Page 7 of Is It Wrong to Escape My Fate? (Dealing With Fate #1)

As a noble daughter, my assigned dormitory “room” was complete with amenities, like I hadn’t left the estate at all. I had my own bedroom, bathroom, wardrobe, a kitchen, and a sitting room too.

It was bigger than my apartment in my world.

Not only that, Mia, Robin, and Reuben had their own separate bedrooms too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the space was enlarged with spatial magic, because I was pretty sure the dorm was smaller from the hallway. Seemed impractical, though.

Elias never showed himself again, even when we arrived at the school gates. Even when the administration provided me with my uniforms and my assigned room. Even when my entourage unloaded all our things and promptly placed them in my room.

Even when Mia said a tearful goodbye to her older brother Micah, our coachman, and my family’s guards said their farewells to my knights, as they all headed back to the barony.

I did bring Elias here, unscathed. Was this the end of our acquaintance?

I put my attention elsewhere. When we were at the administration office earlier, we found out that personal knights, like my twin bodyguards, were heavily requested (hint: mandated) to maintain their physical training by joining the academy’s combat training program.

They only needed to attend the morning sessions while I’d be in class.

Another thing: personal maids were allowed limited access to certain areas of the academy. It still made me feel at ease, because I feared Mia would be stuck in my assigned room for the whole day. I was glad she could go exploring by herself if she wanted.

We could also come and go out of the academy, if we were within the city limits, and with proper notification to the academy guards.

All in all, the administration was very lenient with our time. If we adhered to our class schedules, didn’t break the rules, and behaved appropriately for a noble lord or lady, everything was peachy-keen.

School would officially start a week from now.

I wanted to find Alec. The last time I heard from him was that lame letter weeks ago, informing his family why he wasn’t coming home for the school break. He was busy with some kind of research for his final year project.

It reminded me of my brother Alex, who also didn’t have time to go home for summer break because he was busy finishing his thesis. He was still on it when I turned up here. I hadn't seen him for a long while.

How baffling and unsettling at the same time.

If he were doing research, surely it would make sense to be in the library? But dusk was upon us already. It was also possible he’d be in the dining hall for dinner, or already in his dorm room to rest.

I decided on the dining hall so the four of us could have our dinner.

“I want the three of you to attend to your meals even when I’m not around,” I told them as we made our way to the building.

“But Miss Bea —” Mia started to protest, but I cut her off.

“This is just an afterthought. I don’t expect to not be around, but say, what if I’m busy with schoolwork?” Glancing at each of them, I added, “I don’t want three people starving because I’m not good enough with my studies. Don’t wait for me to tell you to eat.”

Robin looked away, pouting. “I would rather starve than not have you by my side, my lady.”

“Me as well!” Mia quickly added, glancing from Robin to me with eagerness in her eyes.

I glared at Robin, who snickered at my reaction, while Reuben shook his head with a smirk on his lips. These idiots. All three of them!

Letting it go for now, I continued to what I really wanted to say.

“I’m also looking for Alec to let him know I arrived safely.

To be honest, I expected him to look for me, but he’s probably busy with research.

” I had no idea what his project was about, and I would love to learn more if I wasn’t already on a project of my own.

Need minimal distractions.

Of course, with two bodyguards who seemed intent on riling me up at every opportunity they had, minimal distractions were almost an impossibility.

For example, in this moment, with my arms swinging by my side as we walked, the two of them kept brushing their hands against mine as I swung my arms backwards.

And then pretended it was all an accident.

I was so glad Mia was pure and a bit oblivious of her surroundings because I didn’t want to explain what my bodyguards were doing. Because I didn’t think I would be able to. The opposite was true when the subject was me, though. Did she see right through me?

We arrived at the dining hall without any fanfare. Inside, several food vendors lined up along the walls, subsidized by the magic academy, which received its funding from the Kingdom. Students, personal staff, and faculty alike hung around and had their dinner.

I still couldn’t find Alec. Or Elias.

As I went from vendor to vendor to look at the food served, I thought I would recognize other noble children from before I became a recluse.

I wasn’t always that way; memories of having tea parties with other noble daughters were abundant.

Even though I couldn’t consider them friends, like I did with Eli, they were at least acquaintances. Or so I thought.

Pointing to the food, since there were servers assigned to gather food for dainty, noble ladies, I waited for the server to finish plating my choices while Mia went to search for a table for us. My knights guarded my back for some inexplicable reason.

Seated at a table, I scolded my three attendants again for not getting their dinner. I won when I threatened not to eat if they wouldn’t, so they left me alone while they fetched their food.

As alone as one would be in a dining hall filled with people, at least.

“Lady Beatrix Havenglow,” a voice called out to me. Finally, someone recognized me! Turning around, a lady around my age was surrounded by other noble ladies, with their personal maids grouped together at the back.

I tried to recall their faces in my memory, but I had nothing. I didn’t recognize any of them. Why was my brain so unhelpful right now?

“Good evening, ladies,” I greeted them, opting to remain seated. “I’m afraid I don’t recall your names.”

One of them tittered until all of them were giggling. Did I say something funny? “Of course, you won’t remember. After that pathetic debutante ball you had, you never showed yourself in social circles again. I would try to forget all about it, too.”

Oh, so it was like that. I had a time and event reference, and I tried again to remember my supposed debutante ball. There were fuzzy and hazy memories there, but a few facts surfaced: it happened when I was thirteen. A little after that was the last time I left the estate to apologize to Elias.

Maybe … something happened at the party involving Eli. I just knew I had already apologized to him sincerely, but I couldn’t remember the reason.

“Rude,” another girl muttered as I stared at them blankly.

“Don’t forget your place, pleb,” the first girl giggled again, followed by the rest of their group, leaving me alone. Getting called a pleb brought hurtful childhood memories. The barony was considered poor, yes, but only because we try to be fair to our people with compensation and public service.

“Hello, lady,” a voice whispered in my ear that made me jump on my seat and nearly shriek, before it registered who that voice belonged to.

I turned my head as I glared. “Alec!”

There he was, my idiot older brother, laughing as he stood back. “Oh, it never gets old! I had to wait for the right moment when your paranoid knights aren’t around.”

So that was why they were guarding my back. Because it was easy to sneak up on and scare the living lights out of me.

I hoped my brother hadn’t heard what those ladies had to say about me.

“I’m glad you made it to Aerahelm safe and sound,” Alec said, his always warm smile available for me. His personal bodyguard and Mia’s older brother, Milo, stood beside him and watched over the two of us.

I had seen portraits of Alec all around the manor, but seeing him in person, his charming boy look couldn’t really be captured in paint. He had short, peach-pink hair, which we inherited from our mom, but he also had her blue eyes. He looked like a guy version of her.

Milo, on the other hand, had auburn hair like Mia, but cut short. He was tanner than her, evidence of his frequent physical training as a knight, and he bulked up too. He seemed like he grew bigger and bigger every year whenever I saw him.

I pouted at my brother, like the little brat he knew me to be. “What is so important anyway that you can’t come home to your family? If you did, then the two of us would’ve made our way here together.”

Alec chuckled. “Don’t make me feel guilty, sis. I told you; I have a final project that needed a ton of research. It’s still ongoing, by the way, thanks for asking.”

“I guess that means you’ll be busy for the rest of the school year,” I pouted some more.

“Sorry,” he smiled forlornly, before he pulled something out of his pocket. “I’ll give this to you as an apology.”

He handed me a key, the one I knew was used for the dorms.

“You can come to my dorm room anytime,” he grinned, glancing at Milo before turning back to me. “Although be careful when you do, because I’m not the only one using it.”

Milo suddenly flushed, sputtering, “Lord Alec!”

Alec laughed, patting his shoulder. “Maybe give us notice, Bea. You know the school has an interschool mail system?”

I knew that. And somehow I also knew Milo wasn’t the type of guy who would fool around with girls in his lord’s room, despite what Alec was implying.

“I want this school year to be as stress free as possible, while also having fun,” Alec revealed, getting closer to me. “This is my last year, right?”

My pseudo-mom crying about it never let me forget. I nodded.

“After this school year, I’ll be shipped off to the battlefield with Milo.”

I knew about that too, but why bring along Milo? My brother must have read my confusion as he said, “That’s part of the contract when bringing along any personal attendants.”

What?

I searched my mind for any inclination that I was aware of this, but nothing came up. Alec watched me struggle for a few seconds before sighing.

“The academy is housing, feeding, and training extra people than the students themselves. Of course they’d capitalize on it.”

I shook my head. “But Mia? Robin? Reuben?”

Alec snickered, patting my head. “Your twins will be fine. They’re some of the strongest fighters I had ever seen. As for Mia, she won’t be in the actual battles. But she needs to be at the field too, if only to protect your sleeping quarters.

“I don’t know how you could’ve forgotten, but rest assured they knew about it before signing any contract. It should’ve been delivered to the manor beforehand and sent back, too.”

They didn’t tell me.

That was the only explanation.

“Anyway,” he continued when I stayed quiet, “My point is I want Milo and I to have a good time for the last school year before I inevitably face actual combat. Milo even more so, since he’s a fighter, and they’re usually at the front lines …”

He trailed off with a contemplative look on his face, and immediately I felt sorry for him, for Milo, and for Mia.

I hated that stupid Demon Lord for bringing grief to our Kingdom.

“Bea.” Alec sat down next to me, cupping my jaw with his hands. “I don’t want you worrying about me. I want you to focus on schoolwork, be the best mage ever so you won’t be expendable, and maybe even get new friends and have as much fun as you can with them. Can you do that for me, baby sister?”

By logic and rationale, I was a complete stranger to this man.

But even I could feel the sincerity in his words, of the boundless love and care he had for his sister.

It touched a part of my heart, that I could only nod while trying to prevent my tears from spilling.

He smiled at my reaction. I hated how that affected me, too.

The longer I stayed here , the faster I would get used to all these people’s attention and affection. And I shouldn’t, because frankly, it wasn’t for me .

I didn’t deserve it.