I watched the door slowly opened.
No knocking
No words.
I heard footsteps first.
They sounded like the type of steps of someone who knew exactly where they were going and did not care who was in the way.
It was Seph.
The same face. The same posture. The same cocky expression that gave the idea that he thought this room had been built for him specifically and he was just now getting used to it.
I watched him slowly take his sweet ass time to cross to the middle of the room.
But.
Something was off about him.
Not the way he looked or the way he moved. I felt something in the air around him that sat differently than I remembered.
I stared at him for a second longer than I normally would.
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
"You look terrible!" he laughed.
Nope, thats definitely Seph.
I filed that weird feeling about him and let it go.
"I just fought a dragon!"
"Barely! You took a nap right after throwing a cup. That is not fighting a dragon? That is littering near one!"
He did not sit down.
Just stood there, arms crossed and all.
"What do you want Seph? I asked.
"Information,"
"Not gonna happen!"
He looked at me.
"No?"
"No!"
"You are a homeless Vagrant Grade Zero loser with no class lying in a medical bed,!" he said. "You have nothing worth hiding."
"And...?"
He kept staring at me.
"YOU SERIOUSLY ARENT GOING TO TELL ME!."
"Correct."
Something shifted in his expression. Not like anger exactly, but he did not look pleased.
[ GUTTER INTUITION: Anomaly detected. Source unclear. Filing. ]
He then suddenly went quiet.
His eyes suddenly moved towards the table beside me.
To the cup.
He looked at it.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
Then he looked away.
"The royals are still deciding whether to advance you or pull your registration,"
"I know,"
"GOOD!Because if you do get lucky again and end up in Phase Three, you will be standing across from people who have spent years preparing for this moment. Im sure they would love to crush you after what you did.
He turned his head away from me.
Then moved toward the door quickly, like someone who just remembered they left the stove on.
"Did you quali—."
He cut me off .
"Get some rest,"
The words came out in a soft tone.
Then he walked out and closed the door behind him.
I then layed there in the silence yet again..
Took a deep breathe.
"Oracle!"
"Yes."
"That was weird!"
"Yes,"
Then I proceeded to stare at the ceiling.
I thought about the weird aura I felt around him.
Then around three seconds later.
I went to sleep.
But of course not even a couple seconds later.
Someone knocked on the door.