Next Day...
I stepped out of the changing room, freshly dressed in my uniform, only to find Leona still lying in bed, wrapped up like a burrito, staring at me with a completely blank expression.
"...What are you doing?" she asked, voice flat, like I’d just disrupted the laws of nature.
"What are you doing?" I shot back, just as confused.
We just stared at each other for a moment—like two aliens trying to decode the other’s language.
This wasn’t how the morning was supposed to go.
Leona always woke up before me.
Always.
She had to.
Between putting on her disguise, adjusting her chest bandages, and making sure everything looked just right, she usually needed the extra time.
But here she was, still horizontal. Not even a sock on.
And I was fully dressed. Bright-eyed, ready for class. Well, reluctantly ready—but that still counted.
I tilted my head at her. "You feeling okay?"
She blinked. "I was about to ask you the same thing. You never get ready this early."
There was small smrik on her face but I didn’t much thought of it.
Fair point.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what got into me.
Maybe it was the emotional mess from yesterday still lingering. Maybe I just wanted to avoid running into anyone on the way to class. Or maybe—just maybe—I was trying to get my life together.
Yeah, no. That last one’s a stretch.
Anyway.
There was this one episode in the original story where Ryen, being the prideful idiot he sometimes is, tried to out-wake Leona.
He ended up pulling an all-nighter just to beat her to the bathroom, only for her to silently take the mirror first anyway. They both got cranky and ended up arguing the whole day.
Ryen held a grudge for weeks.
Me?
I never even looked at the top bunk when she was sleeping.
Actually, even when she wasn’t sleeping, I avoided glancing at her bed. Just out of respect... and maybe fear of accidentally seeing something I shouldn’t.
So yeah. Seeing her still half-asleep while I was dressed and ready?
It was weird.
It threw me off more than it should have.
"...Well," I mumbled, adjusting my collar, "don’t be late."
And with that, I grabbed my bag and headed out—trying not to read too much into the strange shift in routine.
Click—!
Thud—!
The door closed behind me with a soft thud as I stepped out, setting off on the familiar path that led to Velcrest Academy.
Alone.
Usually, Leona would be walking beside me—grumbling about something, teasing me, or just keeping the silence from being awkward.
But today... she didn’t wake up on time for some reason, and now here I was. Walking alone.
Wait a second. Alone?
Sure, I get it—I’m walking by myself. But where the hell is everyone else?
I glanced around.
Nothing.
Not a single person in sight.
No students chatting in groups. No footsteps echoing behind me. No voices, no bags rustling, no hurried steps trying to beat the morning bell.
Just me.
The path, which was usually buzzing with chatter and youthful chaos, was dead silent.
Eerily silent.
A chill crept up my spine.
Was this a villain attack? Some secret event I hadn’t heard of?
Maybe this was the start of something bad—some major incident about to unfold, and I was the only one too dumb to see it coming?
But then...
It hit me.
Like a slap to the face.
Of course.
It was Saturday.
Nobody went to school on Saturdays.
I’d completely forgotten.
Years of part-time jobs and nonstop grind had erased the idea of weekends from my brain. Holidays? Days off? That luxury wasn’t in the fine print of my previous life.
I let out a deep sigh and rubbed the back of my neck.
Damn it.
Now it all made sense—Leona’s weird smirk before I left. That smug little devil knew. She probably even watched me get dressed and leave without saying a word just for the fun of it.
Alright, fine.
I’ll admit it—this one’s on me.
...But she’s still at least half responsible for not stopping me.
With a defeated groan, I turned around and started heading back toward the dorms, feeling like the punchline to a joke I didn’t know I was telling.
By the time I reached the dorms again, the embarrassment had fully set in.
Each step felt heavier, like the walk of shame after realizing you showed up to the wrong class—or, in this case, the wrong day.
I quietly opened the door, hoping to sneak back in without drawing attention.
No such luck.
Leona was sitting on the couch in the common room, sipping tea like a noblewoman in a drama. Her messy bedhead was half-tamed, and she still wore her pajamas—shorts and an oversized academy hoodie.
Men’s hoodie, Of course.
The moment her eyes met mine, the corners of her mouth twitched.
Then she grinned.
"Morning, diligent student. Did you enjoy your solo Saturday campus tour?"
I froze in the doorway.
She knew.
She absolutely knew.
"I hate you," I said flatly, slipping off my shoes.
"Sure you do," she said, sipping from her cup. "But you still went all the way there. Alone. On a weekend."
I gave her a deadpan stare. "You could’ve stopped me."
"I could’ve," she said innocently, "but where’s the fun in that?"
I groaned and walked past her, heading to the fridge for something cold to drink. She followed me with her eyes, clearly savoring every second of this.
"You even looked so serious when you left," she continued. "Like you were about to fight God."
"Maybe I was," I muttered.
"Aww! Don’t sulk now. How about I make you an breakfast."
At those words, I stopped and looked at her, she on the other smriked knowing she got my attention.
I quitely looked towards kitchen, Yeah, the academy provides a kitchen to every acadmy dorm room.
Even so, cadet eat on the cafeteria because it’s annoying to make a food when you get more teasty food dinner just for money.
...And tell you the truth, I also wanted to taste homemade made by her.
In the novel, it was described as that Leona learnt cooking skills.
And it was very good one too.
Even Ryen didn’t get to chance to eat her food till later part of the novel.
Now, How could I wastes such opportunity?