After inspecting several clubs, Vicius finally decided to head home. Alone this time. His apartment had been moved after the area was deemed to be unstable due to the rift that had opened up. And he wasn't one to complain since it was free and it came with an area to train.
'I guess I could quit my job and simply live here. Meals are provided both here and at the academy; this is also a safer area.'
A faint image of a lady with silver hair in her thirties flashed through his mind.
He paused for a moment, his gaze lingering on the ceiling, his heart straining against his chest.
'I should call her… she might be worried about me.'
He tinkered around with his watch until pulling up a call directory. Only three contacts were logged. Evie, Rowan and his aunt. His finger hovered over the call button.
[Dimmy has gone live!]
The notification on the small holographic screen practically forced his hand to click on.
The view counter remained stagnant. Only one viewer. In a way, he felt like he could relate to his goofy streamer.
{Vic134: Heyyy Dimmy, how's it going!}
She was the only person he could truly show his real face to. A person who didn't know him personally, who had no clue of his struggles.
[Hey there, Vic! Miss me~? It has been a couple of days since I last caught up with you! Got a new favourite streamer, huh?? HUH??]
The purple-haired beauty pushed her face against the camera, allowing her green eyes to glow. Certainly, a stunning green. Strangely familiar. But he chose to throw the thought away.
{Vic134: Sorry, sorry. Been very busy moving places! My place got blown up, pretty scary.}
Dimmy's face contorted in real time, visibly shaking at Vicius's words.
[That's super duper bad! Are you alright?! I don't know what I would do without my one and only viewer...]
Her face darkened with a smile that seemed more droopy than usual. Dimmy had always been a bundle of joy, the well of her energy seemingly bottomless. But a few well put together words, and she was reduced to a shadow, a husk.
{Vic134: Don't worry! I'm strong. My friends and I even killed a C-ranked beast!}
Her face lit up, if only slightly.
'Seems like I crashed her mood.'
{Vic134: Ah! Today was my first day at the academy! I bumped into this crazy psycho girl!! Like, she reeked of nobility...mainly because she was... But I didn't know that at first! And she placed higher than me! And she had this weird name. Something Von Reese.}
This was Vicius's favourite way to vent, listing things that happened in his life to somebody he would never encounter.
But very shortly. You could even say instantly, the stream switched off. The reflection of Viciu's goofy face stared back at him from the blank screen.
'Strange...but I guess it wouldn't be the first time this had happened.'
As in a queue, with him having nothing to do, his stomach growled. It was time for supper.
The door clicked behind him. A long stretch of hallway lined with a railing that appeared too thin to stop someone from falling over. A faint squaking sound, similar to that of chickens fighting, erupted from the kitchen.
"-don't you dare touch my pudding!"
The only sound comparable to her voice was that of nails being scratched across a chalkboard.
"-it was in the fridge, so it's fair game!"
Which was followed by a muffled thud. Fragments of pillow stuffing puffed forward into the shared living space.
'Greaaaat. Completely sane roommates.'
Vicius sighed as he descended the stairs, wandering into the kitchen normally and pulling out a jug of orange juice. His face remained stiff and unchangeable as he watched two girls throwing hundreds of pillows at each other.
One who had apparently been called Katherine effortlessly dodged every throw, her long violet hair swishing through the air. But no movement was wasted; every motion carried a use.
'Conserving energy, huh. Smart.'
Vicius nodded in approval. If anyone in his year would know about how to manoeuvre in battle, it was he, the top attack ranker.
However... He also turned his head to the left. A short, ginger girl who was cursed with a bigger chest than brains. And let's be honest, there wasn't very much chest either. She was hurling pillows like a madwoman, their speed forcing their appearance to be that of fluffy shurikens.
'The brute tactic doesn't really work against people like Katherine, but it's entertaining to say the least.'
He took a seat behind the kitchen island and sipped while watching. A thought passed through his mind to record this encounter; it could potentially go viral and earn him tons of credits. But the thought was dismissed as soon as he made any movement. Two pillows from both girls nearly hit him in the head.
'Women are scary...' He shuddered, remembering his very intense white-haired friend.
"Bind, oh shepherd of the night, return thine sheep to their slumbering cradles."
A blur of shadow stretched from his own, tendrils of darkness binding the two girls in place temporarily.
He sauntered over, placing his mug onto the table before speaking softly. "I suggest you two calm yourselves. Drawing a supervisor here would be bad news for everyone here, not just you two."
Two pairs of eyes stared at each other before ceasing their resistance against the tendrils. In turn, shadow returned to shadow, and they were once more free to move.
A swift hand patted Vicius's shoulder, her purple hair draped over his shoulder.
"I am surprised you could stop us so easily...you must be the special asset that the teacher was talking about." Her low, sultry voice whispered in his ear before departing for the stairs.
"I look forward to meeting you in the academy~" She winked, in a spine-chilling, sensual way.
'Weirdo.'
A fist flew into his shoulder, a cocky smirk coming up to meet his gaze.
"If ya hadn'ta stopped us, I woulda had 'er. But I giv' ya points for tha neat spell."
She simply left. No wink. No seductive whisper. At least he could breathe a sigh of relief that the berserker loli wasn't into him.
'Still... why do I attract a gaggle of the weirdest women!!?!'