Chapter 14 Tall tale
The car had a luxurious interior, a luxury sports brand. He drove out of the mansion in style. It was times like this that made him realize that dying had its perks, and this was one of them.
As for downsides, well, there were too many. He looked at the guitar case and imagined it was Carrisa sitting by his side. He quickly squashed the thought; she was really getting to him these days.
Excluding the fact that she was devilishly beautiful and alluring, he couldn't really handle her lately. Since they shared one part of the master suite, they usually stayed out of each other's rooms.
But Alicarde usually stayed up to watch TV at night, and when he did, he would do so in the larger room in the suite, which was technically a living room of sorts. And when he did, Carrisa usually sat with him on the large sofa.
"But that's not the actual problem. Goddammit," he muttered.
The problem was what she wore. Sometimes a light nightdress, often the short kind that revealed a bit too much of her skin.
But he was not about to give her the satisfaction of knowing he was leering at her exquisite body. So he just pretended to watch his shows as best he could. It didn't help that she always looked so vulnerable, awakening some weird protective instincts in him.
He quickly reached the gates, did the usual security checks, and zoomed off. He was running late; he really shouldn't have been picky about the type of car he wanted to go with.
Finally, he got to his department, found a place to park, and scurried off. Almost forgetting the sword, he grabbed it; if he left it alone, he wasn't sure it would stay put.
He entered the halls and reached the doors, making sure he was in the right place. He noticed through the transparent glass of the blue double doors that the professor was already in. Knowing he wouldn't be allowed in, he was about to give up but decided to try the door at the back of the hall.
Reaching the doors at the back, he noticed the professor through the glass; he was not looking, and the room was dark thanks to the use of projectors for the lecture. Lightly pushing the door, it didn't budge. So he tried pulling, but nothing happened; it was locked from the inside.
Noticing movement from the inside, a beautiful silver-haired girl stealthily stood up and unlocked it. Hearing the clicking sound, Alicarde sneaked in, whispered a thank you to the girl, too tense to even look at her face.
As he passed her, the girl's exquisite nose twitched a bit, and her grey eyes widened a little.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
Alicarde was too nervous, afraid of being caught by the professor and put on the spot. He snuck into one of the seats in the back, keeping the guitar case by his side.
The girl with silver hair was originally in another seat with a few other girls, but she moved to a seat not too far from Alicarde. As she did, her nose twitched again, her eyes widened, and she smiled seductively.
Alicarde didn't notice; his heart was drumming up a lot of noise in his chest. But after a few seconds, the professor didn't realize a stealthy student had joined the class.
The class eventually ended. Afterwards, the professor left, and the room brightened up. Before Alicarde could stand up and move to his next class, he was spotted by an aggrieved Anne, and she looked like she was about to let him have it.
"Alicarde," her voice was stern, but her gaze was sharp enough to cut iron.
Alicarde smiled warily; he knew why she was glaring. He did miss a few days, after all, and his friend had been worried. She called and texted so many times, but the human garbage had left her on read, too busy suppressing lecherous thoughts about Carrisa.
"Wow, who is this beautiful lady approaching? Why, if it isn't my kind, sweet, forgiving friend. Oh, and did I mention forgiving?" The sycophant Alicarde reared his ugly head.
"Friend? You still consider me a friend? Where have you been all these days? I called you a gazillion times. Dude, what gives?" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, sorry about... if I told you what happened, you wouldn't believe me," his tone didn't sound serious, but she could sense a degree of guilt.
'Good, at least he still has a soul,' she thought.
"Fine, go ahead, wow me with your amazing excuse." Anne said placing her hands on her waist.
"Excuse? I assure you it's not an excuse, but fine," he continued, putting his hand on his face in an exaggerated manner.
"There I was, alone in a dark, gloomy mansion after my heartless lady friends had mercilessly abandoned me, alone in that darkness... oh, the misery. I was being hunted by a skinwalker."
Looking at her to make sure she was paying attention, she looked at him with skepticism.
"Wait, but my story isn't done yet. Well, he had a grudge... well, I may or may not have said some things about his mother. Well, I think he was a he or it anyway. We fought, and of course, I had him running," he boldly added to his story.
"Was it scary? Yes, yes it was. But I am awesome, so I won. Can you even believe he turned into a pretty girl?" Alicarde said with an exaggerated smile.
Still full of skepticism, she rolled her eyes. "Were you drinking or just being delusional?"
"What? I am not... I don't drink, really. True story, in the end, I even got to live with a princess," he added.
"So, while I was calling all this time worried that something happened to you, you were playing video games," she sighed, putting her hand on her temple.
"Well, I, um, I only played games a little. I was actually training my mana and learning swordplay," he smirked proudly.
Anne did not believe a word, but that was fine. Alicarde had told her in such an unserious tone because he knew it was unbelievable.
"While you were gone, I had to falsify your attendance. Professor Malefica had grouped us and had given the whole class an assignment. I had to bend the rules to save your skin," she whispered through gritted teeth.
"And no one appreciates that more than me. You're the best, Anne," Alicarde flattered, hoping to get on her good side.
She sighed, about to start a lecture when a young man with auburn hair called her name, or rather her title.
"Class Rep, I have the papers we talked about, and I talked to Professor Franklin about..." He stopped, noticing Alicarde.
"Oh, hello, nice to meet you. I'm Mark Green, the assistant Class Rep," he introduced himself.
"Alicarde Asad, but you can call me Ali," he returned the greeting. He had no idea there was an assistant class rep, but it is what it is. Guess Anne won't be slaving away for the class alone anymore.
The next lecture was in another hall; it was a fair distance away. He really should have taken the car. He decided against it opting to walk there with Anne.
"I didn't know you played," Anne asked, staring at his back where the guitar case was.
"What? What are you talking about?" he asked forgetting he had a guitar case on his back.
Looking at the guitar case, Anne continued "The guitar, don't you play?"
"What? No, I don't. I don't even own one," Alicarde chuckled.
"But you're carrying one right now," she gave him a deadpan look. Realizing what she was talking about, he scratched the back of his head.
"Oh, that. Well, I just... well, I try to, but I can't really. It's embarrassing," Alicarde smiled trying to hide his embarrassment.
He went to the next class, being dragged by Anne; she didn't let him out of her sight. So he sat with her in the next lecture hall.
They were followed by the assistant Class Rep Mark, but he was silent all the way. Anne sat next to Alicarde, and he kept the guitar by his side, keeping it between himself and Mark Green.
Mark looked at the fun banter they exchanged and frowned a little, but Alicarde didn't notice, his expression.
He observed the class; right in front of him was the familiar silver-haired girl, but he couldn't see her face from behind, surrounded by so many other girls. She was like the queen bee. To his right were some other students, but only a trio of guys, leering at an R18 magazine, caught his eye.
Alicarde really admired their confidence to kill their social life so thoroughly. These boys... no, 'men'. They had the level of confidence that the shy Alicarde desired. The girls who noticed certainly weren't giving them friendly looks, but this was the pain of being a pioneer.
The professor came, and the lectures began. After a day of lectures, he finally said goodbye to Anne. He went back to his car; the evening sun was already starting to set. He had to get home post-haste.