Page 15 of Is It Wrong to Escape My Fate? (Dealing With Fate #1)

The afternoon classes went a little better when my twin knights stood menacingly outside of the classroom. Not that you could see them, since the doors were closed and there were no windows. But you could feel an ominous presence from the hallway, and that was enough for me.

I couldn’t imagine going through this for the rest of my schooling. A problem for future me.

On a positive note, there were some good things I discovered with my schedule. Today, the equivalent of a Monday, had a similar schedule to pseudo-Wednesday, except for History. That was free time for me to use at the library.

Pseudo-Tuesday and Thursday had the same schedule — Rune-making, which I imagined would be like Art; Arithmetic, because calculating numbers was still important even in this magical world; and Ethics, for figuring out the appropriate times to wield magic.

Like casting contraceptive spells. Very convenient, that.

The afternoons of those days would be free time, too. I supposed I could still use the library even with bodyguards breathing down my neck.

And finally, pseudo-Friday was for special or elective classes in the morning.

I only had one — External Magic, scheduled in the time slot before lunch.

Another set of free time in the morning after breakfast. After lunch, though, was Physical and Combat Training.

I wasn’t looking forward to that. I always sucked at gym.

The weekends were free time, too. I guessed the school didn’t want to tire out its precious nobles.

Dahlia had been a wonderful companion thus far. Aside from how she found my predicament hilarious. A free show, as she had described to me earlier when Claude kept trying to get my attention in the middle of a class and I kept ignoring him.

Elias had my back when he’d tried to make Claude stop. But as I found out, the guy was the Hero of the Kingdom, so he thought he could do anything he wanted.

What did being a Hero mean, anyway? Another thing to ask Mia later.

As soon as Elemental Magic: Air class ended, Dahlia dragged me up from my seat. “Let’s leave before they catch us.”

I didn’t need to know who she meant by they. “It’s impossible. My knights are outside, and based on my luck these past few days, at least one would interrupt me for whatever reason.” I let her pull me out of the room anyway, ignoring Elias and Claude, only to be stopped by my twin bodyguards.

“Lady Dahlia,” they greeted her in unison.

“You have a couple of hours before dinnertime,” Reuben said, looking over my shoulder. “Do you have any plans, my lady?”

Another two hours of free time every class day. Supposedly free time was for assignments, projects or any homework, but I would argue that researching a way to escape from this increasingly annoying world was the most important project of all.

“Hang out with me!” Dahlia implored before I could answer “the library”. “At least for today. You know, let’s get to know each other as friends. What if we have irreconcilable differences? Better to know now than later.”

She had an excellent point, and I did promise myself I would earn at least one friend. “Sounds good. Where can we do that? I haven’t memorized the academy layout yet.”

“We can go to the training grounds and watch soldiers train,” she suggested unabashedly.

“I already have enough men bothering me,” I declined.

She shrugged. “That’s fair. There’s also the academy garden and greenhouse. It’s huge, with different sections for different plants. For herbalism, alchemy, and other magic components.”

Herbalism and alchemy were classes for later years. Something I would be interested in, maybe even excel at. Hopefully I didn’t have to know because I should be gone from this world by then.

“I’m okay with that.” We walked arm-in-arm towards the gardens, expecting my knights to follow me and nobody else.

Dahlia wasn’t kidding when she said the garden was huge. While the academy’s main purpose was for educating future mages and soldiers, it also served as a backup for everything a Kingdom might need, like a bank of magic components, which this garden provided.

But it wasn’t just for herbalism, after all. There was a section of the garden full of flowers and benches, and areas where one could lie on the grass or have a picnic. We picked a bench that had a nice view of the flowers.

Dahlia pulled out a notebook and a pen from her bag. “Tell me about yourself.”

I eyed her hands, ready to write in the notebook. “What’s that for?”

“So I won’t forget, duh,” she rolled her eyes and tapped the notebook with the pen. “Tell me about yourself.”

“I don’t think you have to do that but — oh heavens, why not?” I searched deep in my mind for things I could reasonably say without being too personal, because not only I wasn’t ready for that sort of thing, I didn’t think it was appropriate too.

Exhaling, I started. “I’m Bea, daughter of a baron. My hometown is Baybluff. I have an older brother, Alec. He’s actually a fifth year. My favorite color is golden yellow. I love to read.”

Dahlia looked at me seriously. “What do you hate? So I can avoid it.”

Hate? That was such a strong word. In my real life, I didn’t hate a lot of things. It was hard to make me angry. Easy to annoy me though. But hate was different. Admittedly, maybe I hadn’t experienced many things in my nineteen years of life that would make me hate something.

Except for one thing.

“I hate being truly alone,” I confessed, glancing down at my hands. “Don’t get me wrong, I like solitude. Reading by myself in a quiet place? I love that. But going home to someone by the end of the day? I love that even more. I just —”

Dahlia suddenly embraced me, cutting off my words. “Oh my stars, that’s so sad! I don’t share the same sentiments, but I can imagine how hard that can be. Surrounded by people but nobody’s truly yours?”

If she put it that way, then I, too, could also imagine the hardship.

But I wasn’t talking about my new life here.

I heard a distanced yelp from somewhere, and I didn’t hesitate to look, just in time to find Claude running away while Robin chased him. Notably, my knight wasn’t using his Triple Speed Unique, or else it would have been over in an instant.

Dahlia raised her eyebrows. “Of course you’d have stalkers.” We watched as Reuben followed them, and I took the chance.

“Can you help me escape from here? I just need an hour to myself. They’ll find me later, so don’t worry about that.”

She grinned. “Of course. Go sneak away and I’ll point them in a different direction when they ask.”

Finally, someone willing to do heinous crimes with me!

Making as little movement and noise as I could, I crept in the opposite direction where the twins were chasing away Claude. I eventually ended up at the doorway of a greenhouse, and I invited myself in to hide from stalkers and bodyguards.

The greenhouse was filled with various kinds of plants. Herbs, bushes, trees, weird-looking flowers were everywhere. I made my way around, reading the labels of each plant, before noticing an area that looked like a makeshift laboratory. Or, I guessed in this case, an alchemist’s lab?

Glass tubes, bottles, strange tools and equipment were everywhere.

There was a cauldron cooking something bubbly, bookshelves filled with books and cabinets with preserved ingredients.

I moved closer, but I didn’t dare touch anything; I was curious, but not curious enough that I might get killed by it.

Alchemy was such a fascinating thing. It reminded me of chemistry back in high school, only mixed with magic, doable in a way that you only had to follow a very specific set of instructions to not fuck it up.

It was as close to science as one could get in this fantasy world. Reminded me of programming, too.

There was a book open on the table, with a recipe for an immolation potion. Right next to it was a notebook with modifications of the potion; the intention of the change was not only that the potion would set things on fire, but it would also explode, too.

So, a bomb, then. I was surprised it didn’t exist already. With warfare a common thing in this Kingdom, I thought weapons of mass destruction would already exist.

“Don’t touch anything!” A voice yelled from somewhere behind me, and by instinct, I lifted both of my arms up.

“Not touching anything,” I announced as I waited for the man to show himself.

A student with bright blue hair, shaved at the sides and longer on top, with the cutest pink eyes appeared before me.

He wore the purple blazer uniform under a leather robe, and he wore thick gloves to protect his hands from his experiment.

He watched me warily, walking to his table, before snapping both the book and notebook closed.

“I already read it,” I admitted, my arms still up in the air. “An exploding immolation potion, right?”

“How did —” He narrowed his eyes, assessing me. “What year are you in?”

“I’m a first year. Today’s my first day.” I brought my arms down. I didn’t feel the need to keep this a secret because far too many people already knew that about me.

He frowned at me some more before it turned to confusion. “You’re a first year but you can read potion recipes already?”

Now it was my turn to be confused. “Was there anything special about it?” It was a list of ingredients and instructions on how to prepare and mix them. Like a cooking recipe.

“No, I mean the modifications I made,” he gestured to the closed notebook.

It also didn’t look anything weird to me.

“You explained it very well. There’s an ingredient change, so combustion will be faster, enabling the magic to release sooner.

Normally, that is dangerous since it can set things ablaze as soon as you complete the potion.

But you also note that mixing air with fire magic will pressurize and contain the concoction until it is safely bottled.

You even diagrammed the optimal angles with which to toss the potion, complete with formulas. ”

It all seemed very logical to me. Granted, I had no clue how magic actually worked yet. But the principles were explained in his notes, like reading comprehensive dev comments in the source code of a computer software.

Now his face transformed from confusion to amazement and respect. “Very impressive,” he grinned, stepping closer. “Are you going to specialize in alchemy?”

Honestly, it seemed more fun than casting spells or drawing runes. But I wasn’t here for fun, so I answered honestly. “I’m going to specialize in teleportation.”

He put a hand on his chin, contemplating my answer. “Teleportation isn’t a bad specialty. With your skill, it might be possible you’ll pick it up quickly. Do you already know Rune-making?”

“It’s my first class tomorrow.” Was he going to say what I think he would?

“Okay. Well, mastering Runes is deeply entrenched with teleportation magic. So you should study hard for that one. You’re already enrolled with External Magic?”

Ugh, I sucked at drawing. I knew I should’ve looked up how teleportation magic was cast. “Yes, I added it as my elective.”

“Good! There’s not much you can do yet as a first year, but those are the beginning steps to teleportation.” He looked over his bubbly cauldron while nodding.

He was so nice to me, but … “Why are you giving me advice? I encroached on your private space.”

“Hardly a private space,” he laughed, arms gesturing wide.

“Everybody’s free to enter the greenhouse and use this lab.

It’s just that the potion I’m making is dangerous, as you know.

I didn’t think anyone would come in while I took a bathroom break.

It’s not very often that people come in here when there’s no class.

Well, aside from the staff, I guess. Like the herbology professor, or the alchemists, or the groundskeeper.

But they all know not to mess with stuff when there’s a potion brewing.

Especially if it’s bubbling! There was one time when —”

“I’m sorry to cut you off, but I have to go.” This guy was a talker, apparently. It was adorable how passionate he was about alchemy, but I really didn’t have more time to spare if I wanted to run away from overbearing men.

“To answer your question first: I want to help people with great potential, and I see it in you.” He reached out a hand. “I’m Vincent Lovell.”

My eyes bugged out of my eyes. Lovell? He was Lady Valeria’s younger brother! I couldn’t have imagined; Lady Valeria was a tall, muscular and a beast of a badass woman, while Vincent was on the leaner side. He was very attractive, though. That seemed to run in the family.

I received his hand, and he pressed his lips to it, as was the cultural norm in the Kingdom. “I’m Beatrix Havenglow, but you can call me Bea.”

“Alec’s sister?” His eyes widened, like I had moments earlier.

I pulled my hand from him and smiled. “The one and only.” I looked around for another exit from the greenhouse, and there were at least two other doors from this distance. “Okay, I’ll be going now. It’s nice to meet you, Vincent. See you around.”

“I’ll see you, too,” he waved back when I did, heading towards an exit that I hoped nobody was guarding.