Moxie and Lee were back at the room when Noah got back, and he wasted no time in telling them what had transpired while he’d been trying to enjoy the weather. Lee waited until Noah had finished speaking to promptly fall back asleep in a ball on Moxie’s bed, not even remotely interested.

“It sounds like it could have gone worse,” Moxie said, pursing her lips and crossing her arms in front of her chest. “And you definitely made an impression on them. It sounds like Ulya isn’t going to be forgetting you anytime soon.”

“Probably,” Noah agreed. Moxie handed him back his gourd and he returned it to its spot on his waist. “Either way, she seemed reasonable enough. I’m surprised she had her puppet wait until I was ready to fight to do anything.”

“Well, they aren’t trying to kill you. It makes sense.”

Noah copied Moxie’s favorite gesture and arched an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side. “Do you have any idea how many people that weren’t supposed to try to kill me have done just that? I’m not particularly inclined to believe that the people that are meant to not kill me will actually refrain from attempting to kill me.”

“Okay, fair enough,” Moxie admitted. “Does this mean you’re planning on joining?”

“I’m certainly interested, but I’m not sure yet. I think it’ll depend on what the students say,” Noah said. “It’s their decision in the end. I’m sure there would be a lot to learn in the advanced track, but if it causes more trouble than good by giving us too much unwanted attention, it might not be the wisest idea.”

“Then I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” Noah nodded. “How about you, though? Any luck with your lesson plan?”

“I know I said I didn’t want to just teach them so that they could pass exams, but considering both of the upcoming exams are fighting related, with the first being hunting and the second being a tournament, I think it would be a good idea for me to focus on combat and ways to defeat your opponents with more than just magic. You’re definitely better than I am at the moment to moment parts of fighting, but I think I could have some interesting things to offer on fighting as a whole.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me. I’m focusing on my pattern lessons right now anyway, so having some extra fighting between you and Lee should be more than enough to round everything out.”

“Yeah. Lee and I were actually discussing some potential lessons for after you finish up your normal lecture tomorrow,” Moxie said, a spark of excitement lighting in her eyes. “I think this should work really well.”

“I’m sure it will.” Noah grinned, then glanced out the window at the soft snow still falling outside. There was still a good bit of time left in the day, but he’d had enough excitement already.

That worked out just fine. This was the perfect opportunity to think on his lesson plan for tomorrow to make sure they made the most of their time. He already had a few ideas brewing, and all of them promised to be interesting.

***

It was still snowing when the next day dawned. Noah, Moxie, and Lee arrived at the base of the Transport Cannon early in the morning, only to find the students had beaten them there once again.

There was a nervous energy in the air that Noah hadn’t been expecting. Isabel and Todd were exchanging nervous glances with Emily, and even James and Alexandra looked on edge. A small frown flickered across his face as he trudged to a halt in the snowdrift.

“What’s going on?” Noah asked, glancing around. “Why do you all look like you threw a ball through my window?”

“Nothing,” Isabel and Todd answered hurriedly. Alexandra and Emily both added in empathetic nods, making Noah even more certain that something had indeed gone wrong.

For whatever reason, they didn’t seem to want to tell him what, though. Noah shrugged to himself. There would be time to quiz them shortly, but there was no point doing it while half of them were still freezing.

“Let’s go to the classroom for today’s lesson,” Noah said.

“Moxie’s?” Emily asked hopefully.

“We’ll use the normal one this time. It’s a little more out of the way and it’s also larger,” Noah said with a shake of his head. He set off in the direction of the G building and the others trailed behind him, not particularly pleased with that decision.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just use the Transport Cannon?” Todd asked. “It could get us out of the snow.”Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I like the snow,” Noah replied over his shoulder. “Besides, you’ve got a Fire Rune. It shouldn’t be bothering you that much.”

“It’s just… fluffy,” Todd grumbled.

Noah didn’t grace that comment with a response, and they all arrived at the dimly lit classroom a short while later. Moxie joined the students in sitting down, while Lee discreetly scaled the wall and found a crack in the ceiling to hang off. Noah did his best not to stare at her hiding place.

“So?” Noah held his hands out.

“So what?” Emily asked.

“Are you going to tell me what in the world you’re all glancing at each other about? I’m not blind, guys. Something happened. What is it?”

Silence reigned. Noah’s eyes narrowed. Whatever they’d done couldn’t have been that bad – all of them were still standing around in one piece. He waited for another minute, but it quickly became clear that nobody was going to spill.

Ah well. I’ll just shock it out of them, then.

“Fine,” Noah said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the folded letter from the advanced track. He tapped it against his other hand. “I got this in the mail yesterday. It’s an invitation to–”

“The advanced track,” Todd finished, staring at the paper like a cat watching a bird through a windowpane. “We got one?”

“Way to take the wind out of my sails,” Noah muttered, letting his hand drop. “Yes. You were all invited.”

“I got a letter for you as well, Emily,” Moxie put in.

Noah paused, then cleared his throat. “James, I don’t think you officially count as one of my students, so this might not apply to you. I can ask.”

“Don’t worry about it,” James said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an identical looking letter, giving Noah a weary sigh. “Revin dropped this off in the morning. He already signed me up for it.”

“Figures,” Noah said. He looked from the paper in his hand to the one in James’, then narrowed his eyes. “Is that what you were all hiding?”

“Yeah,” Isabel said with a sheepish grin. “We were worried we didn’t get in and we didn’t want to make you feel bad.”

Noah rolled his eyes. “We don’t even know if this program is good. That said, it does seem to have some opportunity. Do you know much about it?”

“Silvertide mentioned it while we were training over break,” Todd said. “That’s it, though. I just know it’s a bunch of extra resources and training for students and teachers that are able to qualify.”

“Then the question falls to you,” Noah said. “Do you want to join?”

“Why wouldn’t we?” Emily asked. “More resources mean we can get stronger faster, and we’ll have more people to train against. It’s just objectively good!”

“Unless the people don’t want you there,” Alexandra said, her voice soft. “Not everyone here is a noble.”

Emily’s smile fell away. “You don’t think that’s going to matter? The advanced track should be for people that care about Runes and fighting, not just for nobles.”

“How many non-nobles do you see making it very far at Arbitage?” Todd asked. He shook his head before Emily could answer and held a hand up. “It doesn’t actually matter. Even if it’s a risk, I think I’d like to take it. Any chance I can get to get stronger is one that’s worthwhile.”

“Even if I could get you the resources myself?” Noah asked.

The students fell silent for a few seconds, but Noah could tell they’d all come to an answer before anyone spoke again.

“Yeah,” Isabel said. “Even then. I want to prove that they screwed up by blacklisting us. If we crush all the nobles in the advanced track, there won’t be any way to refute it.”

“You’re correct, but it’s also going to put a lot of pressure on you,” Noah warned. “Hitting Rank 2 put you at the peak of all the students in the school, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t the case in the advanced track. It could make things a lot harder.”

“Don’t care. If things are harder, we’ll just do better.” Todd crossed his arms, and Alexandra nodded.

“I didn’t come here because it was easy. I want to get stronger,” Alexandra said. “Even if it carries the risk of failure.”

“Personally, I’d have loved to do absolutely nothing,” James put in. “Unfortunately, Revin registered me already. I don’t have a choice.”

“Then it sounds like it’s settled,” Noah said, feeling a pang of sympathy for James. He was sure the boy would be fine, though. Despite how much he claimed to be lazy, Noah was pretty sure James hadn’t gotten as competent as he had by doing nothing. It was probably more of a defense mechanism against Revin. “I’ll deliver the letter to the Office today and confirm that you’re all entering the advanced track.”

I’m glad they decided to join. There’s some risk in this, but it would be really interesting to see how big the difference is between the average researchers and students that don’t care about anything related to getting stronger and the ones that are really dedicated to learning and growing.

The students all exchanged excited glances, and Noah gave them a few moments to let everything sink in before he started to speak again.

“Don’t let that distract you, though. You’ve all still got to deal with me, and I believe we were having a competition on who could get the best understanding of their pattern before today,” Noah said, tapping the chalkboard leaning against the wall behind him. “Did everyone manage to make progress?”

He got a round of nods, though some were definitely a lot more hopeful than others. In particular, Alexandra and Isabel seemed particularly excited. Noah grinned at their expressions and stretched his arms out at his sides.

“In that case, I think we should get started. Who wants to go first? Walk up to stand beside me and demonstrate what you’ve learned with your pattern, but don’t put any magic into it.”

And, if you do accidentally put magic in somehow, my domain will smother it before anything can go wrong. It’s like the perfect way to practice.

“Can I start?” Isabel asked.

She was using swords as her pattern. Hm. Both Isabel and Alexandra had the same pattern, and they both looked pretty excited. I wonder if they practiced together. That would have been a good way to really refine their magic.

Noah beckoned Isabel over. “Go ahead, Isabel. Let’s see what you’ve got.”