“Are you okay?” Jessica asked, peering at Blythe’s face. “You look a little … tired.”

  She smiled thinly. “Yeah, I’m fine. I stayed up last night working on my embroidery for Magnus.”

  Since she couldn’t complete the childhood pet bird one, she’d spent a significant amount of time brainstorming her new embroidery design for Magnus’ Hunting Race token. Eventually, she’d decided on an eagle after asking Reuben for an idea when she saw him on her way to dinner. After giving her a weird look, he’d reminded her that Magnus was known to like eagles, hence his choice of VocAvis. So she’d gotten a book recommendation from their home librarian with illustrations of eagles she could use as a reference.

  The combination of working on the embroidery, creating her packing list for moving into the dorms on Saturday, and doing homework while trying to study past years’ material was energy-sapping. She hadn’t even been able to enjoy the embroidery experience points she’d gotten.

  She’d never worked so hard as Mira. Back then, she just did her homework, reviewed some difficult concepts, and then spent the rest of her spare time playing otome games or reading stories.

  “You’re so devoted,” Sophie gushed. “His Highness will absolutely love your embroidery, I’m sure of it.”

  Jessica nodded earnestly. “Me too!”

  “Thanks,” Blythe said, feeling grateful for their encouragement even though it wasn’t something she was worried about. She’d take any kind words she could get.

  PE class started shortly after this conversation, and Blythe waved at her friends before joining the large group of students participating in class. As always, Sophie and Jessica called off participating under the guise of being unwell.

  They were still playing volleyball today.

  Jacqueline, the daughter of a duke who'd been on her team last week, was in her group again today. Blythe recognized a couple of the other girls as well, but the rest were girls she hadn't interacted with before. They gathered on their side of the net, waiting for everyone else to be ready and for Instructor Grandville to call for them to start.

  Blythe wished Jessica would participate in PE, if only so she could ask her about these girls or take her cues from her. She glanced over her shoulder. Her friends were chatting quietly with the other girls who were sitting out, all of whom were daughters of aristocrats. None of the girls with a 'commoner' status had made up an excuse to sit out.

  "Hey, Blythe," Jacqueline said, shooting her a casual smile. "I like your scrunchie. Cute cat."

  She smiled back. Her scrunchie had a fabric-stuffed cat attached to it. She'd picked it out from her drawer full of accessories this morning. "Thanks. I like yours too."

  No! Why did I say that? Her hair tie's so plain and basic!

  Jacqueline leveled a be-serious look at her. "At least try to be less obvious about giving me an obligatory compliment."

  Forcing out a laugh, Blythe said, "You caught me. I just said the first thing that came to mind."

  "You're honest about it, at least." She shook her head.

  "Hey, Jackie," said one of their teammates, a girl with light-green hair, as she sidled up to Jacqueline's side. "I heard you're attending the Hunting Race this year. Are you really?"

  A quick check of her profile informed Blythe she was Beatrice, the daughter of an earl.

  Jacqueline sighed. "Did my mother already tell Aunt Patricia? I didn't think anyone at school would find out until the day itself."

  Smiling brightly, Beatrice said, “Mother said Aunt Pamela was too excited and had to share the news with her. I have to say, this is quite thrilling. You’ll be the first female student in our generation to participate in the Hunting Race!”

  “Did I just hear that you’ll be participating in the Hunting Race, Jacqueline?”

  “Wow, is that true?”

  The curious faces of their teammates turned around. They began crowding around Jacqueline, awe in their eyes.

  “Yes,” Jacqueline answered. “My application was approved a few days ago.”

  “Wow!”

  “That’s amazing!”

  “You’re so cool.”

  Blythe tried to look as excited as the rest of them, trying to infuse as much interest as she could in her gaze. She really wished Jessica were here right now.

  “Are you aiming to win first place?” Margaret asked.

  “Isn’t it a little difficult, though?” Yvette said, flicking her long orange ponytail. “His Highness Prince Magnus and Titus are excellent at archery. Third place might be more attainable, though.”

  Jacqueline smiled mysteriously. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll surprise everyone this year.”

  “Your application was accepted,” Beatrice said with a light snort. “You’ve already surprised everyone.”

  “That’s true.” Yvette nodded. “Some of the boys aren’t even fit enough to be accepted.”

  It sounded like anyone who wanted to participate in the Hunting Race had to prove their fitness level first.

  Instructor Grandville blew a whistle, signaling for everyone to get started. The girls stopped chatting and moved into position for the beginning of the game.

  As she moved about, Blythe quickly noticed her own body’s improved agility. She sprinted about with greater ease last week, although she still ran out of steam much faster than the other girls did. It also felt slightly less exhausting to exert her strength while hitting the ball the few times that she managed it. Satisfaction ripped through her as she experienced these little changes, proof that her hard work hadn’t been for naught. If she kept going, it could only get better.

  This time, their team won. Obviously, it was thanks to the rest of her teammates. Her team members this time were much better at volleyball than those on the opposing team. They’d won in spite of their handicap—having Blythe in their team.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “That was fun,” her teammate Lana said, using a handkerchief to dab at her sweaty forehead. “Thanks, everyone.”

  All their other teammates chimed in with their agreement, smiling at each other.

  Jacqueline nodded at Blythe. “You were great. I could really see your effort.”

  "It feels strange hearing that from someone who got us the most points, but thanks. You were actually great, though.”

  Jacqueline laughed. "It's just PE class. It doesn't matter who got the most points."

  She seemed very affable, without an ounce of the competitiveness Blythe would expect of someone who wanted to participate in the Hunting Race.

  She couldn’t curb her curiosity. “Are you really aiming for first place in the Hunting Race?"

  From the way the other girls were acting, it seemed that merely becoming a participant was something impressive, let alone contending for the top spot.

  "We'll see," was all that Jacqueline said as she gave her a tiny smile.

  When Blythe told her friends about Jacqueline's participation in the Hunting Race, their reactions were very much similar to the other girls'.

  “Wow, as expected of Jacqueline,” Jessica said, gaping a little.

  "Even some boys get their application rejected,” Sophie exclaimed, covering her mouth with a hand. “That's incredible!”

  "But not totally shocking,” Jessica added. "Isn't her goal to be a professional archer? And she's even in the archery club."

  "Oh, yeah. That's what I've heard too. Her parents are really supportive, apparently. I can't imagine what my parents would have said if I wanted to be an archer."

  "I mean, her mother is an alumnae of Novalbus. Her name is on display in the Hall of Fame. She's probably happy Jacqueline is following in her footsteps for archery.”

  "Do you think she really can win first place?" Blythe asked.

  Jessica and Sophie exchanged glances.

  "That's a bit too optimistic, I think," Jessica said. "It’s her first time participating in the race and all.”

  "If she's really good, it’s possible she might get third place over one of the other boys," Sophie said. “But His Highness and Titus are likely to still hold the top two spots.”

  Later, when Sophie broke away from their group to head for her own class, Blythe took the chance to ask Jessica about Beatrice and Jacqueline. She learned that they were cousins and that their mothers were sisters. That explained how familiar they seemed with each other.

  Although the whole embroidery token thing was a hassle to bother with, Blythe found herself wondering what the Hunting Race event would be like. In Waiting for Fireflies, Daisy only ever dropped a couple of lines of how she contributed to the event as a student healer in the medic section in the narration. The only other times the player got to hear about it was when one of the boys mentioned it in passing, either to brag about his accomplishment or grouse about his failure.

  ???

  Blythe had Accounting I after lunch on Fridays.

  She’d only just had the conversation about getting to know each other better with Daisy yesterday, so she walked to class with some degree of nervousness. When she arrived at the classroom, Daisy was already seated at the same desk she’d sat at yesterday. She had her forearms folded before her on the desk as she visibly spaced out.

  As Blythe approached, Daisy snapped out of her daze and perked up, smiling hopefully at her. She smiled back and pulled out the chair from the desk next to Daisy’s.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi,” Daisy said. “How has your day been?”

  “Good, thanks. How’s your day been?”

  “It’s gone well too, thank you.”

  They fell into an awkward silence for the next few seconds. Strangely enough, it made Blythe feel better to know that Daisy was probably as nervous as she was. She searched for a common topic she could use.

  An idea for a new conversation topic popped up in her head.

  “How was PE?” she asked. “Did your team win?”

  Daisy’s smile grew. “We did, but it was a close call. Our opposing team was really good. But Gemma’s squirrel did its business on the floor again, so Instructor Grandville was really upset.”

  Blythe goggled. “When did that happen? In the middle of the game? I didn’t notice anything at all.”

  “You know how Gemma’s squirrel will always hop down from her shoulder to the floor to do it, right?” Blythe didn’t know at all, but she nodded politely. Daisy continued, “Well, it did that while Gemma was hitting the ball, so everyone noticed. We stopped playing because nobody wanted to accidentally step on its urine. Gemma wanted to clean it up before Instructor Grandville could notice, but you know how sharp Instructor Grandville is. She came over right away … and, well, Gemma was slapped with another beast-taming remedial class and a detention.”

  “Poor Gemma.” Blythe winced. “I guess we were too busy with our own game to notice.”

  She couldn’t imagine getting detention because her pet decided to poop or pee where it shouldn’t. Of course, it sounded like Gemma’s squirrel had a lot of these ‘accidents’, which was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. However, she was beginning to realize beast-taming wasn’t quite the fun and playful adventure she’d envisioned it to be.

  “I’m actually not sure why Instructor Grandville accepted a job here,” Daisy said, lowering her voice. “She seems to detest animals with every fibre of her being. It’s normal for a school to have beast tamers. Working here with all these bonded beasts everywhere must be torturous.”

  “It is kind of wild to actively choose a workplace with an environment you hate,” Blythe agreed. “I wouldn’t have bothered if I were her.”

  A thoughtful expression crossed Daisy’s face. “The only places that disallow beast tamers entry are kitchens and healing facilities, so I suppose her only other option is to be some kind of culinary professional. She’s not a healer, I don’t think. Her choices would be quite limited.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t actually hate animals,” Blythe said in a conspiratorial tone. “Maybe she’s secretly jealous of beast tamers because she wishes she could be one of them.”

  Daisy laughed, looking genuinely intrigued by the suggestion. “And so she takes it out on students who haven’t mastered training their beasts yet because she thinks she’d do better if she had the ability.”

  “Exactly,” Blythe said with as a straight a face she could muster before breaking into a smile. “And she has no idea we’re onto her.”

  Daisy giggled again. “Truth be told, when I was little, I wished I had the beast-taming ability. Even if it meant I had that in place of my healing ability.”

  Raising her eyebrows, Blythe asked, “Really? Why?”

  “I had a family dog growing up, and I always wished I could communicate with him better. I mean, Cookie could understand a lot of words, and he knew a lot of tricks, but it wasn’t the same as the kind of conversations beast tamers can have with their bonded beasts. I always thought it would be nice if I could tell Cookie about my day and he could respond to me.”

  Blythe thought it made sense. “Being able to talk with your pet sounds like it would be a lot of fun. But you can’t choose the species you want to understand, right?”

  “Yes, it was just a silly wish,” Daisy said with a wistful sigh. “I don’t wish that anymore since being able to heal is so useful, but I still think about it sometimes.”

  “They’re both cool abilities,” Blythe offered. “I think it’s great that you have a healing ability.”

  Daisy’s smile turned bashful. “Thank you. Oh, how was PE for you?”

  “It was great! I think I’m improving. My team won too.”

  “I have noticed that you recently started participating in PE, although you never did before. Will you be regularly taking part in PE from now on?”

  “I will.”

  “Um, if the activity is suitable, will you perhaps consider pairing up with me when the chance arises? But you don’t have to pair up with me all the time or even more than a few times!”

  “Sure. That would be nice.”

  Daisy beamed.

  A green light notification.

  Once they’d gotten over the initial road hump of awkwardness, their conversation had flowed easily. Blythe already knew this from the game, but Daisy was personable and fun to talk to.

  If she wasn’t worried about what might happen next week, she would definitely be one of those transmigrated otome game villainesses who happily befriended the original heroine without a care in the world.

  Blythe asked Daisy for a few stories of her childhood dog Cookie. As they chatted happily with each other, Daisy appearing more relaxed as the conversation went on, Blythe wished that she could freeze time here so she could pretend everything was fine and that she didn’t have a million things to stress over.

  She tried to ignore the mounting dread in her gut.