"Awkwardness Between the Master and the Servant"

Ivory was shocked to hear it from her Servant, especially that he loved clinging onto her. "Why, Sigmund?" she uttered and negative thoughts started to flow in her mind. "Maybe you realized that I am… not good enough as your Master, so that's why…" and she took a step back.

"Hey, birdbrain... what are you talking about-"

"It's because I am a weak Master, so maybe you're already starting to hate me… I… I'm sorry, Sigmund!"

And even before the Vampire could stop her, she had already returned inside the cabin. He hurriedly climbed upstairs and went to Ivory's attic bedroom where he heard her faint sobs as she was laying on her stomach while crying under the pillow.

After closing the door, Sigmund sat on the ottoman chair. "Oi, dimwit. Why are you even crying?" he sighed. "Stop it at once."

But Ivory knew that her Servant wouldn't understand. Ivory was willing to be treated as a weakling by her Servant, but to treat her coldly was too much for her. As she continued crying under the pillow, she felt her heart ache, not only because she feared that her Servant might already be tired of her, but also because her beloved man was avoiding her. After getting tired of crying, she drifted off to sleep.

Sigmund noticed this and took away the pillow from her. Usually, he would quickly move her to a better sleeping position to make her comfortable. But now, he was still debating on himself whether he should touch her or not.

Since he has been thinking about the immense pleasurable feeling he felt during their kiss, he felt unholy and dirty within himself. He didn't want to touch her and lose control as he kept such lingering human-like desires that a holy Servant like him shouldn't have.

…

The following day, Ivory and Sigmund went to class, silently walking awkwardly and a bit far from each other. When they went to class, Lucius immediately noticed it and whispered to Ivory, "Are you alright?"

"I am," Ivory smiled at him. "Thank you for asking, Lucius," she then saw Arcea coming inside the room and greeted her.

Sigmund narrowed his eyes at his Master's concerned friend, "Rich boy, how about me? Why aren't you asking me if I am alright?"

He chuckled, thinking how silly the question was. "Sigmund, are you alright?" he said in a sarcastic tone.

"I am not alright," he whispered to him, making sure that Ivory wouldn't hear her.

"Oh? That's rare," Lucius replied, wondering if it was a prank since he knew Sigmund to be always cocky and arrogant.

Sigmund sighed, then nodded at him and excused himself. He sat on the window sill.

Ivory sneaked a look at her handsome Servant by the window, who was looking at the flying birds. The Vampire also shot a look at Ivory, and when their eyes met, they immediately turned their heads away from each other.

Their first class was under Educator Rosanna, and as soon as she entered, all students returned to their seats. With seriousness, she announced, "Blue Gem, upon discussion with the other Educators and your Adviser yesterday, we have decided that you're going to be grouped according to your respective specializations for two months first, before returning to the normal Advanced Classes again."

She took a chalk and drew a table with four columns and the titles written were: Magic, Close Combat, Long Ranged Combat, and Support. As the Educator wrote the names of the eighteen students in Blue Gem class separately in each column, Ivory felt excitement within her. She guessed that this might be a great step forward to becoming a stronger Master.

Educator Rosanna asked them to group themselves afterwards.

"Aww, I am in Close Combat," Arcea pouted. "I'll be separated from both of you."

Lucius chuckled. "It's because you wrote swordsmanship before, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but you also wrote swordsmanship, so why are you in the Magic Group?"

"I wrote 'elemental swordsmanship', Arcea," he replied, then turned to face Ivory. "Let's do our best, groupmate."

Ivory was delighted that she had a close friend with her in the group. "Yes, Lucius," she beamed a smile. "I look forward to it very much!"

Arcea waved goodbye to the two and went to the Close Combat group, while Lucius and Ivory proceeded to the Magic Group.

"Hi, it's you!" Ivory said upon seeing a familiar face.

"Hi! Ivory, right?" she smiled at her. "Nice to see you in the same group!"

"Likewise!" Ivory then introduced her friend, who was looking at them curiously. "By the way, this is my friend, Lucius… And Lucius, this is Zephie."

Zephie's cheeks turned red upon meeting Lucius' eyes, "I… I… I'm Zephie! It's… nice to meet you…" her hand trembled as she offered to shake hands with him.

Lucius noticed that the girl was being extra shy, so he shook her hand gently, "It's nice to meet you as well."

"We may be all classmates, but we had not really talked to each other," a short pink-haired guy with violet eyes spoke. He was as good looking as Lucius and was wearing a comfortable white dress shirt, a striped suit vest, and a brown coat. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir Lucius Goldwine."

Lucius also shook hands with the young man, "Likewise."

Caspian also shook hands with Ivory and Zephie and as they had introductions, the Servants also conversed with each other.

"I am Metamorphus, a butterfly nymph," the muscular Servant with the butterfly wings introduced himself first. He then recognized Sigmund, "Aren't you the Spirit Servant last time at the coliseum? Hello again!"

Caspian's Spirit Servant looked at Sigmund. She was a little girl with long braided purple hair and was dressed in white long sleeved dress, white elf cap with deer antlers, and black boots. "So you are a Spirit Servant as well!? I am Lutie, a reindeer Spirit!"

Sigmund was unfriendly in nature, so he just nodded at them.

Upon seeing them grouped, Educator Rosanna said, "You will all go now to your training locations. The Magic Group will go to the Coliseum. The Long Ranged group will go to the academy's forest, while the Close Combat group will come with me to the open field. Finally, the Support group will stay here. That's all."

Ivory and her groupmates proceeded to the Coliseum. In the middle, there stood Educator Wallace, with several other students from different sections.

"Twelve… Thirteen… Fourteen..." his Spirit Servant Furrene was doing a headcount to see if the students in the Magic Group were already completed. "The last three students from the Blue Gem section are already here, Master."

"Alright, thank you," the Educator said and requested the students to stand in front of him. He said in a loud voice, "Welcome to the Magic Group! Although this group has the fewest members, my goal is to make this the strongest one!"

The students clapped their hands.

"Alright, settle down! Before we start your training, I want to test your mana quality and magic level."

Upon hearing this and saw her Master give the signal, Furrene pushed a huge wheeled cart full of small wooden blocks. Each student was ordered to take four.

"For the first challenge, I want you all to… incorporate the four different elements into each block."