“Yo! Early as always,” Isaac spoke to me as he slapped my back.

“Morning,” I replied, “It’s a habit.”

“You must sleep really early being able to wake up so fresh. I can never bring myself out of my bed.”

“It’s not so bad if you get used to it.”

“That’s not possible for me. Anyways, morning Haru.”

“Good morning.” Haru had responded. Since our first meeting Haru was rather afraid, now she seemed more comfortable with us.

Few days had passed by as if time meant nothing. Since then, I had been living peacefully in the school dorms. There was little to no problems. Within the week, Professor Luden had opened his first lesson for us students. It was about teamwork. Now that we were in high school with the basic knowledge of Emblem, Professor Luden had determined teamwork to be more important than the mastery of an Emblem. Though some students had left due to lessons not being in their favor, some had also joined the class upon hearing about it. There is nothing you could do alone and there was many you could do together. This was the essence and context behind his teaching. The weakness of a person will be covered with the strength of another, and his weakness will be covered with their strength.

And finally… Today was the start of the Newcomer’s Tournament and Isaac was scheduled for the first match after classes. Because Professor Luden is the club’s advisor, our classes ended early after lunch. Though they could have gotten a substitute, their skills could be lacking to the education that Professor Luden wants. So in respect for Professor Luden, they allowed him to cancel class. Before we knew it, class had already ende

“Same place?” I asked Isaac.

“Can't. Go without me. Gotta run and prepare for tournament”

“Hmm? We can wait for you if you want.”

“Sorry... They’re going to be providing us with meals. It’s some security measure or something.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Ah! No problem. No choice then, I’ll see you later.”

‘Yea. See you both later. Be sure to come watch!”

“Yea. Let’s go Haru.”

“Okay.” She replied.

There were many choices to where we could go, but in the end, as always we went to the nearby sandwich store named Sub Seven. Sub Seven surprisingly had many varieties of meals to pick from. Even though we had got it for the past week, we still haven't had covered the full menu. Sitting at the same table as always, a waitress had came to take our orders.

“Hi. What would you two like today?”

“I’d lik-” I cut myself off as I turned towards the waitress. “Iris?” I responded. Iris's voice was rather unique, it would be impossible to not notice it. Iris had green eyes and short blonde hair. Her hair was oftenly arranged in a ponytail. Her forehead also was usually never covered as the rest of her hair flows down past her side. A fragile appearance she had.

“Yes! Welcome to our family store!” She smiled to both me and Haru. “The first week was rather busy, so I wasn’t able to help. Thank you for always supporting our shop. My mother is very thankful.” Iris had bowed her head slightly.

“No no no no. Thank you for the food. It’s not like we pay for anything anyways… haha…” I scratched the back of my head as I tried to force a smile.

“No, that's not true. You guys may not be doing the payments, but we get paid from the government from how much customers we get. For example. To make an Italian Sandwich cost 4 dollars, and to make a profit, we sell it for 7 dollars. That 7 dollars is paid fully by the government rather than from you. Believe it or not, but they keep track of what every student eat.”

“Ohh. I see. Is that how it works?”

“That’s actually very scary… It’s like we’re being watched all the time.” Haru commented.

“Indeed it is, but pay no mind to them. They actually don’t do much to interfere with students. Anyways, I see that Isaac is not with you two today? On a little secret date you two? Iris covered her lips and started giggling.

“W-we’re not on a date! We’re just friends!” Haru stormed up her seat to deny the case.

“Ah, did I indirectly just got friend zoned?” My mind spoke to itself. Not like I was interested in any sort of those relationships, but it was more painful than I thought. With a palm to my face, I had turned my head slightly over and glared at Iris. It was nothing but a harmless joke, but of course, not everyone would see it to be the same.

“Haha…” Iris tried forcing a laugh. “Well, I'll be taking your orders now!” She said as she ran off.

“W-What? Wait! We didn’t order anything yet! Don’t run away!” I exclaimed as Iris ran towards the kitchen. Of course, Iris knew what she did wrong. A bad joke that went wrong.