(Un)usual Class (2)

"Obviously?"

I don't get what she means but being pushed down onto bed by Liliath is BIG. So yes, something did happen yesterday.

"Just curious since.. there's now a small blue dot revolving around your colour."

"Blue. Dot?"

Liliath's colour is a black mass, mine is white crystal and now there's a small blue dot?

"Could it be the goddess, Bleu?" LIliath turned to me.

"Eh? What goddess?" Saria blinked.

Bleu huh? I wonder how she's doing?

"Noel, If you don't mind me asking, what happened after you disappeared from school yesterday?" Wake, who had just completed his portion of work asked.

"No comment."

"What..How about the goddess Liliath mentioned?"

"It's basically what you think it is. A goddess. I would've probably died if not for that…"

Wake turned to Liliath who was holding a whispering session with Saria.

"You know, Liliath feels like a totally different person ever since yesterday. It's kind of surprising. But I'm very curious about what happened. Can you really not share what happened during your first life and death experience? You don't look like someone who almost lost his life though?" Voux raised his head a little to look at me before continuing to write.

"Yeah. No. It's pretty bad.."

You know. Close death experience is probably the wrong way to put it? It's rather-- my chastity. Welp, great that they misunderstood, no need to supplement any information to embarrassed myself.

"What! Noel, are you kidding me?" Saria suddenly yelled. Of course, not enough to grab the class attention, probably also due to Liliath's concealment spell.

"What?"

"A goddess that can see someone's past?"

"I guess?"

My TALENT created Bleu-- and Liliath's past. Of course I haven't told Liliath or anyone about that specifics but I've explained to Liliath about Bleu yesterday night so there shouldn't be any issues? I'm taking the no harem route, to remind myself again.

"So where's the goddess?" Wake poked my shoulders, reminding me that he's a stalker. But from what Prune said yesterday, this stalker was also my life saviour, from what I heard. If not for him, the matter would've blown up into something bigger.

"In my dreams."

"Pfft. what?" Voux was the one to react to my words.

"Yeah, really." Seriously.

"It's, however, not confirmed yet," Liliath added.

"Noel's TALENT is really, really weird. It's the kind that would keep developing right? How rare.." Saria said.

"Yeah.."

"Yosh. Done with my part. Ah, Liliath, give me your best atypical joke from your world," Voux pointed a marker at her.

"My best atypical joke.." she pondered under our stares, in a sarcastica voice and a finger pointed at him, "You're gay."

"""..."""

"G-Gay means happy, i-isn't it? What were you thinking when I said that?" Liliath stammered.

Everyone remained silent. Me included.

Wow, nice.

"Noel.. what exactly did you do to Liliath yesterday? She wasn't drugged was she?" Voux looked at me, flabbergasted.

"No. She ate a book."

Liliath nodded in response-- and paused to turn to me.

"But books aren't normally edible aren't they?"

The confusion on their faces only grew.

"Group 1 is done right?" our history teacher called out and disrupted the conversation.

"Yes, that is so. Thus we can request to give our presentation first, correct?"

"Yes-- you can go stick it up on the whiteboard now if that's the case." He gave a smile. And so, our group narrated the story of Gigamesh's beginnings-- without the sashimi.

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Drip. Drip.

Squish. Squish.

The sounds of wet footsteps, rain, swishing of the umbrella and chattering merged into a cacophony of dissonances.

"Ah, it's still raining." and freezing.

"The weather forecast suddenly changed," Prune held the phone for me to see. On the screen was the weather prediction for the next few days-- all rain. "I remember the last time I checked it, it's not supposed to be like this."

"Perhaps an error?"

"I think it's too extreme."

"Maybe? I'm sorry, I don't keep up with the weather forecast."

Though, from how Prune said it, it sure is weird. Another premonition? Perhaps. My TALENT will prove my theory in the future.

Anyways, what we're doing is waiting for Nine. School is over and it seems Nine class is dismissed later than usual. We usually wait here in the front hall, so the students were numerous. It was worse now since it's raining.

Earlier this morning club registration forms were handed out to students, next week being the first official start of clubroom operation. Teacher said something like-- you can't not NOT join a club.

The first thing that came to mind was the art club but-- there was Rishell. Bad idea. If not for her, I might have still considered it. Man-- why isn't there like a manga club? I thought schools like this should have those..

Well. In that case, I could just choose to become a ghost member in some other club right? Which club to pick then? Which club is popular amongst people like me? I wonder.. maybe the occult club? Nah.. that's not a thing-- I wouldn't join it even if it was though.

"Where's Liliath?" Prune asked, glancing at her phone again.

"She said she had something to do.."

"Don't you think you shouldn't let her be alone like that? She just recovered yesterday, anything can happen."

"True.. thanks for the reminder. I'll go look for her," I should've been more careful shouldn't I?

Liliath told me that she had to do something as she kept looking around the place. I thought she forgot something-- her bottle for example so I didn't think too much about it.

Pulling up the Liliath viewing UI, I noticed that she was acting suspicious. Hm… like a detective, that sort of expression? I made a guess to where she is based on the trajectory she went before.

Taking a reverse route to class C, turning into an almost empty corridor, I saw her back as she faced the wall.

I didn't know if she noticed me but from the 'gallant' way she was walking, she looked like an evil villain trying to corner some innocent peasant.

Stopping at the edge of the corridor-- the wall. She suddenly bowed.

"Thank you for protecting the student council president and I apologize for my actions yesterday. I will make sure to pay more attention to my behaviour in the future," said to the wall.

…

I thought my eyes were tricking me so I gave a rub or two before refocusing my gaze.

"Liliath? What are you doing?" I asked

"Apologizing," keeping her head down, she said.

I glanced up at the empty wall. It wasn't empty, rather-- there was an indoor plant at one corner, beams at both sides that arched at the top, and small pipes around the edges that most probably contained wires inside.

"Apologizing to?"

The wall? The plant? The milk-white paint? THE FUCK?

Liliath straightened her back and turned around to face me.

"You'd know if you paid more attention."

"Really… now?"

Pay more attention to what? To her? I couldn't help but press my forehead. So much for my worries-- and so much for common sense..

But it's suspicious..

"Is there someone there?"

What if Liliath is apologizing to someone who has an invisibility TALENT or someone wearing a WALL suit.

Hm…

"Hey! What are you two doing here?" Nine's voice resounded, I turned to look behind.

Nine with her school bag behind her, both hands on the strap looking-- the typical school girl pose.

"How did you get here?"

"I saw you pass by my class just now so you know-- I saw you here."

"With Nine here, let's regroup. Prune must be waiting," Liliath tried to turn a blind eye.

"Nay way-- there's something on the wall isn't it?" Nine narrowed her eyes before breaking into a dash.

"I'd suggest you not dig too deep into the matter, Nine," Liliath pressed her fingers against Nine's forehead and stopped the advance.

"Heeh.. there must be something," Nine backed away. Stretched her neck like a periscope, her gaze ran across the flat wall surface in search of oddities. No choice, she was too short.

But to be honest, there's really nothing there. So why did Liliath apologize to a wall?

I took a step closer myself-- but was stopped by Liliath linking her arm around mine in the opposite direction.

"Let's not trouble them anymore? Please," Liliath smiled wryly.

Hnng.. could common sense make a person more expressive? I feel that Liliath has become an entirely different person. Could talking to the wall be also a side effect?

"Alright."

And the next thing I knew it, we were back at the open hall, Prune leaning against one of the pillars as she kept scrolling through her phone.

"Hey! Liliath, what secret are you hiding? Tell me!" Nine stomped on the wet floor. Water spraying all over her shoes. Uh.. did she use her brain?

"Hm? What happened?" Prune, who noticed our arrival, asked.

"Unfortunately I can't allow it since it doesn't concern you," Liliath explained.

"Heeh.." Nine stopped her acts and gave a smirk, "So you're having an affair with Noel?"

"Affair? Never! ..Huh?" Liliath retaliated.

"Oh, so why can't you tell us then? At least tell Noel right?" Nine teased LIliath again.

"T-That's not it. Noel and I aren't married yet."

"Yet. Yup, you hear that Noel, congratulations!" Nine cheered.

"Yeah.. thanks."

Yeah. What a bitch. It's the first time seeing Nine tease Liliath-- LIliath taking the bait.

At the same time-- Liliath said nothing and just stood there like a statue. Her face was absolutely red. Nothing much I can say-- else, I'm surprised I'm taking it in so nonchalantly.

"So what happened?" Prune asked again.

"I don't know.."

"Liliath was having a relationship with a wall."

"T-That's not true," Liliath stumbled on her words-- how cute. The usually dense Liliath is pretty much gone huh?

"Is it just me or does Liliath not feel like Liliath. Are you alright?" Nine asked, realizing this point.

"I agree. Noel, could it be the book she ate this morning?"

"Most probably."

"This doesn't feel right.." with both hands on her cheeks, Liliath shook her head in denial.

Hah.. What should I do about this? I really did not expect that common sense would change her so much.

Ah, wait. There's something else I just remembered. The quests.