He wasn’t.
I could hear it in his voice that there was pride in how well he had made it look like an accident.
I reached for a napkin, but by the time that I turned back to the women, they were clean. The food had been pulled off of them and was hovering in front of them. I heard someone snap their fingers and the ruined food vanished.
Trent had cleaned off the two women and the only indication that he’d been involved was that he was still holding up his hand after he snapped his fingers.
The red-haired, blue-eyed young man dusted himself off as he got up. I could see the family resemblance between him and Justia in more than just the eyes. He was a second cousin as well, but on her grandfather’s side instead of her grandmother’s.
“I’m so glad that could be cleaned up so easily!” Gileon Alard reached out to touch Justia, but she pulled just out of his reach.
Oz cut in front of her cousin as the brunette stepped back. “Too bad they can’t fix your personality that easily.”
“It was an honest mistake, Oz-let.” The redhead held up his hands. "It could have happened to anyone.”
Oz clenched her fists, which I felt was my cue to step in.
“It’s all cleaned up, so why don’t we finish getting our breakfast and go eat.” I motioned to where our teachers were sitting.
I noticed that the cafe had gotten very quiet as most were waiting to see if there was going to be a fight. A busty blonde moved through the tension as she strutted over to us seemingly unfazed by the tension. She trailed a long nail up the side of Gileon’s arm, causing him to flinch away from the stare down.
“So serious so early in the morning.” Bridget Tres laughed sweetly as she turned to smile at me. "I hate to ruin all this fun, but I really wanted some fruit.” She batted her eyes at me. "You don’t mind if I cut in line?”
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I swallowed and motioned to the cafe line to my left. "Go ahead.”
“So sweet.” Bridget grabbed a single berry from the container and popped it in her mouth. "Call me anytime, I’d love to work with you.” She looked at Gileon, her voice still as smooth as silk. "You lost all of your food! Let me walk you back to the front of the line and get that replaced!” She took his arm and started guiding the stunned young man away from us.
The rest of the cafe resumed what they were doing now that the potential entertainment was gone.
Oz watched them leave and turned to me. "What was that?”
“Just a friend helping us out?” I tried to ignore the snicker from Justia as I focused on my tray of breakfast.
“What’s going on that I don’t know about?” Oz looked at her cousin. "Spill.”
“Please don’t.” I felt my face getting redder.
“Now I have to know.” Oz resumed her trip down the line, grabbing some fruit then heading towards our teacher’s table behind me and Justia.
“On our first day here, Atlas was caught in a very compromising position with the beauty.” Justia cast a glance in their direction that lasted just a little too long. "She made him a very open offer, if you know what I mean?”
“Just how many women do you have here?’ Oz growled as she sat down next to Trent.
That got Gesai’s attention. "Atlas has more women here?”
“Only in their imagination.” I sat down next to the older redhead. She wasn’t much older, I just realized a connection of why she seemed more at ease around Trent, someone who most people found imposing.
“You were in the Yellow team.” I looked at the woman next to me. "You’re twenty five, which means you were part of the year that he taught.”
All the women at the table looked at me like I had just realized oranges were orange.
“And?” Gesai shifted in her seat. "What does that have to do with you and the tramp?”
I swallowed. "Nothing, I just didn’t know before.”
“Team rosters are public information.” Trent motioned at the large screen in the corner that was displaying footage from old Adventurer Games. It was from three years ago and his team had been competing.
I felt a little ashamed that I didn’t watch more of them, but I had been more focused on working inside the dungeon than the things going on around it.
“Do we know where we’re going next?” Oz took a bite of her food, saving me from any further embarrassment.
Trent started to answer when an alarm sounded.