It had been a week now since Eli and Trish had started their classes. Originally, Eli had a feint idea on what he would be taught, but he quickly realized that it there was a lot more to it than he originally thought.
He had been 'forced' to wear the stuffy looking clothes that nobles tended to wear. Luckily it wasn't constant, but it was still miserable all the same to him. Trish didn't seem to mind however, even going so far as to wear her dress even when she wasn't instructed to.
Their teacher, an old demon woman who ran a tight ship, constantly used a stick to smack Eli wherever his posture was lacking. This was constant during the entirety of their classes. And since Eli seemed to be in a constant state of slouching and a lowered head, he was well acquainted with the stick by the end of the first day.
Trish had little to no issue with her posture, though she did receive a few swats on behalf of her unruly tail.
"Can you please not step on her foot again, Mr. Eli," The old witch of a demoness groaned as she held a palm to her face.
Eli struggled to keep in step with with Trish as the two continued to move with the music. To Eli's slight amusement and surprise, dancing in step to music was something she wasn't great at either. At least he wasn't the only one getting small welts during this practice.
The dark-skinned woman sighed as again as Trish stepped on Eli's foot, moving them further out of sync from the music as they tried to recover. "By god's if I need to get a bigger stick so I can smack you both at the same time I will."
Eli shivered at the thought. This woman was scary as hell. He suddenly wished to be back into the doting arms of Sasha, who would surely protect him from this lady if she was here.
"Alright," Ms. Zarella said, throwing her hands up in frustration, "That's enough for the day. We can continue this tomorrow. Luckily we still have plenty of time to truly get you two in shape before the school year. At this rate, you should at least not seem like complete street rats by the time you arrive to the academy."
Eli separated from Trish, giving her a bow as she curtsied back. Sighing, he stood straight up, "Ms. Zarella, could you please be a little nicer to u-" Eli was promptly cut off.
*swat*
"Ow," he said, rubbing the back of his hand.
"Trust me boy, I am a lot nicer than most of the teachers working with young nobles. Other races' nobles have high expectations, even more so for us demon kind. Since you are going to that school as a representative of our nation, you must be taught at a faster rate than most. Those of our nation being sent who aren't nobles, are guaranteed to be receiving the same treatment as you, if not worse. Consider yourself lucky that you got me, and not somebody worse."
Eli was having a hard time trying to decide whether or not to take the woman at her word. Ultimately, he gave up, either way he felt like it truly wouldn't matter.
"You guys are dismissed," Zarella waved her hand, shooing the pair out of the ballroom.
"I think we're getting better!" Trish said excitedly, which made Eli smile slightly.
Things were awkward between the two for the few days following the incident at the market, but for the last day or two, Trish had started to act normally in front of Eli again.
"I think so too," Eli grinned back at her. "Though, I am still surprised your still so bad at something," he teased, giving her arm a nudge.
"I'm not bad!" Trish pouted.
Eli just laughed as the two walked through the hallway with the setting suns light shining through, her trying to convince him that she wasn't as bad as he was.