Death, Devotion, Dissonance

For now, he had the Helm's Worthy to worry about. It was scheduled to start the next day, so Evin decided to go back to the city and finalize his preparations. Since the only thing Evin knew about the event was that it was going to take place on an island for one week, he decided to at least prepare food and camping supplies for it.

'I should really meet up with Bella,' Evin thought as he finished gathering his supplies and headed towards Bella's room.

Despite the fact that they would start alone on a random location of the island, the students had already created alliances between them. Naturally, Evin was invited join them, but he refused, eyeing an alliance with Bella and Phel. Especially Bella. The other notable students like Lopar and Theundel had already joined other groups. Arza declared that he was going to tackle the exam alone, and Evin knew that it was impossible to convince the boy otherwise.

The students had many theories regarding how the Helm was going to be picked. At first they guessed that the strongest student would be chosen so everyone just assumed that one of the nobles would win.

After all, the commoner students only began to study live combat two months ago. Originally, they were supposed to study from the second year, but with the Duchess and the kingdom emphasizing the need of combat ability, everyone from the first year was now studying under the Vice-Chair.

With such a huge disparity between the commoners and the nobles (plus a few 1st grades with a mage as a parent), the Helm's Worthy started to sound quite imbalanced.

The students mentioned this to the teachers and they only responded that they were aware of the matter and that everyone possessed the potential to become the Helm.

With this information, the students settled on a new theory. The most capable and intelligent leader would be chosen to become Helm.

After all, the position offered many benefits, but it also had many responsibilities. The Helm had to represent the Academy of Ankelite and there were definitely going to be clashes with the other Academies of the kingdom. Everyone tacitly agreed that a single student probably wasn't enough to face all these enemies alone, so the Helm had to be someone who could command the year without issues.

In normal circumstances, Evin probably would've just created his own group or joined the biggest one and taken over leadership in it… but one upper-classman hinted to him that joining bigger groups before the event started didn't catch much points in the eyes of the examiners. This was especially important for students aiming for the position of Helm. For them, the less help they got, the better it was.

Evin entertained the idea of challenging the test alone, but decided against it. If he partnered with Bella, they would easily be able to get through the other groups; and at the end of it, they could fight with each other and decide on the position of Helm among them.

With these thoughts, Evin arrived in front of Bella's room and knocked. But, as Evin feared, Bella was absent.

After the Countess's death was announced, Bellaslayn became awfully busy with the matters of nobility. Same with Phel.

'Well, I'm sure I can find her during the test itself,' Evin reasoned. 'Even if she's busy till tomorrow, she can't possibly miss out on the test itself.'

Evin headed back to his room and found Arza lying on his bed, reading a book about illusions.

"You finished preparing for the test?" Evin asked as he put his supplies near his bed.

"I haven't really don't anything, sooo…"

"No food and no tent?"

"I'm sure I'll manage," Arza shrugged. "It's an island, so there should be things I can eat out there. And if I can't do that, I'll just raid the other parties for food and necessities."

The boy seemed like he was taking the test too lightly, but Evin knew that he didn't need to worry about his roommate. In fact, Arza was one of the students that Evin was more wary of. The boy was popular enough to lead the entire commoner mage populace and he was powerful enough to give most students a run for their money. And to top it all off, Arza was finally experiencing a breakthrough in his gestures, though the boy mentioned that it still wasn't close to his peak with Chants.

"How about you?" Arza asked. "Manage to catch hold of Bella?"

"Nah. She still seems busy, so I'm thinking I'll try to find her during the exam itself."

"Hmm…" Arza's mouth assumed a pondering shape. "I still can't believe you two aren't dating."

"I told you. I'd rather focus on my studies instead of chasing around girls," Evin replied with a sigh.

"That's just meaningless sophistry… Who says you can't do both at the same time?" Arza said and put down his book. "You should enjoy your life even if you're busy with your duties."

Evin shook his head, and turned his attention to his supplies. He crouched down and started to sort his purchases, but his head was stuck on Arza's words.

'Maybe I should ask Bella out some day.'

He would be lying if he said he wasn't interested in the girl. It took him about two months to get over his crush over Leanne and after that, his heart finally started to sway towards another.

"What happened with you and Lopar, anyway?" Evin suddenly asked.

"Hm?" Arza replied quizzically, acting as if he didn't hear the question.

"You and Lopar. You two were dating, right?"

"Ah. Yeah. But we broke up soon after. And for the record, I didn't get dumped, she didn't dump me. We just realized we were a bad match and had a civil conversation about it," Arza said smilingly.

"How so?"

"Stuff like, 'Hey, this isn't working', or 'I don't like this about you', etc."

"Was the conversation's tone also this carefree?"

"Of course," Arza smiled wryly. "Though, she did point out that she never really liked how casual my attitude was."

"Don't you regret breaking up?"

"Kind of. But isn't it better to sort out our differences earlier on, instead of wasting each other's times on something doomed from the start?"

Evin didn't wholly agree with the words, but he could sense the logic in them. After all, this was kind of the reason he refrained from confessing to Leanne. The Voice had painted a beautiful future for the two, but Evin could see the troubles and tribulations they would need to face if they walked this path. And it was also obvious that Evin was the only one who had any interest in the whole thing, anyway. He couldn't possibly put Leanne through so much trouble for his own selfishness.

"I guess you're right…"

"Aren't I always?" Arza laughed and the conversation took on a more casual tone.

The two speculated a bit about what would happen tomorrow, before going to the city for dinner. After they were finished, Evin gave Bella another visit, but still found the place empty. Shrugging, he went back to his room and went to sleep.

…