Chapter 118: A visit to the Theater

Alex Sandclaw’s pov:

I looked Felix over as he walked in. He looked quite a bit more relaxed than he had during lunch, a little bit of the tension I hadn't even realized was there had disappeared. I wondered if he noticed the same from me? Writing that letter and putting thoughts to words had taken a load off my shoulders. Now I just needed to get it delivered. I'd have to ask Felix to help me with that.

"You look better,” I said. “Had fun flying about?"

He nodded with a smile. "It's nice being able to fly because I want to, not because we're racing back home, or fleeing some monster. It's strange, really. It's the same activity, but it's a completely different experience. It seems my mindset affects me more than I'd thought,” he said, before telling me about what he’d seen, and where he’d dozed in the sun. “Anyway, that's enough about me, how were your classes? Were you able to follow them a bit? I imagine we both have a lot to catch up on."

I scratched the scales at the back of my head with embarrassment. "I might have accidentally sort of forgotten what my schedule was."

Felix stared at me for a moment before chuckling. "I guess it'll take some time to get back into rhythm, though we'll have to see what's what with dad's schedule before we do so. What did you do this afternoon, then?"

Answering, I told him about the letter, and the issue of posting it. I also considered asking him for feedback on what I'd written, if everything was clear. But in the end, I decided against it. This was an issue between mom and I. Though, I might bring up some specifics later, such as the awkwardness I still felt around the situation. I was curious what his thoughts were about that.

Felix mulled on the issue of sending the letter for a few minutes while I grabbed us something to drink. "So, as you probably already know, the normal mail System, while rather reliable, can be slow. It's usually pretty quick between the large destinations, but small, out of the way, villages such as the one where you were born tend to only get their mail delivered in batches every few months or so," he said, giving me a little more insight why exactly the letter hadn’t yet arrived back home. "But since time is a bit of an issue, that gets rid of that option. Some alternatives I can think of is getting the mail service to make an exception for your village, getting a messaging Skill, getting a teleporter for your mail, hiring a courier, or us just visiting every few weeks to hand-deliver the mail."

I considered the options, remembering something Felix had said. "I remember you saying you could ask your dad for the first option? I'm guessing that's no longer an option with this new mess?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it might be something we can ask about in a few weeks or months, but I wouldn't want to bother him with this right now, considering what's going on. So that leaves the other options. Getting a Skill and a teleporter are right out, as well, as they're terrible solutions. So that leaves visiting or hiring a courier."

I frowned a little. Neither of those were great solutions. I didn't really have the money for a courier, and visiting took more time than we really had. Not unless Felix got faster... maybe one of my Dragon Rider Path's Skills could help with that? Something to consider.

Actually, shouldn't I have received additional Path Skills already? I'd gotten [Dragon riding] well past level nine, the first Milestone, so I should have received it then. What was up with that? My parents had never talked about this. But then again, their paths had been a lot more straightforward and common. I'd have to ask someone about this later.

I mentally shook myself and focused back on the conversation.

"Do you think I could afford a courier once a month with the pay from my job at the restaurant?" I asked.

Felix shrugged. "Maybe? I'm not too sure about the prices they tend to ask. But that shouldn't be an issue anyway. While today has been a hot mess, dad follows the rules. And the rules say significant scientific contributions get rewarded. What your Title has let you discover about the System should net you a nice sum of Credits. And on top of that, there's a standing reward from dad for any credible information discovered about dragons. What we found in those tunnels definitely counts. And if somehow, that doesn't happen, I'd pay the courier for you. This is important to you, and I have plenty of credits still stashed away."

I shook my head. "That's really sweet of you, but I should pay for this myself. If those two bounties don't work out, I'll find a solution for the money."

Felix nodded. "Alright, fair enough. I have faith you'll manage,” he said, the offer of help if I didn’t manage going unspoken.

I smiled. "I'll keep it in mind," I said. "Now, why don't you tell me about that duck you came across while we wait for Tiki and the rest to arrive? Was it really swimming upside down?"

---

Our friends arrived not much later, and we made our way outside. Tiki led us all the way to the main district, where most of the general facilities, businesses, services, and people were, such as the theater we were going to visit. The area was practically on the other side of campus, kept relatively far away from the low-leveled students.

Felix had explained it to me before why this was the case. He'd given me a whole story, filled with the history of the Academy and ingrained social rules. But it could be boiled down to one simple reason: an organization such as the Academy naturally had a lot of high-leveled individuals, and not everyone of them was as careful with their high Attributes as his dad and the professors were.

It was a little unfortunate that it also created a bit of social divide, but there had been enough accidents over the course of history to justify keeping the newbies away until they were resilient enough to be bumped into. It rankled a bit, but I'd been in a few cities that didn't do this during my travels to the Academy, and I fully believed it was well worth the trade-off.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

This didn't mean the area was off-limits to us, of course, but we had to be a bit more careful moving around than usual. At least Felix's large size and renown helped us clear a path, so we didn't have to worry about it too much. We all made sure to walk behind him. I can't say I minded the view.

I did feel rather stifled walking through the crowd, though it had nothing to do with the risk. We'd spent a large majority of the last few weeks underground and generally away from people. Even after our return, we'd spent most of our time hanging out in places with very few people. It was weird to suddenly walk between hundreds of people again. I didn't like it.

At the same time, it was nice seeing people going about their lives. My life had been hectic, but the world had kept on spinning. It was reassuring, in a sense.

I shook my head and focussed back on Tiki, taking a swig from my bottle—I had a feeling I wasn't going to be leaving home without an ample supply of water anytime soon—as I listened to her explain the plan for the evening.

The original plan had been to go eat first, then watch the show, but as we walked, Tiki explained that because she had to find a restaurant willing to host our group on such short notice, timeslots were a little limited. I didn't really mind. Being taken out to dinner was more than plenty in my eyes. Even a potluck picnic would've been lovely, nevermind whatever she had actually planned for us now.

"I managed to reserve a private viewing booth, so we can all watch without disrupting anyone's view," she said and Felix nodded in appreciation.

Soon, we made it to the theater building, and I had to say it was a touch underwhelming. It was large, somewhat round, but without much detail. Still, it was the inside that mattered, not the outside. And the inside didn't disappoint. I had only been to a theater once in my time on campus, and it had been a smaller theater where student groups performed. It had nothing on the grand hall and stage of this place.

Getting to our private viewing booth had proved a little challenging, but Felix just barely managed to squeeze through the hallways. The staff helped clear out the seating and table to make room, and even provided a nice thick rug for Felix to lie on. I had a feeling it wasn't the first time he'd been here.

Before long, we were all comfortable seated and waiting for the show to start.

"So, what are we watching, actually?" I asked, realizing I hadn't asked before now.

Viggi handed me a flyer, then explained. "It's a dramatized retelling of the founding of the Academy, if I understood correctly."

I read through the folder I was handed and came to the same conclusion. I glanced at Felix. He was going to be so bored during this, wasn't he?

It wasn't long before I was proven wrong. Felix rather enjoyed the show and its over-the-top story-telling. And where I expected myself to be rather interested, I found myself not actually caring all that much. Between missing a lot of context, and having been pulled into a much grander bit of history recently, the story felt... lackluster, for lack of a better word.

Ultimately, the story was the same as that of most countries. Some high-leveled person had a passion, found themselves a good location, and set up shop. The only real difference with countries was that the passion had been one for teaching, seeing the youth grow, research, and improving the world instead of pure power, rebellion, or the likes. I wondered if they had foreseen their pet project gaining such a prominent position in the world several hundred years after their passing?

Of course, the show was mostly about the trials and tribulations the person faced, as those opposing his ideals tried to tear him down. The one thing that did stand out to me was the incident with the prince of the local kingdom, who had abused his powers, leading to a cascade of chaos and ending with an outright ban on personal servants for students.

I figured this later expanded into the rules regarding nobles and the rich that the Academy handled today. A few questions directed at Felix confirmed it.

It also came at no surprise that Tiki despised the Prince character, and it made me wonder how much of his despicability came from the character being exaggerated. My only experience with a prince suggested it wasn't played up all that much.

After the show, we rested in a nearby park, sitting near a bench overlooking a grand fountain, lit up in a myriad of colors. Rainbow plaza, the place was called. I liked it, it reminded me of my bookmark. Felix was talking with Tiki, Sekara was taking in the sights while leaning against Viggi, while Viggi and I chatted about the show.

"I liked it," I told him, "but it wasn't really a play meant for me. I have too little context. Like, what was that thing with the blue and winged snake about? It was never really explained."

"You know, I'm not sure either," he said. "I've seen it around campus a bunch, in lots of the older artworks. I think it's meant as a good omen? Either way, it kind of reminds me of Felix."

I glanced over at the cuddly dragon. Scales? Check. Wings? Check. Blue? Check. Snake? Yeah, the similarities ended there. Though, I'd argue seeing Felix was also a good omen. He certainly brightened my day, at least.

Viggi continued, "And honestly, the play wasn't really my thing either. I prefer comedies, if any. But we figured you two would enjoy something a little slower—though, if we had known it was fast-paced like this, we'd probably have chosen something else."

I shook my head. "It's fine. I enjoyed spending time with all of you," I said, bringing a smile to Viggi's snout.

Things were still a little awkward between us, but the weeks of separation seemed to have helped. We'd have to talk about it one of these days. Maybe I could be his wingman? He certainly deserved to be happy as well. Then again, maybe I was being a little presumptuous by assuming he needed a partner to be happy.

That gave me an interesting question, though. Did I need a partner to be happy? I was pretty miserable before I met Felix, wasn't I? Would I have been happy even if we'd never met? Maybe? I probably would've met most of the friends I have now eventually. I doubted I would've stayed in the closet forever, either. There was no denying Felix had sped the whole process up by a ton, though.

There was no point speculating what might have happened, however. I was pretty satisfied with the way my life was going. Which was probably a good thing. I don't think I could've handled hating my life on top of everything else that was already going on. No, the whole mess with the System was plenty overwhelming, thank you very much.

I... really needed to talk about that to someone. The stability of the node had gone down another point during the play, which no doubt contributed to my enjoyment of the show—not. Why was I just sitting here, watching a play, even as my new home was literally threatening to fall apart? I should be out there, doing something, even if I didn't know what I could be doing. Plans had already been made, and I just needed to wait and relax.

Stars knew I likely wouldn't have many moments to relax the coming few weeks. Then again, maybe the training schedule Felix’s dad would come up with was mild. Considering the stakes and the dangers of the core he described, though, I doubted it.

In any case, it was outside my control.

With a shake of my head, I followed the group to the restaurant. I'd do my best to focus on the remainder of the evening. I was looking forward to a good meal.