CLANK—!
The door to my room opened. I knew I should really greet the guests but I couldn't help but to hiss in irritation.
"Who dares interrupt my time with my precio—". I halted my speech as I saw who was beyond the door. It was Alicia, with headmaster Alan behind her.
"Sorry for interrupting your intimate time with your... pocket watch". The headmaster frowned at me with a disgusted gaze.
"It's not what you think. I was just um... figuring out what kept this watch running", I made up excuses like a wife who was caught cheating on her husband.
The headmaster's expressions told me that he wasn't convinced in the least.
Sighing, I decided to just shut up and listen to what he had to say.
"That asides, I'm here to tell you that Alicia's going to Avaron grade school"
I widened my eyes in surprise. "Isn't Avaron grade school exclusive to the relatives of students in the top 200s?"
Headmaster Alan just snorted at my words as if I was the stupid one for asking such questions. "I'm the headmaster. Of course I can bend the rules once in a while"
"Besides, Elysia would surely come back from the dead just to strangle me if she knew that her successor was illiterate" Headmaster Alan shuddered in fright as the mere thought of it.
'What kind of monster did you think grandmaster Elysia was'
"Alicia's 10 already. And she still haven't got any friends. So this is a great opportunity for her", the headmaster said with a straight face.
'Good, even the headmaster thinks that she's 10'. Alicia was, in fact, only 8 years old. But I registered her as being 10 when I adopted her. No one suspected anything since she showed them her Status.
However, the person in question made a hurt expression as she interjected in our conversation. "Hey, I do have friends"
"Oh really, who else are your friends other than Krista and me?", I asked teasingly.
"That's...!", Alicia stomped her feet and pouted in frustration. She then brightened up as if she thought of some amazing comebacks. "Then what about you? Who would be friends with you other than Krista and me?"
"I have Raun and Amelia. Well, maybe not Amelia but I have Raun! That's 1 more than you!", I snickered. She was too naive to think that I was inferior to the likes of her in socializing with other people.
Headmaster Alan just watched our arguments in amusement. "Alright stop it both of you. You two are equally as pathetic. Having only 3 friends is nothing to brag about"
Veins bulged on my forehead. 'This guy of all people poached us about having no friends?'
Thus, I decided to use the knowledge of the novel to my advantage. "So do you have any friends?"
"Of course! Just ask all the professors in the academy"
"Are you sure they're really your friend? Maybe they are just being polite to you because you're their superior"
Headmaster Alan was actually very insecure about being lonely. It wasn't just limited to women. No, he didn't even try to get friendly with any male professors either. As such, it was a complete checkmate from me.
As expected, Alan's face flushed red in anger. "Y- you! I'll have you know, I have a friend too! H- he's just... teaching at a different academy"
'Heh'
"A- anyways I've said what I wanted to say so bye". The headmaster slammed the door to my dorm shut, not wanting to risk being exposed for his lies.
Being the only people left in the room, Alicia and I stared at each other awkwardly, until I decided to break the silence.
"So, had dinner yet?"
Alicia shook her head.
"You know how to cook?"
"What do you expect from a '10-year-old?' "
"Alright fine, I'll get something from the cafeteria"
It would be too much of a hassle to cook anyways.
***
In the middle of the night, Alicia was suddenly woken up by a loud scream.
Frowning, she decided to investigate the source of the sound, only to find that Theodore was the culprit.
"P- please don't..."
Annoyed, she rubbed her half-opened eyes and kicked the couch. "Keep it down"
"S- spare me..."
Frustrated, Alicia decided to give him a good smack on the head. However, she noticed that Theodore was rolling around with an awfully pale face. And his clothes were drenched in sweat.
"...This seems a bit too intense for a nightmare"
Not wanting Theodore to ruin her sleep any longer, she decided to do what her mother always did to her whenever she had a bad dream.
—Pat —Pat
She patted Theodore's head and ruffled his hair in the process. His jet black hair was drenched in sweat, but she ignored it since she was going to wash her hands very thoroughly after this anyways.
After a while, Theodore's expression gradually softened.
Satisfied, Alicia was about to leave, but Theodore suddenly grabbed her arms.
"Don't go...", Theodore was still deep in sleep, but he instinctively clung onto the only thing that comforted him. He then pulled Alicia down onto the couch and hugged her.
Being very repulsed by his sweaty clothes, Alicia struggled to get out. But alas, her G+ rank strength couldn't compare to the power of an F rank.
"Oi! Am I a hug pillow?". Alicia pouted but the sleeping Theodore couldn't have heard it. Even if he did, he wouldn't let go of the only thing that kept the nightmare away from him.
Sighing, she just decide to sleep as it is. She was getting too tired to care. After making mental notes to take a very long bath the next day, Alicia fell asleep.
Much to Alicia's surprise, the sleep she had that day was much more comfortable from the ones she had every since her father died.
Theodore woke up the next morning to find that he was drenched in sweat, yet again. However, although he couldn't remember much of it, he could tell that the nightmare he had yesterday night ended much faster than the one he had in the previous afternoon.
"Maybe Lyra was right, my dreams did get a lot better"
Although, he could vividly feel the soft sensation he suddenly felt before the nightmare completely disappeared.
"The couch is strangely comfortable today, did Alicia add some extra cushions to it or something?"
***
February 24th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar
I eavesdropped on every student's conversation in the cafeteria. This was one of the best ways for me to collect information in the academy, as I didn't have anyone that gossips around enough to be my informant.
Well, I did have Krista and Raun but I have been seeing them less and less these past 2 months.
The topics of their conversations were useless to me. From how a blue-haired noble's dog was burnt alive in a furnace, to a blonde-haired 100 years old Vampire being found in a coffin floating on the sea.
However, one topic in particular piqued my interest.
-Hey, did you hear about the first-ranker?
-What about him?
-Apparently he bought a slave.
-Buying a slave? Isn't it illegal? Why hasn't the academy done anything about this?
-No, it's not illegal to buy those wicked rebels at the People of Liberty organization as slaves.
-But isn't it still looked down upon? I thought he was the righteous type?
-That's what I'm saying, he's just faking to be a good guy to flirt with girls! If we spread this rumor, ladies will surely avoid him and come to us instead.
-Hahaha you're a genius!
'So it has already begun'
The slave Arthur supposedly bought was in fact the 7th and final official member of his harem. This meant that the story was progressing as it should be. However,
'The time that Raun is supposed to die is not far away'
"Eyyy Theodore, you okay?". Raun waved his hands in front of my my face as he saw the blank look on my face.
"I'm fine, just thinking about something"
Raun nodded and turned back to chatting with Krista and Amelia
Normally, I'd have lunch alone in the cafeteria. However, today was not a normal day, as I was eating at the same table with the 3 of them.
Well, I regretted accepting their invitation though, as the gazes every students had on me were very uncomfortable. It's not everyday that you see a low-ranker eating at the same table as 2 absolute beauties.
Stabbing the steak on the plate with my fork, I fell into thoughts again.
My reputation has recovered somewhat since people had mostly forgotten about my fight with Arthur. Well, some girls still gave me disgusted looks every now and then but I couldn't do anything about it.
As for Arthur, he was training days and nights at the training grounds ever since that incident so I didn't have to worry much about him. Well, one more person was interested in Arthur too, and it was Sylvia.
Thanks to that, Max couldn't afford to keep bullying me and he switched his focus entirely on Arthur.
'Well, it's all useless though', I chucked as I thought about how futile Max's attempts was.
In fact, it even backfired. Max himself challenged Arthur to a duel, which ended in him getting humiliated while Arthur got even more popular than before.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Raun slowly reaching his hands for me again. This time, I slapped his hands away and decided to just finish up my meal.
Maybe I was too harsh since Raun's hands were all red and bruised.
"You'd have to be able to take this much if you're a tank", I said as I instantly disregarded any worries I had for Raun.
Glaring at me and massaging his red hands, Raun tried to reach for the table salt but miserably failed.
"Ow! Darling, can you pass me the salt? My hands hurt"
Immediately after, both Amelia and Krista reached for the salt.
Krista made a flustered face for a moment before very (un)naturally changing the trajectory of her hands to the peppers instead.
However, it couldn't escape my and Amelia's eyes as we both had a shocked expression on our faces.
"..."
"..."
"..."
We alternated our gazes between Krista and Raun, who was oblivious to the situation, before simultaneously shaking our heads.
Amelia refused to believe that such a thing could ever happen.
While I refused to believe that the plot has gone that awry for it to even happen.
Thus, after staring at each other for a few seconds, Amelia and I nodded as we came to a silent agreement. And it was...
"It's just a coincident It's just a coincident It's just a coincident It's just a coincident...", Amelia muttered under her breath like a broken record.
Raun, noticing her strange behavior, made a worried expression. "Are you okay darling?"
"I- I'm fine. I just feel a bit tired. Excuse me!", Amelia said as she left the cafeteria in hurry.
I looked at the two remaining people at my table. Krista just averted her eyes and fiddled with her fingers as I looked at her, and Raun had that genuinely concerned look on his face as he stared at Amelia's back.
'Krista doesn't even like peppers'
I was getting suspicious but I quickly slapped my own cheeks, erasing such horrible thoughts from my head.
'That's right, what am I even thinking. There's no way'
Thus, I decided to not think about it anymore and focused on my meal.
...
"Where are we going?". Alicia asked she fiddled with my pocket watch while walking besides me.
It was 8 in the evening. And even when it was dark, the watch was literally sparkling as it reflected the dim light from my Lightning spell.
Even if the watch was all the way at the females dormitories, I think that I could still see it clearly from here.
Shaking myself off such thoughts, I gave Alicia my answer.
"To look at shiny thin— Uh I mean to stargaze"
'Almost gave away my true intentions there', I patted myself on the back for the nice save.
We then got to a clearing on top of a hill behind Avaron and sat on a big rock. This was the spot where Arthur and his harem usually went to, but he hasn't discovered this place yet so it wouldn't be any problem if I used it for now.
The night sky was supposed to be gleaming with stars. However,
"It's cloudy", I was dejected. I purposely went up the hills with a slow pace in hope that the clouds would be cleared by the time I got there, but it didn't seem like the case.
I wasn't that proficient with Wind magic either so I couldn't blow the clouds away.
Disappointed, I was about to take Alicia back to the dorm when...
[Refraction], Alicia chanted. Lights from beyond the clouds refracted before the same clouds seemingly disappeared. In their place, was the starry night sky slowing revealing itself.
Alicia didn't do anything to the clouds with her magic. Instead, she refracted the lights from the stars and projected them onto the clouds.
'How did she even think of that?'. But I couldn't linger on that thought for long, as the last batch of stars glamorously appeared on the sky.
""Shiny!""
"Huh?"
Startled, Alicia and I looked to our right to see a girl with snow white hair and sky blue tail staring at the night sky in amazement. Her lavender-blue eyes glowed with a purplish-blue hue in the darkness of the night, making the scene feel mystical in a sense.
I was in a trance, staring at the girl. Her blue eyes shone even more brightly than the night sky above us, drawing my eyes to her.
However, I quickly woke up from my stupor when I noticed that Alicia was holding my hand tightly, shaking uncontrollably while smiling widely.
'Shit! It's her Eyes', I panicked. Things would go really bad if Alicia was exposed to Sylvia's magic Eyes for even another second.
Thankfully, Sylvia noticed her blunder and quickly turned her face full of astonishment back to a dull and expressionless one.
I was quite disappointed that I couldn't see the usually apathetic Sylvia be expressive any longer, but Alicia's safety took priority over that.
Alicia, recovered from the effects of Sylvia's magic Eyes, quickly hid behind my back.
[Refraction mirage]
She used her Illusion magic, making us invisible, while dispelling her earlier spell. The sky was back to being cloudy, traces of the previously picturesque starry sky were nowhere to be seen.
'We're going to get found out'. I thought. After all, dragons, and especially Sylvia, were superior at sensing Mana.
Sylvia closed her eyes and concentrated on her mana sense. She was supposed to be able to pinpoint where we were exactly in under a minute. However,
"Huh? They disappeared!", Sylvia exclaimed out loud in a monotonous voice.
I was also confused. Wasn't Sylvia supposed to be extremely good at tracking mana?
'Did she get weaker, or...'. It was then that I noticed that Alicia was grinning widely while puffing her chest out in pride.
'Good'. It was just whatever the headmaster taught Alicia that made her extremely good at concealing mana, and not one of the main casts getting weaker.
"Aww, I wanted to apologize to them". Her consistent tone made her words sound a little bit unnerving.
'Do she have a habit of saying everything she thinks out loud or something?'
"That pink-haired girl... I remember that she was the headmaster's granddaughter, guess I'll meet her next time to apologize". Sylvia then walked down the hill and back to her dorm, but not before letting out a small sob that was still audible to me.
"Why... why can't I let my emotions slip out... not even in this academy..."
Seeing that Sylvia was far away enough, Alicia cancelled her spell and gasped for breath. Seemed like that concealing her mana while maintaining a spell was no easy task.
Normally, I'd have been absolutely astonished that she could display such levels of mana control at this age, but I had to make sure that Alicia was fine first.
"You okay?"
"Yes"
"Do you feel weird somewhere?"
"I'm fine. I was just tired because I'm not used to controlling my mana in this manner"
"Are you sure? Don't you feel a constant urge to be amazed or anything?"
"?" Alicia looked at me with a confused gaze and shook her head.
"Good, then let's head back"
I carried Alicia on my back and we made our ways towards my dorm room.
'I hope she didn't recognize me'