There was a misconception that both boys had when the two of them left the kitchen. Both had assumed that they would be having separate classes, Timothy for his [ Mage ] associated classes and Han to his [ Mixed ] class which leaned more to Physical Combat—instead the two of them walked at the exact same corridor after they had left the kitchen.
And neither one was really willing to divulge any information.
"Did you get hungry before your next class?" Han chuckled at his friend as they jogged down the path. He turned left and Timothy did the same, their classrooms must have been close.
Timothy shook his head, "I don't think it's allowed for you to just raid the kitchen for food. We all have our designed meal times. What were you doing there?"
"Hmm, oh, nothing. I just needed to prepare something for my next class." It wasn't like Timothy just did the same thing as him, "We'll be having a spar so I need to get ready—I don't have any weapons and I'm not sure if my same trick is going to work twice."
Timothy glanced at him, brows knotting together, "You call that move you pulled over Donovan mere tricks? You could have broken bones or something."
"Well uh… I tried my best. But I don't fancy getting hit by an axe to get close, for all we know, I get attacked by a [ Fireball ] and I'll be roasted harder than a barbecue steak or a kebab."
Timothy snickered, "That would be a sight to see."
"Hey, that's not nice!" He pouted and stopped at last in front of one of the doors. He reached out for the door handle and stopped as Timothy's hands hovered at the same time, he quickly glanced at his companion, "Are we in the same class?" Han raised a brow.
"It's probably a joint class, I hope the two of us don't spar one another." Timothy remarked as he lowered his hand and motioned for him to open the door.
"Heh, we're already late—it's the back seat for us this time." Han grasped the handle and grinned at his friend.
Timothy gave a nonchalant shrug, "Unless Penny already saved me a seat."
"Hey, we have a bro code." Han stuck out a tongue at him, "Bros before girls, dude."
Timothy tilted his head, "A what? I don't remember agreeing to any codes."
"...nevermind, dude." Han Jing rubbed his face and finally opened the door for them, it revealed not a classroom but an open field space like the space where they held both Basic Combat Spells and Basic Physical Combat. The two of them entered the courtyard—and unlike last time where the students made a ring in [ Professor ] Carnus' class or where haphazardly sitting around in [ Professor ] Uriel's class, they were more seated in a box-like formation like a cage. Han Jing could already imagine a martial arts tournament occurring, except filled with swords and sorcery.
He gulped.
"Did you get any beer bottles?" Somebody jabbed him on the side.
Han winced and glanced at Timothy, "What did you say?"
"Oh, so you're not throwing out beer bottles." Timothy shrugged and placed his hands into his pockets and sauntered in. "They probably don't have beers for you to use."
A small smile formed on Han's lips as he got what they were mentioning about, "Nah, I got myself something else. We can't waste good alcohol." A small sense of accomplishment nudged itself in his chest as he followed after his friend. Somehow the people in Rockfall Village seemed to remember and uphold that beer bottle bashing more than he did—after all, he had [ Rockfall Village: Fame: 100 ] so it meant that even Timothy respected him.
Although it really wasn't obvious.
But as Timothy predicted, a certain ginger-haired lady was already patting the patch of grass beside her. Somehow Penny seemed to have quickly switched out Sir Leon or something, Han wasn't sure how girl minds functioned but he was sure that most would have at least stuck to a [ Noble ] more than a commoner like them. "I guess she really wants you to sit with her."
"And you think she was mean," Timothy rolled his eyes, "We should at least sit there and not hurt her feelings, she did save us a seat." Besides Penelope, it also happened to be that she was seated with Lady Angelika and some other girls.
Han dismissed that thought entirely, glancing around for any empty spots, "She's inviting you and not me, maybe I'll sit somewhere else?"
"Gonna sit with the [ Noble ]?" His friend eyed the blond young man seated and talking with the others surrounding him, and the one closest to them was the axe-wielder, Donovan. It seemed like they actually had a crowd around him and they didn't seem to mind the attention, a true aristocrat that managed the attention quite well. Or perhaps a leader in the making.
He grinned and shook his head, "Nah, go ahead and sit with Penny, I think I saw someone."
Before Timothy could open his mouth--he already stepped towards the cloaked figure at the least occupied corner of the square, "Is this spot taken?"
Ellynn stayed silent despite his question before she finally looked up at him, their eyes narrowing at him with suspicion before she moved slightly away, "Not really."
"I guess I'll sit with you then." Han plopped down in the grass next to her, but he didn't exactly have a clue on what to say. Han Jing thought about his experiences with girls in his real life and found them too little to apply, but he had to try at least. "I'm kind of nervous with this test, but I'm sure someone like you will have it easy, you're really strong."
Instead of taking it as a compliment however, they simply huddled their cloak closer to themselves, "You shouldn't assume that... just because I'm different."
Han could already imagine a heart popping up above them with a negative integer popping up. But he really shouldn't see this as some kind of dating sim game or something, even though she was an NPC like all the others, it didn't mean that he could think up some lines and immediately get her to feel better about herself.
Somebody cleared their throat, [ Professor ] Owen stepped inside the square as he carried a box in his hand, "Alright, we'll begin drawing lots for the spar." He allowed the box to be distributed among the students and each one chose a single piece of paper, "The papers you collected are imbued with mana sigils and there are only two alike, so the one you match with will be your opponent."
They procured a small wooden board and began to call out names, "So the matches will be as followed:
Ari vs Rose
Miss Elynn vs Sir Leon.
John vs Merame
Lady Angelika vs Timothy
Calum vs Kyse
Lady Penelope vs Donovan
Diov vs Russell
Sir Elliot vs Han."