Chapter IV.XLVIII (4.48)

  “Class dismissed,” Krimpit said at the front of the lecture hall. He turned on his heel and exited, clearly not wanting to spend a moment longer in the presence of his failure of a class than he was contractually obligated to.

  Kizu, on the other hand, continued to sit, scribbling down notes. He sat in the row alone today, Ione having opted to sneak out of class after the roll call.

  While Professor Krimpit’s teaching style still irked him, Kizu found that rephrasing his notes helped him retain the information better. A bit more like a story format where he approached the policies discussed in a more practical situation. Rather than just write down the law and lawmaker and its cascading effects, Kizu wrote a scenario where that law might come into play in an interesting way.

  A shadow passed over his notes. Kizu looked up to see Ulric looming over him, blocking the light. The large boy sneered and Kizu resisted an eye roll. It felt like a long time since someone like Ulric could intimidate him.

  “I’m surprised you showed up to Politics F today,” Kizu commented. “You usually sit out. If this is about Emilia, I’m not interested. I’m seeing someone else now. She’s all yours.”

  Ulric’s sneer twisted even crueler. “Not that.” Then Ulric turned his back to Kizu. “You seen Harvey?”

  “Not since last week’s fighting competition. He fought a bird with a massive serrated beak.”

  “Eh.”

  Kizu felt a bit of vindictive satisfaction. Had Harvey ditched Ulric just like he’d left Kizu behind in the first semester?

  “Maybe he outgrew your usefulness and found new friends,” Kizu suggested.

  “Funny,” Ulric growled through clenched teeth. “Thought you’d be more worried about him. My mistake.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out for him and let him know you’re looking for him,” Kizu offered.

  Ulric just grunted and stomped off.

  His thought process on Hon’s political business gift giving policies now interrupted, Kizu stared down at his notes and decided it might be best to take a short break.

  He headed off to the cafeteria, mentally working through the names of all 206 bones in an adult human body. Next Rejuvenation and Restoration F class he was expected to label them all on an example skeleton replica.

  As he crossed the cafeteria, he noticed a Tainted girl staring at him. She seemed vaguely familiar, probably in one of his classes last semester. The stare was likely brought on by her hearing about his friendship with Emperor Sasaki. Naturally, as soon as the gossip about him had finally died down, a whole new group of students arrived on campus to rejuvenate the whispers. Kizu ignored the girl, took a seat at an empty table, and snatched up a menu.

  Today’s cuisine came from Tross. Which meant fancier dishes. He ordered goose foie gras mousse served within a bread biscuit. It came accompanied with a salad with aged cheeses sprinkled on top.

  He took a bite and the flavor exploded in his mouth. He nearly dropped his fork in surprise. It was absolutely delicious but…a lot. A minute later he finally felt ready for another bite. While he ate, he decided to split his focus by reading.

  “Do you ever worry you’re spreading yourself too thin?”

  Kizu looked up from his book on enchantment ward theory. Sene sat down in the seat across from him.

  “You’re one to talk,” he scoffed.

  “I am asking you the exact same question I’ve asked myself a hundred times before,” she replied. She picked up the menu and selected a meal. A second later, a steaming plate of seared scallops appeared in front of her. “I believe I am the most qualified person on campus to question you on the subject because I am intimately aware of the dangers.” She popped a scallop in her mouth and chewed.

  “In our last Student Council meeting you encouraged me to take on more responsibility,” Kizu pointed out.

  Sene finished chewing and gulped. “Purely out of selfish motives. You are by far the most reliable peon I have at my disposal.”

  Kizu sighed. “Peon?”

  “Is that not an accurate description of your role? You are my underling and do my bidding.”

  “I will sabotage my next brewing test,” Kizu threatened. A complete bluff, he needed that high ranking, but Sene might not know about his deal with the headmaster. “Then you can reclaim your position as best brewer in the academy and lose me as your vice-president.”

  “Fine, fine. But semantics aside, I appreciate your reliability. And, as we discussed, with the upcoming Parents’ Day looming, I need you to step up.”

  “And, as I explained to you in the meeting, the three of us all have duties to the Drama Club. We have our performance that day.”

  “Tch!” Sene’s nose scrunched up. “That damn gnome. Absolutely sabotage."

  “You wanted me to join a club,” Kizu reminded her. “Don’t place all the blame at Faible’s feet when you asked me for this last semester. Something about making me appear as a better representative of the academy?”

  “Something like the Gardening Club or Art Club. Sensible and respectable. Not farcical pretend that takes up all your spare time.”

  “I am not spreading myself thin,” Kizu added. “I simply try to maximize the efficiency of my time. I actually have a really nice balance of social life and schoolwork at the moment. For example, yesterday I went tidepool hunting with my ni—ward.” Kizu barely caught himself. Sene did not need to know about his blood relation with Anata. The less people who understood his position, the better.

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  “Oh yes. Professor Taroe’s daughter, you help him watch over. Basically, an after school job. Not how I define social life.”

  “That’s not fair. As a rule, we always have dinner together. And then we spend at least a couple hours together every night. She designed a card game with some of your sister’s bestiary cards. It’s actually really fun.”

  “We are off topic. You’re spreading your magic thin by attempting to master every branch rather than focusing your efforts on one or two.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “For now. But you only have so much blood pumping through your veins.”

  “What is it that you want?” Kizu asked, feeling a bit annoyed. He really was just fine.

  Sene popped another scallop into her mouth. Her face scrunched up in concentration as she chewed. For a moment, she looked just like Ione when she had a new summoning challenge set before her. But then the moment vanished. She leaned forward and steepled her hands in front of her, dark eyes locked on Kizu’s golden eyes.

  “What are you doing with my sister?” she asked.

  Kizu blinked. That had not been the question he expected.

  “We, uh.”

  “Are you plotting something? Has she convinced you to sabotage the Parents’ Day event? I assume that the gnome must likewise be involved. That rat. I still haven’t uncovered how he cheated on the history examination. But there must be evidence somewhere.”

  “No.” Kizu paused. “We’re dating.”

  “You and the gnome? Uch. No accounting for taste. You can do better, Kizu.”

  “No. Me and Ione. We’ve been seeing each other for a while now.”

  “Oh.” Sene’s face went blank. “That…contextually makes more sense. She…didn’t tell me.”

  “Well, now you know.” Kizu scarfed up the remains of his meal, he wanted to be out of this conversation and back to studying.

  “You think she would have told me,” Sene muttered. But she wasn’t talking to Kizu, instead looking past him.

  Kizu finished up his food and stood, textbook tucked under an arm. “Well, it was great chatting, Sene, but I need to—”

  “Actually!” Energy returned to Sene all at once. “This could work in my favor. Kizu. As your superior, I am tasking you with the role of helping me fix my relationship with my sister. I already was using you as a bridge in Student Council, but now you can assist me even further.”

  “Sene. My loyalty is with Ione. I’m dating her, not you.”

  Sene rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to ask for anything scandalous. I simply need your support in mending my sister’s perception of me.”

  “Instead of asking me to do nebulous objectives, why don’t you try talking to Ione? You know she kept track of how many times you spoke to her over spring break. A total of 34 words.”

  “That’s not fair! She gallivanted off with you before I organized a proper opportunity for us to speak."

  “Don’t organize anything. Just go chat with her.”

  “I—I…”

  “Listen, I get it, my own brother hates me. Family is complicated. But one thing I’ve learned this last year is that communication matters. You can’t just expect people to understand how you feel.”

  His statement sent Sene into silent rumination. Kizu used that as an opportunity to exit the cafeteria.

  Combat F wouldn’t start for a bit longer so he decided to stop by the library to look through some star charts. He needed a better grasp on the space between two specific constellations. It kept coming up in one of the tests.

  “Monkey boy,” a boy dressed in a librarian outfit greeted him with a sneer.

  “Oh. You again?” Kizu knew him as the half brother of Gob Lucas, the half troll student on campus. Unlike his brother though, this human boy was a runt even by human standards. “I don’t really have time for lackluster banter right now. I’m not checking anything out, so you don’t need to worry about me.”

  “Your girlfriend told me about your assignment. Give it to me.”

  “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Kizu was getting irritated with everyone trying to interfere in his relationship. “I don’t know why Ione would bother talking to you. But I’m not giving you anything.” Kizu tried to step past the librarian, but the boy hustled to keep in front of him.

  “Who’s Ione?” He sneered. “Evie. The porcupine Kemon. Should have known you’re a cheat. Monkey boy with no brain.”

  “I’m not dating Evie. You realize you can be friends with a girl, right?”

  The boy snorted as if Kizu had made a joke. “Whatever. I want the quest.”

  “You mean the one in Tross? Even if you could jump there and back, I wouldn’t hand it over to you.”

  The first year turned red. “You know who my brother is?”

  “Gob Lucas,” Kizu said flatly. “You realize I kneecapped his buddy the last time I had a disagreement with him and his pals?”

  “You…what?” He shook his head. “I deserve that quest! It’s my father’s cousin’s home. My birthright. His discoveries in the World Dungeon rightfully belong to my family. You have no right to enter!”

  At that moment, Kizu would have given anything for the ability to externally jump this boy over to the academy beacon.

  “I don’t care about your family drama,” Kizu said. “I would think that if it’s your birthright, you would want it cleaned out of whatever is causing the problem inside.”

  “You–-I—it’s complicated!”

  “Let me guess. It’s not actually your birthright,” Kizu said dryly. “You’re cut off.”

  The first year’s face reddened as he spluttered something incoherent.

  Kizu wondered about why the boy wanted the quest. He quickly thought about the assignment and came to the conclusion when he recalled the reward.

  “It’s mostly junk,” Kizu said, baiting the boy. “I just need the challenge. From what I’ve heard, there’s nothing in the reward worth all that much. I’ll likely just pawn whatever I get down at Jeri Co.”

  “P–pawn?” The boy’s eyes widened. Then he bit down on Kizu’s metaphorical hook. “Get the schematics! I’ll pay for them! I mean…like, they’re not worth that much, but I’ll give you a better deal than most. Might as well give them here.”

  This boy was an idiot. Kizu almost felt pity for him. But he was also a self-obsessed bully who was actively trying to take advantage of Kizu for personal gain. So the pity didn’t stick. His acting was laughably bad. It was a good thing he worked in the library, Faible would have tossed him off stage if this kid tried joining the Drama Club.

  “Oh?” Kizu leaned in. “What sort of schematics?”

  The boy’s eyes flickered around the library, as if suspicious of eavesdroppers. But one bonus to being as unlikable as him was that everyone in the room appeared to actively avoid coming near him.

  “It looks kind of like a person. But more mechanical. Get me that paper and I’ll give you money! You like money, right?”

  “Yes. I love money.” Kizu thought of money as a means to an end. But now wasn’t probably a good time to tell the boy that money’s worth was an imaginary concept crafted by governments as a means of controlling the populace it ruled over. It had no true value and served no purpose in the jungle.

  Kizu blinked. Maybe Mort’s philosophy was rubbing off on him. He refocused and listened to the boy hurriedly explaining the details of the schematic.

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