My little "spar" with Kaelen came with a price tag.
A really, really big one.
The rumors about me weren't just whispers in the hallway anymore.
Crap. They were the number one topic on the mess hall hit parade, in the barracks, basically everywhere.
The Rank 3 scrub who fought Gandalf to a draw? Okay, that was a fluke, a one-time thing.
The Rank 3 scrub who turned Kaelen's hand into confetti without even throwing a punch? That was starting to look like a pattern.
A very, very "oh hell no" kind of pattern.
My quiet, happy life of being totally underestimated was officially six feet under.
Now, I was some kind of freak show.
A math problem the high-rankers suddenly decided they needed to solve, like, yesterday.
Seraphina, of course, was the first one to try and crack the equation.
She didn't try to corner me in some random hallway this time.
Pfft. That was apparently beneath her royal highness.
She sent a freaking messenger.