The first time I heard Lilith call me a coward for not accepting her challenge, I laughed. The second time, I wanted to claw her eyes out. By the third, the entire Academy was whispering it, so she had already won half the battle without lifting a single finger.
Everywhere I went, rumors of her challenge followed me, and the taunts from the other nobles or her friends reminded me why I had decided to take them all on and their stupid credit system.
I realized that I couldn’t keep ignoring her and do nothing.
On one hand, if I agreed and lost the fifty points she was betting, I’d get myself expelled. But if I didn’t agree at all, I’d prove to everyone I was a spineless coward who didn’t deserve their trust and who couldn’t win anything.
Lilith knew exactly what she was doing. She was d
