The Nouveau Noble

Somehow, I got stuck with Kendra.

Albert had a different class to attend to, and Joren said he wanted to revisit the cafeteria, even though we ate the moment we woke up. He reasoned that it was because, "Waking up at four in the morning and eating right after waking just isn't breakfast! Breakfast starts at seven, or eight, maybe even nine!"

So, after the drawling voice of Professor Hypnosia had finally formed the words of our dismissal, I found myself alone, with two hours worth of free time before my next class. Not really knowing what to do after I had bade my companions farewell, I simply stood around the outside of the door and stared at the emptiness.

That was when Kendra poked me on the cheek.

"Hey!" I jumped in mock surprise, fully aware that she had approached me earlier on. I looked down at her to find her smiling impishly. Even as a girl, I towered over this one. Her brown hair and eyes were dull by the Kingdom's standards, but I found it rather cute on her. With two, high pigtails, she looked even younger especially in her petite size. Tilting a corner of my lips up, I asked her, "Kendra, right?"

"That's Lady Kendra to you, boy!" she replied with a fake-haughty laugh. "You seemed a bit lost, so this lady wanted to accompany you around. I won't have any classes until the next hour."

"That's unfortunate," I replied, but didn't stop her from following me as I walked down the hallway. "... Since I'll be alone again by my second hour."

She giggled. "You seem to have a lot of free time on your schedule."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why? Are yours very busy?"

"Quite so!" she shouted out with a distressed look on her face. Then, she used her gloved hand to fan at her face, a common gesture the female nobility liked to use when they were troubled. I found myself grinning at her little antics. She then continued on, "I barely have any time to eat, and with the amount of schoolwork I am sure we will be having, I suppose I won't be having much time to sleep either! What a tragedy!"

I kept my walking pace a little bit slower than usual, but she kept up with me quite easily, despite her exaggerated motions and vibrant expressions. I told her, "Well, you should have expected this when you decided to have your education here?"

"Oh, of course!" she answered back hastily, her eyes wide. "It's not that I'm ungrateful, but my schedule hardly seems humane at all!"

Laughingly, I asked to see her class schedule, and to my surprise, I did notice how jam-packed it was, all throughout the week, even on the days of rest. My brows furrowed. "You got that right. I don't believe you even have time to eat today aside from the time you have now. Are you sure you still want to stay by me?"

She huffed, hands on her hips. "Oh, it's all fine! It's the first day! I could handle a day without three good meals."

I looked at her teasingly, "Even a fair noble lady as you?"

"Just so!" she replied, and then looked down, a blush forming on her chubby cheeks. "Besides, my honorable mother said I could afford to lose a pound or two..."

I immediately started to laugh. This girl was definitely entertaining to have around. She, however, took my joy as an insult. Afterwards, we spent a good hour or so, walking around the campus gardens, chasing around powdery butterflies, and insulting each other quite creatively.

"I could see why you've lost your title as a noble, Eleftherion, sir."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because clearly you haven't got any manners at all!"

I would then reply back in kind.

"Well, I could easily understand why your house was named as such, Lady Kendra of House Braun."

"... And why is that?" she asked me with lidded eyes.

"Because your appearance was entirely so common, they could only think of you as brown!"

Oftentimes, she would punch at me gently, or when I had spat back a particularly harsh insult, she would just openly kick at the back of my knees. I, however, knew it would only be rude to touch a noble lady. But, now that I think of it... Wasn't this girl a little bit too...

"What?" she sneered at me, with an ugly glare I would never find any other girl to wear on her face. She spat out, "Why're you looking at me like that?"

"Ohh, I was just shocked at seeing how a girl like you could act the way you do, Lady Kendra," I replied with my most polite smile.

It wasn't even a lie or a childish insult. Although it was true that many of the women I have encountered were eccentric... Hestia. Regina. Zepherin and Eva. But, I still found it as a rather uncommon occurrence to see a girl who would not be soft-spoken. In fact, I simply found it odd to find girls who even had the courage to speak back to boys and men! Back in my past life, the women I saw were very demure, and they hardly spoke unless they were spoken to. So, seeing girls, even as young as we were, initiating whole conversations with boys was... weird.

Lost in thought, I belatedly found out about how distraught the girl looked after I had told her my thoughts. She was babbling at the air like a fish out of the sea. And finally, she deflated into a stop, her head hung down low. "I'm sorry..." she finally mumbled.

Before I could even say anything, she continued on. "I was raised alone by my mother until she had found her second husband, my new father. But, it seems like the couple of years I had been raised without a father had made me seem odd. My father tries his best! He does try his best to make me womanlike and all... but, I guess it's too late..."

"... I never said it was wrong," I muttered back, an apology in my tone. Slowly, she raised her head up again, and looked at me in confusion. I tried a smile at her. "I would actually prefer it if all the girls would act like you, Lady Kendra. It never seemed fair to me whenever I saw girls being treated that way. I mean, aren't we all just the same?"

She blinked at me with her mouth wide open. "Y-You won't scold me?"

I laughed. "Why would I?"

She let out a shaky chuckle. "I... I knew you were different, Sir Eleftherion. You always seemed to have the kindest eyes."

It was my turn to blink at her. Although I didn't dislike the fact that she thought I was kind, I also didn't want her to think that all "boys" were like me. What if she went ahead and told one of her special insults to another noble? She would only get hurt...

"You seem worried for me, Eleftherion, but don't be," she said, as though reading my mind. "You seemed different, and that's why I had spoken so easily with you. I mean, I only ever went and shouted at you from up on my carriage that day because... Well, maybe because you caught my eye?"

My cheeks started to heat up. Was this girl confessing to me? But she didn't look like she was confessing or anything.

"I mean!" she continued. "I guess I'm just a good judge of character? Hehe. And I was right about you! You are kind!"

Then, before I could even think for a reply to that, she had suddenly straightened up stiffly, as though a mechanism had clicked on inside her brain. Thrusting a hand into a frilly part of her dress, she procured out a pocket watch, and upon seeing the time, she screamed shortly. "Oh no! I'm going to be late!"

My mouth was open, and words were just at the tip of my tongue, when she had whisked away from me after a rapid farewell. Now alone at the edge of the garden and the forest, I found myself standing idiotically and staring after the Lady's small form running back towards the castle.

I laughed into the empty air, wondering whether I had managed to make another friend or not.

My thoughts, however, were short lived. Just as I began to walk my lonely way around the garden, looking for a place to sit on, a surge of magic came from right behind me. It came running so fast that I couldn't even react. Was it a magical beast?! This far out of the forest??

I only had enough time to gather a shield of notes around my body when I heard an incoherent shout, and just before the impact, all I could see was a pair of shining, chocolate-colored eyes.