"So you're asking me to form a team with you?"
Right after leaving the training room, I went straight to find Elena.
Now we were sitting across from each other in a small café inside the academy—the kind of place that always smelled like warm pastries and sugar.
"That's right," I replied. "I don't think I can survive alone."
To get her here, I'd promised her sweet desserts.
Judging by the way her eyes sparkled at the cake in front of her, it had worked perfectly.
"But how do you know the exam content, Louis?" she asked, lifting a forkful of cake toward her mouth.
"Everyone who needs to know already does," I said. "The midterm's the same every year. No changes for ages."
The freshmen practical exam.
It had practically become a school tradition at this point—routine, predictable, and easily found in old records if you knew where to look.
"Hmmm…" Elena tapped her fork against her cheek thoughtfully.
Then, as if her hesitation had never existed, she smiled brightly.
