Mikin Royal Academy

A day passed before we met again. The spring air felt fresh, trees blowing in the wind while the faint hint of birds singing could be heard over the horizon.

Mikin Royal Academy was the kind of place seen in paintings. Unlike the castle, here the pristine walls and intricately decorated gardens felt intentional. Even in the exterior garden, the flowers were bunched together like a giant rainbow surrounding the field–trees creating a picturesque lining that blocked the grassy center from the wind.

A simple gray stone terrace sat in the middle of the garden, all five seats currently empty. Ideally, it was meant as a great place to gather and do homework or something of the sort.

What they hadn’t considered was that this part of campus was mainly home to the dorms of nobility. The lower class students were too nervous to approach, while most nobles preferred to relax in their own private gardens. Therefore, more than not it sat empty.

But not for today.

Mai wore a white button-up shirt under a navy blue blazer–wearing her blue tie loosely over her unbuttoned collar. A black leather belt covered her plaid skirt, letting her silver sword hang loosely by her side.

She stood waiting under the terrasse as I walked towards her. “Good morning Princess Mai, I hope your stay has been well.”

“Good morning,” she gave a slight curtsy. “Everything so far has been fantastic.”

“That's wonderful…” I let my words trail off. To the breeze, I could barely stutter out my words. Nerves wracked every inch of my body. “I was thinking, as classes start tomorrow, I would love to give you a tour of campus, show you around a bit.

“Certainly,” she said with just a bit of stiffness. “I will leave it to you to lead the way.”

With those words, she walked by my side as we left the outskirts, heading inside through the stone halls lined with glowing balls of fire. Classroom doors lined the walls on either side of us. Of course, most were abandoned with school not starting for another day.

“Campus is mainly divided into four sections, with most students hanging out in either the dorms or cafeteria whenever class isn’t in session,” I said, leading her past the observatory and towards the kitchens. “Though once classes start there’s barely a spot on campus you won't see people hanging out.”

We walked by the cafeteria, causing her to raise an eye. The kitchens here were divided by class, with the nobles having their own special space with more gold than food.

The tables were all covered with silk cloth–desserts set on the center of each. Grand curved windows lined the marble walls. From the front, the smell of cooked steak gently wafted through the room.

“As a noble, this is where you’ll be eating most of your meals. Everything is provided by the school, no need to pay.”

“As a noble?” she asked.

“Yeah… our cafeterias are segmented by class. Is it not that way in Arhonia?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Of course not. We're all people, who cares?” Mai said, eyes slightly widening in surprise.

“Trust me, I wish that-” I bit my tongue, glancing around us. Even on campus I never could quite tell if anyone was watching. “Well, it is what it is. Anyway, it's tradition here to thank the breeze before every meal, though obviously, you're under no such requirement.” I said, changing the topic

“The breeze, Alair, that's the name of the deity that Mikin worships, right?” Mai asked.

“Yeah, been that case for pretty much forever.” Even as little kids, the breeze was integrated into our lives. Every greeting, meal, prayer, everything flowed through Alair and her breeze. “Arhonia worships a different god, the flame right.”

“Sort of,” Mai said, pondering. “In our culture, the flame, Leo, makes it very clear we shouldn’t worship him. Respect yes, not worship.”

“So what, is he more like a king then?”

“Maybe?” she shrugged. “I don’t really know how to explain it.”

“I see…” Neither of us said a word as we walked towards the entrance hall. Holy breeze I could physically feel the awkwardness.

Throughout the rest of the tour, both of us kept quiet. We passed by the common dorms, lecture halls, staff lounge, practice arenas–every cool part of campus I could think of. Yet, none of it seemed to surprise Mai.

Eventually, we wound all the way back to the gardens where we started.

“And that’s pretty much Mikin Royal Academy,” I said, taking a seat at the table. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful, I think your country's architecture is wonderful.” I cringed at the pure diplomatic energy in her response. This whole time, I’d been talking to a mask thicker than iron. Of course she would wear that. Yet, I had a feeling that no matter how nice or casual I was she wouldn’t be removing her facade.

Maybe Mikins and Arhonians weren’t very different after all.

Mai continued on. “I thank you for the wonderful tour you gave, but for now I would like to rest.”

“Absolutely,” internally I sighed. “Let me lead you back, if we’re gonna be stuck with each other might as well make the best of it.” Besides, due to the king’s scheming our rooms were right next to one another.

An hour passed after I walked her back–an hour spent doing nothing but staring up at the ceiling. I couldn’t help but feel… melancholy about the whole thing. Back in the city, I could feel hope, passion from a single gaze. The Mai I'd toured today lacked every bit of that spark.

Was this what our time together would be like? One of us was clearly important enough to send all the way over here, the other the only one dumb enough to not accidentally spill every secret in the book.

“Forget it,” I muttered, leaping off my bed. Fresh air sounded great at the moment.

“No deadass Chiyo, I swear every time these cunts announce they’re a noble, an angel loses its wings.” I froze. That voice, that was Mai’s…

I crept outside, careful to not make a noise. Somehow, she’d left a small crack in her door just wide enough to see through. Inside, Mai sat on her bed, holding some kind of silver mirror while lazily twirling her brown hair around a spare finger. “What the hell is that?”

“All those Mikins and their arrogance, ew,” a feminine, high-pitched voice came from the mirror. “Are the rumors seriously true?”

“More than true,” she said, switching her tone to the most high-pitched, mocking voice imaginable. “Oh look at me, I'm a noble, I need my own cafeteria because I'm so special. Holy flame, I'm sure they love hearing those words while jerking each other off.”

“And these are the people we’re supposed to be fighting against? Leo almighty.” The voice in the mirror, Chiyo apparently, laughed. “Wasn’t one of the princes supposed to walk you around? How is he?”

“Rio? I don’t know, he’s nice, cute, pretty well built…”

“Mai? Don’t tell me someone is developing a crush over there.”

“Crush?” she scoffed. “Hardly. He may be cute, but he’s still the son of the fucker that got us into this endless fucking war. Nice only matters until their king drops this pretense and takes me as a prisoner of war.”

For some reason, I could feel my heart slightly drop. Stupid, what the hell was I thinking? What the hell? Where was the cold empty Mai from earlier? I could hear someone that actually cared about every word she spoke. If only she’d show herself.

Chiyo spoke again from the mirror. “You still don’t know if they’ll declare war.”

“Oh they will all right. Every single one of the nobles I've met is salivating like a dog at the chance of killing us. Well… almost every single one.”

“Is it that prince again, Rio?”

“Yeah, holy flame, this fucking stress is getting to me,” she muttered, before flipping around and slamming her head against the pillow. “Fuck this, I need some fresh air. I’ll call you later Chiyo.”

“Crap,” I muttered, quickly walking back towards my dorm and quietly shutting the door.

Yet as I leaned against the door, I couldn’t deny that I wanted to hear more of Mai.