Amanda felt like shit.

The walk from the dorm to the cafeteria was, to her, a walk of shame. How could she be that dumb? That blind to what was going on between Freddy and Robert? The Taulusian hounds were sentient. Yeah, it made sense, now that she thought of it. And that was the problem. She hadn't thought of it before Robert basically shoved the truth in her face.

No. That thought was wrong.

Robert forced nothing upon her. She was a guest at his apartment, and she behaved callously and rudely. She should apologize. Yet, when she looked at Robert's face, she froze. The damage was done, and the relationship was strained. She had no idea what she should do and her self-defense instincts were telling her to go on the offensive.

No. Her instincts were wrong.

She filled her lungs, then exhaled in a long sigh. Robert stopped walking and looked at her. She wanted to flinch and run away. Fight was not an option, pushing the blame onto him was not an option, and fleeing was not an option. So she picked the only choice she had left.

"Can I compensate you in any way?"

She offered to negotiate a settlement. Her olive branch was rejected. Robert scowled and turned away.

"No," he said staring at a particularly boring tree. "There's nothing either one of us can do until Freddy decides to accept help. But thanks for the offer."

He didn't mean it. She was losing him. Next thing, he would quit his job, and leave the Academy, and her granny would assign some elite two-stars who would hinder her growth forever. And she would become a farmer instead of the heir to the conglomerate.

"Robert..."

He turned back. "On second thought, there's one thing. Can we buy more Taulusian refugees? Perhaps Freddy's parents and siblings? Maybe we can make a sanctuary for them where they can live their lives in peace. Away from humans. Sheltered if they want to."

They what? Amanda's mind fizzled and shut down. They stopped walking.

"Give me a second to think, please?"

"Sure," he said dryly.

Could they? Yes. But it would take time. The waiting line for... buying them sounded so wrong now! Everyone wanted their own camouflaged alien dog. Slave, pet, refugee, the concepts blurred in Amanda's mind. She saw Freddy shivering in absolute dread. She saw herself cheerfully asking the vestige and then Robert just vanishing. She felt mad at him at that moment but now she felt mad at herself.

"It would be very hard. The waitlist has too many influential people. They all want a Taulusian hound."

"I see."

She let him down. Amanda didn't know what else to do.

"Robert."

"Yes?"

She dipped her head. "I got so carried over finding the – thing – that I didn't notice how it affected both of you."

It was as close as she could get to a full apology. Not that she was too proud to give one but it was pretty useless. Apologies were empty words that did not solve the issue. Robert was angry at her and Freddy was having a panic attack. Was she that much of a monster? Of a bitch? As Robert reacted to her statement, she could see the pain returning to his face, and then getting slowly pushed down to form a half-smile.

"You're welcome, Amanda. It was not your fault."

It seemed he took her statement as an apology regardless. But it also seemed to have lifted his mood a bit so she'd take the minor win. But it totally was her fault. Now his dismissal made her feel like a villain. He should yell at her, tell her how much of a bad person she was. And yet, he replied with kindness. She wanted him to dump some of that pain on her, so she could share it. So she wouldn't be... left out.

Amanda wanted to scream at herself. How selfish could she get?

"Did you hear the last thing I said?" Robert asked.

What? Had she spaced out so much that she tuned him out? The self-doubt was killing her. She tried the last thing she remembered hearing. "You said it was not my fault."

"Yes."

She didn't reply. They walked a bit more in awkward silence.

"It's okay. Everything happened too suddenly." Robert said.

"No, I should have paid more attention to Freddy's distress."

And do not think of him as a pet or a dumb animal. Goodness, what was wrong with her? At this point she was getting sick of herself, going around in circles like that.

"Everybody makes mistakes. These, at least, can be fixed. We need to come up with a way to get through this shell Freddy built around himself."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The duvet bun was cute. Wait. No. Stop that. It was a serious matter.

"Perhaps you should learn what the – thing – does," She suggested.

"I need Freddy's permission."

"Didn't he say you could keep it?"

"Not with these words," Robert remarked bitterly. "And I want him to make an informed choice, not something decided under duress. He fears the thing. But I'll look into it."

They stopped talking because they were approaching the cafeteria. Too many students around to overhear their conversation. Amanda felt relieved, and then guilty because of that.

*

*

Robert wasn't expecting the luxury of the Imperial Academy dining experience.

The cafeteria seemed more like a fancy restaurant. The usual line to get food on a tray was nowhere to be found. Instead, a hostess in an Academy staff uniform greeted them. Amanda flashed her student ID and the woman immediately escorted them to a table.

As they walked past the other tables, some students stared at Robert, whispering something to their table mates after reaching whatever conclusion with their observations. He overheard some of them. They thought him too old to be a student. It hurt even though he knew he looked more like a younger teacher than a student. Robert tried to ignore them but the whole Freddy situation left him sensitive.

They climbed a flight of stairs to an area that was even more luxurious. The space between the tables was wider and the furniture was fancier. They sat by a corner window with a view to a garden to the side of the cafeteria and the front, where they could people-watch all they wanted. The windows blocked the harsh part of sunlight, making the ambiance just right.

"May I take your orders?" The hostess produced two leather-covered menus.

"I want the usual," Amanda said, not even looking at hers. Instead, she looked at him. "You can order whatever you want."

Robert opened the menu. It didn't have prices but he wasn't expecting any. The scholarship he got from Jeremiah was all-inclusive.

"I want the steak with black garlic butter, chicken fricassee, eggplant Parmesan, penne Alfredo with arugula, the lucky sushi boat for four, spicy buffalo wings, and a side of fries."

He caught the hostess letting a little eyebrow twitch escape.

"you forgot the drinks," Amanda said with a muffled chuckle. "Bring him a grape juice jug. The big one."

Drinks were limited to water, juice, or soda. No alcohol in sight. Even though every single student was an Archhuman with higher-than-average resistance to alcohol or nigh immunity.

"Of course, Miss. Your order will come shortly," The hostess did a slight bow and left.

Amanda laughed, "I'm looking forward to seeing you eating all that."

Robert smiled back. He wasn't in the mood for small talk or trying to drown his worries with fancy cuisine. He needed the calories for his tempering technique.

*

*

Someone decided to ruin their experience halfway through their lunch, or more precisely, Robert's lunch. Amanda had finished hers before the penne Alfredo even though she tried to pace her lunch to the slowest speed possible.

Pablo rushed through the top floor like a bull in a china shop, despite the protests of the restaurant staff chasing after him. Several of the young masters and ladies on the floor complained about him.

Robert remembered a quote from a xianxia book. Cultivators only go to restaurants to court or to court death. It seemed it was the latter for him. Because he had zero romantic prospects in his life. Yes, sir, zero.

"You!" He shouted as he pointed at Robert and slammed a fish on the table, spilling some juice on the tablecloth. Where did he get that fish? Was it some Academy joke?

Robert ignored the fuming seafood-wielding white knight as he used his napkin to stop the red spill from seeping and dripping down the table. That stain would be awfully difficult to remove. Both stains, actually. Only when he was satisfied the liquid was contained did he address the guy.

"Me. How may I help you?" He deadpanned as he stared into Pablo's eyes.

For a moment, he thought Pablo would throw the fish at him. Damn, what a waste of a perfectly seared fish. Instead, Pablo dropped the fish and pointed at him, hand dripping gravy on Robert's sushi. He hadn't yet reached that one and now it was ruined with greasy gravy. Sauce. Whatever the fish was coated with.

"You cast a spell on me."

Amanda's lips were twitching. Whether she was suppressing her laughter or angry, Robert knew not. Everything was too confusing. He scanned the floor and found an oval silver platter with a bed of greens that was conspicuously empty. It was also on the way between the stairs and their table. Oh, so that's where the fish came from.

"Answer me!"

"You allowed it. Not the wisest choice, but..."

Foresight predicted an attack. Robert activated haste and thought acceleration on himself. The bucket of spicy buffalo wings flew at him. He dodged backward and slammed a hand on the window, pulling it open just in time for the bucket to fly out of the cafeteria. Damn. He hoped it wouldn't fall on someone. But once more, every student was an Archhuman. Even if a falling bucket of spicy wings could harm any of them, they had plenty of healers to go around. And the blame would fall on Pablo anyway.

Amanda reacted. She took the pitcher with grape juice and splashed it in Pablo's direction, shouting something. In his hasted state, It was hard to understand. And Robert had bigger problems, namely the fact that his chair was tipping backward and he was about to fall on his back in a rather humiliating way. He could use his talent to avoid it but he didn't want to expose his abilities to Pablo this early in the game.

He instead let gravity do its thing. Robert tucked his legs and prepared to use the fall's momentum to roll back on his feet. It would be a badass move if he didn't kick the table, tossing everything on it toward the other side which, unfortunately, had a very important girl sitting there.

Fuck.

Not exposing himself to Pablo was one thing, Letting Amanda take a bath of Alfredo sauce, grape juice, and whatever else was on that table was another thing. He triggered his talent and shifted to the liminal void. His chair went with him, and so did the table. Things struck a dark graphite Amanda and seeped down. Robert exhaled and groaned, his acrobatic tumbling maneuver aborted. Fucking hell. He waited for a few minutes. Now that he was in the liminal void, he had plenty of time to think and strategize.

Robert stood up. He checked Pablo and saw that half the grape juice was on him, the other half still in flight. He was staring at Amanda with a shocked expression. He picked up the table and everything else. The incident solved one question for him. He had the tablecloth and everything else that was on the table there with him in the liminal void. His talent counted the whole package as a single thing in contact with him. Some of the contents spilled over real-world Amanda but the stuff was in the liminal void. It wouldn't shift into the real world unless he was touching it. Which he totally didn't intend to do.

He summoned his clockwork timepiece. The time since he last used his talent back at his apartment was about an hour and a half, giving him six days and three hours of liminal void time. Robert straightened his chair. Then he remembered something.

Peeking over the window, he found the grayscale bucket of wings sitting on a bush. He sighed, relieved. It hadn't hit anyone.

Sitting on the chair, he poured over the school manuals, guidebooks, and the rules to see how many ways he could screw Pablo over before their duel.