novelraw Chapter 109: Team of 4
Chapter 109: Team of 4
One week later.
The cafe on campus was quieter than usual. You would find people here during their free time or after school ended but at the moment, it was only me and a few others who were inside.
I wasn't surprised to see how empty the place was. Half of the students weren't even on campus because their mentors had their teams meet up elsewhere.
Today would be the first day I would be working with my new team, training under the care of our mentor.
Sitting at a corner table near the window, I had a mug of something warm in my hands, watching teams of four passing by outside.
Some students looked confident, others were worried, and a few looked like they had been thrown together at the last second.
I was the first of my team to arrive at the meetup spot.
Checking the time, I leaned back into my chair.
If the plot hadn't already been derailed, now this is…
I was just curious what events the world deem was going to happen, no matter what? What were the canon events that would occur regardless of my existence?
Whenever I asked the shitty, either he didn't want to answer me or he himself didn't know.
I have to remind myself occasionally that he's extremely useless. He's not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent.
He's just a little weirdo who brought me into the world of his novel.
The bell above the cafe door jingled.
Looking over, I saw that it was Arthurr. He walked in — more accurately, he stumbled into the cafe.
His school uniform was wrinkled, his two-colored hair was a mess, and there were literal twigs and leaves stuck in it. It made his hair look like a bird's nest. I wouldn't be surprised if I took a closer look and there were eggs inside.
One of his sleeves had dirt smudged across it and there was a small tear in the fabric near his shoulder.
Standing there at the entrance for a moment, he scanned the room, looking like he'd just been through a war.
Our eyes met. His shoulder visibly dropped and relaxed when he spotted me, and he began making his way over.
"You like like you woke up on the wrong side of bed," I said.
Pulling out a chair, he sat next to me.
"I tried to clean up as best I could, but… hehehe," he chuckled.
Raising an eyebrow, I ordered something for him to eat and drink before asking, "What happened?"
Licking his thumb, he was using the sole of it to clean a dirty spot on his face.
"I was coming over when I saw this old man who was crossing the street. Some idiot was driving their carriage… I mean, car… they were running a red light with their car. I had to pull him out of the way."
One of the running gags was that Arthurr would always arrive at school late because he had to save the day for multiple citizens on his way to the academy.
This must be another one of those instances.
"And then," he continued as he began plucking twigs out of his hair, "a flower pot had fallen off a building and nearly killed a kid. Had to grab that kid and jump out of the way."
The waiter came over with the food and drink. In one gulp, he drank the entire thing even though it was extremely hot.
He handed the empty cup back to the waiter and thanked him.
The waiter stared at him like he was crazy for a second before walking away.
"And then," he added, "someone had dropped their wedding ring into a hedge, so I dove into the bush to help them look for it."
Looking at his hair, I said, "Hence why you look like that."
He nodded.
I blinked once. Twice.
"Good job out there," I said.
"Thank you. I try my best," he replied, laughing, not understanding that I was making fun of him.
Although it was an okay gag that I enjoyed every once in a while when I read the novel, now that I was seeing it in person for the second time, I was already starting to have changed feelings.
The first two, okay. You're saving people. But the third… did you have to stop and help?
I didn't say any of this and continued taking small sips of my drink while he yapped and yapped. I occasionally nodded.
The door jingled again.
The two of us looked over and saw a familiar face. It was the sidekick from agriculture class. Clutching his bag, he spotted us and awkwardly waved.
He ordered something up front before joining us.
"Am I the only one here who is nervous?" he asked.
His posture was a little stiff as if he was unsure that he belonged at the table, even though he looked happy to have been included.
Then the door opened once more, and the final member arrived.
Her pink hair looked a little fried and was disheveled. She had these heavy dark circles under her eyes.
As she walked closer, the scene of herbs grew stronger.
She must've been up brewing something late last night.
Reaching the table, she gave a small bow and apologized, "S-Sorry if I'm late."
Looking at the time on the clock, she was indeed late, but it didn't make a difference since our mentor was even later.
"That's fine," I responded.
Sitting down carefully, her eyes darted to me.
This was our team of four.
Every single one of them was someone whom I had recruited, to the surprise of Diana and Ichiko. Diana was shocked and told me that it would be easier to drink my blood if she were a part of my team. I told her that we would make things work and that, although I would like her on the team, I had something planned that required these three specifically.
Ichiko's reaction was a lot… scarier.
She didn't say anything and just smiled. But according to the gate guards, she would sometimes stand outside the estate and stare in the direction of my window for hours into the night before disappearing.
Somehow, the two of them joined the same team. Hopefully, that meant that they were going to get closer and stop with the beefing.
"So, the four of us are together for the rest of the semester," Arthur said.
We would be training, fighting, and bleeding together.
Me.
Arthurr, the original protagonist.
Sarakit, the genius alchemist.
And the man who was Arthurr's right-hand man in the novel, his favorite sidekick, Merlin.
In case you were wondering, yes, Merlin was another character whom the shitty god had plagiarized from Earth. He was a genius wizard who would go on to develop a technique that allowed him to transfer raw mana into any element.
Although it would require him to use magic circles to cast the spells which took much longer than naturally casting the spells, the versatility more than made up for it.
"Does anyone know who our mentor is?" Merlin asked.
Taking a sip of my drink, I knew the answer but kept my silence.
I wanted to see their reaction.
Right on cue, the cafe door opened again.
Before anyone could even turn their head, someone was already standing behind Merlin.
"You guys talking about me?" a one-armed man asked.
Quentin.
The tan-skinned man who had trained me and taught me a lot during the Winter break.
He was wearing a blue floral shirt that was only buttoned halfway and had a backwards baseball cap on his head.
"How's it going fuckers?" he asked.
"F-Fuckers?" Arthurr repeated.
"I'm your new mentor. Your new master. Your owner. And you four are my slaves. My punching bags. My—"
"That's enough," I stopped him before he went too far.
A grin had spread across his face.
"I'll be in charge of you four from now on. Now, get up. Stop eating and drinking. Can't believe you guys have the audacity to waste time like that," he said, shaking his head as if he wasn't the one who was the latest.
❖ ❖ ❖
[Maya]
I'm not sure how this ended up happening but… I'm on a team with Ichiko, who I've investigated and knew was Bell's fiancée, Diana, who I'm pretty sure has a crush on Bell and the two of them have some sort of strange vampire-human relationship, and lastly, Peneri Acheson, Diana's best friend.
I have my own group of friends that I'd much rather be teammates with.
Yet I was with them. Why?
Because Bell had told me that if I agreed to keep an eye on Ichiko and Diana, more so Diana and her tendency to become bloodthirsty, a secret that I knew, he would deliver me a juicy piece of news that I would love to follow.
We were in one of the training halls on campus.
Our mentor was one of the teachers of the academy, not one of the new instructors who were sent over by House Agnus.
I'm not sure if I'm just being overly suspicious, but it felt like the Agnus family was slowly taking over the academy.
Not just the way that all the students are basically worshiping that two-faced Bell, but also, the fact that thousands of us are now being mentored and trained by Agnus affiliates.
Am I crazy? Isn't that a little sketchy?
So when I discovered that our mentor wasn't one of them, that was a sigh of relief.
Although I've never taken her class before, I've heard of our mentor. Ms. Morgan.
She's apparently very strict, especially when it comes to being on time, so not wanting to get punished, I even arrived thirty minutes before the agreed time.
The moment all four students were there, a verbal catfight immediately broke out.
Diana and Ichiko were being passive-aggressive to each other and I could only stand there feeling awkward.
Peneri tried to be supportive of her friend, but after hearing some of the things that were said, she made a face as if she didn't recognize her friend.
She ended up coming over to where I was standing and the two of us just remained quiet while they continued fighting.
"Alright ladies, that's enough," said Ms. Morgan when she arrived.
She had us introduce ourselves.
Once that was over, she pointed to the stage with her thumb.
"For our first activity, I want to see where everyone is. One at a time, I will be having you spar against your teammates. Try, but don't go too far."
Ichiko and Diana turned to each other.
"Can we go first?" asked Ichiko. "Diana and I would love to go first. Isn't that right, Diana?"
"You're so very right I-chi-ko." She emphasized every syllable of her name.
"Sure," Ms. Morgan shrugged.
"Great," said Diana, walking up the stairs that led to the stage without looking away from Ichiko for one second.
I looked at Peneri. Peneri looked at me.
Without saying anything, we both agreed that when it was our turn, we'd go easy on each other.