Waking up

A familiar feeling struck me as I woke up in my own bedroom, the same kind of excruciating pain as when I had managed to kill the wyvern was plaguing my body once more.

I struggled to get myself in a seated position, but a hand pushed me down again, and not in a gentle kind of way.

"What do you think you are doing?"

Turning my head to my right, I was met by the incredibly pissed-off face of my girlfriend.

"Misa?"

Too surprised by her sudden appearance, I could only stupidly mouth her name as if I didn't truly trust it was her.

"Yea it's me. Who else would be stupid enough to take of an idiot like you?"

Although this situation was incredibly similar to when I had killed the wyvern, her reaction was the opposite. Not quite understanding why she was so angry, I felt like I had to ask "What's wrong, Misa?"

Her already pissed-off face managed to crumble even more, almost looking as if the veins on her forehead could pop at any time.

"What's wrong? Well, Mr. Lightning, what's wrong is that my boyfriend is a moron who can't even control himself enough not to be bedridden for over a week after a silly duel! Not to mention the fact that the same idiot acted like a damn animal in front of the entire school!"

"I'm guessing you saw the fight..."

She crossed her arms as her beautiful eyes pierced my soul, "Yes. I was planning on surprising you afterward, but unfortunately, I had to wait for a -week-."

Now it all somehow made sense. Thinking about how I had acted during the duel, it wasn't surprising that she was angry at me.

That didn't mean that I didn't think it was the right choice, even in hindsight. If I could teach James a lesson, the chance of him becoming a great hero would be a lot higher if he freed himself from his naive thoughts.

Though, it would be a lie to say I didn't lose myself in the moment in anger. Overusing my Battle Art had also been extremely reckless. It was the main reason why I managed to overpower him that easily, but I could just as well have lost my life in the process.

Setting my eyes on the dark-haired girl which I loved, I could only lower my head, "I'm sorry. I was stupid."

Her eyes mellowed out a little, and her arms relaxed a bit, "You should be. You should be glad that I didn't decide to leave you right there and then."

Forcing my hand to move, which was incredibly painful, I touched the side of her arm, "Yes, I know I'm lucky, but I already knew that the day I met you."

"Miren..."

Our eyes met, and we got lost in each other, our faces slowly inching closer.

*Tap, tap, tap*

"I brought the towels as you asked, miss Laise. Now was there anything..."

Lindsey had entered the room, only to see our lips almost touching, which created another new reaction in her that I hadn't seen. Her face instantly exploded in red and she quickly turned around in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I'll come back later!"

Before she started walking out, and to my immeasurable disappointment, Misa stopped her, "It's fine. Come, sit with us."

Unable to retort to the older woman's words, she turned around once more, completing her 360 degrees spin, and sat on a chair next to my girlfriend, with her face still flushed. Now both of them looked at me, while Misa carried on, "So it seems like you have made quite the gorgeous friend, haven't you dear?"

Her expression was completely unreadable because even though she wore a gentle smile, a shiver ran down my spine as she mentioned my new friend.

'I have to run. I might die, as I would have to [Overclock] again, but it can't be helped.'

Just as I was about to drag the covers off of me, she started laughing and her face brightened up, "Hahaha, Miren, please stop. I was just joking with you. I'm just happy that you have friends at the academy."

'Well, "a friend" would be more accurate, but when did Misa become so confident and playful?'

I had only been awake for a couple of minutes, but my heart had already had to experience more stress than I did during all of my years in the other world. It seemed like during the time she had been away, Misa had gotten influenced by Sophie a lot, as she acted quite differently.

"Of course, if I ever found out that you had somehow found something more than a friend, things wouldn't end so nicely."

Her gentle smile was back, more nefarious than ever. This time I could tell that it wasn't a joke, and so did Lindsey, as both of our faces paled a bit. Luckily enough, although I did find Lindsey to be incredibly attractive, I wasn't attracted to her. Misa was more than enough for me.

Still keeping the same expression on her face, my girl stood up, "I'm going to make some tea. I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Oh, Miren, do know that Lindsey has been here almost every day with me to make sure you recovered."

And with those words, she left us alone. Lindsey looked at me with worried eyes as she initiated our little talk, "So, how is your body?"

Feeling my body a bit, for no apparent reason as I already knew how the state of it, "It's pretty painful, but it's manageable." There was no need to tell her more than this, it was after all the truth for me, even though it wouldn't be for most people.

"That's good... but..."

She switched her gaze to the floor, almost as if she was ashamed, "But what?"

"But did you have to be so..."

'Ah, she is also questioning the way I chose to fight...'

Not feeling like making any excuses for my behavior, I told her the honest truth about how I felt about it.

"No, I didn't have to. And even though I can admit that I took a step too far, it was a good opportunity to teach him a lesson. "

The silver-haired youth's head rose up again, this time with a small smile, "I see... It's good that you can admit that you took it too far at least..."

I was, mentally, too old not to be able to admit my mistakes. Even though this body was ingrained with a temper that was hard to control, I still knew when I made a blunder. The temper was something I had felt like I needed to start working on a lot more, as it had led to not just one or two incidents during my time at the academy, and thankfully, now was the perfect opportunity to do so.

I wouldn't have to worry for a while about much. This duel was the key to creating some breathing room for me as now most students would probably think twice before they challenged me.

It was a bit ironic though, James had wanted to make an example of me, showing that he was the strongest and could protect everyone, but instead, I had made an example of him, showing that no one should mess with me. Thinking about this, I remembered something important.

"Oh, did James sign the mana contract?"

Lindsey just shook her head, although not in denial, "I don't know. He hasn't come to class for the past week either. Same with Sarah. Our teacher just said something about them getting permitted leave until Monday."

Although I didn't know what day it was, I assumed it to be a Saturday, pretty much exactly one week after the duel, as Misa had very clearly voiced "A week!".

That meant that classes would start in two days, and I wouldn't dare to believe that I would be back in time for them.

'Am I going to miss even more lessons? How in the world am I going to get good results on the finals this semester?'

I was already in a pinch from last semester, with this added on, it started to feel like an impossibility to even pass the courses.

*Click*

Lindsey had returned carrying, not only, a tray with three cups of tea but under her left arm, she was holding some of my textbooks.

"Now, you have already missed one week of classes, let's start studying."

'I guess it was obvious that I would need help... But shouldn't we spend at least one day reuniting?'

And that's the story of how my girlfriend became my private tutor.