The next morning, in Cycelia's room…

Cycelia's long eyelashes part, slowly uncovering the emerald orbs that make her eyes. Straf flips a page, and his gaze snap to her face.

「Ah. Good morning, Lia…」

He nonchalantly greets her, and returns his bored eyes back to the tome in his lap.

「Uh-huh… Good morning, Straf…」

She meekly replies with a nod of her chestnut head, and rolls onto her other side.

《Ahhhhh!! This is so embarrassing! I want to die! What am I supposed to do now!?》

Cycelia thinks as she covers most of herself beneath her blanket, blushing heavily. She slides her arms beneath her pillow, and presses her red face into it.

「…Nnnnhhhhhh!!…」

《After Lily left, Straf just carried on with his book, and we didn't talk about it at all! This is so awkward!》

She lets out a high-pitched, muffled whine into the pillow, hiding her cringing face into its softness.

《Should I pretend nothing happened?… No, it's not pretending! Nothing happened! I just unbuttoned his shirt… And got a little close to his lips! That's all!》

Still pressing her face tightly into the pillow, she nods to herself.

「…You alright, Lia?-」「Eep!」

Straf asks, and Cycelia immediately flinches with a sound like a squeezed dog toy.

「…What's with that reaction?」

He asks another question, tilting his head a little.

「…I sneezed. Achoo.」

Cycelia slowly turns her flushed face to him, and replies with a tight-lipped grimace.

「That didn't sound like- Are you alright?…」

Straf asks with a quite serious expression.

「Yes, I'm fine.」

She nods, and the two stare at each other for a few moments. Straf nods back, and flips another page in his tome, seemingly to one of the last ones.

《Guhhh!… What a terrible feeling!… He must be thinking that I'm desperate and pathetic now…》

Cycelia slowly sits up, keeping her head lowered. She pretends to be groggy, and rubs her eyes to hide her face a little.

《Wait…》

Suddenly, her hands stop right where they are.

《…He put his hands on my thighs… And he didn't look unhappy.》

She lowers them, and thinks while staring at the floor.

《Was… Was Straf actually interested?-》

Her eyes rise up to look at Straf's handsome, distracted face. His eyes abruptly snap to hers, and Cycelia turns her head away on a reflex, causing Straf to tilt his head again.

《I should leave. There's no sense thinking about it. He'd say something if he was interested.》

Cycelia begins slipping her boots on and tying them in the awkward silence.

「Are you going ghost hunting again tonight?」

Clap!

Straf asks as he slams the book shut, and throws it into his [Portable Storage].

「Huh!?- Ah…」

The noise of the book startles her, causing her to turn her eyes to the briefly visible purple vortex.

「Yes, I am. Do you want me to keep the door unlocked?」

「No, you can lock it. I'll be back in the morning.」

Straf lightly shakes his head, and Cycelia nods in acknowledgment.

《Ahh, he's acting normal… I better leave before things get awkward.》

「Well… Then I will be heading out-」

She stands up, and scrambles for the door in a rapid step.

「I'll come with you.」

「Ah! You are!?」

Cycelia looks over her shoulder with her emerald eyes open in shock.

「Yeah, down the stairs at least. Tomorrow I'll see if I can join you in one of the worldbuilding classes.」

Straf hops off the bed, and shrugs his arms in reply when he joins her with his hands in his pockets.

「…But we don't have classes like that, Straf.」

「Infodumping classes.」

He rolls his eyes with a pitifully amused smirk.

「We don't have classes like that either.」

「Let's just go, Lia.」

Straf sighs, and gently nudges her towards the door with his hand on her back.

「Ah! Okay…」

Startled by the physical contact, she jumps up a little, but then nods and moves to the door.

《…He's touching me again.》

Crrrrrr-rrrrreaaaaaaak…

Cycelia thinks, smiling as she fidgets with her medallion. She opens the door, and locks it behind them.

「So… You like ghosts now?」

Straf asks while they walk side by side to the stairs.

「I don't. I still don't like the idea of actually finding a ghost, but I don't think that's going to happen.」

She says, and shrugs her shoulders.

「I don't have friends back at the palace, Straf. I have subjects and diplomatic peers, but not friends. Tisha and Neela are the first friends I have made, so….」

Cycelia adds, tapping her fingers together with her chestnut head lowered.

「…So it's fun. It's new. I don't really care about the ghost hunt, I just think spending time with my friends is fun.」

She briefly turns her emerald eyes to Straf's bored face, then looks back down at the ground ahead of her feet, and shrugs her shoulders.

「…Good for you.」

Straf nods, and they enter the spiral stairwell down.

「What are you up to lately, Straf? I haven't seen you much.」

Cycelia asks, trailing just behind him.

「This and that.」

He dismissively replies, shrugging while they descend.

「Like what? I'm curious.」

She keeps questioning Straf, and he lets out a large, resigned sigh.

「I was doing all sorts of stuff and trying to figure out who might be behind it all.」

「The barrier?」

「Shush, Lia. Remember, it's a secret.」

With his lips lightly stretched side to side, his bored eyes look over his shoulder at her.

「Sorry…」

Cycelia covers her mouth, her eyes widened at her own indiscretion.

「Do you have any clues yet?」

She asks, furrowing her brows.

「My clue is that I'm clueless so far…」

Straf shrugs as they make their way down another floor.

「…But I'm kinda narrowing it down. Ah, I'm also working on some other stuff. I might show you later.」

「Like the magic armor?」

Cycelia tilts her head, and Straf snaps his fingers.

「Yup. Some really wild shit, Lia. But I need to borrow another book to verify some things.」

He nods, keeping his index finger extended upward as he explains. When they reach another floor, he places his hand back in his pocket.

「I see… I can't wait!」

She replies with a smile, and Straf briefly looks at her over his shoulder. With a smirk, he lets out a quick amused huff out of his nose, and turns his head forward. They make their way down to the bottom of the dormitories, and exit into the hallway. Neela and Tisha are already waiting, and glance at each other with surprised faces when they see Straf coming.

「Lia!… Is Straf coming along too?」

Neela waves and asks as they approach.

「Nope. Tomorrow.」

He barely allows Cycelia to open her mouth before he shoots back a quick reply.

「Ahh… Well then, I'm glad you're coming tomorrow, at least.」

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Neela nods at Straf, and looks at Cycelia. She looks back at her with a tight-lipped grimace, almost begging Neela not to ask too many questions.

「Well, we're gonna borrow Lia, then. See you later, Straf.」

Tisha declares as she wraps her arm around Cycelia in a rather familiar manner, and drags her down the hall away from Straf. Neela nods her head to bid him farewell, and runs to catch up.

「Yeah, see you, I guess…」

He shrugs, watching them depart through the busy hallway. He takes a few steps forward, and looks in the direction of the library. A long hallway very sparsely filled with uniformed students stretches on and on. Straf lets out a large sigh. After a few seconds, his brows furrow, his gaze drifts down, and he rubs his chin while he thinks.

「…Craft.」

He says, and looks at the crafting menu only he can see…

…

A few moments later, in the Academy's hallways…

Neela is following Cycelia, while Tisha is practically dragging her along with her. Tisha glances over her shoulder, and feeling satisfied, she unwraps her arm from Cycelia.

「Come on Lia, speak up.」

「Yeah, how did it go?」

Neela and Tisha say, expectantly leaning forward into her face, attentively staring into her emerald eyes.

「H- Huh?」

She utters out, quickly glancing at the two. Tisha clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes away.

「Stop pretending, Lia. Straf came with you today. Did you tell him? What did he say?」

She asks, and Cycelia lowers her gaze.

「Don't tell me he turned you down.」

Tisha furrows her brows at her reaction.

「No, he didn't-」

「So he feels the same?」

Neela chimes in with a question, not even allowing Cycelia to finish.

「I don't know… Maybe?」

She shrugs, briefly glancing at Neela's close face.

「…Maybe? So did you ask him, or not?」

Tisha asks, tilting her head in confusion.

「No, I…」

Cycelia pauses for a few seconds, nervously glancing at her two friends. Their intense gazes earnestly attempt to burn a hole in her.

「…I tried to go a little beyond that.」

She replies, and pouts a little. Though her emerald eyes instinctively escape sideways, Neela's face is there, and so she is forced to gaze downward instead.

「A little?…」

「…Beyond that?」

Neela and Tisha once again cooperatively finish a sentence, and glance at each other with their brows furrowed.

「Lia… Did you?… You know…」

Though initially Tisha hesitates to ask, she makes a circle with her thumb and fingers. She then takes her other hand, extends two fingers, and slams them into the circle a few times.

「N- No! We got interrupted…」

After Cycelia takes a second or two to realize what Tisha is gesturing, her eyes snap wide open, and she loudly denies with her fists clenched. Immediately after, she elaborates with a blushing face.

「You got… 」

Neela says, turning her head towards the northern princess. She looks at her with shocked ice-blue eyes.

「…Interrupted!? Someone walked in on you!?」

Tisha once again finishes her sentence, and asks Cycelia with her jaw hanging from surprise.

「No!- Well, yes- Kind of…」

Cycelia hopelessly shrugs her shoulders, looking down at the floor while they navigate the crowd of students.

「Kind of? Aren't you going to be in trouble with the evil queen now?」

Neela asks, tilting her head.

「Ah!」

Cycelia jumps up a little, when she realizes her lies are beginning to show their short legs.

「…It was someone we both knew, so it's okay.」

She quickly comes up with a half-truth cure, anxiously glancing at both of the girls to see if they're buying it.

「…So, you know he's married, and you still tried to go all the way?」

Tisha asks, appearing visibly troubled.

「Well, there's no helping it. I wanted to know his true feelings, so…」

「…Isn't that a little… Voracious, Lia? I know it was our idea, but… We only told you to ask.」

Neela cautiously picks her words, also heavily furrowing her brows in a look of consternation.

「It's okay, I have certainty we won't get into trouble.」

Cycelia reassures her friends with a warm smile, but their troubled faces do not disappear.

「N- No, Lia, that's not…」

「…That's not the issue.」

This time, it's Neela that meekly finishes Tisha's sentence.

「…It's more about the fact that despite everything, he is still a married man. I think this kind of situation could, and should be resolved with a little more… Grace.」

She adds, greatly struggling to convey her meaning with appropriate words.

「Tisha, Neela… It's okay, you don't need to worry about us. It really doesn't matter that he's married.」

「Ah.」「Ah.」

Both of Cycelia's friends let out a quiet little gasp of a surprise, though it was not all so surprising.

《…She just went and outright said it, huh?》

Tisha thinks, looking at Cycelia with a deeply troubled, slack-jawed expression. Neela and Tisha knowingly look into each other's eyes.

《Lia is…》

《…Kind of a slut, isn't she?》

While Cycelia is warmly smiling at them to comfort them, Neela and Tisha turn their faces forward with a prolonged sigh of disappointed discomfort…

…

Around the same time, in the entrance foyer of the main Academy building…

Kkkkkrrrrrrrkkkkkk… Cla-clukk!

Straf leaps into the air on his skateboard, and does a kickflip. Without a warning, [Contextual Time Perception] activates as soon as the board stops being a surface for his feet. He slowly drifts towards the central stairs' wooden railing with the skateboard spinning around its axis right underneath him.

《Man, it really isn't that impressive when it's in slow motion.》

He thinks, watching the board spin. He accelerates its spin a little with his foot. At this rate, the skateboard will complete thousands of revolutions before it lands, or crashes into something.

《Should I try some aerials?… Nah. What am I? A 12 year old? This is just transport for me. Transport.》

Straf scoffs at his own thought, shaking his head. As he nears the railing, he brings the skateboard's wild spin to a halt with his foot. With his hands still in his pockets and in mid-air, he places his feet back down on the board.

Clack! Crrrrrrrrkkkkkkkk!

The bottom of the skateboard slams into the railing, and Straf enters a noisy crooked grind upon it.

「Prick!」

At the top of the stairs, an angry voice from behind Straf shouts out.

「Hey!」「Watch it!」「What the fuck!?」

Students making their way up or down the stairs jump out of Straf's way as he grinds down the wooden rail. Wood chippings fly, and the beautiful varnished dark oak has its woody interior violently carved away and exposed by the skateboard's metal elements. He jumps off the railing, just before its decorative pointy tip at the end.

Clack!

The wheels make a loud, reverberating sound when they impact the stone floor. Straf rolls into the library at a high speed.

Krrrrrrrrrrrrkkkk… Cla-cluck!

As he passes the wide-open double doors, he does one more kickflip, and brakes to a stop.

「What is that!?」

One of the library women at the front desk ask.

「A skateboard. It's going to be all the rage among raging teenagers one day.」

Straf nonchalantly replies with a smug smirk on his face, and he kicks the skateboard's tail. It flies into his hand, and Straf throws it into his [Portable Storage].

「Well, you can't use that in the library!」

「Hey, you don't make the rules, and I know for a fact that rule didn't exist before you've seen that kickflip…」

He points at the protesting woman with his mouth heavily scrunched to the side, then places his fists on his hips.

「…Besides, do you really think someone with a skateboard is going to listen to authority figures?」

Straf asks, and spreads his hands. He shakes his head in disapproving disbelief as he approaches the desk, and begins pulling out tomes.

「I'm here to return these, and borrow like one or two more.」

Thud!… Thud!… Thud!… Thud!…

Thick tomes begin to pile up on the desk, and all three of the women look on in disbelief with their brows furrowed.

「…Are you done with these, then?」

「Yeah, I finished 'em. I should probably slow down or I might run out of reading material.」

Straf replies with a shrug of his hands and a nod.

「Heh. Finished? It's been… What, two weeks or so?」

A woman comments with a snide grin as she adjusts her glasses.

「Yeah, I'd say somewhere around that. What about it? Am I late, or something?」

「No, I am asking if you really think borrowing books only to return them before the month is up makes you look smart.」

She asks, looking at Straf with disdainful eyes.

「I don't care how it makes me look. The book on powering stuff was pretty useful. I didn't even realize it, but I was doing magitech before it was cool…」

Straf says, grinning back at her with a smug look on his face as he spreads his hands.

「…Though now I can safely say that manawood or whatyacallit might not be the best power source for things. Oh well, as long as it works.」

He briefly rubs his chin as he adds, then shrugs, and grins at the woman once more.

「…You seriously read through all of these?」

She asks, looking at the huge stack of tomes on their desk. Replaced by lightly furrowed brows, the disdainful look in the woman's eyes has disappeared off to somewhere…