Chapter 56: Another Popular Girl

Today, Ethan decided to go the cafeteria for a simple reason: he had never really used it.

In the weeks since awakening he had stayed at the dorm kitchen either eating whatever he cooked or whatever Lila dragged into the dorm.

To him though, the main cafeteria was just a noisy place full of other people. But today, he chose to just roll with it...

Lila locked the dorm door behind them and immediately started complaining.

"I can’t believe you’re making me eat cafeteria food when you can actually cook."

"You invited yourself."

"I needed something to eat as well."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "I know you can cook. And don’t you dare make an excuse about you being a ’hazard near open flame.’ You should have control over your ability by now."

She scoffed. "I know that. But your food just tastes better." After saying that, she groaned. "I can’t believe I’m going a full day without your cooking. This is tragedy."

"You’re being dramatic."

She shot him a glare. "Dramatic? A guy that can cook good *edible* food is almost impossible to find!"

"You’re still being dramatic..." he said with a sigh.

"I’m hungry and betrayed."

They talked like that for while and when the moved past the main courtyard, something caught Ethan’s eye.

A dense cluster of students had formed near the centre. It was not a class group, nor was it a training circle.

He could see a few upper year jackets mixed with first year uniforms. Phones were out. Voices layered over each other, someone laughed too loudly and someone else shushed the laugh.

Ethan slowed down a bit. It was like they were meeting with a celebrity...

"What?" Lila followed his gaze. "The third years are back."

"Back?"

"Yeah. You’ve been too busy training you don’t actually have time for first year gossip..." She looked at the cluster again. "Anyway, a few third years went for a dungeon run some time ago. Seems they’re finally back."

"Oh."

He watched the cluster for a few more seconds, then completely lost interest.

In truth, he thought every cluster would be people discussing about how they got first place but he guessed the news would have gone stale by now.

He shrugged and kept walking...

***

The cafeteria was a wide, bright hall of long tables and the mixed smell of batter, spice, and something faintly burning in the back.

They moment they stepped through the door and noise immediately hit them before it settled into the background.

Ethan collected food without really thinking much of it but Lila argued with the selection like it had personally offended her.

After a while, she picked hers and followed him to a table near the side wall where they sat and began eating.

For a few minutes it was ordinary— Lila stealing from his tray, Ethan scolding against it, her apologizing and immediately doing it again.

The food was good, wasn’t bad either. It tasted like the kind of things made in a rush they baptized with seasoning to make it less obvious.

That, or he had picked a bunch of leftovers without even realising it...

Suddenly the main doors flew open, and the atmosphere of the room changed.

Ethan looked up and his eyes landed on a girl walking in with a few students trailing behind her.

She had blond hair that stopped at the centre of her back, a slender build that looked to be both athletic and sexy.

Her uniform was fitted in a way that bordered on dress code violation and she carried herself with the confidence of someone who felt like she deserved attention.

The pressure Ethan felt was kind he had only felt near Aria. He didn’t know if it was in strength, or social status. But it was there...

Lila paused. "She’s an upper class-man"

"You think she was part of the people we saw earlier?"

She shrugged. "Could be. Wonder what she’s looking for."

The blond girl’s eyes swept across cafeteria as if looking for something and when it landed on Ethan, she smiled and started walking toward his table.

Confusion hit him first. He turned to check if it was actually him, but there was no one at the table behind him, or the one after that.

He did not know her, and the way she was walking over as if she did, didn’t make any sense to him.

Behind her, the students stopped then followed in a slower pace.

Ethan soon noticed that across the hall, conversations had changed to whispers as they saw where the blond girl was headed.

She stopped at the edge of their table and looked down at Ethan like she had found the exact item on a list.

"Hi!" She said with a bright voice that made Ethan’s eyes widen a fraction.

Ethan froze. Her bright yellow eyes carried the kind of excitement a child would have after finding their favorite bar of candy

One of the students following her nervously stepped forward and spoke. "Uhhm, Senior Ava, he’s —"

"Ethan Shaw," she said, cutting him off while her eyes were still fixed on Ethan. "First-year. Restricted. Necromancer and First place in the dungeon evaluation test with Devil-class kill." The smile widened. "I know."

"I’ve been wanting to meet you." she said, to Ethan this time.

Ethan blinked. "I’m sorry, but who are you?"

"Ava. Ava Drew." She said with the same smile on her face. "SS ranked Lightning user. Don’t worry about the formalities. I’m not here to interview you or anything."

Ethan stared directly in her eyes. He could see the shocked expression on his face in it. She spoke again.

"A first-year group with two restricted classes clearing four chambers, pulling Brimstone, and dropping a Rank B Devil in a timed sector." Her excitement only intensified as she said this. So excited that Ethan could see literally sparks moving through them. "Do you know how rare that combination is? I’ve never heard of that before."

Ethan’s expression flattened.

’Ahh, she’s here because she heard about the rumors,’ he thought.

He sighed inwardly. Right in front of him stood an SS-rank third year making a public approach with a high volume of information he was sure she should not be listing so cheerfully in a cafeteria.

"You’re well informed," he said.

"All the first years are talking about it." Ava leaned one hand on the table, her blond hair tipping forward as she leaned forward and studied him with bright eyes.

Ethan’s eyes moved over her. She was beautiful, no lie there. Perfectly symmetrical face with thin eyebrows and full lips. Her yellow eyes were something that he was sure would draw the most amount of attention if anything.

Hell, he would bet it could glow in the dark.

His eyes moved to her hands. Static flickered faintly at her fingertips and vanished.

Ahh, her mood’s leaking...

’She’s that excited huh.’

"Necromancy is an ability that has one of the worst records in this avademy and you’re here having a meal like it doesn’t matter." Her eyes shone. "You don’t look much like a scandal to me."

"Thanks I guess?" Ethan wasn’t sure of how to react.

What he was sure of though was that the sooner he played along, the sooner she would finish and leave

Ava then glanced at Lila with an equally excited gaze. "Kane, right? I heard that you had the most fighting time with the monster. Respect."

Lila blinked. "Thanks. But why are you at our table?"

"Because standing in the courtyard answering the same set of questions about deployment rotations was boring, and then I heard the first-year Devil story again and decided I was done being bored." Ava’s gaze snapped back to Ethan. "Relax. If I wanted to cause you trouble, I wouldn’t do it in front of the lunch crowd. I just wanted to meet you, and have a proper talk sometime."

Ethan set his fork down. "That’s asking for a bit much for a first meeting."

"What can I say?" A tiny arc popped between her thumb and the table edge. "You’re careful. I like careful people with dangerous abilities. The reckless ones die early and waste my curiosity." She said the other part with a tired sigh, as if the deaths didn’t affect her whatsoever...

Ethan held Ava’s gaze and refused to fill the silence with extra detail. Ava seemed to notice and when she did, her interest only grew.

"Good," she said softly. "You don’t spill just because a pretty girl smiles. Most first-years usually start narrating their whole skill list."

"You already know basically everything about me just from that rumor. I don’t have a skill list for you."

"Yet." She straightened, her blond hair catching the cafeteria light. "I’m not going to drag this out. Find me later. Or I’ll find you." She smiled. "I’m good at that. We’ll talk when there are fewer eyes and you look less like you’re looking exit routes."

Ethan blinked. ’Fuck she noticed.’

She smiled. Then turned to leave. "Later, Shaw."

She left with the crowd parting and reforming around her as she walked through the door, and when she left, Ethan sat very still.

He dragged a hand down his face and groaned under his breath.

Of course...

Of course there’s another one.

"Another popular girl."