I could still feel her soft touch on my cheek even after she left.
That encounter with Kaida left me so speechless that I had to think about it for a couple of minutes.
I began thinking so much about it that I didn't notice when Fran woke up.
We both stared at each other for a couple of seconds in disbelief.
"Alen!"
She jolted up from her chair, making the blanket fall to the ground.
"You... dumb..."
The girl rubbed her eyes and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
She pouted as she tried to pretend that she wasn't crying.
"I know... I'll bu-"
"No!" The girl yelled and stomped on the ground.
"I-I'm sorry..."
Did... did Fran just apologize to me? Why?
"You went to that dungeon because I made you waste your money on me. Because you always paid for us... even when I could've paid for both..."
Se couldn't hide it anymore. She began sobbing and sniffling.
"I'm sorry, Alen"
"Fran... stop, it wasn't your fault"
I stood up from the bed and stood in front of her.
"I'd planned to go on a dungeon for a long time, that was just... a coincidence"
My weak defense wasn't enough to calm her.
"Don't lie to me... you ended up going there because of me"
I knew that she wasn't entirely wrong.
Part of the reason as to why I needed to go dungeon exploring was because I spent a lot when we went out together.
"You probably hate me, don't you? I forced you into being my friend, and I made you waste your money while I just had fun"
I froze on the spot.
"I ruined my first friendship because I was careless... I'm sorry"
Never in my life did I think that I'd one day see Franchesca Von Themys, the villainess, crying and blaming herself...
It made me feel... really upset.
"Fran!"
I hugged her tight, resting her face on my shoulder.
"I don't hate you... I willingly became your friend, and I wouldn't have it any other way"
I rubbed the back of her head as I felt my shoulder dampen with her tears.
"B-but you..."
"No matter what happens, I'll always come back to enjoy our friendship"
She began to calm a bit.
"If I went to that dungeon, it was because I wanted to spend more time with you" I reassured her once again.
"I'm still sorry... I swear that I'll be the one paying for both of us next time, and the time after that" she said in between hiccups.
"It's okay" I whispered
She separated from my hug and pouted.
"You won't go to another dungeon"
"But I-"
"You won't"
"You'd better do what she said, student Alen"
We both looked to the side and saw three people standing there.
"It's good to see you breathing, Mr. Alen" Cecil laughed.
"We didn't want to bother you two" Theo looked to the side as he blushed.
"We have a lot to talk about, student Alen" Hellen goldenlaw smiled as she saw how Fran blushed and became flustered.
"We'll keep talking after director Goldenlaw asks you a couple of things" Fran said after clearing up her throat.
"We'll start by catching up on the week you just missed" she said as she pulled out a notepad.
"A week?" I yelled and widened my eyes.
The third week isn't all that important as it's just a setup week for the fourth week, but missing a whole week isn't good.
"You went to sleep on the weekend and woke up on the next weekend" Cecil laughed, which caused Theo to elbow him.
"You still have a day this weekend to catch up with your friends about your studies" the director chuckled.
Thankfully, the fourth week event only affects the E class, the class where Kaida is.
"The first thing that happened is that you and the second year students you formed a party with have been awarded with points. So you went from rank eleven to rank five"
"Rank five, why!?"
An increase of six ranks in the S class is insane.
"Everyone in the academy reacted the same way" Theo commented.
"The director made a big announcement to the entire academy about how you and your team ended up on a dungeon that changed difficulty, and how you took out a lich boss" Cecil slowly laughed.
"I personally think that you finally earned your rightful place at the top of our class" Fran proudly smiled.
Now, the only thing that separates me from the top three composed of Theo, Fran, and Cecil is the student ranked four.
"Moving on" Goldenlaw cleared her throat.
"Due to the emergency retreat, the only loot that was taken out of that dungeon was whatever your group had been carrying at the time"
"The most notable loot was that coat you didn't let go..." the director pointed at the coat on the bed "And a lich's bone. We'll later ask you on your version of what happened"
"Your party members should be arriving soon" Theo commented as he looked to the window.
"Speaking of, your party members decided not to take any amount of coins for that dungeon. They said that you should take all the earnings as compensation for what you went through"
Those guys...
"How are they? My party members, I mean" I asked as I looked to the ground.
"Student Enrick was the one that was most injured. But none of them had any fatal injuries, so don't worry about that"
Thank god...
Then I've changed the future, now Agatha's friends are alive and she didn't suffer a trauma that caused her to lose her memories.
"You can keep the coat and the coins made from the bone and other materials sold will go straight to you"
"I'll still pay for us whenever we go out, so don't worry about that" Fran added with a nervous smile.
______
Fran, Cecil, and Theo had to leave, which left Hellen Goldenlaw and me alone.
"Now... that we're alone" the blonde director looked at me with a serious expression.
"I think that it's impossible for a student that reached the second circle only recently to beat a lich boss on an amethyst dungeon"
I was afraid of explaining that.
Honestly, I'd like to keep the secret of outer mana control until I can at least control it a bit.
"The lich boss didn't die" I can only hope to be vague enough and avoid talking about dangerous things.
"What?"
"He killed the previous boss of that dungeon and took over the mantle of boss. He only retreated after being injured"
"And how di-"
"A spider we failed to kill helped me fight against it" I tried to avoid any mention of my discovery.
"There are some cases where monsters are hostile against each other" the woman placed her hand on her mouth, thinking about that possibility.
"I'm guessing that the lich killed it's mother and the spider used me as a way to get revenge"
"But, what about the skeleton army? A lich fighting on the front line is unheard of"
"I managed to trap the army on the lower floors, and the lich himself told me how he wanted to experiment with my... incantationless trick"
That should explain most things without the need to talk about that thing I've been trying to hide.
She only looked at me with a serious expression that made me get goosebumps all over my back.
I forgot that she also wants to know how I can do incantationless without the great sage's left eye.
"Having a student that keeps it secretes is such a bother" she sighed and crossed her arms.
I just let out a nervous chuckled and stammered on my defense.
"I-I've been told to keep my secrets"
"I'm impressed you didn't reveal the secret of who you're associated with" she started leaving the room.
Who does she take me for?
"Remember that everything is revealed to me in the end"
She turned her head around and looked at me with an evil grin.
"After all, I am blessed by this universe"
She left the room and slammed the door.
She does have the second highest luck stat in the entire game.
I swear that it's not fair to go against overpowered characters.
_______
It's been a couple of hours after my talk with my friends and the director.
After the nurse did some checkups on me, I asked her if she could bring me a first tier wind spellbook.
She brought the book minutes later and told me to not over do it before leaving me alone.
Wind spells of the first tier.
I noticed that relying solely on four spells, actually three, because both wind ram and wind scythe are different versions of the same spell, isn't a good thing.
I have no variety in magical attacks, and those four spells can be easily countered.
But, what spells do I want to learn?
I guess that the last northern wind weapon set variation is a fine starter since I already know the incantation.
"Wind hammer"
I couldn't learn it before because it costs more to cast than the other two weapons of this set.
But now that my mana went up thanks to... eating rocks... I should be able to learn it.
Aside from learning the incantation, you need the mental image to do that specific spell.
This is easy with this spell as it's only a hammer, and the movement is simple and predictable.
Instead of launching the spell forward like wind ram or wind scythe, this spell has four locked directions.
A horizontal swipe that's useful when dealing with crowds and should be a good get off of me movement.
And a vertical swing that's more useful on single targets and taking distances into account, it could also be a nice surprise attack if the opponent is extremely close to not notice the attack.
Once you have the mental image and the incantation, you have to manifest the spell.
"Winds of the of the north, attack my opponents with a wind, akin to the weapons used by the warriors you blessed"
I could feel my mana moving inside myself and going to the palm of my hand.
"Learning spells is just muscle memory... once your mana gets used to manifesting in a certain way, the whole process becomes so easy that the only thing you need to care about is the incantation"
The mana does all the job while you only send the signal to act in the form of an incantation.
"But it's really hard the first time"
I saw how the wind that formed in front of me dissipated as I lost focus.
"Manually creating a spell is hard"
But it was harder when I learned how to cast my first spell.
_________