After the surprise letter Bryson received, nothing else came up and the remainder of the day passed by. Come the next morning The Academy kept the incident quiet to the outside world. Though that didn't stop a few rumours within the school from spreading.

Then over the next day talks of how Reynard Alvidor helped deal with a horrible monster began to spread rumors around. There were a few different variations of the story, one where he saves a damsel in distress and another where he single-handedly beats the creature back with his blade.

Honestly the rumours were rather amusing and Reynard was not very happy with all this attention that came unfounded. It definitely bothered him in the morning as hushed whispers surrounded Reynard. When Reynard tried to deflect and shift the praise Bryson was conveniently not there. With Anna being a commoner most didn't want to give her any credit.

Bryson was rather thankful for that stupid presence concealment trick. But again, he will keep the fact that he got the idea from Lottie Frost to his grave. She must never know that she had a positive influence on him.

These past two days afterwards however seemed rather normal. Bryson attended his classes and met his new professors and nothing much came of it. Of course, while he was able to avoid the unwanted attention of fighting off the intruder, the eyes he garnered for being a Coldwater didn't cease.

Another unwanted piece of attention he received now was from Reynard. Already being roommates with the prince meant that he was forced to be in close proximity to him. This event only forced them closer together. It was also a type of revenge on Reynard's part for having to take all the credit for the event.

If Reynard had to deal with the attention and gossip, then Bryson will need to have to listen to all of it. Really the only way Bryson could get rid of Reynard right now was to cause a scene and he was not doing that. Resigned to his fate, he found himself being paired with Reynard during lunch.

As the two took their trays and queued up at the most popular and main serving line waiting to get their food. As they slowly moved up the line Reynard stood behind Bryson and looked around.

"What?" Bryson said as he noticed Reynard scanning the room.

"You know, I haven't seen her." Reynard said as he kept searching.

"Who's 'her'?"

"The girl that helped during the first day."

"Oh, right." Bryson said remembering, "What's her name?"

"I thought you knew."

"Why would I know?"

"I don't know. It felt like you would." Reynard said with a helpless shrug.

"Hmm." Bryson said with a grunt, "Why do you want to know where she is?"

"We have some of the same classes as her. But I didn't see her at lunch yesterday, and I don't think I see her around here today either. Just feels a bit weird."

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"Hmm." Bryson said giving another grunt as he looked through the crowd. He was able to differentiate the mana of people he knew now. Though he was much better at it when his eyes were in their glowing form. Something that he was not going to do right now, so it made things far more difficult.

He had paid a little attention to the runt. She was definitely interesting with both her magic and her bravery. So as long as he concentrated, he should be able to find her if she was in the room.

As they made their way to the front of the serving line and food was being placed onto their trays Bryson finally spotted her. Turning around, he saw a short, brown-haired girl about to leave the cafeteria, just as his dessert was being placed onto his tray.

"There." Bryson said using his head to point towards her.

"Oh, nice." Reynard said as he received the last of his food onto his tray, "Hey you!" Reynard shouted loud enough to cause Bryson to grimace.

The girl hearing the loud shout registered it, but kept moving. It wasn't meant for her. Obviously. So as long as she kept walking she wouldn't garner any more unwanted attention.

"Yeah you! The one leaving, the short girl with the brown hair. The commoner girl!" Reynard continued to shout. Bryson if his hands weren't full, he would be face-palming right now. He did not want this extra attention, though at least it was better than her situation.

Anna Cherrywood shut her eyes momentarily as she wondered to the world what she would have to deal with now. The attention on her for just the last two days was not the most positive. Being near the prince will likely cause more jealous eyes on her, but she couldn't exactly play dumb now could she?

Turning around she saw Reynard gesturing for her to follow them as they went to find a seat. Anna carefully followed behind them as they looked for a spot to sit down. A stare-down from Bryson caused a couple of students to quickly abandon some seats.

Reynard then happily sat down and beckoned Anna to sit down with them. Tentatively, Anna found herself seated next to Bryson and across from Reynard.

"Where's your lunch?" Reynard asked.

"Uh… this." Anna said as she pulled out a pretty pathetic roll of bread and her water bottle.

"I thought you were here on scholarship." Bryson said staring at the cheap bread that could be bought from the vending machines. They were really meant as a quick snack and the bread she got was not a popular one.

"Yes, they give me some money for meals… but I send it to my family." Anna said as she took a whiff of the food from their trays.

Her eyes drifted over to Bryson's tray. More specifically, the bowl of ox bone soup. It was dark brown in colour and had been cooked down to have a thicker consistency and a strong savoury flavour. Small pieces of slow-stewed beef bobbed up and down in the steaming bowl. She could feel her mouth water as she imagined the flavour of the broth.

Bryson noticed the gaze right before Anna quickly looked away. Bryson dipped his spoon into the bowl and took a mouthful, "What's your name?" He demanded.

"A-anna. My name is Anna Cherrywood." Anna said as she swallowed her saliva as she looked from the soup back to Bryson.

"Your magic is interesting." Bryson said as he brought another mouthful of soup to his mouth, before placing the spoon back in the bowl and pushing it towards Anna, "That bread looks dry." He said before focusing on his main meal.

"Huh? Oh, I uh." Anna said looking surprised she felt herself salivating again as the bowl was now right under her nose, "No, no, I can't."

"Bread comes with the soup I suppose." Bryson said as he moved his fresh bread roll in front of Anna as well.

"But I-" Anna said before she saw Reynard push his dessert across the table for her.

"We can't be having our third go hungry now." Reynard said smiling at her.

"Our third?" Bryson said stopping mid-cut of his pork loin.

"We were the only three there. We're basically a team now." Reynard said.

"We are not a team." Bryson said flatly as he noticed how Anna was currently looking back and forth between the two, "Eat already." Bryson barked and Anna needed no more encouragement after that. Quickly she began to shovel mouthfuls of the comforting bone soup, trying her best not to make a weird face or noise as it was easily one of the best things she ever ate.

"So what are you planning to do anyways?" Reynard asked Bryson as he dipped his bread into his soup.

"Check out the magic section in the library." Bryson said with a shrug.

"Cool, I need to grab a few things there, let's go together."

"That is not happening." Bryson stated.

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