'Saturday's trip was so worth it!', I thought looking at Amaranth, my new and overpowered staff as I was sweating from just standing up in my dorm room.
Well, I wasn't JUST standing there, I was also increasing my own weight several folds using gravity magic, so that the efficiency of the training would be maximized.
I can now comfortably go like this for an hour before running out of mana and stamina. I can then just use Amaranth to regain my mana as soon as possible, cast an energy magic spell to lessen the pain caused my anaerobic respiration throughout my body and rest for 10 minutes, before going another hour.
I would usually just do this 3 to 4 times before completely exhausting myself.
As I was resting from my 2nd round, I heard my phone ringing, which startled me quite a bit.
I was shocked to see who it was calling me.
'Evangeline?', I thought.
I had saved her number on my phone as 'Vampire Villain', because of her appearance.
That was quite cringelord-like of me, but its easier to remember it that way. I am very bad at remembering names, after all.
I picked up the phone and answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Uhh, hello, Samuel... How are you today?"
"I'm just fine, thanks. But why did you call me? need something?", I was as polite as possible. I felt bad about last time, when she almost cried because of me.
"Umm... C-can you come to the entrance of block 346 tomorrow, after school...?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. But why, though?"
"Just be there, okay! I need to ask you something! I can't ask it to you over phone!"
"Huh... okay, then. I'll be there. Do I need to bring something with me?"
"No, just your regular school stuff."
"Kay. Anything else?"
"Umm... h-how did you l-like my gift...?"
"Oh, the cup? its great! I use it everyday now! I seriously didn't think you had that kind of creativity while giving gifts!"
"Haha... glad to hear it... Goodbye, Samuel."
"Yeah, bye."
'Why did she sound so happy when I told her that I liked her gift...?', I wondered.
'Also, I have no clue why she called me out to that specific block...'
'Whatever. Its probably something dumb.'
I paid it no mind as I kept training away inside my dorm room.
----- the next day (Monday)----
'Today's the day I meet up with Evangeline again...', I thought as the last period of classes were close to being over.
As soon as the last period was over, I immediately started walking towards the place she mentioned.
It was the time when most of the students went to the training grounds or the labs to study more.
I usually just go back to my dorm and do my special training.
I arrived at the place after Evangeline. I saw her standing in front of a light post, fidgeting and talking to herself. She looked very nervous.
"Hey! I'm here!"
"Huh? Oh, thanks for coming!"
"Umm... The reason I called you out here today..."
"Go on."
"I-I wanted to ask you..."
"Yes?"
"If-If we c-could train together..."
"What?"
"Well, I figured that it would be a win-win situation for the both of us, right?"
"Yeah... But I can't risk showing my Skill to anyone else."
"Thats why! I have an idea..."
"What is it?"
"I actually own a warehouse not far from here... And its pretty secure with high-level security enchantments guarding it... We could go there and do our business... of course, if you don't mind that...", She couldn't look me in the eye while saying these words.
'Is she afraid I'll reject her? I mean, for her, this is a pretty big deal... If she gets an opponent who has her weakness, she'll grow much stronger than if she trains alone...'
"Hmm. Sure. I'll bite. Should we go there now?"
"*Sigh... I knew it... of course you don't want- WAIT, YOU AGREED?!"
"Yeah, got a hearing problem?"
"N-No, I don't... I just didn't expect you to accept it so easily..."
"Why not?"
"Well, because of all the bad blood I have with... well, pretty much everyone else..."
"hmm... I could care less about some baseless stuff like that. I'm a businessman. When I see my profit, I bite. And here, I see a lot of profit. So, count me in."
"...", she remained silent for a few seconds before replying, "...Pfft... 'Businessman'... Pfft... HAHAHAHA, WHAT ARE YOU, A CHUNNIBIOU?!"
'Shit! She got me!'
"Shut up. I'm not lying."
"Hhahah... Phew... thanks for accepting my offer, Samuel... I really mean it..."
"Your welcome,"
"Let's not waste any more time here. Follow me."
After that little friendly exchange, we started walking towards the exit of the academy.
Although, moments after we started walking, I felt uneasy about something. Like, something that wasn't supposed to be there, was suddenly there...
Instinctually, I activated Concentration, and I immediately found something that didn't fit in place.
"Evangeline... I think we're being followed... Don't react, okay?"
Evangeline was startled by this revelation but didn't let herself lose her composure.
"I don't think they're much stronger than us... But I don't want to risk them ambushing us, so as soon as I say 'go', ready yourself to attack, okay?"
"Hm.", she nodded.
We both suddenly stopped dead on our tracks, and I was the one to speak up.
"You filthy stalkers... are you out of you minds?"
"Come out... now."
Me and Evangeline were on our guards. I was ready to use gravity magic if the situation wasn't in our favor and we had to run.
Slowly, a bush started to shake. And then I saw two people materializing out of thin air. It was probably an invisibility artifact.
But that wasn't what surprised me... It was the persons who came out of the invisibility.
"Sophia.... and Julian...?", Evangeline broke the silence.
Sophia looked on guard, while Julian just looked like he was extremely uncomfortable and was cringing hard inwardly. He looked very apologetic.
"Why... are you guys stalking us...?", I asked the duo, my concentration was still active, so I didn't show any hint of astonishment or emotion.
This time, Sophia was the one to answer, "We... were making sure our friend, Eve, was safe..."
'Hah? What?! That's it?! She was trying to cockblock me!'
"hrrrrnnn... YOU MORON! WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS LIKE THIS?!?!", Evangeline shouted out loud.
She looked very serious when shouting these words as I could see small tear droplets forming on the side of her eyes.
"Eve... I just wanted to-"
"Enough! You're always like this! Getting in my way, saying you want to 'Protect' me... Just mind your own business for once!...", she looked like she would start crying any second now.
"Eve... I do this for your own good! Why can't you understand? And... if you wanted to train with someone, why not ask us?! Why did you go to some weird and shady guy like him?!"
"YOU BITCH! HOW DARE YOU!?!?!", she was now more angry and sad.
"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING HIM! HOW COULD YOU CALL HIM THAT WHEN YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HIM?!"
"People like you... you're the ones who made my childhood a living hell... and now you're trying to get in my way when I finally found something that gave me a chance to grow stronger?! Something that didn't make me feel like complete garbage?! something that... makes me happy...?", she continued.
Julian was now more confused than ever. He knew little to nothing about Evangeline's past and her origins. Sophia never told him. And whenever he asked her, she would either discourage him to know, or change the subject.
"S-Sophia... I think... We should leave them alone for now..."
"NO! What are you saying, Julian?! I can't just let Eve go with that guy!"
"B-But... She clearly made up her mind about going with him..."
"I don't care! I don't like that guy! I don't want Eve following him!"
"*Sigh... what are we supposed to do then...?"
"... I have an idea... Eve wants to grow stronger, right? and that's why she picked him as her training partner, right?"
"...Yeah...?"
"So, all we have to do is to show her that, that boy is weak! If she sees how weak he is, She'll definitely lose interest in him! After all, that's how Eve has always been from childhood! A selfish brat!"
Julian didn't like that idea, since he was sure Sophia would make him do the fighting. But, he was compelled to, since this way, he could swiftly get rid of the debt he owes her.
Amongst all this, my brain was on overdrive.
'This is a huge deviance from the main storyline...'
'If what I'm seeing and what Evangeline said is true... a lot of the blame for Evangeline's fall was on Sophia... WAIT!', I just had a huge realization.
'In the novel, the relationship between Julian and Sophia grew more intimate when they were both being sabotaged and attacked by Evangeline... so, now that she isn't attacking them anymore, their relationship hasn't progressed at all! which means... Whatever Julian is doing is strictly to repay his debt to Sophia. And if he complies with this one request of hers, he will have completely repaid his debt to Sophia and will no longer be interested in her! After all, Julian isn't as good a guy as he seems. He is a selfish, ruthless, merciless, downright psychopathic bastard who can kill humans without even batting an eye...'