During lunch, Sebi was happy to be able to sit with Necomir and his friends, Bellona and Chunmi. Akhenaten was an architecture student, so he came shortly after and joined them as well.
“Bellona!” Akhenaten angrily shouted as he slammed his tray down on the table. It was a good thing there wasn’t any soup on his plate, or Necomir would have been scalded by it. “You always do this!”
“Do what?” Bellona nonchalantly said as she ate through her bowl of soup.
“You always tarnish me in front of the girls I date!” he grumpily said as he sat down with a heavy noise. “Now Iris broke up with me because she thought I was dating you because you dumped so much personal information about me that she didn’t know!”
“You mean, I tarnish you in front of the lousy girls that you date,” Bellona corrected him. “Come on, Khen. Your latest-now-ex-girlfriend is smoking hot but I caught her being all googly-eyed and winky-wanky with a senior. Have some standards.”
Akhenaten’s eyes widened and he stared at Bellona for a few moments in disbelief. He then groaned, realizing she had no reason to lie to him, and rubbed his face in irritation. “Ah, fuck! Again?! Why does it always happen to me?!”
Chunmi reached out and patted his back.
“You’re always getting caught up with people like that?” Sebi asked, staring at him curiously.
Akhenaten pouted. “That’s what Bellona says…”
Sebi thought this wasn’t good. Based on his memories, Terrarians universally made people their boyfriend or girlfriend first regardless if they knew them or not if they knew they were attracted to each other, then began getting to know them when they were finally together. He had read in ancient books that this was the case for some Earth culture even way back, but he really didn’t like this and didn’t see how it sincere or even sustainable.
“Maybe you should try knowing someone first before starting to date,” he suggested. “You know, try to get to know someone first before making them your girlfriend. Girls are lovely, you can always meet someone suited for you.”
Akhenaten raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Decebal, that’s so conservative!”
“Stupid,” Bellona nudged Akhenaten’s side. “Decebal is right, who cares if it’s conservative? You have shit taste, and the girls you choose are no good. Go silently pine for a girl, be friends with them first, make sure she isn’t shit, and then hit the base!”
“Or… date a boy,” Chunmi mumbled.
Akhenaten perked an eyebrow up curiously before grinning as he entertained the idea.
Bellona stared at him in a newfound light upon seeing his agreeable expression. “Don’t tell me you are–”
“That’s interesting, I’ve never thought of that,” he said as he rubbed his chin. “What are the chances if I date a boy and he cheats on me?”
“Are you even gay to begin with?” Bellona laughed as she hit his arm.
“Does that even matter? I just want emotional support and some good sweets to my utterly bland life,” Akhenaten sighed.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“I know some guys who are gay, do you want me to make suggestions?” Bellona winked as she ruffled Akhenaten’s hair. “Tell me what kind of guy you like.”
“Dffos uesr jgf jkfrbwf,” Cxtfcjafc atbeuta vffqis. Lf’r gfjiis ajxlcu atlr rfglberis, frqfmljiis rlcmf la kjr j cbnfi fzqfglfcmf atja tf kjr nfgs lcafgfrafv lc. “Dea atfs mjc’a yf ajiifg atjc wf. Qjla… meaf uesr jgf vfolclafis ub-ub.”
Vfyl yilcxfv, alialcu tlr tfjv ab atf rlvf lc kbcvfg jcv meglbrlas. Ktf abqlm bo yflcu tbwbrfzeji kjrc’a jcsatlcu cfk ab tlw, yea la kjr ajybb yjmx lc atf Sjrafgc Sjgat Djrf. Zfc jcv kbwfc kfgf jikjsr qgfrregfv ab yf abufatfg jcv wjaf lc bgvfg ab qgbvemf j mbcrajca ufcfgjalbc obg atf oeaegf. Po rbwfbcf kjr ecobgaecjaf ab yf ybgc ujs, atfc atfs rlwqis tlv la jcv tjv j ilof vfvlmjafv ab kbgx.
Sebi turned to Necomir.
“You have lots of time messing around, being people who participate in Hexagon Tournaments and suck badly at it,” Necomir saltily chuckled as he flipped his long hair over his shoulders.
“I agree,” Chunmi spoke solemnly, like a traitor.
This seemed to be the line for Akhenaten and Bellona, who quickly shut up and only ate their food while exchanging glances.
After lunch was Ability Enhancement class, which was from one until four every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. All the 300 second years attended one schedule at the User Training Facility, but they’re assigned three mentors for each legion.
Headmaster Juno probably manipulated some strings, because Sebi ended up in a legion with Necomir and his friends.
For the first hour of the class, their mentor, Coach Lily Ahnau, led the class into stretches and then basic combat formations. Usually, they would be doing harder formations, but she probably considered the fact that Sebi was there.
Sebi knew a bit of self-defense from highschool, but he was a full-time academic when he entered college so his skills were really rusty. He could at least catch up with the basic formations, and he’ll just practice with his private tutor later on.
By the second hour, Coach Lily ended the physicals and said, “The school is all about quality education for everyone. No one is classified by rank, everyone is given a chance to excel in both academics and your abilities. Under me, I want to see you shine with your innate ability, no matter what it is. For the following weeks, we’ll have everyone go through simulations one by one. While waiting for your turn, you can spar or watch.”
Coach Ahnau released a list showing who will go first. Sebi was in the second batch, so he was still able to watch other people before his own chance.
“Neco, goodluck!” Sebi quickly cheered Necomir as he prepared to enter his simulation. The taller man looked over to him and smiled.
“What a cute cheerleader you’ve got here,” Bellona laughed as she pinched Sebi’s cheeks, the sight quickly making Necomir’s smile melt into an annoyed sneer. “Mimi, why can’t you be as good as Sebi?”
Chunmi looked away, not wanting anything to do with it.
“How about me, Decebal? Aren’t you going to cheer for me, too?” Akhenaten butted in.
Sebi opened his mouth to spare him a bit of courage, but Bellona beat him to it and taunted, “Shoo, you don’t deserve any praise. Be as amazing as Augustine first.”
Akhenaten was really going to continue to bicker even more with her, if Necomir hadn’t shut him up by forcefully dragging him away.
Sebi moved towards the screens that showed the students inside the training rooms, eyes trained on the one that had Necomir on it. He was eager to watch him fight again.
The students were allowed to start at their own pace, so Necomir began before the others who took their time doing more warm ups.
The simulation started with Necomir being put in a clean white room. He calmly looked around, but his eyes were sharp and it was obvious that he was on high alert.
Suddenly, Necomir tensed and moved to the side moments before a square on the ground opened up. He then moved away again from the wall, where a slot suddenly opened and shot out frightening circular blades with sharp edges. More slots opened to reveal the same sharp blades, and he began to move around with incredible speed and agility.
Sebi smiled, eyes twinkling.
He’s really like a cat! So amazing!
This may look boring to some people, but Necomir’s calmness as he accurately avoided the dangers within the room was too impressive to Sebi and the others watching him. This kind of ability was just too overpowered. If Necomir sharpened his ability even more, he’d be able to emerge as the champion in any fight before it could even start.
“To think I feel so damn pleased with myself all the time because I can turn invisible…”
“Necomir would just find you and punch the daylights out of you under two minutes.”
“I know right? He has beaten up most of the fiercest teams of our year in the Hexagon.”
Sebi wasn’t the one being praised, but if he had a tail it would definitely be pointing straight up to the heavens from pride for Necomir. He was just simply too awesome.
“I think I know what’s going through your mind,” Bellona said, poking Sebi’s cheek.
Startled out of his trance, he turned to her and raised his eyebrows in question.
“I bet,” she removed her clingy hands from Chunmi and then latched on to Sebi, reminding him of an octopus. “You’re thinking about how handsome Augustine is.”
Sebi’s face quickly flared red and he shook his head vigorously. “You’re wrong, you’re wrong.”
“I know a crush when I see it,” Bellona teased, poking Sebi who pitifully shrunk into himself and giggled as he tried to wriggle out of her merciless teasing. “You think I don’t know why you suddenly don’t want to fight with Necomir anymore? You can’t fool me~”
Sebi really felt like crying from embarrassment.
Maybe he did have a little crush on Necomir for years… but that didn’t matter. Sebi knew that he’d rather be best friends with Necomir than tread such an unknown and unpredictable area like romance. Even if this kind of thing was accepted in Terra, Sebi had been molded by the incredibly bleak worldview of the Eastern Earth Base towards such an unconventional romance.
He lost Necomir once, and Sebi won’t lose him again.
“Stop teasing him and be good,” Chunmi mumbled as she took Bellona’s hand and pulled her to her side. The taller woman who was all sorts of mischief was like a docile white puppy beside Chunmi, looking really happy while the smaller woman held her hand.
“Shit, look at that!”
“Thank the heavens we have artificial intelligence, I wouldn’t want to be one of the people fighting against a telepath like that!”
Sebi’s attention was attracted by the mention of “telepath”. He turned and saw people crowding around a certain screen. Curiosity getting the best of him, he rushed over.
Sebi saw a slender, lean man with pure white hair and eyes covered with a white blindfold. The name “Misharu Tsai” flashed below the screen. He looked very cold and intimidating as he calmly stood in the middle of a horde of artificial intelligence robots. A ring of red light surrounded his head like a halo as streaks of it shot towards the robots and surrounded their heads, making the robots turn towards each other and fire their guns. It was the visible manifestation of his ability.
He looked quite remarkable, but Sebi couldn’t remember any Misharu Tsai in his memories.
Bellona silently moved closer towards Sebi, closely watching his expression. She smiled in amusement upon seeing the brilliant glint in his eyes.
“You’re cheating on Augustine.”
Sebi was startled to death upon hearing this.
“How is that cheating?! Neco is the only person I admire!”
“Shouldn’t you be more worried about the fact that I accused you of cheating when you aren’t even with Necomir?” Bellona thought, but only smiled mischievously as she seized Sebi again and began clinging to him. Chunmi was busy talking to her fellow mecha nerds so her hands were restless, she needed to hold the second next best thing.
“Bellona, do you think I can beat Misharu Tsai?” Sebi wondered. “I don’t remember anything about him. Why is he blindfolded?”
“Well, he did just enter our school last year, so you wouldn’t know anything about him,” Bellona said. “But Misharu is the strongest telepath in the Academy as of the moment, based on the singles championship in the Hexagon Tournament up against other telepaths. He uses a blindfold because his eyes have strong mind-control properties so they’re a bit sensitive to exposure. He is also half Taiwanese, part Sumerian and Draume. He’s from one of the founding families of Terra, so he’s got even more affinity with his ability. It’s not every day you meet a guy like him.”
“I want to beat him,” Sebi grinned brightly.
“If I can, then maybe I’ll be able to become strong enough to deserve Necomir being my opponent in the Hexagon.”
Author’s note:
Necomir: *does something*
Sebi: I really li-*cough* I-I mean, I really admire Neco!
Ahhhh I’m so excited! Misharu has made his debut uwuuuuu I love this child since the day I came up with his character 
Also, Sebi says anything… Neco: * smiles*
He’s only got a smile for his boy Sebi!
Thanks for the chapter <3
He is very whipped ><
Thank you for the update ( ^^)( ^^)( ^^)
Thank you for reading!
and then bellona’s just snickering in the background. i dont think i got the meme format right bc its been too long but thats the gist of it
sebi still thinks he doesnt deserve neco as his emotional support rival noooo
thanks for the chapter!
I think I have seen that meme before in highschool and your description is very accurate 😆
Sebi being this cute is like a crime???? hahahaha thank u for the chapter~
Misharu sounds so strong!