'She looks pissed,' Zaroth cursed himself in his mind as he sat down in the chair. 'Whatever, I'll just bullshit my way out of this… hopefully unscratched.'
Sitting down in the chair, he looked at Elysia, who had comfortably leaned back, her eyes closed, most likely thinking about how to approach the situation.
"Zaroth," she said, looking him in the eyes. It seemed she was done thinking.
"Yes?" he replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.
"So, may I know why you got drunk on the first day of the academy?" she asked, her eyes becoming darker, clearly not pleased with his actions.
'Okay, think about this rationally. She can sense when a person is lying, so the best way to get out of this situation is probably to tell the truth, but change it a little.'
"It was necessary for completing the mission you gave me," he said, straightening his back and meeting her gaze. Despite being scared out of his wits, he tried to appear calm and composed.
Seeing that he had indeed not lied, Elysia raised an eyebrow before saying, "Explain."
"Well, I have to win that tournament, right? But to do that, I need information. As I'm sure you already know, I didn't have the most normal childhood, so as a result, I'm missing some basic knowledge. On my first day, I met two individuals who have the potential to reach incredible power, and I thought the best course of action would be to befriend them."
After he finished speaking, he gulped loudly, waiting to see his fate.
"So let me get this straight," Elysia said, placing both of her hands on the desk and leaning forward.
"To befriend these individuals, you first attracted the attention of everyone present in the stadium, including the emperor's family, by not following the unwritten rules, and that same day, you went and got drunk with them?"
He gulped again before answering, "Yeah, pretty much."
Elysia sighed before answering, "I see… well, if you judge these two people worthy, then I guess it was worth it. Just don't lose sight of the original goal, you have to win the tournament and prevent that marriage from happening."
"Um, about that…" he began. "Between who should I prevent the marriage? Yesterday, I learned that the emperor has multiple daughters, not to mention there are thousands of students who will try their luck in the tournament."
"You don't have to worry about that," she stood up, most likely getting ready to escort him out. "There will be a lot of enemies, but if you just win the tournament, you will have prevented what I don't want to happen."
Seeing that he was free to go, he stood up as well, intending to leave, until he stopped. He wanted to ask a question but was wondering if it was a smart idea.
'No,' Luna's voice immediately answered for him. 'You've been forgiven, so don't jinx it by asking THAT question again.'
'She is absolutely right,' he thought. It was a stupid thing to ask… but he was leaving for a stupid reason to begin with—his desires, so…
Turning around, he met the gaze of Elysia, who seemed to have sensed that he was about to ask something.
"Can you answer my question?"
"What question?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You know, the one that I wrote to you when I was drunk."
Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to remember what he was talking about until she remembered.
'But I find this incredibly hot… Tell me… are you single?'
"Are you serious?" she asked him, her anger seemingly reappearing.
"Absolutely." He responded instantly, almost surprising Zaroth himself.
After reconsidering whether she should answer or not, she sighed and said,
"Zaroth, do you have any idea how many hours I work every single day? Even if there was someone that I liked or who dared to approach me, I simply don't have time for such things."
"I see," he said as he exited the room. Soon after, the door closed behind him, a cheerful voice was heard screaming in the hallway. Elysia heard it clearly, of course, though it wasn't because of her enhanced hearing—it was just that Zaroth was so excited, his scream was hard to miss.
"FUCK YEAAAAA—"
*****
'Pay more attention,' Luna said to Zaroth, who was currently comfortably sitting in his seat, lost in thought.
'Don't wanna,' he answered. 'This is beyond boring.'
After the talk with Elysia, he had gone to the rest of the classes but was suffering from something terrible—boredom.
'The professors simply don't know how to teach! Something that could be explained in a sentence, they take more than 20 minutes to discuss!' he complained.
With no other option, he had to endure what seemed like an endless torture.
After the lecture was done, the next class was physical training. Unlike the lecture, Zaroth waited it with excitement.
The bald instructor again made them run fifty laps around the track.
"Do you know why the only thing you're doing in my classes is running, maggots?!" the bald man shouted at the running students.
"Sir! No, sir!" they answered in unison.
"Because stamina is most important to survive! No matter how strong, if you can't fight for a long time, you die. No matter how fast, if you can't run for a long time, you die!"
"So you better be grateful, maggots!"
"Sir! We are grateful, sir!"
After the running was done, everyone was too exhausted to continue, and they went to shower. Afterward, Zaroth and Zack met up with Roran for lunch, where they talked about nothing in particular.
"Now, Zaroth was excited because he was going to have a class he hadn't managed to attend on the first day."
This was, personally, the class that interested him the most—Familiarization with Specific Classes.
Here, he would not only be able to learn more about his own class as a Beast Tamer, but he would also learn a lot about the other classes, which should come in handy when battling against other students.
As he sat at the back and patiently waited, a short woman with glasses entered the room. She was clearly the teacher, though it was surprising because she might be the youngest teacher Zaroth had seen at this academy.
"Hello, students," she said, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
"Due to the sudden announcement, yesterday's classes were canceled, so we have some material we need to catch up on."
She said as she placed her book on her desk.
"So, without further ado, let the Familiarization with Specific Classes begin!"