This Saturday morning, Aya Ribbuns walked with a slight spring in her step, with her apron neatly folded under one arm. She was joined by a small group of her fellow third year Culinary students, all heading toward Room C-4 for their weekend sweets class.

“Aya! Aya!~ So, did you hear?” one of her classmates jogged up beside her, nearly tripping on her own laces in excitement.

Aya's ears twitched softly. “Mm-nay~? Heard… what, exactly?”

The girl leaned in, whispering like it was top-secret gossip. “The ovens! I heard from some of the upperclassmen yesterday—they said they’ve been upgraded!”

Aya tilted her head. “Upgraded…?”

“Yeah!” her classmate beamed. “Apparently the ones in Room C-4 run way smoother now. Better heat hold, even baking. They’re saying it’s just like that one oven that got fixed earlier—the one everyone fought over last week?”

“Oh, really?” Aya gasped with delight. “That’s… really wonderful to hear!”

“I know, right?! They said whoever fixed it must’ve known some serious tuning knowledge or something—because Professor Barlowe said all the ovens are performing better than they did even when they were new!”

Aya beamed, practically glowing at the thought, though she has no way of confirming who was responsible for it yet, but she had a very good guess.

When Aya and her classmates finally reached Room C-4, the first thing they noticed was that the door was already open—and the second thing they noticed was that Professor Barlowe wasn’t alone inside.

In fact, there were four people waiting at the in the room.

One was Professor Barlowe himself, looking as calm as ever, his apron already dusted in flour despite the day barely beginning.

Beside him stood Professor Vask, arms folded as if she'd been dragged here against her will and was tolerating it with professional grace.

And next to her were two others.

One was a tall, auburn-haired fox-folk girl, arms crossed and swaying slightly from foot to foot, while her tail was swaying like it didn’t like being indoors.

The other was— oh!

Aya’s heart skipped a beat upon recognition.

"Raveena!"

There she was, standing with her hands tucked behind her back, trying to look like she wasn’t incredibly out of place. Her gaze flicked toward the classroom door just as Aya stepped through it.

And their eyes met, prompting Aya to unexpectedly let out a tiny, quiet gasp. Because she didn’t expect to see her here—especially not today.

She instinctively lifted a hand and gave Raveena a small, sheepish wave.

And after a moment, Raveena lifted her own hand in return. A small wave. Subtle, and just for her.

But of course, the exchange didn’t go unnoticed.

“Wait…” one of the girls in Aya’s group whispered, narrowing her eyes. “Is that panther-folk waving… at you?”

“She is,” said the classmate who’d been chatting with Aya earlier, eyes wide. “Aya—do you know Miss Vesper?!”

Aya opened her mouth. “Well, yes, actually—”

“I knew I saw them eating lunch together a few days ago!” another classmate piped in. “They’re friends, aren’t they? That’s why!”

The first girl gasped, grabbing Aya’s arm in light panic. “Friends?! How?! Are you okay?! Is she forcing you to be her friend or something? Maybe she’s desperate?!”

Aya blinked rapidly, flustered. “Wha—no! Raveena's not like that, it’s not—”

“Ahem.”

The room quieted immediately.

Professor Barlowe had cleared his throat, his amber eyes calmly sweeping over the students who now stood frozen mid-chatter.

“If we’re quite settled,” he said gently, but firmly, “we have a tiny announcement to make before we begin today’s hands-on projects.”

Aya quickly sat up straighter, her cheeks still pink, her eyes still looking back at Raveena—who, for some reason, looked like she was the one trying not to smile.

“As some of you may have already heard,” Professor Barlowe continued, folding his hands behind his back, “the ovens in this activity room were recently fine-tuned.”

A few students murmured in recognition, glancing toward the back row where the older ovens sat.

“Fine-tuned,” he repeated, “to the point that their performance now rivals—if not surpasses—that of even the newer models of this make. But I won’t bore you with details beyond my own discipline. For that, I’ll let someone else take over.”

He gestured lightly beside him, and that's when Professor Vask stepped forward. “Good morning,” she greeted. “Yes, you’ve heard correctly from Professor Barlowe—your ovens have received a little upgrade.”

She turned slightly to the side, gesturing with one hand.

“And the ones responsible for that are not faculty. Not town engineers. Not even maintenance staff.”

She stepped aside.

“These two students here. Rory Brixton, from the Sports & Tactics strand,” she said, nodding to the fox-folk bouncing slightly on her heels, “and Raveena Vesper, Arcane Tech.”

Rory grinned widely and waved both hands. “Hiya~!”

Raveena, in contrast, simply gave a simple nod and a polite half-smile. Quiet as always.

The class collectively let out a ripple of surprise.

“Wait, that fox-folk girl helped upgrade the ovens?”

“Arcane Tech working with Sports Strand?!”

Aya, for her part, blinked in wonder as she thought, "Wait… Raveena was the assistant? Not the lead? That was… unexpected."

"That must mean this Rory is really talented too," she added to her thought, looking at the auburn-haired girl trying to look professional beside Raveena.

“Right then!” Rory chirped as she stepped forward, clearly on cue. “Let me explain the highly technical details of what we did to improve your cooky-bakey fire boxes.”

And then they all prepared to listen intently.

“So first,” Rory started, “we re-aligned the spicy combustion loops—y’know, the part that makes the fwoosh go evenly. Then we rotated the heat spirals by exactly… um… a hot-and-a-half degrees. Which made the whole oven way less angry.”

Raveena turned her head slightly towards Rory, eyes in disbelief at what she had just started with.

“And then,” Rory continued, “we installed a temperature serenity rune, which calms the fire down when it gets grumpy. That’s why your cakes don’t crisp out at the edges anymore. It’s basically emotional regulation, but for ovens.”

Despite the silence, a few students nodded like that made complete sense. One even took notes.

After hearing that part of Rory's explanation, Raveena sighed, nudged the fox-folk gently, and handed her a folded piece of paper.

Rory looked at it confused at first, until she then unfolded it slowly, squinting as she mouthed the words.

“Oh,” she muttered. “Right.”

Then she cleared her throat dramatically and smiled.

“Ahem. So! What actually happened was: we cleaned the heat channels to improve flow, adjusted the internal rune delay so ignition starts smoother, and re-calibrated the ambient temperature dampeners to hold heat more evenly during longer bakes.”

The class let out a collective "ooooh" of understanding.

“We also added a minor shielding ward,” Rory continued, now reading smoothly, “so your oven’s temperature stays steady even if the surrounding air fluctuates. That means fewer burnt sides, better pastry rise, and no more guessing if the back corner’s cooking faster.”

As soon as Rory proudly wrapped up her last sentence, there was a small pause among the Culinary students—just long enough for it to settle. Despite Rory's weird explanation at first, the students looked suitably impressed and even clapped for her.

But behind Rory, Raveena let out a silent, though very visible, very exasperated sigh...

Aya noticed it immediately. "Poor Raveena," she thought with a giggle.

Professor Vask gave a brief nod. “Well, that will be all,” she said. “We just wanted to make sure these two got proper recognition for the work they did.”

She then turned to Professor Barlowe, who gave her a warm smile in return.

“Thank you, Professor Vask. And thank you both, Miss Vesper, Miss Brixton.”

Rory gave a chipper salute. “All in a day’s work, Professor!”

Raveena just nodded politely again, already turning toward the door like she had a time limit on how long she could exist inside a Culinary classroom without combusting.

As the two started to exit, they passed by Aya's group near the front.

The rabbit-folk didn't let the chance pass to smile up at Raveena, mouthing a soft, “Bye!”

Raveena looked at her, paused for a fraction… and smiled back, and she mouthed it just as softly. “Bye," and then she was gone, following Rory out the door with Professor Vask close behind.

As the door shut behind them, Professor Barlowe turned back to the students. “Well then, group up. Today’s project is custard tarts with flaky-layered crusts and great focus on sweet twists—and if your ovens work better now, you’ve no excuse.”

Laughter rippled across the room as the students moved to find their groups.

While Aya... well, she was still smiling to herself.