm, his limbs aching from the brutal training session. When he stepped inside, he found Olliver lounging on his bed, a book in his hands.

  Olliver glanced up, his lips twitching into a slim smile as he took in Lance’s state. "You look like you got hit by a carriage."

  Lance sighed, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I feel like it too. I’m gonna take a shower."

  Olliver’s lips started to sputter into laughter. "Please do. For all our sakes."

  Lance shot him a glare before grabbing fresh clothes and heading to the bathroom. When he emerged, feeling marginally more human, Olliver had a small tray of snacks out.

  "Mom sent these," Olliver said, pushing the plate toward him.

  Lance grabbed a biscuit and took a bite, the familiar taste sparking a sudden thought. "I should send my mom a letter."

  Olliver nodded. "She’d probably like that."

  Later that afternoon, the whole group met up at one of the campus restaurants for lunch. Lance, Nico, Lyra, Kade, Olliver, Bella, and Felix all squeezed into a booth, a serious atmosphere settling over them as their food arrived.

  "So," Felix began, leaning forward, "Bella and I put in a request to the university to make this mission official."

  Lance raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you can do that?"

  Bella nodded. "Yeah. If a job is important enough and requires real-world application of our skills, we can request that it be counted as a quest. Since this is serious, the headmaster approved it."

  "And since it’s an official quest," Felix added, "it counts toward our grades."

  Lyra smirked. "So not only do we get to play detective, but we also don’t have to worry about our quest requirements? Nice."

  Bella tapped the table. "It’s been classified as a third-tier quest, so completing it will cover all our required quests for the semester. We also have time off from regular classes until final exams."

  Kade let out a low whistle. "That’s… actually amazing."

  "So we stick to the plan," Felix said, reiterating their previous conversation. "Lance and I will work family connections, Bella, Lyra, and Nico will hit the black market, and Kade and Olliver will check in with the guilds."

  Lance groaned. "I still don’t know why I have to deal with noble politics."

  Felix grinned. "Because you’re with me. And I am great at noble politics."

  "That’s what I’m afraid of."

  Bella ignored them. "We meet back in two months to go over what we’ve found. If someone finds a big lead, we inform the others immediately."

  "And if we find nothing?" Lance asked.

  "Then we keep digging." Bella’s tone was firm. "We don’t stop until we figure out what happened to Sybilia."

  There was a heavy silence before Nico finally broke it. "Well, at least if we fail, we’ll fail with extra credit."