23. He's in your Hands

Shortly after, the old woman teaching enchantment came into the class. It was the same boring 'enchanting phonetics'. Gaus learned two more words of the Old Tongue through his skill.

The next class taught them some subtle ways on how to protect themselves in the spirit realm. And to everyone's delight, the swordsmanship class wouldn't hold today as well. There were rumors that the teacher was wounded in battle. Gaus cared very little about all of these as he left the class and headed back to the cafeteria.

He ordered lemon juice and went on to spend most of the evening there, watching everyone that came into the cafeteria. From there, he went to the sports complex and spent the rest of the evening. He refused to retire and went to the library just to make sure there were people around him throughout the day.

When it was 12:35 am, he followed a group of loopers leaving the library to the hall of the dread to check out Tyren's status again.

Tyren Ayurvada Onis

Time left: 0

Erased

At first, there was just silence and doubt. He stared at the word 'erased' for several seconds before he started smiling. His smile turned into laughter. He had won. He didn't know how but his enemy was gone and that was what mattered.

For the first time in forever, Gaus completed the loop with a big smile on his face. He'd won.

***

The following loop came and Gaus went to the academy feeling a lot more enthusiastic about the future. Raya came and sat near him. They even discussed a few things about the Fifth World and its geography.

Linc came a few minutes later to continue his class on mana manipulation exercises.

Gaus was so happy that after the class he decided to escort Raya to the cafeteria and from there back to her room in the female dorm.

"I never took you for a nice guy," Raya told him.

Gaus frowned.

"Don't get me wrong, class rep, I enjoyed your company. It's just that you don't seem like the type to care about an insignificant girl like me or even..."

"I understand that my company is not needed," Gaus cut her off, looking every bit annoyed.

Raya was startled a bit before she laughed. "Okay. Come in."

He really should be training or raiding some dungeons and gaining exp, not wasting his time on some red-haired beauty.

"Thank you," Gaus said and followed her into the room.

The room looked exactly like Ariwen's but with pink paint. He was surprised to find out that both rooms were more spacious than his room.

"Put your backpack on the desk," she said, pointing at the only desk in the room. "You still didn't tell me why you are carrying a backpack when you already have an inventory. If we are going to be friends then we'll have to be honest with each other."

"Yeah." Gaus nodded his agreement as he dropped the backpack on the desk and headed towards the bed.

"Wait." Raya widened her eyes, slightly amused. "You can't, that's my bed, and I don't allow boys to sleep on my bed..."

Well, Gaus was already on the bed by the time she finished the sentence.

"Sorry."

Raya wasn't angry despite groaning loudly. After all, she wanted some company after spending so much time in the loop, alone.

"Tea?"

Gaus shook his head.

"Beer?"

He shook his head.

"Then what do you want?"

"Nothing. Just sit down and tell me about yourself."

Raya narrowed her eyes at the last part. "Stop asking about me when there are ladies in the school going crazy about your fair skin." She brought up the rumor.

"I was told one of them has red hair," Gaus said, grinning.

"It's not me." Raya countered, sticking out her chest. Too bad it wasn't much developed.

Gaus laughed. "Nobody says it's you."

Raya glared at him as she took the spot next to him on the bed.

"The last time you came to this dorm, Tiara started a rumor about you and Ariwen, I'm sure she'll cook up something again."

Gaus bit his lip as he remembered the scenario. There was just nothing that would happen in the class without that Tiara girl knowing about it. It went to the extent people were starting to think she had a divination skill.

The two of them reluctantly opened their interface and went to the class group.

<Tiara: it's confirmed.

Cara: Hey, what's confirmed?

Tiara: that the class rep is also hitting on Raya in addition to Antelina and Ariwen.

Cara: what? That red-haired girl with no boobs? Dammit, I can't believe men nowadays. They are just attracted to red hair.

Gatan: I'll start cursing you if you say one more word about the patriarch. He is probably just teaching her mana sense or something. Why can't you be positive for once? Urgh. I hate you.

Tiara: Gatan, how do you explain the class rep's empty backpack? I asked my sources to check it out and they told me it was empty. He was only bringing it to the class to book a seat for the girl. This is what's called crush, my friend. That's not even to mention that my sources told me the class rep is currently in her room. I'm going there right now to confirm.

Gatan: then what about Antelina?

Tiara: I don't have anything on her now but my sources...

Gatan: then shut up until you've legitimate information.>

Raya was angry about Cara criticizing her boobs, he could see it in her eyes, but she was more concerned about his backpack. To his dismay, the girl opened the backpack. She gave him a curious glance when it turned out to be empty.

Silence reigned for several minutes.

The backpack was used to distribute their daily uniforms. Everyone threw it away when they took their uniforms, but Gaus decided to keep it for the last two days, and in an attempt to 'know' his classmates better, he reserved a seat for Raya. It wasn't because he liked her or her red hair. No, absolutely not. Of course, red hairs were exotic and attractive and sexy, but that wasn't why he was reserving the seat for the beautiful, red-haired, young lady. He could have done it for any member of the class, red hair or not.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts when Raya got too close to his face. Her red hair fell on his face. The silky appearance and the pleasant perfume that was unique to every red hair. It was divine. He'd never seen anything so beautiful. Why didn't he realized how beautiful red hairs were until now? It was probably because he was stressed out, but that was no excuse to ignore red hair.

When Raya realized Gaus was only looking at her hair, she frowned. "What is it about my hair?"

Huh? He'd been stupidly staring for far too long.

He smiled, not sure what to say.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Can you dance?" Gaus asked and as if afraid she would object he added. "I can pay for it if you want."

"What?" She got up, fuming. "You want to pay me to entertain you? Do you take me for a slut or something? Get out."

"It's not like that. Listen to me..."

"Just get out."

Gaus left. He didn't mean any disrespect. It was just payment for what he loved. Tsk.

Luckily, the 'urge' subsided as night came. He went to his room, lay on his bed, and closed his eyes to think. To say this day was difficult was an understatement. Why the hell was he suddenly interested in Raya? He'd never felt like that before and he doubted something so sudden would happen naturally.

***

<Magiwatch has saved twenty-four hours.>

It was the same old awakening with the same old blue flash and yellow walls. Once he dodged the police, he ran to the academy.

Just to make sure, he blinked to the hall of the dread and rechecked Tyren's status. The guy was gone for good. He could finally relax and didn't have to bring swords to class.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. I tend to overreact sometimes," Raya apologized to him in a low voice as soon as she came into the class.

"Sit down," Gaus said.

For some odd reason, Gaus didn't reserve a seat for her today. The girl had to ask her friend Antelina to vacate her seat which was next to Gaus.

"Oh my, Raya has a crush, girls," Antelina shouted, making sure everyone had heard her.

"Huh?"

"So Tiara was right?"

"But what about Ariwen?"

"What about you?"

Shit.

At this point, two middle-aged men came into the class. One was Zeir, the guy who brought Ariwen to the class on the day Gaus came, and the other was... Tyren Ayurvada Onis.

Gaus jumped to his feet with a pounding heart. He frantically retrieved three swords from his inventory and activated all his skills at once. Every cell in his body was telling him to run but there was only one exit door that was already blocked by the enemy.

What the hell was going? Wasn't this guy erased 30 hours ago?

Zeir frowned at Gaus's sudden outburst.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Gaus reluctantly sat down oblivious of the stares around him as he kept the swords by his side.

"Where's Linc anyway?" Zeir asked.

"He is late," Gaus answered, not taking his eyes off Tyren.

"Who's the class rep?" Zeir asked.

"I am," Gaus said.

"Alright," Zeir said, turning to Tyren. "This is Tyren, he came yesterday evening. Because of his affinity for soul magic, the upper echelon has decided to promote him to this class. I'll leave him in your hands before the teacher comes."

With that, the man left Tyren Onis in his care and left.