Chapter 42: Early Call

The last thing Arsha remembered was knocking down the peacock's shield before passing out and now that he had regained his consciousness, he found himself in a dark room.

He could tell he was on a comfortable bed and although he could clearly see where he was because of his enhanced eyesight he could tell that he was in the school just from the smell of the room.

That wasn't the only observation he made though, someone was sitting beside him with her face buried in the bed, she seemed to be asleep.

"Claudia?" He muttered.

'No, it's not her, why did I let that slip out?'

The body moved just after that as she slowly lifted her face off the bed.

"It's just me, sorry to disappoint you." She muttered before running her left eye with her hand.

"Maya."

"Yep, it's me." She responded with a nod. "Claudia was here but she left a while ago, your sister was also here but she left much earlier."

"Oh, I see." He uttered before slowly sitting up on the bed.

"The nurse said you passed out mainly due to physical and mana exhaustion so how are you doing now?" She inquired.

He could tell from the way she asked that question and the expression on her face that she genuinely cared and was worried about him after all it wouldn't make sense for someone who didn't care to be waiting for him to wake up and that was exactly what bothered him.

Pointing out why someone like her was hell-bent on being close to him after he had tried to subtly tell her many times that he wasn't interested and everything he had done to make her keep her distance from him like everyone else.

'She's just like her after those two died.' He said subconsciously with his gaze fixated on her and before he knew it, he was biting his lower lip with a look of anguish on his face.

She couldn't exactly see his face because the room was dark but she could tell something was wrong because he was taking too long to answer her question.

"Umm…..Arsha."

"I'm okay now, there's nothing for you to worry about." He remarked with a sharp and serious tone to his voice.

"That's great." She smiled. "But you still need to…."

"Hey can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead." She responded with a nod.

"Why are you so hard to shake off?" He asked.

"Shake off, how?" She replied with a confused expression on her face.

"I've told you that you don't need to concern yourself with my well-being." He blurted.

"Hmmm."

She wasn't quick to respond to that as she placed her left thumb on her chin with a puzzled look on her face.

"Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

"Mistaken about what?"

"I don't recall you ever blatantly telling me to stay away from you." She uttered.

"Well, yeah but you should be smart and do so like everyone else." He said bluntly before slowly shifting his gaze away from her. "You'll just end up getting hurt." He mumbled.

"I'm not like everyone else." She snapped.

"Huh?"

He turned his gaze back to her at that moment to see that she had quite a fuming expression on her face.

'I didn't think she would get upset by that, this is the first time I've seen her get angry.'

"Don't lump me in with the people who judge someone without even trying to understand them, sure you have your flaws but so does everyone else, I know you're not a bad person you're just misunderstood and I don't like that. Being your friend is a choice I made on my own and I know that you think you don't need any friends but I still want to try, you can't be alone forever."

By the time she was done talking, she was panting a bit and was trying to calm that.

"Anyway, it's not like I'm the only one, Claudia was really worried about you."

Arsha didn't exactly know how to feel after hearing her say all that, he just kept his gaze on her for a while before turning away.

'If I had found a way to directly hurt her when all of this started then this wouldn't be happening.' He grumbled inwardly. 'Now I can't even think of doing it.'

"Um… Arsha." She called before leaning a little closer to him.

The door was slid open at that moment and just after that the lights in the room were turned on.

Maya was startled by the lights suddenly turning on and in her attempt to respond to that, she ended up crashing on his body.

"Owww."

The person who had just walked into the room turned out to be Jayden, Arsha's roommate and he happened to have a black plastic bag in his hand.

"Umm…..I hope I'm not interrupting something here." He said with an awkward expression on his face.

"No… no…no." Maya stuttered before quickly getting off his body. "Whatever you're thinking, get it off your mind."

That reaction was able to get a smile out of him as he began to move closer to them.

"Okay, if you say so."

He grabbed one of the seats in the room and sat beside her before presenting the bag to Arsha.

"So, how are you doing?"

"What's that?" Arsha inquired with his gaze on the bag.

"Some food for you, I figured you'd be hungry and I hope you are." He answered.

'I guess I am a bit hungry after everything that happened.'

"Sure, I'll take it." He uttered before taking the bag from him.

"It's glad to see that you're okay." He smiled.

He found that smile irritating but he wasn't the only one smiling, she was also smiling.

'You're both foolish, nothing good ever comes from being my friend.'

__________ ___________

The next day came by after a couple of hours and while classes officially started by 8:00 AM both Arsha and Claudia were called out as early as 7:00 AM.

Other than the buildings made by the academy there were a few other buildings around the area mainly research facilities and a teacher's lounge that nobody used anymore.

There were three research facilities and at the moment only one of them seemed to be serving a purpose for the academy.

Only one of them served a purpose for the academy but ultimately only two served a purpose, the other one's purpose was being Gravin's personal research lab.

The building was quite far away from the other buildings toward the northwest and that worked quite well for him since he didn't like people disturbing him.

Arsha was the first person to arrive in front of the building but he wasn't that much earlier than Claudia who popped up just three minutes later.

A smile appeared on her face the moment she spotted him from a distance staring at the building and with that excitement she quickly hurried over to him.

"Hey, you're okay." She said just as she stopped beside him. "With what happened yesterday, I didn't expect you to be out and about today, at least I didn't expect you to get here before me."

She seemed to be talking way too fast because she was happy and that didn't make any sense to Arsha.

'What is she smiling for?'

He turned his gaze to her for a few seconds before turning it back to the building.

"I'll be heading inside now." He said before he began walking toward the entrance leaving Claudia there with a confused expression on her face.

He got to the door in no time and with his watch, he was able to unlock it and disappear inside.

"I honestly can't get a read on this guy, what's his problem?"

She was confused at first but now she was a bit upset.