Benjamin gave them a smile of appreciation and declared.

"Thank you, all of you. But I can take care of myself. I am not as harmless as I look."

Somehow, his show of confidence only got him looks of pity, as if they were looking at a delusional child. One of the girls even whispered, "this is serious".

Feeling a bit isolated in his opinion, Benjamin shamelessly changed the subject.

"Alright! Should we dance some more, everyone?"

They gave him a wry smile but someone restarted the music anyway and they went back to dancing again. This time, there were no more interruptions and they enjoyed themselves for a while. When more and more of them started to get tired, they decided to go back outside for some drinks and food. On the way, Benjamin excused himself to go to the toilet. He went to do his business but, on his way to the garden, he thought that now might as well be a good opportunity to have a bit of time for himself and tour the villa. The place was like a small castle and exploring it felt like a bit of an adventure in itself.

Benjamin started with the places he hadn't gone to before, namely the second and third floors. He climbed the stairs and reached the second floor. The vibe was different here. Instead of loud music and dynamic people, it seemed the second floor was set up for quieter students to enjoy themselves. There were rooms full of board games, with teenagers happily playing them. There were also rooms dedicated to console games. These were mostly frequented by girls, with the occasional boy here and there. Benjamin got tempted to play with them for a bit but decided that he shouldn't let his friends and classmates wait for him for too long.

He continued on the third floor. This one was even quieter, with no one in sight. It seemed the villa was large enough that the first two floors were enough to hold all the prepared activities. He checked out one of the rooms and found out that it was just a normal bedroom. He went on with his tour of the floor until he spotted a group of three girls after turning a corner. They were behaving weirdly, though. They all had their ears stuck to a specific door in the corridor but were otherwise keeping themselves absolutely silent and still. Curious, Benjamin approached them. However, when they saw him coming, they panicked and quickly ran away in the other direction, as quietly as they could possibly manage.

Now alone in the corridor, Benjamin reached the spot they had been on and started to hear some noise from the inside of the room the girls had tried to listen into. Imitating them, he put his ear on the door and was able to distinguish the sounds being emitted on the other side. He could hear the moans of a girl and a boy, the types of which were typically coming out when having sex. it seemed that some students had found another way to enjoy themselves during this party. Now the previous scene made sense to him, with the previous three girls eavesdropping on the sounds of sex coming from there. Benjamin was interested in what normal sex would look like in this world but wasn't about to disturb them just to sate his curiosity, obviously. He had watched some of the porn available to this world, strictly for reference purposes, of course, but had soon concluded that it was much less appealing than what he was used to. The focus was mostly on the man, with a lot of camera time spent zooming on the male genitals, while the actor himself faked loud moans and an excited expression throughout the act.

Benjamin left the room with the lovers behind and resumed looking around the third floor. Soon after, he was done checking it, with no other unexpected encounter happening. He decided to go back to the garden and went down the stairs all the way to the first floor. He hadn't gone through every nick and cranny of the villa and had just quickly toured the place, not taking more than a few minutes, which shouldn't make his friends raise any questions about his long absence. In the garden, Nathan and Julian were sitting on the grass together, discussing with a large number of their female classmates. He went to take some food and drinks from one of the garden's buffet tables, sat down next to them, and started to take part in the ongoing discussion, with his usual smile. He truly had fun chatting with everyone and his grin was heartfelt, his smile also making the others around him smile, enhancing the mood.

That was how the party went on for them until the student council members announced the end of the gathering. Benjamin told his classmates that he would go help his sister with the cleaning up and they all agreed to stay with him and help too. The council members accepted the help gratefully since it multiplied their manpower several times. Some other students, friends of the council members, also stayed to help and the cleaning got done in a flash, with so many people on the task. They put all the materials, speakers, games, etc, in a small van and Maisie prepared to drive it back to the school, since she had her driving license already.

Everyone said goodbye to each other, expressing how they had a lot of fun, and Benjamin headed back home, together with Nova. Lost in their thoughts, they stayed quiet for most of the way, but, just before entering their house, she asked him.

"Did you have fun, Ben?"

"A lot of fun. It was a great party. You and the other members managed to organize something amazing, Nova. Thank you!"

She looked away from him, whispering.

"I see..."

A second later, a proud smile appeared on her face and she added.

"That's good."