Chapter 12: Ch 12: Here to help early in the morning

’Ugh, why was today so demanding? I was not able to concentrate on anything we did.’

Noah threw himself onto his bed face-first and let out a loud groan. His body wanted to relax, and he finally allowed his tense back muscles to rest against the soft mattress while being careful of his broken leg.

However, he did not get to relax for long because Daniel decided to address him as soon as they were back inside.

"I made sure to throw that stupid esper out of our dormitory. Now, would you care to tell me why that stupid mutt decided to latch onto you?"

Noah groaned as he pondered over that question for a few seconds, but there seemed to be no easy way to say the reason out loud.

He had a feeling Daniel would flip if he ever hinted that Alan was helping him because he wanted to get close to Daniel. So Noah decided to take the coward’s way out.

"Alan said he wanted to repay me for not being able to help me when I fell. I insisted that I did not need any help, but he pretended not to hear me."

Noah had a feeling that most people would not take his words seriously due to the reputation Alan had cultivated. But Daniel was different.

He scoffed and muttered something about ’prideful espers doing whatever they wanted,’ but thankfully, the interrogation session came to a quick end.

Noah pulled the covers over his head and closed his eyes before Daniel could ask him anything else. His intention was to wait a few minutes to see if Daniel would calm down.

But he ended up falling asleep instead.

He only realized he had fallen asleep the next day when his alarm woke him up. He jolted upright in bed and looked at the alarm clock that was still buzzing.

"Ugh, I don’t want to get up...just what time is it?"

"We have 20 minutes before our first class starts. I decided to let you sleep in since you looked tired. Should I not have done that?"

A scream started to build up inside Noah’s throat, but it never escaped his lips. The face right in front of him stole away any sound he wanted to make...but that was not normal. Something felt wrong.

It took Noah a few seconds to realize that no sound had escaped his throat because Alan was using his powers on him.

’This bastard! That shameless face of his tells me that he is enjoying this situation. Ugh, I really want to throw him off me.’

Unfortunately, Noah was currently just a B-class guide. He was not even supposed to be able to tell that someone was using their abilities on him.

Noah was stuck beside Alan, unable to move or speak. But he could glare at the esper...not that he expected anything to change even if he did.

But Alan decided it was time to be a decent human being and stepped back. He also withdrew his power, allowing Noah to move freely again.

"How is your leg feeling now? Should I help you get changed? Or maybe help you take a bath? We don’t have much time before we need to head to class."

Alan asked in a sweet, gentle voice. Somehow, that drained all the anger Noah felt toward him.

So instead of addressing Alan, he decided to look around the room and noticed something he had missed until now.

"Where is Daniel?"

His roommate had no obligation to stay with him all the time, but Noah had a feeling that Daniel would rather not leave him alone with Alan...especially inside their room.

"Your roommate? He had to leave for class since he did not want to be late. Ah, we only have 15 minutes left. Let me help you out—"

"No, it’s fine. I can change on my own. I’ll be out in five minutes."

Noah quickly refused Alan’s help as he grabbed his clothes and took a quick shower with his leg wrapped up.

Any normal person would struggle under such a serious injury, but Noah had plenty of experience dealing with broken bones. All that practice had made him an expert at moving around with a cast.

Noah came out of the shower fully dressed, though his hair was still wet, in exactly five minutes. That made Alan give him a surprised look.

"That was really fast."

Alan sounded suspicious, but Noah already had an excuse prepared.

"I get hurt pretty often, so I’ve gotten really good at moving around with injured body parts. I guess you could say I’m a rather clumsy person."

His reply did not satisfy Alan, but he still decided to let it go for now. Even if he looked into it later, he would find records of the many times Noah had broken a bone.

And the number was far from being in the single digits.

"Hmm, I see. If you say you have experience, then I’ll take your word for it. Let’s head to class now."

Alan pretended to drop the topic, and Noah nodded with a smile while letting out a sigh of relief.

He had expected Alan to become suspicious of him eventually, but he had not expected it to happen this soon. Ideally, Alan should have started suspecting him after becoming interested in Daniel. That way, Noah would have had an easier time hiding his secrets.

But still, something about the situation bothered him. He still could not believe that Daniel had left him alone with Alan.

Maybe Alan had lied...or used another trick.

’Agh, even if Alan pulled some kind of trick, it’s not like I can do anything about it anyway. For now, it would be best if I kept my cool and followed him around. I need to make sure he spends a lot of time with Daniel.’

Somehow, getting Alan to develop an interest in Daniel was the easy part.

But getting Daniel to develop the same interest in Alan was a completely different matter, and one Noah was starting to dread all of a sudden.