Several minutes after the preliminary match had started, it ended. Caspian clapped his hands together, as if wiping off the imaginary dust on them. He was covered in a light sheen of sweat, which felt uncomfortable against his clothes, but he was otherwise fine.

"I expected a little more fight from you guys," Caspian said to the unconscious nobles lying around him. "I guess all of you are like everybody else. You talk and plot and scheme like every other noble, but when it comes right down to it, you don't have what it takes to really make it as a Sorceress's Knight."

Instructor Murdock held up a hand. "The winner of this fight goes to Caspian Ignis del Sol!"

"You didn't do much to curb their dirty fighting, did you, instructor?" Caspian quipped.

Instructor Murdock shrugged. "That's because I knew you'd win, so I didn't see the point."

Caspian clicked his tongue, but he didn't say anything as Elincia came rushing out from behind her column.

"Caspian!" she called out. Her eyes were bright and vibrant, like two gems as sunlight coruscated off their glittering surface. "You won!"

Grinning, Caspian opened his arms as his friend threw herself into him. He lifted her off the ground, spinning her around as they laughed together. By the time he set her down, Elincia's cheeks were flushed and she wore a smile so wide that her eyes were forced closed.

"I can't believe you won against five people! That was so amazing!"

Caspian felt exhilaration from his victory still flowing through his veins. It made feel playful for some reason. "Are you saying you doubted that I would win?"

Elincia's eyes widened. "No! Of course not! I was just so amazed that I—!"

"Relax." Caspian wore the widest grin as he leaned down and placed his forehead against hers. "I'm just teasing you."

"That wasn't very nice," Elincia said, puffing out her cheeks. However, as Caspian laughed, her pout went away and she began laughing too.

"Hey! Sol!" Instructor Murdock grunted, interrupting them. "You need to head over to the main hall again."

Caspian waved the man off as he and Elincia left the courtyard. Wandering hand in hand through the corridor, just like they did when they were children, the pair headed toward the main hall. The other matches should be ending soon, if they hadn't already. He imagined that the headmaster would be giving out further instructions on how this tournament was going to work.

As they wandered down the hall, several of the nobles who'd followed them to watch the fight, grumbled irritably.

"I can't believe Sol won."

"He must have cheated."

"As expected of a peasant."

"I can hear all of you, you know." Caspian glared at them. "If you've got a complaint, then come up to me and express it. We can settle our differences with a sword, if you'd like."

The nobles fell silent. Caspian clicked his tongue and continued walking.

A shift in the atmosphere caused him to look at Elincia. Her once joyful expression had been replaced with something more befitting a woman who'd just had her heart broken. He frowned.

"Stop that," Caspian said.

Elincia looked startled. "E-excuse me?"

"I bet you're thinking something stupid again. Let me guess, you're thinking, 'I can't believe all those people would say such horrible things about Caspian,' right?" Her widening eyes told Caspian that he'd hit the nail on the head. "You need to stop thinking like that. None of this is your fault. You shouldn't feel bad about what other people say or do."

"But—"

"No buts. Look, Ele, I've been dealing with this for years now. It's nothing new to me, so don't worry about it."

"But I do worry!" Elincia burst out. "I worry so much! I knew from how you acted around your peers that you didn't get along with them, but I never could have imagined they'd say such horrible things about you! They... they're always being so mean to you. They say such mean, terrible things. Talking about how you don't belong here, saying that they want you to die. Who makes statements like that?"

Caspian sighed as tears gathered in Elincia's eyes. His friend had always been empathetic towards others. She'd cry about a man she'd never met before once she'd learned that his family would be thrown onto the streets because he couldn't pay his taxes. That was the kind of person his friend was, and while he loved that side of her, he didn't think the words of nobles who, in the grand scheme of things, meant less than their worthless titles, warranted such despondency.

I should say something to make her feel better. He bit his lip. There has to be something that I can say to make her feel better.

The problem was that Caspian didn't really know what to say. He wasn't good with words, and while he felt like he could talk to Elincia more easily than he could anyone else, making people feel better wasn't one of his talents.

This reminds me of that time on the train with Cassidy—except Elincia isn't crying because of something I said. He sighed. Why do I always seem to make girls cry? Am I cursed?

Entering the main hall, Caspian looked around. Someone had beaten him to the punch.

So, he's already here.

It was Darin, the student ranked number one in the entire school. As always, he stood away from everyone else. Several other students who'd not taken part in the preliminaries were also present. Caspian's ears twitched beneath his bandana as he listened in on their conversation.

"Did you see how fast he beat his opponents? He was like lightning!"

"Truly, his skills with a blade are enviable."

"Oh, man, I wish I could be that talented!"

"I wonder how he fights while wearing such a large fedora. Shouldn't it obscure his vision?"

"Who knows."

No one knew what Darin looked like. Odd though it may have seemed, Darin was never seen without that large fedora, which drooped down to cover the entire upper portion of his face. Even the shoulder cape that he wore was enough to obscure a good deal of his body, leaving only his dark gray pants visible.

"Caspian!!!!!"

Oh, no.

Spinning around, Caspian stuck out his foot just as Christo leapt for him. His knee jarred when Christo literally slammed face first onto his foot. He could've sworn he heard the other teen's nose break under the assault.

"Gyaaaaa! My nose! My nose! It's broken!" Christo cried, rolling around on the floor.

"It is not broken," Caspian grunted. "If it was, you wouldn't be able to talk normally. Now get up."

Christo leapt to his feet and saluted. "Sir, yes sir!"

"Ugh." Caspian pressed a hand to his face. "What did I do to deserve having an annoyance like you in my life? Is this karma?"

"What a horrible thing to say!" Christo cried.

"The horrible one is you!"

Elincia giggled into her hand. "You two are funny together. I'm really glad that you found such a good friend."

"Urk!"

While Caspian felt like he was being shot in the chest with a beam of compressed spirit particles, Christo grinned joyfully.

"See that, Caspian! She thinks we're good together! I guess that settles it! You and I really are best buds!"

"We're not best anything!"

The last person who'd entered the prelims and won finally arrived. It was Julius. When he saw Caspian and Christo, he scoffed at them. Swishing his long blond hair behind his head, he turned and walked the other way. His two goons were conspicuously absent. Then again, Caspian had just knocked them for a loop, so that was only natural.

When the doors opened again and the headmaster strolled in with the other instructors, everyone grew silent. Caspian frowned when he noticed that Erica and her entourage were present again. He wondered why she was spending so much time around the academy, but he guessed she was trying to amuse herself.

"The four of you who have emerged from the preliminaries victorious, I say congratulations," Headmaster Strattelo said. "You four have proven yourselves to be a cut above the rest. However, this is only the beginning. You may have proven yourselves against weaker opponents, but you will not be pitted against fodder during Sorceress's Knight Tournament. Only the best of each of the five schools are going to be competing. Everyone that you fight from here on out will be just as good, if not better, than you are."

Caspian didn't know how the others felt, but he was thrilled by the idea of being pitted against stronger opponents. He wasn't interested in killing people, and he didn't enjoy violence. The idealistic views of what it meant to be a knight had been stamped out of him during his stint with Erica. But that didn't mean he didn't enjoy testing his skills against others. The thought of fighting against other talented warriors got his blood pumping.

"Be prepared, potential knights!" The old headmaster declared. "Your hardships have only just begun!"