CHAPTER 106: I’LL WIN. SIMPLE AS THAT

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Caius’s day home from school wasn’t spent lounging around. He barely even had the time to study the Arcane Codex for more symbols to try creating a second spell because his father immediately got him training with the Von Helsing Regimen right after their talk.

"Best way to get past this sort of traumatic experience is to work your muscles," Lucian had said, "Work all those bad emotions out of your body."

The words seemed kind, but the intensity of the exercises did not.

Caius had a feeling his father was working out some of his anger with him for not joining him in hating Athenodora by working him to the bone and beyond.

All that talk about hating her enough for both of them seemed to have been just that; Talk. It was so clear that Lucian would be more than happy for Caius to join him in his hate. It would be one more thing they could and should bond over. As far as Lucian was concerned anyway.

When Caius fell into bed at the end of the day, after all those exercises, he immediately fell asleep. He was awoken at daybreak for yet another day of school and he could not be happier. He feared his Father was still working through his anger and was glad not to be locked into another workout regimen.

When he got to the carriage meant to get him to Lochxen, he found that there wasn’t just one but three. Hellsingers of both genders stood at attention by the Carriages they would be boarding to bolster the added security meant to always follow Caius about.

Caius turned to Orland,

"What about Gareth?" He asked.

"Sir Gareth is still on the mend, Master Caius," the Master Butler answered. There was no evidence of falsehood but Caius just didn’t feel like it was the truth.

The other three that had been part of Gareth’s squad were not here either so he had a feeling they had simply been changed out completely.

Putting that off his mind, Caius entered one of the Carraiges and was joined by Four Guards meant to sit with him apart from the one sitting beside the driver up front.

The other Carriages contained even more Hellsingers than that because they didn’t have to leave an entire long seat for Caius to sit on alone so he was essentially moving under the protection of more than thirty or so Mage-Knights. Which he thought was an insane overkill.

Moving around with a convoy was only going to attract more attention and it just felt tacky and ridiculous. But he was not going to be changing his father’s mind about it today. Or maybe ever. So Caius took out his Grimoire and played around with Arcane symbol combinations all through the journey.

He found that it was easier not to get frustrated by the difficulty of spell creation when he was using it to keep himself occupied and avoid thinking about something else.

When the three Carriages stopped at the Gates of Lochxen, Caius was out in a second and was only too happy to leave them far behind as he entered the Academy grounds.

He had just turned into the corridor that led to the First Year Cafeteria, and could see the backs of his classmates already walking ahead, when his path was blocked by a familiar six. ’Familiar’ was being used here for want of a better word because, while he might have seen these faces a few times, he had only paid actual attention once or twice.

"Hello, Ladies," he said with a leisurely smile to the group of gal pals that always followed Aylin Khione about.

The girls all smiled. They were here on a mission but how could they remain stoic in front of that handsome face? A face that had their heads swirling with thoughts of fantasies and fancy...

"Pull it together," one of the girls told the others. She was Marianne and the closest Aylin had for a best friend among this bunch. Which wasn’t really saying much considering how the clique was run.

Marianne’s words snapped her fellow gal pals out of their delusions and they all tried their best to look stoic again. And they failed.

Caius just kept up his smile and tried to sidestep but they moved and blocked his path again. And now they linked arms and started walking closer to him.

"What is this?" Caius asked confused but he did take a few steps back. Maybe he could have sidestepped them with a little bit of magic or maybe by just moving quickly once he disarmed them with another particularly charming smile but he was actually curious why this was happening at all.

"Just keep walking," Marianne said with her cute face trying to keep up her best attempts at an intimidating expression as she added,

"And none of that charming thing you did before."

"Charming thing?" Caius said innocently as he took another two steps back, "Whatever do you mean?"

He made eye contact with one of the ladies then and she went weak in the knees.

"Girls, avert your eyes!" Marianne cautioned.

Caius laughed. This was all so silly.

The ladies were all trying to look away from him now. All looking like they were straining with effort as they tried their best to resist the pull of temptation. Not paying attention to where they placed their foot was causing them to step on each other’s toes a lot but Caius had to commend their dedication and unity. Besides the call and response of ’Ouch’ and ’Sorry’, they never bit back at each other.

They forced him to take another few steps back and Caius was wondering where exactly he was being herded to as they were nearing the end of the corridor now, when a hand shot out and grabbed his shirt to yank him into a corner.

"Morning," Caius said with hardly any surprise when he found himself now looking into the impossibly perfect face of Aylin Khione.

Aylin smiled.

"Morning," she greeted, "I heard you got into a bit of trouble after school two days ago."

That took Caius by surprise.

"You heard about it?" He asked, "How?"

Aylin shrugged.

"The Professors received word of it to excuse your absence from class. The information got around."

"Huh," Caius let out.

His father must have sent word to the Academy but why go into that much detail? Simply telling the school his son would be absent should have been enough.

Aylin’s expression became somewhat tender now,

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Caius smiled.

"I’m fine," He said and then gestured at the corner they were in as he asked,

"Is that what this was all about?"

Aylin smiled even wider now looking proud of herself.

"I wanted my face to be the first face you saw on your first day back," she said with a shrug. Her hand was still holding his shirt as her finger stroked the gold buttons.

Caius laughed a little then,

"I saw the faces of your friends first," He pointed out with a head gesture at the backs of the five ladies who had now formed a wall to shield the two from the sights of any passerby.

"They don’t count," Aylin said dismissively.

That might have sounded a bit callous but Caius knew she hadn’t meant it in that way. When Aylin said she wanted her face to be the first he saw, she meant that in relation to Kaya and Eloise. She wanted him to see her first before them.

"I don’t think those two are aware that you’re competing with them," Caius said, "It’s a surprise to me too, for that matter."

Aylin’s eyes widened a bit as the meaning behind her words was so easily deciphered and then she smiled,

"It’s best they don’t know. Easier to beat an unknowing opponent, you know."

"It’s also more cowardly," Caius said, "And this is not a competition. I’m not a trophy to be fought over."

As he was saying it, Caius found it a bit ironic because usually this exchange is flipped in gender. Of course, a girl is usually just affirming their choice is already made while he was saying it didn’t have to be one or the other and that he could and wanted them all.

"Oh, there won’t be a fight," Aylin said, "I’ll win. Simple as that."

Aylin grabbed his chin with one hand and stared into his face, her icy-blue eyes piercing and then he was on her tip toes pressing her lips against his.