Lunchtime

By the time it was lunch, I was already bored out of my mind. The special class we were in truly was just a very long break period. I ended up trying to teach Griffin how to do my Dry ice spell, but sadly it got nowhere. It seemed that the mana input and concentration for it was just too much for Griffin.

The cafeteria was actually located on the left side of the first floor along with what I'd guess would be the club rooms. I hadn't really explored the first floor with Tera when I first came as it was actually time to do my exam. We passed Gorwin, who waved at me and Griffin as we walked by.

Tera has gone off to purchase her food from the market district as she had a distaste for the food made here.

Which she was right. This food looks like shit.

Along with some potatoes and some water, we got our meals on a plate that had what I assumed was meat. There was a faint smell to it that made me believe that these were somewhat expired? But they looked fresh. They seemed to have been cooked by a butcher in the back that was sweating non stop in the school uniform. Seems everyone who worked here had to wear them whether it be for cooking or any other classes that needed some sort of flexibility.

I sat alongside Griffin and Sura at a table that was off to the side from the rest of the other tables. Most of the tables were full with students, some took glances at us but resumed their eating.

Looking at this meat though made me wonder if the man's sweat was actually the reason for the odd smell, maybe it was the mana inside of it? Who knows, I'm not eating this.

But it seemed like everyone didn't mind. In fact, Sura and Griffin were gobbling down quickly. Griffin smiled and groaned with satisfaction while Sura ate hers and nodded. Perhaps this is a standard for them. I think since I still had my memories of my old life, my taste buds just made me more picky with the food here.

"How are you guys eating this?"

Griffin looked at me as he took a bite out of his meat. "What do you mean? This is great!"

Sura nodded and gave me a look. "You shouldn't be this picky at your age."

I looked down at the plate again and gulped. Maybe they might be right. I mean I haven't tasted it yet, maybe It might taste good? Kinda like that fruit from my old world that smelled but actually tasted good. Maybe it's like that.

Grabbing a fork, I picked up a piece of the meat and quickly forced it down my mouth. It had a weird taste to it, like meat that has been out for awhile. It's textures reminded me of extremely dried meat as I munched on it.

Yeah, this wasn't good. I had to grab some potatoes to reset my taste buds after that.

Griffin and Sura watched as I ate, Griffin looked with amusement while Sura seemed to just watch me with intent.

"How is it?" Sura asked.

"Oh…it's erm…cough…it's good."

Sura chuckled as she heard me try to say that out, she bumped Griffin on his arm. "Look at Griffin, You eat everything."

Griffin gulped down the meat he was chewing, looking at her. Smiling. "A man should eat everything given to him!"

The two laughed as I tried to wash out the weird meat taste. That was when I heard a plop next to us. The sweet scent of pastel and what smelled of toast wallowed around me.

It was Tera who came back from the market district…along with Lilith. Wait, why was Lilith here?

"Who's the girl?" Sura asked, adjusting her glasses as she looked at Lilith.

"A friend's subordinate." Tera jokingly said, lilith looked at me and waved. She wore that white dress from some months ago, the yellow ribbon hanging around her neck now.

Scooting to my left, I let Lilith sit between me and tera. Lilith looked around the cafeteria with curiosity. I believe this is the first time she's been here.

"So…why'd you bring Lilith?" I asked, tera was munching on bread when she turned to me.

"Kale needed to do a job for Lucian, so he had me bring her to watch." Tera sounded annoyed when she said that. "Not that I'm complaining about hanging around with her. It's just kale."

Sura looked at Lilith more intensely, looking at her hair and eyes to be more exact. Sura leaned over the table we were at, spooking Lilith.

"Interesting. Her name is Lilith, right?" She asked me and I nodded. "I don't think I've seen anyone with this type of hair…"

Reaching her hand out, Sura began to pat Liliths head. At first, Lilith was nervous as she looked down. But once sura began to pat even more, Lilith seemed to enjoy what was happening.

Kinda weirded me out that Lilith had somewhat the behavior of a dog, but then I realized that she was actually half dragon. Maybe in this world, Dragons are like dogs? That'd be really weird. I should probably stop sura and have the two have an actual human conversation.

"Ahem…maybe you should talk with Lilith and get to know her?" I awkwardly said.

Sura looked at me, surprised before slowly nodding her head. Seemed like she understood what I wanted her to do as she stopped putting Lilith and cleared her throat.

"Right, um…Lilith, what are you?" Sura began to ask questions.

Lilith shyly wiggled in her seat, it seemed she wasn't really used to having others talk to her. "I'm…a dragon hybrid."

Griffin spat out a piece of meat when he heard that, the piece of meat comedically slapping my face which resulted in me furiously wiping it off.

"Aw, man!"

"Dragon hybrid?!" Griffin looked at Lilith with utter shock. "I thought everyone who was a dragon was extinct?"

Lilith nodded and explained her parents, which led to her talking about how she met me.

"I see…" Sura slowly nodded and glanced at me.

"So I'm assuming you also have…Dragon powers? Like you can fly? Grow wings or spit fire?"

Lilith shook her head and pointed at her left eye. "I got a thing that happens with my eye."

Griffin squinted his eyes, leaning in before going back to his seat. "Ah I see…I don't see what happens with your eye."

"Lilith's dragon blood allows her to use her mana to focus on her eyes perhaps?" Sura hypothesized, perhaps there really was a reason she was a special case for this school. I didn't even think of that. "It's like magic cloaking but for Dragons?"

"Then why can't we do it?…can we?" Griffin asked. Sura tapped a finger to her lips, thinking.

"Perhaps a dragon's usage of mana is different from ours. Maybe since Lilith is half, she is able to focus that man into the more vulnerable points of the body more easily." Sura looked back at Lilith. "Can you show us how your eye works?"

Lilith shook her head again. "I can't do it on command. Kale and Kota's dad said it works on high emotions."

"From what I heard from kale, Lilith's eye helps her perceive things much farther and increases your reflexes, correct?" Tera chirped in, she had finished her lunch and decided to join in.

"Yeah…"

"Have you tried magic cloaking yourself, Lilith?"

"…No? Me and kale fought someone who did though."

Aura's eyes widened. "You fought someone? How old are you?"

"Six Autumns."

"Same age as Kota then?"

"I think I'm older than him."

She's right. I'm still Five years old and she's six…Wait did her birthday pass? Holy shit, what?

I mean it was Summer when we left for the trip, and now it's fall…I guess her birthday passed during our time here and she never said anything. Perhaps next time I'll make it a celebration.

"So, are you and Kota like best friends or something?" Griffin asked.

Lilith hesitated her answer, she turned her head towards me and stared before looking down. "Y-yes."

Griffin nodded at the response, looking at me with a thumbs up.

"Anyways, Lilith will be learning about magic cloaking from Kale." Tera Continued the last topic. "Us magic users aren't the only ones who can use their mana with proper training, so can swordsmen or practically anyone with enough training. But we never try to cloak any vulnerable parts of ourselves, like the heart or eyes."

"Why's that?" I asked. This whole lunch just turned into a lecture. Which is something that should've happened in class.

"It takes much more concentration and focus to make sure that mana doesn't overlap and suffocate those parts. When it comes to magic cloaking, it is like a second skin to us. It wraps around us. Putting that on the heart or the eyes would practically crush them or cause major damage." Tera kept explaining.

"When it comes to Lilith's cloaking…I would assume it would have to do with something with her Dragon side that allows it to happen without any drawbacks, perhaps there is more to it than her eyes as well."

Sura nodded at that, more intrigued now than before. This was something that caught her attention. I could tell.

"So interesting. Kota, perhaps I must've judged you wrong." Sura looked at me.

"Why's that?"

"You and her are an interesting character that I'd wish to learn more about. Perhaps coming to this university wasn't a bad idea. Hah." Sura sighed and finished up her meal she had.

"Well, I'm glad to have met Kota! Loyal friends to the end!" Griffin ate the last bit of meat on his plate and said that. He fixed up his green hair when he put down his plate. "Well, lunch is almost over. We should probably figure out where our classes are."

"Indeed. After lunch, I'll need to tend to Lilith until Kale comes to get her so if any of you need anything, I'll be in my room." Tera got up from her seat and nodded at Lilith.

Lilith turned to me and smiled. "Have fun with the rest of your day, kota! Tera is going to teach me about stuff!"

What kind of stuff? Tera teaching Lilith? Maybe tera will teach Lilith more about mana or about dragons.

The two then took off, Lilith and tera seemed to be talking as they walked out of the cafeteria.

For the past two month, the two have gotten close. It seemed having someone else other than Kale was a god sent for tera. Actually, I don't think I've seen Tera interact with anyone else since I got here.

"Man, I thought this place would be more…luxurious." Griffin said, both Sura and him cleaned up their plates.

"Prusha may be the biggest magical producers here, but their own knowledge in magic is lacking. Trust me, I've read the books here. Ithryll might have a better library than this one." Sura responded.

"What, really?" I asked since I always thought that Prusha was just the biggest in general. But it kinda made sense since I rarely actually saw a mage on the streets. In fact, even in the cafeteria, there really weren't many people in here.

"Prusha is at best, a mediocre kingdom compared to the rest. What? Your mother told you this was a great place? Did she even learn magic here?" Sura went on to explain why Prusha was the way it was.

The reason why there was a lack of security or even guards around was because of King Lucian's own paranoia, at least that's what Sura thought.

"I've made my own observations while here in the kingdom and realized that most of the guards are either old or middle aged. No one younger. I thought it was weird, but when I asked them why, they always pointed to how the youngsters never pledge full loyalty to Lucian." Sura explained. Seems she's been here longer than me. "I believe Lucian is just not confident that his own army could be trusted unless he absolutely knew. Not many mages are recruited into his army as well. From what I heard, there is only one there that acts as the Advisor for all of the magic production."

"That sounds nuts. One person managing all that?" Griffin chimed in.

"King Lucian doesn't mind, as long as it gets him the Rubees. It's why Prusha is the Biggest in magic productions. It's why the Market District is up front and the biggest district."

That kind of made sense. Besides the Grandeur looks from the outside, From the inside it was all about the market and selling. This whole Kingdom is basically a huge business if I look at it the right way.

"You know a lot, Sura. Where'd you find the time to figure this out?" I asked.

Sura stiffened for a moment before she let out an annoyed sigh. "You are talking to a student here that can't learn magic, what else am I supposed to do?"

"Well…Why are you here then?" Griffin aked.

"None of your business, That's a personal boundary we are roping on." Sura snapped at him. She got up from her seat and walked off. "Have fun at your classes! And don't bring any of the things I said up!" and off she was.

"What a weird Girl…Cute though." Griffin sighed. He watched as she disappeared out the door.

"yeah…She is weird." I couldn't really put my finger on it, But it seemed like she avoided that question pretty quickly. I'm not really the person to intrude on others' business, I learned that lesson from my old life. But something was itching me about her. How'd she even get into this university?

Griffin got up from his seat and moved around to pat my shoulder. He held out his class schedule and pointed at the next class.

"Well, I'm off. I'm heading to my Water spell class now. Where are you headed?"

I looked down and rummaged through my pocket to find my schedule. The next class I needed to learn was Healing. "I'm off to Healing spells now."

"Oh yeah? Well, Have fun there Buddy!" Griffin slapped my back as he headed off to his class.

That just left me. And now that I'm alone with my thoughts, I could try to process all of this. So now that I'm starting my journey through the university, What else would Arael want me to do?

I've completed all of her tasks, I think. I met Chris, The king's son and got into the university. Now what? Perhaps she'll leave me until I'm needed again? Aw, That damn goddess. I can never pinpoint what she wants from me. Plus, She said that if I met Chris, then Lilith would be able to train…but she's training now? Maybe Arael can't actually see the future?

This is absurd, I'm talking about the goddess of death, why wouldn't she see the future?…Actually she wouldn't be able to see in the future? Maybe it's just a power of hers.

Fuck, this is hurting my brain. I looked around to see if anyone else was in the cafeteria and saw that everyone had left already. It must be time for class.

I'll deal with that Arael situation at some point . For now, let's focus on what's happening now.

And thus, I headed off to the healing class.

A/N: Unfortunately, since it's still busy at work and whatnot. I've just decided to maintain the Upload when I can schedule until further notice. Maybe at some point I'll do one month of not uploading and then the next month will be constant uploads, who knows. But I'm bouncing a lot of things right now while writing. Hopefully I'll manage to figure things out and keep a constant upload!