Overexertion

As Gerhardt did his best to fully wake himself up, Ensen went into his office to work a little bit.

However, as he began to get bored with the absentminded work, Ensen began to let his mind wander.

'I wonder what caused Alina to miss today. She seemed so excited when I told her she could still attend school.' Ensen pondered as he began thinking up fandom theories, most of them absurd.

'No, she can't be an English spy or anything. I wonder if she has a job?' Ensen thought, trying to think realistically.

While her having a job was possible, it shouldn't have been a problem for Alina to inform her employer that she was starting school which instantly crossed that off his list.

Knowing that speculation was useless if he didn't do anything about it, Ensen did his best to remain on focus as he continued his work.

After school had ended for the day, Ensen drove everybody home before continuing his work late into the night with barely any breaks.

When Ensen woke up the next morning, a heavy pounded attacked his head viciously.

'I probably worked too much yesterday, and now my head pays for it.' Ensen sighed as he slowly got out of bed, trying to ignore the massive headache.

Slowly getting dressed, Ensen knew that he needed to be there consistently every day until there are a few more staff members at the very least. After all, he was the teacher for 75% of the courses there at the moment.

"Emilia will be coming a little later in the day too, so I need to do my best," Ensen muttered as he walked out of his apartment.

Walking over towards Flora's, Ensen knocked on her door lightly.

The door quickly opened with Flora standing there prepared to head out.

As Flora looked at Ensen, her face turned concerned as she said "Are you okay, Principal? You seem a little pale."

"Ahh, nothing to worry about. Just a little headache. Now come on let's go. There's a friend visiting the Academy later." Ensen said, quickly ending the conversation.

After they had arrived in the car, they began to head over to the orphanage in silence.

As they pulled in front of the building, Ensen decided to stay in the car this time to save his energy.

"Can you go knock on the door Flora? It would be a big help." Ensen said while trying to ignore the piercing pain.

"Okay," Flora said simply before heading towards the door.

A few moments later the other students appeared and headed towards the car together.

Ensen turned towards them and greeted them all once they entered the car. Although they all had similar reactions as Flora did earlier. Even Anabella pitched in slightly which surprised him by quite a bit.

"Are you okay Principal?"

"Principal! Are you dying?!"

"Okay?"

"Don't worry guys. I just have a little headache. I'm sure it'll go away soon." Ensen responded.

As all of his students stared at him with both suspicion and concern in their eyes, he made his way to the Academy.

'This is awkward. I know I'm a bit pale but… they're just staring at me.' Ensen thought self-consciously, beginning to wonder if there was some of his breakfast left on his face.

After they had pulled in to the parking lot Ensen quickly parked the car before nearly bolting out of the car towards the main entrance. After unlocking the door Ensen headed towards the staff room to grab a bottle of water to try to help with the pain.

Once he entered the staff room Ensen swiftly headed towards the small fridge. Although right when he was about to be in front of the fridge, a sudden tear in space appeared causing Ensen to fling himself backward in panic. After all, he had no idea what would happen if he touched it.

As Ensen was forced to wait for Gerhardt to appear through the portal, he leaned against a nearby wall and tapped his foot in impatience.

'At least Gerhardt is teaching his class first.' Ensen sighed as he tried to think of something to distract himself from the pain, however, it was no use.

"Hey system, what's wrong with me?" Ensen asked, slightly concerned since he had never had a headache this bad before.

[This is a simple headache from overexertion on your part. After all, you did work for well over eight hours yesterday and didn't get much sleep either. Not even mentioning the fact that you have not drank a significant amount of water or ate much either. You need to take better care of yourself.] The system concluded.

With a slightly awkward expression, Ensen realized what the system said was true.

Luckily Gerhardt had just appeared from the tear in space, so Ensen could now access the fridge. Grabbing a bottle of water and a little snack he had put in there prior, he headed towards the couch.

With one hand holding his forehead and the other holding the now opened bottle of water, Ensen slowly took a drink as Gerhardt had regained consciousness from his teleportation.

"Morning principal," Gerhardt said casually as he began to walk over.

However, similar to the others, he also noticed that Ensen looked rather unwell. "Are you feeling okay Principal? You seem to be in pain."

'How many times have I heard that?' Ensen sighed pitifully as he regretted his actions from yesterday.

"I'm okay, I just kind of neglected to eat or drink yesterday and now I'm paying the price," Ensen said.

Gerhardt left Ensen to himself as he didn't want to disturb him further and instead headed towards the classroom.

As he left the room, Ensen took out his phone and called Emilia.

A few seconds later as the phone continued to ring, Emilia picked it up.

"Hey Ensen, I was just about to head over there soon. Why'd you call?" She asked with a tone of excitement.

'She really is curious about my Academy, huh?' Ensen smiled at the thought.

"Oh, are you? Think you'd be up with having breakfast somewhere first? I kinda… forgot about it." Ensen said in an awkward tone of voice, hoping that Emilia wouldn't understand his intentions.

"I was just going to grab something on my way… but sure, we can eat somewhere first. Is it alright to leave the Academy, though?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah it's fine, all of the students are in a class right now and we'll be back before it ends." Ensen clarified.

"Well, then that's that." She said before picking a place for them to dine.

"Yeah, that place sounds nice. I can be there in just a few minutes, it's not too far away." Ensen said as he began heading to the car, remembering to take his bottle of water with him.

After hanging up with Emilia, he began to make his way there. It was a local restaurant that had pretty good reviews for a restaurant in the countryside. Emilia picked this place specifically because of its relative closeness to the Academy, which Ensen thought was nice.

Pulling into the parking lot rather quickly, Ensen parked as he looked at the rather new construction. A large glass window at the front of the store revealed a few other people dining inside.

After entering the restaurant and asking for a table for two, he was quickly led by the waitress and given a menu.

A few minutes later as Ensen was looking over the menu, Emilia had arrived. After parking her car she entered and walked over towards Ensen's table.

"Hey Ensen, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Emilia greeted him as she took a seat.

"It really has, Emilia. You seem excited to see my Academy, but I'm sure you know it's not anywhere near as impressive as yours." Ensen said with a half-joking and a half self-deprecating tone.

Emilia looked thoughtfully at Ensen for a few seconds before speaking honestly "It's a different circumstance. I'm just a principal of an already existing Academy. But you, on the other hand, are the founder of a brand new one. In terms of achievements, I'd say you already passed me."

As Ensen finished hearing what she had to say, he stared at her speechlessly for a few seconds before smiling gently.

"You can't say that. I know just how hard you work to make sure the school runs smoothly. Besides, I'm sure you could establish your own Academy if you wanted too." Ensen responded.

"Well… maybe, but that's too much work for me. Besides, I hope to be the principal of SilverLeaf for a long time. It's… fulfilling, you know?" She said in contemplation.

"It's not even been two weeks since my Academy opened but… I know. I just wish there was some way to help the students more." Ensen sighed as he thought about the living conditions of the majority of his students.

"Well, I'm sure you can fix that with time," Emilia said with a bright smile.