“Why are you looking at those people?” Lily asked.

“Nothing, it’s someone I knew, my neighbor, to be exact. Look, she’s the black hair gal with round eyes wearing a red ribbon ponytail.”

Lily glance at the table. I don’t know if she’s squinting her eyes or not because of the mask we’re wearing. Waiting for her response, I glance at the other people who are with Stephanie.

She’s sitting alongside 2 other girls and in front of them were 3 guys; all of them are wearing uniforms. Perhaps they’re classmates or schoolmates of Stephanie. Also, two people stood out to me. It was the red hair twins from the spirit ceremony before.

Once my eyes caught them, I’m in bafflement by the chances of us meeting like this because from the looks of it; they have a good relationship with Stephanie. Or was it? I can’t tell because the red hair guy kept talking to her even though Stephanie was completely ignoring him. The dude is clearly desperate on getting her attention that he’s looking like a fool. I’m holding back my laughter.

“Why are you chuckling so stupidly?”

“Nothing-nothing. Pfft... Let’s just order something.”

“Okay...? Let’s just order then.”

“Wait, how can we eat if Master Irene prohibited us from exposing our faces in public?”

“Dumbass, Clara already told us how. Are you even listening to her earlier?”

“Nope.”

“Haah... Use your thumb and hold the right cheek of your mask, then the lower half of the mask will disappear.”

I did what Lily said, and hold the right cheek of my mask. Surprisingly, it works, astonish by it; I can’t help myself but say. “Wow, that’s so cool.”

“You look like a kid who discovered something cool.”

Staring at Lily with a look of contempt, recalling about the time earlier. Then I mutter under my breath. “Look who’s talking...”

Afterward, Lily proceeds on ordering the food. She even took the initiative of ordering mine too—What a piece—A kind girl. Didn’t even ask me what I wanted, she just straight up ordered everything for me or her; I can’t tell.

When the food arrived, we naturally ate it; however, the amount of food she ordered for me is too many. Meanwhile, she ordered a simple steak. Like, the one she ordered would be worth five-person order, including desserts too. Needless to say, I ate them all because wasting food is deeply unethical, and it’s disrespectful for the cooks.

“That so delicious!” I said with a look of content on my face.

“Right? Although I would prefer Clara’s cooking...”

“Now that you’re mentioning it, you’re right... Got a feeling that Clara sent us here just to compare her cooking...”

“Me too...”

“Anyway, I’ll greet her first. Just wait here, Lily. And, don’t bother anyone, okay? I don’t want to get into trouble because of you.”

“Fine, fine, go already for heaven’s sake.”

I made my way to the table with Stephanie. Noticing me, their eyes naturally went to me, confusingly, pondering on who am I or probably even on what I am. Setting my gaze on Stephanie, I call her name out.

“Steph! Yow~!”

Stephanie was confused at first; however, it only took her a few seconds to realize who I am. Although, I don’t know if she’ll be able to recognize me because my voice became deeper from how it used to be.

“Claude?! I-It’s been a long time.”

“Wow, you actually recognized me despite my voice?”

“I mean, you’re the only one who calls me Steph...” Stephanie averts her gaze the other way and covers her face with her hair.

How cute.

Out of nowhere, the red hair guy stood up angrily from where he’s sitting, leering at me with veins popping on his temple. Gawking at him, I ponder on my thoughts on what ticked him off when I only came here to greet Stephanie. He has been like this way before the spirit ceremony. I haven’t done anything to him from what I remember. It's quite obvious. Therefore, I will act stupid in front of him just to irritate him more.

“Hello? How may I help you? Aren’t you from the spirit ceremony? Nice to meet you. My name is Claude Weiss; the disciple of Sword Blade Saint.” I said with a smile on my face; obviously, the lower half of my face is visible.

Unexpectedly, he exudes an ominous aura around him along with the mana outburst. It looks like he’s about to summon his spirit and attack me without caring about the surrounding people. Even Stephanie and her friends notice it, so I took action. I hastily took a small step and extends my knife hand to his neck, gathering my quintessence on it, creating a dark violet flame on that hand.

“If you value your life, I advise you to don’t do something funny, or I’ll end your life right here, right now. Trust me, I won’t hesitate. One slight suspicious movement, I’ll decapitate you. Sit down, and don't make things problematic.” I said grimly.

In a blink of an eye, I appeared in front of the red hair guy, threatening him. Not only that, but there’s also a large icicle pointing to its neck coming from the table of Lily. Glancing at the back, I saw her open hand stretched towards us. Moreover, the guy was trembling in fear, and he’s not the only one but also the others. In the end, he sat down in his seat and lowers his gaze.

This person is hot-headed, better not to irritate him, or else it would affect the surrounding people. We're in a public space, if I use violence here it could be problematic for me and I don't want to taint Master Irene's reputation.

As a result of this, we garnered eyes and created a commotion from other people who are eating at the restaurant too, but there’s aren’t many people eating in here, anyway. The staff arrived, and I told them it’s a huge misunderstanding which they easily accepted, baffling me.

But hey, I’m not in trouble, so it’s a huge win for me.

“Good. Anyway, see ya around, Stephanie.”

“Yeah, I’ll visit you sometimes. Sorry, I can’t visit you when you had your spirit ceremony. It's some school-related stuff.” Stephanie said with a smile on her face.

“It’s fine, you said you’re busy.”

Surprisingly enough, Stephanie acted normal, even revealing a smile, as if she wanted it to happen—Does she? I’ll ask her another time because the one I’m accompanying would easily get upset if I take more time in here. Leaving Stephanie and her friends behind, without even asking their names.

I forgot to ask. Oh well, there’s still next time.

While walking back to the table, I saw Lily tapping her fingers on the table.

“What did you do?” Lily said, as if she’s implying that I’m always at fault.

“Oi, I did nothing. For your information, that guy has always been hostile against me since the beginning when I saw him way back at the spirit ceremony.”

“Wait, you already knew the guy? I thought you only knew the girl?”

“Only met him at the spirit ceremony, but I didn’t do anything, nor even interacted with him. He kept glancing at me as if I killed his parents or something.” I shrugged my shoulders.

“What can I say, you’re natural at having enemies despite doing nothing. That’s an impeccable skill, Claude. Not all people can make enemies as you do. Can’t you believe it, doing nothing?”

“Yes, yes. I know. I’m the greatest person in the world. Imagine having a 30-26 record against the elven princess, that's unimaginable. That feat itself is amazing. I’m so proud of myself~ Not all people can do that, only me~ I’m so amazing~” I said in a grating voice which pissed the hell out of Lily, veins popping on her face while giving the death stare.

“Tsk—!”

Lily became tight lip because what I said about the record of our sparring is true. She then releases a pressuring cold aura around her. I'm completely unfazed about it. I know that making her angry could be annoying later; nonetheless, watching her acting like this fuels my happiness.

“Let’s go, we have nothing to do here.”

“Tsk—Fine.”

“What about the bill?”

“Clara said it’ll be automatically billed once we showed the necklace to them.”

“Nice, that’s so convenient.”

Soon after, we left the restaurant, a big uproar comes next. An ear-splitting explosion resounds throughout the street, where countless people are taking a stroll; shortly after, a blast of wind occurs because of it. The blast blew away the people on the street. Only Lily and I weren’t affected by it.

“What the—!”

The aftermath of it was devastating, hearing the screams and cries of the wounded. I can’t see any further than the end of my nose because of the thick smoke that took over the entire street, so I leap on the top of the building to take a good look at what’s happening.