After the weekend was finally brought to a close, Soren's daily life of classes and training resumed as if nothing had happened.
The lecture hall was the same as always.
Same squeaky chalk on the board, same professor droning on about basic mana theory they had already covered three times, same groups of students either pretending to listen or openly zoning out.
Soren stared at the board without seeing it.
'We did this already,' he thought. 'And the second half of this is in the textbook word-for-word…'
He twirled his pen between his fingers, the motion automatic.
Ever since the catacombs, his days had felt strangely quiet.
No fights.
No near-death experiences.
No cursed nightmares forcing him to confront a past he hated.
Just early morning training, lectures that crawled by, lunch, more training, then evenings spent either in his dorm or with Lilliana or Amelia.
His body appreciated the break.
His mind… not so much.
When class finally ended and they spilt into the corridor, Soren let out a long breath he had been holding in since the first half of the lecture.
"I'm so bored…" he muttered as he walked side-by-side with Amelia and Felix down the stone hallway.
"What's wrong now, little hedgehog?" Felix asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.
His tone was teasing, but there was a hint of curiosity in it.
Soren rolled his shoulders, gaze drifting over the crowd of students heading toward the cafeteria.
"Classes are so boring," he said flatly. "It feels like we're hardly progressing at all."
Felix snorted.
"Aren't you the weird one for being so far ahead while in class F?" he shot back.
"..."
Soren didn't bother responding.
He didn't have a good retort for that anyway.
It was true that, compared to most of class F, he was moving too fast.
Training with Amelia, dungeons, hidden pieces, none of that matched the slow pace of the official curriculum.
Either way, once the second semester rolled around, things would improve with the introduction of the class selection system.
Still, he turned his eyes toward Amelia instead, hoping for backup.
"You understand, right—" he started, then stopped halfway. "...Never mind."
"Huh?" Amelia looked at him, ears twitching faintly. "What?"
"Nothing," he said, waving it away.
Asking the girl who skipped lectures to sleep and treated monsters like warm-up stretches was pointless.
"So what've you been up to, Amelia?" he asked instead.
"Sleeping," she replied without hesitation.
Felix let out a strangled sound.
"Of course, expected. You, Felix?"
"You already know, don't you?" Felix said, staring at the ceiling in despair.
Soren did know.
If Felix wasn't in class or eating, he was usually chasing after some girl, thinking up new ways to embarrass himself in public.
"Am I the only normal one here…?" Soren sighed.
""...""
Neither Felix nor Amelia responded.
They just gave him a silent look full of pity that made it clear they did not agree with his self-assessment at all.
"So what about you, Soren? I heard that your weekend was fairly eventful," an unfamiliar voice chimed in from behind him.
He didn't have time to turn before another sentence followed right after, bright and drawn out.
"Yoohoo~! Cutie, there you are~"
"Ah…"
Soren exhaled under his breath.
Of course.
He turned and saw a familiar ginger side-tail bouncing towards him.
Esper waved as if she hadn't just shouted across a packed hallway, her heavy makeup immaculate even in the middle of the day.
She stopped so close that their toes almost touched.
"I went to your class and I couldn't find you," she said, puffing her cheeks slightly. "Don't you think you should have waited?"
"We didn't make any plans, though, did we?" Soren asked.
"Nope!" she replied cheerfully.
""...""
He could feel Felix's and Amelia's eyes drilling into the side of his head, but he pretended not to notice and focused on Esper instead.
If he turned now, Felix's expression would probably be unbearable.
"So why were you looking for me, Essy?" he asked.
"Let's grab lunch together, Cutie!" she said, leaning forward with a grin.
Soren didn't respond immediately.
Instead, he turned toward his friends, silently asking for help, or at least a reaction.
"Heyyy! Just say yes!" Esper whined. "I bought you such an expensive gift after all~"
"..."
This time it was Soren's turn to go quiet.
Felix sighed first, shoulders slumping like he had accepted some cruel fate.
"I'm fine with it," Felix said, trying and failing to sound completely unbothered.
Jealousy flickered in his eyes anyway.
Amelia simply shrugged and started walking toward the cafeteria, tail swaying lazily behind her.
"Thankuu~" Esper sang as she ran the last step to Soren's side and immediately linked arms with him, pressing herself close as they followed Amelia.
He could only stay quiet under the jealous eyes of not only Felix but also the other male students nearby, who were clearly trying to act like they weren't staring.
'This is a pain…' he thought.
But his chest felt a little lighter all the same.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
By the time they got their food and sat down, Soren could feel his soul leaving his body.
"Hahhh…"
He sank into his seat with his tray, feeling like he had just come out of a boss fight instead of the lunch line.
His current situation was the problem.
On his left sat Esper, who had continued to call him "Cutie" without a break since they had stepped into the cafeteria.
On his right, Amelia was close enough that their legs were touching under the table, her tail gently swaying against his ankle every so often.
In front of him sat Felix, who looked like he wanted to overturn the table.
"Care to explain?" Felix asked, eyebrows drawn together as he stabbed at his food.
Soren let out another long sigh.
There wasn't much he could say to make it sound less weird, so he told the truth.
He took a bite of his food, chewed, then explained the events of Sunday as simply as he could.
"—So, in short," he finished, "I was hungry, went to eat breakfast, met Essy at the diner, then we went shopping. Ring, axe, blacksmith, yelling, cafe. That's it."
Felix stared at him like he had just said he tripped and fell into a harem.
"This doesn't make any sense…" Felix muttered under his breath.
Amelia, while seemingly disinterested, had perked her ears up from the moment Soren started talking.
She listened to the entire story, then gave a small yawn, scooted in closer, and leaned her shoulder against him.
"Wake me up later," she mumbled, closing her eyes.
"All right, sleep well," Soren replied automatically.
He shifted slightly to make it easier for her to rest without falling over.
Her tail wrapped loosely around the leg of the chair near his foot, and he pretended not to notice.
Throughout the entire explanation, Esper had thrown in small comments.
"Oh, you forgot the part where you were really cool," or "And then you scolded the old man, it was so scary~"
But for the most part, she stayed quiet.
That, more than anything, made Soren curious.
"Essy?" he called.
"Yep?" she answered, sipping her drink.
"Why are you so quiet today?" he asked.
It felt strange after seeing her bouncing off the walls only a couple of days ago.
Now, sitting beside his friends, she wasn't exactly reserved, but she was clearly holding back.
"Uhm…"
Esper paused, twirling her straw in circles.
"Well, they're your friends, right? I'm already eating lunch with you, so I thought it'd be better if I stayed quiet."
Soren stared at her for a moment.
'This girl…'
He had assumed that while Esper was kind, she was also somewhat thoughtless, loud, and carefree.
The type to jump into any conversation without thinking.
But apparently, she noticed more than she let on.
'Maybe that's why she's so easy to talk to,' he realised.
On the way to the cafeteria, groups of students had greeted Esper as she passed.
Not just their year, either, some seniors had stopped to say hello too.
She had waved at all of them, remembering their names easily.
It wasn't hard to see how popular she was.
"I don't think you need to worry about that, Essy. She just sleeps or fights all day. Meanwhile, he…"
His voice trailed off.
He didn't particularly want to badmouth Felix, even if it was to a friend.
"I already know about Felix!" Esper said brightly.
"Then I don't need to explain," Soren said.
Finally, the dam broke.
"Hey? This isn't fair," Felix complained.
Both Soren and Esper looked at him.
"What's not fair, Mr Trash?" Soren asked calmly.
Felix clutched at his chest like he had been stabbed.
"Seriously, how do you keep befriending all these princesses? First, it was Professor Roseblood, then Amelia, and now Esper? I'm going insane…" Felix muttered.
"I don't get it," Soren said flatly. "What did I do?"
"That attitude makes it worse because I know you didn't mean to," Felix groaned.
He ruffled his hair in frustration.
"Do you know how many times I've tried talking to the princesses in this academy?"
"...Hey, Felix?" Soren said.
"It's so annoying," Felix continued. "I knew you had a good face, but this is cheating."
"Did you…?" Soren began, already sensing something was off.
He turned his eyes slowly toward Esper, who was avoiding his gaze and twirling her straw around with a suspiciously innocent expression.
"Oh…"
Soren exhaled.
"Felix, you're worse than I thought."
"Shut up! This isn't fair! I just wanted to score big for once!" Felix snapped.
"Hey, Essy?" Soren asked.
"What's up, Cutie?" she replied, instantly perking up.
"How exactly did the trash over there approach you?" he asked.
"Soren. Please don't," Felix begged.
"Uhm…"
Esper tapped her lip, pretending to think.
"Well, from what I remember, it was not long after midterms. I was hanging out with some of my senior friends when I ran into Felix…"
"...Hey, Esper?" Felix tried again, voice breaking. "Please stop."
Upon noticing his crumpled expression, the corners of her lips curled up.
Any hesitation she'd had disappeared.
"Well, Cutie," she continued, turning fully toward Soren. "I was at a cafe with my friends when Mr Trash over here walked over and started hitting on me, using all sorts of corny lines."
"Like?" Soren asked immediately.
He should have maybe told her to let it go, but he had been enduring Felix's teasing for a long time.
He needed ammunition.
The "Mother's Bakery" incident had already faded; it was time for balance.
Esper reached out without warning and cupped Soren's cheek with her soft hand, forcing him to look directly into her eyes.
She put on a deliberately seductive smile.
"Are you a magician? Because whenever I look at you, everyone else disappears."
————「❤︎」————