Yes, I got into a routine and my days started to feel pretty much the sa.
But all this ti was not just spent training. The rest of my ti was usually spent doing two things.
The first was to prepare for the future, to make more plans, and to make sure that everything was going well.
And the second one was...
"I’m studying... really studying! It’s just that I don’t understand!"
Spending ti with Celine.
"And he doesn’t understand either..."
Or rather, listening to her complaints.
Listening, largely her being fed up with Ronald’s complaints about her failure in her academic scores.
"I would normally say study more..."
I moved the screen in front of slightly to the right and looked at Celine sitting across from as I said my next words.
"But even I don’t understand what’s going on between you and your studies."
I actually tried.
I really did.
I tutored her myself, I explained things over and over again. But sohow... when it ca ti for a quiz or a test, she either barely passed or had to take make-ups. Find your adventure at .Côm
In the end, it took four tis in a row teaching the sa subject and seeing the results on the tests for that subject for to give up.
At least she is not so bad that she fails any of her courses... she seems to sohow be able to pass all of them.
"Tsk."
Celine simply rolled her eyes at what I said, then jumped to her feet. She walked over to and sat down in the sa seat, our shoulders touching. Then, she looked at the screens in front of without saying anything.
"Darrel... Gavef- Gavefrihet? What kind of last na is that? Who is this guy?"
I turned my eyes to the news of the man whose na she couldn’t read.
This was a man who had caught my attention a few tis before. He was sort of the... leader of the group that erged against the noble inequality after the Justin and Malus cases. He had been famous for a few months and then forgotten as the news around him was overshadowed by others.
And now he was becoming famous again... because the group he was leading had gotten too big and he had beco quite a successful person.
He’s soone I really wanted to et at so point. He never existed in the original ga, so I want to see what he’s like, and if he’s soone I can use, I want to use him.
Maybe I can even go to him in a couple of weeks...
"It doesn’t really matter... at least not right now."
"Huh... okay."
Her eyes wandered over the other screens, but then she saw nothing of interest and sighed.
I was about to turn back to the screens when...
"I co here, we spend ti... but we don’t do anything!"
I paused, turned back to her.
"Like what?"
For a brief mont, she paused just like . Her expression suddenly changed, and then she was silent for a while as if she was thinking.
"We could watch so TV series. We could go out to eat. I don’t know... go to a concert or sothing? Maybe we could go down to Wiathen. There are so many things to do when I think about it more."
With each new thing she listed, her voice grew quieter as if she was thinking more and more. But, after her last example, she did sothing I didn’t expect. She leaned on my shoulder, took a deep breath, and exhaled.
"Before, when you first started the study group... you were the one who encouraged us to do activities. You made us sing karaoke, you did your best not to take us straight to our rooms after every study session. But now... you’re too focused on work and yourself."
Uh...
"Don’t get wrong, I know how... important things you’ve been dealing with. Adrian and Alysia’s family, you always talking to Lucia’s mom and my dad about work... your company that started selling potions and so on. But... I think you could use so ti for yourself, because you look tired. More so than ever. And that has nothing to do with what we talked about earlier."
I quickly glanced at the screens in front of . Almost all of them related in so way to what I was doing now and what I wanted to do in the future.
And so... I realized sothing else about myself.
It seems I’ve gotten a little too lost in my own world. I’ve been so caught up in ’the future’ and ’progress’ that, in the daily routines that are the most efficient way of spending my ti... I’ve forgotten to relax.
…
Neither Celine nor I said anything for a few seconds. And I... realized how similar the current situation was to sothing else that had happened in the past.
At one point, when Celine had just been moved to the hospital... I had snapped at Clara. I had vented my anger, my despair on her. And she told ... simply to relax.
I’m walking down the sa path again, aren’t I?
It’s funny when I think about it...
"Okay."
I reached for the screens in front of , sliding them one by one to the sides to turn them off. Finally, when the only source of light in the room was the ceiling lamp, I turned slightly to Celine, who was still leaning against my shoulder.
"Is there a show you want to watch? Or... a place you want to go?"
And... she simply smiled.
But this smile was different.
It wasn’t wide, it didn’t seem overly excited.
It was just... one of the brightest, sincere smiles I’ve ever seen on her face.
"Yes!"
*******
I have to admit... I really needed it.
When my days are calm like this, it’s much better to take advantage of this calm and go in refreshed than to go straight into the hard tis...
No, the hard tis are still to co. I will enter them at the end of my second year at the Academy and the beginning of sumr vacation. And it’s only been two weeks, not more, since the conversation with Celine. But already I feel much more... refreshed... good.
Doing the things she said; watching TV series together, going places, not just being around each other but actually ’spending ti’... has had a better effect on than I thought it would.
With each passing day, I felt more and more refreshed, calr, and... simply peaceful.
And, so... I decided to do sothing I hadn’t done for a long ti.
I went into the ssaging app, I went into a certain group that I hadn’t sent any ssages to for a while... and I typed one thing.
What I did not expect... was the speed of the answers I received.
Three confirmations in just two minutes. Celine was already ready for this yesterday. Only Alysia didn’t respond.
But I had no doubt that Adrian would drag her away sohow.
And that’s how I found myself in the place where we always t before I even realized how fast ti was passing.
In the old karaoke room where we used to spend hours.
And everyone arrived one after the other.
I had already arrived with Celine. After us ca Adrian and Alysia. Then Lucia and finally Julian.
We were together again, as a whole group.
But, for so reason... in the first monts, even though everyone was gathered, there was a strange silence.
This silence was broken by Julian, who was clearly uncomfortable.
"I thought you were quite busy these days... What made you think of eting up?"
He was in his usual place, in the single armchair in the left corner of the room.
Lucia spoke right after him.
"I didn’t expect it either."
I sighed slightly.
"I thought it’s been a while since we’ve t here like this. I just... wanted us to be together, I guess."
I took one of the two long couches in the room and let my eyes roam over the five in front of .
"I don’t have any particular purpose. I don’t have anything planned."
I actually had a bad feeling.
Like at any mont they might say, "What the hell?" and leave. And I actually saw that look on Alysia’s face.
But... the others didn’t react like that.
"Oh, you could have said that from the beginning."
Lucia was the first to speak.
Then Julian.
"It must be hard for you too, working all the ti... I genuinely thought you were like a robot or sothing after seeing you never rested."
They all simply... smiled.
And the bad feeling in my gut slowly began to fade as each of them let themselves go.
"Let’s simply chat, then. I think we have a lot to talk about."
Julian, being generally the most ’social’ of us, was the first and the one who spoke the most.
He started with how his days were going.
"My father keeps telling to do this, go et with that person, try to get this signed... Should I call them tasks? I’m not even sure what to call them, but I keep getting them. And man, sotis it gets so overwhelming!"
Then, he started complaining about his father.
After a while, as if on automatic, he started telling us about the people he was talking with, the nonsense he was going through... funny things.
And, at this point, I realized sothing about him that I had overlooked.
Yes, Julian was taking the job of taking over his father’s position seriously. But... at the sa ti, he was tired of his surroundings. Of the nobility, of pretending to look good, of trying to act ’serious’...
It was so clear that with every minute that passed, the difference in his deanor, in the way he described his experiences... and the absurdity of the things he told directly as ti passed... even I was almost overwheld by the things he told us.
"But, in any case... I think it’s going well. I feel like my dad trusts more and more."
At the end, he took a deep, really deep breath, as if relieved. He had talked for almost half an hour straight, clearing his throat as if he was hoarse, even coughing a few tis. But, all in all... he looked much better now.
"Mine’s not much different, actually."
After what Julian had said, everyone suddenly turned to Celine.
"I’m not sure about the ’trust’ part at the end, though. But... my father has been a bit suffocating lately too."
And then she started talking.
The sotis hour-long lectures her father gave her about failing in her studies, how she could never tell him what was wrong... and more.
Lucia’s story was completely different.
"My parents are usually... relaxed. They’re both busy with their work, and I have no business of ’taking over them’ like Julian’s. It’s just... they’re too focused on , I suppose?"
What she was uncomfortable with was... the attention. Leonard and lany were trying to be with her at every point in her life, limiting the ti she had to take care of herself. And she was getting tired of it.
She was at least relieved that at least she had found a solution, , to the charm statistic, which took a big chunk out of her problems.
Adrian, on the other hand... was clearly uncomfortable with what had happened to him recently. And he wasn’t afraid to voice it. He told the truth about his family without lying, he described the disgusting feeling he had when he had to change his last na.
It was definitely much more... negative than the others.
Yet he didn’t end his speech in such a ’negative’ way.
"Despite all this... I think I’m okay. At least I know who my parents are, I know exactly what happened to them. I think it’s better than being clueless about... everything. Oh, and I found out that Alic- I an, Alysia is my sister. That’s sothing too."
That last part was not sothing unknown. Nevertheless, there was no ’discomfort’ in his life for now. Most of it was... in the past and now, he was looking forward to moving on.
So all eyes turned to Alysia.
Yet... she just sighed.
"The only annoying thing in my life is having to deal with other things when I could be sitting at ho doing the things I enjoy."
What did I, or rather, we, even expect...?
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