The first day of the exchange competition was for team battles.

There was a severe absence of second and third-year students from both Kyoto and Tokyo Schools. Only Kaira Shiraki from Tokyo attended the third year. It was said that the other two were on missions, so they had to recruit first-year students to fill the gaps. There was only one first-year student from Tokyo, a timid-looking boy.

That boy was just a level four sorcerer.

Master Naoya singled him out at first glance, saying to the others from Kyoto School, “Let’s teach this guy a lesson and force him to forfeit. But it’s really annoying. Not only are Rokuyeye and that Jumyomiko out, but there’s also a woman in their team.”

Team matches usually took a whole day.

As someone of my status, I wasn’t qualified to enter the viewing room, so I sat outside in the corridor, holding a manga in my hands. Of course, I couldn’t understand it, but the good thing about manga was that it had both text and pictures.

Maybe he thought I’d be bored.

So before leaving today, Master Naoya casually handed me a manga to pass the time.

The summer sunlight was strong, filtering through the layers of leaves, casting a captivating spell on the manga.

I was getting a bit sleepy.

Suddenly, a huge shadow loomed over me, blocking out the sunlight on the manga. A frivolous yet curious voice sounded, “Hey, are you reading this manga too?”

I was startled by the sudden conversation, and the drowsiness vanished instantly.

I looked up.

I saw a tall figure standing behind me with legs apart. He leaned down with difficulty to look at the manga in my hand. His blue eyes peeked out from behind his sunglasses, blinking once as he smiled and complimented me, “You’ve got great taste.”

I looked at him, slightly stunned.

His smile widened, and he took off his sunglasses completely, flashing a grin at me. “So, how do I look? Handsome, right?”

I remained a bit dazed, looking at him.

“Hey, even if I’m handsome, you don’t need to keep staring at me like that. You’re not some kind of pervert, are you?” he teased, quirking his lips mischievously.

I quickly lowered my gaze.

He seemed to let go of the matter and reached out, flipping through the manga to the cover page, immediately cheering, “Wow, it’s the latest issue. I haven’t had a chance to buy it yet. Let me borrow it.”

Without waiting for my consent, he snatched the manga from my hand.

He swung one leg over and sat next to me.

He looked excited.

He was a bit close to me, holding the manga in one hand and propping up his face with the other. His legs were spread wide, occasionally lightly touching mine.

I subtly moved away.

He seemed not to notice, still immersed in the manga.

After about five minutes, he flipped to the last page of the manga and suddenly burst into a displeased wail, “How could this be?”

“How did the female lead and the second male lead suddenly die?” He ran his hand through his already messy white hair, making it even more tousled. When he turned to look at me, his expression was indignant, clearly furious. “The author must be drawing randomly. It must be! I mean, the female lead had just confirmed her relationship with the male lead, and the parentage of the second male lead hadn’t even been revealed yet. How could they all die? Is there going to be a resurrection in the next chapter or something?”

Faced with his intense complaints, I could only respond with a slight tug at the corner of my mouth and a smile towards him.

After all, I hadn’t read this manga.

Just now, when I was flipping through it, I only looked at the pictures without reading the words, so I had no idea about the female lead, second male lead, foreshadowing, parents, or anything else he mentioned.

But he didn’t stop complaining because of that. He kept on ranting, full of grievances, about the dark history of this manga, saying he should have known better than to trust this author again to read this manga. He even wanted to take back what he said about having good taste in reading this manga and jokingly demanded a pair of eyes that hadn’t seen this manga before.

I let my gaze wander and started playing with my fingers absentmindedly. His words went in one ear and out the other, but I didn’t show too much indifference. I nodded occasionally or smiled at him.

Suddenly, it became quiet beside me.

It took me about four or five seconds to realize, and I slowly turned my head to the side to look. I found him suddenly very close to me, his blue eyes wide open, staring intently at my face with a strange expression.

I froze, even subconsciously holding my breath.

“Why do I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before?” His tone was also strange.

I nervously clasped my hands together, about to stutter that I hadn’t seen him before, but before I could, he suddenly slapped his forehead in realization, took out his phone from his pocket, scrolled through his gallery, and showed me a picture. Excitedly, he said to me, “See, isn’t it super similar to you?”

I stiffly shifted my gaze to his phone screen.

I saw a girl with long hair wearing a modern high school uniform, completely different from me. The only similarity might be that both of us had pink-purple eyes.

I diverted my gaze and nodded in agreement with his idea.

“You think it looks like you too, right?”

I nodded again.

Then he asked, “Have you read this manga?”

I instinctively wanted to continue nodding, but I paused in time because I was afraid he would think I had read this manga and then ask me a lot of questions I couldn’t answer. So, the nodding motion changed to shaking my head midway.

In the distance, someone had already forfeited from the team match.

It was the first-year student from Tokyo School, limping and bleeding as he walked out. When he saw the person next to me, his eyes widened, and he turned to run.

“I guess so,” he flipped the manga back to the page I had been reading before, returned it to me, and teased lightly, “After all, this manga is super lewd. Girls shouldn’t read it unless you’re a pervert, huh?”

After saying these things, he stood up, stretched briefly, and then with his hands in his pockets, he casually caught up with the boy who had turned to run, grabbed his collar, and complained to him with a face full of grievances.

Even at a distance, I could still hear some of it.

He was complaining, “Idi, why are you running when you see me? You know, I’ve had such a bad day today. I finally rushed back, only to miss the team match. That’s not all. I saw the latest issue of xx manga and thought it would cheer me up, but it just made me sadder, etc. Have you seen the latest issue? I’m going to spoil it for you.”

They gradually walked away.

I watched their backs, or rather, the back of one of them. After a long time, I lowered my gaze and looked back at the manga placed on my thigh.

The summer sunlight was dazzling, but I couldn’t feel any warmth.

It was like being locked in a spirit room again.

Kyoto School had almost overwhelmingly won.

But the students from Tokyo School, except for the first-year student, didn’t seem to be upset about it, especially Kaira Shiraki. She had a cigarette in her mouth, always looking indifferent. When she saw me, her eyes curved, and she waved at me.

I smiled genuinely.

I raised my hand to mimic her waving gesture in response.

But my wrist was grabbed.

Then, Master Naoya blocked me off tightly. In front of me, I heard his voice with a hint of mockery, “Aichina, don’t casually associate with women who are so promiscuous. They’ll corrupt you.”

Kairi Shiraki’s gaze paused for a moment, ignoring Naoya-sama’s words, and turned to chat with the students from Tokyo School, going to console the first-year student who was almost on the verge of crying due to self-blame. She didn’t smile at me anymore. As she passed by Master Naoya and me, she didn’t even look at me.

Am I disliked?

Definitely.

My eyelashes trembled as I lowered my head, my hands clenched nervously and plaintively on my abdomen.

In the evening.

I stood under the women’s dormitory, holding a wooden basin, feeling somewhat lost.

Kairi Shiraki said yesterday that I could come to her for bathing arrangements during this time. But today, after the team match ended, Master Naoya said something so offensive to her, she should be angry. So when she left, she didn’t look at me or smile at me anymore.

Promises like bathing arrangements were probably out of the question now.

I hung my head, pondering whether to go to places like the educational building to shower. There would only be people there during the day, right?

I was just about to turn towards the educational building when a light voice came from behind, “Hey, Aichina.”

Hearing the familiar voice, I hurriedly turned around and saw Kairi Shiraki standing at the staircase of the women’s dormitory. She was similar to when we met during the day, always with a cigarette in her mouth. The only difference was that at this moment, she was smiling gently at me. “Why are you standing there? Come upstairs to find me.”

I blinked, almost unable to hold back tears. “I, I thought you hated me, so…”

She hesitated, tilting her head, but quickly remembered.

“You mean that thing.” She walked over, took the wooden basin from my hands, and led me upstairs. “It’s because I noticed that person next to you, that arrogant one who seemed possessive of you. I felt that talking to you more might get you involved, so I deliberately acted a little cold towards you.”

So that’s it.

I glanced at her as she didn’t look at me, focusing on the road ahead.

Her profile was very gentle, illuminated by the light in the stairwell, like a layer of holy light. I couldn’t help but look at it for a while until Kairi Shiraki turned her head to look at me, smiled gently at me, and I blushed, lowering my head.

After bathing, Kairi Shiraki still helped me hang my cleaned clothes on the balcony. She touched the clothes hung up yesterday, found them dry, and took them down to hand them to me.

I whispered, “Thank you.”

She waved her hand indifferently. “It’s nothing.”

Seeing that it was almost time, although I felt a bit reluctant, I still had to leave. But before I could reach the door of the dormitory, Kairi Shiraki’s dormitory door was pushed open from the outside.

I was startled, thinking it was Master Naoya who had come looking for me after being away for too long.

So, in a panic, I hid behind Kairi Shiraki.

But the one who opened the door was a girl wearing a shrine maiden’s outfit.

She saw me, paused for a few seconds, then burst into screams and rushed over to hug me. “So cute, like a porcelain doll!”

I was frozen in her embrace.

Kairi Shiraki seemed somewhat helpless, patting the shrine maiden girl’s shoulder. “Sister Kagura, she’s a bit shy.”

“Oh, really?” The shrine maiden girl finally let go of me, standing a little farther away, hands behind her back, flashing me a bright smile. “Hello, I’m An Kagura, just call me Kagura.”

I stuttered, “I’m Aichina.”

“Such a cute name too!” Kagura burst into screams again.

Seeing her about to hug me again, I timidly hid behind Kairi Shiraki. Then I realized my behavior might be misunderstood as dislike, so I quickly moved out and carefully explained, “I really like you.”

Kagura’s screams stopped abruptly.

Kairi Shiraki also turned her head to look at me.

I felt at a loss, thinking I might have been too offensive just now. Just as I was about to apologize, Kagura erupted into even louder screams than before and hugged me again.

This time, Kairi Shiraki didn’t intervene. Kagura kissed me on the cheek.

I touched my cheek, feeling flushed.

It’s rare for someone to express their liking for me so directly. Rather than feeling uncomfortable, I felt more like I was being cherished.

Kagura held my hand, pulling me to sit on the sofa, and talked a lot about the outside world. I’ve always been curious about the outside world, so I was almost fascinated by what she was saying.

“Karaoke, have you never been?” Seeing me nod, Kagura gestured, “It’s a place where you can sing, it’s so fun to sing there.”

“You’ve never been to Ginza either?” She sounded shocked. “One day, I’ll definitely take you there to experience how well your figure and facial features suit picking out clothes.

“What about a movie theater, you don’t know what that is either?”

“It’s when a lot of people sit together to watch a movie, but the movies played are usually newly released, and there are very few reruns of old movies.”

It wasn’t until Kairi Shiraki spoke up, saying it was almost time, that I snapped out of it, realizing it was already almost 9:30 p.m.

My eyes widened suddenly, feeling nervous.

I was later than yesterday by more than twenty minutes; Master Naoya must have already showered by now.

In a rush, I hurried back, just as I suspected, Master Naoya had already showered and was lying bored on his bed playing with his phone. Seeing me, his tone was unfriendly. “Why are you just coming back now?”

I quickly knelt down, racked my brain for a while, and finally came up with a lie. “I, I got a little lost.”

He fell silent.

“Forget it, come here.”

I obediently approached, and as soon as I reached the bed, he pulled me into his arms and lay down.

Perhaps the team competition today was too tiring, and with a personal match tomorrow, Master Naoya didn’t want to do that kind of thing. He buried his face in my chest, took a deep breath, and fell asleep.

Was Master Naoya waiting for me to come back to sleep?

I blurted out this strange thought and was soon overwhelmed by drowsiness.

But the soundproofing of the Tokyo school dormitory was even worse than that of the Kyoto school. In a daze, I heard the sound of the neighboring room’s door closing, and after a while, the sound of the shower came again.

Master Naoya’s sleep was light; he frowned at the noise, pulled the blanket over his head, and buried his face deeper into my chest.

After about ten minutes or so, the neighboring room finally quieted down.

Naoya-sama loosened his grip on my hand.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

But soon after, loud gaming noises came from next door.

Naoya-sama threw off the blanket, grabbed the pillow, and slammed it against the wall connecting to the neighboring room.

I curled up trembling with fear, not daring to make a sound at this moment, afraid that Master Naoya would vent his anger on me. But in the end, he turned his head to look at me.

I trembled, meeting his gaze with trembling courage and fear.

I didn’t want to meet his gaze because meeting the eyes of the master was a great disrespect, but at this moment, I was so frightened that I couldn’t even shift my gaze.

After about two seconds, he let out a breath, finally shifting his gaze, displeased. “Go and tell the neighbors to quiet down.”

“Yes.”

I practically crawled out of the room in a panic.