Royal Pride (Leona Kingscholar/Yuu)

1 ~ It's Been A Year

Ruggie spun his magic pen around his fingers, fidgeting as a distraction from the lesson. "Y'know, sometimes I think about your personality from the beginning of last year, and you've changed a ton."

"I cant've changed that much," Yuu replied sleepily, blankly staring at her textbook. "I mean, it's not like I'm completely different or anything. Just a little more relaxed, I'd say."

"A little? You actually let yourself use contractions when you speak now. Even a bit of slang here and there!"

"Shut up, stupid." She couldn't help but start smiling as Ruggie let out his signature chuckle. "You make it sound like I was a robot or something!"

Ruggie snickered again, pointing the end of his pen towards Yuu. "Listen, you're the reason I wouldn't be surprised if there was a robot at school! You went from being super monotone and formal to whatever the heck you are now. I'd say your AI updated or something."

"I don't think that technology exists, and if it does, I'm not the product of it." Yuu furrowed her eyebrows, but a playful look shone in her eyes.

"Nah, this is my conspiracy theory. Take it or leave it."

"I'll leave it, then," she responded flatly, distracted by a ping on her phone.

"Leona just texted me to make sure you go to the greenhouse after class. You guys meeting up again today?" Ruggie spoke, interrupting her train of thought. She felt a smile rise to her face. "Yeah, we are."

Ruggie made a face. "What's that dopey looking smile for?" Yuu let out a small chuckle while showing Ruggie her phone. "Looks like Jerkface really does care if I show up to chess, hm?"

"Hope you two have fun playing chess while I'm stuck getting you guys drinks from the school store or whatever Leona decides he wants to cast me away for today. I swear, the guy's in love with you," he drawled, letting out a prolonged sigh.

Yuu let out a laugh. "In any case, I always make sure to hang out with you during lunch."

"Leona's always with us during lunch, though!"

"We can hide from him, if you'd like."

"And risk him getting mad at me? No way! Who'll I mooch off of, then?"

"You could always mooch off of me if Leona gets too annoying for you."

"...Nah. I'm good."

"It's adorable how you pretend you hate—"

Yuu's words were rudely interrupted by the loud noise made by a textbook being slammed shut. Trein shot the two of them a piercing glare, causing the rest of the class to turn around and stare.

Ruggie put on an awkward smile and opened his mouth (likely to come up with some kind of excuse), but Trein cut him off. "You two have been chattering nonstop for the last five minutes. This isn't the first time you've interrupted class."

"Sorry, Professor..." Yuu and Ruggie said synchronously. Trein's brows furrowed as he continued, "I'll be holding you two after school lets out today. I would usually let you off with a warning, but this has been a continuous disruption."

Yuu's jaw clenched, but she nodded anyway. Ruggie leaned over after Trein had diverted his attention and whispered, "Talking during the quietest class of the day was a stupid idea."

She had to stop herself from letting out a loud laugh. "Ya think, genius?" Ruggie snickered quietly, then suddenly stopped, letting out a loud sigh.

"What's the matter?"

"Knowing Leona, he won't care if we're in detention. He'll still try to make me bring you around."

"But... you literally can't. Here, I'll shoot him a message."

"Yeah, tell him that. I'll start brainstorming ways to sneak out."

Once the final class of the day ended, Ruggie's plan to leave before Trein could stop them was thwarted by Trein's cat, Lucius, sitting outside of the classroom and glaring at them with his little cat eyes. Ruggie exhaled loudly. "I think this is defeat, Yuu. We gotta accept our punishment."

"I know you were planning on sneaking out, but I don't wanna be on bad terms with a professor. I was gonna stick it out."

"I think detention automatically puts your on bad terms with your professor," he replied, heaving his bag over his shoulder and heading towards the front of the room where Trein was.

The professor gestured towards the blackboard. "You two will clean up this board. With no magic."

Both of them sighed in exasperation as they stared up at the large blackboard. "I swear it's bigger than it was yesterday..." Yuu mumbled. Trein nodded. "It is. I enlarged it because this lesson covered lots of important material and I required more area to write down the important points. You both missed a lot because you were chatting."

"Can I at least float? I'm not tall enough to reach the top." Ruggie's expression lit up for a second, inspired by a new idea for an excuse. "I think it's too tall for anybody to reach the top, even that freshman Jack from my dorm. Do you think you could shrink the board a bit so we could at least reach the top?

A smile twitched on Trein's expression. "I expect you two to find your own way to reach the top of the blackboard. I want it spotless."

Yuu hugged her arms, still staring at the huge board. There was no way they would get this done in the next hour, let alone in time for her to still meet up with Leona sometime today.

She took a deep breath. "Sir, we both deeply regret our actions. Would it be possible to let us off for today—or even, if you'd like, postpone our punishment? I have a very important meeting I will be missing out on if I'm forced to stay here."

"Smooth talker," Ruggie coughed under his breath, just barely intelligible. Trein shook his head. "I'm afraid you'll have to cancel your important meeting. These are the consequences for interrupting class."

Ruggie and Yuu both exchanged looks of defeat, knowing there was no getting out of this. They picked up the blackboard erasers and got to work on the bottom half of the board that they could reach, while Trein sat at his desk and did whatever professors do after class.

Time seemed to be droning on forever, never ending until a familiar voice cleared his throat at the door.