“I…I’m sorry…” After Maria came to her senses she apologized.

“It’s all right; is that what you want to hear? Well it’s not all right, I was scared and my left arm is still shaking.”

We were still on the bed. Maria was on her knees and I was lying on the bed. After I blocked her attack I was unable to move, maybe the stunt I pulled was more than my body could handle.

“I…don’t know what to say. When I realized I fell asleep next to you I thought that maybe I will get over my fear of men.”

“And that almost got my killed. Good thing I’m on the bed or else I would regret the fact that I can’t move a lot more.”

Maria seemed to be in deep thought. She really screwed up but I want her to keep trying, I don’t want her to have this fear of men for the rest of her life.

“Alex, I think we should forg-“

“NO!”

I got up, put my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye.

“I will not forget about this. By the end of this week you will be cured of that phobia of yours.”

Maria brushed me off and turned to leave.

“You aren’t the first who tried but you are the last. It’s over.”

She left after rejecting my offer. So much for helping a person, now this is personal and I’m going to make it work…somehow.

I have almost six days to prove her I can help her but how can I do it?  I just realized that she left the room without changing her clothes.

Since she left me alone in her room it means I can look through her stuff and she can’t complain later.  While looking through her wardrobe I noticed that there are no bras in this world but the shirts are designed to support the breasts, the underwear was the same for both sexes and she didn’t have any sexy clothes, just the plain ones she always wears. Better grab a change of clothes and look for Maria.

If I remember correctly there was a classroom on the second floor Maria wanted to check today. I plan on staying glued to her today, see how that’s going to work out.”

Damn, it’s freezing; coming from somebody who used to wear a T-shirt in winter it means a lot, I’d better find Maria and give her the clothes.

It sure didn’t take me long to find her, she was in the classroom looking through the window. Seeing a teacher in pajamas looking through the window at the snow is quite an interesting set-up. She wanted me to forget about what happened and yet she is the one distracted but what happened; it’s actually funny.

“Are you sure this is a good time to be spacing out?”

“Alex?”

Maria was surprised, this is the second time I’ve seen her surprised; this is affecting her more than I thought.

“Why are you so surprised, I just came here to give you a change of clothes?”

“What are you…? Oh, thanks.”

I gave her the clothes I prepared. After she received them she looked at me like she wanted something.

“Is there something you want?”

“I’m going to change now, go wait outside.”

“Nope, I will stay right there on top of that desk.”

I sat on the top of a desk from the front row. I want to see how much I can piss her off until she gives up.

“Suit yourself; I’m not going to play your games.”

That’s what she said but I still get to watch her undress. I have to admit she was beautiful. When she was putting on her underwear I noticed something, if I’m right that’s a scar. Was it made by a knife? I got off the desk to get a closer look. The scar seemed old. When I tried to touch it Maria turned around; she was angry.

“Don’t touch that!”

I could see that she was shaking a little. I really want to know the story behind that scar of hers. A scar that size must have a story behind it.

“Are you going to follow me around today?”

“Yep, this week you are stuck with me.”

“Humph, try to keep up.”

“For someone who couldn’t detect me you really are confident, challenge accepted.”

Maria prepared some meat for us to eat for breakfast. I stayed next to her the whole time making sure to neglect the personal space that should be between us. After breakfast I stayed with Maria while she was working.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Not really no; I like watching you work.”

“If you have time for games you can use it for studying!”

She was getting annoyed, not that I should care.

“We are on a break; the purpose of a break is to rest.”

“Humph.”

 She really doesn’t give up; at least I found something interesting to do.

After lunch Maria went to Liliana’s office to talk about some other papers we didn’t get to finish yesterday. Liliana noticed my suspicious behavior and she wanted to know the reason behind all this. The easiest way for me to escape is to tell Liliana what happened and hope that she will approve of my plan. So I told her what happened last night and the idea I had.

“I’m not really sure about this. I tried helping her before but it didn’t work out, she almost left.”

“That’s why I’m trying; Maria came to me first which means that she thought there is hope. Just let me try.”

“You are the only man she has gotten close to, I don’t want her to return to the way she was before.”

I was getting pissed.

“Let me do this! I only need a week, that’s all I’m asking. If after this week things go wrong I will master the whole curriculum and leave as soon as I can; I will graduate and you won’t need to break your promise with Ellen!”

“But it’s still…Fine; I will leave Maria to you.”

“Thank you, really thank you for understanding.”

“Humph; why do I get the feeling that my response didn’t matter in the least?”

I didn’t answer Liliana’s question, instead I smiled then left the room.  Now I just have to find Maria……Oh well, the weather is too harsh to go outside so she’s got to be in the building; it’s Oculus time. I drew the mark using my black blood and activated Oculus. Apparently she was in the basement; makes sense, it’s the only place she wasn’t supposed to go to.

I understand all that running away thing but I don’t understand why she is so distracted or maybe my plan is actually working. The spell is going to disappear soon so it’s time to move.

“What are you looking at?”

“I’m checking the cells again.”

“If I give you a few minutes can you come up with a better lie, something I can actually believe?”

“This is your fault!”

She got angry and left. I followed her for the rest of the day while ignoring anything she had to say.

The night came and I waited for Maria in her room, I hope she realizes this isn’t going to end today. When she came into the room she looked surprised she saw me.

“You should have expected this.”

“I’m too tired for this, at least let me sleep.”

She changed her clothes and went on bed. She was facing the wall to avoid looking at me so I took the chance to hug her from behind.

“Hey, let me go!”

“Hah, make me.”

When I hugged her my dark transfer ability informed me that she was fatigued both mentally and physically so she doesn’t have the strength to get away from me.

Throughout the night she stared shaking multiple times. I have to be careful; if she starts shaking too much then something bad happened but if she isn’t shaking then something even worse might happen, that’s way I spent my night in a semi-meditative state.

The next morning I let her go and started the whole thing all over again. This time Maria didn’t even talk to me, she tried to avoid me. It’s a good thing that she is distracted; it makes her sloppy and easy to find.

“Can you leave me alone?”

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“No.”

“How can you even keep up with me?”

“You are getting sloppy; it makes you easier to track down.”

“I will stop being sloppy then.”

She disappeared from the classroom… Wait, she used Shadow Dash to get away from me; it’s on now.

Today was a big game of cat and mouse, only stopping to eat and to rest. After she saw what we were doing Liliana stopped giving a fuck about this and ignored us.

Maria tries her best to escape but she knows that I will find her with Oculus so she is always ready to run if I corner her and unfortunately she is still too fast for me.

“Aren’t you getting tired of it?”

“I promised to help you and all but honestly I’m having fun right now, for the past three days I saw another side of you, your human side.”

She laughed; when she laughs like that it means she’s got a plan.

“Try keeping up with me then.”

I spent the next few days running after her; it was very tiring. That scar on her back kept bugging me; I’m going to ask her what really happened.

Friday morning when Maria was about to leave the room I grasped her hand.

“Tell me about that scar!”

“I have nothing to talk about, let me go.”

“No!”

“Let me go, that hurts.”

It should, that’s why I increased my strength.

“Tell me.”

“Even if I tell you, there’s nothing you can do about it, the scars that remain after a sacrificial ritual can’t be healed with magic.”

“Sacrificial ritual, you are talking about dark magic.”

“My last assassination target was Liliana. When I failed the leader of the organization decided to use me as a sacrifice to summon a demon to take my place. I felt like my body was going to split in half. Liliana came with the intent to destroy the organization for good. After seeing what they were doing to me she decided to stop the ritual and help me. She was kind enough to heal me and made me her pupil. Was any of this any help?”

“The scar has nothing to do with you fear of men. Well it’s completely irrelevant but I can try removing that.”

“I thought I told you that magic is useless.”

“Well I’m stupid so just let me be. Undress now!”

When I said it in a firm tone Maria did what I said without saying anything, it looked like a slave obeying a command from her master. When I touch the scar I realized that it wasn’t just the aftermath of the ceremony, it was also a mark. My scan results say that another ceremony can be performed on her, without the use of another mark or rune. If someone catches her, they can summon a demon on the spot.

I used dark transfer on her. I got rid of her scar, now I just have to spend two days with a sacrifice mark on my body; how hard could that be?

“Done!”

“Are you serious?”

She looked in the mirror. She couldn’t take her eyes off the spot the scar was trying to convince herself that she isn’t seeing an illusion. When she saw my reflection in the mirror she regained her composure.

“This doesn’t count; be careful, you are running out of time.”

“That’s why I said that the scar’s irrelevant.”

I spent the day running after her again. In the beginning I was having fun and now she is having fun seeing me try. In the evening Maria had to go to Liliana to talk about the pet demon we will be getting.

“Maria, you can go ahead, there’s something I want to discuss with Alex.”

“Understood.”

“But you can’t…”

Maria literally disappeared, now she’s getting another head start.

“What do you want from me?”

“I understand that you have Maria’s sacrifice mark on your back.”

Wait, what?

“How did you…”

Liliana pointed at her eyes. I don’t… Oh wait, Ellen told me about the time when she lost her vision and Liliana performed a dark magic ritual on her to help her.

“Is it because of that ritual… the one you also did for Ellen?”

“Yes, because of it I could monitor what happens with Maria; Now I’m more worried about you.”

“If I use all my magic and let my body focus on the mark I can get rid of it by tomorrow.”

“From what Ellen told me you can’t get rid of a curse that easily.”

“My magic pool increased at least two times since that day, and this isn’t a curse so it’s fine.”

“Because the mark was just an after effect?”

“Yeah, either way nothing bad is going to happen.”

“If that’s you believe then we can move on to our next issue; how’s Maria?”

“She’s enjoying herself and I’ve almost run out of things to do, I’m thinking of giving up.”

“Are you sure?”

“Unfortunately yes, that’s what I think.”

“I think you still have a chance, keep trying today and you can give up tomorrow.”

“I don’t see the point but fine.”

“Then you can go. Oh, I think Maria might be in her room, search there first.”

“Okay, I will.”

As Liliana said, I found Maria in her room in her pajamas. The pocket watch in The Null showed that it was about ten o’clock, it’s not bedtime yet.

“Are you going to sleep?”

“It was an exhausting week.”

“Then I will sleep with you.”

I went to sleep next to Maria. Since I will be out due to magic exhaustion she will get a good night’s sleep.

When I woke up I noticed I was pinned down by Maria, apparently I became a body pillow for her. Her sleeping face is really cute…and she’s not shaking anymore which means I won.

When Maria woke up she saw me with a stupid smile on my face.

“Good… morning.” I was trying so hard not to laugh I couldn’t even talk properly.

“Good morning; what’s with that face?”

I took a few deep breaths.

“I won.” I said with a smug look on my face.

“What are you talking…? Huh?”

It took her a while to realize that she looked like a sloth in a tree.

“So it wasn’t a dream?”

“A dream; what are you talking about?”

“I woke up around midnight and when I saw you here I just acted without thinking.”

“It’s a good thing right?”

“For you it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“I underestimated you and the moment I let my guard down you won.”

“This means you are okay with me now.”

“Yes.” said Maria with a big smile on her face.