Nothing else of critical note happened during the rest of that summer, filled with the usual that we had already been doing for years at that point. Training, extra training, with a side of Knight design brainstorms and complimentary spellcrafting.
When school finally started back up, I took immense satisfaction in laughing maniacally when there was an enormous lightning strike in the training grounds during the first day, despite the sky being completely clear. I met up with the goober squad during the lunch break.
]I[
"Fred," Ernie started with a huff as we all sat down in a cafeteria. My antisocial skin was crawling with the stares I was getting in such a public place. I never ate there for good reason. "Why did the Head Proctor react with: 'Not another one!'during my exam?"
"Well excuse me, I wasn't the one who decided to blow up the entire firing range with an overcharged lightning spell. What were you even doing, pulling something that big out? Trying to make everyone else feel impotent?" I snapped back, suppressing a grin when Kid nearly choked on his food in his sudden laughter while Addy let out a scandalized gasp, slamming her hands onto the table.
"Fred! Why did you word that so- so-" The girl floundered in her embarrassment, a state that wasn't helped by her face turning crimson. I rolled my eyes at the dramatics while I waved a dismissive hand at her.
"Oh, whatever princess." I huffed, a small cloud of steam leaving my lips. "Anyways, Ernie, I while imagine that you couldn't care less about the drama that the children get up to here,"
"Naturally." He immediately responded, ignoring the muttering of 'But we're children though' by that pet stalker of his.
"Fred, you just thought something very mean about me again, didn't you?" said stalker growled, the attempt only made her seem as threatening as a kitten.
"Unfortunately for the two of us, while there isn't a single idiot in the school dumb enough to challenge one of us head on, we're still likely to come under attack through less savory and more underhand means." I continued seriously, not bothering to react to Addy.
"How so? And are the any likely culprits?" Ernie responded to equal seriousness.
"Balthasar Selati, the older stepbrother to these two, who hates their living guts and will certainly take great offense to them being superior to him in any way." I dutifully reported. Kid finally got his cough under control and joined in.
"W-whoa now, while Balthasar doesn't have the best opinion of us, he's not going to do anything here, right?" Kid looked distinctly unsure as he finished his statement, obviously going over what he knows of his estranged sibling.
"It sure seemed like he was considering before I threatened to rip him in half if he tried anything." I responded, the twins gasping in horror at the statement.
"Fred! You can't just go around threatening nobles!" Addy hissed, annoyance and a slight level of fear evident in her tone.
"I didn't. I just told him exactly what would happen if he did something particularly stupid."
"That's called a threat, you muscled brained brute!" the brunette snapped back.
"Is there a likely path of attack?" Ernie interjected, still all business.
"Through the twins themselves, most likely. To be blunt, they're our weakest links. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they'd get overwhelmed if ambushed while alone by enough competent goons." I spared the twins an apologetic smile. "No offense you two, just stating facts. You're both doing an amazing job in your training."
Ernie nodded in thought while the twins gave begrudging sighs.
Kid nervously rubbed the back of his head, sharing a worried glance with his sisters as he spoke up again.
"Balthasar hates that we were born of-" he stopped at my raised hand.
"Kid, Addy," I spoke in a slightly softer tone, "Me and Ernie are already fully aware of your lineage and familial situation. You don't need to force yourselves to speak about such a sensitive subject if you don't wish to." While I had the knowledge from my previous life, I had pressed Ernie into being there when I had asked pointed questions to people about our mutual friends and looked up their family history in the house library.
The twins' faces were filled with shock and no small amount of relief, moved as they were by our acceptance of them despite their 'political' situation.
"Alright," the silverette eventually piped up. "what's our plan of attack? Counterattack? Silence? Maybe jump him from behind?"
"N-now, there's no need-"
I resolutely talked over the twins' slightly panic responses.
"Rapid Reaction Force. Since we're dealing with nobles, we're forced to wait for them to make the stupid play first. We'll need to be able to quickly find and assist either of the twins in the event of an attack, probably both at once." I spoke with total seriousness, making the twins' panic start to grow.
"Wait-"
"So, either a tracking device on their person or some kind of spell?" Ernie asked, while the two siblings started to rapidly look back and forth between us as we plotted.
"Guys-"
"A device on their end might be noticed by a sensitive enough magic user, I say we go for a spell that tracks down their specific magical signature." I replied, having already crafted most of the relevant spell long before this talk, I just needed a good enough excuse to get Ernie to help me finish building a dedicated tracking spell.
"Very well, looks like we've got our work cut out for us then." Ernie nodded firmly
"Guys!" Kid yelled, to which he received a raised eyebrow from both of us. "You don't have to get involved in our problems like that! Think about what this could do to the two of you!" he near begged.
"What, like damage our reputation just for helping you?" I grumbled "Who gives a shit about a worthless thing like that? I'm looking forward to breaking the legs of those who think that they can mess with us and ours." I finished with a growl, letting smoke drift from my lips.
"It might be none of our business," Ernie began with a small smile "but if you're in trouble, we can't ignore that. You're our friends and are very important to our team!"
The siblings looked at us in shock for a long moment, before sharing a look and giving great sighs at the end of their silent conversation.
"Yeesh, you two are scary in your own ways. I'm so glad that we're your friends and not enemies..." Kid mumbled
"Good answer." I gave him a toothy grin, to which he shivered and paled slightly.
"Oh alright," Addy huffed "If one of us is in trouble, we'll ask for help, ok?" We both nodded at her firmly.
]I[
Thankfully the next few months went by without incident from their stepbrother or anyone else. We did end up meeting with their older stepsister, Stephania Selati.
I didn't like how much hunger was in her eyes whenever she looked at me or Ernie. I quickly resolved to avoid the blonde at all costs when she flashed me those eyes while smothering my brother into her chest. Dangerous woman.
She did however report about her brother's rapidly deteriorating mood and rebuilding confidence after the terror I had inflicted upon him the year prior.
Unfortunately, one day both twins failed to arrive at the cafeteria during the lunch break, and there were rapidly spreading whispers of a duel in the main school plaza.
We shared a look with each other.
Ernie frowned, his brow furrowing. For him, that translated to: fucking pissed.
I gave a savage grin, mana pumping, spells building, and smoke leaking from my teeth. After all, the tracking spell we'd worked on had already found the locations of both Addy inside the building and Kid in the plaza.
"Well," I growled, students rapidly moving away from me at this point. "Cowabunga it is."
]I[
Addy groaned quietly as consciousness slowly returned to her. Her body ached and refused to move while her head pounded fiercely.
"Hey! She's awake!" A slightly muffled voice called, sounding as if underwater despite her not feeling anything covering her ears.
"Guess we'll gag her before she makes a lot of noise." Another muffled voice said with an edge of malice.
"Yeah, don't want her pulling any tricks like she did when we grabbed her." a third voice grumbled.
'I failed.' Addy thought miserably inside her mind, stunned to the floor by some spell. 'I let my guard down despite knowing the threat and they caught me.'
However, right as a boy approached her defenseless body while the other three surrounded her, a state that made her skin crawl with disgust and no small amount of horror, something happened.
Namely the door to the abandoned classroom that she was evidently in was ripped clean from its hinges and into the hall beyond.
A hallway that was filled with unnaturally still smoke. Save for the blazing green eyes glaring at them.
"You were warned." an unnatural voice that she had only heard about in whispers from the upperclassmen growled out, the deep tone seemed to rattle her very bones with terrible promise.
Addy had wanted to be saved, she figured that she should have been overjoyed, or at least relieved.
"FUCK!"
"OH SHIT-"
"IT'S THE BRONZE DRAGON! RUN-"
*CRUNCH*
"AAAAAAHHHHH! MY LEG!"
"Run? You don't get the privilege."
Yet all she felt was the pitiful desire for those eyes to be as far away from her as possible.