Rival in Love

Kelly woke from her sleep at dawn, her eyes opening to a pointed peak. It took her a moment to remember that was the top of her own tent—this was the Whispering Forest, and the trial had been going on for a month. Ever since the day Donald led the bandits away, she had slept poorly, often jolting awake from nightmares. Though countless traps, large and small, had been laid around the camp since then and no more bandits had appeared.

Even back on Lant Island, Kelly had known Donald was different. In those clear eyes, there was something else. From summer onward, those differences had slowly revealed themselves, and now they had far surpassed anything Kelly had expected. Though she had no idea what the Natural History Association was, a seventeen-year-old boy from Lant Island becoming an Honorary Director of some continental association was simply baffling.

Even more unexpected was his courage. To willingly take risks for his companions' safety at a moment between life and death—wasn't that the very spirit of knighthood? A girl her age, still receiving a knight's education, had almost no resistance to such qualities.

Kelly noticed that the girl named Lucia had been deliberately approaching Donald lately, whether intentionally or not. Knowing Donald liked magic, she would bring up magical topics, and at times like that, Kelly couldn't even get a word in. Kelly felt it was more than just gratitude for what he had done that day.

Yesterday, the three girls finally couldn't stand the smell of sweat on themselves and bathed in a stream near the woods. The four boys stood guard and kept watch. Halfway through, Wesley deliberately shouted, "Donald, don't stop me, I'll just take one look. Don't worry, I'll only look at Lucia, not Kelly!"

Even knowing he was joking, the girls couldn't help ducking into the icy stream, leaving only three wet heads above the water, until Roger called out with a laugh, "Relax, I've got my eye on him."

While bathing, Kelly had secretly compared the three girls' chest sizes and reached a discouraging conclusion. Both Fiona and Lucia had bigger chests than her. But she quickly attributed it to being the youngest.

"I'll be bigger than all of them soon... But what if Donald can't wait? How troubling... I'll have to eat more from now on. What foods make your chest grow?" The girl's expression shifted as she thought.

Afternoon hunting was everyone's favorite activity. Joey was an experienced old hunter; even the most hidden rabbit hole couldn't escape his eyes. He had more tricks than the teacher of the jungle tracking course at Knight School, and Kelly thought they really ought to invite him to teach there.

Ever since Kelly had seen Lucia's Ice Spear freeze a wild rabbit solid, she had mustered the courage to ask for advice every evening when Richard sought guidance from Roger.

"When Donald spaces out, he's always staring at Nina. He must really like kids!"

***

Before the sky was fully bright, Lucia heard some noise from Kelly's tent.

"She's having nightmares again."

Since that day, when Lucia stood watch, she often heard startled sounds from Kelly's tent. Fiona had told Lucia that on the night they searched for Donald, she was at the back of the group and saw Kelly crying the whole night through.

"She must really like him."

Then Lucia recalled the scene when they found Donald—no, when Donald found them.

"Asking if there was breakfast at a time like that, anyone could tell it was to lighten the mood. Too obvious."

Donald said that night he had hidden in a tree hollow to avoid the bandits, even slept there, and only came back to find everyone at dawn.

Lucia had been furious about that: "We searched so hard for you, worried all night, and you just slept soundly in a tree hollow by yourself."

Donald could only smile and say the tree hollow wasn't comfortable to sleep in.

After that day, Donald treated Lucia the same as before, keeping a proper distance. This made Lucia very uncomfortable, but she couldn't make a scene—she couldn't exactly say, "I cried worrying about you that day," could she?

So Lucia found herself especially fond of opposing Donald. If he wanted to read quietly, she would insist on talking to him; if he wanted to sleep, she would drag him up to stand watch; if he joked, she refused to laugh; if he was serious, she laughed on purpose.

Finally, one day, Lucia realized something was wrong: she had fallen for this guy! Everything she did was just trying to make Donald notice her.

She couldn't stand Donald keeping his distance, but she couldn't bring herself to confess her feelings openly like Kelly had. She was used to boys approaching her on their own; now that she wanted to get close to Donald, she was at a complete loss. Every little effort she made was easily deflected, and she couldn't be as thick-skinned as Wesley, so only one option remained—exactly what she was doing: deliberately opposing Donald.

Once she identified the problem, the clever girl immediately changed her approach. Knowing Donald was interested in magic, she would intentionally or unintentionally steer conversations toward magical topics, from Meditation Methods to Magic Models, from mental control to elemental perception. As the topics deepened, Lucia discovered that Donald's accumulation of magical knowledge exceeded her imagination. She had to think hard to answer his questions, and later, in areas like mental control and elemental perception, she even gained insights from him. Considering Donald had only been exposed to magic for less than four months, Lucia was stunned by his comprehension. But since he only knew theoretical knowledge and hadn't actually started learning magic, she felt a little relieved. Of course, if she knew he had already advanced to Magic Apprentice three months ago, she would have felt ashamed of her own title as a magical prodigy.

These efforts bore fruit. Now Lucia and Donald greeted each other warmly and even exchanged harmless jokes.

"Step one: become friends first. Done!"

Lucia noticed that Kelly had been watching her lately, intentionally or not. Was she afraid Donald would be taken away? But Donald wasn't hers to begin with.

"Who told you to take so long and still fail?" Lucia quickly found a reason to ease her conscience.

"That Donald guy keeps staring at Nina lately. He couldn't possibly like someone that young, huh!"

***

No one noticed the little schemes of the two rivals. When Donald returned to camp, he found Nina unharmed, happily following at her grandfather's side, and knew his earlier experience had just been a dream. Maybe, as the Dwarf Aidaruy had said, there were strange things in the forest, but they were beyond his reach for now. Donald could only suppress his curiosity.

After the sudden incident, the seven-person team's trial activities returned to a vacation-like state. The bandits never reappeared—though it had nothing to do with their carefully laid traps. Before leaving, Aidaruy had cleared out all the nearby bandits.

By the end of February, the weather had warmed slightly, and the month-and-a-half-long trial finally came to an end.