“Good morning, Growly,” Narias was waiting for his friend outside of his dorm.

“Hi,” Growly was as brief as always.

“Ready to go?” Narias smiled at him.

“Yes,” the chubby bear boy responded.

“Isn’t it exciting? We’re gonna start the Magic Dungeon exploration next week,” Narias was in a very uplifting mood.

“Yeah. Beat monsters. Good fun,” Growly had his own idea about fun.

“Haha,” which made Narias laugh.

“Heeey, buddy!” a familiar boy’s voice shouted from behind.

“Huh?” Growly turned around.

“How are yo- wuaah!” Stefan was about to do his best buddy grip but jumped back after seeing Growly’s face.

“Eh?” the chubby bear boy rubbed his fury cheek with a finger somewhat confused.

“Good morning, Stefan. This is Growly. Growly, this is Stefan,” Narias introduced them.

“Hi,” Growly greeted Narias’ classmate with his usual short ‘hi’.

“Hh… ah, oh, hi. Haha,” Stefan quickly pretended nothing happened. “So… how’s it going?”

“Great,” Narias was beaming. “We’re going to the Magic Dungeon Introductory Day. Are you going there as well, Stefan?”

“Well, obviously,” his classmate answered, but didn’t look as excited as Narias. “What a pain…”

“Huh? Why?” Narias gave him a weird look.

“What do you mean ‘why’? I was planning to go to El’Roonst today. I was about to land a date too. Such unfairness…” Stefan slumped like an overly ripe plum.

“But… the teachers announced about it in the middle of the week,” Narias wondered.

“Yeah. And that’s why I got refused. She instantly said she’ll be going to this… Magic Dungeon Introductory Day,” Stefan wasn’t hiding his sarcasm, clearly upset that his date didn’t work out.

“Well, it’s voluntary and… you can ask her to go out with you some other day,” Narias tried to comfort his friend.

“Easy for you to say, you have a girlfriend,” Stefan threw a frown at his classmate.

“Aaah…” Narias smiled silly.

“One? Not two?” Growly was more thinking out loud than asking a question.

“Yeah, well…” that put Narias on the spot.

“What?! You have two girlfriends now?!” Stefan exclaimed so loud, even the other students in the distance turned to see what was going on.

What? He didn’t know? Narias thought but then realized he hadn’t spoken to Stefan for a while now.

“Stefan… you don’t have to shout,” Narias felt uncomfortable but also threw a frown at Stefan.

“Or three?” Growly was still thinking out loud.

“Three? You have THREE girlfriends?” Stefan jaw dropped almost to the ground.

“No, I don’t have…” Narias was about to explain himself when Growly interrupted him.

“Here,” the chubby bear bow extended a paper ticket to him.

“Oh, no, no. You don’t have to. Emilia and I are just friends,” Narias was feeling extremely uncomfortable.

“Just in case,” Growly insisted, not thinking too much about it.

“Ah… thanks,” Narias could do nothing else but to take it. “Huh?”

“Naaa… riaaas…” Stefan’s face was creeping up closer to his classmate’s.

“Eeek… Stefan…” that almost creeped him out. “It’s not what you think it is.”

“How… how in the world di-“ Narias’ classmate’s face was changing colors.

“Hi,” while Narias and Stefan were at each other’s face, Growly was saying hello to someone.

“Good morning,” a girl’s voice greeted him back.

“Huh? Huh?” both Stefan and Narias turned to see who Growly was talking to.

“Emilia? H… hi,” Narias pushed Stefan away. “Ah, wow… I mean, good morning, Emilia.”

“H… hi…” Stefan could barely speak.

The day was Saturday, and the students weren’t required to were their uniforms. Emilia was looking lovely in her light pink blouse, with the intertwined ribbon laces right in the middle, and a black frilly skirt going just barely below her knees. And the comfy, black color lady’s shoes added that subtle cuteness. Her current attire, with her snow-white hair, gently falling down her shoulders at the front and at the back, made Emilia look absolutely lovely.

“You look… lovely, Emilia,” Narias couldn’t leave out a compliment.

“Uhm… thank you,” Emilia brushed her hair to the side, carefully averting her mildly flushed face away.

“Sorry,” Narias realized himself that the situation was becoming uncomfortable. “Are you going to the Magic Dungeon Introductory Day, Emilia?”

“Yes, I am. I was on my way to school when I heard… I mean, noticed you, and… you and Growly that is, and thought I’ll come say hi,” for whatever reason, Emilia was stumbling on her words.

“Oh, thanks. That was… very nice of you,” Narias was starting to stumble on his own words too.

“I will go ahead,” Growly suddenly announced.

“Right, yeah. We should be going,” Narias got a hold of himself.

“Yes. We should,” Emilia agreed.

Narias and his friends, and many other students for that matter, were on their way to the main auditorium where the teachers were hosting the Magic Dungeon Introductory Day. That was just a temporary made-up name. Until today the school had never done anything like it before. They never needed to. In the past, the students were much more motivated to go explore the dungeon. So, they had be creative about how to give the students that extra push.

The teachers were really smart about how they set it up. For starters, they told the students it was a voluntary participation. Meaning, you didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to. However, the teachers also pointed out that during the Magic Dungeon Introductory Day they will be registering the already formed groups, or have the students form one on the spot. Also, the students will be given instructions about what they will need to bring with them when they go into the Magic Dungeon, in addition to providing the backpacks and some other supplies.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

At first, some students frowned and thought they wouldn’t need to show up. After all, more and more students were catching up with the rumor that if you get a low evaluation at the Magic Dungeon exploration, you wouldn’t be expelled. And so, some students weren’t bothered to form teams even. They thought that simply showing up would be more than enough. They would enter the Magic Dungeon, stick around for a few minutes, maybe kill a monster or two, and then leave. If you didn’t face expulsion for not performing well, who cared, right?

That was no longer viable. The teachers explained that when the dungeon exploration was over, every student will have to take a written exam about it. The questions would include what they saw, or found inside the Magic Dungeon, what monsters they encountered, and so on. That instantly made the students sweat. Going in and out of the dungeon without doing anything was not an option anymore.

And so, when Narias arrived, the auditorium was bustling with students. Some were excited, some were grumpy, but probably every first-year student showed up. The teachers weren’t stupid. They wanted for the students to take their classes seriously.

“Yo’, partner,” Flavia waved to attract his attention.

“Hey Flavia,” Narias greeted her with a smile.

“Hi,” Growly greeted her too.

“Good morning,” Emilia greeted the energetic bunny girl as well.

“Hey Emilia. Wow, you look great. Where did you get that blouse?” Flavia said hi and instantly asked about her clothes.

“Thank you. I bought it at El’Roonst,” Emilia brushed her snow-white hair to the side with a smile.

“It looks so good on you. I wonder if it’d look good on me too?” the charming bunny girl was admiring Emilia’s blouse.

“They had many other models too. I could show you the shop sometime,” Emilia suggested in a friendly manner.

“Hey, that’d be cool. Let’s go to El’Roonst together sometime,” Flavia was quick to agree to it. “You should come too, partner.”

“Huh? Me? But why?” Narias wasn’t exactly against it but didn’t know if it was a good idea.

“What do you mean ‘why’? I’ll want to hear your opinion which one looks best on me,” Flavia was open with her intentions.

“You’ll want my opinion?” he somewhat gasped.

“Of course, ghee,” the girl with the bunny ears grinned wide.

“Ok,” Narias agreed, then instantly felt a few intense stares directed at him, and not only from Stefan.

“Great,” Flavia suddenly hugged Narias’ arm, completely ignoring what was going on around them.

“They have snacks,” Growly on the other hand, was more interested in food.

“Oh, yeah. They have drinks too. Let’s go grab something,” Flavia pulled Narias forward without waiting for his answer.

“Right. See you later, Stefan,” Narias had a few seconds to say bye to his classmate.

“Eh, wha… wait…” Stefan could do nothing but watch how Narias was led away by a cute bunny girl, with Emilia walking by Narias’ other side.

Flavia, Emilia, Growly and Narias went to have a drink. Growly wasn’t shy about grabbing a snack together with his drink. Before Narias could pick his drink however, Ranga’s Dreknor voice echoed through the auditorium.

“Good morning, little hatchlings!” the huge tiger beast made sure everyone could hear him.

His voice was so loud, and so intimidating, that it startled more than a few students. Some of them even spilled their drinks that the students were holding in their hands.

“Haha. The coach is in a good mood today,” Flavia found Ranga’s greeting funny.

“Ok, listen up. I’ll make it brief, and I won’t repeat myself. First of all, you will need to pick up your team’s registration form at Belinda’s Salroze table. Fill it out by writing down your team member names then return it to Professor’s Zeanlor table, which is on my left, over there, grrr… After you have your team registered, every single person on the team will get a badge, which they will be able to exchange for a backpack provided by the school. The backpacks and other supplies are with Estella Alifur, whose table is on my right. Inside your backpacks you will find the essential supplies that you will need when you go to the Magic Dungeon. In addition, you will find a list of other recommended items that you might need to bring with you. For those of you who hadn’t formed a team yet, come talk to me, so I can help you with that. That is all. Grr…” Ranga finished his speech with a mild smirk on his face.

“Right, we need to find Lilna and go register,” Flavia wanted to run to the registration desk but they were still missing one member.

“Oh, she should be here somewhere,” Narias knew his classmate was supposed to show up.

“Let’s split up and go look for her,” the energetic bunny girl suggested.

“Ok. Let’s come back here to meet up after,” Narias suggested.

“Sure,” and Flavia was gone.

“I’ll go this way,” Growly said and was quickly gone.

“So…” Narias was pondering which direction should he go.

“Should we go this direction?” Emilia suggested.

“I… Yeah, sure,” Narias thought they would go different directions, but then realized there was only one direction left to go.

The auditorium was big, and could fit a lot of people in it. It wouldn’t be that difficult to find someone if everyone wasn’t moving around so much, which wasn’t so. Other students had to find their team members as well, so everyone was walking back and forth trying to find them.

- ‘Bump,’ –

“Sorry,” someone bumped into Narias while being too much in a rush.

“That’s… ok,” Narias tried to say something but the person was already gone.

“Uh…” next was Emilia who got bumped by another girl who wasn’t looking where she was going.

“Hey, watch where you’re-“ the girl turned around to complain but then saw who she bumped into. “Ah… I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”

The girl quickly apologized and disappeared inside the crowd.

“It’s… so hectic,” Narias said evading someone else who was about to bump into him.

“Uhm… yeah,” Emilia was feeling uncomfortable with so many students almost running around.

Seriously… Can’t they just walk normally? Narias frowned to himself.

“Let’s stay close to each other, so others won’t bump into us so much,” he suggested.

“Well, ok,” the girl with the snow-white hair hesitated at first, but then came closer and hugged Narias arm.

Huh? What? Narias was surprised about her act because in his head he wasn’t suggesting her to hug his arm.

“How about… we check over there?” he tried to act normal.

“Ok,” Emilia said, not wanting to look at him for some reason.

The plan worked. They stopped being bumped by the others as they walked. Not only that, the other students who saw them not only slowed their pace, but actually stepped aside to make way for Narias and Emilia to go through.

Ok, this worked out too well… Narias started to sweat after realizing that his plan to not get bumped by other students worked too well for his own good.

Emilia wasn’t saying a word. She walked slowly, yet eloquently, as a high-status lady would. Narias was taught etiquette by his mom. He had more than a few opportunities to put what he had learnt in practise during the meet ups where he went to with his mom. Although, no girl would hug his arm back then, but it wasn’t difficult for Narias to adjust to his partner’s walking pace. And so, he did here as well when they walked through the auditorium together with Emilia.

Back then, it wasn’t a big deal in a sense that it was simply considered to be good manners, in addition to being respectful to the other person. Right here and now however, Narias walking together with Emilia, who was gallantly holding onto his arm, the impression might’ve been giving out a different message. Very soon the other students weren’t only staring, but were whispering among themselves about the sight in front of them.

“Psst, psst. Look, that guy is walking together with Emilia,” some boy student said.

“No way, are they dating?” another one whispered not so quietly.

“Wow, Emilia is hugging his arm,” a girl student exclaimed, covering her mouth with one hand.

“Psst, psst. Isn’t that the same boy who can use two Magic Elements?” one more girl whispered to her friend.

“Yeah. Oh my, he’s actually good looking. How come I didn’t notice it before?” the other girl whispered back to her friend.

Aaah… This is starting to get out of control. Maybe it wasn’t that good of an idea. Narias started to feel rather uncomfortable.

Obviously, Narias and Emilia could hear what the others were saying. Not to mention, the other students were making way for them to pass, which attracted more and more attention as well.

This is bad. They might get the wrong idea about me and Emilia. Maybe I better… huh? Narias thought he’d carefully slide out his arm and let Emilia walk by herself to try and fix already uncomfortable situation, but felt a tighter grip of Emilia’s hand as soon as he tried to do that.

He turned to Emilia and quickly realized why she didn’t want to let go. With everyone’s eyes on them, with more of the students staring at Emilia than at Narias, she was feeling so uncomfortable, she could barely walk. If Narias was to let Emilia walk by herself now, not only it would be an act of disrespect, but that would look like he was using her to get attention. It would put Emilia in a very bad position indeed.

Right, I was thinking only about myself again. Ok, I need to think what to do here. Narias looked around.

“Hey, it doesn’t look like my classmate is on this side of the auditorium. But we can’t register our team unless we find her,” Narias said it loud enough for the others to hear as well.

“Oh, what?” that took Emilia by surprise, but it also helped her relax a little.

“How about we look for our team members somewhere else? I know, let’s go up there, so we could see better,” he suggested, pointing at the stairs that led to the auditorium seats on the second floor.

“Uhm…” Emilia gripped Narias’ arm tighter again. “Yes. Good idea.”

Narias’ suggestion worked to some extent. A few of the students backed off, and went on to do whatever they were intending to do before they saw Narias and Emilia walk together. But there were still enough eyes glued at the couple who tried to act as natural as they could at the time.

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