Leo was about to point out that Sir Reginald's sword was the size of a sewing needle and probably didn't require much maintenance when there was a knock at his door.
He froze. He had been in his room for exactly ten minutes, and someone was already looking for him. This was not a good sign for his plans of achieving anonymity.
"Quick," he whispered to Sir Reginald, "hide."
"I am a knight, not a common criminal," Sir Reginald protested, puffing out his chest indignantly. "I do not hide from visitors."
"You do if you want to avoid being discovered by people who might ask awkward questions about why I'm traveling with a pixie knight," Leo hissed.
Sir Reginald considered this for a moment, then flew over to the wardrobe and settled behind a fold in one of Leo's robes. "Very well," he said with great dignity. "But I want it noted that I am engaging in tactical concealment, not cowardly hiding."
"Noted," Leo said, then opened the door.
Standing in the corridor was Kaelen Brightblade, looking exactly as heroic and photogenic as he had in the courtyard, though he had managed to dry his hair and change into a fresh uniform. His blue eyes were bright with curiosity, and he wore the kind of friendly smile that Leo recognized as the expression of someone who was about to ask probing questions.
"Leo!" Kaelen said with the kind of enthusiasm that made Leo want to close the door and pretend he wasn't home. "I hope you don't mind me dropping by. I wanted to continue our conversation from earlier."
"Conversation?" Leo asked weakly. "I don't remember having a conversation. I remember throwing a bucket and then running away. That's not really a conversation so much as a... bucket-throwing incident followed by strategic withdrawal."
Kaelen's smile widened. "That's exactly what I wanted to talk about. Your strategic thinking during the golem incident was remarkable. The way you identified the construct's weakness so quickly, your tactical use of available resources, your ability to remain calm under pressure it suggests a level of training that goes beyond what most students receive."
Leo felt his carefully constructed cover story beginning to crumble. "Training? What training? I don't have any training. I'm completely untrained. I'm so untrained that I'm basically the opposite of trained."
"Modest again," Kaelen said, stepping into the room without waiting for an invitation. "I admire that quality. Too many people at this academy are eager to boast about their abilities."
Leo watched in growing horror as the protagonist of his novel made himself comfortable in his carefully chosen hideaway. Kaelen examined the room with the kind of attention to detail that suggested he was cataloging everything for future reference.
"Nice room," Kaelen said, settling into the room's single chair with the casual confidence of someone who was used to being welcome wherever he went. "Quiet. Private. The kind of place where someone could study without interruption. Or perhaps engage in specialized training that they prefer to keep confidential?"
"There's no specialized training," Leo said desperately. "I study normal things. Boring things. The kind of things that would put you to sleep if I described them in detail."
"Such as?" Kaelen asked, his blue eyes sharp with interest.
Leo's mind raced. "Theoretical... thaumaturgy," he said, grasping at the first academic subject he could remember. "Very theoretical. Extremely theoretical. So theoretical that it's barely connected to reality at all."
"Fascinating," Kaelen said, though his tone suggested he found Leo's evasiveness more interesting than any theoretical magical studies. "And this theoretical thaumaturgy does it include the study of magical construct vulnerabilities?"
"No," Leo said quickly. "Definitely not. It's much more theoretical than that. We study the theory of theory. The theoretical implications of theoretical magic. It's incredibly boring."
Kaelen nodded thoughtfully. "I see. And yet, when faced with a rampaging golem, you immediately knew to target the control matrix with a liquid disruption technique. That's quite a leap from theoretical studies to practical application."
Leo felt sweat beginning to form on his forehead. "Lucky guess?" he offered again, though the excuse was wearing thin even to his own ears.
"You seem to have a lot of lucky guesses," Kaelen observed. "It's almost as if you have some kind of... inside knowledge about how things work around here."
The comment hit uncomfortably close to home, and Leo had to resist the urge to confess everything just to end the increasingly uncomfortable conversation. Instead, he tried to change the subject.
"What about you?" he asked with forced casualness. "I heard you're quite the hero yourself. Lots of... heroic deeds and noble quests and that sort of thing."
Kaelen's expression shifted slightly, and for a moment, Leo caught a glimpse of something that looked almost like uncertainty. "I try to help where I can," he said carefully. "Though I have to admit, today's incident was... humbling. I'm not used to being outmaneuvered by magical constructs."
"You weren't outmaneuvered," Leo said, feeling an unexpected surge of sympathy for the character he had created. "You were just... tactically repositioned. It happens to the best of heroes."
"Tactically repositioned into a fountain," Kaelen said with a rueful smile. "That's a generous interpretation."
"Fountains are very tactical," Leo said seriously. "Water is an excellent defensive position. Very... wet. Difficult for golems to navigate."
Kaelen laughed, and for a moment, he seemed less like the perfect protagonist of a fantasy novel and more like a regular person who had just had a very embarrassing day. "You know, Leo, I think I like you. You have an interesting way of looking at things."
Leo felt his heart sink. This was exactly what he had been trying to avoid. The last thing he needed was for the main character to decide they were friends.
"I'm really not that interesting," he said desperately. "I'm incredibly boring. Aggressively boring. If boredom were an Olympic sport, I would win gold medals."
"And yet," Kaelen said, standing up and moving toward the door, "here we are, having one of the most interesting conversations I've had all week. Funny how that works."
He paused at the doorway and turned back to Leo with an expression that was equal parts friendly and calculating. "I hope we'll have a chance to talk again soon. I have a feeling there's more to you than meets the eye."
After Kaelen left, Leo slumped against the door and let out a long, shuddering breath.
"Well," said Sir Reginald, emerging from his hiding place behind the wardrobe, "that went about as well as could be expected for someone with your remarkable talent for attracting unwanted attention."
"He suspects something," Leo said, running his hands through his hair. "He knows I'm not just a normal student."
"Of course he does," Sir Reginald said matter-of-factly. "You defeated a magical construct with cleaning supplies and then tried to convince him that you study theoretical theory. Even someone with the intelligence of a particularly dim rock would find that suspicious."
Leo groaned. "This is a disaster. I'm supposed to be a background character. Background characters don't have protagonists showing up at their doors asking probing questions about their mysterious abilities."
"Perhaps," Sir Reginald suggested, settling back onto his windowsill perch, "you should consider the possibility that you're not very good at being a background character."
Leo stared at the tiny knight, then at his small, unremarkable room that was supposed to be his refuge from the main plot of his own story.
---
[New Quest Issued: Maintain Your Cover]
• Description: The protagonist is getting suspicious. Try to convince him that you're just a normal, boring student with no special knowledge or abilities.
• Reward: Continued anonymity and the slim possibility of a quiet life.
• Failure Penalty: Becoming a permanent fixture in the main character's social circle. The horror.
---
"I think," Leo said quietly, "I'm going to need a much, much better plan."