Chapter 159 Volume IV – Chapter 4: Date

To be honest, just walking was refreshing. It felt good to just walk with Sue, not caring about the students, my surroundings, or anything.

As we walked side by side, I looked at Sue out of the corner of my eye and saw that she was happily smiling.

When was the last time I saw her like this? Maybe when she met her brother…

My eyes slowly drifted to the floor.

With his brother.

With Paul Demens.

“Aiden?”

Sue, a little surprised at my absent-mindedness, quickly turned away. It was only then that I noticed the building next to us.

“We’re here.”

“Oh… we’re already here.”

The building was really huge… and aesthetically designed, with terraces on each floor opening in different directions at different angles, and decorated with lights and holographic screens. This huge building was the shopping mall of the academy. The lower floor of the building was almost entirely about food and entertainment. There was even a tiny amusement park a little further on.

Although I don’t know how ‘tiny’ I can call it… Although the area it covers is a bit small compared to normal amusement parks, I know that the machines there are really… scary machines.

So, it lives up to its name as an amusement park.

“What are we going to eat?”

At the same time as my words, my eyes shifted to the lower floors of the mall. When I saw a whole row of different places lined up there, I was suddenly at a loss as to which one to choose.

“I don’t know, I’ll have to ask you.”

I sighed when Sue threw me the ball.

I’m not good at making decisions… I’m usually torn between two options too much.

Still, a place that serves meat is the best option. I don’t want to eat pizza or hamburgers or something… it wouldn’t be appropriate anyway… I guess, I’m not sure.

“There’s a nice place up ahead that serves meat dishes, I’ve eaten there a couple of times, what do you think?”

After looking where I pointed, Sue smiled.

“Sure.”

“All right.”

And with that, we entered the place. Fortunately, there were a few empty tables and it wasn’t hard to find a seat. We quickly settled ourselves across from each other and then ordered our food.

After ordering, there was a brief silence between us. Sue didn’t seem bothered at all, though, and kept smiling.

“Sue.”

“Aiden.”

“Ah, go ahead.”

When I gave her a chance to speak, Sue gladly accepted it.

“Do you have any plans for after we eat?”

“Well, pretty much. I can’t say exactly at this time or that time, but I know a couple of places we can have fun, so there won’t be a moment of idleness.”

Sue spoke without breaking her smile.

“Like what?”

I thought about the plan I had been mulling over last night and smiled.

“The coin-operated machines at the leisure center, the virtual zoo, the aquarium, one of the lecture halls where the theory students present their projects, maybe the theater, the amusement park, and so on. There are so many things we could do.”

And then there’s something I left at the end that I think would be quite nice, but I’m not going to say it out loud, because it would be better in the moment.

Sue paused for a while after I told her what I had said. Then she fixed her eyes on the table.

A strange feeling came over me, and then my mind cleared quickly.

Had I done something wrong?

“There are so many things we can do… What do you think about life at the academy?”

Huh?

I was stunned by the question, at least the strange feeling had disappeared.

Where did this question come from all of a sudden…? I thought I was doing something wrong.

“I mean, I think it’s good. If I think about my life before the academy, it’s definitely better.”

For Sue… her life now must be a blessing. It hurts just thinking about what Justin did to her.

One shouldn’t be so hard on someone. Constant and repeated bullying can have really severe consequences.

I remember the look in Sue’s eyes when I first met her… the look of a soulless person who didn’t care about anything anymore.

My eyes shifted slightly to Sue and I compared the way she was then to the way she is now.

Now… she’s a completely different person and I think that’s a good change.

“I think life at the academy is terrible.”

My eyebrows furrowed as the waiter brought our orders at that very moment. The food was placed in front of us on fancy plates and after the drinks, the waiter left the table.

Sue picked up a knife and fork. Then she put the first bite in her mouth. She spoke calmly as if what she was saying was normal.

“The academy is an opportunity for many people, but if you don’t have someone to back you up a little and your strength is even if slightly below average, what looks like paradise to everyone else can turn into hell in an instant.”

I stood still for a few seconds, not knowing what to say, because… I knew that she was right.

Unless you have someone like Adrian, who’s extremely talented and strong… Unless you have a family like Justin behind you who can do whatever you want… Unless you have a brilliant theoretical mind like Alexander and Lucia, it’s really hard to thrive in this world.

My eyes shifted to Sue and I saw her focusing on an empty spot on the table.

Could it be that her past has left her with a much deeper wound than I thought? A wound that’s impossible to heal, for example.

“You got me out of this hell, Aiden. I’ve never thanked you properly, sincerely. Not only did you save me from Justin, you invited me into a group of friends and helped me socialize. I just… no matter what I do, I don’t think I can thank you the way I want to.”

Finally, a smile reappeared on her face and she looked at me again. Her head tilted slightly, almost imperceptibly. A tiny sparkle appeared in her navy-blue eyes again.

“I just wanted to say thank you again, even if it doesn’t mean what I want it to mean and even if it doesn’t satisfy me, I want to at least do that.”

She waited for a moment. I too waited without saying a word, though my mouth remained slightly open.

“Thank you, for everything. Again.”

I closed my mouth first, and then a slight, involuntary smile appeared on my face. I took a fork of the food in front of me.

“No problem.”

That’s how we continued to eat from that point on. We didn’t say anything else for a few minutes and then the conversation moved on to other things. Some gossip at school, my unexpected lack of soccer skills, which I have no idea where Sue heard about, fun stuff floating around on the internet, and so on…

The conversation continued until the end of our meal and I must say that even I, who normally can’t help sighing at any moment, didn’t sigh once.

It was fun. But… that was just the beginning.

*******

When we finished eating, we left the place and went to the amusement center, just like we had talked about, and we went into an indoor place with machines that worked with tokens. Then we bought a lot of tokens and played different things with each machine.

I’m talking about things like table hockey and Sue unexpectedly turned out to be even more skilled at it than I was.

I realized this when I lost seven to two at table hockey. In fact, one of the scores I got was pure luck… So, I actually lost eight to one. At the end of the game, Sue had this smug look on her face, she was so proud of herself.

“I played a lot of these when I was little.”

We played a few more rounds of the same game.

I didn’t win once. Not even once.

Still, I didn’t lose confidence in myself, I was confident that I could do well in another game.

The result? Simple, failure.

I was lucky to score points against her a couple of times in a few games, yes, but not once in a match result.

I was flattered, I couldn’t help feeling like a talentless brat. I didn’t give up though, these defeats made me even more excited. It made me more ambitious and I gave it my all.

And the same thing happened again. And then again, and again…

I was… literally crushed, flattened.

As I left the entertainment center, tired and weary of life, I had only one thought in my mind.

A note to myself, if I go to the entertainment center with Sue one more time… I will stop playing before my whole self collapses in on itself… Stubbornness only leads to an even worse downfall.

“Then let’s go to the next place!”

“O- okay…”

My lips curled up involuntarily.

I could finally stop swallowing my pride even more.

*******

Our next destination was a place where we could connect to a machine and watch all kinds of animals and fish and all kinds of things in a virtual world. There were some really exotic, beautiful-looking animals and creatures. So that was quite fun too.

After a bit of sightseeing in the building where different ideas were being carried out, where students were presenting their projects to people, and a theater that I had never heard of before, about a policeman and a thief meeting and the funny things that happen together, we headed toward the amusement park.

As we were heading toward our destination, we had a warming snack in our hands on cold winter days, corn.

“How are you with amusement parks?”

Sue thought a little at my sudden question.

“I’ve been a few times before, but I’ve never been on the dangerous rides. I was terrified that something would happen to my brother, but I’ve been with Justin…”

When Sue sighed toward the end of her sentence, I quickly spoke again.

“Is there anything you’re afraid to ride?”

Sue smiled and turned to me slyly.

“Me? Why would I be afraid?”

After those words, the possibility of an incident similar to the one at the entertainment center suddenly flooded my brain.

This girl… What if she kept dragging me into nauseating, dizzying, ridiculous contraptions?

Ah… But then again, why am I worried? I’m not a normal person.

Well, I’am not talking about being a wiera. It has its advantages of course, but it’s just that… as a human living in this world, how scary can rides in amusement parks be? I have mana, after all.

Exactly… What’s the most that can happen?

*******

With an ugly expression on my face, I thought about what I had been thinking a few minutes ago.

Hahahah…

I laughed a laugh that no one could hear, and it was a bitter laugh. Then I started to curse myself.

During one of these swearing sequences… I suddenly turned upside down, everything happened so suddenly that I didn’t even have a chance to react.

Sue was laughing right next to me in a way that was actually quite refreshing, quite blissful… with happiness, excitement, and adrenaline.

And me… when I started spinning upside down at full speed, I closed my eyes and felt nauseous. I cursed the designers of this amusement park with an ugly expression.

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