Zain and Ria (1)

Ria was in the room where Zain was being kept. She was moving the books that were all over the place.

"It has been a week since I discovered this secret room where this strange boy is being kept. At first, I thought he was a corpse, but then I noticed his vitals being displayed on the monitor. On that day, I decided to make this place my secret room. Although, I think people are getting suspicious of where I have been going."

Ria was wearing a dust coat while moving the boxes so as not to get her uniform dirty. She was already done with one section of the room. Her plan was to move all the boxes to one corner of the room and make furniture out of some of them.

The boxes were not that heavy, despite them having some heavy equipment inside. This was because of Ria's strength, which she inherited from her clan, but the boxes were tearing.

Ria lifted another box and moved with it to the other side of the room. She gently put it on another box and sighed in exhaustion. Ria took a brief glance around the room, and then her eyes met Zain's capsule. She stared at him and then asked,

"Hey, what are you looking at? … It's very tiring, you know."

The room was silent. Ria continued staring at Zain and then frowned.

"You don't talk much, do you?"

There was silence in the room once again as Ria waited for a response.

"Fine, have it your way."

Ria continued shifting the boxes. While moving them, she made sure to dust them. After three long hours, she was finally done. This exhausted her very much.

"That was exhausting!" Ria smiled. "Good thing I brought a beverage."

She blushed.

She carefully opened the glass bottle. A moment later, the orange liquid inside created bubbles and a crackling sound. The drink was carbonated.

Ria briefly glanced at the bottle and read "Carbonated X." She brought the bottle to her lips and greedily drank the liquid. When the bottle was halfway done, she finally stopped and sighed in relief.

"This is so good."

Ria continued drinking until she finished the bottle. She lingered for a bit and then turned around to look at Zain.

"See you tomorrow, Zain."

Ria removed her dust coat and walked away.

---

Ria sat in class, thinking about how best to get to the secret room without attracting any unwanted attention. The teacher was explaining how, with some monsters, it was best to just walk past them rather than sneak past them because they sensed uneasiness.

Hearing this, Ria finally got the answer she had been looking for—a way to go to the secret room without attracting any unwanted attention.

Immediately after the final class finished, Ria elegantly stood up. She took her books from her desk and walked out of the class.

The A-ranked class was located on the far side of the second floor. At the academy, the upperclassmen were on higher floors, so the first years were on the second floor, the second years were on the third, and the third years were on the fourth floor. The fourth years were in a different building that was only used by them.

As Ria walked in the hallway, whispers could be heard among the students.

"It's her!"

"I heard she has no friends."

"What? No, she's just rude."

"Is she cute, though?"

The students gossiped as Ria walked past them nonchalantly. She was deep in thought, only thinking of how she would drink her carbonated drink. She walked to the Ascension Department, entered the building without anyone being suspicious, and went into the old janitor's office.

"Great, it worked."