Another lovely day outside… in the middle of winter. Freezing my ass off. Waiting for a certain Dryad to unlock the greenhouse. It’s usually unlocked, but for whatever ungodly reason, she locked it, and I don’t even have a key. I tried to pick it, but Helia failed to mention that she apparently traps the doors. Now, I’m standing in the cold, paralysed from the neck down. What a lovely day. I mean, first I almost walked into a lava puddle, and then I had to drink that awful Heat Resistance potion. I can still feel the chill in my bones. Then there are all these small things that have been happening today. I somehow lost my quill, my showers were tied together in the morning, my lunch was slightly spicier than usual, and on and on.

  “What are you doing?” Helia asks.

  “Ah, Helia. It’s good to see you. Any chance you could unparalyse me?” I ask as I continue to look forward.

  “Hmm. I wonder. How did you get like this?” she asks as she unlocks the door.

  The moment the door unlocks, my body is released. “Well, you see, it’s simple really, someone neglected to tell me that we had traps on the greenhouse,” I say as I massage my screaming hands.

  “I thought I told you. How long have you been stuck like that?” she asks as we enter the warm greenhouse.

  “Oh, fifteen, maybe twenty minutes. Not long at all,” I [Lie].

  “Good,” she says absentmindedly.

  Dropping my stuff off, I get to watering the legumes. My experience and [Gardening] are telling me that I should expect a large harvest by spring. What kind of dishes can I make using legumes? I’ll have to look into it later.

  Helia falls into her chair and starts to read a novel. I’ve spent enough time with her that I’ve realised something. Helia is a creature of habit. She gets to the greenhouse right after class, then plops down on her usual chair, reads her usual book, and eats her usual snacks. Sometimes she’ll actually help with club work, but that’s only if I nag her enough. I can count on one hand the number of times she’s broken routine. What I’m trying to say is that it's curious that she was late today.

  Hmm. A wise man once said, ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.’ Which is true, but an even richer and far more entertained man once said, ‘Poke that shit.’

  “Hey, uh, is something up? You usually get here before me, and you usually don’t lock the door,” I say with a hidden gleam in my eyes.

  “Oh, it’s really nothing,” she says in a manner that really means the opposite.

  “No, please tell me. What are clubmates for?”

  Helia lets out a sigh. “Well, I’ve been a bit distracted lately. You know that drama that I was having with my sister?”

  “Yeah, she doesn’t believe you’re putting in enough effort, right?” I ask.

  “That’s right, so I was following your advice about doing ‘good enough’, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised I don’t think I want to succeed our father,” she says with an almost solemn tone.

  “I see. Why is that?”

  “Honestly, it doesn’t really suit me. I’ve spent most of my life going through lessons on leadership and realm management. It was basically all I ever knew, and I was good at it. In fact, I was amazing at it, but then I came here, and I realised that I didn’t really like it. Hells I didn’t even know what I liked. I basically spent the last two years coming to terms with that,” she says as she closes her book.

  “And where does that leave you now?” I ask as I go to prune the legumes.

  “I don’t know. That’s what I’ve been thinking about these last couple of days. If I’m not going to succeed my father, what am I going to do?”

  “Well, maybe-”

  A sudden burst of pain shoots up my hand as I somehow miss the legume and instead cut into my palm. In silent pain, I watch as my blood drips onto the legumes. For the love of the Gods, that hurts!

  “Are you okay?” she asks as she brings over something to cover it with.

  “Yeah, it’s a small cut. I’ve just been getting really inconvenienced lately.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, watch,” I say as I [Throw] a pebble at the ground.

  The pebble promptly bounces off the ground, the edge of a pot, the edge of a wall, and then right back at me. The pebble slams me hard on the head. Rubbing the pain away, I wonder what I thought was going to happen.

  “Okay, this seems abnormal. Um, how long has this been going on for?” she asks.

  “Today? Maybe the back half of yesterday,” I say as I strain to remember.

  Helia looks me over and gives me a worried look. “Do you mind if I check something?”

  “Uh, go ahead. Wait, this isn’t going to cost me money, right?” I half joke.

  With a half smile, she grabs my hand and quickly draws a simple magic circle on it. A foreign energy enters my body as the magic circle alights. Well, this is unpleasant.

  “Odd, it seems like you’ve been Soul Linked?” she says with a hint of uncertainty.

  “Soul Linked? Is that a good thing?” I ask as I look around for a tether of some sort.

  “Well, no, not really. Your soul has been linked with an object of sorts, probably some sort of doll. Luckily, you seem to be naturally resisting the effects.”

  “What exactly are the effects? Am I going to die?”

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  Helia thinks about it for a second. “Probably not. Based on your natural resistance, you’ll experience some clumsiness and bad luck.”

  “Oh, that’s- Did you say bad luck?!”

  “Yeah. Some small things here and there. Shouldn’t be anything too severe after all, it seems like your natural good luck is counteracting most of the bad luck,” she states.

  “How exactly does this happen, and how do I get rid of it?” I ask with a hint of fear.

  Bad luck is the worst thing that could happen to me. You might as well chop my head off now.

  “Based on the type of connection and its strength. I’d say somebody probably picked up some of your bodily fluids. Breaking it shouldn’t be too hard. I could do it right now, if you’d like.”

  “Let me think this over… Yeah, I would love for you to break it.”

  “This is going to hurt. Remain calm,” Helia says as she pours mana into the magic circle on my hand.

  Can’t be that bad. The mana forces its way into me and very quickly shoots its way throughout my entire body. Pain quickly follows as I barely stop myself from doubling over. It can be! It can be that bad! For the love of the Gods! Somebody save me!

  Helia pulls away and wipes the sweat off her brow. “There you go. Nothing like a little soul cleanse to unlink it.”

  Carefully sitting down, I let out an audible groan. “Thank you.”

  “No problem. We just need to do that again eight more times over the next couple of hours to make sure that it takes.”

  “What?”

  Sulfur stings my eyes as we go over the last part of the plan. I hope this plan works. I’m getting tired of this floor already. The endless sea of lava taunts me as I let out a sigh.

  “Remember, the Fire Salamander may look slow, but it’ll be on you before you even notice,” Penelope reminds us.

  Hopper scratches his bunny ears. “Are you sure we want to do this today? I mean, you are going against Luna today. Don’t you want to conserve your strength?” he brings up a good point.

  “We can always come back tomorrow,” I say, hoping we don’t have to fight that thing.

  “You are right. I would love to put this fight off until after I duel Luna, but considering that this thing is close to becoming a Drake, we really don’t have any other choice.”

  Damn it. She’s probably right. As it stands, we can probably barely eek a win out of this fight as is, but if it becomes a Drake, our chances are slim to none. Why did this have to align with the duel?

  “Fine. Let's get into position,” I say as we disperse.

  Pulling away from Hopper and Penelope, I quickly find myself at the edge of lavafall. Acting as the bait, again. At this point, I should get a [Title] out of this.

  Once I see them get into position, I take a long and deep breath. “Oi you pitiful excuse of a Dragon, is this really the best you could do? I mean, come on, and you expect me to think you’re related to Dragons? I bet you don’t even have a pile of gold that you can evilly sit on. Are you getting angry? I’m assuming you’re angry, but that still doesn’t explain why you’re still cowering in your shoddy home, does it?! ” I yell with all my might.

  The rhythmic noise of the bubbling lava echoes throughout the otherwise quiet floor. Maybe I wasn’t rude enough. I’ll-

  The Fire Salamander suddenly crashes through the lavafall and lands right in front of me. A salamander the size of a large house with dark charcoal skin and orange flames looks down at me. This thing could probably eat me in one bite.

  Okay, got its attention. Time to scram! Without a shred of pride, I break into a sprint as the Fire Salamander charges towards me. Before we can get far, two arrows sink into the skin of the Fire Salamander. It shakes them off without even a shred of acknowledgement.

  Soon enough, the beast, based on the heat radiating off of it, is mere seconds away from snapping at my neck. Right when it goes to take a nibble, I watch as Penelople rockets past me. Soon enough, its maw is slammed down onto the ground by Penelope's crackling greatsword. The flames from the Fire Salamander diminish as I watch it chatter its teeth from the cold. Turns out those Heat Resistance potions do have another use other than tasting bad.

  Taking the opportunity, I [Throw] my potion straight into the open maw of the creature. Not missing a beat, Penelope kicks the Fire Salamander's mouth closed, shattering the potion. It screams out in pain as the flames covering its body shrink. Now all that's left is Penelope's potion.

  Penelope disappears and reappears multiple times as she dodges the flaying creature. Each time she dodges, she manages to perfectly make a counterattack. Soon enough, the Fire Salamander is covered in small wounds, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. Sure, the fire has gotten smaller, but based on how far Penelope is getting thrown with each hit, it’s only gaining steam as it goes.

  Clicking my tongue, I rush forth with my sword and make a simple slash at one of the legs. The sword goes clean through the skin and bone, cutting its flaming leg right off. Having lost its balance, the creature can’t react fast enough as Penelope makes a slice at its neck, or that’s how it should’ve gone. The Fire Salamander's tail whips through the air, sending Penelope straight into the ground.

  Hopper fires off a barrage of arrows as Penelope regains her bearings. Rushing, I [Throw] a pebble at the Fire Salamander and watch as the pebble perfectly arcs into the eye of the beast. It might not kill it, but it definitely pissed it off.

  The flaming tail from earlier whips towards me at a frightening speed, but Penelope's faster. Having gained her bearings, she disappears and reappears in front of me with an outstretched hand. Suddenly, the tail slows as four magical shields stand between us and it. The first three shields shatter, leaving the last one to hold back the tail.

  Then Penelope does the unexpected. She drops the last shield and catches the tail with her bare hands. The sizzling from her skin meeting flames fill the space.

  “Charlatan, cut it!” she yells.

  Not wasting another second, I slash through the tail, leaving behind a small bleeding nub. Penelope drops the tail, grabs her Heat Resistance potion, and shatters it against the nub of the Fire Salamander.

  It recoils in pain as the flames on its body finally die down, leaving behind a steaming salamander. “Hopper, now!”

  Hopper fires a volley of arrows that pierce straight into the back of it. In a blue glow, the arrows erupt as frozen spikes appear out of its back. Even then, the best doesn’t go down. It charges forth, fueled by what I can only assume is anger and spite.

  Narrowly dodging out of the way, I watch as Penelope disappears and reappears on its back. She then raises her greatsword and swiftly decapitates the Fire Salamander.

  The celebration doesn’t last long as I fight to keep my breakfast in my stomach. I’ll never get used to this nausea. As I continue to dry heave, I look over at the corpse of the Fire Salamander. To think that was the easy fight for today.