Chapter 55: I Assumed

Chapter 55: Chapter 55: I Assumed

The whole room still smelled of sex, layered with the faint sweet scent of Felicia’s body—something Xavier found himself liking more than he expected.

He kissed her soft lips gently, trying to wake her.

"Mmmmm... ten more minutes, Nyan."

The lazy cat was clearly planning to sleep longer, her soft body shifting in sleep under the covers. Xavier stroked her head, running his fingers over her fluffy ears, then slipped out of bed and left her soft body behind. He scribbled a short good-morning note on the bedside table before quietly leaving the room.

He climbed down the stairs. On the ground floor a small crowd of students had gathered in the hall. It felt odd for such an early hour, but he dismissed it as friends meeting up and walked out through the gates, heading back to his own dorm.

When he entered Emberfell he found a similar scene—only larger. A crowd filled the hall and kept growing as more students joined by the minute.

Xavier stepped closer to see what was happening. A tall, muscular student with small bull horns stood near the notice board. It was their house head, Tyson Angus, one of the top rankers among the fifth-years.

A hand landed on Xavier’s shoulder. He turned and found Allen.

"So the news reached you too," Allen said.

"What news?"

"You haven’t heard? The schedule for the first expedition to the Red Forest has been decided. That’s what Senior Tyson just posted."

"Attention!" Tyson’s sharp voice cut through the noise. The hall fell silent.

"As you all know by now, the expedition schedule has been set. Freshmen leave on Monday in five groups of one hundred, each accompanied by one professor. Second-years leave on Tuesday, and so on. You freshmen have today and tomorrow to prepare. All details are on the notice I just posted. If you have questions or concerns, come to the house head’s office. If I’m not there, leave a note with your name and question."

His eyes landed on Xavier.

"You." He pointed. "Meet me in my office." Then he turned and left the crowd.

"Oh boy. What did you do to get called out like that?" Allen asked. "You know he’s a complete muscle-head. I heard in the last annual tournament he even tried to headbutt the prince. If you need help, just scream—someone will hear you." He grinned and moved closer to the notice board to read the details.

Five hundred students from each year would be split into five groups. The top one hundred rankers would be randomly distributed among them. Each group would be led by a professor and escorted to the Red Forest by the Imperial Academy. After that the students would spend a week surviving with only the supplies they could carry, under their assigned professor’s guidance. They would be scored on teamwork, survival instincts, problem-solving, combat techniques against attacking beasts, and other factors.

Freshmen would venture ten kilometers into the forest.

Second-years: fifteen kilometers.

Third-years: twenty.

Fourth-years: thirty.

Fifth-years: forty.

"Oof. The fifth-years have it rough," Allen muttered.

Forty kilometers marked the point where the Red Forest shifted from dangerous to outright deadly. Still, most fifth-years were already at the fourth level of mana control, and they would have a professor with them. Even so, anything could happen.

Ten kilometers as a freshman was dangerous for most students, but not for Xavier. He was already at the third level of mana control. He still had no intention of being careless.

He left Allen and headed for the house head’s office, wondering what a fifth-year senior could possibly want from him.

The office sat near the stairs, right beside the dorm supervisor’s room. Inside it was spacious—a long sturdy desk in the center, bookshelves behind it, a low table, and a sofa. Tyson sat at the desk going through paperwork. He set it aside the moment Xavier entered.

"Welcome, Xavier. How are you today?" he asked politely.

"Good morning, Senior. I’m doing well. How about you?"

"Glad to hear it. I’m well too. Come, sit." Tyson led him to the sofa, set a plate of sweets on the table between them, unwrapped one, and ate it. Xavier followed so he wouldn’t appear rude.

"So, Xavier—what are your ambitions?"

"The same as any other noble heir. I’ll inherit the Drakenfell family, protect it, make it more prosperous, and have as many children as I can."

"Good to hear. If you need anything in the dorms, contact me anytime. I’ve already had all the supplies you’ll need for the week in the Red Forest delivered to your room. Least I can do, considering the future between us."

"Thank you, Senior." Xavier was grateful he wouldn’t have to gather supplies himself, but he still didn’t understand what Tyson meant by the future between us.

"My younger sister can be a bit... extroverted. Sometimes she comes across as rude. But she’s a good girl at heart. She’s your responsibility now. Take care of her."

Xavier put the pieces together. "Wait—you’re Arabelle’s older brother?"

"She didn’t tell you?" Tyson looked surprised. "She’s already sent a letter to my father about the two of you. I assumed she would have mentioned it."

Arabelle belonged to a branch family of bovine-kin nobility in the northern region. The letter had gone to the family head—Tyson’s father—and to her own father, Tyson’s uncle.

Xavier had known nothing about it. He hadn’t even received word from his own father about the letter Elena’s father must have sent. He suddenly wondered how his father would react to receiving two such messages in a short span—one from the empire’s wealthiest merchant and another from a powerful northern bovine-kin house—both essentially saying that his son had fucked their daughters.

His father might be proud of him if everything worked out. But if it created any problems with his engagement to Lady Cherie, the imperial princess, his father might simply kill him and name one of his younger brothers the next heir.