———Jeff———

  <12: 03 pm>

  “Ah. So that’s why they look so tired today.” Thought it was weird that they all seemed rather sluggish. Didn’t know that they have a drinking party. I mean how would we know? We’re not at the drinking age, so obviously we didn’t pay attention to pces dedicated to serving alcohol. “Anyway, from what I heard, today’s P.E. css will have us fight our teacher… And that’s gonna be tough for us.”

  “No kidding. I’m willing to put my all into getting a good hit or two in, but that’s not gonna be easy.” Qyunda remarked. “I bet I can get more hits in than Malk.”

  “Is now the time to bring up competition?” Malk exasperatedly asked before shaking his head. “We don’t really know how much she’s willing to power down so there can at least be some sense of fairness, so that’s one thing to look out for.”

  “Just have to wait and see on that front.” I pointed out. No need to think more… “...I wonder what the others are doing right now.”

  “Not worrying about this trivial conversation, for one.” Sixson said. Rare for him to speak up.

  “Hey now. I think it’s a bit interesting.” Nicks chimed in before walking off with the bowl. Looks like he’s going for more.

  “I know Orrel and Gregori love reading the books in the library with all sorts of stories to tell, but I don’t think most of us can stomach being in there for long.” I said, mainly speaking for myself here.

  “Everyone has their own preference. Though I do concede that maybe getting a good warmup before the css starts would be better than dallying around.” Malk replied.

  “I’d rather save my strength.” Qyunda meanwhile has a completely different idea. “...I think I’ll go for another portion, these noodles aren’t filling me up.”

  “...Was Rico also out drinking yesterday?” I blurted out that thought of mine. Maybe being a bit hopeful that it’ll slow her down a bit.

  “She’s not at drinking age yet.” Malk pointed out. Whoops, didn’t realize that.

  “...You know, from the vibe of an old dy trying to fit in with the kids she’s having, that’s quite surprising.” Kist remarked.

  “I mean it shouldn’t be, she looks about the same age as us.” Malk said, and yeah that is true. How she looks and acts are quite different. I don’t know what it is exactly, but the vibes Kist is getting ain’t wrong. We probably shouldn’t bring this up in front of her though. Even I know to not open up that can of worms.

  <3: 26 pm>

  “You know, I never really think about it, but where do they get all this food from?” Useph asked, being the first one to finish his meal.

  “Probably super wealthy or magic or something. I wouldn’t worry about it.” Gregori dismissively replied. “We rarely ever eat here te in the day, so I understand that this has never crossed your mind until now.”

  “I wonder if Karra or Kenni know anything about it. They chose to not join us, so we can’t ask.” Kist said. I feel like they don't know either. They’ll probably get annoyed more than anything if they were asked.

  “We’ve been over this.” Orrel pointed out. “But on the topic of them. It looks like Rico did use more force on the both of them, as well as Emmie. She’s making the test extra hard on them, that much is evident by the time recorded, barely topping Malk and Qyunda’s survival time.”

  “One thing for sure, she was rather merciless. The longest time was 1 minute and fourteen seconds. I heard that with other P.E. teachers it can drag out to 3 minutes.” Gregori mentioned. Now our records are gonna look pretty damn unimpressive if it was made public. Right now everything shared is technically just hearsay.

  “Yeah, let’s keep this underwrap, okay?” Qyunda quickly asked. Yeah, I don’t wanna see people getting annoying about it either. We might never hear the end of it.

  “It’s not that serious.” Orrel dismissively replied. Does he really not think that? He sted less than half a minute!

  “Wasn’t Emmie fuming about it?” Kist pointed out. “She got… What was it, a smack to the head with the training sword, a punch to the gut, a kick to the chin, then getting smmed into the ground face-first, in that order.”

  “Last I checked, she cares more about how she presents herself, rather than any hearsay or rumors.” Sixson chimed in. “She can be quite vain, but in a way that doesn’t care much for her own reputation. Same could be said for Kenni. I think she was mad because she didn’t find her own record impressive more than any possible stain to her reputation.”

  “I never really look too much into that side of hers. She is usually quite calm for the most part. I wonder what changed…” I said, since that is news to me.

  “Pretty simple. She loves throwing hands and now there are more chances for that than ever.” Gregori expined. “I don’t really know where she got the idea of a psycho elegant dy persona from, but it is pretty noticeable.”

  “And probably cost a good deal of money. Those dresses she loves funting around ain’t cheap. Where did she even get the money for those?” Useph asked. Huh, I just thought she asked him for the money. We all did that at some point, right? “Well. If she ever needs to ask me for money, I won’t say no.”

  “Did she even get into enough fights for the cost of fixing those fancy clothes to be unsustainable, I wonder.” Gregori muttered. I mean, we don’t even know where the money came from. She doesn’t have rich parents, or rather, even have one in the first pce.

  “...Is this really an important thing to ask?” Malk asks while tilting his head. “Also, she can just take the dress off if she wants to, that’s what she did when she wanted to do a long dungeon run. She always wore something underneath anyway in case the dress was torn up.”

  “The sports bra and shorts barely count as covering anything, let’s be real.” Qyunda chimed in.

  “Well that just shows that she’s not insecure like someone I know.” He replied with a straight face. It’s like the words just came out without even going through the filter.

  “You son-of-a-!” Qyunda said, barely stopping herself from jumping out of her seat to cave his face in. Her tail is also making that rattlesnake sound.

  “Yeesh, I forgot you can make that sound.” Kist muttered.

  “Back on topic, she got more to do, so she’s more fired up and that side of hers showed up more. It’s that simple.” Gregori said to stop things from getting too off-topic. “Of course, it’s mainly been against monsters and non-lethal bouts with the students here.”

  “Do you really need to specify ‘non-lethal’?” Qyunda asked while scratching her head. “None of us is a murderer.”

  “Just want to make sure there is no confusion. It seems like people in some part of the world start killing be it out of necessity or some weird glee. Now is when that kind of talk can be misconstrued.” He expined. “And I better not hear from any of you that a demon made you do it.”

  “Being tempted or influenced by a demon isn’t the best excuse anyway.” Nicks pointed out. “Seriously, saying you’re weak-willed and have bad self-control isn’t gonna excuse killing people.”

  “Did they seriously believe that excuse would work for them? Considering that there are people there who just tried to survive without killing anyone.” Qyunda asked.

  “There’s no way we can know. We weren’t there to witness it. All that was known is that a woman with white hair and dark coat destroyed a giant towering monster that was called a demon… Of course, we know from Karra that it was Wiina, and that it was in fact an actual demon.” Orrel recounted. From the things we previously discussed as well as her account, there were other people there witnessing her destroying the demon, obliterating its body completely with a single attack, but right after that they all colpsed, which was her casting a spell to incapacitate everyone in the area. “No one really believes them. They were way too startled to actually take a picture or a video.”

  “Honestly if it weren’t for the answers Karra got out of Wiina we wouldn’t believe it either. I mean, right on schedule as well? I would’ve thought we'd been pranked.” Qyunda said before walking away to get a refill.

  “As she just said, it’s rather unbelievable. I’m actually curious about what’s actually happening. As in, I want to see it with my own eyes.” Malk said. Yeah. I also want to know what that was like. Destroying in one hit, very tall hulking demon monster thing. Like who wouldn’t want to see that? I’m not really sure what Karra meant when she said Wiina mentioned how it is not a pleasant watch for most.

  “We went through this. Demons by nature can influence humans. It is part of why they are considered above humans on the food chain. They can be considered to have a built-in advantage against us. Just by being around them we can be influenced, either to indulge in things that would feed it, or some sort of psychological attack that would hinder any opposition. It’s a passive ability that demons have, and the more powerful the demon is, the more powerful that passive ability is. From what we know this thing is far beyond our capability, so the psychological effect would probably be immense if it was directed at us… Perhaps even if it wasn’t.” Orrel gave a long-winded expnation. Yeah, I really don’t know how that would work. We haven’t met any demons, so how would we know? The supposed demon lord that’s roaming around here clearly kept that kind of ability hidden, since we would’ve felt it at some point by now.

  “And even if it doesn’t have that kind of ability, we would probably be at a great risk of dying without Wiina there, but at this point we’re just talking hypotheticals.” Gregori chimed in. “Simply put, it’s a bad idea. A warzone with a civilization destroyer? Only those with a death wish would try to go there.”

  “Okay, where are we at with the convo?” Qyunda asked once she got back.

  “About how trying to catch the sight of a demon is a bad idea, you’d be overwhelmed or more likely, die.” Gregori summarized. Can’t help but feel like we’re being a bit overdramatic. That could be said for anything involving stuff those two read in the library.

  “If we have Wiina with us, then it’d be fine, right?” Qyunda said, and that is probably the most likely scenario. I doubt any of us are gonna travel to a dangerous pce without either a rge group of friends or someone that capable around.

  “Perhaps, but let’s be real here, she's not going to risk it. From how she has treated us, it’s pretty clear she wants us out of any possible danger. We fought her once, and we were completely dominated, but that doesn’t actually tell us how much power she has in the tank, so to speak.” Gregori seems rather skeptical about that idea. “Of course, the main problem is that none of us here have a way to contact her. Karra definitely does, and maybe Kenni has one too, but that’s about it. None of us are willing to put that much pressure on either. It’s clear they are getting sick of it. It’s saying a lot when Kenni is getting annoyed.”

  “So we’re back on square one if this kind of scenario ever happens again.” Sixson remarked. “Of course, I would rather none of us try anything potentially life-threatening in the first pce. Did you all forget the feeling you had when Karra almost died? I sure haven’t.”

  …Many of us look away, probably feeling a tinge of regret and awkwardness. I certainly have those feelings right now. He is right that we probably shouldn’t put our lives at risk and make others worried. I don’t like that feeling at all that I had when I watch the stream, I can't imagine what Karra felt at that moment.

  “Haaah… You’re right. We shouldn’t talk about this.” Malk said, the first one to speak up after the callout. “I guess we should talk about something else now. Does anyone have anything to say?”

  None of us have anything to add. The air is a bit too tense to think clearly, and the silence doesn’t help at all. This sucks.

  “So… How about talking about… Uhhh…” I tried to say something just to keep it moving but… Ugh, just throw out something random! “Form a rge team and go to the fortieth floor?”

  …Why are you looking at me like I’m crazy? We did twenty, so forty is next, right? Shouldn’t you guys be talking about this instead of all that depressing crap? I don’t wanna think about that further.