Enid got word from Antonio that same afternoon, her qualification lecture had passed almost unanimously. A clean win.

  And that wasn’t all. People she’d never even met started showing up to “visit” her. It was obvious what they saw in her, someone worth courting, worth pulling into their orbit.

  Office, central plaza, auditorium, cafeteria, even her own quarters. The stream of visitors didn’t let up for a second. By the time the sun dipped, Enid felt like her head was going to split.

  While she was trying to dodge yet another group, she happened to run into Caroline.

  Perfect timing, because Caroline was looking for Professor Enid too. The two of them didn’t need to say much. They slipped straight into Caroline’s dean’s office, and for the first time all day, Enid got to breathe.

  “Congratulations on the lecture,” Caroline said. “And I’m… ashamed of how suspicious I was before. Please let me apologize.”

  Enid said she hadn’t been offended. Instead, she praised Caroline’s commitment to fairness, and thanked her for the materials and ideas she’d shared. They’d helped more than Caroline probably realized.

  Faced with Enid’s “charming demon” routine yet again, Caroline acted like it didn’t affect her at all. But the tips of her ears turning red told a different story. Enid couldn’t help thinking Caroline was almost painfully easy to read.

  Truth was, Caroline had her own pride about praise and recognition. Compliments from just anyone didn’t mean much to her. She cared about approval from people on her level, or higher.

  If the earlier happiness had been her getting swept up by Enid’s polished, centuries-deep way of talking, then this time was different.

  This time she genuinely acknowledged Enid as someone equal to her, maybe even above her, and she could feel that Enid acknowledged her in return.

  Enid’s age was a mystery, sure, but her face looked young and radiant. Most people’s first impression was simply young and beautiful.

  And for Caroline, a so-called genius who barely had peers her own age, that made Enid feel like the same kind of person. Young, capable, dangerous in the best way.

  Before long, they were chatting back and forth.

  Enid realized Caroline wasn’t nearly as sharp-tongued and severe as rumor painted her. If anything, Caroline carried that unmistakable aura of high nobility, plus the calm steadiness of a real scholar.

  So the “Caroline” everyone saw outside was clearly a performance.

  And it made sense. If natural mages were treated like a dying breed, then curse mages were treated like a threat.

  Because of old history, the Stahir Empire had very little tolerance for anything tied to “demons.” Cursecraft, being uncomfortably similar to demonic twisted magic, was bound to be feared.

  In that kind of climate, Caroline still loved cursecraft, still had the talent for it, still endured the constant jabs about her age, and still climbed her way into becoming dean. It wasn’t hard to imagine how much flak she’d taken to get there.

  Caroline, watching “Professor Ines” relax, started forming her own guesses about who she really was.

  Being a young noblewoman herself, Caroline was good at reading people. She could tell “Ines” was complicated. Her attitude shifted depending on who she spoke to. Her words were precise. Her manners were smooth and elegant, like someone trained in aristocratic circles.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  But at her core, Caroline sensed something… lazy.

  Not sloppy, not careless. More like someone who’d seen too much, someone who couldn’t be bothered to care unless it was about the one thing she truly loved, natural magic.

  So Caroline reached her conclusion.

  “Professor Ines must be from some ancient noble house, traveling under the radar.”

  The process was flawless. The result was completely wrong.

  After a while, the conversation faded into a comfortable silence. Caroline read her book. Enid kept sampling the sweets. A quiet little afternoon tea, just the two of them.

  Enid was starting to feel drowsy when Caroline finally asked, carefully, like she was testing the ground.

  “May I ask… do you and Headmaster Antonio have some kind of special relationship?”

  Seeing Caroline hesitate, Enid answered with mild confusion.

  “Just what you already know. He liked what I could do, so he hired me outside the usual rules. At most, we’re colleagues, and he’s my superior. That’s it, I think?”

  Caroline’s shoulders eased, like a weight had lifted.

  “Right… that’s what I assumed. You’re an elf, so I thought maybe Antonio had some other… special connection with you.”

  “Like what?” Enid asked, and the urge to tease big kids came creeping back in.

  She’d already spotted it, that little extra feeling Caroline had toward Antonio. So she played dumb on purpose.

  Caroline didn’t notice the trap. She just stammered, cheeks heating.

  “Like… like… maybe you were… dating. Something like that.”

  “And why would you think that?” Enid pressed.

  “Because Antonio… treats you differently than he treats other people. It’s subtle, but it’s there.”

  Enid tilted her head, innocent as could be.

  “So you’ve been watching me. And you’ve been watching Antonio for a long time too, enough to know him that well?”

  Caroline’s face went crimson in an instant, practically steaming as she snapped back.

  “No no no no, it’s not like that. It’s just… how do I put this… awkward. Yeah, awkward. It felt awkward, like there might be something between you two that can’t be said out loud, and that made me uneasy. That’s all. Ha ha… please don’t read into it.”

  Enid’s brain produced a genuinely alarming thought.

  Wait, does she like Antonio?

  Once that idea landed, Enid decided to poke a little more, just enough to draw the truth out.

  “Relax. I haven’t even said anything yet. Caroline, what kind of person do you think Antonio is?”

  Caroline answered without missing a beat.

  “Handsome, kind, considerate, a perfect gentleman. The most elegant duke in the Empire. The strongest universal mage alive. The founder of the universal system. Loved and respected by countless people…”

  Enid went for the finishing blow.

  “Caroline… do you like Antonio?”

  One sentence, and Caroline’s nonstop praise crashed into silence.

  Enid learned, right then and there, that a person really could turn redder than a fully ripe tomato.

  “W w w what are you saying. I I I only respect Antonio. It’s reverence, and proper respect for an elder, that’s all. Ha ha ha… it’s getting late. I just remembered my students still have an experiment to finish. Please excuse me. Professor Ines, I’ll have to ask you to leave. Goodbye.”

  And just like that, Enid was practically shoved out of Caroline’s office.

  As she walked, that ridiculous thought kept looping in her head.

  A twenty four year old noblewoman falling for a five hundred year old geezer…

  Honestly, it wasn’t even that shocking. Enid had seen plenty of romances that leapt over age and race like it was nothing, and she personally didn’t care.

  It was just… new. The idea that her oldest disciple was being admired, and by Caroline of all people, felt bizarrely fresh.

  And if she was being honest, it was kind of entertaining.

  Inside the office, Caroline leaned against the door, forcing her overheated brain to cool down.

  Once she could think again, her thoughts started sprinting in circles.

  “I only respect Antonio. He was kind to me because he didn’t want talent wasted. That’s all. He definitely wasn’t interested in me. Obviously. Right. Why am I even thinking like this. Antonio is someone I respect. I don’t like him like that. I don’t. Love would only ruin my focus on magic. I don’t need men in my life.”

  Caroline smacked both cheeks hard.

  “My curiosity about Professor Ines and Antonio was purely about whether there was any improper deal going on. That’s it.”

  Then she sat back down and tried to work through the paperwork on her desk.

  “Professor Ines doesn’t look like she has any special feelings for Antonio. So there’s really nothing going on between them. Right.”

  She thumped her forehead onto the desk and muttered to herself.

  “Ugh. What am I doing. Why do I even care if they have something going on. It has nothing to do with me. Get it together and do your work.”

  But the words on the page wouldn’t stay still.

  The harder she tried to distract herself, the more her mind wandered.

  “There’s really nothing between them… right. Unless… what if Enid was right and I actually…”

  Her face answered before she could.

  Blushing could mean rage, or it could mean falling in love.

  And this kind of bright red had no excuse.