Giving my own perspective on the events went rather fine. Perhaps Anastasia’s and my story matched, or maybe the man just ignored it.
Anyway, the first minor event– Undercurrents in Spira city had ended quite splendidly. And although there were some massive alterations like the students being the ones that got ambushed, everything ultimately fell in place.
Another massive alteration was that, in the novel, Delilah never contacted the empire due to the fact that no one knew about the city lord being in cahoots with the heretics.
Still, the most important thing, was that none of the main characters had died.
After giving our accounts of what happened, we were permitted to leave the city if we wanted.
I had planned on doing just that the moment Dion finished giving his own statement, when a voice called out from behind me.
"Damon, over here." I turned to see Alistair and the rest.
’Why the hell is he calling me?’ I thought, as I began walking in their direction.
"What is the matter?" I asked as I reached them. Rose’s and my eyes met for a moment, before we both looked away.
"We were planning on going back to the institute together." Alistair said. "If you don’t mind." he added.
I though for a moment, and didn’t see any issues with it, so I agreed.
"No problem." I nodded.
"Great!" Alistair beamed. "Let’s wait for the last guy to finish, and then we can head back."
After that, I stood aside in awkward silence as the rest chatted animatedly, only occasionally nodding my head, as if I was listening. But in reality, I wasn’t listening to a word they were saying, until the white haired bitch came up with a topic I was interested in.
"While we’re waiting," she said. "Who’s going to report the institute about what happened here?"
In the novel the same thing had happened. In the end, it was Alistair who volunteered to do so. It was also the reason he got closer to instructor Summers, to the point she asked to be his master.
But this time around?
Anastasia smiled.
"You don’t need to worry about that."
’Please don’t... don’t....don’t...’ I inwardly hoped.
"You mean you’ll do it?" Delilah asked taken aback.
Anastasia shook her head.
"Not at all."
’Eh? what is she playing at?’ Instead of feeling relieved that she was not volunteering, a thought at the back of my mind kept telling me something was wrong.
The white haired bitch raised a brow.
"Then what do you mean?"
"I meant that..." Anastasia paused. "Mr Darkfell here has already volunteered to do just that."
"..." My brain short circuited.
"Isn’t that right?" she turned to me.
I almost popped a vein.
’I swear, I will kill this bitch, maybe not today, or tomorrow, but definitely one day.’ I promised myself. I knew she was up to no good the moment she opened her mouth. Whoever popped this girl into existence better hope I never catch them.
But for now, I had to get myself out of this mess.
"Yes, she’s right." I muttered. "But she’s also wrong at the same time. All I said was that we should report to the institute, instead of fighting the heretics ourselves. This is a completely different scenario, Miss Necron." I looked straight into her eyes.
"Well, I must have misunderstood then." She shrugged with a smile that seemed particularly conniving to me.
Although no one knew this, even if no one reported the incident, each and everyone of us would still be asked to give details about it by the institute. After all, we were in close proximity to where the deaths happened. And the institute has to retrieve the corpses, assuming there were any, and return them to their families.
"No worries, I’ll report it." Alistair easily diffused the tension with his charming smile.
After that ordeal, I went back to my silence, until Dion came out. After which we all walked back to the train station.
I wished I didn’t have to sit for hours on a train ride. But even if I swapped with the reflection I left back at the institute, I’d still perceive the boring ride from the reflection’s perspective.
Staring out the rushing scenery, my mind eventually went back to the arc of the next minor event– The midterms. Even though it was still a full month away, I knew it was going to be such a drag. Depending on how one performs in the midterms, they could rise or fall in rank.
If the first year representative still maintained their position by then, they’d be invited to the student council, along with five other students from the first year.
And even if the representative failed to keep their rank, the privilege would go to the new rank 1.
Now, personally, I wasn’t particularly interested in titles or seats of power. I would have most certainly enjoyed manipulating events from behind the scenes.
But since this redhead bitch was hellbent on antagonizing me, I was going to take that privilege.
Make no mistake, this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision, or one made in anger. I had thought about it, if her presence continued disrupting the timeline I knew, things wouldn’t go as planned.
Now I wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to beat the top rankers like Anastasia, Alistair, and Rose. There wasn’t any loop hole I could use to defeat these three.
Let me break it down. I would like to say I knew Anastasia’s ability, but we both know she didn’t give out the full specifics of what it could do. And throughout the combat classes in the past week, she hadn’t used her ability, not even once. Though, that was partly due to being paired with extras. Had she met Alistair or Rose, she’d have been forced to use it.
As for Alistair, I needn’t say more, and the same goes for rose. The rest though, I could manage.
Like Fabian for example, as long as I didn’t let him touch me, I was good. Delilah’s archery might be a problem if she was shooting from far away, but that too, I could manage.
I wasn’t even putting the white haired bitch into the equation, solely because illusions of her level wouldn’t work on me due to having Bubbles.
Anyway, the midterms wasn’t only about combat power, there were other facets to it, and I plan to excel in those facets, so much that my points would be so high that I’ll automatically claim the first rank.
And when I do, I’d rub it on all of their faces.
They’ll never see me coming.
Muahahaha!
"Yo bro, what are you thinking about?" Dion’s voice broke me out of my ’diabolical’ plans. We were the only ones in this private compartment. The others also had theirs.
"Huh?" I turned to him.
"You had this sort of creepy smile on your face, in fact, it’s still present." he pointed out.
My hands reached to my face, and I realized I was indeed smiling. Foolishly to be exact.
’Don’t tell me I’m turning into some crazed fool with delusions of grandeur.’ I thought as my face went back to normal.
"Arriving at Nuwa station in one minute." Just as I was thinking about my mental health, the train started slowing down considerably.
"Ah finally!" I heaved. I was getting tired of sitting on my ass.
Not long after, Dion and I descended off the train, but we only saw Alistair and Fabian. ’Where were the girls?’ I thought. But before I could ask the question on my mind, Alistair opened his mouth.
"If you three don’t mind," he said, addressing Dion, Fabian, and I. "Since it’s only noon, the ladies want to go on a little shopping spree." He said with an embarrassed smile as the girls finally began descending the train.
As you’ve probably guessed, While Dion and I were in one cabin, Fabian was also alone in his cabin, but the bastard was alone with the girls throughout the ride.
"Make it quick." Fabian grumbled.
"Don’t worry, we won’t take long." Delilah giggled.
"It’s okay!" Dion exclaimed, giving a thumbs up.
"I see no reason why." I shrugged. I guess girls would always be girls no matter which world it was.
Besides, "I think I also have a few things to buy." I said. Not to mention, I was extremely hungry, and thus needed sustenance. Sure I had some snacks with me, but I was looking to eat something fresh.
"Really? me too." Alistair smiled. "Since that’s the case, we should meet back at the teleportation matrix in three hours."
After that, we split up. Dion and I went our way, the girls went their way, and Alistair also went his way which was coincidentally in the girls’ direction. Fabian though, decided to head to our rendezvous point to wait there.
By the end of that day, I realized one thing. It was that, I was dirt poor, like extremely poor. I had finally finished spending my stash today.
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HERE’S TODAY’S Chapter, LEAVE A REVIEW, AND DONR FORGET THE POWER STONES.