Roughly twenty minutes later, in Professor Wolfskopf's class…
「Now, look through the index in your tomes for a chapter like the construction of spells, or concepts as building blocks or something like that…」
Professor Wolfskopf says, approaching his desk.
「…And do a little self-study until the bell.」
He adds, crossing his legs as he sits down on the side of his chair, propping his head up on his fist. The classroom goes silent, and the students all look at each other in confusion, and mild surprise.
「…Eh?」
Damian utters out with his mouth ajar, staring at the professor. Sitting at the teacher's desk, he's looking aside at the floor, and seemingly deep in thought. A soft murmur begins in the classroom.
「Professor… Are we not going to go over spell formation?」
The handsome student asks, blinking in surprise.
「Hm? Well, I've said you can self-study, and I'm here if you have questions. Is there a problem?」
Wolfskopf asks, appearing somewhat annoyed he has been pulled out of his own mind.
「…No. Sorry, professor.」
Damian breaks eye contact, and looks outside the window again. He quickly looks around to see if the mysterious cloaked person is there.
《Gone, huh?… What was that all about? Was it a prank? Am I overthinking things?…》
He sighs with relief, and opens his tome, sliding his finger down the list of contents. Meanwhile, on the other side of the classroom…
「Huh?… Why did he tell us to self-study all of a sudden? He never does that!」
Tisha exclaims with a hushed voice, turned to Neela.
「Does he tend to not do that?」
Cycelia asks, tilting her head.
「Tend to? We've never seen him do that before!」
「Yeah!」
Neela replies, and Tisha nods in agreement as they both lean in towards her.
「…I didn't even bring my book! I didn't need it for the last two terms, why would I need it now!?」
Tisha grumbles, tapping her fingers on the desk in a steady rhythm like a drumroll.
「We can share mine… And you can help me with the notes.」
Cycelia says, sliding her open tome towards her.
「Ah! Thanks! I'll bring them tomorrow! How about we meet during the free period in the library?」
Neela replies, clasping her hands in gratitude.
「Yeah, I'll bring the ones I wrote just now, too.」
Casually leaning on the desk with her elbow, Tisha nods her braided bang. They both look at Cycelia, waiting to see what she'll say.
「Sure. I wish I could bring some snacks from the city, but…」
Smiling, she returns a nod. Tisha and Neela glance at each other.
「Uh… They don't allow food or drinks in the library after the incident with Neela.」「Nyooooo! Don't!-」
Tisha explains, pointing at Neela behind her. She latches onto her shoulder, digging her fingers into it with her brows furrowed in desperation.
「Incident?…」「It's over…」
Cycelia tilts her head, and Neela lets out a resigned sigh as her head and shoulders slump.
「Neela is a real clumsy dummy. We first met when she spilled juice on some really old book in the library, and one of the library keepers wanted to rip her head off for that…」
Tisha says with a smile, petting Neela on her brown, fluffy head.
「…So I've said,「I'll pay for it, if it's that big of a deal! Stop making her feel bad about a stupid book!」and stuff.」
「Hnnnhuuu…」
With her head lowered and face pouting, Neela lets out a sad, embarrassed little whine while Tisha continues. Her blue eyes peel away from her friend, and look into Cycelia's.
「Like I said, I'm rich… But that was the costliest juice ever. You could get a whole box of Temurian fruits for that.」
She smiles, and lets out an amused scoff, pulling her hand away from Neela's head.
「Can we go back to learning? It was a long time ago…」
Neela quietly asks, hiding behind Tisha.
「Nnnhh… Lia, can you find the thing? I don't like digging through books…」
With her girly, long fingernail, the blonde-haired girl lightly scratches her rosy cheek on her pale face, as she looks aside with an awkward smirk.
「Ah- Yes, let me look…」
Cycelia leans in closer to Tisha, and starts browsing through her thick tome's list of chapters…
…
In the late afternoon…
Gonnnnngggg… Donnnnnnngggg… Gonnnng…
「Ah. Already?」
Professor Wolfskopf looks up at the ceiling while the afternoon bell tolls. He stands up, clearing his throat.
「Ahem… Okay! That's it for today! Go review your notes, and stuff!…」
Scooping his own tome up from the teacher's desk, he loudly exclaims, barely audible over the shuffling chairs and feet. Before even the front-most row students can make it to the door, the professor makes his unceremonious exit.
《He sure is in a rush… Did something happen?》
Damian thinks, taking his heavy tome underneath his armpit. He patiently descends down the stairs with the crowd, flowing with everyone to the door.
「Ah! Handsome guy!」
A girl's voice calls out to someone, as Damian attempts to squeeze his way through to the hallway.
「Hey! Don't ignore me! Who do you think you are!?」
Damian looks over his shoulder to see which man earned the girl's wrath. An attractive blonde girl with her bangs braided to the side is glaring at someone with her ice-cold blue eyes. He looks forward to see who the glare is directed at, and quickly realizes that nobody is standing there. A little unnerved, he looks at her angry face, while the two of her friends catch up behind her. A little confused, Damian inquisitively points at himself.
「Who else!?」
With her mouth angrily scrunched, she asks with her fists on her hips, right on her skirt's band.
《Huh? Are they making fun of me? I'm just average…》
「Sorry, I didn't think you meant me…」
Damian chuckles softly as he awkwardly rubs the back of his neck, stepping aside to let other students through.
「Hmpf… We are going to the library to study. Are you coming with us?」
She asks, crossing her arms while still intensely staring at him. Her two friends behind her look on with their brows furrowed in mild concern.
「Ahh…」
He groans softly, looking aside at the blackboard.
「Don't try to use the I'm studying excuse again.」
「Tsk.」
Damian clicks his tongue in response, and lets out a sigh.
《Shit… I guess it can't be helped, I did say that before.》
「I learn better when studying alone, but alright… I guess I don't mind, for a little bit.」
He replies, shrugging his shoulders in defeat. Tisha lets out a victorious, satisfied huff out of her nose, smirking at him.
「Great. Let's go, then. Come on, Neela, Lia.」
She turns to her friends, and nods her head towards the door, trailing behind the last students out. The girl's friends follow her out, and the chestnut-haired one anxiously glances over her shoulder at Damian.
「Ahh…」
《I'll just sit with them for a couple minutes, and then come up with an excuse to leave…》
With his shoulders slumping, a big sigh escapes his mouth. He shambles to the classroom door, closing it behind himself…
…
In the packed hallway, between the classroom and the library…
Damian reluctantly follows the girls. They cross a corner, and he is right behind them. He lets out a frustrated sigh, looking at their well-groomed hair sway while they walk.
《…Handsome, huh?》
He smirks lightly as he thinks. At the same time, a tall man passes by him… One that he is certain he saw before.
「Hm?…」
Damian looks over his shoulder, and the man is nowhere to be seen.
《Was I seeing things?… There's no way he just blended into the crowd, being tall like that-》
He furrows his brows, looking behind himself, but the blonde girl's voice pulls him out of his mind.
「Hey! Are you trying to sneak away!? For shame!」
She shouts across the hallway, glaring at him with her arms crossed, holding her portable notebook in hand.
「…I'm not. I just thought I saw an acquaintanc- Huh!?」
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Damian's eyes widen, when he attempts to take another step towards the girls. Partway through it, he realizes he is unable to move his foot forward as far as he'd like.
Thud!
「Ungh!…」
He lands flat on his face, causing students in the hallway to jump away a little.
「Oh, uh… Are you alright, handsome guy?」
The girl's blue eyes widen, and her brows rise in surprise when the young man is reeling on the ground, groaning in pain. She backtracks her way back to him, and leans forward with her hands on her knees.
「Nnghh… Yeah. I just tripped on someth-」
He replies through his clenched teeth, nodding his head. He looks down at what he tripped over, and realizes he has tripped over his very own feet. Specifically, his shoelaces tied to one another.
「Ahhh… I'll be alright, give me a second… I need to tie my shoes…」
《Someone from the class doesn't like me, huh?》
Damian lets out a large, fatigued sigh, and picks himself up to kneeling. He undoes the knot between his shoes, and fastens his laces the proper way, without letting the girls catch a glimpse of his predicament.
「Good grief… You look like a stickler for rules, but then you walk around with your shoes untied. No lady will want you, if you'll be missing teeth for a dumb reason.」
The girl says, letting out another huff out of her nose as she turns away to continue on her way.
「Yes, yes…」
He dismissively replies, nodding as he picks his tome back up. Damian then shrugs his shoulders, and once again follows the blonde girl…
…
In the library, roughly ten minutes later…
Damian and the three Academy schoolgirls arrive to the library. The large-breasted, chestnut haired girl sets her tome down, and the girls lean in around the book, setting their notes aside.
He approaches the opposite side of the table, sets his tome down as well, and pulls the chair out. He bends his knees, and sits down…
Thud!
「Ungh!- What?」
Damian grunts out, as he falls flat on his back, curled up like a dead spider. The chair is seemingly pulled farther back than he recalls it being so. This is odd enough to make him furrow his brows, but he slowly picks himself up by the misplaced chair.
「…Are you alright? If you're tired, maybe you should go take a nap.」
The big-breasted girl says, staring at him with concerned emerald-green eyes.
「I'm fine, I just slipped…」
The handsome student replies, and lets out a large sigh as he finally successfully sits down. The girls begin discussing the lectures amongst themselves, with Damian not participating in the slightest.
「What were the base concepts again? Life and death?」
The brown-haired girl asks, looking at her notes. Damian lets out a sigh, and stays silent. He remains content looking sideways at the tall windows, and the sunlight illuminating the floating specks of dust in the air.
「No, it was definitely matter, energy… And…」
The chestnut-haired girl replies, shaking her head a little. She pulls her fingers away as she counts, but stops on the third one. Her green eyes look up at the dark, tall ceiling.
「Time. Matter, energy, and time.」
Damian bluntly chimes in, side-glancing at the chestnut-haired girl, before returning his disinterested eyes back to the window.
「Ah! Right! Thanks, handsome guy!- Wait, what was your name?」
The brown, fluffy-haired girl asks, staring at him from across the table. The man sighs, and looks at the gaggle of schoolgirls.
「Damian.」
He replies with his mouth aslant, making it clear with his face that he'd rather be elsewhere.
「I'm Neela! This is Lia, and the one that likes you is Tisha!」
The brown-haired girl says, pointing to herself, then the big-breasted one, and finally the blonde.
「Hey! What are you talking about!?」
Tisha shoots up as she exclaims, indignant. She shoots a quick glance at Damian, who lets out another sigh.
「It's for the juice…」
Neela replies, smugly smirking at the blonde. Tisha grits her teeth, and lowers herself back to her chair.
《…What juice?》
Damian furrows his brows, and turns his eyes back to the window again. The second he does so, something small and light impacts his eye.
Whish!
「Ow!」
Damian turns away with a grunt, clutching at his eye. The girls turn their attention to him, staring with their brows furrowed.
「…Are you alright?」
Tisha asks, and Damian opens his tearful eyes back up. He notices a small paper ball rolled up at his feet.
「Yeah… A bug flew into my eye.」
He nods his head, and groans quietly for a few moments more.
「…That's weird, there shouldn't be any around here.」
Tisha looks down at the table, thinking.
「Maybe the automata missed one?」
Neela chimes in from across Cycelia. All three shrug, and return to studying. Damian side-glances at the windows again, covertly fashioning a shield for his eyes out of his fingers.
「Huh?」
His jaw drops, when a hand with its middle finger extended and pointed at him slinks behind one of the shelves in the library's darkness. Shocked and stunned, Damian blinks a few times, and glances at the girls. None of them noticed.
「Look, I forgot something important in my room… I have to go find it. Let's do this some other time, maybe?」
He says, standing up from the table with his tome in hand.
「Eh? But we've barely started?-」
「Bye! Was nice to meet you!」
He walks off, ignoring the blonde girl's comment. The girls look at each other again, and shrug…
…
Later, in the evening, in Cycelia's room…
Crrrreeaaaaaak…
「How was your day, Lia? Learned something new?」
Straf asks, opening his eyes and snapping out of his meditative pose on the bed..
「Uhhh… I don't know. Maybe?…」
Cycelia replies, shrugging her shoulders as she sets the thick tome back down in her open baggage in the corner.
「But Straf, listen here!… I made new friends today! It's those two girls that sat with us!」
She proudly says, with a broad smile and her index finger extended.
「Hmmm…」
Straf humms, looking at her with a rather unimpressed expression.
「They're really nice! And they're both my age! And they're roughly of about the same status, so we don't need to walk on eggshells around each other!」
「Sounds like a good match for you…」
He shrugs, lying down on his side.
「Yes! I knew I'd be learning magic here, but I didn't think I'd also make friends! It's hard to have friends when you're a queen, Straf. Blurring the line between subjects and friends is not a good idea…」
Cycelia sighs, glumly nodding her chestnut head as she sits down on her bed.
「Yeah… Corporations and the government, too… Or pineapple and pizza…」
「What's a pineapple?」
Her emerald eyes blink at Straf, her head tilted.
「Just one of those things that should be banned, Lia… When you use combat gases, everyone is like oh the horror!… But when someone puts a pineapple on pizza, they call it acquired taste, and you're supposed to tolerate that.」
Straf grumbles, and jumps up to his feet off the bed, heading for the door.
「Where are you going?」
「Combat gases being mentioned… I need to take a shit.」
「Good grief! I just came back!… At least make it quick.」
Cycelia exclaims, plopping down on her bed as Straf leaves through the creaking door…
…
After the sunset, in the men's room…
Damian enters one of the stalls, undoes the belt on his pants, pulls them down, and sits down. Fifteen minutes or so pass, and he reaches for the roll of paper.
「Ah- Tsk…」
He clicks his tongue, when he realizes it's missing.
「Just my luck…」
He sighs out, and props his head up on his hand.
「What now?… Do I check the other stall-?」
Thud.
Something rumbles the stall walls as it lands on top of them. A red-colored roll of paper, just barely visible in the nigh pitch-black darkness of the bathroom stall is lowered into Damian's vision.
「Red?… Or blue?…」
A hooded, wolf-masked figure in scarlet robes asks, splayed on top of the bathroom stalls. He holds out a fresh roll of toilet paper in each hand for Damian… One red, and one blue.
「W- What the fuck?…」
Damian mutters out, as his heart starts beating faster.
「Red?… Or blue?…」
The figure ominously asks again, staring at him from above, mask unmoving. Damian feebly covers his groin with his shaky hands.
「W- What? I don't- I don't understand…」
「Red?… Or blue?…」
The figure asks in an echoing, eerie voice. Damian gulps nervously, and the red-robed man moves the red and blue rolls closer to his face.
「Red?… Or blue?…」
He asks, lightly raising one, then the other. Damian looks at both, shoots up to his feet while also pulling his pants back up, and runs out of the stall with a thud of its door.
「Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!」
He shouts, running out of the bathroom as the hooded figure calmly observes.
The robed man jumps down, and with the rolls still in his hands, he places his fists on his hips.
「Hahahahahahaha!…」
He cackles, his voice echoing in his ominous wolf mask…