Waking up the next morning, it felt like the gigantic burden weighing on me since the end of the cruise ship incident had lifted.
It felt freeing...
The festival would go on for the next couple of days, and there would be no classes. I had no reason to intervene in the plot during the festival, so basically, this time was all free for me.
However, after the festival, the plot jumps right back into action as the travel club visits the Elven realm under Princess Alya's guidance.
That would require a lot of my guidance if Lily did what I thought she would...
Having spent the last week constantly investigating or worrying about the attack on the Coliseum, I had no intentions of doing anything for the time being.
Unable to sleep due to the loud noise of the tourists outside my window, I got up and prepared to head out for the day.
When I checked my smartwatch, I was surprised to see that Jin and Han had continued to use the group chat despite my not responding to either of them for at least a week.
[Han: Jin, we're meeting up by the coliseum at 11, right?]
[Jin: Yeah, we'll figure out what to do once we're there.]
[Ren: Mind if I join in?]
[Han: Ren?]
[Jin: Not if you don't tell us where the hell you've been for the past week.]
[Han: Yeah... you weren't even in class. Did you not get in trouble?]
[Jin: If you found a way to skip class without being trouble and didn't tell us... you're dead, buddy.]
[Ren: You won't believe me... but I spent the past week working on a special task force with the one and only student council president to protect the school!]
[Jin: Yo, bro, if you don't wanna tell us, just say so.]
[Han: You've had a week, and that's the best excuse you could come up with..?]
[Ren: ??? See, you guys never believe me.]
[Jin: Alright, bro, whatever you say. See you at 11]
[Han: Yeah, we'll see you at 11.]
[Ren: Wait, mind if I bring my little brother?]
[Han: your what?]
[Jin: You have a brother???]
[Ren: Yeah, he's my long-lost little brother; I just found him recently in the slums.]
[Han: Alright...?]
[Jin: I'm fine with it... if he's real.]
[Ren: Yeah, he's real. I'll see you two.]
As students of the academy, we were allowed a tourist ticket without paying, so I could bring one person into the academy for free.
Who else but him?
Leaving the academy and entering the capital, I headed straight for headquarters as it was already almost 11.
As I entered the capital's slums, I noticed the cake shop with the underground hideout for the teacher had been shut down.
The windows were broken, and I could see countless homeless people inside stealing the chairs or anything else of value.
...That tunnel could be quite the hideout, couldn't it?
While the cake shop in itself was a decent investment as it could provide some daily income, the hideout below must have taken ages to create, and it would be the perfect place for me to train.
It was so far underground that even if I used countless elemental slashes, no one would notice. The royal family investigators would just think of it as a normal cake shop and not investigate it, so they wouldn't even find the tunnel, meaning the shop would be very cheap.
And Raven and Zeng would be pretty happy if I bought a cake shop, wouldn't they?
Reminding myself to check the newspaper for the future listing of the cake shop after the royal family repossessed it, I continued on my way to the headquarters.
Without knocking or anything, I unlocked the headquarters doors with my key and entered inside.
Raven, lying on the couch next to the television, was still fast asleep despite it being almost afternoon.
On the other hand, Zeng lay slumped over in the chair once again, a plate of ice cream in front of him.
Quite the evil djinn he was, eating strawberry ice cream...
Sighing at my workers' laziness, I walked up to the couch with Raven sitting on it and swiftly and cleanly removed the blanket from him.
With my enhanced eyesight, I saw Raven's eyes open for a short moment, meaning he was awake, yet he still pretended to be asleep.
"Oh, asleep, are you?"
Watching him and staying still, I made sounds to make it seem like I was moving around and picking things up until Raven, after a couple of seconds, burst upwards and screamed.
"NO, I'M AWAKE. DON'T DO ANYTHING, PLEASE!"
Staring me motionless right above him, Raven blinked for a second before sighing.
"You really have to come right in the morning, don't you?"
"It's almost 11; what morning are you talking about?"
"...Just let me sleep."
As Raven pulled up his blanket to cover his face, I replied.
"You're coming with me today."
"Whenever you say that, it always means something bad."
"You're coming with me to a festival, relax."
Scaring the shit out of me, I heard a voice sound from behind me.
"What about me, boss?"
Turning around, I saw Zeng sitting up on his chair with his horns out and continuing to eat his ice cream.
"When you do something about those horns, we can talk."
"...but they look go-"
"Yeah, they look so good that everyone just runs around screaming in horror when they see them."
"..."
As Raven sluggishly walked to the bathroom, I waited while Zeng walked to the mirror and stared at his horns for a solid minute.
Finally, Raven emerged from the bathroom in some decent clothes I had gotten him recently, as all his previous ones were in tatters.
Wearing a pair of navy blue jeans and a black shirt, Raven walked out with his wet-black hair covering the top half of his face.
Could he at least look presentable? I'm calling him my brother!
Walking up to Raven, I pushed his hair up, revealing his onyx-black eyes, and parted it to the side before tucking in his shirt and handing him a jacket.
Raven, who did not care for his looks, simply stood still with an indifferent expression, allowing me to make him look presentable.
Looking at Raven's finished appearance like a proud father, I tapped him on the shoulder before leading him out of headquarters and towards the academy.
As we reached the academy gates, I presented the guard with my student ID, and he stared at Raven for a second before letting us through.
I thought I did a good job...
Rushing towards the coliseum with Raven trailing behind me, we arrived a minute early, spotting Jin and Han a few feet away from us.
Walking up to them, I pulled Raven beside me and said.
"Hey, you two, this is my brother, Raven."
Nudging Raven like he was a baby, I said.
"Say hi, Raven!"
Slowly turning his face with an expression that even I couldn't decipher, Raven choked out the words.
"h-hi, I'm Raven."
Looking at me struggling to hold in my laughter, Han and Jin stared at us for a second before they both said,
"N-nice to meet you, Raven."
"Well, where to guys!"