“Are you out of your mind? What were you thinking, barging in our room like that?” Anna shouted, as she bodily dragged Wolf towards the mess hall.

“It’s your good luck that Matilda is such a quiet girl,” Anna toned it down and furiously hissed at Wolf, making sure nobody could hear her. Otherwise this could turn into a major affair. “If she had gone out to look for trouble with you, you would’ve been toast! She’s a Marquess’s only daughter! And unlike the majority of other nobles her father doesn’t consider his daughter a political tool and dotes on her very much!”

“I’m sorry.” Wolf said sheepishly. He was in the wrong here and he knew it. “Is there any way I can make it up to her? I think I should take responsibility for my actions.”

Anna’s eyes widened at those words. In her world the words ‘taking responsibility for my actions’ had a significantly different meaning than just making up for a minor misdeed which Wolf had in mind. Doubly so since Wolf had practically seen Matilda in the nude.

“Take responsibility your foot!” Anna couldn’t help herself and shouted out loud.

She covered her mouth with her hand, and looked at the couple of people who turned their heads towards them. This blockhead was so, so, infuriating!

“She's a daughter of a Marquess! She will probably come to you with her own demands later,” Anna calmed down and spoke in a softer voice, but then something crossed her mind and she got excited again. “Don’t do anything stupid. All right? Her father can send someone to kill or cripple you!”

“Who do you take me for? I’m not stupid.” Wolf said and nodded his head while thinking, Besides, it’s not like that would be anything new. Your father already tried that years ago.

Anna rolled her eyes, but Wolf didn’t see her reaction. This blockhead just said he would take responsibility for a Marquess's only daughter. If he wasn’t stupid he’d never say something like that, no, he wouldn’t even get into a situation where he could say something like that.

“You know. It could’ve been worse.” Wolf said after a brief pause.

“How?” Anna grumbled with a dark expression. Was he intentionally trying to come up with a way to embarrass her influential roommate?

“Well, I could have walked in on you changing your clothes and–” Before he could finish Anna whacked him on the head with a stick she’d picked up along the way just for this purpose.

“Stupid Wolf! Shut your stupid mouth,” she shouted, her face quickly turning red.

The stick broke, and Wolf was completely unfazed. Compared to a steel rod smashing into his shoulder a flimsy little stick was nothing.

“All right, all right, let’s go eat,” he said, ignoring the strike. “You can tell me why you wanted to see me once we’ve had our meal.”

“There was no special reason. I just wanted to see you, you blockhead. That’s all,” Anna said with a harrumph.

“When do you think you’ll advance to the Fourth Order?” After a brief moment of silence Wolf abruptly changed the topic.

“In six months or so, I hope. Most certainly before my first two years are up. Why?” This sudden change of pace caught Anna by surprise.

“Well, once you do, we can go and take missions together! Just imagine it. Just the two of us, alone in the wilderness! Going around and having real adventures of our own,” Wolf blurted out excitedly.

Anna was stunned for a moment. After staring at Wolf blankly for a couple of moments, she started smacking his head with the stub that was left from the stick she’d picked up. “Wolf! Pervert!”

Anna was so loud that students around them stopped whatever they were doing and started staring at them.

“I just want us to go adventuring together. It’s really fun. Why am I a pervert now?” Wolf yelled, feeling wronged.

“It would be you and me, alone, in the wilderness,” Anna mumbled quietly as she fidgeted with the snapped stick.

“We could take your roommate–”

*SMACK*

The stick swatted Wolf right across the face, without Anna saying a word. It was clear from her pouting face that Wolf wanting the three of them to go together was far worse than the two of them going together.

Why is she so angry? Wolf wondered, but didn’t mention it. “Fine, we can go alone. It’s not like that would be the first time we’ve been alone together. So I don’t see a problem with that.”

“Stupid Wolf, we were children back then. It’s fine for kids to sleep next to each other,” Anna hissed and lifted her stick to whack Wolf, but in the end just lowered her arm.

“If we went alone people would start to gossip about us, you know,” she whispered, but the annoyance was gone, replaced by a hint of longing.

“Who cares if they gossip about us? Let them say whatever they want,” Wolf shouted loudly and was whacked with the remains of the stick.

“Why do you keep shouting such ambiguous words! Are you trying to ruin my reputation?” Anna blushed while furiously hitting Wolf with the stick.

The constant whacks with the stick were getting annoying, so Wolf grabbed her hand and pulled Anna closer.

“You’re my friend. Big brother and you. The first two friends I’ve ever made,” Wolf stood on his toes and whispered in Anna’s ear.

What the observers could see though was Wolf pulling the young woman into his embrace. Then he tiptoed to reach her ear with his mouth, and she blushed so hard her ears turned crimson and her eyes watery.

“Am I really just a friend?” Anna asked bashfully, feeling Wolf’s cheek rub against hers.

The contact and Wolf’s words made her heart race and momentarily forget about people looking at them.

Wolf thought for a moment and smiled sweetly.

“You’re right,” he said, causing Anna’s eyes to sparkle. “You’re not just my friend. You are my second friend ever.”

Then, with those words, Anna’s hopes came crashing down in a fiery explosion. She wanted to curse the blockhead who held her, but then realized something.

The blockhead was hugging her tightly... In front of a crowd… With a hand gently touching her chest… The whole scene looked like…

As the realization dawned on her, Anna pushed Wolf away with a force one wouldn’t expect to find in a mature woman, let alone in a twelve-year-old.

“You idiot!” Anna shouted and ran away without realizing she hadn’t moved Wolf, but rather escaped from his embrace.

Her face was so crimson it was a wonder she had the blood to spare for anything else.

Wolf didn’t know what to do. Should he chase after her, or not? As he was trying to figure out what to do and why Anna had run away, he heard a melodious voice inside his mind. I’m offended! I was your friend before she showed up.

The words echoed in Wolf’s mind without bothering to go through his ears. Wolf knew this voice very well by now. It was Silver. Weren’t you just an egg back then?

I resent that! Eggs are people too. We have feelings, you know. I can hear and understand everything you say just fine… the egg then started speaking up for the rights of all the eggs in the world.

Silver kept talking until Wolf sat down to eat his dinner alone in the cafeteria. He was served a pair of hard boiled eggs, bacon, butter and a fresh bun.

Wolf looked at the eggs with a conflicted expression. He’d been listening about egg rights and egg equality for several minutes and today’s dinner had eggs. He found himself in a tight spot.

Why aren’t you eating? Silver asked after a moment.

Um… Wolf thought, but couldn’t say what had bothered him.

Do you think I was talking about those commoner eggs? Silver snorted, sounding offended. Don’t lump noble eggs such as myself with those plebs.

Wolf couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was there classism amongst eggs as well? What about egg equality from a moment ago?

He shook his head and decided not to think about it. He calmly ate his food.

By the time Wolf returned to his dorm it was already evening. As soon as he entered the room, Wayde handed him a sealed letter.

It was from Matilda, Anna’s roommate. She’d found out who Wolf was and wanted to arrange a private meeting with him the next day. She chose the cafeteria after the first morning class was over.

The cafeteria was a public place, so there was no need for a chaperone. However, since it was in the middle of classes it was bound to be empty. Wolf took note of this and concluded that this kind of meeting was one of those loopholes used to circumvent the chaperone rule.

The next day Wayde went to class. Wolf on the other hand stayed in meditation a bit longer. He then went out for some late breakfast.

As he calmly ate, Matilda sat down at his table, straight across from Wolf. Just like the Marquess’s daughter had expected, the cafeteria was empty, save for the two of them and some staff off in the distance.

Now that Wolf had time to see her face, instead of focusing on other parts of her body, he noticed that the girl was very beautiful, much prettier than Anna. She wasn’t wearing the standard issue Mage Academy uniform. Rather she had a formal dress of deep blue color which accented her eyes and unearthly pale skin.

As if a security measure to guard against this savage, the beautiful woman’s dress had a turtleneck, which was buttoned up all the way up to her chin.

As soon as she met Wolf’s gaze her face turned a deep shade of pink, which was in stark contrast to her pure white of the moment ago. She got up from her seat and was about to curtsy, but then Wolf abruptly got up and deeply bowed before speaking.

“I apologize for what happened yesterday,” he said seriously, pointedly not looking at the chest which was much more abundant than Anna’s. “Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

“I heard that my father sent uncle Agni to see you–” the girl chirped in a barely audible voice as she examined the floor with great scrutiny.

“I’m sorry, I can’t join your household to be the advisor on all things arcane and the tutor who raises your next generation. Anything else?” Wolf said flatly, struggling to suppress the mocking tone.

There were some things which he didn’t plan on doing, and joining a random noble household because he’d seen the heiress’s naked body was definitely one of them.

The girl looked hurt as she gazed at Wolf, her watery eyes filled with unshed tears. This was probably the first time she was denied anything in her life. Considering her circumstances she took it rather well.

“Anna claims you are very strong,” she squeaked bashfully. “How about helping me out on some of the more difficult missions or exams in the future?”

Wolf nodded without hesitation. “That sounds reasonable. Just let me know when you have any kind of trouble and I will help you as much as possible. Anything else?”

The girl clenched her fists and looked at her own feet in a very cute way before she murmured something that no regular human could hear. Fortunately for her, Wolf was very far removed from a regular human being. Thanks to his enchanted senses he clearly heard what she said.

“I want to go to your lunch party.” Those were the words she’d whispered.

Really? Are they spreading rumors about my cooking now? If this keeps up I’ll end up a communal chef… Even though he inwardly grumbled and complained, there was no objective reason for Wolf to deny this request.

“Fine, but only once,” he said unwillingly. “Next Sunday, I’ll be cooking lunch at my big brother’s place. You are free to join us if you want to. Anna will be going as well, so she can fill you in on the details.”

The girl’s face somehow turned even redder. She murmured a thank you and then dashed out of the cafeteria in the manner of a person not used to running.

She’s kind of cute. Wolf thought as he looked at the fleeing mass of blue frills. But this whole thing is really bothersome. Who knows what South is going to do to a bashful little girl like her. Her heart might stop when he calls her a whore half a dozen times during their introduction…