Dumb Meeting

"...What are you doing?"

Staring at the girl who had a navy-blue hair in front of me, I sighed. "I'm serious here... What do you want from me?"

Although I knew the girl who was in front of me was Athena, one of the protagonist's future girlfriend, I still asked just to not raise any suspicion.

"You..." With a frustrated expression, the girl in front of me pointed her fingers an inches away from my nose. "Who are you?" The girl asked.

I went silent...

𝘐𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯...? I internally thought. Bit by bit, I was starting to get annoyed with this girl.

Sighing, I scratched the back of my neck and tilted my head in confusion while forcing a smile. "What do you mean by asking 'who are you'...?"

The girl in front of me suddenly pulled my collar. "You... You're the same as me, am I right?"

Both of our face was only a few inches from each other, so I decided to push her away. "Stop it, will you? You're annoying." I said, clearly not hiding any tint of annoyance from my voice.

I don't know why she was doing this, but I knew for the fact that if this continues, I might end up saying something that I'll regret in the future.

"Haa?! It's because of you my long plan got ruined!" The girl fell on her knees, tears started forming from her eyes.

I then took a side glance from the surroundings. And when I did, I noticed some people started mumbling something to each other...

-That guy... Isn't he the person who beat the infamous Alicia?

-Really?! That's impossible. I thought that the only person who can beat her is the 'guy' who fought fifteen ranked students in a test.

-I also heard that that guy tried to hit on her during the fight.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴...? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵' 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴... 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦. I sighed.

After I finally had enough listening to their annoying chatters, I picked up the girl from earlier who had started crying, placing her to my shoulder.

"L-let go of me, you creep!"

Suddenly, the girl started struggling from my arms, as she began punching and hitting my back using her petite little arms.

"If you continued this meaningless actions, I will throw you out of the window."

Truth to be told, I'm literally planning to do that if she ever decides to continue...

Hearing that, she stopped and covered her mouth with her hands. After finally regaining some peace in mind, I hopped down the window before heading to the back of the academy.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘢'𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨... I thought to myself internally.

After I finished checking with the surroundings if there are any people nearby, I placed the girl down. "So... What do you want to talk about?" I asked, cracking the back of my neck.

While she was still on her knees, the girl pouted her lips and turned her head aside before giving a reply. "You.... You've read the novel didn't you?" Her expression turned serious.

"I see..." With a bored expression, I sat down beneath a tree. Under the shade of the leaves, I looked around and saw the blooming flowers in the flowerbed. "I guess my theory is indeed correct."

The strong gust of wind blew passed us, as the girl's hair swayed through, smoothly.

Clicking my tongue, I let out a deep sigh before slumping my back to the trunk behind me. "But still... Are you an idiot?" I squinted my eyes and looked at her with an aloof, more likely with a bored expression.

After hearing what I had commented, the girl's expression became dumbfounded as she began staring at me with a grumpy look.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked.

Taking out a book from my bag and turning them a few pages, I replied, "Why would you even tell me that you're the same as I am? Didn't you even thought about the possibility of what may happen in the future? What if I turned out to be the bad guy?"

She became silent after hearing my reply. I was about to continue when I noticed that she had a teary expression. Because of it, I stopped myself for a few seconds before sighing once again.

𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨...?

"Sniff... Sniff... It was all ruined because of you... My plan..."

Feeling annoyed by this, I turned my head to face her. "Stop being a crybaby. What are your plans anyway?" I said, hoping for her to give a reply.

"I... I want to exclude myself from the story."

𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺... Without noticing it, a laugh was threatened to appear from my mouth. "Pft! Y-you... You only managed to read halfway through the novel, didn't you?"

"H-how-"

Before she could even say anything else, I continued speaking. "The novel... In the future, there will be war between the True Demons and the other Races. No matter how hard you try to exclude yourself from the scenario, you can't just escape it since you're one of the heroine."

She became speechless.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Stuttering from her sentence, she swallowed her saliva.

"Also... Even if you're not, it's almost literally impossible to escape the fighting... unless you're dead that is."

It was as if a bomb was dropped, that her face suddenly became pale. From the expression she was making, it seems like this girl doesn't even have a knowledge about that.

Now, I'm starting to feel bad about laughing at her... I guess I really had no choice but to do this.

I stood up and walked towards her. She noticed this, then slightly turned her head upward to look at me in the eyes.

"I'll give you two choice," Saying that, I raised two of my fingers. "First, you do your things while I do mine. If you choose this choice, We'll ignore each other and won't ask for help if ever needed."

Athena was about to avert her eyes away from me when I crouched down. "Wh-what are you doing?!" She stared at me, embarrassed, probably because both our faces was only a meter from each other.

With my devilish smile, I stared at her in silence for a couple of seconds. Then, extended my hands. "For your second choice, you'll take the blame from what I'm planning to do in the future... In return, I'll help you get your family's stolen title back and destroy the noble family who had stole them in just a few months."

The moment Athena heard the word 'stolen title', she looked at me with a shocked expression.

"H-how did-"

"Just by reading a novel, of course" I didn't let her finish her sentence. Athena looked at me like she wanted to say something else, but she held it back.

Letting out a sigh, Athena reached out for my hand. I helped her get up, then waited a few seconds for her reply.

Athena turned around and patted her bottom to remove the dirt. "I'll think about it... Is that fine?" She muttered in a low voice. Though, it was loud enough for me to hear.

"That's fine." I replied with a smile.

After she left me alone, I went back to the tree from earlier and took a sit.

Enjoying the refreshing breeze blowing through the trees, I finally had a very leisure time.

𝘐𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺... I thought to myself. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘯 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩.

With that, the day continued without any problem rising... except for the rumors, that is.