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The next morning arrived uneventfully, as Paul slowly opened his eyes, noticing that the alarm had not rung and that he was thirty minutes later than usual.

“Shit!”

He ran towards the bathroom to wash his face, taking a quick warm shower, before running out, getting his clothes, and barely drying his hair.

“Mom, why didn’t you wake me up?! I’m late!”

“O-Oh? Sorry about that! I thought it was your free day.”

“That’s at the end of the week though!”

“Ahahaha! Come on, take some pastries at least, here.”

His mother quickly gave him a bag full of muffins, donuts, and baked bread with butter and cheese, which Paul quickly saved inside of his backpack.

“Thanks mom, take care.”

“Yeah! Hurry! See ya for dinner!”

“Sure.”

Paul ran to college as quickly as humanly possible, ending up taking another twenty minutes anyway and barely making it in time when all the students were already entering the classroom.

Although unlike high schools, in college a professor won’t reprimand you if you come later or if you even are absent at all, but Paul was still a “good student,” so the very thought of coming late still kind of killed him inside.

He sighed in relief after sitting down, looking at his side to notice that Chris was right there.

“You came super late, hahah! You almost didn’t make it.”

“A-Ahahah… Y-Yeah.”

Paul sighed in relief as he saw Chris' cute face; at least he was there to cheer him up, even though most of what he said were just words to tease him.

“But we’re in college anyway; why do you care so much?” sighed Chris. “Are you one of those good kids that can’t fathom getting late at class or something?”

“I-I’m not like that!” said Paul. “I just don’t want to waste… to waste my mom’s money. One day I don’t come to class; money from my mother was wasted. I don’t want that.”

“Aaaww, you’re such a cute mama’s boy!” Chris laughed, poking at Paul’s arm with his fingers.

"Look, not everyone is born into a rich family like you where nobody cares if you waste money,” said Paul. “But in my family it’s like that.”

“Okay, okay, whatevs,” shrugged Chris. "Anyways, I smell something sweet; what’s in your backpack? I’m getting hungrier.”

“Did you eat anything?” wondered Paul.

“A-Ah, well, I also came a bit late, so I didn’t get the chance…” Chris muttered.

“Seriously, and you’re making fun of me for coming late?” wondered Paul, smiling a bit. “Yeah I could share some of my mother’s pastries… But that’ll come with a price. Maybe a little “I’m sorry” or something.”

“How about we make out in the bathroom later?” Chris smiled coquetishly, touching Paul’s legs with his own.

“A-Ahh… Well, yeah, maybe that… that also could work,” Paul nodded nervously, blushing as he felt something down there already beginning to rise.

Just a couple of words and a touch from Chris were enough to create such a reaction!

Either Chris had just something so incredibly erotic about him, or Paul was in love.

Or maybe a bit of both…

For the time being, they simply paid attention to the classes, and once the professor checked the homework for extra points, Chris was able to show off what he did yesterday.

“Well done, Chris; you’ve finally done the homework yourself; I’m impressed.”

“M-Myself?! I always do it myself, teacher!”

The young lady giggled at Chris’ words, nodding as if trying to brush it off.

“Of course, of course… I should probably thank Paul for helping you this much, though. Make sure not to lose a friend like him.”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…!”

Chris ran away with his notebook after that, without wanting to even look at the teacher.

“How did she even figure it out?!”

He was panicking, but at the end, the teacher didn’t seem to mind it that much.

That day, Chris learned that the teachers were scary people, more than he ever imagined.

“Alright students, remember to study for the exam that’s coming in a couple of days! Have a nice day.”

As the gorgeous teacher started preparing her things to leave, every student quickly started leaving the classroom; it felt like nobody even wanted to stay here.

The classroom almost completely emptied in a matter of seconds. As Paul quickly opened his backpack, checking the food he had, he was already starving, and so was Chris.

“Hey Paul, are you sharing the cupcakes with me?”

“Sure, sure…”

As they saw the teacher leave in a hurry, she waved her hand at the two.

“Paul, don’t spoil him too much.”

She said that and just left, leaving Paul and Chris a bit shocked.

“How did she figure out so much?!”

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Chris was panicking, grabbing his head.

He was very embarrassed!

If rumors spread about him abusing Paul’s goodwill and copying his homework…

Then, most likely, nothing really would happen anyway.

But still, he was somehow too prideful, and he felt very embarrassed now that he was caught.

“I’m shocked too, but just calm down; it’s not like it’s the end of the world or something…”

“Uuuguh… Paaaaul!”

Chris ended hugging Paul’s arm, acting like a spoiled baby that didn’t want to get reprimanded by teachers.

“Hahah, it’s alright; it doesn’t matter what they say; I’ll keep helping you.”

“Aww, you’re so nice with meee! Now give me some cupcakes.”

Chris' hand quickly was about to grab Paul’s backpack, but he quickly moved the backpack away just before the mischievous incubus were to steal anything.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

“L-Let me take some; I’m starving to death!”

“Don’t be so overdramatic; let’s go buy some coffee first… Or maybe some hot chocolate? You like that better?”

“Yeah!”

The two stepped out of the classroom, which was now empty, looking forward to spending some time in the cafeteria before leaving for the second class, which will probably start in an hour from now.

“Hm?”

However, Paul almost tripped with something that was on the ground—an iPhone lying over the floor; it seemed to have a big crack in the middle of the screen—and some stickers of Hello Kitty and other little animals from Sanrio.

“A phone… Did someone drop it?”

“What’s wrong?”

Chris glanced back at Paul, noticing the phone he was holding.

“Is that your phone?! Wait, you have a second phone with cutesy stickers? No way! Hahaha!”

“W-Wha… It’s not mine! I just found it on the floor… Not like I can unlock it anyway.”

Paul tried to find any clue about who was the owner of the phone, but when he clicked it, the blocked screen picture showed a group of anime girls resembling magical girls singing.

“It belonged to a weeb though, without a doubt.” Chris inspected, rubbing his chin. “Anyways, let’s go give it to someone else; it’s not our problem.”

“I guess…” Paul felt a bit bad as he and Chris went to enjoy a meal.

He ended up buying coffee and hot chocolate, taking out everything his mother gave him for eating, which ended up being three muffins, two big donuts, and two sandwiches.

Chris was just as hungry, so he had to share half of what he had with the little goblin, who started wolfing down the food like he would die if he didn’t.

“So you’re planning to explore the outside world now? Finally,” said Chris happily. “Where are we going though?”

“Some Dark Forest infested with Evil Spirits,” said Paul. “We might explore anything we find there. I want new materials and to hunt down more monsters if possible. Maybe we could also find new resource points or hidden dungeons. Did you hear that update about Wandering Dungeons? I was wondering if we could ever come across something like that.”

“Would be nice!” said Chris. “Literally anything that’s not staying in that city, I’m a bit tired of it.”

“We’re returning though,” said Paul. “It’s our “home” in that world and a territory we have to take care of anyway.”

“Eeeh… Uuggh, ok…” Chris groaned. “Anyways, I kind of want to visit new areas, mountains, forests, rivers, jungles, steppes, plains, anything dude! I just want to explore and adventure.”

“I know, I know,” sighed Paul. “We kind of had a rough, slow start because of… well, mostly because I had to slowly build up my strength due to my penalties. But now that we’ve finally gotten past this issue, it’s time to just enjoy the game for what it has to offer other than just protecting the city.”

“I’ve heard there’s small towns, villages, and tribes of different people too, so we could go around trying to recruit those without kingdoms or homes, right?” wondered Chris. “You’re a prince, so you could do that, no?”

“I had never thought about that… Like recruiting citizens and talented people?” wondered Vlad. “Hmm, that’s smart; yeah, we could try doing that maybe.”

As the two lost themselves talking about the game, someone slowly began approaching them.

At first they were mostly talking with other people in the cafeteria, constantly asking them if they had seen something that belonged to them.

Eventually, he reached their table.

“I want to see if there’s any hot springs in the game; we could seriously take a nice dip there or something,” said Chris.

“Um…”

"Yeah, I had thought about that-”

“Err, excuse me?”

“Hm?”

“Huh?”

Paul and Chris glanced at this person, someone who seemed to have a very small presence.

They were slightly taller than Chris but had a chubbier body than him.

They had slightly long, messy black hair with sleepy-looking green eyes.

Wearing loose black jeans and a gray sweatshirt with a hoodie, they acted very timidly.

Despite everything, they looked rather cute, with a very delicate-looking face.

The two couldn’t quite tell if it was a girl or a boy though, although it looked more like a boy.

“Eh, yes?” Chris wondered. “Do we know you?”

“A-Ah! N-No…” The boy sighed. “Um… Eeeh… H-Have you… Um, have you seen…”

“What? I can’t hear you; can’t you speak louder?” Chris asked very rudely.

“E-Eep! I-I…! I’m sorry…!” The boy cried as he began running away.

“Eh?! Hey Chris, don’t be mean!” said Paul. “Wait! Did you lose your phone by any chance? I found one in the classroom, lying over the floor.”

“Aaah!”

The boy smiled, quickly running back.

“Y-Yes! That’s my phone! T-Thank you so much!”

He grabbed the phone, sighing in relief that it hadn’t been stolen.

“So it was your phone?! Who the hell just drops their phone like that? Be more careful, man…” Chris sighed, crossing his arms.

“Uweh… I-I am… I was a bit clumsy… sorryyy,” the boy sighed, dropping his head. “But thanks a lot for retrieving it and not stealing it…”

“I was about to give it to someone from the college so they could store it until you went to check for it,” Paul said. “It’s nice I found you before that.”

“A-Aah! Y-Yes… Thank you…” The boy nodded, blushing a bit over Paul’s sincere kindness. “Well, I wish I could repay you somehow.”

“There’s no need,” Paul smiled.

"Yeah, there’s a need; you could buy me a sandwich or something,” said Chris with a giggle.

“Aw, come on, Chris,” Paul facepalmed.

“S-Sure! There’s no issue with that…” said the boy. “Um, what’s your name?”

“Oh?” Paul felt surprised. “Name’s Paul. And this is, well, you already heard his name, but he’s Chris. What’s your name? You’re in our class, right?”

“I-I’m Jese,” said the boy. “And yeah, I’m in the same class as you two… Um, do you want something too, Paul?”

“Ah, I don’t really want to take advantage of your kindness though; that’s something little devils do instead,” said Paul, glaring at Chris.

“Who are you calling little devil?!” Chris said. “Someone could have seriously stolen their phone and sold it! We did him a big one! He owes us now, hehe.”

“Y-Yeah! I wouldn’t mind buying anything for you, Paul,” Jese nodded, smiling adorably.

“Aw, well… Just some drink, a sports drink?” Paul asked.

“Sports drink… Ah, do you practice sports? Seeing you’re so big and…” muttered Jese, suddenly getting a bit off-topic.

“Ah, you noticed?! Yeah, I workout a lot!” Paul smiled, feeling embarrassed.

“Aah! I-I can tell!” Jese smiled, nodding.

“Hm…”

Chris was looking at Paul and Jese suddenly clicking way too well, and he began getting a bit jealous that he wasn’t being given all the attention.

“Hey, are you going to buy the stuff or nah?” Chris wondered.

“O-Oh, yes!” nodded Jese, running to the cafeteria.

Paul sighed, glaring at Chris.

“Don’t be so mean with others; I thought you were the friendly and social type?” Paul laughed a bit.

“I-I am! But… he was kind of looking at you with a weird expression,” said Chris, getting jealous.

“You’re so jealous; he’s just some guy,” sighed Paul. “Maybe a new friend? I really don’t want to fuck this up because just the two of us is… I don’t know, not too healthy; we’re supposed to get a lot of friends- Also, you got all those girls that are your friends, so let me have some at least.”

“Aah… Right… Uh, okay,” Chris sighed. “Sorry… Yeah, I got kind of stupid. Sorry.”

“Hm, it’s fine,” Paul held his hand, caressing it slightly. “Let’s be friendly with the guy; he seems kind of lost.”

“Ok…” Chris sighed, crossing his arms.

“I’m back… I could only buy cheese and ham sandwiches; is it ok with you, Chris?” Jese wondered, looking at him with puppy eyes.

“Yes, it’s ok…” Chris didn’t want to admit he found Jese cute too. “Thanks.”

“Here Paul!” Jese instantly changed, becoming even more attentive with Paul, giving him the sports drink.

“Thank you, Jese,” said Paul. “Anyways, want to sit down with us? We were talking about games, but we were about to do some homework and study. We wouldn’t mind having a third.”

“Ooh… R-Really?!” Jese gasped, blushing. “Y-Yes, thank you… I-I have so many difficulties… T-Talking with people… B-But you’re so nice, ehe… A-Ah, I mean… T-Thanks.”

“You sure love stuttering a lot,” Chris said, giving him a side eye. “Anyways, just sit down.”

“T-Thanks… Phew…” Jese sighed in relief as he sat down. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what game were you talking about? I-I like… video games too.”

“Ah, the new VR, Fanta-”

“Fantasy Story Online?! I’m playing it too!”

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