"What time do you call this?!"
"Sorry, sir… I had a personal errand to run, sir."
"Oh, really. And what sort of personal errand was so important that it kept you away from your training?"
Looking around, the rest of the group was doing their rounds, running around the edge of the courtyard. She saw Sarah and wondered if she could get out of this with something that was sure to cause embarrassment for…their male trainer.
"…woman's problems, sir."
"Women's prob-err. Wait. What?"
"You know, issues with down the-" she said as she pointed downwards.
"No, stop, don't go any further."
He stepped back and just sighed to himself.
"Okay, fine. I'll let you off this time. But the next, I will not be lenient, even if it is…that sort of stuff."
"Sir, yes sir."
"Go join the others."
Jogging away, she joined the rest of the group and, after telling Sarah what she had done, managed to get a good laugh from her and the rest.
The rest of the girls, that is, the boys, just stayed quiet and slowly moved away as they dashed around the courtyard.
---
"Okay, everyone, it's time for your magic lesson, and we have a bit of a treat for you. We have a new teacher attending the Peacekeepers' headquarters who has graciously decided to spend her time teaching magic. Which is why there are quite a few of you in attendance compared to normal."
Their combat instructor's speech seemed mainly for the trainees, just to bring them up to speed. She and Sarah had only known this information through Michael's 'Information network', so the rest of their class seemed to be clueless. But there were a good number of other Peacekeepers around, older and well past the need for training, who clearly knew who would be coming.
She almost asked herself why they would even be attending, given that they had done combat training probably years ago, but it was likely that this special teacher knew a thing or two that even veteran Peacekeepers would eagerly want to learn to bolster their skills.
"So, without further ado, please welcome our newest magic instructor for the next few weeks. Lady Greenthorn."
It felt like her mind had just collapsed after hearing that. Lady Greenthorn. The hero whose ice sculpture she had ruined. And according to Simon, was also after her because of it.
Here she was, now standing before them in all her glory.
"Wow, that ice sculpture really did not do her justice." She thought to herself.
Looking around at what she realised was mostly men, she could tell they were probably thinking something similar. And that it might not have been the magic lesson from a hero that was the appeal for coming here. At least for…most of them.
"Hello everyone. It is lovely to be here. Now, as Knight Divish just said, I will be working here for the next few weeks, which will be a probationary period. If all goes well, then you might find me working here full time."
She looked excited, but Oriana couldn't help but think there was something Lady Greenthorn was holding back on.
Then it hit her.
"Hold on. Could she be here for me? How would she know I was here though?"
She racked her brain. Of all the coincidences, how was it that shortly after Oriana turns up at the Peacekeepers Guild, the hero after her turns up as well?
"Now, I see there are a lot of you, so I probably won't be able to see to each of you personally, so there are a couple of other teachers here to help."
Pushing the thoughts away, she got back to listening. How could she know she was here? It probably was just a coincidence. She just needed to be careful going forward, and if it became clear that she was being targeted, well, she needed to get out before she was taken out.
By the hero's side were two other teachers, as she had said. One was a woman who was older than Lady Greenthorn. Although, Lady Greenthorn being an Elf, it wasn't hard for anyone standing next to her to look older than her.
On her other side was a man.
A man who made Oriana groan internally.
"Why is he here?"
It was a man she knew all too well. The one that had accosted her at the restaurant. The one who had invited her to the ball, and had tried to dance with her, only for her to dance with Lady Eleanor and then flee before he could find her.
"I wonder how she is doing after all of that."
Forgetting about the man, she wondered if there was some way she could meet up with Lady Eleanor just to check up on her. She had caused her a bit of bother, and Eleanor had been the one to dance with her, saving her from having to dance with him.
"I should try and find her when I have the time."
Putting that aside, she got back to the man again.
She did wonder who he was; so far, she still didn't know his name. But the fact that he was at the ball, and now here, he was either a noble or a hero.
"Let's get started, shall we. We shall split up into three groups. Let's see."
Lady Greenthorn, after introducing the two other teachers, which Oriana had missed, then arbitrarily split the whole group into three, with Oriana being in the left group.
The one that just so happened to be in front of the man.
"Figures."
From there, they headed towards the training dummies, where several additional ones had been set out in a row.
Lady Greenthorn stood in front of the middle group and turned to address everyone again.
"Now, in case you don't know much about me, I specialise in dispel magic, along with knowing several offensive spells just for safe measure."
The older female teacher cast a fire spell of some kind into the air, and Lady Greenthorn promptly fired her own spell up as well. It was hard to see what it was, but it almost looked like a wave, slowly expanding as it travelled.
Coldness hit her chest instantly, a massive chill that felt like her chest was being frozen, but it quickly dissipated as Lady Greenthorn's spell got further and further away. She had a quick check around the goblet to see if there was any damage, but as far as she could find, there was nothing.
"Huh, does it just give the sensation of cold, but not actually make it cold around it? Is it all in my head, maybe?"
It was quite an odd little trinket, but she was growing fond of it, with how much it had helped her evade patrols.
Looking back up at the spells in the sky, she saw that Lady Greenthorn's was faster than the fire spell from the older woman, and soon reached it, where it was then promptly extinguished.
"Like with all magic, there are many varieties of dispel magic. What I just did there is primarily for dealing with complicated offensive spells. I'm sure many of you know of the dispel magic the mages of the academy cast, being pretty much a bubble around them, but that can only be used for targeting a specific spell. If you don't know what you are dispelling, you need something more complex and direct."
Oriana stood there listening to Lady Greenthorn, taking all of it in. She had assumed she would be distracted by her looks, which she partly was, but what she was saying was very useful. To think someone so young was that knowledgeable on magic.
This continued to be proven true when she continued to talk about different types of magic, the complications to it, combining magic, and even going on to evolving one's magic, which was what Oriana had been trying to do.
Oriana was truly captivated. It was odd, for someone who looked pretty much her age to be able to teach so well, with the dignity that you would only see in a mature teacher. One would think that her being an elf meant she was already a few hundred years old, but that was not the case.
If anything, she might be close to Oriana in actual age as well. Maybe even younger.
All good things come to an end, though, and before long, they fully split up and ended up with their assigned teacher. How she wished she were in the middle group.
But no, here she was waiting to fire off a spell at the target while the man, whom she had just learnt the name of, watched and critiqued.
"Alright, everyone. I am Damuel. Many of you know me as one of the greatest heroes who brought about peace across the land."
"…"
"Oh, I thought he was going to continue and say something along the lines of 'but I don't care about all that, just treat me as your teacher Damuel'. But no, he just wanted to gloat and be sure he was recognised."
"So, I have decided to help you with your magic. Come up, one by one, fire off a spell; then I'll give you some pointers."