Relationship Troubles

*** Trigger Warning: Mentions/depictions of suicide ***

Just when Daren thought that his troubles with Vanessa Landrienne were over, he was proven wrong once again. She was found dead with her loyal servant Enid in her lavish hotel room the morning after her arrest. Police estimated the time of death to be just after midnight and initially declared their deaths a murder-suicide.

The lawyer reported that the pair had fought on the way to Forest Waypoint. Enid had constantly ridiculed the unstable Vanessa and quit after Vanessa bought her a hotel room in the city. Vanessa blamed her for losing her reputation, position in The Butterflies and the love of her life.

The bodies and room were found in horrible condition, suggesting a fight. The poisons from the incidents on campus and other unsolved cases were found in Vanessa's room. Carefully curated evidence of Vanessa's wrongdoings was found in Enid's room. Traces of healing magic were found on both bodies.

The police suspected that Enid attempted to blackmail Vanessa into getting more than a hotel room. That probably pushed Vanessa into a rage. Vanessa then murdered Enid and killed herself due to Enid's betrayal. The healing magic matches up with the life saving attempts by the hotel employees before they realized that both were unsavable.

Students were once again shocked. The Outer Gardens Trial Competition ended on a sour note. The poisoning cases had been solved with Vanessa declared as the perpetrator. Still, the end of the case had left the students very disturbed.

The university and country were only peaceful for a few days before something else disturbed the peace. The students expelled from Nafriton University due to the Lysander Foryl incident disappeared from their prison cells overnight. The international community was once again outraged over that incident.

Only Lysander Foryl didn't disappear. He stayed calmly under house arrest with many extra pairs of eyes guarding him. The new guards' only remarks were that Lysander seemed very docile and hollow now, as if he had fallen into a deep depression. They don't know how his strict teacher did it, but Lysander's temper was under control.

Many in the highest echelons of the government were deeply concerned with the recent incidents. How did Vanessa's fight with Enid go unnoticed? And how did all of the expelled students disappear from prison under close guard?

Concerns rose about Nafriton's abilities to raise students just as quickly as concerns rose about the decline of national security. Calls for a hearing started rising in the Senate. Many were not happy with the current year's instability and Nafriton's continued separation from the rest of the school system.

All universities except for Nafriton were kept strictly regulated. Nafriton was founded before the republic, and even helped to found it. Thus, it had kept itself mostly independent throughout the decades. However, that might soon change.

These calls were quelled when Headmaster Marin officially requested military guards to maintain public safety. If those expelled students tried to cause trouble at Nafriton, the military would immediately stop them. The new guards arrived secretly in the dead of night, and set up secret camps inside and outside of campus.

**********

In the midst of all this confusion, the end of the year quickly approached. With it came plenty of exams, Student Council elections and the end of the year awards ceremony.

Election season was a very tense time for the Student Council. With Eileen Bennett and Junius Ahroyor graduating at the end of the year, two major positions would be open. The Student Council members fought and schemed like crazy to get them. Each had its own perks and special university scholarships.

The students loved grabbing their popcorn and watching the Student Council lick their boots for once. Awards season was also popular amongst the students. They even created several unofficial categories, like the prettiest school flower and the most desired university husband.

Compared to the cheery atmosphere among the students, the faculty were in the middle of a warzone. Each award winner got a boost in their research funding and special privileges such as priority access to materials and other resources. The faculty and researchers went rabid every year.

This year, Professor Nestah was expected to clear out the awards with her work on the Outer Gardens trial grounds. The other professors were very jealous. Many started a petition to exclude the professor from consideration for any awards since the trial grounds were too important to the university. She would get special attention either way.

"And that's why the end of the year gets so crazy. Even your godmother has been scrambling to make sure her research funding gets cut."

"Eh? Even godmother? Doesn't she get enough as the Deputy Headmaster of Operations?"

"Deputy Headmaster positions don't provide any extra research funding for ethical reasons. Here, try one of these apple pastries. Teams from Forest Waypoint pick them fresh from the mountains, but shipments have been rare this year."

Aayla took a small bite from the pastry that Daren put on her plate.

"You're right! This is good."

Daren smiled as he watched Aayla happily eat whatever he told her was good. Right now, he was treating her to breakfast at a little café on campus. He had learned that she was a devout foodie while spending time together. Daren had learned so many things about her, like her foodie tendency and her favorite color.

Yet Aayla kept so many things hidden. He had no idea what her family was like or where she came from. To be fair, he didn't talk about his family much aside from his uncle and aunt. Aayla always seemed to have so many strange little tidbits of knowledge, or lack thereof.

Dating on Tellus goes very fast, especially for nobles. If a first date goes well, then usually a marriage promise is set. If the first month or two go well, then the engagement is set. Marriage usually happens with in a year depending on rank and age.

Some of the people in his generation were already married with children back in Halcyon. Nobles often got engaged young. Honestly, Daren should at least have an engagement by now. With his parents and Vanessa traumatizing him as a child, his uncle pushed back on that.

Marriage couldn't be delayed forever. Daren needed to find a wife soon or his aunt would find one for him. He would prefer to be with someone that he trusted and liked. Someone who wasn't a psycho, jealous gold digger. His aunt and uncle would be overjoyed if he finally brought a girl home, but they would ask all sorts of questions that Aayla seemed unwilling to answer.

At this point, Aayla and Daren have been half-dating for about a month. Marriage should already be on the table, but he still didn't know how she viewed marriage. He hadn't yet worked up the courage to ask. Consulting with Chris was not an option because he would definitely tell his aunt.

Unknown to Daren and Aayla, several suspicious figures with trench coats, hats and sunglasses watched them from nearby. They each had cold coffee and uneaten pastries in front of them.

"What do you think, Chris?"

"He's fallen hard. Like really hard. I've never seen him make such a stupid face before. If I didn't know that she was incapable of charm magic or seducing a member of the opposite gender in general, I'd be super concerned right now."

"But is she interested? Aayla's totally enjoying the food, but I'm not sure that she views him as a prospective partner."

The figures sighed. They didn't know if she was oblivious or just not interested. Poor Daren had his work cut out for him.

"Maybe it's a cultural thing? What do you think, Jacki?"

"When I briefly chatted with her about dating, I got the feeling that she thought it would take several years to determine if someone is marriage material."

"Mmhmm. We still don't know about her family or where she comes from. Nothing aside from she's 'Ramona Heston's legendary granddaughter'."

"Yeah, that's a troublesome point. Also, we need to see if she's 'Lady of Halcyon' material. If she's not and they get married, no matter how much Daren likes her their marriage could easily fall apart."

"Or she'll get horribly bullied in the noble circle. Deputy Heston's family is foreign and has the status of commoners."

The figures once again sighed. Setting up their future lord's marriage was harder than they thought. As a person, Aayla seems to complete him fairly well. Daren seems to like her well enough. Love based marriages were rare among nobles, so just having a positive impression was great.

One of them suddenly clapped their hands.

"I have an idea! Let's wait to see what her final rank is and what happens during the awards ceremony. The modern era is much more relaxed about interclass marriages, especially in Chinebar. If she's talented enough, the people in Halcyon could accept her. The city is much less stiff than the others. She is the goddaughter of a powerful wizard and a student at Nafriton who fended of magical beast attacks with little magical ability."

"And Vanessa Landrienne!"

"Yeah, like I said. Magical beast attacks."

The figures nodded in agreement. They would see how final exams and the awards ceremony went. Hopefully, she would do well enough to impress Daren's family.