The next day, I continued my classes as usual, but this time I was filled with a sense of relief and happiness. Sitting in the classroom, I felt good about telling my family about my adventuring instead of sneaking around. I still remembered Mom bursting into tears, saying, "Please promise me you won't get hurt and just try to explore only."

After she calmed down, I got permission to adventure after school until evening, provided I protected myself and kept up with my studies. Grandpa insisted I should enter the dungeon with someone who could protect me. Though it was a tough condition to accept, so I told them about Eva. I hadn't even slept the entire night, transferring my map sketch to my laptop and tracing it with proper software, keeping track of approximate distances.

While looking out the window and smiling to myself, Kei, sitting next to me, asked, "What happened yesterday?"

Still smiling, I replied, "A lot of things happened yesterday."

Curious, he pressed me for details, but I teased him by smiling and looking away.

"Hey Ray, these are the notes for the second half for both of you," the class rep, Keith, approached us with her notebook in hand.

"Oh, thanks. I should've come to ask for these myself," I replied, taking the notebook from her.

As I went through the notes, I realized they had covered a lot of topics in the second half of the classes. Suddenly, Keith spoke up, "Ray, I saw you yesterday exiting the dungeon with someone while you were holding a sword."

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I was startled. I knew someone might see me if I visited the dungeon regularly, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

"You were watching me?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, I was busy with club activities and headed back late in the evening. That's when I saw you."

Uhh... The cat's out of the bag now.

"Did you also happen to tell others?" I asked.

"Not yet, but I was thinking to contact our teacher about why you both decided to leave early yesterday," she replied.

With a scared look on his face, Kei spoke up, "Wait... I didn't even know about it until we were outside."

Look at this guy, scared of any trouble. Besides his attendance rate, nothing is up to the mark. That's why he's scared of getting into serious trouble. _Sigh..._

"You don't have to worry about it. I've already consulted with my family and got permission," I said.

"Wait, what?" Kei asked, puzzled. "Did you really tell them everything?"

After a brief silence, I said, "Yes, I decided to confess everything properly and apologized for hiding it from them."

"Then what you did yesterday was for nothing? You just needed a good little chat?" Kei said.

With a frustrated look, Keith said, "It doesn't change the fact that you're doing something dangerous. We should focus on our upcoming finals instead."

I smiled at her and replied, "I will tell you the same promise I made to my family. I will keep up with my studies and adventuring."

_Bell Rings..._

The first class was about to start. Keith didn't say anything and returned to her seat at the front. I think she wasn't happy with my decision but even if she did tell our teacher, it wouldn't matter now that my family had given me permission. After what I'd done, there was no turning back. The moment I chose to register as an adventurer, my path was set.