Today's sun was being a bit lazy, giving the sky over to a gray-white sea of clouds. In a seal arts practice classroom at Saint Andros Academy.
Viloti sat by the window, looking at the rolling cloud waves in the distance.
Today she wore a pure white school uniform with black knee-high socks.
Her pink hair was tied up with a light blue hair tie, and a pure white hair clip was fastened behind her ear.
Viloti gently pushed open the window, and the oncoming wind blew up all the hair behind her.
Like a cherry blossom tree bidding farewell to summer.
Tomorrow was the day of the first seal arts competition, so today they needed to practice in advance to avoid any accidents.
Viloti didn't care about the competition results.
She just hoped Felyn wouldn't get hurt.
The classroom door slowly slid open, and the room seemed to become much warmer.
"Viloti, are you alone?"
Felyn came in from the corridor carrying a bag. The empty seal arts practice classroom had only Viloti.
"I heard this seal arts practice classroom is very hard to book, and most of the time you have to share it with other teams. How is there no one here today?"
The seal arts practice classroom was indeed hard to book, but Lord Silafiel had donated a building to Saint Andros Academy so his daughter wouldn't be bullied.
Several school board members were also Lord Silafiel's friends.
When you've donated a building to the school, booking a classroom is still quite simple.
Viloti looked at Felyn placing the bag in front of her, tilting her head curiously.
"It's been too long since I made this. I don't know if it's the same as before."
Felyn took out three bottles of cheese dew from his pocket, placing one in front of Viloti.
During Viloti's contract service period, the only thing she accepted from Felyn was the cheese dew he made—she really liked eating this.
But since the contract ended, Felyn had never made it for her again.
"For me?"
Viloti pointed at herself, her gaze fixed tightly on the white bottle on the table.
"Yes." Felyn pulled out a chair and sat across from Viloti.
Viloti reached out with both hands to pick it up, but suddenly thought of something.
She turned around and picked up the pink unicorn wallet beside her, pulling out 100 crowns from inside.
"Felyn, here."
"Huh? Why are you giving me money?"
From the thickness, it had to be at least 1000 crowns, right?
But Felyn quickly realized—Viloti was the same as before. Every time he gave her cheese dew, she would give him money.
Looking at Viloti holding up the crowns, Felyn gently pushed her hand back. "I can't take your money. This is a thank-you gift for joining my team."
Viloti was somewhat confused but still held the money in front of Felyn.
"But I already made a condition—isn't it going on a date Thursday? So this can't count as a thank-you gift, because you've already repaid my favor."
The crowns in front of him emanated an enticing aura.
For Felyn, crowns were indeed much more enticing than the cheese dew in front of him.
"Then consider this cheese dew I made to maintain our relationship."
Taking money would really make him a demon!
Viloti joined the team because of him. The seal consumption from the competition might not matter to her, but for Felyn it was an unaffordable huge sum.
Whether it was dates or cheese dew, these couldn't even cover a fraction of the seal consumption costs.
Felyn was very clear about this—he could only compensate them with things within his means.
"Maintain our relationship?"
For Viloti, who had never had friends, maintaining relationships was an unfamiliar term.
"It's like between friends—you give me something, I give you something, and through this back-and-forth, doesn't the relationship get better and better?"
Friends?
Me and Felyn are friends?
Was Felyn willing to let me stay by his side?
Viloti felt warm inside. She looked at the cheese dew in her hands, feeling the sound of her heartbeat.
She slowly cupped it with both hands and gently sniffed it.
Still the same taste.
The taste of peace of mind.
Viloti sat in the chair with her legs swinging back and forth, in a very good mood.
She squinted slightly, using a fork to eat what Felyn had made for her in small bites.
Felyn watched Viloti quickly finish her portion, then pushed his own over.
"If you don't mind, eat mine too."
"Aren't you eating, Felyn?"
"I ate a lot of failed attempts at home, so I can't eat anymore now."
Viloti looked at the cheese dew Felyn pushed toward her, lowering her head slightly.
"Sorry, Felyn."
"Why are you suddenly apologizing?"
"I didn't prepare anything to give you." Viloti looked up to see if Felyn was angry.
"We're still friends, right?" she confirmed carefully.
Could it be that Viloti was worried that because she didn't have a gift for him, he wouldn't be friends with her?
"Of course we are. Eat quickly."
Seeing that Felyn didn't seem angry, Viloti felt relieved and eliminated the second one.
The classroom was very quiet, as if time had stopped to rest here.
The sun had finally slept enough and peeked out slightly from the clouds to see if people had complained about its absence. Golden light like honey passed through the glass, falling on Viloti.
The laughter of students outside reached Felyn's ears, but it felt like echoes from another world.
His gaze had been on the girl in front of him for a long time.
Viloti lowered her head, her slender pale fingers carefully cradling the cheese dew.
Her movements were small, as if afraid to disturb the peace of the world.
She occasionally lifted those amber-brilliant eyes, but quickly lowered her head when meeting Felyn's gaze.
"Is it good?" Felyn asked softly.
Viloti nodded, the corners of her mouth lifting in a barely perceptible smile.
Time seemed to stretch at this moment, leaving only sunlight, cheese dew, and heartbeats.
"Excuse me."
Bernice pushed open the door and walked in.
"Are you two on a date? Am I being too abrupt coming in?"
Bernice felt the atmosphere was a bit off.
"We were just waiting for you. Aren't we having a team meeting?" Felyn responded.
"Really? That's a bit of a shame then."
Bernice sat beside Viloti, and Felyn handed her the last bottle of cheese dew.
Today she wore fishnet ankle socks and dark brown leather boots, with tight shorts that showcased her long legs and perfect figure.
Combined with her doll-like expression of indifference to the world, she was particularly eye-catching.
"Cheese dew? Has the Siveshus Empire started selling this too?"
"I made it myself."
Bernice tasted it with a fork, the familiar flavor hitting her taste buds.
Felyn observed Bernice's expression.
Since he'd agreed to go shopping with Bernice Thursday morning, he had to do advance research on Bernice's preferences.
Even though it was only one morning, he couldn't just be perfunctory about it.
Felyn was always serious about his work.
"I brought some seals this time. I wonder if they'll be enough."
Bernice placed the seals on the table.
Backed by the Truth Divine Church that manufactured seals, Bernice had a pile of high-grade goods.
A full twenty-five fifth-order seals and twelve sixth-order seals.
Even Adeline, the eldest daughter of the Claude family that controlled the empire's military industry, couldn't produce so many seals at once.
"Are these enough?"
Bernice hadn't used seals in a long time. After all, seals were troublesome and much less powerful than divine arts.
These were all seals that Truth Divine Church members had casually given Bernice after she completed church missions.
"If we were attacking the Royal Capital, it might be a little short. But for passing the seal arts competition, there's definitely no problem."
(End of Chapter)