After checking the location and realizing that it wasn't too far away, I draped the djinn magician's jacket on Astrid to conceal her appearance.
To any normal passerby, we would look like two homeless teenagers as both our clothes were torn and our faces were riddled with bruises.
After another minute of walking, I heard Astrid grumbling from my back.
"How long till we get there?"
"You know that's supposed to be my line."
After that, Astrid surprisingly stayed silent, seemingly contemplating something. Not wanting to ruin the short silence, I recalled the previous events, and countless questions immediately popped into my head.
Did this incident originally happen in the story? If so, then who saved Astrid initially?
No... an event involving a named character like Astrid would definitely be in the book, so this happened because of either my or Lily's intervention.
I didn't do anything recently... so it has to have been Lily's fault!
Snapping me out of my thoughts, Astrid seemed to be finished contemplating as she put on a serious tone and asked.
"Why did you save me?"
"You're just now realizing I saved you? For a future student council president, you're not that bright."
"... bastard, you know what I mean. In the past, you..."
Seeing as Astrid had just watched me kill 3 djinns and save her, there was no way she would suspect that I was a djinn, so there was no reason for me to pretend to be Ren.
Even if I wanted to pretend to be Ren, I had no idea how I was to Astrid in the past, so it would be futile anyway.
If I had to guess, though, Ren was probably an asshole to her. I mean, that was kinda Ren's thing.
"People change, you know. Forget about the past."
"Guess being disowned did a number on your arrogant attitude, huh?"
Shaking my back, I attempted to make Astrid fall off my back before saying.
"Be careful with what you say."
"See, if I said that in the past, you would just curse me out and drop me. Earlier, you could have just pretended to be asleep and let me be kidnapped. Just what...."
How am I supposed to tell her that I'm not the past Ren anymore?
Also, curse her out, really? Why the hell does Ren have to piss off every important character in the book?
I can't just tell her that I saved her because I want the world to have a good ending... can I?
Taking my silence as a sign that I didn't want to talk about it, Astrid asked.
"So, where are we even going."
A broad grin appeared on my face as I glanced at my smartwatch and said.
"To a friend of mine!"
" *pfft* y-you h-have a f-friend."
Letting go of Astrid's legs, she slumped down on the floor, barely still clinging to my back.
"CAN'T YOU TAKE A JOKE?"
"A joke is supposed to be funny."
Leaning down, Astrid climbed onto my back once again, and we continued on our way.
After another 10 minutes of walking in silence, I glanced at the directions on the smartwatch before announcing.
"We're here!"
In front of us stood a seemingly abandoned building. Its windows were boarded off with wood, and the building was partially covered by ivy and various plants. It was completely surrounded by trees and isolated from the bustling capital city.
"... you know if you were lying about the friend thing earlier, I get it"
"Shut it."
"... are we really going in there?"
"It's either that or sleeping in the forest."
"... I'll take my odds in the forest."
Ignoring Astrid's grumbling and complaining, I walked to the doors of the buildings and swung them open.
Contrary to its outward appearance, the inside of the building was quite nice. There were various couches and even a TV set up. The huge building was mostly empty, and there were no decorations set up.
Tilting my head upwards to face Astrid, I smiled before saying.
"See, never judge a book by its co-"
"Shut it."
Using my eyes, I peered into the distance and saw a confused head pop out from one of the couches.
"Boss... what are you doing here?"
Raven, whose hair was surprisingly neat for someone who just woke up, approached me with his eyes still half-closed.
"Do I need a reason to visit headquarters?"
"WE AGREED, IT'S ALSO MY HOME! Would you like someone barging into yo-"
"Irrelevant."
".. Since you're here, about the ma-"
Before Raven could continue, I stopped him and pointed to Astrid, who peered over my head with a confused expression.
Upon seeing Astrid's appearance on my back, Raven stepped back in shock before staring right into my eyes.
Although he said nothing, I spent enough time with him to know what the glare meant.
'I'm not going to say anything, but god is watching.'
Is it variable if I turned Raven, a mischievous and devilish scoundrel, into a devout believer of god...?
Above me, I could hear Astrid muttering.
"... impossible, he's real..."
Walking over to a couch, I let down Astrid and prepared to discuss some business matters with Raven, but before I could, Astrid piped up and asked Raven.
"Hey, what did he do to you...?"
Raven sniffled before covering his eyes with his arms and saying.
"It-it w-was t-terrible."
I didn't know what to be more surprised at.
The fact that Astrid, who was previously completely drained of energy, was now eager to question Raven or that Raven, the original leader of the black market, was at the brink of crying in front of me.
After sitting down on the couch opposite Astrid, I grabbed a few bandages and covered up my wounds while listening to their conversation.
"H-he t-tricked me and forced me to be h-"
"Enough."
At this point, I knew Raven well enough to know he was acting. This bastard was trying to gather sympathy from Astrid. His whole life was built off tricking and deceiving people, yet here he was crying because I tricked him!
At my words, Raven pretended to tremble and step back in fear.
... He is a good actor, I'll give him that.
Astrid, being a pure-hearted character, responded.
"Ren, just what have you done to this poor kid..? You really are a terrible person. I can't believe you'd involve this little kid in your dirty schemes."
"PFFT"
At words "poor kid," I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore, and it all came out. Similarly, with the words "terrible person," Raven also broke into laughter.
Astrid stared at the two of us with a confused expression while Raven fell onto the floor and began laughing uncontrollably, and I rolled onto the couch while laughing.
" *PFFFT* I-i n-need w-water."
"S-say R-ren is a t-terrible person a-again p-please. I-i can't."
As our laughter finally ended, Astrid's confused expression turned to anger as she glared at Raven and I.
After that, the three of us settled into an awkward silence, one by one falling asleep.
By the time I woke up, Raven was already up working on copying down the magic circles, and Astrid was nowhere to be seen.
Seeing my confused expression, Raven continued staring at his paper while saying.
"Ah, the girl left."
Getting up from the couch, I noticed most of the wounds were better due to the advanced healing capabilities of an awakened, so I stretched for a bit.
Finally, lifting his head from the paper, Raven exited his desk and asked while staring at me.
"So, what happened last night."
"What exactly do you mean?"
"A boy and girl coming back with ripped clothes... Did you guys..."
Sometimes, I forget that Raven is a naive kid who is the same age as me...
Without bothering to answer Raven's question, I walked over to the desk and knocked on it.
"It's learning time!"
After sitting down with a sign, Raven continued working until he suddenly spoke.
"Oh boss, the girl, I sold her a scroll; she seemed to really need it."
"How much did you sell it for?"
"7 gold coins! Triple the price of what we sell it for in the market!"
Nodding my head, I gave Raven a quick thumbs-up before continuing to teach him. Our company had just scammed someone for the first time and DEFINITELY not the last!
The rest of the weekend, I spent either training night slashes in the forest or carefully teaching Raven how to draw the healing magic circle.
Upon returning to the academy on Monday morning, I saw that all the student council posters had disappeared, signifying that Astrid had won the position.
After entering class and sitting down, I didn't even bother to glance at the board because I knew exactly what was on it.
[Practical Training]
As I zoned out, I felt a tap on my shoulder, so I asked without turning around to see the identity.
"What the matter, Jin?"
"Where were you on Friday? Didn't you say that all of us were getting food?"
Ah, he's probably angry I dragged him away from the club. Thankfully, I had just the excuse to satisfy him.
"You won't believe it; I met the perfect girl on the way out!"
Only after saying those words did I realize how loud I actually was. Thankfully, only Alya sat nearby me, and she wouldn't care.
Glancing downwards to confirm Alya's reaction, I almost fell out of my chair when I saw Lily sitting right beside Alya.
Jin patted me on the back and said.
"Jealousy is not the way to get her back, man..."
Han, putting his hand on my other shoulder, continued.
"Jin is right for once..."
Covering my head with the desk, I ignored Jin and Han's consoling words and patiently waited for class to start.
Finally, the bell rang, and the teacher walked to the podium.
"As you can see from the board, tomorrow is our first practical training session. This will be done in our groups from the homework presentations, so group up. All of today's class will be dedicated to preparing for the training with your groups."
Slamming my head into the desk, I contemplated just dropping out of school. Spending two whole days with Irene, the most annoying person in the world, and Alya, the most stuck-up person in the world, would be worse than hell.
On the other hand, Han and Jin were confused as those two idiots had skipped that class.
"Hey, Ren, the teacher has gone senile... what is he talking about?"
As I lifted my head from my desk, I noticed that most groups, including Irene and Alya, were already together.
Ignoring the two idiots to my side, I begrudgingly got up and walked towards them, internally accepting my fate.
[A/N: 75 powerstones = 1 chap / 1 gift = 1 chap]