A dessert shop in Shrek City.
Gu Yue elegantly lifted her glass, the milkshake inside catching a soft glow under the lights. She took a small sip.
"Not bad." Her comment was flat, her tone as composed as ever.
Arthur sat across from her, bored out of his mind, chin propped on one hand, his gaze somewhat blank.
Beside him, Na'er was eating like a woman possessed, dessert or not, she still packed it away with the same voracious appetite.
Na'er was completely lost in her own little world of eating. Small cakes, puddings, macarons, the plates in front of her were emptied one after another, as though her stomach were a bottomless pit that could never be filled.
"Na'er, slow down. No one's going to steal it from you." Arthur couldn't help but say.
Na'er let out a muffled "mm" of acknowledgment, but her hands didn't slow down in the slightest, a smear of cream still clinging to the corner of her mouth, making her look both adorable and a little disheveled.
Final exams had wrapped up, and thanks to Arthur's influence, no one had been eliminated.
Today was the first day of break. Arthur had been dragged out shopping by Gu Yue, and naturally, Na'er had tagged along too.
"By the way." Arthur seemed to remember something and turned to Gu Yue. "You joined the Tang Sect, right?"
"What do you want to know?" Gu Yue looked over, puzzled.
"How's it going for you there?"
Gu Yue's gaze dropped slightly, her tone flat and unhurried. "'Going' isn't quite the word for it. I'm simply following the proper procedures, that's all."
She looked back up at Arthur, a faint, barely perceptible sharpness flickering in her eyes.
"The Tang Sect has deep roots and strict rules, but with my own capabilities, I've had no trouble holding my ground there."
"Do you know about the Icefire Polarized Eyes?" Arthur asked, already knowing the answer.
Gu Yue nodded. "The hidden realm currently under the Tang Sect's control."
Arthur did have some interest in the immortal herb there, though not for his own use, it wouldn't do him much good.
But Mu Ye needed it badly.
With the help of the immortal herb, Mu Ye might be able to make up for the flaws left over from his early years and push further ahead.
"Could you keep an ear out for any news about the Icefire Polarized Eyes for me? I can-"
Before Arthur could even finish, Gu Yue cut him off. "You want the immortal herb? I'll help you get it."
Her tone remained as calm as ever, as though she were mentioning something utterly trivial.
Something warm stirred inexplicably in Arthur's chest.
"Thanks."
The atmosphere suddenly turned subtly charged.
This was enough to make Na'er, mid-feast, pause. She smacked her lips a couple of times and suddenly found that whatever was in her mouth had lost its flavor.
Her eyes narrowed slightly, the look she leveled at Gu Yue growing steadily more dangerous, already scheming how to land a solid blow on her.
Just then, a girl with blue twin-tails approached.
It was Xu Xiaoyan.
She carried a small paper bag, her blue twin-tails swaying gently behind her, her eyes sweeping over the three of them. "Oh, what a coincidence."
This was a lie.
The moment Xu Xiaoyan learned Arthur had been dragged off by Gu Yue, well aware of Gu Yue's habits, she'd made a point of scouring every dessert shop in the vicinity.
"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked reflexively.
"Just passing by." Xu Xiaoyan blinked, the picture of innocence. "Happened to spot you all, so I came over to say hi."
Na'er narrowed her eyes and exposed her without a shred of mercy. "You were just skulking around outside the door staring at us for like ten minutes."
Xu Xiaoyan: "..."
She coughed lightly, trying to steer the conversation elsewhere. "Break's already started, when are you guys heading back to Eastsea City? We should go together."
"Eastsea, huh." Arthur said with a touch of sentiment. "I don't think I'll be going back."
Xu Xiaoyan blinked, and reflexively pressed further. "Why not?"
"Because my family moved to Shrek City."
His uncle had been transferred to the Spirit Pagoda's headquarters.
Mu Chen had also come to take up a post at Shrek's association.
To Arthur, wherever his uncle and Mu Chen were, that was home.
Xu Xiaoyan froze for a moment, then without a hint of hesitation, pulled out her soul communicator. "Hey. Bro."
"Change of plans, I'm not coming back for break."
"What do you mean why? No reason! Okay, hanging up now."
She hung up the communicator, the whole exchange crisp and decisive, as though the call had just been about deciding what to have for dinner tonight.
Arthur looked at her, baffled. "You're really not going back, just like that?"
Xu Xiaoyan stuffed the communicator back into her bag, entirely unbothered. "You're not going back either, so what's the point of me going back? It'd be boring all alone."
She blinked, her tone breezy. "Besides, Shrek City is huge, I haven't even finished exploring it yet."
Na'er watched all of this unfold and, surprisingly, didn't lash out to defend her territory. If anything, she looked puzzled.
Something was nagging at her.
Why did Xu Xiaoyan feel somehow different from before?
Back when I used to be around, she never even dared strike up a conversation with Arthur.
She studied Xu Xiaoyan closely.
The blue twin-tails, the signature short skirt, the way her eyes curved when she smiled, none of it looked any different from before, at least on the surface.
But that easy, natural familiarity in her manner now struck Na'er as particularly grating.
Damn it.
The more Na'er thought about it, the more unsettled she felt. It seemed the list of people she needed to eliminate had just grown by one, Gu Yue, and now Xu Xiaoyan too.
"What are you all doing here?" Yet another familiar figure approached.
Was there no end to the reinforcements?
Ye Xinglan walked over, ignoring the three girls entirely, her gaze fixed squarely on Arthur. "Class monitor. I've been looking for you for ages. Do you have any plans for the break? Want to practice swordsmanship together?"
She got straight to the point.
Unlike Gu Yue, Na'er, and Xu Xiaoyan, Ye Xinglan was purely, single-mindedly devoted to strength.
In that instant, four pairs of eyes turned to fix squarely on Arthur, all at once.
Something was wrong here.
Arthur's eyes narrowed slightly. The stray tuft of hair standing up on his head shot bolt upright.
This wasn't looking good.
His instincts were screaming warnings, a chill running down his spine, as though he'd just been marked by four unspeakable, nameless entities.
"Ha ha, swordsmanship, sure, next time, definitely next time." Arthur brushed her off. "Break just started, better to actually rest and relax properly."
As he spoke, he quietly shrank back against his chair, trying to compress himself into a less conspicuous target.
Ye Xinglan frowned. Coming from anyone else, she'd have scoffed at an excuse like that without a second thought.
But this was Arthur.
She thought it over carefully, and finally nodded, as though something had clicked. "That's fair."
In her mind, when it came to matters of growing stronger, Arthur was never wrong. "Then can I come along?"
She glanced at the desserts on the table, then back at Arthur, her tone perfectly earnest. "You said you're going to properly rest today, so I'll rest along with you. Either way, while you're resting, I'll just be watching from the side. I might pick up something from it."
Arthur: "?"
Xu Xiaoyan asked with a sly smile, "Ye Xinglan, weren't you always the one who hated wasting time the most? Since when did you pick up the art of slacking off?"
Ye Xinglan's expression didn't so much as flicker. "This isn't slacking off. This is observation."
She said it with total seriousness. "Observing the class monitor's state outside of combat helps me better understand his combat rhythm."
Gu Yue had already seen straight through the whole act. She set her glass down gently and said flatly, "You're just making excuses for yourself."
Ye Xinglan: "..."
She fell silent for a beat, then stubbornly held her ground anyway. "Regardless, I'm staying here today too."
Arthur looked at the four girls in front of him and felt like his head was about to explode.