Kain walked back to the mansion with his head down in contemplation.
Was he really good enough to represent the school? Especially, while having to double the course load.
He was suddenly overcome with the feeling that he’d bit off more than he could chew. However, Kain was greedy. He wanted to continue in both majors. He wanted to represent the school. And he wanted that first place ranking back!
Oomf
Kain chest suddenly collided with something soft and fragrant. He finally looked up from the ground to find the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And that included both of his lifetimes.
Her delicate features looked as though God had spent the majority of his time and attention on sculpting her face, before roughly slapping together the rest of the population. She had long slightly wavy bright white hair. And although he didn’t want to come off as a creep and stare at her body, the brief glance and collision they had led him to believe her proportions were as perfect as her face.
Making eye contact with the her cold and intense blue eyes framed by long white lashes, he felt as though he’d lost all ability to speak. However, as her gaze grew colder at his continued staring he finally snapped out of it.
“Ah! Sorry! I wasn’t paying attention.” Kain then held out a hand for her to go inside first , but she continued to just stare at him coldly.
‘Okay… She’s as cold as she is beautiful.’ Unable to stand her gaze any longer Kain went in first and began to climb the stairs. He could hear her light footsteps following behind him as he climbed the stairs.
Suddenly he felt self-conscious and had to make sure he wasn’t walking awkwardly with both his right leg and right hand lifting at the same time.
It was so quiet in the large foyer that he even began to get self-conscious of his breathing.
‘Did I always breath this loud? I haven’t felt this tense since being chased by the White Widow while still a 1-star.’
Thankfully, the climb to the second floor was over soon and he was able to leave her behind as he headed in the direction of his room.
However…
Click
As he fumbled with his keys due to lingering nerves from the unsettling encounter, a shorter white figure crossed from behind him and then swiftly entered the door labelled 201.
Kain froze in shock.
‘IT. WAS. HER!!! She’s the one that lost me 500 GP and stole my rightful ranking’
Any burgeoning feelings of infatuation died before it could even be born.
All that Kain felt was anger and resentment.
Whether in this life or his past one, Kain’s core values have remained unchanged. Regardless of whether it is money or GP, beautiful women can only come second.
Head still steaming, Kain entered his suite. He then couldn’t help but glare at the shared bedroom wall separating them.
‘Just why is SHE ranked above ME?!’
Kain flopped on his bed and opened the System. Now it was time for the upgrade. He looked sadly at the 1180 GP remaining, once he used 1000 of it for the upgrade, he’d practically be the GP equivalent of penniless.
He has only delayed upgrading the System until now instead of doing it as soon as he received the 500 GP because he had been futilely hoping that there was a way to fix his ranking and obtain the lost points. Now, however, it seems as though such hopes were pointless.
Sigh
‘System start the upgrade’
*Ding. Sensing the Host’s intention to consume 1000 GP to upgrade the system. In order to complete the upgrade, the System will be unavailable for 2 days. Do you still wish to proceed?*
‘Ugh. Proceed with the upgrade…’
Kain hoped that the downtime wasn’t going to keep increasing with each System upgrade. Is he one day going to have to wait a whole year to upgrade the System?
Frustrated for a variety of reasons, Kain fell asleep while tossing and turning all night.
When Kain woke up the next morning, he took a hot shower hoping to wash away all of the negative feelings of yesterday. Today was a new day!
However, when he entered the dining room downstairs and saw the head full of white hair already seated, the little bite of optimism he managed to scrounge up was obliterated.
No longer having much of an appetite, Kain went to the breakfast platter filled with various muffins, pastries and fruits, and just filled up a plate with some spiritual fruit.
In addition to the common cafeteria available to all students, the top 5 dorm also had a private dining room where breakfast and dinner would be provided if the students would prefer to stay home rather than dine with all the other beast-tamer students. While lunch, if they really needed it, was up to the individual student to prepare for themselves.
Kain found a seat far away from THAT person and began eating his fruit. He had had a restless night’s rest so woke up early. They were probably the first ones up in the entire building.
Swish
A human figure jumped out of a shadow, grabbed a muffin and bottled drink, before using another shadow to disappear just as suddenly as he’d arrived.
Not long after a monkey dressed like a butler came downstairs and filled up a towering plate of food before carefully bringing it back upstairs to its master.
‘College definitely has some interesting characters…’
Not long later a green-haired woman came down the stairs.
“EEEEEHHHH! The first years are here! Aren’t you both just adorable!”
Despite his negative feelings towards the Cheat, that’s what Kain has decided to call her until he learns her name, he couldn’t help but make an expression identical to hers. One of cold rejection mixed with slight bafflement at this strange overly familiar senior.
What man likes to be called adorable?!
Not receiving a reply she approached Kain, who she probably judged to be the slightly more amicable of the two.
“Hey!” She said, getting way too close to Kain and invading his personal space. “Both of you good-looking first years are the first ones up. Was it planned? Are you a couple? Oh NO! Am I interrupting your alone time?”
Kain couldn’t stop his face from grimacing in disgust. Although the Cheat was objectively beautiful, he had absolutely no warm and fuzzy feelings for her.
Not receiving a reply, she continued, seemingly content to continue chatting with herself.
“What’s your affinity? Can I see your contract? You look like the type who takes appearance into account when making a contract? Am I right? Is your contract good-looking? Ooohhh I really wanna see it!”
As she continued to prattle on, the only other person in the room quickly made her exit, leaving Kain and this annoying senior alone.
“Do you and your contract ever argue? How do you deal with it? Usually, I just have to pat my Stella on the head and she immediately agrees with me. She’s just perfect!”
Kain could feel his ears turning red from the auditory torture.
“I have to get to orientation. I can’t be late on the first day. It was nice meeting you senior. See you around!”
Without waiting for a reply, he quickly rushed off toward the location of the freshman orientation. Not giving the annoying woman a chance to reply.