Chapter 239: Love Advice

Chapter 239: Love Advice

I swirled the mop around in the bucket a few times, wrung out the dirty water, and pressed it back against the stone floor. I was going over the same spot for the third time, trying to remove a muddy streak from the section I had just cleaned.

I had never realized how long the academy’s corridors were. Walking from one end to the other wasn’t much of a problem, but having to clean every single stone had made me question why whoever designed the building had needed so much empty space.

On top of that, I wasn’t allowed to use mana. Professor Aemon had said that if I had enough energy to make other people work, I could do some work myself.

As I pushed the mop forward, I heard footsteps approaching from behind. Whoever it was stopped a few steps away and watched me for far too long before speaking.

"Cassian? What are you doing?"

I turned around and saw Lunox. His gaze moved between the mop in my hands and the bucket on the floor.

"If you’re not going to help, get lost."

"I was just asking."

"And I answered."

Lunox stepped aside to avoid the area I had cleaned. I expected him to leave, but he moved over to the wall and put his hands in his pockets. There was a strange smile on his face that he was trying to hide.

After watching me work in silence for a while, he cleared his throat.

"Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about."

I moved the mop toward the bucket without looking at him.

"Go ahead."

"A girl asked me out today."

The mop stopped in my hands. I tilted my head slightly and looked at him.

Lunox frowned at my reaction.

"Why are you looking at me like that? It’s not that surprising."

I wasn’t surprised that a girl had asked him out. His words had reminded me of a part of the game’s story.

The demon agent who approached Lunox...

A demon posing as a student at the academy had made the first move in much the same way to get close to him. At first, her interest in Lunox had only been part of her mission. The sweet things she said and the time they spent together were meant to earn his trust.

But at some point, things changed.

The girl actually fell in love with the person she was supposed to get close to, and Lunox began to feel the same way, unaware of the lies he had been told.

In the end, Felix killed her...

The game had used this part of the story to turn Felix and Lunox against each other. The person Felix killed was a demon agent, but to Lunox, there was more to it than that. The girl he loved had eventually developed real feelings for him, so he couldn’t accept that everything between them had been a lie.

The fact that Felix was right from his own point of view didn’t change the outcome either.

To Lunox, he was the person who had killed the girl he loved.

"Cassian?"

At the sound of Lunox’s voice, I looked back at him. His smile had faded a little.

"Aren’t you going to say anything?"

I dipped the mop back into the bucket.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don’t know. What do you think I should do?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"I wanted to know what you thought."

"I’ve never had a girlfriend before."

Lunox stared at me for a few seconds, then raised his eyebrows as though he had to remind me of something obvious.

"You have a girlfriend, Cassian."

I ignored him and wrung out the mop. As I pushed the water on the floor toward the edge of the corridor, Lunox continued waiting for an answer.

I wasn’t sure yet whether the girl he was talking about was actually that demon. I hadn’t even asked her name. Still, I couldn’t ignore what this conversation had reminded me of.

If the story was unfolding the way I remembered, I didn’t want to interfere with this part of it.

Felix and Lunox turning against each other would work in my favor. There was no point in getting between them and changing events when I could get the result I wanted without doing anything.

"I haven’t given her an answer yet," Lunox said. "I told her I wanted to think about it, but now I feel like I’m making her wait for no reason."

I glanced at him for a moment. The corners of his mouth had lifted again as he spoke. He looked confused, but he was clearly pleased that she had asked him out.

I felt a little sorry for him.

He was worrying about how to answer her now, but if he knew she would die in the future, he wouldn’t have that look on his face. Maybe he would run off to find her instead of standing in front of me.

But the discomfort I felt wasn’t strong enough to make me want to tell him what I knew.

I lowered my eyes to the floor again.

"Are you listening to me?"

"I can hear you."

"But you’re not answering."

"Because I have nothing to say to you about this."

Lunox sighed. He stayed quiet for a while, so I thought he was finally going to leave. Then he softened his voice and tilted his head slightly.

"Cass..."

I stopped moving the mop.

He was trying to imitate the way Iris called me. He had even tried to copy her tone.

I raised my head and looked him in the eyes.

"Don’t call me that."

He must have noticed the coldness in my voice. The playful look disappeared from his face as he stopped leaning against the wall.

"All right, Cassian. I’m just asking a question. Answering it shouldn’t be this difficult."

"I told you that you’re asking the wrong person."

"Aren’t you the one dating Iris? You must have more experience than I do, at least."

I leaned on the mop handle and let out a deep breath.

"Lunox, if I had any experience with love, I wouldn’t be standing here cleaning a corridor with a mop right now."

Lunox looked at my face, then at the mop in my hands. His brow furrowed as he tried to find the connection between the two.

"What does that have to do with mopping the floor?"

Instead of explaining, I went back to work.

He waited a few more seconds for an answer. Finally, he must have realized he wasn’t going to hear anything useful from me, because his shoulders dropped and he moved away from the wall.

"I guess I’d be better off asking Celine for advice."

I didn’t disagree with him.

Lunox turned around and started walking down the corridor. He glanced back at me once more, but when he saw me dipping the mop into the bucket, he shook his head and continued on his way.

I watched him for a while as his footsteps faded.

I could have stopped him and asked the girl’s name. That would have been the first step toward finding out whether she was the person I had in mind.

But I let Lunox turn the corner without saying a word.

I picked up the bucket by its handle, carried it a few meters farther down the corridor, and went back to work.

Some time passed. Fewer students were passing through the corridor, and most of the classroom doors that had been open were now closed. The light coming through the windows made the wet streaks on the floor visible, and every mark I left behind meant I had to go back and mop over it again.

Even the cuff of my jacket was getting damp. I rolled it up a little higher and was reaching forward with the mop when I heard a familiar voice.

"Cass?"

This time, I turned around and saw Iris.

She stood a few steps away, looking at me in surprise. After glancing at the bucket, she slowly approached me.

"Why are you mopping the floor?"

"I’m being punished."

"Punished?" She frowned slightly. "Why? Did Pharsa punish you?"

"No. Professor Aemon did."

"What did you do?"

"I turned my classmates against each other."

"..."

Iris’s lips parted, but she said nothing. She stared at me for a few seconds, waiting for the rest of my explanation.

When she realized I had nothing else to say, she lowered her gaze to the mop in my hands.

"Why would you do that?"

"Never mind. Are you free tonight?"

Iris looked back at my face. She hadn’t expected me to change the subject so suddenly. Before answering, she briefly looked away.

"Tonight?"

I nodded.

A faint blush spread across her cheeks as she smoothed the fabric on her sleeve with her fingers.

"There are a few things I need to do," she said. "If you’d told me earlier, I would have tried to finish them sooner."

I pulled the mop back to my side and reached for the bucket. When Iris saw me returning to work, she moved a little closer.

"But I think I can spare about an hour."

When I looked at her, the blush on her face was a little more noticeable. The moment our eyes met, she lifted her chin slightly and added:

"You’re not allowed to come to the dorm, though."

"Never mind."

I dipped the mop into the water and swirled it around a few times.

There was no need for her to squeeze me in if she had things to do. We could see each other another time. Besides, I wasn’t sure when I would finish cleaning the corridors.

Iris didn’t answer.

When her silence stretched on for a few seconds, I raised my head. The shy look on her face was gone. Her lips were pressed together, and she was staring at me.

"Never mind?"

"You said you were busy."

"I also said I could spare an hour for you."

"You can get your work done."

The moment I pressed the mop against the floor again, a kick landed on my leg.

I tightened my grip on the handle and looked down. Then I turned my eyes to Iris.

"What are you doing?"

"Idiot!"

She clenched her fists as the redness in her cheeks spread all the way to her ears.

"I’m trying to make time for us with everything else I have to do! And you just say ’never mind’ without even looking at me and keep mopping the floor!"

"If you’re busy, we can meet another—"

"Fine, Cass. Just keep mopping the floor!"

She turned away without letting me finish. I opened my mouth to say something to her, but gave up when she started walking away quickly.

I wasn’t entirely sure why she was so angry. I hadn’t wanted her to leave her work unfinished. Getting kicked in the leg for that didn’t make much sense to me.

As Iris headed for the stairs, I was left standing in the middle of the corridor with the mop in my hands.

If Lunox had stayed a few minutes longer, he would have understood why he couldn’t get love advice from me.

With a deep sigh, I rested the mop against the edge of the bucket. I looked away from the stairs Iris had taken and turned toward the other end of the corridor.

"How much longer are you going to keep hiding there?"