The first class was about monsters' biology. It was a bit interesting at first, but the teacher seemed to know nothing about monsters when they began to talk about defeating one, so I ignored him and slept, much to Eliza's frustration as she kept me awake all the time.
In the end, she made a little commotion and caused the teacher to stop and glared at her. Eliza silently sat back down and said sorry to him.
The class continued without much problem, with Eliza being quiet the whole time, reflecting on what she had done earlier. I decided it wasn't worth sulking and told her to cheer up.
To make her feel better, I told her I would show her the real way to hunt those monsters, explained by the teacher, and gave her first-hand training.
Her reaction wasn't that good.
"No, thank you."
She rejected my offer flatly, still a bit traumatized by my magic carpet and the way I hunted monsters where I gathered them in one place and killed them at once.
"A normal human can't do that!"
"But I am the Paladin. Did you forget that?"
My counter-answer baffled her and made her pout once again. She couldn't argue that I wasn't a normal human and could definitely massacre a whole army of monsters single-handedly.
Lunch arrived not long after that, just a few more boring lectures I didn't care about. Eliza looked serious as usual and listened to the lesson quietly, though. Considering how serious she looked when she listened to the lesson, I bet she was actually pretty smart too.
When the bell rang, Eliza tidied her table and put down the notebooks she used to write down some notes earlier. Rustling sounds from other students quickly tidying their notebooks rang everywhere. They just wanted to go to the cafeteria after a long day of studying.
A thud of a heavy belonging hit the table echoed from my side. I raised my head to look at my childhood friend and asked.
"Are you done?"
"Un. Are we going to the cafeteria now?"
"Yes. I have nothing to do except for that, after all. Due to the headmistress' request, I was asked to show my face in the class."
"That's a really strange request."
Shrugging my shoulders, I replied, "What can I do? She helped me with something, and so I just repaid her."
'She also answered the question that made me curious. Besides, I have nothing to do, so I just go to school.' I added in my mind.
"Well, you have a lot of problems too, but I won't ask if you don't want to tell me."
Eliza put her bag on her bench and stood up.
"Let's go to the cafeteria. I am quite hungry."
"Alright."
Because I waited for Eliza to tidy her notebooks and chatted a bit, the corridor to the cafeteria was already filled with students. Today was more so because some students skipped breakfast to see the announcement outside, and some didn't prepare their own lunch that they usually made at home.
Of course, the noble students had their lunches prepared by servants, so they didn't need to go through this mess to get to the cafeteria. Well, that applied to me too.
"Ah! Make ways! The Paladin is going through!"
"Oooh! Paladin! He's here!"
"So he returned from his mission already! I wonder what kind of mission he took that took 10 days to complete?"
'Subjugating a noble and getting my childhood friend's mother.' I replied to one of the students' questions in my mind.
When I showed up in the corridor earlier, they suddenly made a path for me to pass through with Eliza. Because they prepared it for me, I certainly used it. Eliza looked rather uncomfortable, but she still followed me nonetheless.
Now, as for the reason why they did that, someone whispered to their friend.
"We are going to win with the Paladin here, right?"
"I heard the Paladin will also join the Annual Tournament. Our Royal Academy's victory has already been decided!"
"And I heard he's so intelligent that he knows every subject taught in the Royal Academy perfectly. So we will win the intelligence tournament too! Those students in Diligentia Academy won't be able to do anything against him!"
'Yeah, no.'
And at that moment, a loud voice rang from the crowd.
"Let me through!"
I looked in that direction, curious about what happened.
A girl with bright orange hair and a yellow ribbon tied in her hair tried to squeeze through the crowd. Her bright orange eyes looked full of energy, and her face filled with excitement and exuded some energy that could make other people happy just by being near her.
And when she managed to squeeze through, she fixed her uniform and patted her chest, causing her fairly large breast to bounce.
"Finally! How could you leave me behind, Eliza? You said that you would treat me to lunch today in exchange for disappearing for a few days!"
The girl pointed at Eliza, and my childhood friend sighed loudly.
It seemed like they knew each other, so I stepped to the side and let them talk. The other students also continued to walk to the cafeteria after I gestured for them not to mind us.
Being confronted by the orange-haired girl, Eliza looked rather annoyed, and then she put up a wry smile, scratching her cheek.
"I am sorry, Karin. I forgot."
"How could you! I thought we were best friends!" The girl called Karin reacted strongly, limping down lifelessly. Then she suddenly bounced up, looking at me.
"It's because of that guy, right? How dare you steal my precious and cute Eliza! She already has a childhood friend that she loves!"
"…"
'What's with this girl?' I thought in my head as I looked at her with confusion.
I was Eliza's childhood friend, though.
"Karin… You're embarrassing me." Eliza let out a long sigh as she pointed at me with a red face. "He's Arthur, the childhood friend I talked about."
"Hmm? Really?" Karin narrowed her eyes suspiciously at me. She leaned closer and said,
"Nah, I don't think so. You said his hair has the same color as a bright sun, and his eyes look like the sky! And when he smiled, you said people stopped for a while. But he doesn't look like that at all!"
"Karin! Stop it!"
At those words, Eliza's face flushed beet red to her ears. She looked really embarrassed after getting her opinion of me exposed.
Karin looked like she was holding something back. Laughter, I guessed. And she couldn't hold it for so long before it burst out. When it happened, Eliza realized that the girl was just joking.
"Hahaha, my bad. Your reaction is so cute, Eliza. You made me want to tease you."
"… I don't care." My childhood friend pouted and bloated her cheek. It happened so much today that I wasn't worried anymore about it.
"But still, how could you leave me like that? Not only did you never tell me why you suddenly disappeared, but you moved away once you showed up once again. Yesterday you also left quite early and didn't stop at Class 2."
"Sorry… But there was something…" Eliza replied to her friend quietly.
"Well, if you can't tell me, then that's also fine." Karin huffed and put her hands on her waist.
Eliza's friend seemed like a good girl. She genuinely cared for her and knew her personality a little bit.
"More importantly, nice to meet you!" The orange-haired girl chirped excitedly as she strode over to me. "My name is Karin Greenway, the daughter of Viscount Greenway. It's my pleasure to meet you, Sir Arthur Vainglory. Please forgive my behavior earlier. I couldn't help but tease my friend."
"It's okay. Her pouting face is cute, so I forgive you." I responded with a soft smile.
"What a kind person." She giggled. "May I join you for lunch if you don't mind?"
"Sure." I nodded at her. "The more, the merrier."
"Hehehe, I will tell you Eliza's story that she told me when we were in the dorm."
"I am looking forward to it. Did she talk a lot about me?"
"She is! Every time she opened her mouth, it was always about you!"
Left alone, Eliza speechlessly looked at us, walking away. She blinked her eyes repeatedly, confused as to why I could easily get along with Karin.
After she recovered from the shock, she ran toward us and joined the conversation, trying to deny what Karin had said about her.
We had lunch together, but in the middle of it, the [Earring of Communication] I had in my pocket rang.
"Excuse me for a second."
I left the two of them and put on the earring once I was outside the cafeteria. This was the earring I left in the Border City, so the caller must be either Lucy, Nina, or Beatrice.
"What's wrong?"
[Master!]
A chirpy voice rang in my ear. The only one who called me Master was Beatrice, and then she continued.
[Princess Carissa visited the Border City anonymously.]
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