"Miss Sarah!"
"Congratulations on getting so many crystals on your first day, Van"
Van has a very good impression of Sarah. After all, she was the one that made all of this possible.
Seeing who it was that approached Van, the rest of the representatives that were walking towards Van all skittered away like rats. Van was a bit disappointed at first that all the crystals were going away, but alas, it was not meant to be.
"Hello, Miss Sarah. What... are you doing here?", Van could not help but ask as Sarah walked in front of him.
"I have something to give you", Sarah hurriedly said, "I will be waiting for you outside of the academy after your classes are over"
"After classes?", Van tilted his head.
"Hm", Sarah nodded her head, "The explorer association's compensation is not over"
"...There's more?", Van widened his eyes in shock.
"You can say this is the real compensation", Sarah slightly chuckled as her golden hair dropped down from her shoulders, "Meet me in the gates after class. Your friends seem to be waiting for you"
"O...ok", Van quickly bowed as Sarah waved her hand and left.
"Oho. Who's that, Van?"
As soon as Sarah left, Harvey lightly hit Van's arms with his elbows. "Your girlfriend? Is it your girlfriend?"
"No", Van awkwardly denied, "She's Miss Sarah. She helped me get in the academy"
"Sarah?", Beatrice placed her hand on her chin. The name sounded awfully familiar to her. But she quickly shook her head, that wasn't important right now. She had something serious to discuss with Van.
"Van… I have a question", she said in a soft voice as she called for Van's attention.
"Hm?", Van quickly raised his eyebrows. "What's that?"
"...Would you have gone straight to my eye if Mr. Jacobs did not stop you?"
Hearing this question, Van blinked his eyes a couple of times. And after a few breaths,
"Of course"
"!!!"
Even Harvey, who was just listening on the side as they walked to class, almost choked.
"It will be tended by the healers anyway", Van said nonchalantly.
"I… I see", Beatrice could not help but gulp as she heard Van's straightforward response. A little hint of fear was plastering on her face. However, Van's next words quickly took them away.
"You are strong, Beatrice", Van said, "If I gave you the time to use your wavy hands wind magic thingy, I would have lost"
It was the truth. When Mr. Jacobs raised his hand in the air earlier, he couldn't even budge it a single millimeter. Without his speed, Van was nothing, and he knew that. If he were to be caught by Beatrice even once, she would have kung fu'd the consciousness out of him and slapped by her wind skill, he thought.
Even if that wasn't the case, it was not good to overestimate himself, people die in the slums doing just that.
Hearing Van's reassuring words, a bit of light once again sparked in Beatrice's eyes.
Harvey, however, only sighed, "That's true… never get caught by a gorilla", he then immediately ran away.
"Y… you!", Beatrice quickly used her skill to chase Harvey.
Van could not help but chuckle awkwardly as he followed the two back to class, slightly using his speed from time to time to catch up to them.
It was a surreal scene, with Harvey embedding footmarks on the floor as he ran, Beatrice chasing him from behind as she slightly hovered in the air while running, and with Van blinking from one spot to another as he followed the two.
The rest of the class was fleeting. It was just the professors introducing themselves to the students and explaining what they will learn in class. And as expected, most of them were too tired to even listen.
And as soon as the bell rang, the students quickly woke up from their stupor. It was time.
"It's time for a dorm raid!", Harvey jumped up from his seat and ran towards Van.
"Let's go to Beatrice's dorm first, and then next is yours!", Harvey said as he pointed towards Beatrice who was walking towards the two of them.
"Eh? You can't go to the girl's dormitory!", Beatrice quickly fixed her glasses.
"Psha. We will sneak in at night then", Harvey said as his tone turned serious before looking at Van, "Your dorm then!"
"A dorm?", hearing this, Van's eyes widened, "I… I don't have one"
"...What!?"
The hospital was not too far from here, so Van just walked. He was so excited for his first day of going to school that he forgot all about where he was supposed to go home now. Should he just use his System to go home to the Relic Graveyard? His father wasn't there anymore, after all.
"Then we must get you one!", Harvey quickly clapped his hand, "Let's go before all the good ones get taken!"
"N… no", Van shook his head. He still promised to meet Sarah after classes.
"Let's go later when I come back?", Van said.
Hearing this, Harvey could only sigh as he looked at Beatrice, "...Let's go to my dorm then?"
Of course, Beatrice's reply was a resounding no.
Van quickly waved goodbye to the two before they could start bickering and get him caught up.
He rushed towards the Academy gates as he did not want to keep Sarah waiting.
"Evans!", Sarah waved her hands to get Van's attention as soon as she saw him.
Van could not help but squint his eyes as he walked towards Sarah. He was looking at the huge crowd behind her and wondering why they were there. But as soon as he got close to Sarah, Van realized why there were a lot of students gathering behind her.
"That's…", Van's eyes quickly widened, "...A real car!? An actual one!?"
Van instantly recognized its shape. There were lots of them in the Relic Graveyard, but they were only shells and scraps.
This was the first time that Van saw a real one that was intact. Even when he walked from his house to the Academy, he did not see a single one. There were now only a handful of people in the whole world that knew how to even make them, much less making it work. It became a very rare trade.
Most people use carriages dragged by beasts, gryphons, and other tamed flying beasts in order to get around places quickly.
A car was, in a word, a vintage, an item of luxury. One needed to go through dozens of processes and burn money before you can own one, not to mention actually being able to use it. Van wouldn't even be surprised if this was the only car in the country.
"Get in", Sarah said nonchalantly as she opened the door to the car.
"It's yours!?", Van's eyes widened even further.
The students who were gathered quickly looked at Van with eyes of envy and awe.
Van could not help but gulp as he saw the inside of the car, it had a weird shape and weird lights coming out of it as if it was looking at him.
"Yes", Sarah nodded, "Get inside and sit"
"I… inside, not on top?", Van's whole body was shaking as he slowly walked to the car. He felt a bit disgusted, due to the fact that he was thinking that the car was some kind of Portal Creature, and he was going inside it.
"It's not going to eat you", Sarah slightly chuckled, "Get in before more people gather"
"O… okay", with a final gulp, Van gathered his courage and got inside the car. He flinched when Sarah closed the door on his side.
Van's body was currently filled with sweat as he looked around. It was as if he was in a whole different world, he thought.
'This… is what people used to travel before the Portal Calamity?', he shivered with the thought.
*BROOM*
"What's that!?", Van quickly panicked as a weird growling sound echoed through his ears.
"Relax…", Sarah chuckled, "It's just the car… waking up"
"I… I see", Van released a sigh of relief.
But then, he felt his whole body shift back as the car started to move. If he wasn't used to the dizziness that he was feeling whenever he activated [Time Perception], he would have surely puked inside the car.
Their ride lasted only a few minutes before Sarah stopped the car.
"We're here", she said as she quickly got out of the car.
"H… here?", Van was still a bit shocked from riding the car as Sarah opened the door for him. He blinked a couple of times as he awkwardly stepped out.
He then looked around him, only to see a bunch of houses made with concrete and marble, a far contrast from the houses in the Relic Graveyard.
Sarah then opened a gate to a house. After doing so, she approached Van and handed him a key.
"Miss Sarah?", Van could not help but tilt his head in confusion.
"This house, it is yours"
"... What?"