Chapter 72| The Second Quest

Chapter 72: Chapter 72| The Second Quest

The class dispersed at 10:45 AM.

Students filing out in the animated clusters that always followed a session that had given them something real to think about. The Sovereign conversation running in at least four separate groups Zane could hear as he packed his notebook.

Maren packed beside him.

Neither of them had said anything since Vael’s session ended. The specific comfortable silence that had stopped needing to be filled, except today it had a different texture. Something sitting in it that hadn’t been there before Vael had looked at Zane for two seconds and said I believe you all have it in you.

They walked out together without discussing it.

At the corridor junction she turned toward her next obligation.

"We’ll catch up later," she said.

She stared at him for a moment.

He stared back.

Then her hand moved.

Clean. Precise. The specific deliberate accuracy of someone who had planned this and executed it without hesitation.

She tapped his butt and ran.

"What the..." Zane turned. "Maren..."

She was already three steps away. Turned back briefly. Pulled down both lower eyelids with her fingers and stuck her tongue out. "Blehhh".

"That’s payback," she said. "For the two times you did it to me."

Then turned and kept walking. The fitted training gear doing what it always did. The specific controlled energy of someone who had just done something completely uncharacteristic and was absolutely at peace with it.

Zane stood in the corridor.

Looked at the space she’d just occupied.

’Those we’re mistakes’. he thought. ’or we’re they’.

Then the system surfaced.

『 Zane my man. I can already see the progress. 』

『 Maren — Familiarity +1% 』

『 Current: 66% — Acquaintance tier 』

’She planned that,’ Zane thought.

’She absolutely planned that,’ he thought.’And shush damn system’.

He looked at the corridor ahead.

She walked off.

He watched her go for exactly two seconds.

’Cool person,’ he thought again, reminiscing about what she told him previously .

’Stop,’ he told himself.

’Can’t make one silly compliment get in my head,’ he thought then exhaled slowly.

The system stayed out of it.

Zane moved straight to his next location which was the cafeteria.

Sera was already at the table when he arrived at exactly 12:30 PM.

Today’s hoodie was dark green. Was it a new one or a rotation?. The collection had long since exceeded his ability to track individual entries. Unsurprisingly Oversized, her hair up in a kind of doughnut shape with both hands wrapped around her cup the way she sat when she’d been there long enough to get comfortable.

She pushed his coffee across when he sat down which was some kind of routine she had created.

Then glared at him.

"Code Zero," she said.

He picked up his coffee.

"You saw the blog?." he asked.

"What do you mean everyone did," she said. She held his gaze for a moment with the settled expression. "It suits you."

Zane looked at his coffee.

"How so," he said.

"Code," she said. "Something classified. Something nobody has a full read on yet." She tilted her head slightly. "Zero. The blank file. The Sigilless student who placed eleventh anyway and made a B-rank stumble on an arena floor." She picked up her cup. "It’s honest. Most hero names aren’t. They tell you what someone wants you to think they are. Yours tells you what actually happened."

Zane looked at her.

’She read it accurately,’ he thought. ’On the first pass. Without being told what it meant.’

"Heatwave suits you too," he said.

She almost smiled.

"I know," she said."I’m that flawless".

She stole a fry.

Zane stared at her and let her have it.

They ate in the comfortable silence. The cafeteria running its usual afternoon energy around them. Zane drank his coffee and thought about the possibility of an A-rank ascending to S-rank, his six days left and a timer that had been ticking since the night Dex was watching something at 2:45 AM that nobody needed to discuss further. Just his head all muzzled up.

Then his communicator buzzed.

Not the academy blog. Not a class notification.

The system.

Through the communicator again.

He looked at it under the table.

『 SECOND QUEST ISSUED 』

『 Objective: Arrange a private meeting with your primary Bound Target candidate in a non-academic context 』

『 Reward: HIDDEN 』

『 Penalty: Bond Quest timer reduced by 2 days upon failure 』

『 Time Limit: 4 days 』

『 Note: The meeting must be genuine. Manufactured pretexts do not qualify. 』

『 Accept Y/N』

Zane stared at it.

’Private meeting,’ he thought. ’Non-academic context. Something genuine.’

’Four days to arrange it,’ he thought. ’Or the bond quest timer drops from six days to four.’

He stared at that for a moment.

’Oh no....Wait,’ he thought. ’Four day deadline. Two day penalty if I fail. Six days remaining on the main quest.’

The math sat there being what it was.

’If I don’t complete the second quest within four days the main quest timer drops to two days automatically,’ he thought. ’And two days minus whatever time is left after the penalty kicks in. The result wouldn’t be even in days. That’s barely anything.’

’ Which means failing the second quest and the main quest becomes functionally impossible,’ he thought. ’The two day deduction doesn’t just reduce the time, it eliminates the margin entirely.’

’There’s no recovery window,’ he thought. ’None.’

He put the communicator in his pocket.

’The system didn’t give me a secondary quest,’ he thought. ’It gave me a prerequisite dressed up as a secondary quest.’

The system surfaced.

『 Accurate assessment. 』

’You could have just said that from the start,’ Zane thought.

『 Where would be the fun in that. 』

’I genuinely cannot stand you,’ Zane thought.

『 Four days. Focus. 』

『 I’m helping you out chicken. 』

Zane stared at that notification.

’Shush,’ he said mentally. ’You don’t even know what it means to be a gentleman.’

『 At least I know a chicken when I see one. 』

’I’ll let that slide,’ Zane thought.

『 Noted. Four days. 』

He put the communicator face down on the table.

Sera was looking at him.

"You good?" she asked.

"Fine," Zane replied. "Just a notification."