Sitting with his back against the old shack, Yermen glances at Alean sitting next to him.

Alean has just talked about the dream he had last night. It would be a lie to say that Yermen is unaffected.

Yermen finds that Alean is really good at storytelling. His vivid descriptions, the raw emotion in his voice. Yermen can't help but feel uncomfortable and scared hearing about his disturbing dreams.

Still, as scared as he is, he decided to be strong to help Alean. Yermen closes his eyes to think before saying his hypothesis.

"I think I have an idea about what's wrong."

Alean, who was hugging his knees and looking down, look towards Yermen at his declaration. There is pain in his eyes, but there is also hope.

"I think that you have two problems," Yermen said, holding up a finger.

"First, you're afraid that those around you, especially your family, will abandon you for some reason, which is stupid by the way."

"I know... but I can't help but feel that way," Alean mumbles guiltily.

Not letting him continue to beat himself down, Yermen holds up his second finger.

"Second, you're worried that something bad might happen to your family. Is there a reason why you feel that way?"

Alean falls silent. He can't tell Yermen that's because he knows about The End, and is worried about the future. That secret is too important. Yermen, seeing his heavy reluctance, decides to leave it for later.

"Well, whatever the case, I think the solution is simple, you just need to talk to your family again."

Alean lowers his head even more. "But the last time I met them, I said some very hurtful things. I don't know if they're still mad at me."

"Then you should apologize. If you did something wrong, then apologize. Do it directly and sincerely, explain why you did it and ask for forgiveness. They're your family, so they will most likely forgive you."

Alean perks up a little but then slumps down again.

"But I haven't talked to them for so long."

Yermen looks at him suspiciously.

"Wait, when was the last time you wrote a letter to them."

"I... I haven't written any..."

"You're in your second year, so you haven't talked to them for an entire year!? They must be worried sick about you!"

"I'm... I'm sorry."

Yermen sighs. "Save your apology for your family, they need it more than me. You didn't even say anything about how you almost died too, did you."

Alean lowers his eyes in guilt.

"Hey, I'm not blaming you. You just need to work back up to it. Now that I think about it, after not contacting them for a year, suddenly saying that you almost died once is a little too much. I think an apology at first is good enough. Then you can tell them about your school life. That's what students usually do, right?"

"You don't know?"

"Hey, I'm not a very sentimental person, you know. I just write and say that I'm studying and living well to my family."

Alean chuckles a little. "I guess you're not."

"Hey, are you making fun of me, huh!? This guy! I'm trying to help you and you're making fun of me, huh!"

"Haha, you're always fun to tease." Alean laughs. Yermen is secretly relieved to see his smile again.

"Hmm, you've been having difficulty sleeping for a while now, so I think we should go to the infirmary and ask for some sleeping drugs. Maybe if you get enough sleep, you'll feel better." Yermen continues as if the little exchange just now didn't happen.

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Alean is a little surprised at how knowledgeable Yermen seems to be.

"Hey, how do you know about all this stuff? Did you ask the school's healer?"

Yermen facepalmed, seemingly a little frustrated.

"That guy was so useless, you don't even know. He's only here to heal physical wounds, so he doesn't know about anything at all. At least he pointed me in the right direction. All I managed to learn is from some library books. When I was speaking to him, he keeps falling asleep."

"When did you have time to read about it? I haven't seen you read anything like that before."

"I spent the whole yesterday reading. The world doesn't revolve around you, you know. I have my own free time." That's one of the reasons Yermen didn't notice that Alean was missing yesterday. Afterward, they lapse into a comfortable silence, enjoying what little breeze there is.

Yermen, feeling like he had enough, stands up while pulling Alean alongside him. It would have failed miserably had Alean decided to sit some more, but he didn't.

"Alright, no time like the present. Let's go to the infirmary first, then we can start to work on your apology letter."

Alean nods, walking quickly beside Yermen.

===

Turning back the clock a little, the moment the two reached the old shack, they weren't as alone as they had hoped.

Hearing the commotion, a green-haired girl that was suspiciously sneaking around the area quickly hid behind the shack, opposite to the sound.

The girl was Katarina Voress, the archer that will be part of the protagonist's starting party in the future, as well as a famous ice cube.

The reason she was around here is because of her dirty secret. The secret is so dangerous that when found out, her reputation would no doubt plummet to the ground.

Katarina Voress is a little, tiny bit, quite a lot, addicted to romance novels.

Not just regular romance novels, oh no. The very steamy and naughty ones are what she likes.

She reads all kinds of genres as well. Boys x Girls, Boys x Boys, Girls x Girls, and all in between. But her absolute favorite has to be BxB. She can be said to be a connoisseur of the art form.

Yes, Katarina Voress is a pervert.

She's very ashamed of this fact and doesn't even let her parents know about it. Fortunately, she has always been good at keeping her face in the perpetual ice cube state that keeps most people away, helping her hide the truth.

She is also a very Dexterity-oriented Knight, so sneaking around and hiding a bunch of steamy novels in the dilapidated shack is child's play to her. She even started a rumor about a ghost haunting the shack to keep students away.

This fine Sunday, she was preparing to spend the morning secretly reading novels when she heard the sound of hurried footsteps. Immediately, she dashes behind the shack and secretly spies at the intruders through the many holes on the wooden walls.

She clicks her tongue in irritation.

Now her mood is ruined. And she can't go out and chase them away, either. That will be very difficult to explain.

She thinks about who these people might be. Who has the audacity to interrupt her personal time? A bunch of delinquents? A couple looking for a place for their secret tryst? Either way, she's prepared to sneak away to keep her secret safe. It looks like she has to come another day.

But something caught her eyes and made her pause.

She recognizes one of the people coming. Alean Steelight.

His steel-gray eyes are too striking to forget. His tall figure looks imposing and he has a bit of muscle as well. It's a shame that he's not that handsome. Still, he has his good points. But right now, why does he look so miserable?

She also notices that another person is with him. With autumn red hair, a smaller boy is scowling and dragging Alean by the arms, while he can only helplessly follow.

Why does this look like a wife dragging her husband to confront him because he cheated on her?

Her face flushes a little. This could be more interesting than reading novels.

From where she is, she can't hear them clearly, but it does seem that the smaller red-head is demanding an explanation from the taller brunette. Alean looks like he's deeply guilty, not wanting to say anything, while the red-head is pushing him to confess his sins.

Red-head seems calm, but Katarina thinks that's just a facade. How could a person be calm when their lover is suspected to have cheated on them.

Ah, so much drama! A love that is with no drama is not interesting. This is definitely better than reading from a book. She can feel her blood rushing in excitement.

They seem to be arguing about something. Alean has his back turned towards her when they arrived so she can't read his expression, but he's trembling lightly and a little hunched over. He might be getting furious at the accusations thrown at him.

The redhead seeing this seems to not want to back down, continues with a barrage of questions.

Suddenly, Alean rushes at the smaller boy and embraces him.

Since she can't see their faces from here, Katarina is unsure if that's just a hug, or are they kissing each other passionately. The redhead paused for a moment, seemingly taken aback by Alean's burning passion before quickly succumbing to it and returning the deep embrace.

Katarina's imagination runs wild.

These two seem really close, aren't they? They're both Mages, based on their uniforms, so they might be in the same class. Is this the classroom romance trope?

She heard that Alean was a delinquent in the past, and the glasses-wearing boy looks like an easy target for bullying, so is this the bully x victim type of novel?

They're so close, so they must have done even more than just kissing. Maybe even...

Drip. Drip.

Katarina hurriedly brings a hand to her nose and stopped the bleeding. She seems to be quite used to this situation already, having a nosebleed when she gets too excited.

Seeing that the two seem to have made up, she decides to finally leave.

There's no more drama to be seen, and she feels that peeking at two love birds 'reconciling' might be too much for her to handle.

While sneaking away, she prays for their happiness in her heart.