Charisma 100: My Academy Life As A Heartbreaking Commoner-Chapter 241: One of Yours

Skeletons were, as far as Aegis was concerned, the most boring enemies in this world.

They were slow, predictable, and fell apart the second you hit them hard enough. Which was exactly why she was sitting on a chunk of crumbled wall in the ruins beneath Starcaller Manor, watching Scarlett and Kanna handle it while she did something far more productive.

Staring at their asses.

[Good God...]

Scarlett’s was easy to appreciate. Big, round, and on full display every time she planted her feet for a swing. Her armor was so tight it may as well have been painted on, so every time she twisted to send a skeleton flying, Aegis got to watch the whole thing flex and move and, honestly, it was better entertainment than anything the academy had ever put on.

Kanna’s was a different kind of treat. She was leaner. Tighter. And the way she moved, pivoting and dashing, meant Aegis got to watch a lot of moving.

She could’ve helped. She chose not to.

"I thought," Kanna said, cutting a skeleton’s skull clean off its neck, "we brought you down here to train."

"You did."

"You’re sitting on a rock."

"I’m training my supervising skills."

Scarlett crushed a ribcage under her boot and laughed.

"Let her watch, Kanna. She’s the boss."

"Being the boss doesn’t excuse laziness."

"It literally does," Aegis said. "That’s the whole point of being the boss."

Kanna split the last skeleton down the middle with one clean stroke and the bones clattered apart on the stone floor. She turned around, her grey hair stuck to her forehead, her chest rising and falling, her shirt dark with sweat and clinging to her tits. Then, she glared at Aegis a little.

"We’re done."

"I can see that. Great job, both of you. Really. Top-tier skeleton murder."

Aegis hopped off the rock and walked over to them, clapping her hands together once. She kissed Scarlett on the cheek first, because Scarlett was closer and because Scarlett always reacted the same way, which was to grin and flex like she was posing for a statue. Then she turned and kissed Kanna on the cheek, and Kanna went stiff.

And then, because she was her and she couldn’t help herself, Aegis gave both of them a nice, firm smack on the ass.

Kanna’s ears turned red. Her whole neck turned red.

[Hottest knights in all of Rosevale, working up a sweat for me. How lucky am I?]

Then, Scarlett laughed.

"Harder next time. The memory’ll last longer," she said, before bending over a little and giving Aegis a kiss on the lips.

Kanna’s eyes went wide. Aegis tugged on Scarlett’s bottom lip with her teeth.

"I’ll keep that in mind."

Kanna cleared her throat. Loudly.

"If you two are done."

"We’re never done," Scarlett said, throwing an arm around Aegis’s shoulders. "But we can pause."

Aegis glanced at Kanna and caught something on her face.

Not jealousy, exactly, but not not jealousy either. Kanna’s brown eyes flicked between the two of them and then away, and her jaw tightened just a little. Aegis filed that one away for later. Three hearts out of five. She was getting there.

"Alright," Aegis said, patting Scarlett on the back. "Let’s clean up and head out. I want to get to the academy early tomorrow."

"Early?" Scarlett made a face. "Since when do you do early?"

"Since I married a princess and used illegal magic at my own wedding. I figure showing up on time might help the whole ’I’m not a threat’ image."

"Fair point."

---

The next morning, Aegis was walking through the academy halls well before classes started.

Talia was still asleep back in their quarters. That woman slept like a corpse when she didn’t have anywhere to be, and Aegis had learned pretty quick that waking her up before she was ready was a good way to get an ice spell to the face.

So, she left her there, drooling on her pillow, and headed out.

The hallways were empty. Quiet. Just Aegis and her boots on stone and the thoughts she’d been trying to outrun since the Scandal Shop told her she was the most likely Shadow Empress.

The thing was, Lune had a point.

"Wouldn’t it be as simple as just swearing off shadow magic?"

Yeah. It would be that simple. And yet, Umbral Grasp had saved Talia’s life at the wedding. Nazraya was still training her. Could she really cut off one of her strongest weapons?

[I’ll make a decision on that later.]

Famous last words, probably, but still.

She was rounding the corner toward the main entrance hall when she heard shouting.

Not the fun kind, not Scarlett winning another arm-wrestling match. This was the kind of shouting that meant someone’s morning had gone to shit, and Aegis picked up her pace because commotions were either opportunities or problems, and she wanted to be there for both.

She wasn’t first, though. Headmistress Valdris was already there, standing off to the side with her arms crossed. A handful of early-bird students and a couple of guards had formed a loose semicircle around whatever was going on. Valdris noticed Aegis and tilted her head.

"Ah, Starcaller."

"Headmistress."

"Perhaps you can calm her down," Valdris said, and there was a tiny curl at the corner of her mouth, "seeing as she’s one of yours."

[One of mine?]

Aegis turned to look, and her brain went somewhere entirely unhelpful.

There was a woman standing in the middle of the entrance hall.

She was Aegis’s height, with bronze skin, white hair past her shoulders, and her tits were huge. Like, her uniform was straining at the buttons. Aegis had an impressive chest herself and even she was staring. The woman had sharp features and dark brown eyes, and she was standing over a noble kid who was flat on his back, out cold, with a red mark swelling up on his jaw.

[Oh, damn.]

One punch. Had to be. The guy’s friends were crouched next to him, shaking him and yelling about how the woman was a savage and shouldn’t be at the academy, which was pretty bold talk aimed at someone who’d just knocked their buddy unconscious with a single hit.

The woman didn’t even look at them. She just stood there with her arms crossed, looking annoyed.

"Sylceris Wynne," Valdris said. "A commoner. And one of the new transfer students."