I just stepped out of Sianna's office, and my heart was still beating pretty fast.
"Looks like you have been busy, Newman."
Hearing the familiar voice, I quickly turned to the side.
Melissa was leaning against the stone wall, her light blue hair pulled up into a tight ponytail now.
It exposed her smooth neck and made her even more attractive.
Honestly, between staring at my professor for fifteen minutes and now seeing her waiting for me, my teenage hormones were completely out of control today.
"Are you following me?" I asked, leaning against the opposite wall and trying to look totally relaxed.
"Of course I am," she said, crossing her arms under her chest.
"You just beat up a high-ranking noble on your very first day. And now you are sneaking inside an office trying to seduce a married professor."
I blinked.
'She must have used her enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on us.'
High-level mana users can focus mana into their ears to hear through solid doors.
It is an annoying trick.
"What I do is none of your business," I told her.
"Is that so?" She pushed herself off the wall and walked a few steps closer.
"You know the second years are going to be all over you once they hear you beat up Lucien. And, if Luciana comes back from her raid, she will be aiming straight for your head."
'Ah, I totally forgot about her.'
Luciana is Lucien's older sister.
She is the star student of the academy and is currently in her third year.
Right now, she is out doing cave explorations.
She is definitely trouble, not because she is unbeatable.
With my maxed-out stats, I could easily crush her.
But she is just annoyingly persistent. If she starts messing with my daily life, I will eventually snap. But I can't just go around killing students in the first week.
It would cause too many problems.
I looked at Melissa, trying to gauge what she wanted from me.
"So what do you want?" I asked her flatly.
"Now we are talking." She started walking around me, indirectly asking me to follow her down the hall.
I matched her pace.
"I have a problem," Melissa said quietly.
"My mana core is not activating properly. It is unstable, so I need a test subject. Someone who can actually withstand a hit if my magic ever gets out of control."
She did not look at me. But I knew exactly where she was going with this.
"You want me to be your training dummy," I said.
"You are clearly different, Shane. Not just anyone could mimic Lucien's lightning as you did. It will only be a few days before the professors figure out your real abilities. Until then, you are the only one sturdy enough to take a hit from me without breaking."
I thought about it.
Her unstable magic would probably feel like a warm-up to me if the other nobles started messing up.
It is an easy job, and it gives me an excuse to spend time here.
"Alright. But then I need your help too," I said.
"Hmm?" Melissa stopped walking.
She looked genuinely shocked, clearly not expecting me to talk back and make demands.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"I need Sianna's daily activities. I need to know where she eats lunch, how much time she spends in the faculty wing, and exactly where her house is located."
Melissa narrowed her eyes.
She actually took a physical step back and looked at me like I was trash.
"You are talking like a real creep now, aren't you?" she said. Her voice dropped low.
"Are you going to force yourself on her?"
It would be a lie to say the thought did not briefly cross my hormone-crazed mind.
I mean, my life is literally on the line, and I have less than three days before the system turns me into dust.
The desperation is very real.
"No," I told her firmly.
I might be a guy forced into a corner, but there are strict boundaries I will never cross.
I am not that desperate yet.
Melissa looked at me for a few long moments.
She was searching my eyes for any sign of a lie.
Finally, her shoulders relaxed a bit.
"Fine," she said.
"Meet me at the training hall tonight at midnight. Do not be late."
She waved her hand dismissively and walked off down the corridor.
I watched her hips sway as she left.
Yeah, I am definitely going to enjoy being her training partner.
I leaned against the wall and pulled up my status window again.
Getting Melissa on my side was a huge win.
She has the money and the noble connections to get faculty schedules, and probably has servants who can find out where Sianna lives in an hour.
I just need to play my cards right.
Tonight, I will let Melissa throw some magic at me.
She likes strong guys, so maybe I will flirt a little.
Then I will get the intel on the professor.
I turned around and headed toward the exit, on my way to get food since my stomach started making weird noises.
Far down the corner of the hall, hidden in the shadows, Zephyr was standing still. He saw the entire interaction and watched Melissa being awfully close to me.
'That is not how it went last time,' Zephyr thought to himself.
He watched me walk away as his hands slowly curled into tight fists.
He still remembered the burning pain in his chest, the feeling of the sword piercing his heart.
Shane Newman.
The guy who betrayed everyone and stabbed him right before the final battle against Azrael.
Zephyr closed his eyes.
When he died, he thought it was the end.
But the heavens gave him a second chance.
They sent him back in time to fix his mistakes.
He regressed back to his first day at the academy, expecting everything to be the same.
But Shane was acting completely different.
In the past timeline, Shane was a quiet loser on the first day.
He got beaten up by Lucien and spent a whole week crying in the medical wing.
Now, Shane just put Lucien in the ground with one punch, and he was flirting with Melissa, the duke's daughter.
The timeline was already changing.
He did not know how Shane got so strong so fast.
But Zephyr knew one thing for sure.
'There won't be another time,' Zephyr promised himself.
'I will kill you before you get the chance to ruin this world again.'