Dignitas' days passed quietly once Rokas returned from his mission. He had planned for all club operations to be put in hold due to the coming exams and was currently enjoying the peacefulness of school life.
For the most part his schedule consisted of heading to school, doing whatever work was required of him there, returning home to do training, and finally, going to sleep.
It never changed, sadly. It reminded him of how monotonous his life was back when he was still writing. He'd always stay inside his room, doing his best to brainstorm scenarios for The Academy's Regressor.
Speaking of that, actually, Dignitas hadn't had much time to attend his usual spars with John. Even though his daily training sessions with Lorelai had finished long ago, he still never found the time to entertain the protagonist.
"I wonder what's he's doing right now. Let's check the Log."
Calling upon the Author's Log, Dignitas mumbled something incomprehensible as the book appeared in his hands. With a careless, mundane expression, he flipped through its pages, making sure there wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
Based off what the Log said, John's schedule wasn't all that much different from his. Aside from a few small changes that weren't really related to the plot, things were progressing rather smoothly.
Too smoothly, in fact. Dignitas knew that there never truly was a time of peace anywhere. It was just that the ones fighting the war were replenishing their stocks and manpower.
The same could be applied here. Ever since the entrance exam, the demons had been suspiciously quiet. Aside from a select few that somehow managed to worm their way into his inner circle and attack Rokas and Luna, there wasn't much they had done.
Of course, the coming attack during the first quarterly exam had already been predicted by the Log, and Dignitas had made preparations to make it go as smoothly as it could possibly go. A few casualties here and there were, naturally, impossible to prevent, but that didn't matter much in the big picture.
As long as the ones that were hurt weren't the ones that proved useful to him, Dignitas couldn't care less.
"I've got nothing to do right now… I should practice to keep my mind busy."
It was currently late in the night, about half an hour past midnight, and Dignitas had just finished his training session. However, he still wanted to train more, even after having taken a shower already.
But just as Dignitas was about to stand up to go to his personal training hall, a ding resounded from his phone. Someone had messaged him.
"Lorelai? What does she want?"
After their training sessions had ended, the atmosphere between the two had been, if one were to make it an understatement, awkward. The two rarely ever talked.
It wasn't like during the entrance exams when Lorelai had hated Dignitas. Rather, this time it was for a whole different reason entirely. For reasons unknown to Dignitas, she had silently refused to engage with him more than necessary. It wasn't enough to disrupt assignments when they required each other's teamwork, but still dampening on Dignitas' morale.
________
Lorelai Seraph: Hey, Dignitas.
Dignitas Qwerdan: Hello, Lorelai. Do you need something?
Lorelai Seraph: Can you come over to Class 1-A? I want to show you something. And, bring your sword!
Dignitas Qwerdan: I… okay, I'll be there in a bit.
Lorelai Seraph: I left the door open. Just come right in.
________
"Maybe she's finally going to tell me the reason why she's been giving me the cold shoulder these past few weeks."
And while Dignitas was indeed quite tired, he didn't see a reason as to why he couldn't give a little bit of time for his most favorite woman in the world.
So, after putting on some simple clothes, Dignitas picked up Dainsleif and headed for the Academy building.
***
"Hello… anyone home?" Dignitas said as he pushed open the door to Class 1-A.
The school's hallways were lit up 24/7, making it so that the entire place didn't turn haunted whenever no one was here.
But the same couldn't be said for the classroom lights, however. Those had to be turned on whenever someone wanted to use the room.
So to see the entire area pitch black was not something Dignitas was hoping for. Not thinking too much of it, he reached for the light switch, flicking it on before entering the classroom.
Shutting the door behind him, Dignitas was surprised to find that it couldn't be opened again. What was this, a setting in a horror movie?
"I've caught you now!"
Dignitas turned to the source of the voice. And there she was. Lorelai was standing on one of the chairs in the students' section of the classroom.
Her hand on her bow, Lorelai winked at Dignitas, before firing multiple arrows at his direction.
"These arrows are different from the ones she uses normally. They're… Negative arrows? How'd she manage to get ahold of those?"
Dignitas was psyched to find that Death's Vision wasn't working on the arrows until he found out the reason why. The arrows were releasing a pulse of Negativity affinity that magically nullifed any sort of extrasensory or predictipn magic used on them.
Just to find someone who was attuned to the Negativity affinity was hard enough. It wasn't known as the hardest element to find for a reason. Even moreso to have them enchant the arrows with that very same affinity.
Well, it was probably a piece of cake for someone who was the daughter of the Seraphs.
"I'm thrilled that you decided to spend so much money on me, but this seems a little extreme, no?" Dignitas complained as he deflected the arrows.
Thankfully, Negativity didn't affect Dainsleif's innate ability, as it wasn't magical in nature, but rather a trait that it possessed ever since it was created.
Not that Dignitas would ever use the power to deal wounds that couldn't heal on arrows.
"Shut it! I'm defeating you this time, for real."
Lorelai seemed to really be into this. It was almost like she had been planning this for a while now, and didn't want to mess up a single detail.
"If that's how you're going to be, then I won't be making this easy for you." Dignitas smiled.
"Good, I didn't expect you to," replied Lorelai as she nocked more arrows into her bow.
Once again, she unloaded another volley of Negativity arrows, this time aiming them at different parts of Dignitas' body in order to disorient him.
The sheer number of arrows that she fired normally would've been able to overwhelm the old Dignitas. But unluckily for her, a certain Reality Magic user had just shown itself.
"Reality Construction: Wall."
It was given a different name, but Dignitas' "new" move was still the very same one. This was Affinity Wave, but now imbued with his Reality Magic.
Using Dainsleif, Dignitas drew multiple shapes in the air and sent them flying towards the arrows. They made contact easily, providing cover from the fire and giving Dignitas enough time to destroy the others before his structures disappeared.
The arrows had done their job, though. They had momentarily drawn Dignitas attention away from Lorelai, who had taken advantage of this and leapt from her spot in the chairs.
While midair, she drew the sword she had stored on her waist and used it to engage Dignitas in a close range sword fight.
"Whoa… she's already this skilled. I think she has me beat in the swordsmanship department already."
Lorelai's slashes were faster and perhaps almost as deadly as Dignitas.
The swordsman was also able to notice the massive difference in the way Lorelai moved. Unlike before, when her movements were predictable and showy, now they were unpredictable and deadly!
It was as if she had mixed the "blade-dancing" part of John's sword style and fused it with Dignitas' elegant sword style and used it to create her own.
What resulted was an agile, fearless sword style that had fluidity, elegance, and sheer power in all its movements.
"Beautiful…"