"Oi, Soren?"
"Why are you being so disrespectful, and what happened?"
As Soren neared his desk, he felt two gazes focused on him. Sylvia seemed a bit less angry than before, her face slightly flustered as she looked at him. Still, she tried to act as normally as possible.
On the other hand, Evan was glaring at him like a dagger, his expression thick with anger.
'Is he still brooding over that White Bull? Tch...so stingy.'
"Disrespect? Why should I respect you in the first place? Do you even have one?"
Maybe, due to the incident from before, Sylvia's behavior towards him had changed 180 degrees. Unlike before, she seemed more blunt and less caring as a friend.
She even seemed ready to beat him up the moment he said something, as her blue eyes were oozing with disdain.
As if to say, where did your respect go when you touched her before?
"Cough... still..."
"Okay, I don't care about that. Instead, look at what I got. Do you recognize it?"
Sylvia was an extremely lively and curious girl by nature. Once she let go of her emotions after beating up Soren, she had already pushed those incidents into a corner of her mind.
Rather, she was now trying to show off the 200 credit points she got for nothing.
"Wait...where did you get this?"
Sure enough, she saw the same kind of surprise on Soren's face, like Evan making her proud.
"...hehe...will you believe me if I say it is a gift from a close friend? Impressive, right?"
Sylvia was not surprised by his reaction, as his family was even poorer than hers.
"Close friend, my ass. When did Aurelia become your close friend?"
But hearing her, Soren blurted out before grabbing the drink out of her hand. This was the same one he gave to that girl just now.
Why the heck did Sylvia suddenly have it?
"Hmm, Aurelia?"
"How did you know I got it from her?"
Sylvia was totally surprised. For a moment, her heart skipped a beat as she wondered whether he knew that she had practically begged for it.
Fortunately not!
"How? Of course. I gave her this can as an apology for what happened earlier at the cafeteria. But...why do you have it now?"
Soren asked, finally understanding why Evan had been looking at him angrily before.
'This guy might have thought I betrayed him or something.'
Soren slightly turned his head toward Evan and rolled his eyes, leaving the guy momentarily embarrassed.
Now that he saw Sylvia's reaction and heard Soren's words, Evan realized that he misunderstood him.
And it seemed he also unintentionally exposed his intentions on the way.
For a moment, he felt a bit ashamed at being exposed.
"What? You gave her a 200 credit point drink as an apology?"
As soon as Sylvia heard him, she exclaimed loudly enough for every student in the classroom to hear.
"Are you nuts?"
She even cursed at Soren despite her refined image.
For a moment, everyone looked in their direction with intrigue, including Aurelia, who looked slightly confused.
"Hey, hey. Lower your voice, will you?"
Soren quickly covered her mouth with his hand, but the damage was already done.
Fortunately, just then, someone entered the classroom, instantly garnering everyone's attention.
"Good afternoon, students. I am Professor Ruther Kane, a Senior Instructor with an A-rank Class: Scout."
A middle-aged man in a sharp, well-fitted suit, his stubble giving him a rugged edge, spoke as his eyes slowly swept across the classroom.
Though a faint smile curved his lips, his sharp gaze weighed heavily on everyone, as if silently measuring each student.
As a Scout, his vision was far from ordinary; he could detect even the tiniest movement and the faintest change in expression.
Feeling his hawk-like gaze, in an instant, the chatter died down; the entire classroom fell silent. Soren, Sylvia, and Evan also quickly adjusted their positions, sensing that this professor wasn't very amiable.
"It seems this year, quite a good batch of students joined the Academy. It will be quite fun to teach you all."
Once everyone became silent, Professor Ruther smiled with faint satisfaction.
"Okay, since you are all new, let me introduce the subject that I am in charge of: Dungeon, Its Classification and Historical Analysis. You might have heard of it, right?"
"From F to SSS rank, who doesn't know dungeons are classified like that? But do you know why it is like this?"
Professor Ruther officially began his class, his voice unhurried and measured.
Unlike Professor Lyra, he was in charge of the theory class. However, that didn't make it any less important. Although most of his lessons focused on theory, as an A-rank Scout, his keen vision could help students in ways few others could.
"Since you are all elites, chosen from across our country of Arden and invited to the capital city of Fiona, you must have some knowledge about this world, right?"
The professor smiled and slowly paced the classroom, speaking softly as if telling a story.
"Even so, let me give you a brief history. About 500 years ago, our world, Gaia, faced a catastrophe no one could understand…"
Professor Ruther began to narrate the world's history. It wasn't some secret that no one knew, and even Soren already knew it all. The rise of dungeons, the hunters who awakened to save humanity, the long struggle over centuries…
After 500 years, the world had finally stabilized, and Arden had become one of the three most powerful countries.
This information had even been summarized at the beginning of the Dating Sim, Lover's Labyrinth. So rather than focusing on the generic history, Soren's attention was on the plot surrounding Professor Ruther.
After all, he knew this man was a servant of demons and an early villain, one so lustful he placed his eyes on his own students. Even now, Soren could feel them roaming over the girls in the class, assessing them.
'Tch… from the outside, he really does look like a gentleman.'
Soren clicked his tongue at the man's polished appearance but knew he couldn't reveal his identity, not even if he wanted to.
For one, this man already held a strong position in the Academy. And for another… Soren couldn't risk interfering with the established plotline without jeopardizing his own advantage.
He really… wasn't that generous.