Chapter 196: Girl’s Talk Night
The student who came over to, Ross was considered to be a prodigy back in his home galaxy. He was only a year older than Arthur and was also at the superior stage of the grandmaster realm.
He had heard that Arthur was an inferior stage grandmaster and hoped to defeat him and take his place as the number one in the Fourth year. Considering he was challenging every ten ranks above himself, challenging Arthur after defeating Kian was an obvious result.
Ross did his homework on Arthur and heard of his feats but even so, he was confident he could defeat Arthur. This confidence made Arthur feel like Ross was worthwhile, nevertheless, Arthur still felt like he could beat Ross with ease.
After parting ways with Arthur, the three girls were making their way over to their dormitories when Esna suddenly suggested.
"Hey, Layla, can we hang out in your room tonight?"
"Hmm? No problem. You okay with it Nicole?"
Nicole nodded in affirmation, and just like that, it suddenly became girls’ talk night!
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"Your room is huge!"
Those were Esna’s first words as she entered Layla’s room. Nicole trailed in after her silently while checking something on her phone.
"Wait a moment; this Layout is kinda similar to Arthur’s..."
"That’s because this room is meant for the royal family members but Arthur gave permission for me to stay here."
"Ohh..."
Esna nodded in understanding after hearing Layla’s full explanation, she understood fully well the pains of being popular.
The room was simply a smaller version of a seven-star hotel suite. With two bedrooms, a dining room, a dressing room, and a luxurious bathroom.
Layla had already customized it to her taste over the past four months she had been living in it. The trio took a late-night bath before gathering around on Layla’s bed and chatting with each other.
Upon seeing Nicole’s appearance after her bath, Esna realized something that almost everyone who knew Nicole did not know.
’She’s hot...’
Nicole was wearing a black semitransparent negligee that contrasted with her fair skin. However, it did little to hide her slender and a rather voluptuous figure, with a small waist and shoulders wider than her hips.
Due to the rather loose-fitting clothing she usually wore, it was quite difficult to notice this. Layla walked in from the dressing room while drying her hair and saw the slack-jawed Esna staring at Nicole.
Perhaps sensing her gaze, Nicole looked up from her phone and asked Esna if there was any problem while tilting her head to the side with a look of pure curiosity on her face.
The contrast only made Esna even more stunned.
"This should never be shown to any males."
"I agree with you Esna, I totally do."
Layla tapped Esna on the shoulder before moving over to take a seat beside Nicole.
"Ah, Hey Nicole, ever braided your hair?"
"No."
"Wanna try it, I happen to be quite good at it."
Esna suggested with a look of pride on her face, causing Nicole to chuckle lightly before agreeing. Hearing Nicole’s agreement, Esna’s eyes flashed as she hopped onto the bed then lifted Nicole and placed the confused Nicole in between her laps.
While braiding Nicole’s hair, the trio chatted about various things, from their experiences during their holidays to other random things they came across.
"Hey, Esna."
"Yep~."
"Don’t you miss your homeworld?"
Esna’s hands stopped the moment Layla asked her that question. Her jewel-red eyes trembled for a moment, she then smiled depreciatingly and answered.
"I honestly thought I didn’t but after going home during the end-of-year break, I realized I actually did. A lot.
But then again, it’s not like I’m staying here forever so it’s cool."
Layla rose an eyebrow at Esna’s reply, she then asked more questions about her homeworld and her friends over there with Nicole occasionally chiming in.
The three girls got along with each other quite well, there also was not much of an age difference between them too as their birthdays were only apart by a few months.
Soon, the direction of their conversation shifted to the one thing that a sleepover won’t end without; Love Talk.
"Huh? You like Edward?"
Nicole who was mostly on her phone could not help but drop it in surprise upon hearing Esna’s words.
"Don’t turn around, you’d ruin the hair, and no. I just said I fancied him, I don’t really have any feelings for him."
"Hmm, but it’s not like he’s a bad choice, you know? He’s quite popular among the fifth and sixth-year girls too."
Layla chimed in while aiding Esna in braiding Nicole’s unsurprisingly long hair. She then joined Nicole in probing Esna for answers as the latter was beginning to regret telling them about it.
The two had hit off ever since they met that day of Layla and Arthur’s duel that resulted in the destruction of two private training room buildings.
Since then they had been spending quite a lot of time together, and even Esna had realized that he was indeed closer to her than he was with others.
"Perhaps he likes you and is trying to woo you?"
"Nahh, he doesn’t see me that way."
Esna hurriedly denied Layla’s assumption but the latter only sighed in response.
"You know Esna, you seem like the type to be very knowledgeable when it comes to others but is actually quite slow when it comes to herself.
"I’m not...I think?"
The three chuckled as they continued addressing Esna and Edward’s potential relationship.
"Hmm, is that Arthur?"
As Nicole was seated in between her laps, Esna could view over Nicole’s shoulder and inadvertently glanced at her phone screen.
"Yeah."
Seeing Nicole’s nonchalant reply as she continued typing away, Esna grinned and whispered in her ear.
"Do you like him?"
Of course, Esna already knew the answer to that but she just wanted to tease the older girl a bit. And she succeeded as Nicole nodded in affirmation while blushing a bit.
"Tsk...that scumbag doesn’t deserve someone like Nicole, she’s too good for him."
"I agree Esna, I agree. Nicole’s cuteness belongs to us."
Layla and Esna shook hands with mischievous looks on their faces behind Nicole.
And like so, Esna joined the Nicole Harper fan club (cult) that adored (literally worshipped) Nicole’s cuteness.
Of course, Nicole had no knowledge about the existence of such a fan club (cult).
On a side note; Layla was the president of the said fan club (cult).
As the trio was still on the topic of love, Nicole turned to Layla and asked if there was anyone that caught her eye.
"Nahh, I don’t really see guys my age as potential love interests."
"There are some rumours that you and Arthur are together though."
As Esna said that, she felt Nicole’s body shake lightly but only smiled and patted the latter’s head a bit before continuing to braid her hair.
As for Layla;
"Tsk, Tsk. Arthur is just like that annoying older brother who is also your rival. There’s nothing like that between us."
Esna chuckled upon hearing her reply. She had also noticed the small rivalry between Layla and Arthur and could not help but wonder about how it started.
"I really wanna see who’d make our dear Layla fall."
The trio laughed and began to chat about trivial things. Soon their conversation encroached on the topic of the challenge Arthur received earlier.
"Do you think that Ross dude has a chance of winning?"
"May-"
"Not in the least."
To Layla’s casual question, Nicole was about to answer but Esna cut her off with an uncharacteristically serious voice.
"That dude is finished. He has no idea how strong Arthur has become."
Esna shivered involuntarily when she remembered the small training she had with Arthur earlier in the year. The moment Arthur deactivated the concealment ring and she felt his aura, she instinctively jumped back due to fear.
"Arthur isn’t even a mi-, an intermediate stage anymore, he’s a superior stage. We all know he had always been able to beat people above his stage or realm.
Unless that guy is as strong as a peak inferior stage Epic, he should forget about winning."
Hearing Esna’s explanation, Layla and Nicole felt sorry for the poor dude as his loss was already confirmed.
Layla and Nicole already knew about Arthur and Esna’s occasional training and tests that they always did every week.
They knew there was some sort of weird relationship between the two but they never could have guessed it was simply a progenitor and one of his progeny trying to figure out more about their race.
The girls continued chatting until they were done braiding Nicole’s hair.
As expected, she looked beautiful in it so Layla and Esna turned her into their dress-up doll for the night and even had a photo shoot with the camera that Esna had on her for some reason.
"I swear, this was not my plan for coming here, I just happened to have a camera."
Of course, neither Layla nor Nicole believed her words.
