Change

As if waiting for that cue, the air started to swirl in front of her open palm.

Swoosh—!

Trak—!

In a blink of an eye, a sharp crescent gust of wind shot forward from her open palm and hit the wall of Nero's drawing room, engraving a deep cut on it.

"Kyaaa! Sorry!" The smile on Amelia's face shifted into a wince when her spell made a cut on the wall.

"Noo! No, it's fine!" Nero promptly waved his hand in assurance. "More importantly, you did it!"

"Yes! I did it!" with an excited expression, Amelia practically started jumping up and down in joy.

"Haa! Congrats, Amelia!" Anastasia congratulated her with a bright smile on her face, genuinely happy for her friend.

"Wow! Nice one, Amelia!" Kent too joined in with a happy surprised look.

While looking at their delight, a warm feeling swelled inside Lucas. In his eyes, rather than the protagonists of a story, they looked more like kids. And Lucas was happy see them act their age for once.

They were just kids; they didn't have to fight wars and shoulder the burden of the entire world.

However, this world was cruel. It didn't give them the freedom to live their lives and decide their fate.

Despite facing many hardships, despite falling down many times, the main characters had to keep persevering to the end. 

And that's why Lucas hated the current Government. But he didn't want to mess with them since that would just cause more chaos.

On the other hand, in the eyes of the main cast and Amelia, the opinion of Lucas had improved a little. Not that Lucas cared what they thought about him.

"And that spell was truly perfect!"

"Aha, thank you~!"

As Lucas watched her fluster when Nero complimented her, his expression turned grim but returned to his usual indifferent expression before anyone noticed.

So she was a heroine after all. Lucas thought as he looked at Amelia with a complicated gaze. 

Even Lucas couldn't understand why he was irked by that notion.

*****

"Huuaaaa~"

While giving a loud yawn and a drowsy look plastered on his face, Lucas navigated through the campus to get to his class.

His sleep schedule was as messed up as always. He couldn't sleep at night even if he tried to and always got sleepy during the morning.

The only time he could get any sleep was during the evening, and that too wasn't guaranteed since there might be classes or a group meeting like yesterday.

"Hey, stop! Lucas!"

Pat—!

Right when Lucas was regaining his focus, a loud voice called out to him followed by a sharp slap to his back in the next second.

Lucas wasn't really surprised by this sudden attack but was rather curious as to why someone would talk to him.

Looking to his left, Lucas saw a light blue-haired elven boy with a stupid grin on his face.

"Kent?" 

That's all he said before stopping. 

It was not that Lucas was awkward with him or anything, rather he was suspicious as to why would anyone speak with him.

Kent, however, didn't seem to care and continued talking.

"Good morning, Lucas. Thank you for yesterday. Although I still couldn't cast my spell perfectly till the end. Aahaha!"

After teaching Amelia, Lucas, and Nero assisted Anastasia and Kent in spell casting. Although it was mostly Lucas who did the teaching while Nero just kept on babbling words like boom and swoosh.

 Anastasia managed to cast a perfect spell but Kent, even after practicing the whole evening, couldn't.

It wasn't that Kent was not talented but rather it was Amelia and Anastasia who were too talented.

Being able to cast perfect magic on the first day of practicing spellcasting is borderline impossible. 

The difference between them was that while the girls were the main characters, Kent was just a side character. And the world revolves around the main characters.

This is the main reason why there were many people who had such monstrous talents while other people were left to collect dust.

"Just keep practicing and you will be able to do it soon enough."

That was all Lucas said before continuing to go to his class. He didn't understand why Kent was talking to him but Lucas didn't want to involve with anyone. 

But Kent misunderstood Lucas's intention and looked at him with sparkly eyes.

"You are not bad! The rumors were far-fetched! They made you out to be some kind of brat from a rich family!"

There were a million things Lucas wanted to say to that statement but reeled it in as knew that it was pointless to talk with someone like Kent.

"Amelia said that you may have had an ulterior motive for helping us, but I don't believe it! Whatever your past may have been, I believe that you have changed for the better! To reward your effort in changing yourself, I'll become your best friend!"

Instead of changing for the better, it was more accurate to say that Lucas just became indifferent to everyone and didn't want to interact with others more than necessary.

"No need. Just leave me alone."

"Now now, don't say that. To express my gratitude, I, Kent Takeahint, will teach you how to live life!" Kent declared not caring for Luca's opinion.

He kept on talking and talking while walking beside Lucas. Realizing that it was a waste of effort to say anything to Kent, Lucas decided to ignore everything he said and just kept walking.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you why I called you."

Just as they were about to reach our class, Kent clapped his hands together as if he had suddenly remembered something.

"What?"

"Actually, on the way here, Amelia was following you like a stalker. I saw her and thought she wanted to talk to you but she was hesitating. So I felt like telling you to go talk to her." Kent responded.

Lucas raised a brow in confusion at Kent's words.

He already noticed that someone was following him from the start but decided to let them be since he didn't sense any hostility from them. But he didn't know who was following him and was surprised to hear Amelia's name.

"Right behind us."

Lucas immediately turned around and sure enough, he spotted a black-haired girl standing behind him amidst the crowd of cadets. She gazed at Lucas with cold and emotionless eyes.

"Were you following me?" Lucas asked.

He already knew that she was indeed following him but asked nonetheless, for he was sure that she would deny it.

"Following you? We are in the same class and this is the only way unless you want to take a detour around the hallway. Do you think I care that much about you to avoid you by walking extra steps?" Amelia replied with a scoff.

"Kent, here says otherwise, though." Lucas countered

She immediately fell silent but after a few seconds, she spoke again.

"I meant to thank you. I didn't do so yesterday and I'm not so petty as to forget someone's favors. Even if that 'someone' happens to be you."

Lucas knew that Amelia was inherently a kind person. Not only her, but most of the people he assumed to be the main characters were kind people at heart.

But he didn't like that fact one bit. He wasn't against showing compassion to others but he couldn't understand why she would direct such kindness to him of all people.

Although he had not yet seen it from them, Lucas was pretty sure that the other main characters were the same. They are the so-called 'good guys'.

And Lucas knew that people like them were the ones who would get used by others. They are too good to read other people's intentions.

In this case, Amelia has already started to believe that Luca might have changed.

She is keeping an eye on him believing that he's only putting on an act of indifference but if Lucas continues to behave the same way then she will eventually start to believe in Lucas despite her past experience with him.

Just how stupid can she be? Lucas thought as he looked at Amelia.

Lucas wasn't against being honorable, kind-hearted, and forgiving. Nor was he against believing other people.

But being kind and blindly believing others are two different things.

If it had been anyone else then Lucas wouldn't have cared what they did, but Lucas didn't want Amelia to be like that. He didn't want her to suffer in the future due to her kindness.

To be honest, Lucas wanted to lecture her about this but held back since he was in no position to do so.

"No need to think of it as a favor, I just did that because you guys were being so loud and were disturbing my sleep," Lucas replied calmly.

"Who are you calling loud?!" Amelia snapped and then gave a strange, conflicted look to his response. She was conflicted about what to think of his help.

"Fine, I will not think of it as a favor," she said her gaze turning cold once again.

Without waiting a single second, she flipped back her hair and walked past them to enter the class.

"Dude, I think she's into you," Kent commented making Lucas look at him with wide eyes. Although he knew that Kent always talked nonsense, he didn't imagine that he was this bad at reading the mood.

Lucas once again couldn't help but sigh at the troublesome team he had been assigned to.