Legend | Celeste Academy Series BK #2

Chapter 11 ♕ Naughty Spying

Lord Lienhard started laughing while everyone else glanced between Farron and Valeriana at their recent exchange of words. Confused, the fifth-ranker eyed her comrades with a puzzled look.

"Did I do anything wrong?" She looked down at the handshake. "I only followed what Tamara was doing."

"It's not really common for women to greet men with a handshake." Lord Lienhard explained. "When you do, that means you're establishing yourself as someone of equal standing—not as though I'm underestimating your capabilities or treating you lower. It's only a sign of knightly camaraderie to remove hesitations. You see, women used to be protected all the time, so men could not remove their chivalry when working in the battlefield. This is usually done before assignments of some sort, especially dangerous ones. It just means you're reminding the other party you can handle yourself."

"Oh!" She realized. "Oh, I only knew that just now! That's cool. So, can I keep doing this even not before assignments?"

"It's not really recommended you do, Valeriana." Genevieve said. "I mean, I know we can become deadly when in the battlefield but if you keep establishing yourself that way even in normal occasions, that won't make you desirable."

"Desirable?'

"You know," she blushed. "For marriage."

"Oh . . . ooohhhh . . ." Valeriana nodded. "Can I do high-five, then?" She suggested.

They all gave her looks as though she's crazy.

"It's a kind of thing we do between friends! It symbolizes good sport and can mean a lot of things, like, good job! Good going! I support you and stuff!" She held her hand up as though she was making a promise and asked Farron to do the same. "You do it like this, then you clap your hands together. That's it!"

Zevlin and Genevieve followed the demonstration and did it once. "This is fun!" The twins chorused, then started high-fiving left and right.

Brindon faced Keelan apathetically and did as he saw. The eleventh beamed and responded, clapping their hands together with a loud thwack.

". . . Amazing." Brindon muttered.

Keelan made a guttural sound in the back of his throat and rolled his eyes at his words, unable to utter any himself. "Mmm. Mmmmm mmm mmm."

Farron felt weirded out by the sudden turn of events and turned to face the fourth-ranker. "So what have you come to do?"

Fixing his glasses, he gave his old friend a deep sigh and replied, "The usual. I am curious to see how much you have improved since I've been away."

"Oh, you will be surprised, dear old friend. But, I have a feeling that isn't only why you're here." His suspicion was palpable and made Charles grin at how correct his assumptions had been.

"We were on a mission to fetch a certain someone, and it happens to be near here." Charles answered. "Since it's a bit late, I thought that maybe it would be nice to stop by and . . . settle things." He made special emphases on 'settle', a strange glint in his eyes.

Farron smiled knowingly. "Oh." He chuckled. "I see."

"U-um . . ." Tabina cleared her throat.

"Ah, yes." Farron said. "Tabina, take our guests to their room and prepare dinner. Charles and I will be in my room until it's time to eat."

"Your room?" Tabina asked.

Farron had a strange look across his face. "Do you have anything you want to say, my little sister?"

"N-nothing really." She shied away from his eyes and turned to their guests instead. "Please follow me."

"I'll meet the rest of you by dinner." He told them.