Chapter 32: Saga 32: Awkward Doesn’t Begin to Cover It
"So." Yuki leaned against the doorway of Kael’s dorm room, arms crossed, grin already forming before he’d even said a word. "When’s the wedding?"
"Get out."
"I’m just saying, you told Paul—word for word, I was there—that you couldn’t marry her if she died. That’s a whole confession, my guy. That’s not subtext, that’s just text."
Kael threw a pillow at his head without even looking up from the book he was pretending to read. Yuki caught it one-handed, without breaking stride, and tossed it right back.
The truth was, ever since the Sumbiya Highlands, something had shifted between him and Sylvia in a way Kael couldn’t quite articulate even to himself. She still spoke to him like she spoke to everyone else—clipped, distant, faintly bored, like every conversation was a mild inconvenience she was tolerating out of politeness. But she’d started seeking him out in small, deliberate ways. Sitting closer during strategy meetings than the seating arrangement strictly required. Asking his opinion before Yuki’s, even on things Yuki actually knew more about. Once, unthinkably, she’d laughed—actually laughed, a real sound, surprised out of her—at something he’d said, and then looked immediately betrayed by her own mouth, like it had committed treason without her permission.
"You should ask her out," Yuki said, suddenly serious in a way that was somehow more unsettling than his usual nonsense ever managed to be.
"Ask her out. Just like that. Like it’s a normal thing a normal person does."
"Kael. My guy. My dude. You survived a soul-eating cultist twice your evolution tier, absorbed a mythical artifact heart with your bare hands, and threatened an entire shadowy organization on principle alone, apparently. A girl who might occasionally smile at you should not be the hard part of your week."
[He’s not wrong. For once.]
’Nobody asked you.’
[I have been personally, emotionally invested in your love life since Likeness Gauge Day One. I have skin in this game. Metaphorically speaking. I don’t technically have skin.]
Kael found Sylvia later that evening in the academy’s east courtyard, cataloguing rare mana-flowers with the same clinical, focused detachment she brought to absolutely everything she did, from battle formations to breakfast. He stood there for a solid thirty seconds trying to figure out how to even begin the sentence he’d rehearsed at least a dozen times on the walk over.
"You’re hovering," she said without looking up from the flower she was carefully labeling.
"I want to take you somewhere. Not a mission. Not training. Just—somewhere. Anywhere, really. Somewhere that isn’t covered in ogre blood or ancient curses."
She finally looked at him, crystal-blue eyes narrowing slightly in that particular way they did when she was recalibrating an assumption about the world. "Is this a date."
It wasn’t really a question so much as a flat, careful accusation, like she was testing whether the word itself would break something.
"Yes," Kael said, because lying to her felt both entirely impossible and monumentally stupid. "It’s a date. I’m asking you on a date."
The silence stretched long enough that Kael started mentally composing a graceful retreat speech, something about respecting boundaries and forgetting this ever happened.
"Fine," Sylvia said, turning back to her flowers as though the matter were already settled and mildly beneath further discussion. "Saturday. Don’t waste my time, and don’t make it weird."
She went back to her cataloguing like nothing at all had happened. Kael walked back to his dorm in a genuine daze, barely registering the buildings passing by, ignoring the system’s absolutely insufferable string of celebratory notifications the entire way home.
[LIKENESS +80. Likeness Gauge: 210 (Deeply Positive). Achievement Unlocked: Not Completely Hopeless.]
’I hate that achievement name.’
[I hate that it took you this long to earn it. We’re even.]
Back at the safehouse, Kael made the mistake of mentioning the date to Claire before he’d fully processed it himself, and within the hour, the entire team somehow knew, down to the exact words exchanged.
"Saturday," Claire repeated, delighted, practically vibrating in her seat. "She said Saturday like it was a business transaction. That’s basically a marriage proposal from Sylvia."
"It is not."
"Kael, buddy, pal, light of my life," Yuki said, dropping into the chair across from him with theatrical gravity. "You need a plan. You cannot just show up and hope the universe handles the rest."
"I have a plan."
"Does the plan involve more than ’panic and hope for the best’?"
Kael didn’t answer immediately, which told Yuki everything he needed to know.
"That’s what I thought." Yuki clapped him on the shoulder, hard enough to nearly knock him off balance. "Lucky for you, I happen to know exactly where to take a woman who’s spent her entire life being feared instead of courted. Trust me on this one."
"The last time you said ’trust me,’ we ended up fighting an ogre king."
"Completely unrelated circumstances. This is romance advice, not tactical planning. Very different skill sets, both of which I happen to excel at."
Harriden, silent until now, glanced up from the corner where he’d been sharpening a dagger with methodical patience. "Verenholt Bridge. The noodle stall."
Yuki blinked. "How do you even know about that place?"
"I know things." Harriden went back to his dagger without further explanation, which was, in its own way, exactly the sort of answer everyone had come to expect from him.
Kael filed the suggestion away, grateful for once that Harriden’s habit of lurking in shadows and knowing things nobody else did had finally paid off for someone other than a mission briefing.
Claire, meanwhile, had produced an entire notebook from somewhere, flipping through pages of what appeared to be meticulously catalogued observations about Sylvia’s habits and preferences. "Okay, based on three years of careful study, here’s what you need to know. She hates being surprised, so don’t try anything elaborate. She likes when people notice small details rather than grand gestures. And she absolutely, under no circumstances, wants to be treated like she’s fragile, even for a second."
"When did you compile all this?"
"I’ve been compiling this since the day we met her. A girl doesn’t summon a thousand swords without incantation and not warrant a proper observation notebook. Basic scientific curiosity."
"That’s mildly terrifying, Claire."
"Thank you. I try." She snapped the notebook shut with obvious satisfaction. "Now go get ready. You have exactly two days to not embarrass yourself, and frankly, given your track record, that’s cutting it close."
Kael spent the rest of the evening running through increasingly elaborate scenarios in his head, none of which felt remotely adequate for a woman who could level a bandit camp before breakfast, and all of which Yuki cheerfully mocked from across the room until well past midnight.
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End of Chapter—
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