Charisma 100: My Academy Life As A Heartbreaking Commoner-Chapter 252: Common Ground

The training grounds were cool in the early morning, the sun barely over the academy walls.

A handful of students were scattered around the edges, stretching or running laps, but the central ring was empty.

Aegis and Sylceris stood across from each other, practice swords in hand.

"Rules?" Sylceris asked.

"First to three clean hits. No magic."

Sylceris raised an eyebrow.

"No magic?"

"I want to see where I stand with just the sword. If I use magic every time, I’ll never know if I’m actually getting better or just leaning on a crutch."

"Fine by me." Sylceris rolled her shoulders and settled into her stance. Low, balanced, her weight centered over her back foot. A fighter’s stance. The kind you learned from actual combat, not from textbooks.

[She’s done this before. A lot.]

Aegis raised her own sword, set her feet, and waited.

Sylceris moved first.

She closed the distance fast, faster than her build suggested, and came in with a diagonal cut aimed at Aegis’s left shoulder. Aegis stepped back and parried, her blade catching Sylceris’s with a sharp crack. The impact traveled up her arm and she redirected it, shoving Sylceris’s sword to the side and countering with a quick thrust toward her ribs.

Sylceris twisted sideways and the point missed by an inch. She reset and came again, two quick slashes, high then low, and Aegis blocked both, her footwork tight, her weight shifting the way Scarlett had drilled into her over months of training.

[My reactions are faster than they used to be. Muscle memory’s filling in where my brain used to have to think.]

They traded blows. Once, twice, three times. Aegis caught Sylceris’s fourth strike on her blade, slid forward, and shoved her back. Sylceris stumbled half a step, recovered, and her eyes sharpened.

"Not bad," Sylceris said.

"Thanks. I’ve been practicing."

Sylceris came in harder this time. A feint to the left, then a snap cut to the right that Aegis barely got her sword up for. The blades connected and Sylceris pressed forward, using her leverage to push Aegis’s guard open, and then her sword tapped Aegis’s shoulder.

Clean hit. First point to Sylceris.

[Shit. She read the feint before I did.]

They reset. Aegis rolled her neck and adjusted her grip.

Second exchange. Aegis went on the offensive this time, driving forward with a series of short, controlled strikes, nothing flashy, just pressure. Scarlett’s style, adapted for Aegis’s lighter frame. Push, push, push until the opponent makes a mistake.

Sylceris didn’t make a mistake. She absorbed every strike, gave ground when she needed to, and waited. The moment Aegis overextended on a thrust, just a fraction too far, Sylceris stepped inside her guard and brought her sword across Aegis’s stomach.

Second point.

[Damn. She’s patient. She doesn’t chase openings, she waits for me to create them and then punishes me for it.]

"One more," Sylceris said.

"I know how to count."

Third exchange. Aegis switched her approach. Instead of pressing forward, she hung back, let Sylceris come to her. Sylceris obliged, closing in with a measured advance, testing Aegis’s guard with probing strikes. Aegis parried each one, watching, analyzing.

[There. She drops her elbow after a high cut. Tiny window, but it’s there.]

Sylceris swung high. Aegis parried, stepped to the outside, and drove her sword into Sylceris’s exposed ribs before she could recover.

Clean hit. One point for Aegis.

A few of the students watching from the edges murmured to each other.

Sylceris looked down at where Aegis’s sword had touched her side, then back up at Aegis.

"Good read," she said. There was no frustration in her voice.

"You drop your elbow after overhead cuts. Just a little."

"... Noted."

They reset. Sylceris adjusted her stance slightly, elbow tucked tighter, and Aegis smiled. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

[She just fixed it in real time. One note and she corrected. This girl’s the real deal. Damn shame she’s an enemy.]

The final exchange was the longest. They circled each other, traded feints, tested guards. Aegis got close twice but couldn’t land cleanly. Sylceris pressed her back toward the edge of the ring and Aegis used Aether Step on instinct, blinking three meters sideways to reset her position.

Sylceris paused.

"Thought you said no magic."

"That one was free. Bad habit."

[Dammit. Instinct kicked in.]

Sylceris came in before Aegis could fully reset. A quick combination, low cut into a rising slash, and her sword touched Aegis’s neck.

Third point. Match over.

Aegis lowered her sword and exhaled. Her arms were sore, her breathing was heavy, and sweat was running down the back of her neck.

"Three to one," Sylceris said. "Not bad."

"Not bad?"

"You’re better than I expected." Sylceris tossed her practice sword onto the rack. "Your fundamentals are solid. Your instincts are good. You just need more reps."

"Story of my life."

---

They grabbed food from the dining hall and ate outside, sitting on the steps near the courtyard. It was still early enough that the area was mostly empty, just a couple of students hurrying to morning lectures.

Aegis bit into a roll and waited. She’d learned by now that Sylceris talked when she was ready, and pushing her only made the walls go back up.

It took about five minutes.

"I’m from Thessmark," Sylceris said, staring at her food. "Southeastern border territory."

Aegis chewed. She knew Thessmark from the game. One of the last regions Valdria had absorbed during its expansion.

... It wasn’t a particularly happy story.

"My great-grandmother remembered when we were independent," Sylceris continued. "She used to tell me about it. How we had our own laws, our own customs, our own language. Now it’s all ’Valdrian standard.’ Our language isn’t even taught in schools anymore."

"That’s fucked up," Aegis said.

Sylceris tore off a piece of bread.

"When Valdria conquers a territory, they don’t just take the land. They take everything. Your language, your traditions, your identity. And then they call it ’unification’ and put it in a textbook like they did you a favor."

"And the people from those territories?"

"Second-class citizens. On paper, we’re equal. In practice, the Thessan commoners in Rosevale get the worst dorm assignments, the least scholarship funding, and the most ’random’ disciplinary actions. I’ve been here two weeks and I’ve already been stopped by academy guards three times for ’looking suspicious.’ You want to guess how many times they’ve stopped a Valdrian noble? Zero."

Aegis set her roll down.

"For what it’s worth, I get it. Not the same way, obviously. I’m Valdrian, I grew up on a farm, my problems were different. But I know what it’s like to walk into a room and have everyone decide what you are before you’ve opened your mouth. To have people assume you don’t belong because of where you come from."

Sylceris looked at her.

"The difference is you married your way out of it."

"I fought my way out of it," Aegis corrected. "The marriage was the last step. Before that, it was test scores, combat rankings, and a lot of people telling me I’d never make it. The system wasn’t built for people like me either. I just figured out how to break it from the inside."

Sylceris was quiet for a while. She finished her bread, dusted off her hands, and stood up.

"Same time tomorrow?" she asked.

"Same time tomorrow."

They walked back toward the academy building together. As they reached the entrance, Sylceris glanced at her. A quick look, nothing dramatic. Then she turned and headed toward her first class.

[+15 affection]

Sylceris Wynne

[Favorability: ❤️❤️❤️🤍🤍]

Aegis watched her go and let herself smile.

[Three hearts. We’re halfway there.]