Isabella noticed the shocked stare and quickly added, "Oh no, I’m not trying to show off or anything, just wanted to add some variety to the conversation."
"It’s fine, it’s fine," Ethan smiled. "I mean, it’s not unheard of. Certainly rare, but not unheard of."
"Yeah, but it’s ironic, isn’t it? Look at me. I’m nothing like a guardian should look like." She gestured vaguely at herself, trying to make reference to her smaller body build.
"I agree. You should be at least three times your size with really large muscles," Ethan replied.
Which made Isabella chuckle lightly, while he smiled at that. Not only was she sociable, she had a decent sense of humor and was nothing like he thought a princess would be.
Arrogant and a piece of work.
Only a few number of persons in the country possessed double class specifications. Even in an academy like Belsorth, the only other person with duo class was a certain elf in second year.
Although, in the situation where having two classes was the case, one class became the main and the other the sub-class.
This was mostly because there was always some gap between their talent levels, which would make even the bearer of both classes focus mostly on the one with higher talent levels.
Isabella being a duo class specialist was not totally unfounded either. There was a reason why King Tudor had five wives, after all.
The human king had an extremely high talent, but like every other king with the fear of losing power, he married different wives from different powerful families who were all high-talented as well.
Ethan then carried on with the conversation. "Although I must ask, do you really need to be in the Academy? I’m sure the King has special tutors, and the best nonetheless."
"Want to know the truth?" Isabella said.
Ethan nodded, awaiting her answer.
"Sometimes it just gets really suffocating at home. This is my escape," Isabella said with a sad expression on her face as she turned away to avoid showing most of it to Ethan.
"I get it. Sometimes the gilded cage is still a cage, no matter how nice the bars look. Though I have to say, choosing this place as your escape? That’s either really brave or really optimistic. I give you two weeks," Ethan said.
Which made Isabella turn back towards him and chuckle again while shaking her head.
They went on to talk about a few other random things, like Ethan telling her who he thinks the best tutors are, the types of things to expect when the vampire cliques in their class start forming.
There was a back and forth between them for a moment, until Ethan then said with a smile on his face, "It was nice meeting you, Miss Isabella. I’ll see you tomorrow, and hopefully it’s a lot more mentoring than jokes."
He extended his arm first this time, and Isabella reached out to return the shake.
"It was nice meeting you too, Mr. Ethan," Isabella said with a smile on her face too, and they held each other’s gaze for a moment before pulling back.
Ethan nodded in acknowledgment and turned to make his way back to class. After a few steps, he tilted his head for another look at Isabella, then shook his head in amusement and returned his focus to the path ahead.
Isabella’s smile remained on her face even she herself turned to leave.
Beatrice had been watching Ethan and Isabella talk so easily, with that same burning sensation in her chest. She then saw Ethan walk away, still looking pleased.
"What is that fool smiling about?" she muttered.
The first-year boy with glasses caught the words and replied, "Huh? Did I do anything wrong, Miss Beatrice?"
She snapped toward him. "You shut up and get out of here. Our meeting is over."
At the glare of her reddened eyes, the timid first-year hurried away without another word.
—-
Soon after, most of the final years had returned back to class.
Percival hurriedly returned to his corner by Ethan’s side just to ask him, "Did you tell her about me? What did she say?"
"Jeez, Percival, I only just met the girl today. Why would I tell her about an impatient wolf?" Ethan replied back with this look of irritation on his face.
"Urghhh, okay, fine, fine. Tomorrow then?" Percival asked desperately.
"Relax, man. I’ll tell her when I tell her," Ethan said, shaking his head and turning away from Percival and looking towards Mr. Kieran, who had just made his entrance back into the class.
"Alright, alright, I’m trusting you," Percival said finally.
The class seemed to have settled down enough for Mr. Kieran to begin.
"The class will be divided into three teams of seven each. I’ll let you guys decide who to team up with. The zones are all E-Grade, so don’t expect any real difficulty there either."
He let that sink in before adding, "Get on with it. The airships are ready and waiting."
The class got busy at once. People left their seats to meet others and ask them to join their party.
The first thing Percival said was, "You’re with me, Ethan. Now we just need to find who else wants to join."
Ethan nodded towards Percival while staring around the class in search of who they would join or ask.
The wolf had always taken it upon himself to look out for Ethan since they became friends as kids.
Percival had even called Ethan his brother once, back when they attended a birthday party at twelve.
Ethan then whispered to Percival, "Let’s call Lucy and Elizabeth."
Percival looked at him weirdly. "Who’s Elizabeth?" He never knew anyone in the class with that name.
Ethan sighed and said, "Clumsy Bettie."
"Ohhh?" Percival said in genuine surprise, he didn’t think she had any other name asides the one everyone knew her with. Then he looked at Ethan even more weirdly. "You sure, man?"
"Look around. You’ve pretty much pissed off everyone in class. Those girls are the only ones who I’m sure will not mind joining us if we ask nicely," Ethan said.
"Ha ha, okay, okay. Doesn’t matter either way since I’ll be killing everything in that zone," the werewolf said proudly, puffing out his chest.
Ethan then made his way to invite both ladies to join up with them.
While that was Ethan’s focus, Wilson and Beatrice seemed to be having a closed-off conversation.
Not long after Ethan had returned with Lucy and Elizabeth, Wilson had walked over to their group and asked, "Can I join this party?"