"What would my parents prefer?" Levan repeated. He shrugged uneasily.

  "At the moment, they want me to stay safely within Sunny Leaf Vale - less exposure, you know? At least until things get back to normal. But the problem is that the current setup already works well enough in local conditions, so there isn't much more to work on. And I can't exactly talk with other locations to help fix their setups while I’m at home..."

  Aida nodded in understanding. Wyndia didn't have a postal service, which was how she got away from corresponding with "her" parents too often. Instead, Wyndians relied on word of mouth - hearing if someone was traveling somewhere, and then asking them to bring their letters along, with more wealthy patrons hiring Adventuring groups to hand-deliver urgent missives. With the increase in monster attacks, people had to depend more and more on Adventuring groups to communicate with their friends and relatives in other hubs of civilization, which prompted an increase in civilians pooling their baen to hire Adventuring groups.

  Despite the growing market need, Adventuring groups still chose delivery jobs based on where more expensive jobs would take them, which meant that the small villages Levan was hoping to help would be unlikely to be able to communicate with Levan in a timely manner.

  "So it would still be most efficient for you to travel to the smaller villages to set up their water plants for them," Aida concluded. Levan nodded.

  "If Uncle Alvin didn't offer to cover the travel and living expenses, I wouldn’t have been able to persuade my parents. But he doesn't have enough baen to hire security for the duration of my stay, only for escorting me between villages."

  Aida nodded thoughtfully, feeling like this was an actually important piece of knowledge about her classmate.

  Levan's goal was noble, and made a lot of sense. If he could help smaller villages produce more of their own food, they would be less exposed to danger while foraging or starving, if imports were delayed or disrupted by monster activity.

  You already have your own goals and a job to focus on. You shouldn't be distracted so easily by other people's difficulties, Aida chided herself. Maybe if she had Sue's power, or Dev's influence, she could help Levan; as it was, she had to focus on herself.

  “What about you?” Levan asked. “Are your parents fine with the thought of you working at a poison clinic?” He kept his tone light and impartial, as if he was trying to reassure her he didn’t judge that field.

  Aida winced at the reminder. “I also haven’t really talked with my parents about that.”

  “But…you want to, don’t you?” Levan’s gaze was serious. “Work with Healer Bokar, I mean.”

  “I do,” Aida said slowly. She smiled briefly. “And I don’t know how you feel about your parents’ preferences, but…I find my parents’ alternative for me unacceptable.”

  Levan nodded silently, having too much decorum to inquire deeper.

  “Whatever choice you make, I think you’ll do great work.”

  “I should say that to you,” Aida replied, after a moment of surprise. “Your work is already influential enough to attract the attention and support of the Ashet family.”

  Levan chuckled, shrugging. “When you put it that way, I guess so…”

  “You’re not proud?” Aida asked, tilting her head. He genuinely seemed like he hadn’t been paying attention to the tangible results he’d achieved.

  He scratched his cheek uncertainly. “I just feel like I haven’t accomplished anything yet, so I can’t truly say that I have anything to be proud of, you know?”

  At Aida’s blink, he hurried on, his cheeks reddening. “I mean, sure, Uncle Alvin has promised to help to the best of his ability - but it’s not as if I got the attention of, I don’t know - the Mugi family, or something on my own,” Levan giggled nervously as he mentioned the name of a major agricultural family. “I’m not trying to downplay Uncle Alvin’s support,” he added quickly, glancing over his shoulder nervously as if he was worried Levi was hanging over the wall, eavesdropping on them, despite the fact that his distant cousin was already in the ring. “But it’s just…he’s known me since I was a kid, so it doesn’t mean as much, you know?”

  “You feel like he’s supporting and praising you just to be nice?” Aida guessed. Levan struggled to come up with a more diplomatic answer, before he finally nodded and shrugged in defeat.

  She nodded thoughtfully. Levan was trying to remain grounded and humble, which was respectable, but his downplaying of his achievements definitely irked her for reasons she couldn’t quite pinpoint.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Reminding herself that he wasn’t doing it on purpose, she chose her next words carefully. “But if your project had no potential, Levi’s dad wouldn’t have committed to supporting you, right? I mean, he could just be ‘nice’ about it by praising you verbally, not by putting his baen where his mouth is.”

  Levan blinked, his mouth dropping open as he considered her words. He shut his mouth as he withdrew, his fingers cupping his lips as he thought.

  “Granted, I don’t know if he can still finance what he promised you earlier, given how dangerous travel is getting,” Aida said hastily. “But the fact that you came up with an idea no one else had worked on yet, one with enough promise that someone is willing to invest in you…that’s pretty good, right?”

  “I never thought of it that way,” Levan murmured quietly, tapping his mug with his fingernails, quietly plinking out a steady beat.

  “Hey, come on, don’t let what I just said get to your head,” Aida said jokingly, elbowing him. “Don’t let your head get too big, but you should still be proud of what you’ve accomplished so far!”

  Despite his earlier confidence in saying he didn’t care how he ranked in the school, with the vulnerabilities he admitted to just now Aida thought she had a better understanding of the kind of person Levan was.

  He was smart, of course, with a good heart and intentions. But he was also a bit like Lyn: he believed he didn’t have any worthwhile ability, so rather than suffering the shame of trying and then failing, he decided it would be easier to get ahead of his critics by declaring his refusal to participate in a rigged game.

  The difference between him and Lyn, however, was that he had an external interest that he could use as a crutch. Aida wondered if Lyn had a similar motivation, one that she was afraid to admit to her family or sister. She saw the girl on the furthest stool away from them, nursing her own mug of cool tea.

  “I get what you’re saying,” Levan said, smiling. He took Aida’s empty mug from her hand to place back on Healer Luk’s tray. “And yeah, you’re right. Uncle Alvin’s generous, but he wouldn’t be generous enough to just throw baen at any old hobby project.”

  Pulling Aida to her feet, the two of them climbed out of the arena. Levan seemed lighter. He had always been a good-natured, generally happy individual, but now he seemed to be buoyed by something from within. That couldn’t have been the first time he received encouragement?

  Waving goodbye to Aida, Levan headed back into the stands where his group of friends sat, leaving Aida standing alone. Levi was already in the midst of his match against Lily, his opponent, and Sue was sitting with Caleb, without an empty seat next to her. Vanita was sitting with Abedi, slightly splintered off from the rest of the Class 2 boys.

  She caught the eye of Dev, who was sitting on the side with Myk and Pritchard with an open seat beside him.

  It's not weird, Aida reassured herself as she headed towards him. It would look more weird to sit alone.

  "Anybody sitting here?" Aida asked as she approached. Pritchard and Myk merely jerked their heads upwards at her in quick acknowledgement before they went back to viewing the Wood matches, heckling Shon's performance.

  "Take it," Dev said, giving a half smile. "That was a good match against Levan."

  "I guess it was," Aida said dubiously. "I still don't know who passed out first."

  "We will have to wait for the teachers’ verdict, then," Dev said, resting his elbows on his knees as he turned back to the matches.

  Aida watched him watching the matches, feeling oddly relaxed. Maybe it's Luk's tea.

  His hair literally sparkled in the sunlight, the pale strands delicately brushing his alabaster skin.

  What would you do if he was your arranged partner?

  Aida couldn't help but snort at the casual thought that drifted through her mind, causing Dev to glance back at her, accompanied by a perfectly arched brow.

  "What's so funny?"

  "Nothing," Aida muttered, lowering her eyes as she tugged a lock of hair forward to obscure her face, avidly studying it under the excuse of detangling her hair after the challenging match with Levan. The status difference between their families was too great to even entertain that thought.

  "Here." Dev created a ball of water in the air in front of her before he gestured with his hand. "Do you mind?"

  Aida shifted so that she was facing him, ducking her head so that she was staring at her hands in her lap, fingers carefully relaxed. Dev gently slid the hair tie out of her ponytail and began running his fingers through her hair, dislodging the mud that had begun crusting in the strands. She felt the cool water wet through her hair and scalp as Dev scrubbed gently with his fingers, giving her a head massage.

  She closed her eyes, counting her breaths to keep her breathing steady as Dev continued working his fingers through her hair. His thumbs drew circles at the base of her head, lingering. Or did they?

  This means he likes you, right? a smug voice asked.

  He's doing it in public. That means it's not a big deal, a haughty voice rebutted. Aida had to reluctantly agree with the haughty voice, no matter how much she wished the smug voice was correct. Despite the logic, she couldn’t help but wonder if Dev enjoyed touching her - he didn’t need to offer, after all.

  Her heart and thoughts raced now, each spurring the other on. Did he—

  "All clean." In an instant, Aida's hair dried as Dev pulled the water out of her hair, shaking the water from his fingertips. Pure efficiency, leaving not even a hint of hope he wanted to continue. Just like that, done.

  His breath fell against the back of her head, closer than she expected.

  “I’d say don’t make such a mess next time, but then I couldn’t do this.”

  Butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Aida blinked rapidly as she lifted her head to see Dev smirking at her. "What?"