The way the administrator looked at Enverna remained on the girl's mind all throughout her walk back to her dorms.
[... Does she know Lianna somehow?] Enverna wondered. [Or, maybe she heard something about her? She had quite the odd reaction to her name.] She tapped a finger against her lips as she walked through the halls, trying to figure this out. [Maybe I should ask Lianna about it.]
Too curious to contain herself, Enverna picked up the pace. She drew the eyes of many of the guild members around her, all of them no doubt eager to sneak a glance at the Rank 3 recruit. The pressure was somewhat stifling, but Enverna had experienced it all her life. This was nothing new.
She arrived at room 2F-109 and briefly paused, her hand hovering over the doorknob.
[She isn't going to be walking around naked or something, is she?] That image from when she'd walked in on her showering was still haunting Enverna.
Erring on the side of caution, Enverna rapped her knuckles against the door.
"Come in," Lianna called out and Enverna breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lianna, I-"
Enverna stopped.
"Hm?" Lianna, who had a lollypop in her mouth, took her eyes off the TV and looked over at the door.
Enverna grimaced.
The girl wasn't naked, but... This wasn't much better. Lianna had on a white tank top and black panties.
That was all. The majority of her body was just out in the open.
"Yeah?" Lianna asked, seeing how Enverna stopped talking.
[... How can Telvan's women be this shameless?]
Getting back on track, Enverna pried her eyes away from the lewd image before her and instead walked over to the kitchen.
Fighting off a blush, she opened the fridge and she said:
"I went to talk to the administrator."
"Oh? What did he say?"
"She," Enverna corrected, pulling out a bottle of water, "said that the Watchful will be bringing an evaluator to our dorm sometime tomorrow, to see how strong we are when we're together. Depending on the results," Enverna continued, pulling a bottle of water out from the fridge and walking back to the couch, "they may put us in the same recruit course and allow us to go on missions together."
Enverna let her head fall back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling.
"That would make things better for me, admittedly," she added.
"... Are you sure the administrator is a woman?" Lianna asked all of a sudden.
"Hm? Yes," Enverna replied. "I just spoke with her."
"I'm guessing she didn't look anything like this, did she?"
Lianna then showed Enverna the pamphlet they'd been given on their first day.
There was a picture on one of the pages showing a bald man with a thick beard and a golden tooth, smiling at the camera. Next to the image were the words, "Administrator Thompson".
"No," Enverna replied. "Uhm... Unless she did a particularly splendid job shaving, shrinking her hips, and losing weight, no. That was not the person I spoke to."
"Hm... Let me look her up, then."
Lianna pulled out her phone and typed something out on it.
All the while, Enverna struggled to keep her eyes from falling on the girl's cinnamon thighs. It was like they had their own gravity.
[Isn't she cold?] Enverna asked in her mind, feeling her own face getting hotter.
"Huh," Lianna said, thankfully halting this little dilemma. "I found an article that mentions that the Watchful's administrator resigned. The guy on the pamphlet. Apparently, he left the Guild like, a couple of days before you and I signed up. But, I can't find anything about the woman who replaced him. Maybe because it happened so recently? I guess we'll have to wait for some news to be made public."
"Ah, I see... Well, in any case, we're going to be evaluated. We should get some rest, just in case they also wish to see us perform somehow."
"Guess so."
---
{Lianna}
The evaluator arrived early the next morning.
A knock on the door woke Lianna up. She'd slept on the couch again. The sun hadn't even fully come up yet. Yawning, the redhead strode to the door carelessly and opened it.
It was, once again, the same man Lianna had seen twice now. The man with the slick black hair, the tux, and the tall hat.
He smiled at Lianna as he stood at the door, holding that familiar machine in his hands.
"Wow," he said, his polite smile never faltering. "What a warm welcome, ma'am!"
Lianna looked down at herself. She was still just in that tank top and the black panties.
[Oh, right. I went to sleep like this.]
"Hold on, let me wake Enverna up," Lianna said, not embarrassed in the slightest.
A short while later, both girls were sitting on the couch, the machine resting atop the coffee table while the man stood before them.
"Could you not have put some clothes on?" Enverna whispered to Lianna.
"Aw, afraid people are gonna look at your wife the wrong way?" Lianna whispered back.
"I-I'm not...!"
"Excuse me," the evaluator cut in, "as amusing as this is, I do have quite a busy schedule. So, if you do not mind, could we get right down to it?"
"Certainly," Enverna responded. "I suppose I should go first, right? You're reevaluating me as well?"
"Indeed. Go right ahead."
Enverna placed her hand atop the machine. Mana began to flow from her fingertips to the object and then to the evaluator.
"Hm... That is indeed quite the increase in power," the evaluator remarked.
Thanks to her Instinct, Lianna saw the same thing he did.
Enverna Alteri
MP: 50/50
---
STR: B-
END: C
DEX: B
MYS: B-
L: D
"Just being near each other damn near gives you the stats of an experienced Player," the evaluator added. "That's, uh, honestly, that's pretty unfair." He laughed, the sound almost seeming nervous in nature. "But, of course, it's you that I really want to look at."
Enverna took her hand off the object. It was now Lianna's turn.
Just to remind herself of her own newfound strength, Lianna looked at her own Status.
Lianna Velcross
MP: 100/100
RP: 10
---
STR: D+
END: D+
DEX: D+
MYS: D+
L: B-
"Hm..."
"Uh," Lianna gave him a nervous smile, "what do you think?"
"With these stats, you're still kind of a liability if you're sharing the same space as the top recruits out in the field."
Lianna looked over at Enverna and saw how disappointed she was to hear that. She really wanted Lianna in that course of hers.
"But," the evaluator added and Enverna got some hope back. "Your Luck went up dramatically! Now, that is something to think about. See," he began to pace from one side of the room to another, as Lianna took her hand off the object, "most people's Luck stats never go past D. Because of that, it's unclear what exactly the Luck attribute even does."
"Really?" Enverna asked.
"Yeah. Some people think it helps you land critical hits more often, others think it only affects crafting. Stuff like blacksmithing and alchemy. Others think it has to do with the quality or quantity of loot," he listed off some of the possibilities. "But, because no one has a high Luck stat, or if they do, they'd declined to share that fact, no one really knows. This buff might just be giving you one of the highest Luck attributes in the world."
Lianna's eyes widened.
Enverna gave her a hopeful look.
[Will this be enough?]
"... No, no, no," the evaluator shook his head. "I can't make this decision on my own." Pulling a circular device out of his pocket, he spun it in circles a few times, pressed a button at the center, and put it to his ear. "Hello? Good morning, Miss. I wanted to consult you with regard to the two recruits you sent me to reevaluate," he said. "Yes, yes, this is about Lianna specifically. While she did get a good increase in most of her attributes, I wouldn't say the buff was significant enough to have her share the field with the high-rank recruits. That said," he continued, "her Luck attribute went through the roof."
There was a pause. The man nodded as he heard the person Lianna assumed was the administrator respond.
"Yes, my thoughts exactly. I figured it could be dangerous, but... Okay, thank you, Miss."
He hung up the call and turned toward them with the same polite smile.
"Okay, here's the deal. Unfortunately, putting you in the high-rank course is still a waste. Because your potential is unchanged, you wouldn't get much use out of training with them. So, you will still be taking the low-rank course."
Enverna instantly deflated, hunching over with disappointment.
"But," he added, "the administrator has decided that maybe you should be allowed to go on missions with Enverna. Mainly, so we can see what exactly your Luck attribute does. Because of that, we will be assigning you to go on a practice mission with someone. Depending on what that person reports to us, you may continue to be allowed to go on missions. Understand?"
"Yes," Lianna answered brightly. "Thanks, sir."
With that, the man walked out of their dorm.
[Not the best way this reevaluation could have gone, but... We'll take it.]
That said, given what she knew about the events The Lover had listed, Lianna had a bad feeling about the mission they'd be assigned.
[I... If the timing ends up being the same...] Lianna thought, getting chills down her spine.
Enverna curled up on the couch, her head nearly falling atop Lianna's shoulder.
"Well," Lianna said to her, as gently as possible, "we might not be able to take courses together, but... At least when we go out on actual missions, we'll be together. Provided that we do well on this 'practice mission'."
"Yes," Enverna replied, "that is the silver lining, but... No," she stood up. "I suppose I should not be too greedy. Lianna," she said, looking down at the girl. "While we may not be able to take our courses together, we can train together in our free time. Could you accompany me to this place's fitness facilities on occasion?"
"Heh..." Lianna chuckled. "Sure."
"What is so funny?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just... My new wife is so well-spoken."
"Ugh," Enverna got up and marched to the bedroom. "Please, refrain from being annoying so early into the day."
"Would you rather I be annoying later?" Lianna replied as Enverna tried to close the door before Lianna could see her red face.
She failed.