Chapter 31: She Named My Corpse

When Ethan returned to the dorm, the first thing he heard was Lila’s voice.

"Sit. No, sit properly. God, you’re doing it on purpose at this point."

He paused with his hand on the door, raised an eyebrow, then opened it.

He walked inside and met with a rather... interesting sight...

Lila was on the floor with her legs folded. The Beowolf sat across from her, green eyes fixed on her face, looking far too attentive for something that was supposed to be a deadly weapon.

As he watched, it lifted one front paw and set it down again in a stiff motion...

Lila pointed at it.

"See? He listens to me more than you do."

Ethan closed the door behind him. "You’re playing with it."

"I’m training him." She glanced over her shoulder, then did a double check when she properly registered he was back.

For a second something flickered across her face. The residual memory of the previous night flashed in her mind before she shook it off. "You’re late."

"The meeting took longer than i expected." He answered.

The Beowolf turned its head toward him, waiting for instruction and Ethan gave it a short mental command to stand down instead of returning to storage or moving away. It shuffled sideways and sat besides Lila.

Lila scratched the top of its head with a small smile on her face.

"His name is Bef," she said.

Ethan stared at her. "What?"

"Bef." She said it again, her face serious. "Beowolf is a mouthful. Bef is better."

"That’s not how naming works." Ethan said with a deadpan.

"It is now." She gave the undead another scratch. "He answers to it. Watch. Bef, down."

The Beowolf lowered itself to the floor and she clapped her hands with delight.

Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. "You’ve been corrupting my undead while I was gone."

"I improved him." Lila corrected. "When I— uh woke up you were already gone. There wasn’t anyone else here so I had to make do with what I could find." She finally stood up brushing off her palms. She walked towards him and spoke. "So? How did the meeting with Nora go?"

He moved toward the kitchen for water. "About how I expected. She’s dangerous, like really dangerous. Her family history is worse than the rumors. Her ability alone is no joke."

"Okay, did she ask for anything?" Lila asked in curiosity.

"Oh that? She just wants a limited information exchange."

"And you agreed?"

"Yeah, I did. It was conditionally though." He poured a glass, drank from it, then turned to face her. "She gets some information about my control and Storage and I get information that isn’t in the lectures. Nothing more, nothing less. If it stops being useful, it ends."

Lila’s expression tightened slightly. "I don’t like it."

"Sure you don’t."

"She’s already more interested in you than she should be. And now she has an excuse to keep talking to you."

"Yeah, that’s about it..."

Lila studied him for a moment longer, he was a bit too calm with the way things were going. She then sighed and leaned against the counter beside him.

"You’re really going to keep dealing with her?"

"For now. She knows more about how the MCA handles restricted classes than anyone else who’s willing to talk to me." He glanced sideways at her. "I’m not planning on trusting her."

"Good." Lila’s voice was flat. "Because I don’t."

The Beowolf—Bef, shifted on the floor and rested its head on its paws, watching them both with empty green eyes.

Ethan glanced at it in silence. This was absurd...

Lila followed his gaze and her mouth twitched. "He’s staying, by the way. I’m adopting him."

"He’s a corpse, Lila."

"He’s Bef."

"That’s not—" Ethan cut himself short and shook his head, but he didn’t order the creature back into storage.

The argument that would follow wouldn’t be worth it, and part of him found the whole thing strangely comforting after the conversation with Nora.

They stood in the quiet kitchen for a while and when Lila eventually moved to get her own drink, her arm brushed his.

He noticed but didn’t pull away...

She went to sink and poured herself a glass. "I missed you..."

Ethan looked at her. "I was barely gone."

"But you were gone. So, I missed you." She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "What? Am i suddenly not allowed to miss you?"

Ethan dropped the glass on the counter. "I didn’t say anything..."

"Good."

Ethan stood still for a moment. He considered training. That thirty experience points were way too tempting to ignore...

However before he could make a decision, his system bloomed in his vision in a bright green light.

```

[Ding!]

[Level Up]

[Level 5 → Level 6]

```

Then just as it closed, another one opened.

```

[Ding!]

[Rank Up]

[Rank F → Rank E]

```

Ethan’s eyes widened.

"What?"