Dining with Protag's love interests

As thanks for our help in scaring off the sea monster, we were invited to share a meal with the captain. However he ended up having to leave at the start of dinner, the ship had suffered a lot of damage from the attack before Donald deployed his shield. They had to check every nook and cranny for cracks before resuming our journey.

"That was so scary. I thought these parts of the water was supposed to be safe." Seeing how quiet everyone was, I decided to say something first.

"The sea is deep and even more mysterious than the surface, we can never be sure what's lurking down there," Donald said frowning as he picked at his food. It would appear he still despised eating radishes. He neatly placed them on a separate side dish.

"The ship always takes the same route to Hawthorne right? Why do you think the nautilus would come all the way to the surface?" I asked him, he was the only one who bothered to respond so why not keep the conversation going? We sorta grew up together so naturally, he would also be most comfortable talking to me.

"A naughty what?" Aaron raised his brows at me. Looks like the conversation caught the curiosity of another fish.

"Nautilus, you know it's the sea creature that appeared. I've only read about them in books but I didn't expect them to be that huge!"

"They're not supposed to be," Donald interjected. He looked worried. "Nautilus aren't even supposed to be predators, they're scavengers that feed off dead animals on the seafloor."

"Ooooh." Seeming not to have known this Aaron looked enlightened. "... .Maybe there are a lot of dead animals on the seafloor around Hawthorne, so it grew big."

Goosebumps rose on the back of my neck.

Hearing this we all stared at him. In the original story, he seemed ignorant of most things like social relationships but still had a good head on his shoulders. I could never understand whether he was pretending to be stupid or not but it seems that's just genuinely how he is.

Not very knowledgeable but still intelligent. If he just applied himself more to his studies instead of giving his all to training then maybe he'd make a good Captain someday.

Recovering from his shocking observation, my lips curved slightly. "How frightening, if that's the case then there must be dozens of others like them. . ." Imagining it stressed me out. I tried to calm myself by drinking a cup of peach juice.

In addition to worrying about vengeful spirits, there were now giant-shelled squids trying to eat ships.

I could picture it now in the game, the protagonist gives up on figuring out the secret and escapes the island on their way back to the mainland via ship. She finally thinks she's free from the island's madness. And as relief fills her, the ship shakes and splits into two as her ship is assaulted from all sides by titan-sized Nautili, resulting in a bad end.

"L- let's not jump to conclusions here. I'm sure the Captain will put in a request for adventurers to check it out so let's leave it to the adults." Donald, perhaps imagining something similar himself also grew fearful and quickly spoke up.

"They were pretty useless earlier though," Aaron stated this matter of factly as he folded his arms behind his head, then eyed the both of us. "Still the both of you surprised me with that high-tier magic, are you sure you even need to attend Hawthorne?"

Hearing this compliment Donald coughed. His ears seemed red for some reason. I forgot, he's talkative with me but in the game, he's the Kuudere type, isn't he? "You can never know too much when it comes to magic," he said.

Aaron agreed with a nod.

"True."

"What about you two? you seemed to be both adept already to be able to make weapons out of elements. You even managed to combine the two, that was great teamwork, you guys must've trained pretty hard together!" I said, clasping my hands together.

Aaron and that boy blinked at me.

"We haven't." The two said in unison.

Both glanced at each other.

It's a late introduction but allow me to introduce the other individual. Black hair, and sharp grey eyes. Eurus Stratos. He was the black-bellied black sheep of the love interests. His Mother was a dark witch so he was considered the outcast of his family, but since he came from a rich duchy, he must've had an okay upbringing for his family to allow him to attend Hawthorne.

Actually, I'll admit it, I never finished playing his route, his attitude was too abrasive for my liking. I think he was abused by his mother or something so he tends to push people away and is especially rough with girls.

"I don't know this guy." Aaron clarified jerking a thumb at Eurus.

"Then that's even more amazing." Donald agreed with me.

"Then what about you two? You know each other?" Aaron glanced at both Donald and me.

We both nodded as we eyed each other.

"It's been a couple of years since we last saw each other but yeah," I muttered. If it weren't for that event I probably wouldn't have ever spoken to him again.

Donald was like me, due to the overflowing mana in his body, he had been sickly, however, his family was quickly able to find him a magic item that could help his condition stabilize.

Although I was a noble, my family had a lower status. As we got older our meetings between the family became less and less, due to his studies and my illness preventing further socialization.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't hope he and his family would help me at one point since we were friends, I'd be lying if deep down I didn't feel slightly miffed but that was before I recovered my memories from my past life.

Donald would only come to truly care for the protagonist. I also knew that Donald wasn't in a position to make such requests to his family, especially since the magic item to help his condition stabilize was ridiculously expensive, I think they had to promise Donald's hand in marriage to some wayward magician in exchange so they weren't in a position to be generous.

That's why it's all the more impressive that Amelie was able to make one for me before she died.

"I didn't even know you were attending Hawthorne. You appeared out of nowhere too. There are too many surprises today." Donald sighed.

"Hehe. . ." I laughed this off. Even though I was disappointed in him and his family for abandoning me, I still felt bad for not keeping in touch.

Like that, I was able to get acquainted with the first three love interests of the protagonist.