With classes and everything going on full throttle, I’d nearly forgotten some important things. Namely, my engagement. And the fact that it was literally known throughout the whole academy.

Come to think of it though, Barack senior never mentioned anything about it, and neither had Mrs. Alayla. I guess they didn’t care about it to that degree. Or maybe they’d seen it coming all along.

I still continued going to the church and did my duties at the library; even after a break, learning languages proved to be a literal drag. I didn’t take Rexy to the church and neither to the library. We didn’t want her to accidentally burn books after all.

I practiced with Mike every now and then. Sometimes, Alustur joined us without a word. He didn’t practice, he just watched us and then left without a word whatsoever. The hell was he doing?

My bodyguard was just as useless as I thought. He’d rarely even showed up on time. Where the fuck did that diligent knight go? Sometimes, he went missing for days! Days!

Nothing changed between me and Nisa. We were still on casual terms as we were before. She didn’t get overly friendly, and I didn’t get overly clingy. Of course, it was still a little awkward to talk to her when every single person in the vicinity were staring at us like were items on display. Our cult had started, or rather would officially start from next month since this was already half over. We didn’t have any club activities right now but I did get to meet our members; all girls. One of them were Arin, who came to visit me while I was gone. I actually remembered her. Apparently, she just wanted book suggestions, which I was happy to provide. The other three were high noble ladies, all wearing a lot of makeup….

Something did change though… namely, we had nightly visitors. She came literally every weekend and raided my room.

She came tonight too.

“I kept some on the usual spot,” I said, just turning my head and trying to sleep.

Rexy wasn’t with me tonight. She was kidnapped by an eager teenager. I honestly thought Shia’d be scared of the lizard like Nisa but I guess I was underestimating her too much.

“Mraw.”

Apparently, the black cat liked me and would usually climb into my room through Gerar’s window. And of course, she never came alone. She always brought one of her kittens with her. The kittens were bigger than even typical cats and weren’t friendly at all. I once tried to get close, only to be stopped by the mother; and no, she wasn’t stopping me for the kitten’s safety. She was stopping me for my safety. She was way more gentle than I thought; she’d even let me pet her every once in a while. And yes, she could easily open jars!

I guess the whole greeting event back in the day was for her ot judge whether I was fit or not. Fit to serve her and her kittens that was. Cats will be cats no matter where, huh? Hella majestic though, this mother cat.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Mew,” the kitten mewed before leaving. Well, that was new. The kitten almost never mewed. Was it thanking me?

I kept hearing screams in the middle of the night sometimes; kids were attacked nearly every week these days. A lot of them were dying. Like a lot. I knew the cats weren’t at fault but I wasn’t feeling too confident about that.

And like that… a month passed. And the boss finally came: Exams.

***

The mid terms weren’t really that bad. No, no they were terrible.

The underestimated the ability of teachers to fuck students thoroughly. 90% of the test was purely memory based and the other ten was ability based. Past me would have been overtly exhilarated but current me couldn’t really keep up with the cramming.

I barely ate anything, I studied like the world was ending, and towards the end, I came out as a skeleton.

Yes, I now identified myself as a skeleton and my pronouns were bone and boned.

“ARGHH!!!”

But hey, at least the damn exams were over… But the results… ARGHHH!

“What is wrong with you,” Shia sighed. Apparently, she’d come to check on me since I hadn’t left my room in the last week.

“Been at it since morning,” Gerar said. “Results are out, or should be out today, so-” he chuckled but then stopped once Shia gave him a glance. “S-sorry…” he closed the window and that was the end of that.

Or so I’d have liked it to be but it wasn’t.

“Let’s go,” Shia picked me up. “You reek.”

“Haven’t showered,” I said.

“Well then, we better.” She grabbed my change of clothes and literally dragged me to the bathrooms!

“We can’t! I mean, you can’t-”

“Exactly. So either go in there, or I will break every rule and give you a bath.”

Sighing, I went in there. Yeah, she was right, I was overreacting. I wasn’t likely to fail any classes. Maybe I’d scored below par but it wasn’t the end of the world. But it kind of was; I was too used to straight A scores and not getting decent scores this time would kind of wreck my and this family’s image. I really should have been more serious!

I showered without realizing it, I was so damn into my thoughts, I didn’t realize there was a line. So technically, I cut in there and showered when it was someone else’s turn. I’m definitely turning into a bully at this stage.

Once I came outside, Shia dragged me out, without even letting me hang my wet clothes or dry my hair! She actually just gave the wet clothes to the knight who was waiting for me outside and took me straight to the administrative building.

“I believe results have come out today,” Shia said.

“Yes, they are posted on each classroom and-”

“I’d like to see his,” she said.

The registrar sighed but produced a piece of paper below his desk. Wow, he was actually prepared for this.

“This is the marks he got, this is the highest, and his is the class average.” The man stared at my face for a few seconds. I fucked up badly, huh? “Congratulations, son.”

Come again?

“Hey, not bad. Why were you fretting so much anyway?” Shia said, giving me the paper. “Guess, we won’t need to threaten him anymore,” she shrugged.

You were going to do what? The registrar heaved a sigh. He wasn’t taking this seriously. And neither was Shia.

Still, I focused my attention on the paper instead of my dear sister.

Name: Soler A. Barack

Class: Year-01; Rank: Beginner-F

History: 88_ 91_56

The first one was mine, then the highest, then the class average.

Literature: 84_87_59

This was when I knew I was fucking up hard.

Etiquette: 91_91_77

Hmm…not bad?

Spirit Taming: 98_98_66

How?... Just how?

Class Rank: 01

Overall Grade Rank: 03

How in the actual fuck?