Due to them being late, they arrived as the last students in their class. All the others had been waiting only for their arrival. As soon as they arrived, the rest of the class seemed relieved. They had already thought that Hiroki and his friends would be absent.

Seeing as they were late, they immediately searched for professor Pertina.

It took them no time to find her, as she was also standing in the crowd that was eagerly waiting for them. Upon seeing her, they bowed down and apologized for their late arrival.

“We are so sorry for arriving late!” was what they said.

Pertina didn’t really seem to care as she was just happy to start their trip. Though as a punishment for arriving late, they had to be in the same carriage as her. The students that heard that immediately pitied them. It was known that if you had to sit in the same carriage as a professor, your trip was bound to be boring. The students started whispering to each other.

“Dude, I once heard that being in the same carriage with one of the professors was so boring, time feels like standing still and you would never arrive.”

Those were justified facts. It was true. And the reason for that was very simple. To get to the camp, the academy always organized four carriages and some guards that would ride on horses to protect the caravan. Each carriage had space for around 5-6 persons. But due to there being always just one professor accompanying the class, everybody would hope to not be in that carriage. That’s because in all the carriages one could do and say whatever they wanted, except for the one in which the professor travels.

Hiroki and his friends accepted their fate.

‘We will never forget your sacrifice.’ Some of the students thought.

Seeing as now they could depart, professor Pertina ordered everybody to get into the carriages and mount their luggage on the back of the carriages.

As Hiroki and his friends were sitting inside, Aiko started asking him something, seeing that Pertina was still not inside.

“Dude, why did you have to do this? Couldn’t you like turn back the time a little, so that we would show up on time?” asked him Aiko in a disappointed voice.

These questions annoyed Hiroki. He thought that he had already spoiled his friends too much with his powers.

“Dude, who do you think I am? Your father? If we are late, then we are late. You cannot expect me to look after you like babies. And let me just ask you this, who was the one that took so long in the bath?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

After asking that question, Aiko went silent. He was the one that Hiroki was hinting at. Sometimes Aiko would just forget time if he was in the bath.

Though he wanted to take a stand on that argument, he was interrupted by the door of the carriage being opened.

Pertina entered with a bright, but faintly evil, smile.

“Now, now everybody… why is it so quiet in here? Aren’t you happy to be spending time with your lovely professor?” She spoke.

None of them didn’t want to answer that question, thus they just smiled a little.

That was also the moment when Pertina looked outside the window and told the guards that they were ready to take off. And like that, they started their journey.

For the next thirty minutes, Hiroki and his friends wouldn’t say a single word. They were only sitting tight, desperately waiting for their arrival.

At some point professor Pertina seemed frustrated, so she spoke up.

“C’mon guys, why is it the same every year? We, professors, won’t eat you if you talk with us… it’s also uncomfortable for us to stay silent for the whole trip.”

‘I would love it if you were to eat me, hehe!’ thought Aiko, imagining all kinds of things in his head.

But these images vanished, as soon as he saw Hiroki disappointedly gazing in his direction. His expression told him something like:

“What the hell are you thinking of dude.”

Hiroki joined the conversation, and soon they started talking about all different things.

During the talk, professor Pertina seemed more and more friendly and nice. She told them about her first impressions of the class. How strong she estimated the different students to be and she also complimented them for their performance over the week. She was also wondering why they were so good at the basic skills.

Thus, Hiroki had to tell her an excuse, to not blow the whistle on their secret. He told her, that due to them growing up on the border of the kingdom, they had to train combat skills from early childhood, to protect themselves if there were a demon attacking them.

Luckily Pertina believed them and didn’t ask any further questions.

Then the conversation promptly switched toward Gaia. Pertina was curious about why she was always sticking to Hiroki’s group. She was even bold enough to ask her if she had a crush on one of these boys.

Her directness and curiosity surprised Hiroki, as professor Pertina now seemed more like a girl that was enjoying gossip, than an actual professor.

At first, Hiroki telepathically told Gaia to keep it a secret, that they were a thing, but it seemed that Gaia had other plans.

She proudly told Pertina, that she and Hiroki were actually a couple. Pertina was shocked upon hearing that and soon she wanted to know more about those two. Thus, she persuaded Gaia to tell her more about their relationship. Gaia was happy to finally have someone female she could talk with, and gladly told her all she wanted to know.

She told her about how they two met and some special memories of them. Though she had to adjust the story at some point because else it would be suspicious, most of the things that she said were actually true.

Hearing all these things, professor Pertina seemed more and more interested in their relationship and always asked more questions. Even Aiko and Eichi were curiously listening to Gaia’s stories.

‘She doesn’t even seem like a professor in the slightest now.’ Hiroki thought.

Luckily for Hiroki, their trip finished faster than expected.

In the end, the trip was exciting for everyone, except for Hiroki.

[AN: Thank you for reading the chapter. If you want to support my work, feel free to add this novel to your library and leave a comment/review. It would help me a lot ^-^]