"Looks like nobody's coming." Ben said, giving Lehie a self-deprecating smile, while she for her part only looked more and more uncomfortable as the hours passed.
When she came to wake him up this morning she gave him a rundown for the day. First she took down the information from his card for each of the representatives to inspect, after which they would take an hour or so to decide who exactly to approach and what offers they would make. Everyone was to stay in their rooms with their caretakers as they heard out each offer, and afterwards they could go out and discuss where they thought they were going to go with everyone else, in the hopes that they would each choose what would be right for them instead of getting swept away by what any of the more charismatic students picked.
"I'm going to be honest here, your offers probably won't be as good as your classmates unfortunately, just try and keep your expectations in moderation."
When she told him that he hadn't been bothered by her words, it was already clear his skills weren't as incredible as what he had heard from the rest during dinner, but he originally hadn't cared too much. As long as he could find stable work to keep himself alive that should be enough. But here he was a few hours into the interviews, having finished a book on magic with a section on enchanting Lehie had managed to find for him earlier to help pass the first part of the day, and his prospects were looking grim.
"Don't be so negative." She told him, trying to force some cheer into her voice. "There's just a lot of students they probably want to look at first. Someone will come."
He tried to give her a more genuine smile than before and went to re-read a few passages of his book that caught his eye. As he was trying to understand a few of the trickier concepts in it he heard a knock on the door.
"I told you someone would come!" She said, getting up and hurrying to the door.
For his part he was ready to accept whoever it was and whatever they were offering, but his hopes were quickly dashed.
Lehie pulled open the door to greet the representative that should have been behind it, but her face froze at the priest who was there instead.
"All of the representatives are done with their discussions, it's fine to come out and talk to the others about where you are considering now."
"That can't be right." She protested. "Nobody has talked to Ben yet!"
Clearly not expecting this the priest was flustered, looking back and forth between Ben and Lehie, stammering out he was sorry but everyone had already made their offers.
"It's alright, don't worry about it." Ben told them. "It's sad, but it's not exactly shocking is it?"
"It is NOT alright!" Lehie yelled back at him, looking like she may cry from the situation. "Just wait here, I'm going to talk to the head priest."
She rushed out of the room with the other priest in tow and he did as he was told, trying to get back into his book to pass the time while he waited but just couldn't get into it. Instead he ended up laying down in his bed, staring at the ceiling.
It's not like this is shocking, I knew from the moment Lehie first saw my status that things weren't looking good… but not even one person? Not a single one of the dozens of representatives out there thought they would have a use for me?
It was too much. Tossed into this world and apparently unwanted, it was better than being dead on Earth, but it still hurt.
He thought back to Earth and home for a bit. How were his parents doing? His brother? His friends who either didn't go on the trip or were in another class seeing other sights? It had only been a day, at most they would be considered missing now, there was a good chance nobody even knew he died.
He felt himself sinking into a depressive spiral when luckily Lehie came back with someone he hadn't met yet, who looked like what he could describe as a one-eyed lizardman.
"Hello Ben, we haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet, my name is father Yan." He said, introducing himself with an elegant bow. "Lehie has appraised me of your… situation. It's unfortunate, but we can't compel a nation to take you, nor should we. Wouldn't want you to suffer any unreasonable treatment as a result. We can however let you stay at the church for as long as you like, until you are ready to venture into the world yourself. Of course we will also provide you with the funds promised if you had chosen to leave instead of helping. It may not feel like much after what these few days have brought you but it should be of some help. Of course if you want to talk to your classmate's dinner will be served soon, you can always discuss your options with them."
"Thank you, I'll try to give it some proper thought." It was nice to hear he wasn't being tossed into the wilds immediately, but he was still feeling disparaged. The thought of seeing his classmates made him feel even more uncomfortable right now, talking to everyone who apparently had worth that he couldn't offer, but he needed to at least tell his friends what was going on, and for that matter find out what they would be doing themselves.
Working up his willpower he got out of bed and left to get some food.
"What do you mean you didn't get an offer!" Steph yelled as soon as he explained what happened to her and Will. He was glad she cared enough to be outraged and all, but now all of his classmates were looking at him with faces of shock, confusion, and pity as they started to mutter amongst themselves.
"Wait, he didn't get an offer?"
"I thought I heard him say his skills weren't great yesterday, but just how bad are they?"
"Isn't that too sad."
"Feel like he maybe didn't want to have everyone aware of that Steph." Will reprimanded her. "So what will you do?"
"He'll come with me! I got plenty of the representatives offering to accommodate me however they could, getting you to come shouldn't be that hard." She told them, trying to ignore the looks she caused to sprout up everywhere.
"Thanks but I'm going to pass on that, I think being baggage will actually be worse than sticking out here on my own. Besides the church offered to let me stay here until I figure out what I want to do, and they'll even provide me with some money when I do, it won't be so bad."
"But you'll be alone!"
"Well then you guys will just have to visit me when you get some breaks."
Steph still didn't seem happy about any of that, and Will was at a loss as to what to do as well. Eventually they just had to accept his choice, even if they didn't like it at all.
Things had quieted down around the table as they were talking, people couldn't help but be curious about his situation, but eventually it all picked up again as he focused on his meal.
They all talked about their offers and what each representative would provide or where they would be going, some of them having abilities so impressive or important that nations actually decided to share them, just to ensure they would get the best training they could.
He only got snippets of conversation as he tried to focus on his food, but it was enough to make him want to crawl into bed again and just hide from the world for a while.