After the answer I've gave him, Rex looked much happier and was returning to his old self again.
"Come on, let's go to dinner, I'm starving."
I got up and stretched. As I mid-stretched my arms, I suddenly realised something...
"Oh..."
Ha... I was too busy looking at the connect the dots, It must've slipped my mind, that I could see who's at the door with the map... Maybe it's for the better? I did give off a natural look of surprise even though I could use quote, unquote, "ESP hacks"...
"Sir?"
"Hmm?"
"You said 'oh'..."
"Ah..."
I scratched the back of my head.
"It was nothing, come on let's go before the class gets mad at us..."
As we walked down the hallway, I took look at the map and sure enough, Rex's dot was right next to mine... Dam, such a rookie mistake. I wonder what the upgrade would be once this skill reached level 2.
We reached the dining hall and my students were all already there waiting for us.
"Boy, you guys are slow," Sam soured as his gaze peered through the door and on to the delicious dishes inside. "Come on, I'm hungry..."
Before we could respond, he walked straight in.
"This guy... is going to get us or himself in serious trouble someday..." Luke sighed as he looked at me.
I shrugged and led my class into the dining hall. Sam was already sat at the table, piling his plate up with all sorts of assortment of food. The rest of the class all took their seats and too started to pile their food. Garret must've drilled them hard today as everyone wasn't talking but eating.
As I began to pile my share of the food, I felt someone's presence behind me. I turned around to see Garret and Sara, still decked out in their gear. They have a serious expression on which suggested whatever they wanted to say was also going to be serious.
"Mr Huang, may we have a word with you?"
Garret raised an eyebrow at me before he knitted them down in confusion. He then whispered something to Sara.
"Sure..." I replied hesitantly.
I placed down the utensils I was holding, down, got up and followed them. They led me out of the dining hall before they spoke in hush tones.
"I couldn't quite put my finger on it but there's something special about you." Garret crossed his arms and stares at me.
Sara, on the other hand was keeping quiet for the moment.
"Special? I don't think I quite get what you mean..."
"You don't have to read too much into it, I was just merely expressing my observation at an glance."
I scratched the back of my head at Garret dismissal of my question.
"So... what is it you guys wanted to talk about?"
Garret and Sara looked at each other before Sara spoke up.
"We were wondering if you could tell us what happened last night?"
"We found both you and Rex at the hospital." Garret added. "Rex said he couldn't remember much about last night."
Oh crap... how do I explain this one without giving anything away...
I ended up telling them that I too couldn't remember much of last night. All I could remember was that I woke up and found that Rex was missing so I went out and looked for him... after that everything was hazy and I woke up at the hospital wing.
"Rex was missing?" Garret questioned as I felt my heart beat faster.
"He wasn't there at the camp site when I woke up..."
"I see."
"Are you alright?" Sara asked as she looked into my eyes.
"I'm fine, just a little bit hungry right now." I gave her a warm smile. I could tell she's really worried even though for her we only had met about three to four days ago.
"Okay let's head back in before all the good stuff gets eaten."
Sara wanted to say something but frowned instead, she kept turning her head slightly a little to take a look at me but then quickly retracted. I had to chuckle a little, her worrying had put heart at ease.
We went back into the dining hall and I went back to my seat where my plate of food had been sitting. My students were chatting amongst themselves as I ate. I felt a presence pressed against my body as a hand lifted my left arm draped it on a soft warm fabric. The hand then moved my arm up a little so my forearm was pressed underneath a soft pillow.
I turned my head to the side and saw Rain's head on my shoulder, my arm wrapped around her torso and was sheltered underneath her under boobs. She had a content smile on her face as she looked up at me. I was half startled as I had thought it was Stella considering she was the most initiative one.
The other two girls seemed to be a bit more reserved compared to her. I looked to where Stella sat, right next to Rain, who was currently looking the other way, probably making a pouting face.
From the looks on the other students, they didn't seem to care at Rain's currently position of comfort as they were still chatting without batting their eyes at us or even reacting. I think at this point, all my students knew the feeling these three girls have for me... probably helped on by Stella's overwhelmingly display of affection towards me more so now then before.
Lucy was on my right side, quietly eating her own meal. She too was sitting very close to my side but was in perfect siting posture. Though she was doing what Rain's doing, I could feel her stare watching me even though she was looking down at her food. Though... my right arm felt lonely, it kept itself occupied by shovelling food into my mouth.
This had turned out to be a quite comforting dinner.
Once we all finished eating we all headed back to our rooms. I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. I had a lot to think about as well as I needed to find a way to level up. I'm currently at level 7 and wondered, if I reached level 10, would there be an reward. In most RPG games, level 10 is usually a milestone level and usually has an reward to congratulate the player on reaching a milestone.
I also needed to find out more information about the snow flower. I hoped Marlos has found something on Vice Councillor Ezekiel or otherwise we were going to have an uphill battle. If he really was one of the people who had a hand in our deaths, then that would have meant that the people I had initially thought were the ones, are just puppets?
This sounded like one of those movies where the protagonist fights a shadow organisation or something. If that's the case, to think a green teacher such as myself who currently am in a support role would take on something this large. This was something I myself if not for my certain circumstances would ever sign up for something like this.
I felt my hands starting to feel clammy as cold sweat dampened my forehead. I think being a teacher who teaches films and tv and who loves all kinds of media whether it's anime, web toons, video games or dramas, I would have a better understanding of the situation I'm in and that's frightens me. I mean if I was someone who's unaware of these stuff simple because my I interest lies in something else then I wouldn't be freaking out this much... sometimes ignorant is bliss.
At this moment in time, I knew I wouldn't sleep with all these thoughts swimming in my head.
"If your so anxious by it, look for a silver lining here," my otaku side piped in breaking my crashing train into a brick wall of thoughts. "Look at it this way, you've died once and now your reborn, this gives you an advantage since you would know most of the things that's going to happen. Next, you have this cool new system that could give you unlimited power gifted by a goddess and not let us forgot that we have this goddess on our side. If you ask me, the silver lining is... your now aware of the fact that this is all happening and now you have the ability to do something about it."
"Oh wow, this has been the most sensible thing you've said... since the beginning of your creation... I'm so proud," my logical side complimented his counterpart.
"Hey! When have I not been sensible, hm? My nuggets of knowledge are priceless and you my logical friend is an cynical idiot."
"Hey... I'm not cynical nor am I an idiot. My logical sense on reality is what keeping our guy's mind grounded, you dunder brain."
I had to chuckle a little at these two side of myself antics... I listened to them as I stared at the map before me. I could literally spend hours entertaining myself by just staring at the nothingness before me. If other people saw me like this they probably think that something is wrong with me considering no one can see what I'm seeing... wait... that does make me sound like I have something... dam it.
I let my eyes wonder on the layout of the palace when I saw all of Baihu was in one place and that was outside the king's living quarters. I wonder how long these guys had to stand there... even though they have the highest position within the job as a guard... their job is way shittier than the normal ones because at least the normal ones could theoretically relax a bit more...
All my students were in their rooms which was comforting and most of the Knight's order were doing patrol. Huh... that's odd, where are the rest?
[The Knight's Order has started a battle against bandits.]
[The Knight's Order has captured the bandits]
[The Knight's Order has gained 2500 Exp]
[You have gained 2500 Exp]
Wait... what?
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
Ting!
[Congratulations! You have reached level 10]