Chapter 73: She’s Not Angry

The annex lights grew dimmer behind him, and he inhaled the campus’ night air as he left the gym...

Ethan walked back toward his dorm with his hands in his pockets and the system screen open just far enough to read the damage.

He sighed. Death Control practice had not been free.

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[Death Energy: 1148 / 1200]

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He had used Fifty-two points on failed coats, experiencing shocks, and one stable strike. The loss was not catastrophic under the new Death Energy ceiling. But it was not nothing either. He sighed and closed the screen as he focused on the path ahead.

He opened the door, and he realized that Lila was still awake.

She sat sideways on the couch in one of his shirts, her hair down, and phone face-down on the cushion as if she expected the door to open any moment from now. When she heard the door open, her eyes went up towards the clock on the wall, and then to him.

"You’re late."

"You’re in my shirt."

"Where were you?"

Ethan stepped in fully and locked the door... "I was at the gym."

"It’s a bit late to still be coming back from the gym though." She said in a flat tone.

He sighed. "I was working on Death Control, the new skill I told you about. While I was doing it, Ava Drew walked in—"

Silence...

He flinched. ’Shit.’

"Oh really?" Ava asked quietly and in an uninterested tone that made Ethan flinched.

"Ssaw what I was doing," he said, "she corrected it, gave me a few pointers and got a clean strike out of me."

Lila stared at him. "It didn’t stop there did it?"

Ethan gritted his teeth ever so slightly, thinking if it was a good idea to continue this conversation, then continued anyway...

"She offered to teach me how to use it properly."

"And you agreed."

"I agreed."

The room held still.

Lila’s face did not show any form of anger or irritation, and for a moment, Ethan thought was he in the clear.

Her expression tightened.

"You agreed," she repeated.

"Yes."

"Okay."

Ethan raised an eyebrow.

’yeah, she’s definitely pissed...’

"It’s just lessons on how to control death energy flow" Ethan said. "Her lightning and Death Control use the same release logic. And while I was wasting the pool on bad habits, she fixed one strike in a single session. I just don’t want myself killed in a dungeon if an army of undead is not enough..."

Lila’s jaw tightened, then she stood, walked to the kitchen, and started pulling dinner together with movements that were a little too exact. Plates. Rice. And two cups of water.

"I’m not angry the way you think," she said without turning. "I’m not angry at all. But if I start talking right now, every sentence would have her name. I don’t want that in my mouth all night."

Ethan stood on the living room side of the counter and accepted the boundary. "Alright."

"Don’t ’alright’ me like I’m some kind of logistics note."

He blinked. He really was bad at this... "I—"I’m sorry."

She sighed and set a plate down harder than necessary, "i cooked dinner," she said, "Eat."

They ate at the small table in silence.

A type of silence that Ethan wasn’t quite comfortable with. He did not force small talk into the gap. Because he knew that very thin subject available — training, class, Nora, the system, had a road that led back to blond hair and yellow eyed senior.

He washed, she dried. And throughout all these, she didn’t say even a single word to him.

When the counter was clean, Lila took her jacket from the chair and paused only long enough to say, "I’m sleeping in my room tonight. You’re probably tired and I kind of miss my bed."

Ethan stared at her for a moment. Yeah she was obviously pissed. There was no way the Lila he knew would suddenly decide to sleep in her room just because she "missed her bed."

He didn’t what to do, or what to say, so he nodded. "Oh, alright..."

Saying that, she moved towards her room and shut the door.

***

By morning, things were slightly better, but it wasn’t back to normal.

They moved around each other through a short breakfast with the same distance, only Lila actually talked to him a bit more. Though she was not the bubbly Lila he remembered, this had to pass for something.

After they ate breakfast, he went to the east grounds.

The same packed earth, open sky. The lane where Bef had cut grooves and the Raven had held ovals still sat there untouched. It was also the sopt Ava had once watched him train like it was some kind of spectator sport.

He rolled his shoulders, checked the system out of habit, and did not call out any undead. Today’s work, if she kept to her end of the deal, was Death Control channeling.

He was midway through it — breath, path flow, coating without strike when he heard familiar footsteps coming from the opposite side of the grounds.

Ava stepped onto the grounds in a black t-shirt and joggers. She had hair tied back, and eyes brightening immediately she saw him.

"Shaw," she called, "I had a feeling you were here. I went to the gym block but couldn’t find you so at thought you lost your nerve."

Ethan looked at her, and when he did, his breath caught. Her t-shirt clung to her slender and athletic form as her chest strained against the fabric.

He was too focused yesterday so he didn’t notice just how sexy she look—

Oi! Focus

He cleared his throat. "Where else would i be..."

"Oh, I don’t know... probably under the blanket. Scared of the kind of attention I was getting you."

He narrowed his eyes. "So you’re aware..."

Ava’s smile widened as she crossed the last few meters toward him, "Of course I do." She laughed "alright then let’s work. You have a long way to go if you want to be as good as me..."