I woke up at <5:32 A.M>...
I washed my face, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth, and took a bath.
I did the same routine I do every morning, the only difference was Yuki is now with me as I do those things.
About <6:20 A.M>, I finished preparing for the day. I always take my time taking baths so I can make sure I'm clean.
'I still have more than 4 hours of free time.'
So I decided to train in the training grounds.
I put on my training suit.
But as I was about to go out of my dorm, I looked at Yuki on my right shoulder.
'Is it okay to bring her out?'
I asked myself internally.
"Nah, other students might steal you because you're so cute."
After contemplating for a while, I decided to leave Yuki in the dorm.
-Kyu! Kyu!
Maybe she knew that she was about to be left behind. Yuki started tweeting loudly as if to protest.
I also don't want to leave her alone here.
"But I can't hide you while I'm training."
Yuki stopped tweeting and slouched, she was thinking.
I looked at her for a while as she was cute. But I don't want to waste time so I was about to place Yuki down on the table.
But before I was able to completely put her down, she looked at me with twinkling eyes.
-Kyu!
Then as she tweeted, she got absorbed by the [Ring of Gluttony]. She entered the spatial storage.
"She can do that?"
From my knowledge, living beings can't enter spatial storage, their life forces need to be cut first.
'Guess Yuki can do that as she's originally from the ring to begin with.'
"Well, whatever."
I didn't think about it too much as I find it bothersome.
"Well, this works. Let's go."
With this weird skill, I can bring Yuki with me.
So with that, I made my way to the training grounds with her in the ring.
*****
Arriving at the training grounds.
There are few people here. Including the main characters and some professors.
I ignored them all and went to the weightlifting area because currently, my physical strength sucks.
'Hey system, what weight should I start with?'
I asked the system as it would be embarrassing to lift something my body can't handle and fail.
[Start with 60 kilograms and lift it 10 times. If you think you can still carry—]
"Wait."
I stopped the system's explanation halfway as I just thought of something smart.
[What?]
"I just thought of a better way to train."
Not waiting for the system's reply, I ran back to my dorm.
Some people in the training grounds looked at me weirdly but I didn't give a shit.
...
After getting back, I opened my watch and went to the online shop site... Then I ordered four
It's a man-made bracelet artifact, its weight can be adjusted based on how much mana you pour into it.
I'm not really sure if there's something like this, but this world has very advanced technologies so I thought things like this would definitely exist.
And I was right!
...
After 10 minutes of waiting and playing with Yuki, I heard a knock on my door.
I opened it, and one of the academy's staff with a package in his arms greeted me.
"A delivery for you."
He said.
"Thank you."
I smiled and took the package. I signed something he handed and gave him 1000 Zeals.
The staff looked at my hand that was handing him the Zeals, then he looked at me with a questioning gaze.
I smiled, with my best effort, and spoke.
"It's a thanks for bringing the item to me, it may not be much but please accept it."
Normal academy staff earns 5000 to 10,000 Zeals every week so it doesn't really amount much for them, but everyone likes free things. And also—the thought is what counts, as they said.
1000 Zeals is a small price to pay for a good relationship with an academy staff.
Anyway, after hearing my words... The staff smiled and took the zeals that I was handing him.
"Thanks, have a good day."
He said and left satisfied.
Meanwhile, I went back inside the dorm and opened the package. I saw four bracelets inside the box.
'Each bracelet cost me 10,000 Zeals. So I roughly have 90,000 Zeals left... I'm going to meet with Tyrone six days from now.'
'I need more money...'
I thought to myself.
Then I wore a bracelet each on my wrists and ankles—and I started to imbue them with mana.
I adjusted all of their weights to 25 kilograms.
"It worked!"
I exclaimed excitedly when I felt my whole body getting heavy.
[Is this your idea?]
The system asked.
And casually looking at the transparent window in the air that I assumed only I can see... I shrugged my shoulders and opened my mouth.
"You can read my thoughts, right?... Staying in one place lifting weights is boring, so I thought of other ways to do it."
[The bracelets need a continuous supply of mana to maintain their weights, what if you run out of mana in the middle of class and pass out?]
The system asked. It has a point... I thought of a solution for a second—
Then I called Yuki, who was playing all by herself.
She flew towards me and landed on my palm. She's cute.
Shaking the unnecessary thoughts first, I asked Yuki.
"Can you use
Yuki just tilted her small fluffy head as a reply, she doesn't understand the question, so it took me about 3 minutes to explain things to her.
And after understanding my question—Yuki proudly nodded her head.
"Great, can you use it now?"
-Kyu!
After that, Yuki opened her beak and a white vortex-like smoke came out from her opened beak.
'It's really the
I exclaimed inwardly, I didn't really expect Yuki to do it.
The vortex then absorbed all the mana around us except mine. Then after a while, Yuki closed her beak.
She's done. Yuki looked at me with lively eyes.
"Good girl! Now can you pass the mana to me?"
I asked her. Yuki nodded as a reply.
'She's getting smarter.'
I felt proud. And after that, my mana got replenished to full as I didn't use a lot of it anyway.
-Kyu!
Then I heard Yuki's tweet, she's puffing out her chest as if boasting.
I patted her head.
"Good job."
-Kyu!
'Now, I'll bring Yuki to the classroom and have her absorb mana for me from time to time to avoid mana exhaustion.'
I thought as I smiled internally.
[You need to work hard.]
The system then appeared again.
"I'm working hard in my own way. You can't just tire yourself out randomly."
I shrugged.
"Now if I run with these bracelets, I can train my strength, agility, and stamina. With the continuous usage of mana my capacity might increase, the same with my mana control."
'And lastly, I wouldn't need to train in the training grounds that are always packed with people.'
Just thinking about it sounds tiring.
[...]
The system got silent.
I just ignored it and headed outside the dorm. Yuki got in the spatial storage, I'm not heading to the training grounds this time.
I'm planning to run all over the academy.
"Working hard is good but you need to use your brain too. If you can do something while sitting and produce the same result as doing it while standing, then there's no need to stand, right?"
I said to the system, I didn't wait for its reply and started running around the academy.
*****
"Haaa... Haaa..."
Rough breathing came out from my mouth.
'The academy is as large as a small city!'
I complained.
I stopped running when it was <9:00 A.M>. I ran for about 2 and a half hours. I didn't even know how far I ran.
[You ran 2005 meters.]
Looks like the system counted.
'I think the academy is about 5000 meters x 5000 meters.'
So I wasn't even able to run over half of the academy.
You might think that I ran a lot, but in this world, 2005 meters is just average for ability users like me.... But in my case, I'm wearing weights.
Anyway—
While grumbling because of the fatigue that I was feeling... I headed to the training grounds. I still have an hour and a half before class starts. I don't have anything to do anyway.
*****
As soon as I entered the training grounds, I went to the shooting range. There were only few people left here as I assumed most students and professors were getting ready for their classes.
Well, not that I really care.
I ignored all of them and started my own training.
I got pretty used to the speed of difficulty 7 so I started with difficulty 8. I also added some targets, now there were 15 moving targets.
And with that, I trained my shooting skill for an hour.
...
After an hour of training, I was covered in sweat.
"[Cleanse]"
So I cast a support magic that I learned from the books I got. It's a spell that removes sweat and dirt on its target.
After that, I returned to my dorm. I took a short bath for about 20 minutes, then I put my academy uniform on.
*****
I arrived in the classroom 5 minutes before the class started.
Almost all of my classmates were here.
I headed to the mid row again, but now to the left corner. On the right side of the classroom were I was previously seated was the building's hallway so I can't make Yuki absorb mana there. While on the left side, there's a window leading outside.
Since it's still the second day, changing seats is common. The owner of the seat you want to change with just needs to agree with you.
"Hey, let's change seats."
I said.
The seat owner turned his head to me and was about to yell—but he suddenly stopped.
Luckily, the seat owner was one of the bullies yesterday, so everything went pretty smoothly.
He left his seat like he was being evicted from his house.
"[Cleanse]"
I cast a magic on the the chair before sitting.
The only disadvantage of this spot is that I'm near the main characters.
'But well, why would they care about me?'
"Now, let's just wait for the professor."
I weakly mumbled as I thought of how boring the classes are going to be.
*****
(Alec's POV)
I saw Raven entered the classroom with a straight face... Because of what happened yesterday, I got curious about him and looked up his name.
Not just me, everyone from the group yesterday did too. Well... except for Eve, probably.
Anyway, I saw Raven earlier in the morning too, he entered the training ground—but he immediately ran out without even touching any equipment.
I did think that was weird, but I continued my own training at that time without caring too much.
Then... He came back after about 2 hours later with a bracelet on each of his wrists and ankles.
I was still training at that time.
Raven was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. He went in to one of the training rooms of the shooting range and didn't come out for an hour.
And now in the present, Raven entered the classroom like he just woke up. He's clean and organized.
"He's still wearing the bracelets."
I mumbled as I noticed his wrists still had the bracelets on. I can't see his ankles because the academy uniform uses pants, but it's most likely he still has them on.
'I wonder what those are for.'
Raven then walked to a seat in the mid-row left corner near us. He picked a seat beside the window and made the owner of that seat switch place with him, peacefully(?).
But before sitting, he cast a
"Is he a germophobe?"
Aoi asked with a frown. Looks like I wasn't the only one watching Raven in curiosity.
"Well, it's more impressive that he cast that magic so smoothly."
Adelle said. I nodded in agreement.
Then after that, a weird expression appeared on my face as I looked at Aoi and Adelle beside me.
"Wait, why are you guys here?"
I asked. They were near my seat before, but not beside mine.
"Well... Me, Aoi, and Eve know each other even before entering Lunar. We're just following Eve because she doesn't want to change seats with others."
Adelle explained. Eve's seat is just behind ours. And just in front of Raven's new seat.
'As I remember, Eve's, Aoi's, and Adelle's parents are all important people.'
Guess they're close to each other because of that.
Anyway... After a while, a professor came in and started a lecture.
*****
(Eve's POV)
It's been a while now since the class started, but I can't focus on the lecture.
-Kyu...
Slowly looking behind me to not make anyone notice, I saw a white cotton-like thing.
'There it is again...'
From time to time, this man behind my seat brings out a cotton-like bird and makes it fly out of the window beside his seat.
And it looks like the bird is using a stealth skill as not everyone notices it. Just a few students did.
I might also not have noticed it if not for the tweeting sounds that I heard.
And the man doesn't look like he's listening to the lecture, he's not even looking at the board or the professor.
So he doesn't really see me looking in his direction.
'What's his name again?'
I don't know... He's familiar, but I don't know anything about him because I didn't care before.
As I was trying to remember who the man was—
"I knew it! It's a Shima Enaga."
Aoi suddenly exclaimed that in a whisper.
Aoi, Adelle, and Alec also heard the tweeting sounds, so they noticed the bird's existence as well.
Curtis is in the back row of the classroom, so it's most likely he doesn't know, and I don't really care.
"What's a Shima Enaga?"
Adelle asked Aoi. Alec seemed to be curious too and waited for Aoi to answer.
They didn't wait long, as Aoi immediately started to explain it.
"It's a bird from Japan. It's well known for its cute cotton-like appearance."
And after a brief pause—
"But it doesn't look like a normal bird, as it can use a skill."
Aoi added. We all looked at the guy behind me playing with the bird.
"Does he like cute things? That's surprising..."
Alec said. Seems like Aoi thought so too.
Well, all I can see is the guy always looks bored at everything, ever since earlier.
"But that side of him is cute."
Adelle said. We ignored her...
Though, we had a frown on our faces because of her statement just now.
It was then, the cotton-like bird looked in our direction and pointed at us using its wing.
We were surprised.
The guy looked at us and frowned.
Then opening his mouth, he mouthed:
'You should focus on the lecture.'
And after that, he turned his attention back to the bird.
My face twitched... His words irritated me. He was the reason I can't focus on the lecture. In a bad way, of course!
"I want to strangle him."
I whispered under my breath.
Alec and Aoi were frowning too after hearing what the guy said.
Adelle didn't mind it much as she was just watching the cotton bird with a smile on her face.
"It's super cute..."
She said.
Well... I can't argue with that, it's true.
Just then—
"Raven Obadiah."
The professor called someone.
And the guy that we were observing stood up.
'So that's his name.'
I thought as I told myself to remember it.
"Can you please explain what our lecture is about?"
The professor asked. Looks like he noticed that this Raven guy was not listening. He's asking him with a rather sly smile.
I smiled at the thought of this guy not being able to answer and be embarrassed in the end for not listening. It seems like all who had been disturbed by him—or his cute cotton bird—also thought so.
But contrary to our expectations...
"Well, the lesson was all about—"
That Raven guy explained the whole lecture with a clear and confident voice. He also shortened and made the explanation more understandable than the professor.
And after that... He just sat down again and crossed his legs.
He then looked outside the window with a bored expression on his face.
All who thought that Raven was going to fail had their mouths hanging open. Then those who had trouble understanding the professor's lecture looked at him with grateful eyes.
"...That's... a very good explanation."
Said the professor, who was silent for a second. He thought Raven was not listening, so he planned to embarrass him—but contrary to what he expected, Raven answered and explained the lecture better than him.
"The way he carries himself confidently is also attractive."
Adelle said with a smile.
Aoi was about to rebut, but didn't, as Raven really does look cool after that.
Alec had a complicated expression om his face.
And me—I was just slightly irritated by all of this.
That guy's lucky because his bird is cute.