Luna looked at her crush who was spoiling his girlfriend discreetly.
Though after the party members entered they got back to their usual bearings but the secret exchanges between them couldn't escape from her keen eyes. She felt very gloomy and jealous inside.
Just what qualifications that wench had to receive so much of his affection? She was also very pretty and confident in her figure but even after two weeks of close interaction she was only treated as a good friend of his.
Every single time she wanted to take a step further that hateful girl would appear to take him away from her with a bunch of excuses. This further enraged her and her scorn for that insufferable woman reached a new peak.
Not only was she receiving her Sunshine's affection everyday but she still wouldn't let others compete for him? Just what does she think she was? Being his girlfriend doesn't mean she owned him or anything.
Like that, Luna constantly cursed at Karla while keeping a poker face in front of others.
Sometimes she really had dangerous thoughts about truly ending that scourge once and for all but she would come back to her senses when she imagined her crush's mournful face if such an incident truly happened. She couldn't bring herself to entertain such thoughts any further so she could only let her scorn for that wench bubble within.
After seeing the previous display of those two's affection she felt like today would be another day where Karla would keep obstructing her in every possible way but surprisingly that wasn't the case.
Her crush seemed to remember something as he abruptly stopped teasing that wench sneakily. He looked at her and asked,
“Luna, now that you're on the ninth ranking, have you chosen your preferred personal teacher?”
She was surprised at his question but felt a bit gleeful inside that he finally looked at her. Of course, such subtle change in her emotions remained oblivious to her conscience so she didn't think much as she replied,
“I have been brooding over it. Though my class teachers were eager to have me as their personal student but earlier I only had a similar impression of each of them so I still haven't decided yet.”
“Wow, talk about being irresponsible. Are you keeping them on the hook or something?”
That wench jabbed at her while muttering in a low tone but of course as everyone was an awakened human even such low sound was heard by them clearly so it was apparent that she did it deliberately.
Luna really wanted to throw hands at her passive aggressiveness. She had been at it for the past two weeks. This really made it difficult for her to retort as she kept being like this in front of her crush. That wench clearly knew that if she started an ugly quarrel with her in front of him then he would have a bad impression of her so she cunningly kept egging her at these opportune times.
“Karla, don't say it like that. Since only the top fifty received such treatment then it already proves how much of an important opportunity this is. The matter of a personal teacher’s selection is very important as it can't be changed until midterm test.”
“... I must have come off as rude. Sorry about that, Luna.”
To her crush's reprimand that wench pretended to have realized her rudeness and apologized to her but the tone was half-hearted and there wasn't a hint of reflection in her expressions so it was apparent that she faked it yet couldn't be bothered to hide it from others.
Even her crush could only give her a helpless smile as he seemed to have noticed her oddity.
“It's alright. I took no offense.”
She replied to keep the mood from further deteriorating. She actually couldn't care less about her but she felt glad that her Sunshine stood up for her at that time. She also knew that he had noticed their mutual dislike towards each other but he seemed to feel awkward to bring it up.
Stolen story; please report.
“By the way, why ask all of a sudden?”
“Oh, I was thinking of properly introducing you to teacher Nicole today.”
“Eh? Isn't she already your personal teacher? I didn't know one could take multiple personal students of the same year.”
“She indeed can. How about it? Why don't you have a proper talk with her? Maybe you would have a good impression of her teaching quality.”
“Of course, I am willing. Ah… will you also be there at that time?”
“Well, I do have a daily learning session with her during club hours but if you wanted a private talk then I could skip it for today, no problem.”
“No, no. I didn't mean it that way. It's just that with you there maybe the teacher would be a bit more favorable to me. She is, after all, known for her prickliness.”
“Hahaha, trust me, she is actually a very capable teacher when you get to know her better. Don't feel nervous about it.”
“Okay then. Let's wait for her here.”
She replied with a pleasant smile on her face as she happily chatted with him. During the conversation Karla would still try to butt in here and there but she skillfully either ignored her or politely retorted without being excessive.
When teacher Nicole finally arrived he got up and informed her about Luna's intention for today. Thus she finally got to separate that wench from him as she happily followed those two heading towards the beast habitats.
°°°°
Blue walked alongside Nicole as he conversed with her about some of his “doubts” regarding his skill proficiency.
Behind him followed Luna, the reincarnation of Enshrouded Blade and a potential abomination, with a slight gleeful expression on her face.
He made sure to show off his interaction with Nicole who had a bad reputation among the students as being particularly cold and indifferent towards others. He thus gained a look of admiration from her as Nicole laughed a little at his subtle joke that he threw from time to time in the conversation.
His progress with Nicole had actually reached to the point that he could even have skinship with her for hours as long as it didn't involve anything erotic. This much intimacy would have shocked Luna to freeze on the spot but thankfully for her he didn't intend to let her see so much.
Why could he do such a thing with a notoriously cold teacher? It was the result of his grind.
For a long time he had been slowly but steadily increasing Nicole's tolerance to his presence and behavior almost everyday during the long club hours. From being respectful and polite to all of her words and actions to finally “opening up” a bit by being somewhat relaxed and casual in her presence.
After that he progressively kept “opening up” to her as he would take lead of the conversation most of the time and let her experience his “true personality” that he showed to those he considered close or so she had thought.
From there he stirred the direction to slight skinship as he would sometimes joke and playfully be touchy a bit as his “true personality” was shown again. She also at that time didn't feel any reluctance to such a thing as to her it all felt a gradual progress that she managed by “herself” to reach. She had felt that her rapport with her personal student was just that good.
After that point she also had to try to respond adequately to his “enthusiasm” or the mood of their conversation would become awkward. This situation actually was kept constant for a while as he let her get used to this degree of interaction where he took the initiative before he went another step.
On the next step the interaction was switched as he made her take the initiative to be touchy with him instead when they joked from time to time. This part was especially difficult but thanks to his millions of years of experience he got through it without any issues. Now she was on the same tempo as his “enthusiasm” when they interacted.
With both of them being on the same wavelength, things progressed much faster and just yesterday, he took her to a secluded spot on the beast habitats and rested his head on her shoulder for hours as he conversed with her about some questions he had and also listened to her bantering about how difficult life still was as a teacher in this academy, at this point it was mostly about him listening to her so she could feel better in her mind.
To be truthful, he didn't want to get Luna near her during these club hours as it was his dedicated time to work on the conquest of Nicole. However, Karla's wariness at her made it so that she would end up sensing when Luna was trying to take a step further almost intuitively. This was obviously both a headache for Luna and him as he couldn't take the easy approach on completing that side mission.
The time he could spend with Luna was also limited to club hours as from nine to two pm he was at the simulation facility training to level up and after club hours he had been with the family back in the cloud house where he got to work on Clara's side mission and satisfying Laura's voyeurism.
There was just no other time he could free up to deal with her so he had to compromise and pair her up with Nicole so that he could spend more time on the grind. This put a halt on Nicole’s progress in exchange. Sacrifices needed to be made for the greater good! And the greater good for him was swiftly completing her side mission.
Nicole could wait as the only one with a closing time limit was Luna at the present.