I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Two days disappeared into the familiar rhythm of the academy.

Emily got the spar she demanded, and Arthur found out the hard way that she hadn’t spent her break getting softer. Felix and Cedric were around constantly, Chloe dropped by his dorm whenever her infirmary shifts allowed, and Arthur ate with different combinations of them as the campus steadily filled up.

By the final morning of the break, clothes were back on the chair and messages were piling up on his phone.

The academy grounds were packed. Students crowded the notice boards checking room assignments, tested new equipment in the open rings, and argued over timetables outside the main halls.

Arthur was standing near one of the supply shops with Felix, listening to him complain about the price of a replacement scabbard, when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Elena.

Back in Lornfell?

Arthur typed a reply with one hand. For a few days now.

Her response came a moment later. Office. When you’re free.

Arthur told Felix to enjoy getting robbed by the merchant and headed toward the faculty wing.

Elena was sitting at her desk when he walked in. The surface was covered in scattered research notes, open texts, and several glass containers holding pieces of the corrupted materials they had pulled from earlier investigations.

Elena looked up when he closed the door.

"You took your time."

Arthur leaned against the edge of her desk and reached for one of the tools beside her notes.

"Don’t."

His hand changed direction toward another.

Elena watched him reach for it. "You survived the trip."

"Useful enough," Arthur said. "Found something you might want."

He opened his inventory and set the wrapped piece of black crust from Rauk Hollow on the desk.

Elena stopped reading and unwrapped the cloth. She turned the black crust over once, then picked up one of the tools beside her notes and tested the surface.

"Hmm."

She pulled a clean glass container from a shelf, placed the sample inside, and sealed it.

"Where did this come from?" she asked, writing a quick label.

"Rauk Hollow," Arthur said. "Old underground stonework. There was water passing through it. Some prospectors damaged part of the area and made a mess out of the local water supply."

Elena added the context to her notes. "Were there monsters?"

"A cave creature was corrupted. The wolf had been affected too, but it resisted most of it."

"I’ll need to compare it to the others," Elena murmured. She placed the container with the other samples on the shelf.

Arthur looked at the row of glass jars. "Find anything while I was gone?"

"A little," Elena said. "They’re not all behaving the same way. Some stay active for days after I bring them back. Others barely react once they’re away from wherever I found them."

She tapped her pen against the desk. "I still don’t know why."

"Let me know if the rock helps."

Elena set her pen down and leaned back in her chair.

Arthur stepped between her chair and the desk, his hands settling onto her waist. Elena glanced toward the locked door.

"We are in a faculty building," she warned him.

"I know."

Arthur leaned down and kissed her.

Elena caught the front of his jacket and pulled him closer, returning the kiss with considerably less restraint than her warning suggested.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway outside.

A pair of instructors walked past the door, their voices carrying through the heavy wood.

Elena went still when the voices passed outside. She waited until they faded down the corridor, then looked back at him and caught the grin on his face.

"Wipe that expression off your face."

The grin only got worse. Elena straightened her blouse, picked up her pen, and pointed it toward the door.

"Go away."

Arthur left her to her research and headed back out into the afternoon sun.

He crossed the central courtyard and fell into step beside Elara as she walked out of the library with a heavy stack of books in her arms.

Arthur eyed the books. "Planning to move into the library?"

"It would improve my company."

One of the books near the top started sliding from the stack. Arthur caught it before it hit the ground and tucked it under his arm.

Elara glanced at the book in his hand, then continued walking.

They walked together toward the upper campus.

"What do you have first tomorrow?" Elara asked.

Arthur checked his memory of the schedule. "Advanced Combat Practical."

Elara sighed. "Of course we share that one."

Arthur grinned. "Happy?"

"Immensely."

By evening, the dining hall was packed and deafeningly loud.

Arthur grabbed a tray and found Emily already sitting at a large table near the back. Cedric and Felix were arguing across from her. Leon and Alicia arrived a few minutes later, squeezing into the empty seats, and Elara eventually appeared with a cup of tea and a much smaller plate of food.

Felix was complaining about the reading he’d been assigned. Emily was trying to ask Alicia about a stance she’d used during the exams, while Cedric and Leon compared their schedules across the table.

Half the conversation kept getting lost beneath the noise from the surrounding tables. Nobody seemed particularly bothered by it. Emily simply leaned farther across the table when Alicia couldn’t hear her, nearly putting an elbow in Arthur’s dinner.

Arthur pulled out his phone and checked what he had first tomorrow.

07:00 — Advanced Combat Practical

Instructor: Morwenna

Emily leaned over, looked at his screen, and started laughing.

Arthur put the phone away and went back to his meal.

The group stayed in the dining hall until the staff started clearing the tables for the night, eventually separating outside the doors to head toward their respective dorms.

Arthur walked back to his room, tossed his jacket over the chair, and checked that his training clothes were clean.

He set his alarm for six, dropped onto the bed, and turned off the light.