9 Novis University
It was 7 am when Sophia woke up to her alarm blaring loudly, seeing that she had a message from Camille sent the previous night.
"Don't forget to take Dante with you today!" the message read.
After going over her morning routine, she prepared three breakfast sandwiches—one for her, one for Dante, and the last one for Megan, who usually woke up by noon.
Placing the containers in a paper bag, she left her apartment and went up the stairs to the fourth floor of the building, making her way along the corridor and knocking on Dante's door.
To her surprise, the warlock was fully awake and ready to accompany her.
He had been reading the books that Camille left for him and only managed to get a few hours of sleep. Nonetheless, he was excited about exploring the city with Sophia.
When the two of them left the building, a neighboring lady greeted them with a hearty "good morning," catching the warlock by surprise, as he wasn't expecting random strangers to be friendly to him.
It wasn't a long walk to the campus since their apartment was supposed to be located in an area where mostly college students lived. Still, Dante was glad to finally walk around the city during the daytime.
He was amazed by the different traffic laws that people had to follow, stopping at a red pedestrian's light and admiring its usefulness.
"I'll ask my professors if you can be there for one class. If they say no, then…" Sophia spoke up, not knowing how to finish her sentence.
"No worries. I can keep myself entertained while I wait for you," Dante replied.
When they arrived at the campus, Dante praised the architecture of the building, which had an older facade than the rest of the city.
Novis University, or NU, was one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in all of Novaria, where only the most talented or richest people attended.
While they made their way to the business building, where Sophia's first class took place, the blonde noticed that Dante was catching the attention of most students, and she could hear them whispering rumors to each other.
"Is that a movie star?"
"Must be a model…"
"Is that guy a student here?"
Sophia felt a little embarrassed. She knew that Dante was handsome, but she wasn't expecting his appearance to catch so much attention.
She considered that the people of Novaria were relatively attractive, so seeing a tall man with dark hair and crimson eyes wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Nonetheless, she couldn't have been more wrong, as the students believed that the warlock was a famous star visiting their college.
"Umm, Sophie. What's a movie star?" Dante asked, getting closer to the blonde, who blushed and was startled by his sudden approach to her ear.
"Y-you heard that, too?" she asked, her cheeks getting even redder.
"Well, if they wanted to keep it a secret, they should have whispered lower. Don't you think?" the warlock said, giving the blonde a gentle smile.
Sophia chuckled at Dante's lighthearted comment and thought that the best way to explain it would be by watching a movie with him.
"Didn't you have actors in your world?" she inquired, wholly forgetting about the fact that the other students were still staring at them.
"Of course, we had actors. I went to a few different theaters back then…" Dante replied.
"Well, this is basically the same. Except they record it and add visual effects to make it more realistic…" she elaborated.
While Sophia and Dante kept walking to her classroom, she kept naming different genres of movies, wondering what the warlock would like better.
However, Dante didn't have a preference, as he said he had to give them all a try to see what he liked.
Sophia smiled as the lightbulb atop her head lit up with an idea. "Then that settles our plans for this weekend. Let's have a movie marathon!" she exclaimed, holding the warlock's arm from excitement.
The other students who were watching started whispering to each other immediately, thinking that Dante must have been Sophia's boyfriend.
"Well, it makes sense why a man like him would be interested in Sophia…" a female student said, praising the blonde for her beauty.
Nonetheless, one man seemed displeased at the warlock's presence with the girl.
*Tch* he scoffed. "And who the hell does that guy think he is?" he said to his buddies standing beside him.
Feeling like someone was releasing a small amount of umbra, Dante turned his head and made eye contact with the man for a brief second.
'Huh, I guess that guy doesn't like me…' the warlock thought.
'Is that jealousy? Envy? They are kind of the same thing…' he continued.
Dante could get a relative idea of a person's feelings by the amount of umbra or positive energy that flowed from them, so he knew that the man wasn't truly a threat, making him turn back around and ignore his gaze.
When they reached the classroom, Sophia asked Dante to wait in the hallway while she asked her professor permission to have him as a guest in the lesson.
It didn't even take a minute of waiting for the warlock to be approached by a woman accompanied by two of her friends.
"Hey there, I've never seen you around. Are you a new student, by chance?" the girl asked, looking up at Dante, who towered one head over her.
The girl had long, wavy brown hair and light blue eyes that glittered brightly. She wore a red sundress that accentuated her curvy features and had a visible stack of pamphlets peeking out of her bag.
"Oh, excuse me. I'm just a guest," the warlock politely replied, thinking that he was standing in the way of the girl and taking a step back.
The woman chuckled lightheartedly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to come off like that. My name is Victoria," she said, stretching her hand.
Dante felt relieved for a moment after realizing that the woman was just being friendly with him and shook her hand while introducing himself, omitting the part where he said he was a warlock, as advised by Camille.
"Dante? That's a cool name…" said Victoria while twirling the tip of her hair.
"A-Anyways… I work at the Firewater nightclub in Moonlit Boulevard, and it's my job to give these out to people, so…" the girl continued, pulling out the heavy-looking stack of pamphlets from her bag.
[Firewater Nightclub - Saturday Mega-Party
Join us from 8 pm - 6 am.
Free entry, no cover!
Drinks 50% off!]
"We have these every weekend, so if you had no plans, you should pay us a visit!" explained Victoria as the warlock gave the flyer a quick read.
"Hmm, my apologies, but I do have plans for this weekend…" Dante muttered.
"Aww, that's too bad. But you can join us any other Saturday!" She replied, slightly blushing at the warlock's politeness.
At that moment, Sophia came out of the classroom to get Dante inside after getting approval from her professor.
"Oh, hi, Tori!" the blonde said with a smile.
"Sophie! How long have you been hiding your boyfriend from us?" Victoria replied with a teasing tone.
While it looked like an innocent joke, Dante felt a slight fluctuation of umbra flowing from the woman when she said it.
'Jealousy again? It's very light…' the warlock thought.
"No, no—it's not like that. Dante is, uhh, a friend from abroad!" said Sophia while blushing.
"I see. Well, I was just inviting him to Firewater this Saturday, but it seems he has plans already…" Victoria continued while stowing away the rest of her flyers.
"You do?" Sophia asked, turning her head to look at Dante, who seemed confused at the blonde's question.
"Didn't you say something about a movie marathon?" he asked, but the blonde had utterly forgotten their conversation mere minutes before.
"Ooh, a movie marathon, just the two of you, huh?" Victoria teasingly said while smirking at Sophia.
The blonde girl felt flustered and nervously explained that Megan would also be present, so it wasn't what the woman was thinking.
While the beautiful brunette laughed it off, they were interrupted by a man calling for her from the other side of the hallway while approaching them.
He was as tall as Dante, with a faux hawk hairstyle that kept his hair straight up and organized—and dark eyes that highlighted his masculine features.
The man wore a leather jacket and knee-ripped jeans, and as he arrogantly called for Victoria's name out loud, Dante recognized him as the jealous random man from before.
"Hey, babe. Who is this loser? A new student?" he said while placing his hand on Victoria's shoulder, making the woman shiver with discomfort.
"Ugh, hey Turner…" said Victoria as she softly slapped his hand away from her body.
"His name is Dante, and he is a guest, so don't think about doing anything stupid," the woman continued, making Turner visibly angry by her comment and cold demeanor toward him.
"A-anyways, we should go inside. The lesson is about to start," Sophia interjected, wanting to get out of the uncomfortable situation.
"Oh, come on, Sophie. How long has it been since we had a good chat?" replied Turner, posing a fake smile on his face.
As the man stretched his arm to grab Sophie's shoulder, Dante acted first and moved her out of his reach in a dissimulated manner.
"I can't wait to spectate the lesson. Let's go, Sophie…" the warlock said, gently pushing the blonde into the classroom with him.
"I'll join you," said Victoria, who usually sat at the front of the class but decided to switch it up for that day.
"It was nice meeting you, man," Dante commented, leaving Turner alone in the hallway as the three of them left his sight.
Luckily, Victoria was a business student from the same year as Sophia, so she wasn't just avoiding Turner—she genuinely had to attend her lesson.
