Races: Online (VR Smartphone App)

Now.

The young man held up his wand against the Thugs in the street—a wariness in his eyes. He was weaponless, for his own main weapons were with an Enchanter, but the wand could hardly do anything to get him out of this situation. If anything, outside of the Academy, this was all for show.

Those in front of him numbered around ten and it was already night and dark, unless someone had pulled a [ Shadow Canopy ] somewhere, and actually, someone did have it. Being an insatiable and unwanted part of the city of Gloria meant one had to resort to tricks and skills to hide one from the watch.

Not that anybody would have taught this kid—and this guy looked like a kid to them—about what it took to survive in the jungles of the city. Maybe something basic like 'don't take shortcuts into strange alleyways' could have helped. But honestly, this was basic knowledge after all.

How did he end up here again?

—-

Then.

Professor Orleans' class was possibly the second in the most boring classes for at least half of the Students within the room. High Mage Ylena Pierce's Theory of Magic put Students to sleep even without a spell, but learning about history, no matter how glorious in wars, was still… history. Boring.

Even if one's teacher was a golden-haired beauty well-versed in it.

As one might have already said, high-levels in a Class didn't mean that one was an excellent teacher—even though the Professor class was something that most were trying to level up in. Professor Jeanne Orleans did have a passion for the subject, but it still failed to gather attention except for the ones who naturally were interested in the subject.

How could history be helpful about anything?

Maybe a lot of things for a Diplomat. Someone who treaded on all things social needed to know the history of their target, or even a Soldier needing to engage with an old enemy—but it was still irrelevant for most of them.

And thus the class ended and while they might have thanked the Professor and even prayed at the end of the lesson… their Professor was still a Cleric, most happily gathered together to chat amongst themselves, grab dinner or head to their dorms.

Most of the original group was around, except for Calum, who also ended up passing out during Professor Jeanne's class. Now that was actually what other male students envied with being taken care of.

But for now, dinner.

Like what he promised to be at and enjoy time with his friends.

"We should hurry and get a better spot right now, I don't want to eat at the corner table like the last time." Russel urged the group, eager to move out of the hallway and eat. He, Diov, and the rest didn't seem as worried about Calum as what friends probably should have been.

"Dinner at the dining hall again?" Donovan sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure if I want to eat food there again. I might split up with you guys tonight."

Penelope wrinkled a brow at him. "Then where else do you expect to eat? Unless you'll be training again until curfew with Sir Leon?"

"You sound like you haven't eaten in the city at all." Donovan snorted. "There are a lot of restaurants, inns, pubs—food stalls? I know the food here is probably worth its weight in gold, but sometimes you just want to eat some charcoaled meat and go at it like a ravenous wolf."

"Ugh." the Lady Primrose made a face, even as their group left the classroom and gathered in the hallway.

Han almost felt reminiscent of his own university days, but he wasn't that old to be doing anything like that. Instead, he picked a side and nodded. "When I first got here, I got myself some good beef skewers. Those are good."

Lady Angelika raised a brow. "Really?"

"See? He knows what I'm talking about." Donovan slapped his back, much to Han's behest.

Han rubbed his aching back and watched Leon speak up. If this guy made a sound of approval, he expected everyone to eat out in the city for a change.

"We do have some work at the student council." Sir Leon acknowledged. "But ah, if you're planning to skip on helping me out tonight—I'll appreciate something from the market."

Diov rolled his eyes. "I'll join you, Donovan. I need to stretch my legs a bit, a walk in the city seems fun."

Or maybe not.

Some of the people were willing to eat, unwilling to move. Sir Leon was already the number one in this idea, Lady Angelika joined in, while some chose to stick with the dinner at the academy, deeming it safer and nutritious.

"Going out at night seems dangerous," Lu Rei said. Compared to her hometown, where almost everyone was friendly—snakeskin and frills aside—the city of Gloria actually seemed distant and cut off from one another. There were districts separating one from another.

Donovan raised a brow. "What are we, children? But we're not forcing anyone to come with us."

"Seems like it's a guy's night out, huh?" Han said. It was him, Donovan and Diov. He tossed a look at Russel, but the guy waved a hand apologetically.

"I'm actually uh, lazy." Russel said with a laugh. "You guys have fun."

That was until Teresa rolled her eyes and spoke up, "I'll join you guys tonight—if you'll have me, that is."

As someone who always stuck around Lu Rei and Lady Angelika, it was a little surprising for her to offer to tag along. But nothing that would have been denied or disregarded. Everyone was free to join them for a change of dinner.

—-

"Ugh, thank the gods that my shift is finally over. I was starting to get a little bored." Ryden rubbed his bandaged back and stepped out of the clinic.

Boaz rolled his eyes. "Bored? You're compensated while you were staying there. That would have been a vacation for me, bastard."

The man simply grinned. "Well, only one of us had gotten into defending the city—"

The Diplomat-Guardsman raised a finger to hush his friend. "Minor accident at work. Nothing too bad, except you were clumsy." Boaz would have probably never thought of it like this if he had simply kept to his old Class, but with the arrival of a new one—he actually started thinking more than just getting through his mediocre job of checking in the people arriving into the city.

He started caring more about how people worked together, noticed whether someone was uneasy or if he or another person made a rude and baseless comment—then how to deal with it.

"Suuure I was, my back just happened to crash against the city's wall." Ryden snickered at him. "What could I have ever done to bring myself to that level of idiocy?"

Boaz raised a brow. "Not much of a change if I were to be frank."

"Hey!" Ryden punched the man's shoulder with a light jab. But other than that, the man didn't care about it at all. Sure, he might have understood it, but as someone who retired into becoming a Guardsman, even he knew how to stay out of it.

"So where are we having dinner tonight?" Boaz sighed. The reason for hiding such information seemed to be stupid, but then again, it also made sense to hide it from the general public to avoid mass hysteria.

"Woah, are you taking me out to a date?" Ryden chuckled.

"No."

"Yeah, I bet you wished it was—"

"No need to mention any names. I'm not the one who got out of his bed to see the Cleric a couple rooms down in the clinic."

"At least I wasn't as bad as the lead Healer." Ryden argued back. "That dude was as love-struck as any fool could have been."

Boaz snickered. "And you consider yourself an expert in these affairs?"

"A Love Master, if you will."

"That's not even a real Class."

Ryden waggled his brows at him, a grin on his face. "Who knows? What if we check one of those, ahem, houses—"

"We're only going there if we want to shut down their operations, not to avail of their services, Ryden." Boaz said flatly.

"I still don't know why they're illegal, Bo. I mean, it'd be easier to weed out the unsavory people if you made it into a legitimate business." the Guardsman said and rubbed his chin. "You could have every visitor lining up and writing down their names, then you could at least tell if a would-be Womanizer was around and throw them out."

"We're not discussing brothels and making them legal, Ryden." Boaz rubbed his face. The guy had barely gotten out of the clinic and they were still in the open streets for talking about it. One of the women walking by gave them a look of outrage. "It's too early of a night."

"Hah! Let's get a drink then."

"Are you allowed to even drink?" He gave the man a dour look.

"My back may have gotten injured, but not my guts." Ryden practically dragged him towards the streets. "I'm looking forward to eating at Sonia's tavern—"

"Er, that one got demolished."

"What?"

"It's a long story, but to make it short—drunk Beast Tamer. Paid for damages," Boaz said quickly. He winced at the memory and wondered how that had been possible, except later eyewitnesses swore on the truth.

"Did he crash an elephant into the tavern?"

"We're in the Yegarian Kingdom, there are no elephants here. No elephants from this continent as far as I'm aware." Boaz scrunched up his face. "Let's just find some other place to eat, an inn maybe."

—-—-

Author's Note: Trying a bit of a new writing style, or at least scene arrangement, identifiable to possibly some if you're a TWI reader like me, heh. Now to address the elephant in the room, uh, well there's not much to address except Boaz is back, baby! Thanks for reading~