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Lunch with Emma and my siblings was entertaining. At least my siblings were. Emma, on the other hand, was oddly quiet while my siblings loudly tried to fill me in on everything they couldn't fit into the letters they sent home.

Thankfully, we were eating at a rather upscale restaurant that catered to people with more disposable income. And after the raid on the harpies, which included me, without getting an allowance from Dad. So we were given a private room to make as much noise as we wanted.

After we were done eating, we stepped out of the restaurant, and I suggested we go on a stroll to do some shopping. For some reason, Charlotte got a mischievous smile and grabbed Cedric while saying, “Big Brother, Cedric and I have a meeting to go to. So you will have to go with Emma alone.”

This was followed by Cedric giving his sister a confused look and saying, “We do? But-”, only to be stopped by an elbow to the side and being hastily dragged away by Charlotte.

It did not take a genius to know that those two little shits were up to something, and from the way Emma was blushing beside me while twiddling her thumbs, I knew what was up. They were letting us have some alone time for a date.

But even as they set us up, I wasn't going to say no to a date with Emma. I missed her during the past few months she was away studying. So I played into their setup and offered my arm to Emma, “Well, shall we go?” I asked her.

With a smile so bright I almost had to shield my eyes, she put her arm around mine, and we were off.

As we walked through the shopping district, she talked about her time in the academy, what she learned, the hobbies she picked up, and the friends she made. And speaking of the friends she made, I have noticed that the group of friends she was with when we met was tailing us, and not doing a very good job at it.

The bunch of girls were eating snacks and talking among themselves while watching us like they were watching a romantic movie. Is this what young girls watched before romance dramas on TV were a thing? Could they not get the same thing from romance novels?

I decided to ignore them and concentrate on my time with Emma.

We spent the rest of the day window shopping, buying a few snacks, bought her a hair clip that looked nice on her, and at her request, we went to the theater for a play a drama troop was putting on.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

As Emma’s curfew time was closing in, I escorted her back to the entrance of the female dorm, and from the third floor, I could see silhouettes behind two window curtains with eyes peeping from the slits, looking down at us.

“Good night, Emma. I will see you tomorrow.” I said.

“Good night, Master Luke.” she said, followed by a look of hesitation before turning and entering the dorm.

***

When Emma entered her shared dorm room, she was immediately mobbed by three other girls.

“Spill it! How did the rest of the date go?” one asked.

“Yeah, skip to the juicy stuff!” another chimed in.

“Why didn't you go for the kiss at the end like we advised?” the last one asked with a pout, like the drama she watched did not have the ending she wanted.

Under pressure from all these questions, Emma dove into her bed and covered her face with her pillow while shouting, “Shut up! I am not ready for any of that.”

***

The next day, I spent the morning scouring the shopping district for breakfast, following my nose to the bakery whose early morning batch smelled the nicest, and spent a few hours exploring the places I did not go with Emma the previous day to see if anything had changed since I graduated. Besides a few street vendors and one or two shops, nothing had changed.

After that, I joined Emma and my siblings for lunch. When early afternoon came around and school ended for the day, I made my way to Professor Sageira’s office to start my first lesson of Dragon Tongue.

“Ok, first things first. Let us see if you can even pronounce Dragon Tongue, or even get close to it.” Professor Sageira said. “Now repeat after me. This is the equivalent of the vowel exercise.”

She then proceeded to recite ten guttural or high-pitched sounds that I could not hope to imitate, but I gave it the old college try anyway.

After ten minutes of trying and failing, I could feel the first signs of a sore throat and stopped. “I guess what you said is true, I just don't have the right kind of anatomy to pull off those words.” I said as I folded my arms in disappointment.

After thinking about it for a while, an idea came to me. “Hey, Professor, do I need to make sounds out of the words myself if Dragon Tongue were to work?”

She gave me a look like I was asking the most obvious question in the world. “Of course you do, it works the same as any other chanting-based magic, you say the words with your will and intent imbued into those words to produce the spell. It's not like others can chant a spell for you.”

“No, no. What I mean is, do I need to make the words with my own mouth, or can I mimic the sounds of those words through other methods? In the end, I will be the one producing the sounds with my will and intent imbued into those sounds.” I clarified.

She raised a finger like she was about to refute my point, but stopped with her mouth half open and stalled for a second before she just said, “Huh… Did not think of that, but how do you plan on pulling that off?”

I gave her a smile and asked. “Professor, what is the definition of sound?”