As soon as the fight began the 3 woman drew their swords at the same time, the leader shouted something that he couldn’t quite recall because of the blow he had recently received that made his head feel light, the only thing he knew for certain was that she said something about a “Wizard” which he could only assume that she meant Syndra.

Upon hearing this the other 2 became instantly more cautious and that is when Syndra made her move.

Her lips moved silently as she chanted something under her breath a magic circle immediately appeared over her hand before a large sword at least 2 meters tall came out of the circle into her hand.

The sword was larger than her and assumedly much heavier than someone her statue could wield but for some reason she easily held the sword or hunk of ice and let it lean onto her shoulder.

The whole scene was so surreal that David for a moment thought he was watching a movie, but quickly enough such delusions were swept away the moment Syndra swung her sword, normally a large sword like this would be almost impossible to maneuver in a small enclosed space like the alley, the only way she could use it was like a spear or a bat by piercing and bashing, surprisingly she did neither of those things and instead swung her sword upwards hitting absolutely no one.

David for a second thought that she had made a mistake, but no her swing was totally intentional as in the next second a snow storm came forth blasting everyone in the alley, the 3 women couldn’t even come close before being instantly turned into ice sculptures and as for David, he believed he was also done for shielding his face accepting his fate before realizing a few moments later that he was absolutely fine and that the snow storm immediately stopped right before him without touching him.

After that was over David was still a bit out of it, David knew a bit of magic, but compared to what he knew and what he had just seen he could already tell that she and him were worlds apart when it came to skill or power.

The woman in question who just casually summoned a snow storm with the use of her large sword, just stared at David expecting him to say something, after again another 20 seconds of silence the woman seemed to lose her patience before telling him.

-The academy entrance is straight from that path, just follow it and you will arrive there.

Once again David could see a helpless aura envelope the strong Syndra, he snapped out of it after he heard her talk and just as she was about to leave he couldn’t wait anymore and jumped up quickly grabbing her by the wrist without thinking to let her go again before saying nervously.

-Please. Please let me repay you !

As soon as he said so David noticed Syndra’s momentary shocked expression, he didn’t understand why she was looking at him like this but following her gaze he noticed that she was looking at his hand holding her wrist.

Assuming that she was maybe a bit offended by his uncalled for grab he quickly let go feeling slightly apologetic.

He wanted to apologize but before he could even say anything.

-You. You don’t. Don’t ne..need to repay me.,.

She said, stuttering as her voice noticeably was very low then her previous self, her face was also hidden behind her hair that had suddenly came forward but for a moment David could swear that she saw her skin a light with a shade of red and her body shiver, it was difficult to tell because of her hair and her stiff posture, but David didn’t dwell on it for too long before stepping forward and insisting.

-No please! It’s the least I could do for my savior; it wouldn’t feel right by me if I just let you go without a proper thanks!

-…

Syndra said nothing, and for a moment David assumed that she would reject him which he completely expected since he couldn’t imagine someone as beautiful as her would accept anything from someone like him, even if he was a bit better looking than before, in comparison to her he was nothing special at all.

But unexpectedly, after a few seconds Syndra nodded as she released her sword making the blade of ice disappear into the air before speaking.

-Ok..b..but w..what do you want to do ?

David wasn’t sure why she was still stuttering when she could talk fine earlier, but he let it slide since he once heard it wasn’t nice to call out a lady on every detail, instead using his eyes he surveyed the lively street for a second before finally finding a small eatery that had a pleasant smell coming from it.

Making that his goal, David told Syndra that he would like to invite her for a meal if she liked to, upon hearing him, Syndra looked as if she was slightly suspicious of David, watching him through the slits of her dark gray hair for another few seconds before accepting his offer half hesitant and half expectant.

David was obviously happy after hearing her accept his gratitude, he being nervous the entire time since it was his first time to ask a girl to eat out, it took every shred of his being to not look like a nervous wreck or sweat bullets but it worked out in the end.

And just like that they entered the small eatery, there weren’t a lot of people inside but even then David still noticed how no matter who it was that looked at Syndra they would always either crease their brows as if they were looking at something difficult to look at or outright look as if they were disgusted.

At that point David was starting to feel sure that the people in this town had something against Syndra and slightly regretted coming here, but for the life of his he couldn’t understand why, it was true that she was a bit rough around the edges from the way she was constantly so tense and had this serious expression on her face, but over all he could tell that Syndra wasn’t a bad person, David sure hadn’t spent a lot of time with her and neither was he a genius when it came to judging others, but his feelings about this matter were enough for him to know that there shouldn’t be a reason for them to dislike this girl…

-(And thinking about it, the little girl earlier who confronted Syndra together with the other students also don’t seem to hold a good opinion against her, maybe once I enter the school I will know more, asking her is out of the question since I don’t have the guts for that and it would be incredibly rude as we only just got to know each other)

Thinking like this David choose a random table near the corner where they wouldn’t catch a lot of attention.

His choice seems to have pleased Syndra a lot as she looked significantly relieved when David choose that table, but in the next moment Syndra also couldn’t help but crease her brows when she thought about what that implied, she couldn’t help but think that maybe David choose that table for her sake and out of pity, and if it was true she wouldn’t stand for that no matter what.

Syndra was a proud girl after all, pity was the heaviest insult she could get which is why she decided that if David showed even a single sign of it she would quickly cut this exchange and leave the eatery.

But as soon as she looked at David to check his expression she quickly discovered that she couldn’t even see a speck of pity on his handsome face, instead it looked as if he was ruminating or concerned about something which she couldn’t understand.

In the end Syndra’s worries weren’t necessary as from the very beginning David hadn’t thought about her for a single moment when choose the table, while he was indeed thinking about her and the strange way people reacted to her, the table was more of a personal concern as David always choose the most inconspicuous location whenever he went out to not have to meet people face to face, it was a habit he developed unknowingly after doing it intentionally for a long time when he was younger back in his original world, this habit usually didn’t do him any good in social situations but in this case it unknowingly gave Syndra relief and some extra goodwill towards David.

This entire scene took about 30 seconds at most Syndra and David sat down picked up the menu and when David had decided what he was going to order he looked over to Syndra watching her reading through the menu before realizing something very important.

-(Wait ! What now?! What do I say!? I completely forgot about the whole socializing thing!? Good god how am I this stupid!? What do I even bring up as a topic!? I never once talked with a girl or woman about anything remotely interesting! Do I talk about the wheater? NO! What am I even saying! Then what about the food…damn it’s going to take a bit of time before the food comes so what do I say in-between that time? Come to think of it all of the topics I know of are either from my original world which she won’t understand and my experiences in my village…there is really nothing remotely interesting for me to say, so what does that mean? Will I bore her to death? Did I already fail!)

While getting lost in his nonexistent social skills he hadn’t realized that the entire time he kept on staring towards Syndra.

Since Syndra was extremely sensitive to the glares of other people she immediately noticed David looking at her the moment he put his eyes on her, but because they were so close and because it didn’t look like his glare was negative in anyway but simply brooding, for first time in her life Syndra didn’t have the courage to look back at him or into his eyes.

Thinking about it ever since he touched her back in the alley by holding her wrist, the only thing she could think about was how he was the first boy to ever touch her, she froze at the time and couldn’t help but feel incredible shame the moment she thought of how she was bothered by such a mere occurrence, but at the same time Syndra also understood that he was the first boy to not feel disgusted by touching her, this fact alone made her heart beat that much faster than before, even though she was normally extremely cool and composed for some reason after this boy touched her she couldn’t control herself as well as she used to, she even began to stutter ! Something she never did even when she was a child, even now Syndra felt like a complete fool, she even started to question herself on why she came here in the first place, even though she was a noble Syndra’s social skills were nothing to speak off because no one ever wanted to talk to her willingly ever since she was small, the only people she ever conversed with on a regular basis were her mother and even then they didn’t speak much!

-(God he probably expects me to pull out a conversation topic ! The only thing I know about is how to swing a sword, use magic and fight monsters! None of these topics are ladylike at all! Instead if I start speaking about these things won’t he be scared to death?! I don’t want him to think that I am weird or barbaric! I should have paid more attention in etiquette class when I was little, I wouldn’t be in this situation if I could actually say something interesting! Now that I can’t do anything about it I just pretend to look at the menu until the waiter comes to take our order…I am sure we could talk about something at that time)

With both of them having almost identical thoughts as each other a slightly awkward silence enveloped the two of them, after 5 more minutes of this the waiter finally came to their table and asked them what they wanted.

The waiter was a decent looking guy, and it was clear the moment he came to them that his expression changed the moment he looked at Syndra who looked the other way the moment the waiter came close to them pretending to admire the wall, neither of them said anything and both of them just ordered their food, David ordering a plate of pasta while Syndra taking a bowl of stir-fried vegetables, they both ordered the same black tea.

The waiter as well was silent kept his professionalism by not showing his negative thoughts towards Syndra and keeping a polite smile before leaving with quick steps.

At this David couldn’t help but feel slight misgivings against the waiter wondering what his problem was, Syndra on the other hand didn’t seem to care or at least pretended not to as she looked down at the table making sure her hair hid most of her face.

David felt incredibly bad, how couldn’t he after all?

He invited a girl he had a good impression of and she was also such a beauty, but for some reason there was an incredible barrier between them, not because neither of them had good social skills but of circumstances David was simply not aware of.

In the end David didn’t want to see Syndra so cold, detached and uncaring, he wondered how she would look like if she smiled, he was sure that she would be most beautiful if she had a smile on her face.

-(I need to say something, I can’t worrying about everything single thing that can go wrong if I don’t even try, I should start from the beginning, maybe things will kick off from there)

Thinking such thoughts David prepared himself, the tea arrived just before he was about to speak he looked directly into Syndra’s eyes and said.

-Thanks for saving me there, senior, who knows what could have happened if you didn’t help.

The moment he said those words, Syndra looked as if she was lost in thought, it was as if it was the first time someone had thanked her this much with so much sincerity, but David couldn’t have known that and from there Syndra also replied.

-Hmm, it…it’s nothing, I… I just did what any normal person would do, and since you are my junior it is my duty to help out whenever I can, don’t worry about those 3, the guards have likely already taken them to the jail, I still can’t believe that anyone in this city would be so brazen enough to attack a student from the academy, I wonder what these scum were thinking when the grabbed you…

Trying to lead the conversation towards that direction, David played along as he started to ask whether or not that was common. Syndra denied that as she quickly explained that everyone knew that students of the Ravenwing academy were mostly nobility and while social status didn’t matter once you became a student of the academy, anyone knew that messing with a noble was never a good idea as the student could only say one word to their family to have these people privately taken care of though not murdered or anything but simply made miserable be it through beatings or other ways.

Hearing this David made an extreme mental note to himself to not mess with anyone in the school and try to avoid unpleasant people if he could, not that he wasn’t already doing that, not realizing that the person he was sitting in front of was actually one of the highest ranking nobles there was as he completely forgot about that and freely talked to her as he discovered that she was extremely easy to talk to.

Syndra herself berated herself for telling David about how scary those nobles could be even though she herself was a noble, she half expected David to start act differently in front of her since the little girl earlier did call her a noble, but unexpectedly he didn’t, noticing that David must have forgotten about it, Syndra wasn’t about to remind him of her noble birth as she liked how David talked so freely with her.

Over all they continued talking, so engrossed into the conversation that they completely forgot about the food they ordered as they sat inside this small eatery letting it cool.

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If you want to read more, over 10 chapters of this series is on my site https://kakemonoko.wordpress.com/ please check it out if you like.