Rumors

Without knowing any better, I left Jess in the carriage, who was smiling to herself. Without another word, I made my way to class.

On the way to take the steps, I couldn't help but notice two people I hadn't seen for quite a while.

Carrot Top and Baby Man.

To be honest, I'd almost forgotten they had even existed. They still looked as ridiculous as they always did, but there seemed to be bags forming under their eyes. For whatever reason, they weren't getting enough sleep.

Not that I cared.

Surprisingly enough, they stayed true to their word and hadn't talked to me or approached me all this time.

Well, to be fair they never agreed to it in the first place, but still.

Upon making it to the classroom, Nathan tapped my arm.

"Hey, let's have a talk outside the school during English class."

I gave a quick nod.

"Sure."

His eyes were open just a little too wide compared to normal, showing that he was just a tad bit overstimulated currently. I couldn't help but think of the plans he had mentioned to me earlier.

It seemed that all the pieces were in place and it was going down today.

Regardless, it was time for us to focus on class. Raisa greeted me, and I casually greeted her back before sitting down. Later on in class, Harold began explaining the simple earth spell, which was simple enough.

Everyone spent their time in class practicing it, some far more proficient than others. I noticed that Sam and Raisa were both able to cast it easily. There were also a few from the main cast of the game that was doing it as well, but that was to be expected.

As always, Nathan was succeeding in casting, but failing in controlling his powers properly.

Seeing others like that made me realize I had been slacking in my meditation. I suppose I would focus more on that later.

Math class was the same boring thing it was as always. Although Karin had moved on to teaching multiplication, it made no real difference. She slowly explained it through visual displays, drawing thirty-six different boxes in the form of a square to show the answer to six multiplied by six.

Apparently, that was how you showed your work by the way.

After eating lunch, Nathan and I ended up breaking off from Raisa to head out of the school. Raisa seemed a little disappointed but didn't fight against it. After making our way out and to a back corner of the school I spoke up.

"So, what are you going to do?"

Nathan took a deep breath. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. A neutral frown was on his face.

"I learned a lot about him while spying and was able to catch him planning a meeting with someone. The place is a back alley, so my guess is that he's going to try and kill that person and become a blood mage then and there."

I raised an eyebrow.

"You sure you can handle that alone? We haven't learned any real offensive spells yet."

Nathan narrowed his eyes slightly.

"A wooden spear is more than enough. Right now, he still isn't a blood mage. If I can catch him before he becomes one, then it should work out."

A smirk formed on my face. I leaned against the wall with him and looked up into the blue sky.

"You're playing a real dangerous game."

Nathan laughed before pointing at me with a finger gun.

"We've always been playing a dangerous game. After all, it's Downfall From Grace we're talking about."

I let out a sigh.

"Alright then. What do you need from me?"

He scratched his arm as he spoke.

"You're going to be setting up the free food thing at the same place right?"

I gave a nod. That was my intention in the first place.

"If everything goes to plan, yes."

Nathan rubbed his chin in thought.

"This would be way more convenient if there was something like watches, but whatever I guess. If I'm not there by the time you finish your first bowl of pottage... come looking for me."

My eyes narrowed ever so slightly. That kind of timeframe was just way too unreliable, especially considering he didn't know when I would end up leaving and how fast I could even finish a bowl in the first place.

"Where should I look for you?"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders.

"It actually isn't that far off from where you are. If you remember where I came from to meet you, go that way and after passing by five houses it will be the alley to your left."

After a few moments of thought, I once again gave a nod.

"Got it."

From there I tapped my chin a few times before letting out a sigh.

"I found the Daughter of Chaos by the way."

Nathan's head snapped to me. He looked rather confused.

"I didn't think you were the type to go out of their way to do dangerous things... how did you even get to meet the Darcy Family?"

A bitter smile formed on my face.

"Raisa is part of the Darcy Family. I'm fairly certain she's the Daughter of Chaos considering there's only one child from their family."

Nathan's face twitched in surprise. A wry smile formed on his face as a chuckle seeped out from him.

"To think that she's just been there all along. So, what are you going to do about it?"

I held up my chin with my thumb and the side of my index finger.

"She has a lot of trust in me right now. Not to mention, she seems to be in puppy love with me right now which is significantly lowering her judgment abilities. My current goal will be to investigate how they became the trio of murderers and if there's a party behind it."

My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

"But I also plan on making the building blocks so that should the time come, I can kill all three of them in one fell swoop."

Nathan nodded approvingly. He then proceeded to smirk as a derisive chuckle came from him.

"I would say not to get attached, but..."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"If anything, you may have problems not getting attached enough."

I simply rolled my eyes.

"Come on, like you're any better than me. Minori's been on your back for a while now hasn't she."

Nathan clicked his tongue and held onto the side of his head with frustration.

"Stop, don't remind me. You ruined my good mood completely."

I raised my eyebrow with a smile.

"Come on, it can't be that bad to have an angel herself praise you!'

Nathan pressed his lips together into a flat line.

"...It feels like I have two moms nagging me all the time. They keep asking about you, and telling me that I should be staying away."

I couldn't help but belt over in laughter.

"If it makes you feel better, I'd be down to take on your burdens if that were possible."

Nathan tilted his head back until it hit the wall and sighed.

"Honestly... it feels like compensation for not having a mom before. But this definitely was not what I imagined it would be like."

His expression relaxed while his eyes opened up a little wider.

"It's just really pissing me off that they're judging and saying so many things about you without even knowing the kind of person you are."

I put my arm over his shoulder and shot him a smile.

"Come on, you know that kind of stuff doesn't bother me. Plus, if it wasn't for the fact I took over this body then the rumors probably wouldn't be all that far off."

Nathan similarly smiled, but it was more of a sad one.

"I know, I know. But still, I just don't like it."

We remained there in silence for a little while. At some point, Nathan broke the silence with a question.

"By the way, how're things with Jess?"

My eyelid twitched. Of course, you were asking about her.

"To be honest, most of the time, the moments I share with her are just her silently glaring at me. From what I've gathered, it seems that she's lonely or something along those lines. My guess is that it's related to how our parents have yet to show up. Just this morning she made me agree to bathe with her."

Right after I said that last line, I noticed the way that Nathan looked at me had changed considerably. His eyes burned with extreme jealousy.

Suddenly, Nathan jumped up to grab me by the shoulders, pulling me down to his height. Then, he began shaking me back and forth.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? HOW COME WHEN I TRY TO PEEK YOU DRAG ME AWAY BUT YOU JUST GET TO BATHE WITH HER FOR FREE?"

I took a deep breath while being shaken.

Naturally, as a mature person, I was going to be the bigger man here.

As such, I grabbed onto his shoulders.

...and began shaking harder than him.

"BITCH, YOU THINK I WANTED THIS? HOW DARE YOU CALL MINORI'S WORDS OF WORRY NAGGING! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO LISTEN TO THOSE DIRECTED AT ME?"

Naturally, being the bigger man meant screaming louder and shaking harder. I mean, what else could that phrase mean?

From there, we spent a good thirty minutes or so just yelling at one another. Not once did the topic stray from how jealous we were of the other.

Eventually, we calmed down from our heated argument, which was basically just us gushing over our respective waifu and how they were amazing.

Naturally, the conversation progressed nowhere because neither of us cared about the other's mentioned good points. I mean, that's only natural considering Jess is just a boring girl with big breasts.

As for Minori, she just radiates positivity!

Ah, wait. I'm not arguing about Minori... for now.

Nathan and I decided to go back to catch what was left of English class, which surprised Dennis as he didn't think we would ever show up.

As for gym class, Rae just showed us some more stances that were still fairly basic and made us practice them.

Once school was over, Raisa ended up inviting me to her manor once more, but I rejected her. Even if it wasn't for the sake that I told Nathan I'd be out there giving away food, I didn't want to set the precedent that I would be available every day.

Upon getting on the carriage, I simply closed my eyes and began meditating. I heard Jess get on the carriage at some point, but she didn't disturb me.

The moment I got off the carriage, I headed to James, informing him that I wished to attempt handing out food once more. With that, our group set off once more to the same place.

After setting everything up, including the sign, I simply sat down at the center of the table. This time, the chefs only prepared ten different sets of meals. That way, even if nobody came up to eat, then at least each person with us would get one bowl.

Once the pottage was ready, I began eating it.

Nathan's words hung up over my head, but I didn't try to shovel the food down. I decided to try and eat normally, to best follow the time frame he had set up. By the way, while a crowd had formed none of the commoners stood up to have a bowl.

There were murmurs once again. I could barely catch a few.

"He's here again?"

"He must really need people to experiment on!"

I had no idea what they were talking about, but it looked like there were many rumors surrounding me.

Once I was halfway through the pottage, to my surprise, I heard a person approaching. I raised my head.

"Ah, would you like-"

"You!"

I froze in place.

It was Minori, and she looked... angry.