"Yes, Mr. Nervous, you." Delilah replied smoothly, her blue gaze pinning him in place.
At those words, Simma now fully knew who they were referring to, since that was what Delilah had decided to call him. He shivered a bit.
"Why me?"
he thought, dread gnawing at him.
Why would she choose me at all? Deep down, he knew the answer, if Delilah hadn't already recognized him from before, she likely wouldn't have picked him.
He stared at her, then down to his boot, as if he had spotted something on them.
Every stare in the room seemed to weigh on him, heavy as tons of iron. The fame he'd unwillingly earned from his Within Beast only made the moment more excruciating, since eyes lingered longer, whispers turned sharper and sharper.
"I… I don't know," he stuttered, voice low, heaved down with shame, not daring to look into her eyes.
Sarah, on the other hand, felt like the shame was more on her, but she kept mute, though the thought lingered in her mind.
"Mr. Nervous?" she thought bitterly, her lips tightening. "Is that supposed to be a pet name?"
Delilah smiled at Simma's answer. "Who can help Mr. Nervous here?" she asked, switching her gaze from him to the others.
"She shouldn't get used to calling me that, not when she'd deliberately make fun of me," Simma pondered, the moment of shame still lingering in his mind. But then it was just refreshed as Draco said:
"Seems like dragon knows nothing,"
Draco muttered loud enough for half the hall to hear, his two cronies beside him snickering like hyenas.
Heat surged up Simma's neck... anger this time, not embarrassment. He was on the verge of snapping back, but someone beat him to it.
"If you say one more word while I'm still here and without my order for you to do so, then you will be spending the rest of your day in the infirmary."
Delilah's words sliced clean through the room.
It was her who came to his defence. Maybe she thought she was doing Simma a favour.
And Simma should have felt grateful. Delilah had defended him. But instead, his shame only deepened. A woman defending him, it made him feel smaller, not stronger.
Draco did himself the favour of shutting his mouth, knowing fully well that respect is demanded not by age or size at the Citadel but by rank.
And he knew there was a very real possibility she would do to him exactly as she said. After all, she was an Accrehx, and he hadn't even been assigned a rank yet.
One more word and she would absolutely make good on her threat.
Meanwhile, not being asked, the lady in the pink dress, with every inch of her doused in shades of rose and blush. Pink hair, pink gloss and pink shorts, chirped in with an answer, her somewhat beautiful face looming in the bright light. Draco looked at her, but more at her seductive laps, which were all out since she wore shorts that hardly covered her butt.
"The Wood Hint Tournament," she began, her voice almost like, sing-song.
"Most people assume the tournament takes place in the woods because of the name."
Simma winced.
Well, yeah. Obviously. Why else would they call it 'Wood Hints'?
But she kept going.
"… Well, it is not, since the 'Wood' there is not actually wood. It is an acronym, more of W.O.O.D.
Meaning:
W = Wilderness
O = Ordeal of
O = Oblivion &
D = Death"
A murmur followed that answer.
Simma's chest loosened slightly, he was glad that not only he had thought of it as something that took place in the woods, but nevertheless, he learned something so vital.
"Brilliant," Miss Delilah complimented, her face lighting with an approving smile.
As Mrs pinks face flushed with a smile.
"Yeah, I know. Mrs. Pink's head wants to explode right now," Simma cursed inwardly, automatically naming her Mrs. Pink.
Delilah lifted a sleek, glass remote she'd been holding the entire time. She tapped it once, and from the hexagonal tiles beneath their feet, a section split open, and a white hexagonal platform rose up smoothly, its six edges gleaming like polished ivory.
It kept sliding forward vertically until it reached their waist level. On its surface rested four ancient, crooked bows, each embedded in its own carved slot.
"Now, right in front of some of you are bows, four bows. If there's none in front of you, then pair up with someone. There should be four people standing over one arch,"
Delilah tutored as the line scattered, recruits, shuffling into new groups, and many people started moving over to where there were spaces they could fit into.
As they were moving, Delilah continued:
"This is one of the hints I was instructed to give you. As some of you may know, those bows in front of you are called Yiriana's Bows."
Her voice softened slightly, taking on a hint of reverence.
"Yiriana is the very first woman Sentinel to rule with the other sentinels over the Great City, and she was very great at her time. Now, it takes deep concentration to get an arrow drawn into that bow."
She paused, and on a second thought said.
".. I won't say much on the bow, is left for you to find out about it, if you really want to"
As she was talking, some people were still looking for empty slots to fit themselves into.
Sarah had one pavement right in front of her, and Simma, who was not so far from her... joined her. And then Chloe, from nowhere, also came and joined them.
"Hey, Simma," she said flatly, resting her hand on the arch.
"Lucy," Simma said back linearly.
But something drew his attention.
Some girl he hadn't known walked up to Sarah.
Sarah, meanwhile, was adrift in taking in what Mrs. Pink had answered, only to hear:
"She's good, right? At least she defended your boyfriend."
Those words itched Sarah's ears, as she turned to look at the person. It was her devoted foe, the one that wanted to pluck her eyes out, Gwen.
Though it had been a bit long since they ran into each other, she was still under detention courtesy of Zolomon.
She was still a recruit, and not even Zolomon's punishment was enough to deny her the basic training.
"Well, look who is back from packing horse's dung," came Lucy's sharp voice and piercing.
Ever since that incident that caused her and Sarah to tumble into the woods, she saw Gwen as an enemy she shared with Sarah.
Sarah was about to say the same thing, but Lucy had already done the needful, and the only thing Sarah found herself saying was.
"He's not my boyfriend."
"The hell he's not. Well, it feels good that a woman is defending him.... right?," Gwen replied, ignoring Lucy, an evil smile on her face showing that she was enjoying herself.
Simma got fed up, and immediately the first words came out of his mouth, the next thing he heard was:
"Mr. Nervous, step out also."
At that moment, he froze, confused.
He had been drawn into the little murmurs around him by Gwen, Sarah, and Lucy that he had lost track of what was happening already.
He looked around and saw that Draco was standing beside Delilah, and he hadn't even known when they called him out.
"This just got worse than I thought," he pondered as he sluggishly stepped out of the line and walked to the front, facing the whole recruits.
Now he could feel blush veins on his face.
"I think since you guys deemed it worthy to talk while I was giving instructions on how your training will be, maybe you guys will then serve as the second teachers," Delilah said.
Simma grimaced,
"huh?"