Harbingers of Change

Chapter 8

Kenya looked around with despair written all over his face.

He and all his friends were sitting in the classroom, waiting for the teacher to arrive. Of course, the paradise in which Buku had been teaching them personally and forgetting her own schedule would not last forever.

The moment the school's construction was completed, Buku was more than delighted to entrust the children's education to someone else. The children on the other hand were appalled at seeing how fast they had been moved.

The next thing they knew, they were put in the most prestigious school, mostly designated for the children of Tempest's finest elites.

There were notable exceptions such as children whose parents worked as merchants, having gotten the privilege to attend it under considerably lax requirements while their parents were delegated to their respective stations throughout the monster nation.

Besides them in the class were a few hobgoblins and goblinas, a pair of kijin, a group of high orcs, two human children, and a dwarf girl.

There were others who had not arrived yet, but if they were to see how diverse their class was they would naturally start to huddle to those of their own kind. Some would think this would inevitably lead to racial conflict, but in reality, the children did not bear genuine ill will towards each other.

"Ugh! Why do we have to attend school? We already know how to fight, so this is just a waste of time." Kenya whined to no one in particular.

"Because Miss Buku told us to. You don't want to make her angry, do you?" Alice replied to the boy's question, her voice tinted with fear.

"N-no!" Kenya yelped, suddenly gaining the attention of other people around him who looked at him with confusion.

"Ah…sorry." He then lowered his voice to a whisper, staring at Alice with a nervous look on his face. "You know I wasn't trying to say something like that, Alice. I'm just saying that we and the rest of us could be off doing something better than learning boring stuff like this. You agree with me on this, right?"

"Of course I do, but we shouldn't waste Miss Buku's gratitude any further. Did you already forget that one time when Mister Veldora accidentally said something that made her angry?" Alice said, also matching Kenya's volume.

"Ah, right. You don't have to remind me about that." The boy replied with a barely audible whisper, followed by a shudder.

Both Kenya and Alice, along with the rest who were under Buku's temporary tutelage, had learned from experience alone regarding how erratic the changes can be within Buku's mood.

On one hand, she could be the kindest, most maternal person, rivaling even Shizu when it came to radiating that motherly warmth that the children yearned for. On the other hand, Buku could be someone who could utterly decimate people's morale by just glaring at them. By now the children knew that Veldora in particular managed to draw her wrath rather often and had always paid the price for it.

While Kenya continued whining under his breath, a few more children made their way into the classroom. The first one was a kobold boy and the second was an elven girl. They took their seats and waited for the lesson to start.

Kenya noticed that it was getting increasingly difficult to tell the difference in status between people of different races since everyone was wearing the same school uniform as him.

This fact was especially true for the elf girl who had just entered the class. He could not tell if she was a child of one of Sarion's merchants or one of the newcomers who joined Tempest recently.

As if he could not be surprised any further, the next pair who arrived completely flabbergasted both Kenya and everyone else.

The two dark elves, Aura and Mare, walked into the classroom with a casual air around them, dressed in their school uniforms as well as the other children. It seemed that their reputation preceded them, what with the shared looks of awe and terror from everyone outside of Kenya's circle.

While Kenya and Alice were moderately surprised at their arrival, the rest of the children were not too keen on getting in their way. Any who were standing near them quickly parted to let them through. When the room quieted down, Kenya turned his attention to the dark elf girl who briefly looked at him.

"Huh, I thought you wouldn't be punished like us. What gives?"

"It's not a punishment. Mom wants us to socialize with children of our own age, so we were forced to enroll in this school," Aura replied.

Contrary to her denial towards Kenya's words, it seemed to the boy that the dark elf girl was not looking happy about the arrangement. Kenya knew there was something going on in the scenes, and his curiosity kept pushing him to ask about it.

At the very last second, he decided against asking her. He felt it was probably wise not to press any further into the matter as he remembered how cold Aura could be sometimes.

'I guess she takes that attitude after her mom,' Kenya mused as the dark elf girl walked past him. 'But what does that say about Mare? While his outfit is still odd to me, he's actually nice if you just talk to him about something he likes doing. I can relate to that.'

Having found a suitable place to sit, Aura took a seat at a table in the furthest corner of the class.

She pushed the chair back which made an uncomfortable screeching noise, causing the children to cover their ears with somewhat pained looks on their faces. She placed her feet on the table, not caring about proper classroom etiquette.

As for Mare, he took the opposite approach to his sister's seating.

After taking an unoccupied desk next to his sister, he nimbly took out a notebook along with some pencils out of his bag. He neatly arranged them on the table and had a pleased look on his face, seeing that everything was now nice and tidy.

'I'm a little jealous that Aura gets to act like that. Kinda funny to see how the siblings act so differently from each other, though. And of course Mare brings some sort of reading book, just like Chloe.'

Before Kenya could take any further interest in the polarity between the two dark elf siblings' approach to classroom manners, another strange student barged into the room. Compared to the previous childrens' entries, this student's entrance was explosive and bombastic - as if a bull had just charged in.

"Milim!? What are you doing here?" Aura said, her voice a little louder than she originally intended.

The dark elf girl stared at her friend who strutted into the classroom and looked around with passive interest. The dragon princess then laid eyes on her and smiled when she recognized who she was.

"Did you really think you could leave me out of this? I've heard you will be doing something fun and I want to join too!" Milim replied enthusiastically.

"Fun? Are you serious?" Kenya looked at the dragon princess like a war-scarred veteran would look at enthusiastic newbies. "Aura! Three chocolate bars she won't last a week."

"Hey! I heard that!" Milim growled. To her dismay, she saw Aura shoot up from her chair, slamming her desk with both of her hands.

"So that's how you want to go, Kenya? Fine. I put one on her quitting!" Aura joined in. She started to lean against her table with a growing smirk on her face.

"You too?!" Milim glared at her friend for such a blatant betrayal.

Unfortunately for the dragon princess, the stakes would only get higher. One by one the rest of the children put their bets as the commotion in the room grew even louder. Chloe and Mare were the only ones in the group who remained silent.

The rest of their classmates watched the bizarre scene in silence. In their eyes, Aura and Mare were already considered to be royals of the Tempest nation, but to see Milim Nava 'the Destroyer' joining their class was on another level entirely.

None dared to even go near the group, knowing that three of them were capable of leveling a nation. However, that did not stop them from actively betting on how long Milim would last before quitting school altogether.

Mare glanced at Milim who sat down next to him with crossed arms. She was pouting and demonstratively looking away from her friends.

'She… She is so cute when she pouts…'

Mare's cheek's reddened a bit, but he quickly managed to force back a neutral expression so as to not openly show his feelings.

'I should cheer her up, but what should I do…? Oh, I know! I could bet against them for her staying the whole week.'

{ Are you up to the task of taking their bets? We can split the winnings. It's a lot of chocolate. } Mare sent Milim a message with a faint smile.

The dragon princess opened her mouth, seemingly in refusal, only to realize a second later what the dark elf boy was getting at.

{ Heh, of course! You can count on me. We'll make them regret underestimating me-I mean us. } Milim replied with an evil grin, which she quickly hid. If those fools were ready to throw away their sweets, she and Mare could have a feast together.

"I-I'll accept all your bets," Mare spoke up, immediately silencing the room. Aura in particular was caught off-guard the most compared to the others.

Most of the children were grinning at Mare's seemingly careless attempt to change things. The more clever and sharper ones stared uneasily at Milim's cocky smile, and they began whispering to each other in earnest.

Aura was by no means a slouch, and her ears twitched as she began hearing people say things along the lines of "Lower the bet now!" and "Should we drop out?"

'The fools. They're already giving up now just because of Milim's sudden burst of confidence. Good thing mom taught me not to be a quitter… But I suppose that goes both ways.' Aura mentally lamented as she watched for any minute change in Mare's attitude.

It was easy for Aura to figure out what the rest of the children were thinking. They most likely assumed Mare was trying to make Milim happy. After all, their mutual attraction was not even a secret to the children in the classroom, other than the ones Buku had taken in at this point.

Aura furrowed her eyebrows as she watched the pair briefly give each other nods before staring back at the front of the classroom. She knew her brother too well for this to be a mere coincidence.

'Yep, they gotta be up to something. Just knowing my brother and how close Milim is to him by now, he'll be able to keep even someone like her on track. How annoying…'

While Mare was very timid on the surface, he could be as ruthless and calculating as their mother when he wanted to be. And considering how much the relationship between him and Milim had blossomed, it was easy for Aura to believe that her brother could make the dragon princess attend classes for a week and not get extremely bored.

'Hahh… Oh well. If it makes them happy, I can just go along with the ruse. I shouldn't really be nagging into this sort of thing since my mom wants them to get closer together. I'll just extort my portion of the chocolate bar back from Mare later.'

Aura was slowly becoming more aware that Milim, whether it was intentional or not, was bringing out of Mare a more courageous and assertive type of personality. She did not really like to see this gradual change in her brother's personality, but since her mother wanted this development to occur, she decided to not sabotage her brother's and her best friend's attempts at hustling the careless gamblers.

Once the stakes were officially finalized, it was not long after until the teachers arrived.

The first class consisted of a hybrid mix of history and geography, mainly about the Central Continent. While there were other smaller continents or scattered islands outside of the Central Continent, there was no need for the teacher to bring them up since they were largely irrelevant.

As for who would be teaching this class, there were two teachers who had different ways of teaching lessons. Despite that, both of them were on the older side with graying hair and steely gazes, giving them mature dignified appearances.

One of the teachers was a retired adventurer. His experience was largely backed up by his thorough explorations in many of the Western Nations, back in his early years as a young and spry adventurer. He had even visited the Eastern Empire one time, which interested some of the children who did not know much about places outside of the Great Forest of Jura.

The other teacher was one of the more learned goblinas who had spent every free moment in either the library or trying to teach her often dismissive peers. While she did not possess as much experience as the adventurer, her lack in broad knowledge was exchanged for having a rich history in the Great Forest of Jura, and that alone was good enough for the related subjects.

It was fairly easy for them to get most of the class's attention as they already had ways to get the average kid to be proactive learners. This ease in teaching did not apply however to Buku's children, which at the beginning felt like it was going to be a monumental task.

To the relief of both, they could call upon Buku if the children became too unruly during their studies. This mercifully acted as a contingency,

Interestingly enough, the most vocal speakers were Kenya and Aura, both sharing a fundamental interest in a broad exploration of the Central Continent. While the pair directed their attention towards the retired adventurer, Mare, and Alice brought up more questions to the goblina as they were more intrigued by the history and geography of the Great Forest of Jura.

Things had gone quite well for both sides, but the one thing that both the aged ex-adventurer and goblina mutually feared was the wildcard known as Milim.

She was not even on the student roster for this particular class, or any class in general for that matter. But considering her renowned reputation, no one dared to stop her from attending the class.

Although the class was only two hours long, Milim was already staring at the wall with soulless eyes. Meanwhile, Chloe, who chose to be the silent yet studious person this time around, saw the dead look in the Dragonoid princess and began feeling sympathy for her.

'I should have known this whole school thing was boring, but I didn't know it would go to these lengths! Kenya knew it, but I was too stubborn to give up, especially with those sweets at stake. But if I keep this up for a week, it'll all be worth it in the end!'

Milim grimly mused and dreaded the next classes to come. She had begun to understand why Kenya and others were utterly confident in her inability to pay close attention.

Luckily for her, the next class was less boring. As soon as everyone got in their seats, Milim's eyes started to widen when she saw the new teacher enter the classroom.

"Shuna?!"

"Oh? I didn't expect you to be in this class, Milim." Shuna said, maintaining a calm demeanor. She then gave a smile that radiated blissful warmth, immediately setting the anxious children at ease.

"Yeah, I just came here cause I felt like it," Milim replied.

"Are you sure about that?" Kenya grinned, facing Milim's direction.

"Huh?"

The dragonoid princess was confused at what Kenya was doing. She then felt someone staring at her, and she turned around to see Mare stealing furtive glances at her. They both met each others' eyes in a brief panic before they both became immensely interested at the room's ceiling.

"Hm…?" Shuna looked on at the seating that the dragonoid princess chose. An amused expression crossed her face when she recognized who it was that chose to sit next to Milim.

"Well, that is fine. I am glad to have you on-board just as much as everyone else. Let's start with the basics, now."

It had fallen onto Shuna to be the leading, if not the only teacher for The Basics of Magic. She was compassionate, yet unwilling to back down in giving stern lectures if it meant to further the growth of potential within the children of Tempest.

Of course, not many knew that the petite and soft-spoken teacher could become as harsh and demonic as old Hakurou, if not respected. Even the dark elf twins and Milim felt it was unwise to play tricks on the kijin woman. In the end, the children remained highly obedient while showing great enthusiasm for the lessons, and they never got to see their teacher's other nature on the first day.

Plainly speaking, Shuna was all the more willing to be a teacher. As a matter of fact, she had been so excited that the kijin went out of her way to make an entire platter of various pastries for the children to enjoy.

This ingenious tactic caused the children to rapidly fall in line in such a short period of time. There was no doubt that the competition for their favorite teacher within the school would be won by her by a landslide.

It would soon become known to the parents of the children that Shuna would have an excellent reputation, which in turn made the school's reputation soar to new heights.

The last and the most exciting thing for many of the children was a combat lesson given by Hakurou and his assistant Gobta, the latter having wished he wasn't there when he saw the dragon princess.

"Master, why is she here?!" Gobta laid an accusatory finger at Milim, his face paling. He shrieked when he felt something smack his head.

"It is rude to point at a fellow learner, Gobta. Now… This is problematic," Hakurou muttered to himself.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked with a fearful expression. She could not figure out how Gobta gained three bruises on the top of his head when the old kijin had only hit him once.

"Some of you are simply too powerful to spar in regular matches. I will have to set some restrictions. This goes especially for Lord Mare, Lady Aura and Lady Milim."

The dark elf boy timidly nodded while the other two groaned in unison. Hakurou ignored their reactions and signaled for everyone to enter a special training arena that was connected to the classroom.

Due to the immense gulf in power between the children, Hakurou could not allow free choice in matchmaking. He saw to it that Aura, Mare and Milim were limited in their participation, while also forbidding them from having a serious sparring match.

Hakurou knew his declaration would be met with unhappy responses, so he decided to take this slight change of events as a good opportunity to teach them patience and restraint.

Once the basic lessons were instilled, Hakurou allowed the three to face each other before being pitted against Kenya and the group. Eventually, they were pitted against the other children, many of whom picked up the practice sword for the first time.

Despite being restrained for the entire time, Aura was a beast tamer at heart, and she remained undeterred in her nimble movements. Every opponent she faced were constantly outmaneuvered within the span of a few seconds, making the spectating children gasp at Aura's fighting style.

This made some of the children, especially Kenya, frustrated. It made them think at one point that they could probably secure a win against her brother who was usually more reserved.

On top of that, they had a much better grasp of Mare's fighting style.

His awkward movements, combined with his druidic nature, created a reasonable assumption that the dark elf boy preferred fighting at a long distance.

Compared to Aura who felt more comfortable at close quarters combat, Mare was quite amateurish. This gave the children an absurd amount of confidence, feeling that they could win against Mare who was severely restricted.

That was what Aura was thinking as well, and she witnessed yet another humiliating defeat, brought forth by the hands of her timid brother. She knew the best out of everyone else that, apart from Milim, Mare was one who possessed terrifying physical strength.

'I almost feel bad for the ones who thought my brother was just a druid,' Aura mentally chuckled to herself. She watched with amusement as Mare secured his fifth consecutive win.

In the spectators' stands of the arena, Hakurou gave silent approval at the way Mare treated his opponents.

Giving a bow before and after the match was a sign of respect, something that Aura failed to do. The old kijin ended up docking points for the dark elf girl who continued to act with unnecessary aggression.

Even with great performance, all of that could be swept away by the smallest display of misconduct and poor sportsmanship.

The children who did not have to undergo such restrictions were somewhat enjoying this particular class. Apart from the ridiculously powerful trio, people such as Kenya, Gale and Ryota quickly became top favorites as they put their newfound strength to the test. Alice and Chloe were also surprisingly good contenders in Hakurou's perspective as they favored more creative and tactical applications in battle.

Just when things were wrapping up, an unexpected encounter between Milim and Gobta had caught everyone's attention.

"Wa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Come on, Gobta, I won't hurt you that much! It's a promise!"

"No! Stop! You're seriously going to kill me if you keep this up! Master, help!"

To the goblin's dismay, Hakurou was only offering advice about his fighting stance and reflexes.

Having already received brutal training sessions from Hakurou, along with being told that Milim would be severely limited in her fighting capacity, Gobta held a certain amount of confidence that he would be able to put up a good fight.

Right now he was defending for his life as he took on another devastating blow from Milim who had launched yet another horizontal slash. While his opponent's technique was lacking, it was simply impossible for the goblin to parry the dragonoid princess's magnificent flurry of blows.

After being pushed back several meters, Gobta heard an audible crack. He dumbly looked at his practice sword that had just snapped in half.

"What?!"

It was safe to say that everyone apart from the two contenders knew how it would end, but that did not stop the children from going into uproarious laughter at seeing the ghastly look on the goblin's face.

X

With both magic studies and combat training lasting about two hours each, the school day had officially ended, with just over one afternoon passing.

The odd collection of kids who stood out the most in their shared classes soon came together, sharing their opinions on what they thought about their respective lessons.

"It wasn't so bad," Milim announced. "I like school. You guys are just making a big deal out of it."

"I agree that school is not that bad. By the way, what do you guys think about Hakurou's assessment?" Gale said offhandedly. Both Aura and Milim shuddered upon hearing those words.

"Ah, right. That assessment at the end of our sparring matches was pretty rough. I didn't know he would dock points for certain behaviors being displayed in our respective matches. Well, at least I got a decent score!" Ryota chuckled before shutting his mouth when he saw dejected looks on his friends.

"Why…? I was trying my best not to hurt them… Why was I ranked the second-lowest in the class?!" Aura screamed in frustration. Mare placed a hand on his sister's shoulder with a sympathetic look on his face.

"I actually thought I would get the highest score, but turns out I was ranked somewhere in the middle. I was acting a little too rash for my own good, I guess," Kenya said.

The others began sharing their own scores, but a certain person was staying silent for the entire duration of the conversation.

Unexpectedly, Chloe spoke up, causing everyone else to stop talking so that they can listen to their typically silent companion.

"Er… I thought it wasn't too bad. I'm not that great when it comes to swordfighting, but I think I'm getting the hang of it."

"No way! As far as I can tell, you're showing just as much… What was that word, again?" Alice furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to think of the proper term.

"Prowess?" Gale offered. It was a word that he had recently picked up in his language learning classes.

"Yeah, that! Thanks, Gale. As far as I can tell, Chloe, you have just as much prowess in fighting as Kenya. Have more faith in yourself and your abilities," Alice continued. A light blush appeared on Chloe's face.

"Thank you, Alice."

"Hey, if you guys don't mind, let's just stop talking about that class," Milim muttered. An indescribable expression remained on her darkened face.

The others silently exchanged stares with each other before nodding. No one dared to mention the fact that Milim had received the lowest ranking in Hakurou's assessment of his class.

"Well if you think that was bad, trust me; it will become worse." Kenya mumbled. Alice glared at the boy whom she thought did a poor job at shifting the topic.

Meanwhile, Milim felt her already crippled self-confidence being extremely close to shattering into pieces.

"W-what do you mean?" Milim stuttered, turning to the boy with frightened eyes.

On a side-note, she began to respect Kenya more as each day passed due to him offering bits and pieces of advice whenever they were in the same class.

Soon enough, the others in the group caught wind of the dragonoid princess's struggles. They began offering their help while also making sure not to look down on her.

By the end of the day, Milim was genuinely relieved to have such helpful friends back her up. That was why she was paying close attention to whatever Kenya had to say right now.

While Kenya thought of something to say, Mare continued to study Milim's fearful expression. To him, it reminded of old memories where he was confused and scared of what was happening on the first day of Nazarick arriving in this world.

'Even if Milim has been here longer than any of us, that doesn't mean she is incapable of fearing the unknown. If I think about it like that, she's just the same as us in Nazarick when we started to learn about the Great Forest of Jura.'

Mare knew this was only partially true. In the end, it might not have even been the correct correlation.

Right now he was trying to think more down to earth, which was what his mother was trying to teach him and his sister to be. Truthfully he thought Milim was not scared of anything just as much as he was not scared about discovering the unknown.

On a more deeper note, Mare was much more fearful about what was out there that could potentially harm the Supreme Beings. The mere thought of his Masters being hurt only served to bring out a certain nature of his that he would rather not want Milim to see.

In the end, it was just school, but Mare did not like seeing this new side of her. To him, it was just wrong. He already felt like wanting to see the usual bombastic side of Milim which always thrilled his heart.

'I don't think I can just give Milim another chocolate bar just to make her feel better, anyway. Maybe I should say something right now…?'

To Mare's frustration, the anxiety in his mind kept stifling his resolve. Unable to speak his intentions, he refrained from saying anything, partially out of fear of offending Milim.

"Tomorrow, we have arithmetics lessons." Kenya pointed at the lesson plan for the week which firmly sat in the middle of the notice board at the school entrance. "If you want to start counting your blessings, now would be a good time."

When even the usually reserved Chloe groaned behind them, Milim looked at her friends with a nervous gulp.

"H-ha ha ha…it can't be that bad. Y-yeah, how bad can it be?" She hastily turned to Aura for an explanation, hoping that Kenya was not making arithmetics sound as horrible as he thought it was.

"Hm? Well, I'm not really looking forward to it either. But it can't be worse than sitting through geography, that's for sure. Me being in that class would be like Mare trying to learn about how plants grow," Aura sighed.

"A-actually, I wouldn't mind re-learning them. I'm s-sure that some of the things the teachers would mention about plants w-would most likely be different from what we were used to," Mare timidly replied.

"Ah, um, that's right, Milim. If you need help with arithmetics, I don't mind giving some pointers," Chloe said with her usual reserved tone.

Milim perked up at the offered hand. An immeasurable relief began to pour into her body as she turned to face her savior.

"Really, that's great! Then, when do you want to-"

"-No!"

"Eh?"

Everyone jerked their heads to Mare with surprised looks on their faces. The dark elf boy realized what he had done, and he felt like wanting to jump in a hole.

"I-I mean, I w-would not mind helping Milim out, a-as well…"

Like the others, Chloe sensed something going on between Mare and Milim. She merely offered a small smile at seeing another one of Mare's attempts to get closer with the dragonoid princess.

"I understand. I forgot that I had to focus on other studies outside of arithmetics. I'm afraid I won't have time to help with your lessons, Milim."

"Ehhh?! But, you're like the best when it comes to ah-reeth-ma…whatever, you know what I'm saying." Milim didn't really care about the pronunciation and was instead feeling anxious at losing a pillar of support.

"It's alright. Mare will take my place." Chloe almost giggled when seeing the dark elf boy's eyes bulge out. "That being said, please give her as much help as you can, Mare. You are just as smart, if not already smarter than me."

"That's true. I always thought Mare was just a bookworm, but he's seriously a genius," Alice chirped. "Along with Chloe, I almost found myself being dependent on Mare's help as well. Of course I can't do that all the time; I need to think for myself every once in a while."

Kenya and Aura only nodded in agreement at Alice's words. They were content to watch this scene unfold in silence.

"T-thank you, Chloe," Mare replied, returning a smile back to Chloe.

'Mm! That does it. I'll have to remember to give Chloe a few chocolate bars the next day! She's been an immense help to me even if she doesn't know it.'

Milim put up a thoughtful look on her face. A figurative lightbulb appeared above her head.

"Well… I don't mind if it's Mare helping. You are pretty darn smart, after all! Be grateful that the great Milim Nava is seeking your help! Wa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Milim's trademark laughter was then met with a response that caught her off guard.

"Of course… I'm grateful," Mare said, giving a prolonging stare to Milim.

He tried his best to remain calm when he saw a bashful smile on the dragon princess. He failed, and Mare ended up wearing a silly grin on his face.

At this point, it was becoming a monumental challenge for Kenya and Aura to not laugh at how things were playing out between the pair.

"I guess that settles it!" Aura shouted all of a sudden. She could not help but guffaw at Mare and Milim's simultaneous jolting.

"W-what do you mean, Aura?" Milim said, her face looking slightly more reddened than usual. "And what's so funny?!"

"Ah, nothing. Something just came up in my mind, that's all. Anyway, school's over now, so I'm thinking we can go play ball. I wanna show you a new trick I learned!" A challenging smirk appeared on Aura as she continued, "I bet I'll be able to surprise even someone like you."

"Ho?" Milim's ears twitched upon hearing Aura's words. "Now you got me all fired u-"

Not waiting for Milim to finish her response, Aura pulled her friend by her hand. They hastily moved towards an open court where some children were already playing with a round, yellow ball.

Kenya and Alice followed right behind them with excited steps, with Mare and Chloe only exchanging worried glances before trotting after their companions. Ryota and Gale sighed, both feeling fatigue build up in their bodies as they went to join up with the playing group of kids.

At the very least, they could distract themselves with fun activities without having to worry about what the next day's lessons had to offer them.

Edited by Zirmeister.

Proofreading by Ethal07, Alassandro, SwissChocolatess, Tophrel, Visur Nyxan, and Yogpod.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available or if you are interested in becoming a beta reader (gives access to chapters months ahead of regular readers).