Chapter 271: Sleeping Means Sleeping.

Meanwhile, somewhere else within the academy campus, inside the room of a particular high-ranking first-year dorm, a poor girl was being interrogated by two dangerous women...

...or so it seemed.

Arza sat patiently on a couch, nibbling on her chocolate bar as Viola and Seraphina sat in front of her.

Viola looked at Arza intimidatingly like some mafia boss, while Seraphina stood beside her like a loyal sidekick, clearly in her normal form.

"So, can you repeat what you just said?"

Viola asked for what felt like the tenth time since they had come here and Arza merely blinked, just like she had the previous ten times.

"I felt comfortable sleeping with him."

She answered in a neutral voice before taking another bite from her chocolate.

Viola sighed once again.

Initially, she had only brought Arza here to ask what she had been doing back in the treasury and who the guy with her was since she was almost certain it was Rael.

Others might not have noticed him with that strange appearance of his but she knew.

She recognised the use of Voidpulse the moment she saw it because that was the same martial art Lyra used whenever they trained together.

And ever since she recognised him, she had been worried sick.

Still, she hadn’t asked Rael about it because she was sure he wouldn’t answer her... so she changed her strategy and decided to ask the girl who seemed to know many things about him and was easier to get answers from than that bastard.

But instead of answering anything useful... the girl had said something strange when Viola asked her to share what she knew about Rael.

She had said she felt comfortable sleeping around him.

Viola still couldn’t understand how they had even gotten to that point. The Rael she knew, her little brother, would never do something like this. Even when he had been engaged to Seles, he used to get flustered just from holding her hand...

And this girl was saying he had slept with her.

How could that even be true?

Even Seraphina, who sat beside Viola, was completely flustered. Her face had turned entirely red as she peeked at Arza.

"What do you mean by sleeping?"

Viola asked, hoping it was some misunderstanding just like last time but the girl simply tilted her head and gave her a blank look.

"Sleeping means sleeping. What else?"

She took another bite of her chocolate, completely oblivious to the storm she had unleashed within the minds of the two women sitting opposite her.

So, for the sake of her own sanity, Viola decided to drop the topic altogether, deciding never to ask this brazen girl another question about Rael again.

"Why were you fighting against that being in the treasury?"

She decided to ask that instead but Arza stared at her for a few seconds before answering in a calm voice.

"Why not...?"

"Who was the masked boy with you?"

Viola wasn’t discouraged by the plain response and asked another question.

Arza once again stared at her silently for a few moments before answering.

"I don’t know."

"Then why were you fighting with him? Why were you trying to save him?"

Viola pressed further but Arza merely tilted her head.

"Why not...?"

Viola’s expression twisted in frustration.

Tch... this girl is even harder to get information out of than Rael.

She wasn’t revealing anything.

This girl was brazen, emotionless and even annoying. Viola disliked her a lot and yet at the same time she also felt slightly relieved knowing there was someone this loyal by her brother’s side...

"Can I go now? I am sleepy."

Arza asked, the chocolate in her hand was completely gone now as she neatly folded the wrapper before slipping it into her pocket.

"Yeah, sure."

Viola nodded, having no intention of ruining her mental peace any further.

Arza got up from the couch and walked toward the door but just as she was about to leave, Viola’s lips twitched as an impossible thought suddenly crossed her mind.

"Hey... wait a minute."

She called out, turning toward Arza.

"Yes?"

Arza looked back at Viola curiously.

"Where exactly are you going?"

Viola hoped her thoughts were wrong. She hoped this girl wasn’t bold enough to do something like that inside the academy.

But as if solely to destroy her expectations, Arza tilted her head in that same way she always did whenever she delivered emotionally devastating blows in the most casual manner possible.

"To sleep."

"But where exactly?" Viola pressed.

"To his dorm."

Arza answered as Viola finally snapped.

"No, you don’t."

—

At the same time, completely oblivious to the events unfolding within Viola’s dorm, Rael looked at Bearlo, who had dared to disturb his peaceful session of not-so-peacefully cursing Ashanvar for the martial art he had given him.

"I completely forgot earlier, my liege but I have collected the artifacts you asked me to gather within the treasury."

Bearlo spoke respectfully, barely hiding the grin beneath his fluffy perverse face, probably still thinking about Bearlina’s sister, whom she had promised to introduce to him in the future.

But poor Rael, already drowning in a mountain of problems, had no intention of commenting on it as he simply nodded at Bearlo.

"Great job."

Rael took the ring Bearlo handed him.

After checking the contents and making sure they were the exact artifacts he had wanted, Rael let out a relieved sigh.

At least something was going my way.

He praised Bearlo a little before the guy left with an even wider grin. Once the room was quiet again, Rael laid back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.

Although the letter and Ashanvar’s martial manual had distracted him from that creepy woman, he knew better than anyone that merely ignoring her didn’t mean she no longer existed.

He had to find a way to get rid of her as soon as possible but as nice as that sounded, it was impossible with his current strength.

Still, his smile widened as he slowly closed his eyes.

"But then again... who said I needed to play fair?"

He didn’t have a definitive answer yet... but as his consciousness slowly drifted toward sleep, he began to understand the path he needed to take to ensure that, at the very least, the people close to him remained unharmed.