The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

LEO

The festival ended early for us as we headed back to the Academy in our big transport carriages before the fireworks began. I was sad to miss them when we were told that we had to leave, but as soon as I got on the carriage and the rhythmic sound of the horseshoes against the rough road—and then against the stone pavement—continued, I drifted in and out of sleep, my hazy memory catching a few glimpses of Thomas yelling at Dimitri to stop snoring, Dimitri arguing back that it was out of his control, Thomas saying how happy he was that he shared a room with Dorian and Mario instead, who slept silently like dead men, and somewhere in between there was Thomas trying to cover Dimitri’s nose with something while he was sleeping, which led to Dimitri choking himself awake and moaning that Thomas went too far, for which Thomas eventually apologized and they made up.

Then Monday came. Morning history lesson was interesting (I was starting to enjoy them more each lesson), and afternoon magic theory class was a little hard to understand, but I was determined to make sense of how magic ’worked,’ remembering Dad once telling me how you can’t just chop wood and expect it to somehow fit into the shape of a chair without having some idea of how the pieces must be connected—otherwise you’d end up breaking, and wasting, the good wood just to fall on your backside during dinner.

What I really looked forward to was the first art club session for me since I joined it. After all the classes were over—and after Mario reminded me five times, ’Don’t forget to bring your pencil,’ and I argued back, ’But they have pencils in the art room’—I went to the club room alone, just like everyone else who excitedly went to their own clubs.

"Oh, hi, Leo," Liesel saw me and greeted me first as I entered the room.

"Hi," I said, feeling not so strange here after having had dinner with Liesel and Blanche the week before. That’s when Liesel said Mario was good-looking and then—

"Hi there," Blanche then took her eyes off the canvas and waved to me.

"Hi, Blanche," I said and walked over to her, curious what dream she might be painting this time.

"Oh, wow, what is this?" I asked as I looked at the picture.

"It’s a winged bicorn," Blanche said, smiling.

"Huh? I heard of alicorns before, but never a winged bicorn. Aren’t bicorns supposed to be like... bad?"

"Can they not fly just because they are bad?" Blanche asked.

I gave it some thought, then said,

"I suppose you are right, heh. But it must have been one heck of a nice dream. Did you ride it in the sky?"

"Nope."

"Oh."

"Because I was the bicorn myself," she said and let out a laugh.

Liesel was standing next to me by this time, shaking her head.

"There goes Blanche with her weird dreams again. And have some sense of shame, Blanche. Maidens can’t ride bicorns," Liesel said.

"No maiden can ride me, neigh," Blanche said with a cheeky smile.

Then I remembered I also had an interesting dream.

"That is really cool. And you know, I had dreams where I wasn’t even a human before! Like there was this one time—"

"Shush," Blanche suddenly cut me off, putting a finger over her lips.

"Erm..."

"You are in the art club now. Don’t talk—draw it and show us," Blanche said, and Liesel nodded in agreement.

"Sure!"

I liked the idea.

Then I went over to an empty desk. Liesel brought me a moderately sized piece of paper and left me alone to get on with it.

I felt excited and ready for it, for I knew exactly what to draw—just like Blanche, I had a dream where I was something other than myself! It wasn’t as fantastical as Blanche’s winged bicorn, but I thought it would be something that others would also find interesting.

And then...

"Er... are there any pencils here...?" I asked the room, embarrassed.

"In the second drawer over there," Liesel said, pointing to one wall, so I quickly went over.

Around that time, the sculptor guy walked into the room, saying,

"Sorry, I’m late."

The two girls didn’t say anything and just waved their hands.

"Oh, so you joined the art club after all," he said, walked over to me, and extended his hand.

"My name is Fabian. It’s good to see you again."

I took his hand and shook it, saying,

"I’m Leo. Some people—actually, just one person...—call me Skylark, but everyone calls me Leo."

"Skylark? Why? Are you a good singer?"

"That’s my family name..."

"Ha! Oh, I’m not laughing at your name—don’t get me wrong! It’s a very nice name, though, ’Leo Skylark.’"

"Thank you."

"So, it looks like it’s going to be only four of us this semester. At least we have one new member!" Fabian said to Blanche and Liesel cheerfully.

"Is... art club that unpopular? I thought it would be pretty fun..." I said. I was genuinely surprised.

"Well, it’s not really a skill a knight requires or can use," Fabian explained with a shrug.

"But neither is choir, only as one example—not that I have anything against them. I think singing well is wonderful!" I said, thinking about how Janice had told me there were so many people trying to join the choir that she was nervous about passing the audition.

Thankfully, she did, though.

"It’s more likely because Blanche scares any potential new members off," Liesel quipped.

"Or maybe it’s because Liesel is so blunt," Blanche shot back, but not really angered.

"Haha, whatever the case—we didn’t even have many new students coming in to check the club. Maybe three or four? And only you joined after all, Leo. So thank you. And I’m sure you’ll have a good time here," Fabian said to me.

"I’m sure I will," I said, feeling hopeful.

I gave my pendant a short squeeze through my shirt, then began to draw.

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