I felt my pinky get pulled.

”Alright, got one,” Korbinian said followed by our hands breaking away from the intertwined hold we had on each other, moments later, it was revealed that it was me whom the “doctor” was holding, seeing this, my friends grinned- okay, a bit sadistic there guys, what the hell?

“Neophyte,” Dr. Unleer, the first of her kin, addressed me.

I focused on the raven haired girl, “Korbinian,”

“You do know what this means, right?” I nodded and her lips quirked up into the same grin everyone wore, “okay- so, first question, how do you feel about other girls?”

Really?

I narrowed my eyes at her, “you're kidding,” I scanned the crowd with a passive gaze before turning back to Korbinian, why does everyone look so eager? “Please tell me you're kidding,”

“Nope~" Korbinian sing sang as a playful glint shone in her eyes, “you have to answer that question honestly or the doctor is going to break your bones~~”

“This is stupid,” I started, “but okay-” also, how is my luck so bad that it was me who got picked first? And at the start of the game at that? “- I don't know how to feel about them,”

There! I'm not sure and super confused about this whole thing because damn it! Girls are starting to look appealing to me too and I don't know if it's because they're my friends and I'm being responsible or what!

“You don’t know?” Korbinian’s confusion was audible from her tone.

“I don't know. No.” I growled out in response, “I'm very confused about this whole thing,”

“Okay, that's a good answer,” the (temporary) doctor nodded in satisfaction before scanning my palm with her index finger and when I felt something peel off of the right side of my palm, I resisted the urge to sigh, damn it.

“Found one,” Korbinian waved the very thin piece of tape directly to my face, clearly mocking me, “let's see… what else can I ask you?” Her eyes and grin further widened, “ah! Got it- if you were stuck on an island, which one of us would you prefer to spend it with?”

“Laceresta?” I answered after a pregnant pause, the Lioness seemed like a good candidate.

“Wouldn't that make everything more confusing?” Sleet said to the agreement of everyone for some reason?

“Okay, what are you all nodding to?” I asked as the doctor started feeling my hand for the tapes I hid again. 3 more seconds. Just three more…

“Well, you know-” Zyra got cut off when the door of our classroom burst open, and in came my savior in all her panting, sweaty glory-

“Uh- sorry for the wait,” Prescine stood at the door- actually no, she was bent over by the door, breathing ragged and holding onto the doorframe for dear life, “- I-” she raised a hand in a gesture of ‘please wait for a moment,’ followed by inhaling a lungful of air, “- I had to do- go I had to go to a meeting.”

She shook her head and murmured something, “had to do a meeting? What am I even saying?” I was barely able to hear that and I hid a smirk to make sure she didn’t notice, “okay! Now-”

And that was when she focused on everyone else and saw all of us huddled together in a circle, “- what are you guys doing?”

“Playing a game,” I replied.

“Shocking your exhaustion away?” Yhaine chimed alongside me, "what? It's true!” She exclaimed when Lucille elbowed her, “right guys?”

She got no answer.

“Bad jokes aside-”

“What do you mean bad?!”

“- is it okay if there's this many of us at the same time?” Zyra gestured at everyone else before taking a brief pause to let Prescine gather herself, “I know that you're here to protect Neophyte and Fafnir from the horde of students outside-”

“Honestly?” Prescine asked, Zyra nodded, “I don't think it matters,” she pursed her lips in thought, “actually, I think that you all would have been fine if you decided to walk out, I don't think there's a single willing student out there who's going to come charging at Neophyte when she's surrounded by so many people,”

“Good point,” I nodded while not mentioning the question that I wanted to ask.

Which is what would everyone think of this? Will they think that I'm building a harem? Or maybe they'll just think what any normal student of this Academy would and conclude that I'm trying to gather advisers?

I hope it's the latter. I will definitely be the latter. I know it.

“Should we go?” An impatient Laceresta butted in, “I think we should.”

“We should go, yes,” Prescine replied and was about to turn back to the door only to stop when she noticed Vicissi limping towards her, she reached a hand out in concern when he stumbled and almost fell, “are you okay?”

Vicissi waved her off, “it's nothing, just a bit of chest pain,”

“Chest… pain?” Prescine somehow knew who the culprit was because she immediately shifted her gaze toward Laceresta.

And the Lioness only shrugged in response, “he deserved it,”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Vicissi stayed silent, a good choice given that Laceresta wouldn’t give a single ounce of care about what he was going to say.

“He… no- okay, let me talk,” Prescine said in shock and I nodded slowly, “punching someone in the chest is not a good idea, and no one deserves to be treated this way, even if they're a trouble maker,” Prescine sternly said to the Lioness, “just because you have authority doesn't mean that you should abuse it.”

“Abuse?” Laceresta replied in confusion, “what are you talking about?”

Now I'm curious about what Laceresta considers as “abuse of authority” but asking that now is definitely not a good idea with Vicissi around.

“Regardless…” Prescine trailed off, no doubt thinking what I'm thinking of right now, “you shouldn't punch other students, especially if you're a Prophecy, which automatically makes you a role model- what if other students start copying you?”

Laceresta’s mouth opened, then snapped shut, she raised a finger and was about to say something before shutting up and sighing.

“Fine, fine- I won't punch someone unless it's the only solution I can think of,” the Lioness huffed, “can we go now?”

“That’s not what I meant-” I shook my head at her to gesture that this was hopeless, “- yes, we can go now, I already made you all wait for long enough,” Prescine said with a sigh.

And go we did- we got out of the classroom, I locked it, and a few minutes of walking later, we reached our first destination; the school's library.

“Well, here we are,” Prescine smiled weakly, “and I know that the sign says closed but I swear this place is still open, the librarian just doesn't want any loudmouths to come here since it's the end of the school day,”

Her lengthy explanation about how we can still go in was glossed over by me.

I eyed the two oaken doors blocking our way, a bad feeling in my gut.

They were painted in a rich dark chocolate with gold edges, to the side, large gleaming hinges made of Holy Silver held the door in place. That last piece of information was why I was so concerned about this thing, because this very library had been the reason why the Infiltration Arc wasn't so shitty.

It acted as a safe spot- or at least it would have but now? The hinges, the very reason for the protection in the first place, are broken right now.

“Is that normal? “ I decided to point it out, “I'm pretty sure one of the hinges is broken,”

“Hm? What's normal?” Prescine trailed the end of my finger and when she saw the broken hinge, she narrowed her eyes, “that is not suppose to happen- and it never has in all my five years here,” she got close and inspected the broken piece, expression thoughtful and pensive, “we just had a meeting about this,”

“Envy Demons?” She nodded. Huh, no wonder it took so long, “but it's the students that did this though right?”

“Yeah,” Prescine replied as she pushed the doors open and went in, “Demons can't touch wards or even holy relics,”

“That was obvious from the start,” Laceresta supplied, “so what are gonna do about it?”

“Nothing for now,” Prescine shrugged and stood straight up, “but I'll tell Gessalle to write this down and plan a repair for it,” she scratched her head in frustration, “and we're on a limited budget now, too.”

"When is your announcement happening by the way?” Fafnir mentioned.

Prescine looked around the empty library, her expression remaining unsatisfied. She faced forward and used a Technique, after I felt a wave of Light wash over me she said, “there, no one can eavesdrop on us now,”

I forced a smile as my Dragon started to look sullen, calling out the announcement was bad and Fafnir knew it, I nodded at her in sympathy and her guilty look lightened.

“We'll wait until we have enough testing devices before announcing things,” Prescine answered, her eyes landing on me, “and those will cost us most of the school's budget for the next four months so…”

I winced, “that bad?”

Well of course it is, Holy Silver isn't exactly cheap, but also- the Student Council must be loaded with cash if they can casually buy enough tests copycat tests for the entire student body.

Prescine’s look intensified and I stared back, the silence that followed was a bit awkward… I decided to break it, “uh… hi?”

She sighed, “You have money right?”

“Oh!” I snapped my fingers, “right, guess I can help with that huh?”

I chuckled before taking out my black credit card and handing it to her, as she took it, Prescine treated the item as if it was a bomb that was about to explode.

When she stopped glaring at the credit card with widened eyes, she looked at me as if I had gone insane, “WHAT IS THIS?!”

I looked around, waiting for the librarian…

Nothing.

Thank Goddess for Prescine’s Technique.

“A school issued credit card?” I replied casually, I mean, I do see that its kind of a big deal but what Prescine did was just plain overreaction, “that's what I got from the principal so…”

“Neophyte, do you know how much money this school makes thanks to their share of taxes?”

I looked around the library and saw nothing but empty wooden paths between towering bookshelves, each one containing hundreds, if not thousands of books. I sniffed, the place smelled distinctly of old, worn paper. My eyes scanned everything they could and unfortunately, I couldn't find a book related to economy.

Shame, I could've shown it to her and asked if she could teach me about it.

That would’ve been a… good- pick-up line.

It would have been a pickup line.

Damn it!

I blame Korbinian for this!

“No,” I replied instead, “why?”

“Well, I'm 80% certain that this-” she waved the credit card around, “- takes money from that.”

“Don't you guys also?” I rebuked.

“Well, yeah, we do but we don't have access to everything only a small amount- this card does,”

And? What was the big deal? “Okay-”

“We found a seat!” I snapped my head towards Zyra before hissing her to be quiet.

In response, she tilted her head and before she could continue screaming- thank Goddess the librarian didn't bother to come, - I walked up to the table that she and her team chose before shaking my head at her, she shot me a curious look, “okay? Why?”

I pointed to the old woman sitting down by the door, she didn't look all that intimidating and she was as harmless as a fly but I didn't want to risk being banned from this place, and Zyra needed to understand that.

“You'll get us kicked out!” I whispered.

“So, you guys-” Laceresta stopped talking, “what?”

“Silence, please,” I flinched when I heard the old crone's slow, almost sluggish voice echo out, “and behave,”

”See?!” I emphasized, “you all better behave! Or else we'll be kicked out of here!” I faced Zyra and the rest, ”and also- we don't need tables, right now Zath, Prescine, and Karsten are searching for the books we're renting out, we wait for them, then leave.”

Lucille gave me two thumbs up, “got it!”

I stared at the Librarian- okay, no reaction.

And thankfully, the following minutes of us waiting were mostly spent in silence and as boredom was about to overtake and kill all of us, Zath and the rest finally came back, books locked to their side.

“This should be everything that you need,” shaking with excitement, the student council president came barreling in and I winced as Prescine raised the book she was holding.

I stared at the librarian, wondering if Prescine was immune to being banned around the premises thanks to her role, she should be right? And if she is, does that also apply to my own position of (classroom) president?

Fortunately though, I didn't get the chance to find out, “just kidding~" Prescine grinned as she stacked all of the books she was carrying- five, all of which were thicker than my Pledge, -on one arm and lifted them all effortlessly. Prescine pressed her index finger against my cheek, poking it, “heh, you should've seen your face!”

“That was-” I crossed my arms, “I'm going to yell,”

“Oh?” Prescine raised her brow in challenge, “do it then,” I opened my mouth and everyone watched me… do nothing but sigh, my fellow princess giggled, “uhuh, you're going to scream huh?”

“Oh shut up- as if you can do it yourself,” I shot her a grin, “hm? Are you brave enough to do it?”

“Nope~" she sing sang, “I don't think I want to risk being banned from this place, Demons and Monsters are fair game but this? Ugh, I'd rather not scour the city for another library,” I nodded in agreement, sympathetic to her feelings.

“Now come on, we're going,” Prescine waved towards the general direction of the librarian, “come onnnnnnn-”

“Shhhhhh.” A sluggish voice echoed out.

I chuckled, “serves you right,”

“Yeah, yeah, I'm a bad girl that deserves punishment,” Prescine waved me off.

“Your ears are turning red Prescine,” I heard Fafnir say.

“So uh- anyways- what do you have there Fafnir?” Prescine's awkward laugh did not do anything to hide the fact that her ears had turned crimson.

“A fighting book that can help Lucille and her friends,” she showed it to us, it wasn't something I recognized, “I didn't know how well Laceresta's fighting style could translate to Zyra or even Yhaine so I thought that getting them a book about Slayer Group Dynamics is a good idea,”

“Eh, I think that copying the roles in the Hero's party is just obvious right?” Zyra retorted to my and Fafnir's slow nod, “hm, should I grab a book about monsters?”

I looked to the side and huh, “and speaking of the devil,” I parted from the group to grab a book about monsters, “guess we're in luck,”

“Pretty sure the reason why Zyra mentioned finding a book about monsters is because she caught a glimpse of that,” Sleet pointed to the book I was carrying.

“That sounds exactly like something Zyra would do,” Yhaine nodded.