Magic power input. Input regulation. Runic invocation. Elemental conversion. Spell formation. Activation conditions. Termination conditions. Magic power output regulations. Safety circuits.

The rest of the day's lesson was a whirlwind of unfamiliar terms as Enchanter Melinda made up for lost time, bringing the lecture to a stop precisely five minutes before the Guild closed for the day.

Barely pausing for breath, she continued. "That will be all for today. Ewan, be prepared to discuss the ethics of whether or not an Enchanter should make an enchantment that she knows she can perform. Ricardo, that was an excellent question about power flow; the enchantment design text that would answer that question isn't currently in the cabinet in the back, but I will have it added for the remainder of this class. Book cabinet access is six dollars but I'll prorate it to five and seventy five cents if you bring the money in tomorrow. Raven and James, good discussion today. We'll start tomorrow with a period for questions if you come up with any overnight. Isabella, stay behind."

The shoulders of the girl sitting in front of James twitched, and the focus with which he had been engrossed in the lecture on Enchanting fled him. He blushed, suddenly cognizant of the girl sitting mere feet in front of him, and he relied heavily on his monstrous Dexterity to stand smoothly from his seat and take the book on runes and elements back to the book cabinet. Thoughts of the luster of her hair filled his mind as he proceeded down the stairs, where he found a maid pouring tea at a standing table surrounded by his three other classmates.

"James! C'mere, quick, grab some tea before closing!" Ewan called and waved, and Raven and Ricardo made room at the table for him to join. The maid dipped her head and prepared one last cup of tea, emptying the pot.

James settled in and Ricardo looked him up and down, still wearing his cloak over his armor as he was. But it was Raven who spoke.

"So, you're a Knight's retainer, James?"

James finished sipping his tea—it was delicious—and nodded. "Yes, Knight Cortez."

"Is he really—"

Raven interrupted Ewan's question. "James, as a Knight's retainer, how could you let that girl insult you like that?" She didn't want to say even the girl's name, nor her family name.

Ricardo nodded sagely. "Indeed, what she said was incredibly rude. You would have been well within your rights to scold her."

Ewan, who had already drained his teacup, tilted his head in confusion. "Huh, what do you mean?"

Ricardo somehow managed to take a sip haughtily. "We are all commoners here; naturally, since none of us stand to inherit a noble house." His eyes flickered to James' blonde hair before returning to Ewan's face. "Although James is, indeed, from a foreign land, he is not a refugee; and in fact he is a retainer to a Knight, which are of the nobility."

"That girl is merely the daughter to the current head of the her family. He is a noble, but only single-generation. She is a commoner, and will likely remain a commoner. She has no chance of taking over the family, not with two older brothers."

James found he couldn't clearly remember what Isabella had said. "Wait, what did she say that was rude again?"

Everyone stared at him incredulously.

"She called you foreigner without asking your name."

"She demanded your seat."

"I was pretty annoyed at how she introduced herself. Bit pompous."

All James could remember, though, was sight of her bouncing down into the seat in front of him.

"Are you blushing?!" Raven said, aghast.

"Ah, hmm…" Ricardo trailed off.

"I mean, uh, you know how she is, er, shorter than the rest of us, right? She couldn't very well have seen the blackboard if she sat in the back row, could she?"

Even Ewan looked incredulous at that. "Is that really what you were thinking, James?"

"Yes!" he insisted, still slightly red, when Isabella descended the stairs with Enchanter Melinda, who swiftly escorted her out of the Guildhall. James couldn't help but watch her as she left, hips swaying.

"Dios mios, he's got it bad," Ricardo assessed clinically.

Raven sighed heavily and drained her teacup in one gulp, setting it down with just the faintest clatter.

A maid approached to clear away the tea service, and Ricardo quickly drained his own teacup as well. "We had better be off, lest we keep the maids longer than necessary." He nodded his thanks to the maid and she bowed back.

They left the Guildhall and walked together through the plaza. Isabella was standing, glaring into the water of the fountain, flanked by two men wearing identical navy blue trousers and jackets, though one had a narrow rapier on his hip, and the other carried a large shield and shortsword.

Even the way she squints her eyes is adorable, James thought.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He bid his classmates farewell at the exit to the street, pulled the hood over his head, and began the walk home. It was only then, as the shadows lengthened and grew darker, that he realized he wasn't paying attention.

A small rush went through him, and he immediately put his back to a stone wall, and scanned his surroundings, heart pounding.

He had never felt so distracted in his life. He slapped his cheeks, and fingered the hammers on his belt under his cloak. A passing old man turned and looked at him as he did, and kept an eye on him until he reached a corner and turned.

James took a deep breath, and pressed on.

The walk back was uneventful. Nobody approached him. Nobody even called out to him until he approached the entrance to the Knight's Order Headquarters at dusk with his hood up, and then only to identify him.

The Aspirant Knight was missing from dinner. His investigative unit had been called upon to look into a missing person case.

"It's unfortunate, but not concerning," the Steward lamented. "The Itinerant Baker is known for moving about periodically; our lord will find her and she will be placed under observation again, but who knows how long that might take."

"Mhm." James found it hard to focus on the conversation, and he had no idea what he was actually eating. Nearly his entire mind was occupied with one thing.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at his fellow retainer, clearly not listening. "I suppose your class was most fascinating, today, then?"

James' head jerked up. "Huh? Uh, yeah, it was." His cheeks reddened slightly, and this didn't go unnoticed.

Sebastian's eyebrows shot up. "Oh? Oho… I see you've taken an interest in one of your classmates, then?" But then, a frown crossed his face. "What poor timing, however. Our lord would have been most interested to hear about her."

James choked. "Her?" he asked.

"Obviously," Sebastian drawled. "But no matter. You do remember the discussion we had on our journey from Corto, no?"

It took James a moment to remember, and when he did, his face grew even redder.

"I remember!" he sputtered. "I won't do anything like that!" he insisted.

"Good." Sebastian, mercifully, left it at that. "I'm sure she's a woman of good character, given that she was participating in your class." He deliberately avoided mentioning Enchanting in public, as did James. "So? Did she seem receptive to being courted?"

"Huh?" James grunted. "'Courted?'" he repeated.

"Yes, courted. You did attempt to court her, did you not?" Sebastian raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Er, no…" James admitted. "Actually, apparently she was rude to me, I guess."

Sebastian sighed. "Well, tell me what happened."

Soon enough Sebastian had to interrupt the smitten Smith. "James, I don't need such an exhaustive description of how she looked, just tell me what she did and said."

James abbreviated his story significantly, and Sebastian nodded in understanding.

"I see, so she's merely immature."

"Do… do you think she doesn't like me?" James asked hesitantly.

At this, Sebastian finally rolled his eyes.

It was quite an achievement to make a Butler do that.

"James, I daresay she doesn't think of you much at all, let alone dislike you."

The Steward's words cut like knives.

"And what is her name, anyway?"

"Isabella, from the Izguardia family."

Sebastian let out a hum as he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin, thoughtful.

"Hmm… the Izguardia family. I will have to look into the girl herself, however… hmm, yes, and if she…" He sat quietly for nearly a minute while James recovered from the psychic damage he had taken from the earlier comment.

"Yes, I daresay it's not a bad match. I'll do some digging, and discuss it with our lord."

"Huh? Why?"

"Our lord is your guardian, after all."

"What does that have to do with Isabella?"

"Of course, because…" Sebastian trailed off and looked back at James' confused face. "Ah, do they do courtship differently where you come from?"

So the Smith explained how it had gone with his older brothers: they had found a girl they liked who liked them back, decided they wanted to be wed, and then the parents of the both of them met and confirmed that it was a good match; then they were married and settled down to start a family with the support of one or both of their families.

"In my brothers' cases, they all moved out of our village to start their own farms closer to their wives' families."

"I see. Well, in Iberteria it is much the same, but in your case, it will be slightly more formal."

As the retainer of a Knight, and given that Isabella was the daughter of a noble, the two of them would need to be chaperoned at all times they were together after courtship began. For some period of time, at least a season, they would confirm their feelings for each other, and then their guardians would meet and confirm the terms of the marriage.

"At least once, I will chaperone the two of you, and you will similarly both be chaperoned at least once by our Lord, and once by her guardian, likely her father but perhaps also her mother. I am simply too busy to chaperone more than the bare minimum."

"No, I understand," James nodded. He had seen how hard the Steward worked. It was like pipe season for him year round. "So I should ask to court her tomorrow, then?"

The Steward raised his eyes in horror. "What? In the middle of class? Absolutely not!"

And so followed a thorough lecture on the proper etiquette for requesting to court a girl of Isabella's station.

The dining hall was nearly empty when they finished, several of the older knights having quietly chuckled at they went, to see that old Butler educating the naïve young Smith.

"For now, behave like a gentleman and try to show off some prowess in your class. I can't imagine you'll find it difficult. If the class goes well, you can ask to court her as I said once the course is over."

James nodded, determined.

Such was his infatuation that he couldn't even bring himself to review his notes from the day's lecture before he fell asleep and dreamed of Isabella.

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