Xuan Xi returned to the dormitory and pushed open the door. A faint, fragrant scent greeted her, mixed with a trace of warm, moist air. SigrdrÃfa had already finished her bath.
She sat at her desk, her silver-white hair draped over her shoulders. The occasional drop of water dripped from the ends of her hair onto the book she was reading.
But Xuan Xi noticed that the pages of the book spread out on the desk had never been turned. She was just sitting there, waiting for her.
Xuan Xi stood in the doorway, took a deep breath, inhaling that cool fragrance into her lungs, then slowly exhaled.
“I’m back,” she said.
“Mm.”
“Sig.” Xuan Xi spoke from her own bed.
The sound of flipping pages stopped. “Mm?”
“The New Student Placement Exam,” Xuan Xi said, looking in her direction. “There’s a team cooperation component in it.”
SigrdrÃfa nodded, waiting for her to continue.
“I don’t have a team yet.”
When she said those words, Xuan Xi’s voice was calm, but her fingers were gripping the blanket a little too tightly. SigrdrÃfa just looked at her, saying nothing.
“Elsa and Reggie have already teamed up,” Xuan Xi said. “As for the others… you know, no one wants to team with me.”
There was even a faint smile on her face as she spoke, as if she were talking about some trivial matter. But SigrdrÃfa noticed that although her lips were smiling, there was not a trace of amusement in her amber-golden eyes. There was only a hint of loneliness.
It was a smile honed in that border town, used to mask sadness. SigrdrÃfa had seen it many times before.
“So.” Xuan Xi took a deep breath, as if making a very important decision. “I want to team up with you. Would you be willing to team up with me?”
She finally said it. The dormitory fell silent for a moment.
“Of course, I know you probably already have a team,” Xuan Xi quickly added, her speaking pace a little faster than usual. “After all, you’re an S-rank Bloodline and Dual Elements. A lot of people must have asked you to team up. You don’t have to agree just because I’m your roommate—”
“I don’t have a team.”
Xuan Xi’s words were cut off. “You don’t?” She was stunned.
“I don’t have a team,” SigrdrÃfa said. “No one asked me to team up with them.”
Xuan Xi opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.
The renowned SigrdrÃfa von Edelstein, S-rank Bloodline, Thunder-Fire Dual Affinity, legitimate heiress of the Edelstein family… no one asked her to team up?
It seemed impossible, but the expression on SigrdrÃfa’s face clearly told her: it was true. She was completely alone.
“You just said no one wants to team up with you,” SigrdrÃfa said, looking at Xuan Xi with her amethyst-like eyes, as calm as a deep pool. “I’m not any different.”
Xuan Xi suddenly understood. It probably wasn’t that no one wanted to team up with SigrdrÃfa. It was that no one dared to. Just like no one dared to be her roommate. It wasn’t because they disliked her, but precisely because she was too strong. So strong that people were afraid to get close. In the bloodline-obsessed Western Dragon Domain, teaming up with an S-rank Bloodline heir meant living in her shadow, being constantly compared to her, and ultimately becoming her appendage. No one wanted to be a mere foil. That’s why no one asked her to team up.
The S-Class Bloodline eldest miss of the Edelstein family, and the “Unrated Bloodline” adopted daughter of the House of Hellas—they had ended up with the same result.
Xuan Xi suddenly laughed. It wasn’t that smile meant to hide sadness anymore, but a genuine one, tinged with a little helplessness and a little relief.
“That works out perfectly, then,” she said. Her amber-golden eyes seemed especially bright in the dim light. “Two un-wanteds, teaming up together.”
SigrdrÃfa looked at her, silent for a moment.
“You’re not unwanted,” she said.
“Huh?”
“I want you.” SigrdrÃfa’s voice was very flat, as if stating an obvious fact. “From the very first day.”
The dormitory fell silent once more. The evening breeze lifted SigrdrÃfa’s silver-white hair, tracing a soft arc in the air.
Xuan Xi felt her face grow hot, a warmth that spread from her heart all the way to the tips of her ears.
“You…” She opened her mouth, finding her own voice a little strange. She cleared her throat and started again. “That… that sentence is really ambiguous, you know that?”
SigrdrÃfa blinked, Xuan Xi’s reflection shimmering in her amethyst irises.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Then how do you want to interpret it?”
Xuan Xi took a deep breath and hugged her blanket tighter to her chest.
“I’ll take that as a yes, then,” she said. “About the teaming up.”
“Mm.”
“Goodnight, Sig.”
A few seconds of silence.
“Goodnight.”
———————————————————————
On the night before the exam, Xuan Xi had her first bout of insomnia.
When she turned over for the seventh time while lying in bed, SigrdrÃfa’s voice came from behind the folding screen.
“You’re tossing and turning so much the bed is shaking, my dear roommate.”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was especially clear in the dead of night. However, her tone didn’t sound like a complaint.
Xuan Xi stopped moving and faced the direction of the screen. “You’re not asleep either, you know.”
There was a moment of silence from behind the screen. “Thinking about the exam,” SigrdrÃfa said. Her voice was lower than during the day, as if it had been filtered, becoming much softer.
This was the first time SigrdrÃfa had shown her any kind of emotion other than her usual calm. It wasn’t a lack of self-confidence—an S-rank Bloodline and Thunder-Fire Dual Affinity wouldn’t change just because she had one sleepless night. It was a different kind of worry, a concern about teaming up with Xuan Xi.
Xuan Xi thought for a moment, then said, “We’ve practiced so much. We’ll definitely pass.”
This was indeed not just empty comfort. They had trained in the training ground for two whole weeks, from Xuan Xi’s Breathing Technique to their coordination as a pair, from their attack rhythm to their entry timing. The lightning burns on her arms had healed, scarred, and healed again. The new skin was paler than the surrounding area, marking routes like lines on an irregular map.
“It’s not about winning or losing,” SigrdrÃfa’s voice came from behind the screen.
Xuan Xi waited for her to continue, but the silence stretched between them.
“Then what is it about?” Xuan Xi couldn’t wait any longer and asked.
There was no answer for a long time. The moonlight outside the window quietly seeped through the gap in the curtains, falling on the floor between them.
“Never mind. Go to sleep,” SigrdrÃfa finally said.
Xuan Xi opened her mouth, wanting to press further, but she held back. She found that she was slowly learning one thing: some of SigrdrÃfa’s words were not meant to be spoken; they were hidden. If she didn’t say it, she had her reasons.
“Goodnight then, Sig,” Xuan Xi said.
“…Mm.”
On the other side of the screen, the lamp was completely extinguished.
———————————————————————
The exam was held in the Academy’s main arena.
The morning sun streamed through the glass windows of the dome, illuminating the entire arena like a golden furnace. The spectator stands were filled with students, as well as some upperclassmen and instructors. All the new students stood in the center of the field, lined up by class, waiting for the exam to begin.
Xuan Xi stood at the back of the line, with SigrdrÃfa beside her. There was less than a fist’s width of space between their shoulders—not deliberately, but a distance formed over countless times of standing side-by-side.
In the very center of the arena, the dean stood on a floating platform. He was a very old Western Dragon. In his human form, he was an old man with white hair and beard, dressed in a deep red robe. His voice wasn’t loud, but every word sounded as if it were spoken right next to one’s ear.
“The Freshman Entrance Examination consists of three parts.” His gaze swept across all the new students present. “A written theory test, individual practical combat, and team cooperation. The three scores will be combined to determine your class placement. Team cooperation can be done in teams of two to four people.”
Xuan Xi turned her head to glance at SigrdrÃfa. The silver-haired dragon girl’s expression was as usual—cold, calm, like a frozen lake. But Xuan Xi noticed that she had tied her hair up a little higher than usual today, revealing the complete line of her neck.
‘She’s nervous too,’ Xuan Xi thought, withdrawing her gaze and taking a deep breath.
The written theory test was the first round.
It was held in the Main Building’s large lecture hall, with all new students participating simultaneously.
It was a closed-book exam covering dragon history, elemental theory, combat basics, and some questions regarding the relationship between Eastern and Western Dragons.
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