By the time Xia Ye’s enrollment was done, the sun had fully set.
“Honestly, so what exactly did you drag me over here for?” Asiya complained.
After the enrollment was finished, Erin had, with an air of total nonchalance, assigned Xia Ye to Mir’s “Special Class.” The people of the Special Class all lived in a separate apartment building, each getting a three-bedroom unit, so Asiya didn’t need to take Xia Ye to the girls’ dorm at all.
The nighttime academy looked bleak under the streetlamps, with scattered students passing by now and then.
Glancing at the half-risen moon, Mir finally realized what he ought to be doing at this hour.
“I think I’m sensing that my body requires a replenishment of nutrients.” The literary youth Mir obliquely indicated that he needed to eat.
“Then let’s go grab dinner at a restaurant first.” Asiya was feeling a bit hungry too.
No sooner had she said it than Asiya felt both of their gazes converge on her.
“What?
Why are you both looking at me like that?”
“I’m already out of money for food.” Mir indicated he wasn’t the type who could hold onto money.
As for Xia Ye on the other side, needless to say—having just arrived in this world, she had none of its currency at all.
“Tch, ‘Are we even that close?’—that’s what a certain someone said when I was in danger, you know~” The moment she thought of that line, she thought of being kidnapped, and thinking of being kidnapped made her think of the whole disgraceful ordeal the three kidnappers had put her through.
Asiya’s face gradually contorted.
“Still, if little Xia Ye needs money, I can lend some to you~” The Council President indicated she was generous to everyone except Mir.
“No need, we’ll figure it out ourselves.” Mir decided on behalf of himself and Xia Ye.
Xia Ye shot him a displeased glare, but still didn’t object.
She was quite curious what method Mir had.
“Then I’ll just go eat by myself. Bye-bye, little Xia Ye!” Asiya seemed to have unilaterally decided she’d struck up a good friendship with Xia Ye.
Watching their walking-flashlight Asiya depart, Mir, a bit annoyed, tore off a leaf and stuck it in his mouth.
Mir already had the perfect plan to resolve their current predicament.
At that thought Mir glanced at the already-opened ground-pepper packet—no telling where all the pepper inside had ended up.
What a shame; this stuff has so many uses, Mir thought regretfully.
“Let’s head to the dorm first, and along the way I’ll borrow some money for you—just pay it back later.” Mir spat out the leaf in his mouth, feeling this pose made him look pretty stupid.
Xia Ye gave a slight nod, agreeing to Mir’s decision.
The interior of Meichuxi Academy was even more over-the-top than it looked from outside—practically a small town.
Luckily the Special Class’s exclusive apartment wasn’t too far from the Director’s office, and the two of them reached it quickly.
The whole way from the office to the apartment Xia Ye kept looking left and right, occasionally growing curious about the passersby.
Though those other-race folk were a bit displeased at her staring, seeing her walking alongside Mir they chose to keep quiet and hurry past.
Cold beauty on the outside, but really a country bumpkin at heart—unexpectedly cute.
Reaching the apartment, Mir led Xia Ye to a door on the second floor and heavily threw two punches at it.
Bang!
Bang!
Taking Mir’s two punches, each loaded with monstrous strength, that door actually only came away with two dents—no telling what material it was made of.
Xia Ye watched Mir’s thuggish behavior with a twitching eye.
Hurried footsteps came from inside the room, seemingly conveying the anger of the room’s owner.
Click—the door opened, and Mir instinctively took two steps back.
“Mir Chris!! How many times have I told you to just knock lightly twice when you call for me?! Are you going to pay for my door?!”
Along with these words—their very intonation warped—there appeared from behind the door a rather handsome beast-eared blond youth.
Yet this youth’s outfit clashed terribly with his good looks.
On top he wore a white otaku shirt with a magical-girl print; on the bottom, a pair of black shorts; on his feet, a pair of flip-flops.
He was one step short of writing “otaku” across his own face.
Just as the youth was about to grab Mir’s collar and have a proper argument about compensation, Mir smoothly turned aside to reveal the dumbfounded Xia Ye standing behind him.
The otaku pretty-boy froze upon seeing Xia Ye, then in a fluster slammed that brutally-abused door shut: “Why didn’t you say sooner there was someone else here?! You made me lose face!”
Not that it did any good—his true colors had already been exposed to Xia Ye at their first meeting.
Xia Ye didn’t seem like the type to introduce herself, and the pretty-boy who’d just been through that awkward scene was still steeped in shame, so the job of introductions naturally fell to Mir:
“Xia Ye, this is Carlo Lierwick of the Special Class. Carlo, this is Xia Ye—she’ll be attending class with us starting tomorrow.”
Xia Ye gave Carlo a nod.
“Hello, hello.” Carlo still hadn’t recovered from the earlier awkwardness.
“Wait, no! You didn’t come find me at this hour just to introduce a new classmate, did you?” Carlo came to his senses.
“And how are you going to pay me back for hammering my door into this state?!”
“Tch, do you still want the stuff I helped you buy from the Modern World or not? If not, I’ll take it back and toss it.” With that, Mir made as if to leave.
“Eh? Right now? Wait—yes, of course I want it, that’s a limited-edition figure!” Carlo had glanced at Xia Ye with some misgiving first, but his craving for the figure won out over the shame.
“By the way, I’ve got a favor to ask you.” Mir said as he pulled a figure packed in a clear plastic case out of his backpack.
“What favor? Don’t tell me you want to borrow money again? You only just paid back what you borrowed last time.” Carlo excitedly took the figure.
“That’s right, I’m shamelessly here to borrow money off you once again. This time, two thousand.”
Carlo had only been talking big—he hadn’t expected this kid really was here to borrow money.
“Let me tell you! I wouldn’t lend you a single Mila again even if I jumped off this building right now!” Carlo furiously started pointing up and down to express his resolve.
“One lewd picture.”
“Three lewd pictures, and I’ll lend you the money—plus I won’t hold the door against you.”
“Deal.”
Having successfully borrowed his own meal money and Xia Ye’s living expenses, Mir turned around, satisfied.
What met him was Xia Ye’s contemptuous gaze.
“Why are you looking at me like that? This is just how men do business.” Mir declared righteously.
But Xia Ye wasn’t buying it at all: “Filthy!”
“So that little girl caught your interest, Director?” Wanglance said as he poured himself coffee.
“A bit interested, yes. A human, yet she awakened [Hexer]—humans shouldn’t be able to interbreed with the Liches…” Erin pinched her earlobe as she looked over Xia Ye’s file.
“Maybe there’s an exception here and there?” With that, Wanglance took a sip of coffee, and then felt an unspeakable flavor assaulting his taste buds.
“Pfft—cough cough cough cough cough—”
“Cough cough—what did that brat Mir cough—put in this?” Wanglance grimaced, choked by the unspeakable flavor.
Erin calmly poured him a glass of water.
Wanglance took it and downed it in one go, and after finishing still didn’t forget to grumble in complaint:
“Honestly, when is that childish little brat going to grow up a bit?”
…Grow up?
Maybe never… Erin couldn’t help thinking of the little-girl-bodied Mir.