Speechless at Emilia’s declaration, Ensen paused for a moment before saying “Well… I guess that works.”

After they talked for a little while longer Emilia had to handle some business on her end.

Hanging up the phone, Ensen continued walking towards his office, passing by Warren and Brian who were seemingly roaming the hallway.

Deciding to take a quick peek into the cafeteria to see if the girls were getting along well, Ensen noticed that they really were. While Flora still seemed shy and nervous around them, it was noticeably better than earlier in the day.

While Ensen worked in his office, time quickly passed until it was time for gym class. As the activity for today was going on, Ensen noticed that Flora was surprisingly fit. In fact, she was the most fit out of all the students… and him. He wasn’t sure about Gerhardt though.

Once the class ended, Warren sprinted off into the distance while Brian followed behind him, exhausted.

‘They do know we are leaving soon, right?’ Ensen thought as he looked at the four remaining students who were laying on the grass, also exhausted.

“How was class today?” Ensen asked, making casual conversation with them.

“It was good,” Leah said with a tired tone of voice.

After waiting for a few minutes, everybody got back on their feet and prepared to head home for the day.

“Think your ready for the piano lesson tomorrow?” Ensen asked Leah, curious about how she felt.

“I hope so.” She said excitedly.

“What are you guys talking about?” Flora hesitantly asked, her curiosity peaked.

“Oh, I’ll be helping Leah learn the piano more, the musical instrument.” Ensen clarified just in case she didn’t understand.

Luckily it seemed like she understood it. 

‘Now where did they go?’ Ensen thought as he began walking away to look for Warren and his sidekick.

Deciding to check the school first, he spent a few minutes taking a glance into most of the rooms. Realizing they weren’t inside, he returned to the exterior of the building and began to walk around it.

While Ensen didn’t thoroughly check every place in the clearing, he was nearly certain that they weren’t here either.

‘Did they go into the forest again?’ Ensen sighed as he looked towards the area that they had gone previously.

Heading back to the other students who were waiting, Ensen turned to Leah and asked her if she knew where Brian would have gone.

“Umm… I don’t think I heard him say anything.” Leah said after a moment of thought.

As Ensen was about to turn around to head into the forest, Leah remembered something.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Wait! I think Brian asked dad earlier if he could bring a friend over.” She said.

Pausing his footsteps, Ensen asked Anabella and Stephen if they heard anything about that. Noticing they both shook their heads, Ensen pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly called the director of the orphanage.

Only after hearing that Warren had asked her earlier in the day did Ensen relax.

After making idle talk for a moment, Ensen hung up.

“It seems like he went to your house.” He said as he sighed in relief.

‘How annoying, I’ll need to speak to both of them about this. They can’t just disappear without telling me, I am responsible for their safety after all.’ Ensen thought as his mood soured slightly.

Since there was a seat that just became available in his car, Ensen offered to drive Leah home, although she kindly refused it.

With Flora in the front seat and Anabella and Stephen in the back, Ensen began to drive towards the siblings’ house to check if he could see Warren walking with Brian. Luckily they managed to catch up pretty quick.

As everybody waved towards them as they passed, Ensen let out a light sigh as he began walking his way to the orphanage.

After dropping the two off, he turned towards Flora.

“How was your first day of school, Flora?” Ensen asked.

“It was fun. I… I thought people would be a lot meaner.” She said in a pitiful voice.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, you know they aren’t mean now. Anyways, it seems like you’ve made friends with Anabella.” Ensen said as he began driving towards the apartment.

“I guess so,” Flora said quietly.

Although he could very faintly hear her mutter quietly “But I’ve never had a friend before.”

Shaking his head silently with a smile, Ensen soon dropped Flora off at the apartment building before going to pay the next two months of the rent for the apartment.

Although he had gotten some strange looks when he was paying for rent in the apartment they believed Kaitlin still lived in.

To try to clear it up, Ensen uttered the first thing that came to his mind when questioned: “I… Uh lost a bet to her.”

Seeing the suspicious eyes turn into eyes of pity, Ensen did not know how to feel.

After finishing up matters there, he returned to his room and checked his school status.

[School Name: Evergreen Academy]

[Student population: 6]

[Faculty population: 2]

[Happiness: 90]

[Diligence: 55]

[Respect: 40]

[Spirit: 35]

[Species Demographic: Human: 100%]

[Rules/Conduct: Forbidden Forest]

[...]

‘Well, seems like all of the stats raised slightly over the past week or so that the school has been open which is nice. The respect statistic is still rather low in my opinion, but I’m sure it will gradually increase over time. 

Spirit is low as well. I imagine the students still feel the Academy is inferior when compared to the bigshots in the town, SilverLeaf, and Littlewood which is… fair but honestly not true. While we are lacking in a few areas I feel as if our school has nothing to feel inferior about. Well… maybe funding.’ Ensen thought to himself as he analyzed the screen.

Noticing that there was a new rule, Ensen tilted his head in confusion.

“Hey system, what does ‘Forbidden Forest’ mean?” Ensen asked.

[Forbidden Forest is the title of the rule.]

After a slight pause, a new blue screen appeared with information about the rule.

[Forbidden Forest]

[This edict outlaws the students from entering into the forests surrounding the area unless under direct supervision from a staff member. If this rule is violated, a notification will inform the host of the infraction. Although the location and the student violating the edict will not be relayed due to restrictions.]

[Punishment: Principal Fuente’s responsibility]

“What… am I looking at?” Ensen muttered out loud. Although he fully read the explanation, he did not expect this sort of function from the system in the slightest.

[Don’t be dumb. I was nice enough to make an official edict for you and this is how you say thanks?!]

Taking a moment to recollect this thought, Ensen said casually “Yeah, yeah. Thanks. How do you make more rules?”

[Each rule has a base cost of 100 education points plus however much depending on how complicated it is. Do you think points grow on trees? Even I don’t have an infinite amount of points.]

“I wish points grew on trees! So are the restrictions there because they were expensive?” Ensen asked, imagining what he could do with those rules.

[That’s right, host. Luckily the rule isn’t too complicated, so it can cover the borders of where the forest begins around here. However, if they enter through the road where the rule does not have influence, they will not be detected.]

Nodding in understanding, Ensen realized that if Warren and Brian had gone into the forest earlier than it would have notified him. Ensen stared at the blue box, annoyed at himself that he did not notice it sooner.

[What?] The system wrote, thinking that Ensen was staring at her.

As Ensen was about to respond, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, Ensen checked the caller ID, but he didn’t recognize it.

Answering the phone, Ensen said “Hello, this is Ensen. Can I help you?”

As the person on the other side remained silent for nearly five seconds, Ensen had begun to think that they didn’t mean to call them. When he was about to hang up, a very shy and reserved voice that he had not heard in a little over a week came through the phone.

“H-hello Ensen, I know it’s been a while since your offer to me to go to your school. But… is that offer is available?” The voice asked nervously.

“This is… Alina, correct?” Ensen asked in confirmation.

He had met her while he was searching for his first initial students. While he had eventually found five, Alina was the third potential student that did not call.

“Yeah, that’s right. So… is it available still?” She asked in an even more nervous tone.

‘Is she alright?’ Ensen thought to himself.

“I have no problems with that. When do you think you can start attending school?” Ensen asked.

“Oh… thank you.” She said gently before continuing. “Is… Wednesday alright?”

After confirming it was, Alina hung up the phone.

‘She sounded… different compared to the last time we talked. I can’t tell what changed though.’ Ensen thought suspiciously.