"Alright, alright. Stop apologising," Aanya said to Ileana.
"Thank you, senior Aanya," Ileana said, sighing inwardly. She was the one that asked Aanya, and yet she was the one that forgot about it.
"It appeared you all worked hard in your training today," Aanya said, looking at the sweaty appearance of Shin and Lara. Finding a new face among them she said, "I don't know you, but nice to meet you. I'm Aanya, your senior."
"Good evening," Lara said hesitantly. She was a little overwhelmed. "I'm Lara. Lara Marsh."
"So you two planned to go out?" Elior asked with interest.
"Yes," Ileana answered. "But we will stay in the academy city and buy a few things. Do you want to come with us?"
"Oh please no," Elior denied instantly. "I don't want to die of boredom while you two go shopping."
"Really," Ileana said, rolling her eyes. "As if you have better things to do. You will probably waste time with another idiot after returning from here."
"I will not."
"Is by the term 'Idiot' are you referring to me?" Shin cut in. "Wow! I never feel offended by girls, but you are the first to succeed there."
Ileana did not put Shin's rambling into ears and asked Elior again. "Then what will you do?"
Elior pondered, as he had no plans for today. "I'll take a bath first and probably the shower would give me some ideas about what to do for the rest of the evening. Maybe I should concentrate on my project to save the world first. And to my conscience, saving the world comes way on the top of the list rather than getting bored in a mall."
Aanya giggled a little, but Ileana only snorted.
"Fine, you go save the world, while we will go shopping," Ileana said, and then asked Lara if she wanted to come with them.
The girl who was soaked in sweat was about to deny it when she heard Aanya.
"We'll be out for a couple of hours, and I'm sure you need to buy a few things. Come with us please or we two would be bored."
In the end, Lara could only agree.
"Hey, Am I the only one that would be ignored by everything?" Shin yelled, frustrated.
"Let them go, I know you would not enjoy going shopping with them," Elior said. "Why not help me with something else?"
The three of the females were about to leave when Senior Aanya stopped on her track. She looked back at Elior and said, "I heard you are in the artifacing department. If you have anything you need, you can ask me. I might be not the best forger in the academy, but I can help you somewhere. After all, I'm the daughter of the best forger on earth."
She only left after she saw him nod. The three girls left the gymnasium and the two of them got up to move on.
"Brother Elior, how are you able to do these kinds of things?" Shin asked.
"What are you talking about?" Elior raised his eyebrows.
"Don't give me that look, I know you know what I'm talking about," Shin continued. "How are you able to get girls on your back without doing anything in particular?"
"Huh?" Elior gave a startled look to Shin. "That? It's probably because she wanted to set me up with the position of student president. That was why she was so bent on helping me."
His hypothesis was quite right. The Aanya, he knew, was always serious about this sort of thing. She would not leave it to someone unworthy. Moreover, they were not friends in this timeline, so there was no point in her helping him other than that.
"That might be true," Shin said, considering. "Then what about the other girl? Lara? And I saw many girls were looking at you during class or anywhere." Shin turned silent for a while and looked around and found a few girls looking in their direction. "See?"
"Common, I don't even know them," Elior complained and hit the way. "And as for Lara, she was totally focused on her path. All are not like you who think about this kind of thing all the time."
"You are diverting the topic, bro," Shin said and followed on the way to their dorms. "I think you are not considering your charisma entirely, Sensei."
"Shut up," he cut Shin short. "And don't call me sensei. It made me feel like a grumpy old man."
"But you can not deny it, you have some kind of aura that attracts the opposite genders towards you."
Elior did not even consider Shin's degenerate mouth talking and arrived before their dormitory building.
"You remembered the redhead princess, Scarlett." Shin was not in the mood to stop now.
"That girl was crazy. I don't want anything to do with her," Elior said firmly.
"That's not important, Brother," Shin came before him and said. "The important thing is you know how to attract the interest of females knowingly or unknowingly."
Shin then examined him head to toe properly, as if trying to find the hidden organ that attracted women toward him.
"You are scaring me, Shin."
"Brother Elior, are you a vampire?" Shin asked, his eyes still searching.
"What load of crap are you talking about?"
"You know, vampires in the old movies seemed to attract women towards them. So I was considering the chances of you being a vampire. After all, you are quite secretive sometimes."
"Shin, I am not a Vampire, but if you do not stop your degenerate talks, I'll really bite you and suck all your blood out." Elior gave him a glare and walked towards his quarters.
"Brother Elior, all I'm saying is you have to help me. How about you—" Shin stopped his mouth and stood by on his walk.
Elior looked at the reason and found a middle-aged woman standing before the door of Shin's quarter. She had plain but luxurious clothes on from head to toe, and looked quite attractive in her age. Moreover, her face held some resemblances to Shin.
"Mom," Shin called. "Why are you here?"
"Can't I come to see my boy?" the woman said.
"You didn't come when I was almost kidnapped here," Shin said grudgingly. "Now you have time to come."
"You know, I was busy," Shin's mom said, sighing. She shrugged uncomfortably and looked at Elior. "Is this your new friend?"
"Right," Shin then introduced. "Mom, this is Elior. Elior, this is my mom."
"Good evening," Elior said. He hesitated for a second and asked. "Can I call you Aunty?"
Shin's mom raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Yes, you can. Nice to meet you, I'm so grateful to you for taking care of Shin. I know how bothering this boy can be."
"No.' Elior shook his head and said genuinely. "Shin was mischievous at times, but he is never bothering."
"Really?" Shin's mom looked at her son to see if there were some changes in him after he got into the academy.
"No, there is nothing new," Shin said. "It's just that Elior is nice."
"Well, you two should talk between mother and son now. I'll go to my room then," Elior said and left after bidding goodbye for now.
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