Chapter 106: Walk to the Academy

"Nadia!"

Turning to the left, she looked past the people to her side and down the street; there she watched as a woman and a man approached her with a wave.

The woman had orange, messy bob-cut hair, dark turquoise eyes, and gave off an air of innocence and bubbliness. She also wore the exact same uniform Nadia was wearing.

As for the man beside her, he was a ridiculously handsome young fellow who caused many to turn their heads. He had short black hair and charming amber-coloured eyes. He also wore the Orrey Cross Academy uniform, just like her, except for one difference: he was wearing pants.

These two charming individuals were Seraphine Halloway and Callum Ashby.

Nadia was stunned when she saw them. ’It’s really them...’

She then noticed two other people following closely behind them. Were they their friends?

Nadia politely slipped out of the herd to go meet them.

With a small wave, she greeted Seraphine and Callum. "Hello, you two. I didn’t expect us to meet on the same street... quite the coincidence, I must say. Anyway, have you two been well since the last time we met?"

Seraphine nodded strongly. "Yep! The past 5 days have been absolutely heavenly, compared to those three days. And yeah... it is quite the coincidence that we happen to meet on the same street to school, isn’t it, hehe."

The girl averted her gaze slightly, her anxious laugh quickly growing quiet. In truth, she already knew where everyone was, and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to walk with them to school.

Nadia nodded and turned to Callum, silently waiting for his answer. Luckily, the young man quickly understood her stare.

Callum chuckled slightly. "It’s just like Seraphine said. Compared to the three days, the 5 day break we had was definitely needed to recharge. It was also nice to spend time with my family before moving here."

"Oh, I see, that sounds nice..."

Seraphine quickly chimed in. "Oh, right! We have some people we wanna introduce you to!"

The two stepped out of the way and quickly introduced the two people standing behind them, who Nadia swiftly came to know as their roommates.

Seraphine’s roommate was a shy woman with large round glasses, black eyes, and dark brown hair styled into curly pigtails. She was also slightly shorter than Nadia, but not by much.

"H-hi, my name’s Cory Woods... I-it’s nice to meet you..."

Next was Callum’s roommate. He had fiery red short hair, dark yellow eyes, and an energetic air around him. He also looked to be around Callum’s height, which was taller than Nadia.

"Heya! Reuben Nort’s the name! Good to meet you too!"

Nadia nodded curtly at Cory and shook Reuben’s hand before introducing herself, "Nadia Crane. Nice to meet you both, as well."

She then learned of the exams they had taken. Apparently, both of them took the logistics, but unlike Cory, Reuben wanted to take the Combat exam and aspired to be a POR officer.

"It’s really frustrating, you know?"

Seraphine watched as the three became well-acquainted before glancing around, in hopes of finding someone. Then froze when she didn’t.

’Where’s Venice?’

Seeing no trace of her target, Seraphine looked to Nadia and asked:

"Hey, Nadia, where’s your roommate?"

"Roommate?" Nadia repeated before frowning slightly. "I... haven’t met them yet."

"..."

’WHAT!?’ Seraphine’s face instantly paled.

At this point in the story, Nadia should’ve been well-acquainted with her roommate since yesterday. So the fact that she hadn’t even seen her roommate meant something was terribly wrong!

With a shaky and crooked smile, Seraphine asked, "A-are you sure? Have you checked her room? Maybe she’s just sleeping in! Maybe you two just didn’t meet, because she moved in late."

Even though she was asking this as a question, it felt more like she was telling herself this as a way to cope.

Nadia shook her head. "I’ve already looked. And I didn’t hear any movement last night either. I... I’m starting to think I don’t have a roommate."

Seraphine’s face now turned deathly pale. Had her presence unintentionally changed the story again!?

’Oh, no, no, no!’ Seraphine clutched the side of her head and bit down on her thumbnail, looking extremely distressed. ’This wasn’t supposed to happen!’

Nadia, ignorant of the sort of turmoil Seraphine was dealing with, turned back to Callum with an inquisitive look.

"You talked about family earlier. How did they react to you coming back alive?" She tilted her head.

The moment Nadia asked, the traffic light they were standing at turned red for the cars, signalling it was their time to cross.

The five of them swiftly crossed the road and continued walking down the street to the academy.

As they did this...

"Haha..."

Callum managed to put together a response to Nadia’s question.

After an awkward and embarrassed chuckle, he said:

"Let’s just say they... they were very eccentric about my return, hehe."

Nadia then watched as Callum turned slightly pinkish as he recounted the welcome party he received. And from the way he put it, the party was by no means small and insignificant.

When he eventually finished, Nadia was left with a warm sensation inside her Heart, feeling happy for Callum.

She then turned to Seraphine and stared at her, silently asking the girl the same question.

When Seraphine realised and eventually snapped out of her distress, she became slightly teary. She said, "My parents were... extremely overjoyed when I came back... Hehe, it uhm... It took a lot of effort to even leave their arms to come move here."

Reuben and Corry were later asked a question about how their parents reacted to their exams and gave similar answers; apparently, both of their parents were overjoyed that they passed.

The five of them kept talking on the way to school.

Nadia listened carefully as the four talked earnestly about how their parents and family members reacted, and couldn’t help but feel joy from it as well — but also a bit of envy...

’Parents, huh...’ Nadia thought wistfully.

Even though everyone at the LCEO did give her a loving welcome party back, she...

She wanted to know what it was like to be welcomed back by parents, as well...

...

After close to half an hour of walking...

’This...!’ Nadia widened her eyes.

Everyone finally reached the gate to Orrey Cross Academy.