“Wow, I will break a sweat before we even reach our club building,” Nicky chuckled, trying to keep up with her friend.

“Ah, sorry. I was just…” Ileena slowed down, letting Nicky catch up.

“Don’t be. I know why you’re in such a rush. Narias was supposed to be released from the infirmary today and you want to see him as soon as possible, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Ileena said confidently with an added intensity.

“I’m so happy to see you being in such a good mood again. I feel very relieved Narias came back from the dungeon myself.” Nicky spoke to Ileena while they continued their walk.

“Yes, me too,” Ileena added with a smile.

“Now that I think about it, Narias is so brave. I would’ve probably panicked as soon as I have found myself left inside the dungeon by myself. It’s so scary,” Nicky shivered when the thought crossed her mind.

“You’re right, Narias is brave… and strong too,” Ileena said, lowering her head with a sigh.

“Are you ok?” Nicky noticed Ileena’s moment of self-doubt.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. I just need to… Huh?” Ileena stopped abruptly, looking in front of her.

“Huh? What? Oh, Zhanna,” Nicky gasped when she saw the girl blocking the path.

“Go ahead without me, Nicky. I’ll catch up,” Ileena informed her friend suddenly.

“What? But…” Nicky wasn’t sure if that was a good idea.

“Don’t worry. I am sure Zhanna wants only to talk,” Ileena reassured her, saying it loud enough for Zhanna to hear too.

“Well, ok. If you say so,” Nicky reluctantly agreed. “I’ll see you at the club, Ileena. Hello, Zhanna. You look as dazzling as ever.”

“Humph,” Zhanna smirked with a scowl without saying anything back. She simply stood there waiting for Nicky to pass, her eyes fiercely piercing Ileena in the meantime.

Surprisingly, Zhanna was wearing a red color frilly dress today instead of her usual white, but that didn’t make her look less pretty. The floral pattern around the dress added the cute attractiveness while Zhanna’s white, freely floating hair made the girl look glamorously flamboyant.

“You have a lot of nerve showing yourself in front of me like that, Zhanna,” Ileena said sternly but in her usual calm tone of voice.

“As if you should be the one saying that,” Zhanna wasn’t bothered by Ileena’s words.

“Is that all you have to say? Just for your information, I also know how far I can go without risking to get myself expelled,” Ileena stated confidently.

“That makes the two of us,” Zhanna added, showing a confident smile of her own.

“What do you want, Zhanna?” Ileena decided getting into a fight with Zhanna wouldn’t do any good right now. Besides, she wanted to be on her way.

“As serious as ever. You’re such a bore, Ileena,” Zhanna gave her a mocking look.

“Sigh… I wish you a pleasant evening, Zhanna,” Ileena said it in a way it was difficult to understand if her words were genuine or if it was a sarcasm.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Zhanna said right before Ileena was about to pass her.

“And you expect me to believe you?” Ileena asked after stopping a few steps behind Zhanna but she didn’t turn around to face her.

“I don’t care if you believe me or not. And I don’t care about you either. In fact, I blame you for what happened to him,” Zhanna said, not turning around either.

“Me?” Ileena didn’t expect for Zhanna to say that, making Ileena turn around to face the girl. “And how is that my fault?”

“And how is it not? You are so busy acting to be his girlfriend yet you know nothing about what’s happening outside of your little student club. You are not worth being with him,” Zhanna stated in a condescending tone of her voice, turning her head just enough to show her scoffing smile.

“Look who’s talking. You don’t even treat other boys as humans. Do you honestly think Narias would allow himself to become your pet?” Ileena wasn’t about to give in to Zhanna.

“But of course. I would give him the most special treatment ever and he’d be safe with me, not something you could provide, or did you think that incident will be the last of it?” Zhanna’s words sounded like a threat.

“If you dare touch even a single hair on Narias’s head, Zhanna…” Ileena’s eyes sparkled, releasing a discharge of purple lightning before her palms became covered in lightning too.

“Like I said, I had nothing to do with it,” Zhanna grunted menacingly, raising her hands in front of her with her palms faced up. Two, about three feet in diameter, rock boulders rose from the ground from both sides next to where she was standing and stayed floating close to her.

“And I’ve already asked you as well. Why should I believe you? Especially after what you just said,” Ileena was just barely holding herself from casting a spell.

“Do you think I would waste my time coming here to talk to you if I had been a part of it? I want him to be mine, not dead. That just shows you are the worst, Ileena. And that proves my point, you are not worthy of being with him. You’re just too weak,” Zhanna said, summoning two more floating stone boulders to her side.

“Let me show you how weak I really am, Zhanna,” Ileena was about to cast her spell.

“Hey! What’s going here?! No fighting on campus grounds!” A man’s voice was heard from a distance. The man was one of the patrols to maintain order on the campus grounds.

“Huh? Humph… Ahem…” Ileena quickly calmed down, the purple lightning dissipating into nothing.

“Tss… and we were about to get to the good part…” Zhanna did the same, the stone boulders crumbling into pieces and disappearing bit by bit. The girls put an act nothing was happening and waited for the man to leave before continuing their talk.

“Let’s say I believe you and you had nothing to do with it. Why would you tell me that?” Ileena asked in a calm voice, slightly surprising Zhanna with her question.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Simple, I wanted to see your pathetic facial expression when you realize how pitiful you really are. After all, you are worse in every possible way compared to me, Ileena, so you should give up on being Narias’s girlfriend right this moment. Not that it matters, really. He will be mine sooner or later anyway,” Zhanna was very confident with her words.

“Hmph… I think you’re forgetting one thing, Zhanna,” Ileena said with a slight smirk before adjusting her glasses.

“And what is that?” Zhanna asked, fixating her eyes on Ileena.

“You forget that I am not the only girlfriend Narias has. There are many more girls and women by his side,” Ileena spoke calmly yet with an added bite in her words.

“Oh, I don’t care about the others. As soon as he becomes mine, and gets showered with my love, Narias will forget all about his other so-called girlfriends. It is you who I want crush before that happens. I will never forgive you for stealing him from me in the first place.” This time, Zhanna’s words definitely sounded like a threat.

“Stealing him from you? You’re as delusional as ever, I see,” but Ileena didn’t take her words seriously.

“We shall see who’s the delusional one here during the upcoming Magic Power Games. Hmph,” Zhanna chuckled, a satisfied and an overconfident smile entering her lips. “Better prepare yourself, Ileena, not that it will change the outcome. You will lose and he will see you are nothing but a pathetic loser, and he will want nothing to do with you anymore. Your days as his girlfriend will be over. Ahahaha!”

“Sigh…” Ileena simply shook her head. “I’ll see you at the Magic Power Games, Zhanna. And be careful not to fall out of the arena again.”

“Tch… why you…” Zhanna flared up, about to lash out, but Ileena was already walking away. “Humph, I’ll get you for that also… Ileena…”

{at the Magic Research student club}

“Hey, it’s ok. I’m… fine. You don’t have to… hold on to me,” Narias was struggling to have some space. Flavia, Emilia and Flamiris were all over him, staying close and holding on to him from all sides.

“Hey, I’m not letting you go, partner. What if something happens to you again,” Flavia protested, not wanting to let go of his right arm.

“I was so scared. I thought I would never see you again, Narias,” Emilia pressed herself closer to him from the other side.

“You had a lot of nerve making me worry about you so much. You owe me big time, you Crazy Mastermind…” Flamiris declared, talking into his face before leaning at him with her back, so Narias wouldn’t see her flustered face.

“I’m sorry for making you all worry about me, but… everything is ok now. I… I won’t disappear or anything, so…” Narias tried to reason with his girlfriends.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Ileena suddenly spoke after entering the room and seeing the commotion.

“Oh, hi, Ileena,” Vivia greeted her.

“Ah, hi,” Flavia added, still holding onto Narias.

“Sigh… do you mind?” She asked after stepping closer to where Narias was surrounded by his three other girlfriends.

“Ah, sorry,” Flavia stepped away reluctantly.

“Apologies, I was just…” Emilia had to step away too.

“Humph,” Flamiris averted her eyes away, making it look like she wasn’t doing anything wrong.

“H… hi, Ileena,” Narias smiled after taking a breather, but then found himself being kissed passionately by her. Ileena didn’t want to let go of him for longer than usual. “Huh? Ileena…” Narias found her clinging to him so much puzzling, not that he was against it or anything.

“Welcome back, Narias,” Ileena said, not wanting to look into his eyes for some reason.

“Is everything ok, Ileena?” Nicky asked, noticing her friend was acting a little unusual. She had a hunch something must’ve happened between her and Zhanna earlier.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Ileena stepped away from Narias. “Sorry I’m late. I… got held up on the way here.”

“It’s ok. We were… not doing anything in particular…” Narias said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Is that so? Well, now that we’re all here, would you mind telling us what happened, Narias?” Ileena asked point blank.

“You mean in the dungeon?” Narias wanted to confirm.

“Yeah. Tell us about the Crystal Hornhead. How did it look? And how did you beat it, partner?” Flavia was eager to know.

“The Crystal Hornhead… and… well…” Narias became all quiet suddenly, the rest of his friends catching it wasn’t as fun of a topic for him to talk about as it might’ve been for them.

“We’re sorry, Narias. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Emilia spoke, seeing his facial expression change to a sad one when he was remembering what happened to him.

“Yes… Sorry, Narias. Let’s… talk about something else instead,” Ileena added.

“Ah, no, no. It’s… ok, I suppose. It’s… in the past,” Narias said, but he didn’t sound too convincing.

“It’s cool. You’re back. That’s the most important thing,” Growly commented, patting him on the shoulder.

“Oh, thanks, Growly,” Narias cheered up. “I’m sorry, I think… it makes me feel a little uneasy when I remember my time being in the dungeon all by myself. But… oh, I know. How about I show you something cool instead? Dungeon Locker.” Wanting to change the mood, Narias quickly opened the Dungeon Locker to show how it looked.

“WOOOAAAAH!” And it definitely made an impression on everyone.

“Woah! What is that?” Flavia exclaimed.

“So pretty,” Emilia gasped, seeing the starry night sky projected on an uneven window in the middle of the room.

“Hey, that’s so cool,” Flamiris was impressed.

“Whuaaa…” Nicky’s eyes sparkled.

“Neat,” was all Growly said.

“that looks so pretty,” Vivia said.

“Dungeon Locker? Wait, do you mean… you had found the magic item that can store items found inside the Magic Dungeon?” Ileena was the only one who grasped what it actually was.

“Wait, what?” Flavia turned to face Ileena.

“Really? That’s the Dungeon Locker? But all I can see is the stars in the sky,” Emilia was puzzled about it.

“So like, are those stars the Magic Crystals? Huh? Hey, what gives?” Flamiris tried to reach out to touch or take one, but her hand simply slid through the what it looked like a projection of the sparkling stars.

“Huh? What do you mean stars? Can’t you see what is inside?” Narias finally asked, feeling confused.

“What do you mean, Narias? Are you saying you don’t see the stars that we all see?” Ileena asked him instead.

“Ah, no. I don’t see any stars. I was trying to show you the items I have collected.” Narias said, giving another look at the open Dungeon Locker’s window before glancing at everyone else in the room. The looks on his friends’ faces showed they honestly couldn’t see the same thing that Narias was seeing.

“I think I understand,” Ileena finally spoke.

“What?” Nicky wanted to know.

“The Dungeon Locker is really an amazing magic item, after all. I believe the way it works is that only the person in possession of the Dungeon Locker can see, place or take out the items inside of it. In this case the person being Narias,” Ileena explained.

“Really?” Nicky gasped, looking a little disappointed.

“Bummer,” Flavia felt disappointed too.

“But the starry sky certainly looks beautiful,” Emilia saw a positive side of it.

“Humph, quite a useful magic item to hide… something you don’t want others to see, isn’t it, Mister Mastermind… Pervert?” Flamiris grinned maniacally.

“H… hey. I don’t… hide anything like that,” Narias was caught off guard by her comment.

“Hey, hey. Can you show us what other treasures you have found, Narias?” Flavia was too curious not to ask.

“Ah, well… some items are quite big and… I don’t know if I can put them back inside of the Dungeon Locker once I take them out since I am not inside the Magic Dungeon right now. It would be really cumbersome to carry those normally, so I thought about visiting Growly’s dad and take everything out there, just in case.” Narias explained his reasoning.

“That makes sense. I think I’ve read about it too. It said that you can’t put any items inside the Dungeon Locker unless you’re inside the Magic Dungeon, but you can take the items out any time you want,” Ileena told everyone.

“Hey, I know, let’s go to El’Roonst right now,” Flavia suggested suddenly.

“Right now?” Emilia asked her.

“Yeah. I want to see what treasures Narias had found,” Flavia was ready to go.

“But isn’t it a bit too late now?” Narias wasn’t sure about it.

“Narias is right. By the time we get to El’Roonst it will be too late,” Ileena agreed with him. “I think it would be better to go there on Saturday.”

“On Saturday? But it’s Thursday today. We’ll have to wait another whole day,” Flavia wasn’t very patient.

“Actually, I’d rather go on Saturday too,” said Narias. “There’s this cake shop that Growly took me to when it was only the two of us. I wanted to take all of you there with me sometime.”

“Is that the cake shop we go to, Growly?” Nicky wanted to confirm.

“Yes,” was his answer.

“Oh, wow. Can me and Growly come too?” Nicky asked, becoming excited about it.

“Of course,” Narias wasn’t about to refuse them.

“You’ll come too, right, Vivia?” Nicky asked her.

“If everyone else is ok with it?” Vivia wasn’t sure about it.

“Of course. You guys don’t mind it, do you?” Nicky turned to the other girls.

“Not at all,” Ileena said.

And so, it was agreed everyone will go to El’Roonst on Saturday.