Bell had expected the conversation with Grace to drag on much longer because of what she had claimed earlier, but it ended rather abruptly.
Now he stood outside the school entrance, waiting for his ride, the last echo of their exchange still lingering.
His thoughts were busier than normal.
Grace felt so much more alive than the flat character she'd been in the novel. Back then, she was nothing more than a shallow two-dimensional foil meant to prop up the protagonist: insecure, jealous, and nothing else.
It had also only ever been stated, never shown, that she struggled with her family and her pride. When Arthurr helped her resolve these insecurities, it felt rather lacking because all it took was a few words from him to resolve the issues she had been dealing with her entire life.
Now, he got to see firsthand that there was more to her insecurities than just her family matters.
He didn't even know that she had such a relationship with Maya.
Based on what she had shown him, it would take more than a few words to help her heal.
Just as his car pulled up and Ernit opened the door for him, he stepped forward—
Footsteps behind him.
Step. Step. Step step.
They were quick and frantic.
"Bell!" Maya called out.
She was trying her hardest to act normal, not to raise suspicion, and if it were anyone else, they wouldn't have noticed. Still, Bell could see the tiny tells, the slight twitches, the faintest tremor in her voice — the differences in her usual behavior.
'She must've discovered the truth,' he thought to himself as he stepped back to face her.
"I thought you'd already gone home," Maya said, slightly winded. "Luckily, I caught you before you left. I was going to call a taxi back to the estate, but… let's talk inside."
Before he could reply, she darted into the car.
Bell followed, and as soon as the door clicked shut, Maya removed her mask, and her composure collapsed.
"You-won't-believe-what-I—"
"Slow down," Bell said. "Breathe."
"Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fwooooh… Haaahh!"
She took several over-the-top breaths, inhaling like she was preparing to vacuum the entire car's oxygen supply and then exhaling with enough force to knock down a building.
Then she began spilling everything on her mind, retelling everything that had happened to him: how she discovered the clue, how she deduced who she needed to follow, the room that she was in, the state of the student, what the teacher said, who the teacher was, their plan that the student overheard, etc.
Up front, Ernit was openly gaping, his jaw dropping lower each time she revealed something new.
Unlike his older brother, he wore his heart on his sleeve, and it was easy to tell that he was shocked by all that was happening.
"So… what do we do now?" Maya asked after finally getting everything off her chest.
Rather than heading out to save the student immediately, Bell instead asked, "Have you received a second divine mission from your god yet?"
Maya shook her head.
The missions were typically given to the starwalkers when they fell asleep, but sometimes, if it's urgent, the god will hand them the mission even when they're awake.
They wouldn't typically speak directly to the follower. Instead, it would be like a piece of information would enter your brain, and automatically, you would know what the god wanted from you.
"For now, let's wait and see what they might want from you next. Unless the points you earned for completing the first mission are enough to unlock the star that you want. In that case, we can head out later tonight."
He already knew which star she wanted to unlock next. Unless things had drastically changed, the star she would want was an expensive one. In the novel, it took multiple missions just to garner enough points to unlock it.
"Is it enough?" he asked.
"...No," she shook her head after a slight hesitation. "Should I just try to communicate with my god directly? I don't know if I'll be able to fall asleep naturally."
"Go ahead. Do you need—"
"I'm fine. I always keep one on me."
She dug into her backpack and pulled out a small vial of purple liquid — the starlink nectar.
Before he could comment, she drank it without a moment's hesitation and sagged back into the seat, drifting to sleep almost immediately.
Bell sat there with a complicated expression, thinking to himself that even if she didn't realize it, what she had done was a sign that she trusted him with her life. Not just empty trust that you say to people, but real trust.
After all, the potion left you susceptible to attacks, and you wouldn't even be able to recognize that you were being harmed in the outside world. You couldn't wake up naturally from the void either. You had to actively choose to leave the void.
If the situation were reversed, he would and could never do the same.
Only when he was in the confines of his bedroom or somewhere private where he felt safe enough, only then would he consume the nectar.
A short while later, Maya jolted awake, tense and stressed.
"What is it?" he asked, even though he already had a clue.
"I spoke to my god," she whispered.
Hades.
That was the name of her god. It shared the name and features of a certain Greek god that existed in Bell's previous world, Earth.
If both worlds are real, Bell wouldn't be able to answer which god was inspired by which. Since gods actually exist in this world, then Hades from Earth was probably the fraud.
"What did they say?" Bell asked.
"I can receive assistance from others, but I'll need to rescue the student without the help of any teachers. They don't know who else might be working with Mr. Alfonsi."
"Just rescue? We don't have to defeat him?" Or worse, thwart the conspiracy entirely.
She shook her head.
"That makes it easier then," Bell stated, which Maya agreed with a nod.
The two of them continued discussing things, all while Ernit's face kept twisting, jaw dropping, eyes bulging, etc.
After some more conversing, the two of them separated, preparing in their own ways. They agreed not to get an entire army of Facold family members and Agnus guards involved this time around; Maya wasn't sure if Hades would count the mission as successful if she didn't meaningfully contribute to the rescue.
Still, that didn't mean it would only be the two of them; they did plan on taking a few more members.
For starters, Bell wanted to bring along his loyal servant, Sarakit's grandfather. He wanted to see what the old man who semi-forced his loyalty onto him had in store.
He heard rumors about the training and wanted to see it for himself.
They were also going to bring Ernit along. He had already heard everything during the drive, so it would be less work getting him informed.
And the fifth member they were going to bring was Bell's sparring partner, the retainer who trained with him every day.
Five should be enough. As long as they executed the plan properly, their small team could handle the rescue on their own. In the novel, it had only taken three.
Still, Bell took that detail with a grain of salt. Without the protagonist around, who knew if the difficulty curve remained the same?
Even so, the novel's description of everyone's strength should still be accurate enough to work with.
For Bell, the next day arrived like any other.
For Maya, every second stretched like an hour, and every hour vanished like a second.
She barely slept. Her nerves weren't solely because a student's life was on the line, though that certainly added pressure, just the very slightest though.
Most of her nerves came from the fear of failing her divine mission.
She needed the points.
If she failed the missions, who knew when her god would assign another mission to her again.
* * *
As Bell headed toward his final class, someone suddenly stepped into his path.
A girl, half a head shorter than him.
Lavender hair, vibrant and glossy, that was partially braided with one braid draped over her shoulder. A black beret with a matching ribbon perched neatly atop her head, a green gem glinting at its center — mirrored by the matching gem on her shirt's bowtie.
Her skin was pale and youthful, her features soft but striking.
Large sunglasses hid her eyes, but not well enough to conceal the piercing shade of green beneath.
A small mole rested under her right eye, one of her most distinctive features.
Chewing on bubble gum, Bell knew exactly who this person was, even though she wasn't mentioned often in the novel, being brought up by name only a few times,
Diana's roommate and best friend. And although the novel never explicitly stated it, Bell and other readers theorized that she harbored a secret crush on Diana but kept it to herself because she didn't want to risk ruining their relationship.
It became even worse once the protagonist entered the picture.
"Sup," she said casually, as if greeting someone she'd known for years. She blew a bubble that expanded until it burst just a few inches from his face.
"Hello." Bell nodded politely. "Do I know you?" he asked, feigning ignorance.
"Nope," she responded as she blew another bubble.
Pop!
"Nice to meet you, then."
He started to step past her.
"Wait," she said as she lifted a hand in front of his chest; it was close enough that if he leaned forward, they'd touch. "My name's Peneri Acheson. My friends call me Peaches. You can call me Peneri."
"…Peneri," Bell echoed. "Can I help you with something?"
Instead of answering, she gave him a slow, deliberate once-over from behind her sunglasses.
"I don't know, can you?" she asked with sarcasm and slight aggression.
'She's in the wrong era. She belongs in the modern ages with the rest of the mean girls,' Bell thought.
With a scoff, she said, "You know, I really don't get what the hype about you is. You're not even all that good-looking."
If her friends were here, they would've been extremely confused because when they were discussing him that one day, she had been praising his looks left and right, along with the other girls.
"I agree," Bell said.
'That wasn't the reaction I was expecting,' she thought.
Was he being sarcastic back?
He actually wasn't. It's just he wasn't referring to his outer beauty but the inner.
'Eughhh…'
"That was just a joke by the way," she clarified.
"..."
"Forget it. Let's cut to the chase. I'm here to ask you a few questions."
"I'm heading to class," Bell said. "We can talk on the way. Shall we?"
Peneri's class was in the opposite direction from his, but she didn't object. After all, she was the one who sought him out, after all.
"Alright. Let's get going then," she said, stepping ahead of him with confidence.
"Do you know where my class is?" he asked from behind.
"Nope!" she chirped without turning around.