Chapter 34: A Fortuner's Life
As Luke and I finished our first dance, the hall owner allowed our stylist to show us dances we should learn.
We 'learned' 4 different dances, and rotated through them in our time together in the hall.
At the end we were allowed to choose our 'best feeling' dance.
Luke and I were led to a separate hall, where we had an orchestra.
It was smaller than the practice hall, but larger than the entrance hall.
"Don't worry miss, the musicians are focused on the instruments, so have no hesitance."
With that she sat down in a chair positioned against a wall and set a clock, presumably our remaining time in the hall.
Luke made no resistance to me for the entire practice period.
I thought it would be the same here.
Suddenly he grasped my hand and signaled for a waltz song, as he led me.
Sepia raised her hand to cover her mouth, but her eyes showed her shock.
I too was surprised, this entire time he had been responsive, but quiet, reserved, and supporting.
Now however, he was taking the lead as I supported, he set the tempo with his feet, and let his hands only show the dance.
The musicians were quick on the uptake.
A nice slow melody took place.
As time progressed forward, and our time nearly up, Luke signaled to the orchestra to follow his tempo as he began to slowly accelerate in our dance.
30 seconds remained, and he was still speeding up.
I believed once we had reached the limit of our human bodies inside the clothes, he would remain steady, but he once again surprised me, when he started to use magic to reinforce the suit and dress we had on, to accelerate faster.
The musicians bows were flying up and down the instruments, and in a few short moments, everything stopped.
I looked up to Luke with a smile on my face, and he returned it with one as well.
As we separated, and Luke was taken to a changing room to get dressed out of the suit he had been lent.
"Did your husband know you were planning this?"
Sepia said to me.
"Not at all."
"It appears to me that he practiced quite a lot though?"
She cocked her head to the side, putting her finger on her chin.
"Well, he's just like that I guess."
He wasn't that good at his party. It had only been a week too.
Perhaps he had found some time somewhere to learn it for me.
"You certainly are a lady in love."
I looked back at Sepia.
"What do you mean?"
"Well when you talk about him, you start to look elsewhere."
I guess I did.
"I'm sorry, that was unprofessional of me, I shouldn't say things like that."
"It's quite alright, I enjoy your observations, although I agree, some patrons won't be as agreeable to your attitude."
"If I may ask though, why do you and your husband not wear wedding bands?"
"Well....."
"His sword..."
I tried to begin.
"Yes?"
"His sword, the upper one."
"It holds two tassels, one that shows my favor for him, and the other.."
"Favor? Wow..."
"Wait, favor? Are you a noble?"
"Did you marry a commoner and lose noble status or something like that?"
Well she seemed to misunderstand in a good way, so I guess I wasn't going to need to correct her.
"You two have a beautiful relationship, miss."
"Thank you."
"So as a noble lady, do you think you could help me up my game to get the baker's son?"
"I-"
"I'm sorry, that's probably beneath you."
In fact it was, but this girl was my friend, so it wasn't.
"Actually I'm willing."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Lucas walked out with his casual clothes, and leather harness once again.
Sepia looked at his sword once again.
"The amethyst inside the guard of the sword matches your eyes."
"I had it designed that way, he still thinks it's a normal knight's sword."
"You were lady and knight?"
Well, I had really dropped the ball.
"Yes, but keep it a mum, we aren't trying to announce it anywhere."
"Got it!"
She whisper shouted.
"This is straight out of a fairytale."
"Alright, then we shall see ourselves out then."
"Thank you for your patronage."
Luke and I left the building.
***
*Lucas' Pov*
Well, I tried to dance with her during the practice, but I was too busy avoiding her eyes.
She was too beautiful to look at directly.
I never knew I needed a high ponytail Aura, but just that did it.
She was incredibly pretty.
I followed her steps to avoid staring at her.
For dozens of minutes I couldn't bring myself to look at her, because every time I tried I began to blush.
I was clumsy, and she was too.
She didn't tell me anything was wrong, so maybe she thought I was acting perfectly.
As I resolved to look at her regardless of my blush, the hallmaster moved us to a separate hall.
I saw the orchestra and knew this was my chance.
I brought my hands up in the sign of a waltz, and from there I let everything else, aside from my partner, go.
I stared into Aura's eyes without blushing, and was able to switch between her and where we were going next without issues.
She didn't comment, but her body language suggested to me, she was thoroughly enjoying it.
She was supporting me with everything.
So naturally I showed her my best lead.
After the dance, I changed out and we left.
"Lucas were you practicing dancing after your 18th?"
Guilty as charged.
"Yes."
"But you didn't know I wanted to dance again right?"
"I had no idea."
"Wow."
The day was quickly approaching it's end with sundown maybe an hour from occurring.
"I've got two more places to go before tonight's over."
"So where are we headed next?"
"A nice store."
"Alright."
I followed Aura as we stepped into a jewlers.
"Hey Aurelia, how much money are you planning to spend today?"
"Not much more after this."
She walked over to a gold and purple pair of rings and necklaces.
"I would like both of these."
"Yes, ma'am."
We walked to the payment counter so Aura could purchase the items.
After every thing else, she spent about 150 gold on the two rings, and 450 on the necklaces.
Truly an exorbitant price.
We walked over to the box counter where the jewelry was boxed up and presented.
After receiving all four boxes, Aura turned on her heels and we walked out of the store.
She stuck her hand out to me with two boxes.
One contained a gold ring, and the other contained a purple necklace.
"This is your ring, put in on the necklace.... ....il ....et ....arried."
"What did you say Aurelia?"
She shook her head before leaning in close to my ear.
"Keep it around your neck until we get married, and you can put this ring around my neck, on my finger okay?"
She stepped back, and I could feel a blush on my skin, she too was blushing, but her bright smile trumped it.
"Got it."
I managed to choke out.
I did as I was told and slotted the golden ring through the purple chain.
"Wear it every day okay?"
"I will."
"Good. Now let's go to the last place I wanted to go."
We headed back to the dorm.
Weird, but in my opinion the dorm isn't a place I would consider a date spot.
We got in the elevator and approached the 8th floor.
"Are you okay on this floor?" I asked Aura.
"Yes."
"Got it, but what exactly did you want to bring me here for?"
"Well, I heard that students were allowed to use facilities 24/7."
"That's true."
"Then follow me."
I did as she said, and she led me to an observatory.
It was grey on the inside.
Aura went over to the tablet in the entrance and set a usage time for tomorrow morning.
Ah. I see.
She then set the observatory for stars and forests.
Naturally the observatory chose a camera planted in the northern parks of the city.
We 'stood' on grass.
Aura pulled out a bed out of her bag, and laid down on top of it.
"Lucas, what are you doing? Join me."
I got on the bed, and Aura began to wrap around me.
I began to pet her head, and she nuzzled up to my chest.
Soon enough she was fast asleep.
The sun had already started setting and night was creeping in, so I guess her sleeping was just getting more hours of sleep.
I could have returned the bed back into her magic bag, shut off the observatory, and took her to her dorm room, but I had a feeling that would ruin her morning.
I lied down properly and wrapped my arms around her too, and let myself drift into sleep as well.
***
Morning.
First day of classes.
I slowly sat up as to not wake Aura.
It was still sunrise, but the observation room had obviously dimmed the projection of sunlight since it was harmful to observers.
My schedule of a few noon classes and the conceptual mage class in the afternoon were my only obligations.
She and I shared different afternoon classes but we shared the same noon classes, so I let her sleep in.
I brushed her hair to the side.
If I had to make a guess, Mother Alicia already knew of this, if she didn't have video proof.
***
9am rolled around and I woke Aura up, since our time in here was about to be up.
She got up and I handed her a cup of hot chocolate.
"I could sleep for another hour."
"And let your mother have more material of us?"
"Wait, you know she records our time together?"
"She does what? I thought she only recorded when she thought I might take certain actions that cross the line."
"No, she loves watching the two of us, she told me she watches our moments together."
"If I had known, I probably wouldn't have been so bold."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"I need mom to stop it then."
"Oh."
She put her bed back in her bag and we walked out to the elevator.
I left at the 4th floor and entered my room.
Mark was there waiting for me.
"Hey Lucas, where were you last night? Were you with Aurelia?"
"Yeah, we were in the observatory and fell asleep while watching the stars."
"Must be nice, but Celeste actually called me worried."
"Don't worry, I have no plans on becoming an Oathbreaker, and Aurelia should be back in her room by now."
I didn't have to worry about Aura and I having different stories as we had rehearsed the story beforehand.
I got in the shower after reassuring Mark the both of us were okay.
After my shower I left for the cafeteria since neither Aura, nor I had ate, since we were enjoying each other's company.
After a while, Mark, Celeste, and Aura joined me downstairs.
We had a good breakfast, academy food was top notch.
Afterwards we all headed towards the same noon classes.
In my first class 'Mana basics' the four of us sat together.
"Hello class" the instructor said to 140 students.
"My name is professor Glasyan."
"You may call me Professor."
"With that, can anyone explain to me what magic is?"
A girl in the back of the class raised her hand.
"Yes, you."
"It's the building block of all existence."
"Correct but imprecise."
A boy on the left side of the room raised his hand.
"A form of energy that flows through living beings."
"Not completely right, but more concise."
"The true answer is an energy source than exists in all physical and non physical entities in our world, living or not."
"But you are mages, and therefore the only correct definition should be, the energy used to manifest your imaginations."
"Now I trust since all of you are third circle mages, you can summon at least one 1st circle spell."
Everyone nodded.
"Then we will begin to create precision in your magic."
She created a water ball, before turning it into a jetstream and spraying a target at the opposite end of the room at great speed.
"And you are not allowed to move into second circle spells to do so."
Some students faces darkened, but between the four of us, we had it easily had it figured out.