"Makes one girl gets interested on you. The higher the status, the better the performance…"
Baston looked at the second quest and wondered about the next thing to do. Surely, the easiest thing to do to impress a girl was money first. Most of them would look at the person differently if they had much wealth. Even though so, this method probably only worked for poor, commoner, and merchant side. As for noble and higher one, it would be basically no chance.
It wasn't just money problem for noble girls, because aside wealth, there would be many variables to decide what would interest them. Lately, they didn't only look for the wealth, but also thought about the strength and the authority the family had in their disposal. Money couldn't buy anything, but money plus noble title could buy more than usual. That was why any successful merchant was desperate to get their own nobility.
Baston was thinking the best one he could do. If he tried to make any girl interested on him, the poor and the commoner side would be the easiest. Just by simply performing his ice magic on them, they surely would be
interested on him, even if he was such a fat boy. By doing this, he could quickly complete the quest but the result must be average. To achieve higher result, he had to put status on his consideration.
If he tried harder, he might get a girl on the merchant side. For a noble one, it would be impossible. There might be a way, but since
the information was very limited, he knew nothing about girls from noble side. Besides, the section was divided, making the noble side had their own personal area while the poor, the commoner, and the merchant mingled in the same area.
"I guess the best one for now is looking for a girl from the merchant side," Baston pondered, "I wonder if Panto had known one or two girls from his own side. If he knew one, perhaps he could help me by introduce us together."
Still, he was also at disadvantage because the girl could see the big difference for both of them. Baston was pretty sure rather than
making his first impression, the girl might look at Panto more since he had successful father who could bring more wealth than him. Anyway, it was better to look for surrounding first to see if there was an easy target.
Baston then got out from his room and took a walk at the surrounding. The day started to darken after a long lesson today. Even though so, the students still walked around lively. The night was still young and not
until it was late, they would go back to the dormitory. At this time, he went to the cafeteria first because everyone must be having dinner at there. The place would be full of students, which mean many girls would be there to see.
"Ah, student Baston. Here's your dinner…" the waiter gave him a medium hot steak on plate plus an apple juice.
"I didn't order this…"
"Someone already paid for this. Please enjoy your meal…"
The waiter quickly left without giving more explanation. Baston was dumbfounded about who was the one who did this. The first one, he got sandwich and now he also got this food. He was curious over who was kind enough to treat him. Regardless that, he couldn't waste it since the food was already
served. Someday, he would know it and said thank you to the person directly.
Baston didn't know that Panto was the one who always treated him. The timid boy felt safe whenever he remembered back the event before. That time when the fat boy showed him his ice magic, he felt he finally had a backer in this academy. At first, he wanted to apologize for what he had done before but considering Baston never mentioned it, he would also didn't want him to remember his bully treatment. Still, he knew he had to ask for his forgiveness,
so the only way he could think of was this one.
After enjoying such a great dinner, Baston was full and felt sleepy. Tonight, he wanted to look for his target, yet he was too focused on
his meal. Shaking his head, it seemed he had to postpone his task and continued
it tomorrow. He went somewhere and chose a quiet place to take a walk before sitting at the nearby bench.
"Such a cool wind…" Baston stretched out.
"Indeed…" someone answered.
Baston was startled because he never thought someone was nearby. The place was deserted, unlike many common places where students were hanging with others. Because of the dark night and the person used cloak to cover the face, he didn't know who it was. One thing for sure was it must be a girl since he could differentiate the voice.
"Are you following me?" the girl said.
"I don't even know you. Why I need to follow you?" Baston thought, but he said other things, "No, I just come up here because another place is too noisy. I just want to enjoy this peaceful night."
"What a glib tongue… You must talk like that to other girls…"
The fat boy frowned because the tone of her voice indicated the girl didn't trust him. She thought he just teased her or made something to talk to. Either way, the girl acted in this way probably because of one reason. Baston thought the girl might have many suitors, thinking she happened to
experience many scenarios like this. Right now, whatever he said would get worse than the present. Usually, it was better to leave so that he could clear this misunderstanding, but he had other way to face it.
"The password is right…" Baston suddenly made a nonsense reply, "So, what do you know about the cult?"
"The cult? What do you mean?"
The girl was dumbfounded, thinking the flow of conversation suddenly changed into something out of context. She thought the boy wooed her before, but eventually, he spoke about the cult. Her mind was spinning fast, wondering what she should do. The best thing she could do actually was to fix
this nonsense. She could just tell him he found a wrong person, but she was also curious about the cult he was talking about. The boy stared at her seriously, making her spat whatever on her mind right now.
"There's… no recent news about it… at present…" the girl replied nervously.
"Really?" Baston asked, surprised that the girl just played along with his sudden drama, "Even though I'm sure they are here, but I can't pinpoint all of them. There are too many people in this academy."
"Can you tell me what this cult does?" the girl became more curious.
"As the informant, why do you still need to know? I'm pretty sure you were handed much background of this cult before. What you want to know had already been described on paper…"
"I'm still new here, so I don't know much…" the girl lied.
Baston glanced at her, "Then you shouldn't know much about it. The cult's atrocities are unthinkable. Knowing less will make your family get less implicated."
"What do you mean by that?" the girl suddenly stood up, revealing who she was under the cover of the cloak, "I believe my family is strong enough to face any cult in this kingdom."
Baston was dumfounded when seeing the real identity of the girl, thinking he messed it up, "Damn it…"
Baston never thought the one he was chatting with right now was Alicia, the beauty of his class. Not only she had face, she even had a talent on magic plus her family was indeed strong enough. At least, not many
people who dared to fight against the duke family. Even though so, he didn't expect such a noble girl was here. Usually, the noble would mingle around at their own private area. Not many of them who wasted their time to come here. Besides, many of nobles despised such a pitiful commoner section.
The girl was smart enough and Baston was afraid he would be punished severely if Alicia knew he just fooled her into his drama thinking. The punishment would be harsh, even he didn't want to imagine it. There was no way, but he had to make sure his lies wouldn't be discovered.
"Talk to me, what is this cult? Where are they and who are you?" Alicia demanded.
"It's pointless to talk right now. You don't have what it takes…" Baston slowly left her, "I still have business to do. Goodbye…"
"Wait a minute!" Alicia blocked his path, "Why you don't want to explain anything? Don't tell me that you're just making things up before."
"Well, I'm indeed making up things until now…" Baston thought anxiously.
It seemed he couldn't get away easily right at the moment. Not only she questioned him, she blocked his path to escape. He believed the girl could only be satisfied when he explained more about the cult, yet he just spouted nonsense before. At least, he needed more time to create a believable story so he could use it at the next time.
"What should I do? What should I do?" Baston thought panicky.
"If you don't want to explain, then it's alright…" Alicia continued, turning away from him, "I will call the guards to make sure what you said is right. If not, then I will make sure you must bear the responsibility."
Before she could get away, Baston quickly held her hand, pushing it against the nearby wall. If some people could see them, they must think it was just a common problem of couple. These days, many students had
expressed their loves differently, so it was just a normal occurrence. Alicia struggled, gritting her teeth under the captive.
"What are you doing? Let me go or I will scream out!"
"Are you sure you're the informant?" Baston asked with manifested ice magic on his other hand, "Don't tell me you're an impostor. Are
you a spy from the cult?"
"Magic? Ice magic?"
She might not know who was Baston, but she was sure no one from the commoner area had this strong magic. When Baston showed her the ice magic, she could feel it was stronger than her by the fluctuation. Immediately, she started to search in her mind if there were any talented student in this commoner area, but she found nothing. Then it could be only summed up that this
fat boy in front of her was hiding his real strength.
"That's not true. If you're from the cult, you probably don't need to be here…" Baston slowly made an act of frowning, "Anyway, keep it silent for now or they will run away easily. A newbie like you don't know anything, but dares to act pompously."
There was a mocking smirk on Baston's face, but Alicia could only hold her grudge. If there was next time, she would be sure to pay him back. The most important thing right now was to collect all the information she could get. Without waiting for further questioning from the beauty, Baston quickly
fled from the scene. All he could think of was if his acting could convince her or not. What if she still really calls for the guards? In that way, he really couldn't explain anything to them. If they investigated more, they would know it was just a made-up story by then.
Baston quickly went into his dormitory, entering and locking his room. He then slowly breathed a sigh of relief. At the beginning, he only wanted to get away from any slander thrown by Alicia, yet he made it worsened. Acting like the agent on his own informant, he continued the suspicious act
from the cult that he told Panto before.
Tonight, he felt he couldn't sleep. All he could do was flipping many times at the bed. Looking at the old book beside the cabinet, he woke up and flipped it to the last page. He wanted to focus on his quest before, but
since the event with Alicia, his mind was overworked with many bad probabilities. When he saw the quest, there was a progress on it with the unexpected result.
"My performance is good?"