Chapter 18: Return trip

“Hello sir, we are students from Thorn Academy and we want to go back to the academy. Could you give us a ride along the way?”

Dailina asked politely, taking out the money pouch the lord gave her and wanting to hand it to the coachman.

“Of course. You’re heading back via the teleportation array in Helsing City, right? I happen to be going to the city to pick up some goods. Hop on, no need to pay.”

The coachman waved away the pouch Dailina offered and gestured for them to board.

“Well then, thank you very much.”

The three climbed onto the wagon.

This wagon was a cargo vehicle.

The interior was quite clean, with two fixed benches.

Xi Ya boarded first and sat down near the front.

‘Finally a seat. On the morning ride, I sat directly on the wooden floor—it bruised my butt.’

Feili and Dailina came up next and sat across from him.

“You’re students from the Elite Class, right?”

The coachman flicked the reins twice, and the wagon began to move slowly.

“Huh? How can you tell?”

Dailina lifted the front curtain and asked.

“I often give rides to students like you who are out completing commissions. After chatting with them a lot, I just naturally know.”

The coachman chuckled without turning around.

“Thorn Academy just started its term recently. I figured these past few days would be around the time of your Elite Class entrance exam. Anyone coming out at this hour should only be Elite Class students.”

Feili raised an eyebrow at that.

Her hand moved closer to the sword at her waist.

Xi Ya noticed Feili’s action.

‘She’s pretty vigilant.’

“Also, there’s another detail you can identify by. The Elite Class uniform is a bit different.”

The coachman pointed at his own collar.

“There’s a tiny gold button here. They say it has a protective spell attached to it, offering some defense. I saw a glint from your collars just now and confirmed you’re Elite Class students.”

“Oh, really? I didn’t notice there was a button here.”

After hearing that, Dailina felt for the underside of her collar and indeed touched a button.

She tried infusing mana into it and sensed the magical patterns on it.

“There really is a protective spell on it.”

“Hmm~ You’re very observant, sir~”

Feili didn’t look for the button; she just smiled and echoed the comment, but her right hand had already gripped the sword hilt.

“Haha, I didn’t know at first either. A few months ago, when I went to the Royal Capital, I picked up two students—one was from the Elite Class, the other wasn’t. When I asked them, they flipped open their collars and showed me. That’s how I learned the uniform differed… Hey! Stop veering off!”

Mid-sentence, the coachman saw the horse drifting toward the right edge of the dirt road, nearly pulling the cart into a ditch.

He quickly tugged the left rein and guided the wagon back on track.

“Sorry about that. The horse has a problem with its right leg—it always wants to lean right. I have to pull it back every time, haha.”

He gave an awkward laugh.

“It’s okay~”

Feili smiled and let go of her hand, relaxing her shoulders as she leaned back into the seat.

Like Dailina, Xi Ya felt for his collar.

He only knew the Elite Class uniform was very durable; he hadn’t realized the button provided a protective spell.

‘I thought the uniform used some special fabric. In the game’s story, Elite Class students got beaten for ages, but their uniforms barely showed any damage.’

But his own uniform was torn in many places.

The protective spell on the button had probably worn off already—most likely it became ineffective after he fell from the ancient ruins yesterday.

Xi Ya thought that the uniform he transformed into should also have this button.

There were only so many students in the Elite Class.

Feili would definitely remember clearly.

Fortunately, the button was hidden under the collar, obscured by hair.

If Feili saw it and recognized the Elite Class uniform, she would surely question Doloris’s identity.

As for the regular class students, there were far too many.

Even if Feili had been reborn, she couldn’t possibly remember every student.

‘Wait, that might not be certain. Given her lesbian tendencies, she might have already memorized every female student in the entire school.’

Just as Xi Ya was thinking, a movement entered his peripheral vision.

He focused and saw two white-stockinged legs stretched out beside him on his right.

Following the legs upward, he noticed Feili sitting with her chin in one hand, staring blankly at the floor by her feet.

Feili didn’t notice Xi Ya looking at her.

A smile played on her lips, her face radiant, and the tip of her tongue swept lightly across her lips—lost in some fantasy.

Xi Ya looked at her in surprise.

‘Is she daydreaming about some crush?’

“Feili?”

Dailina waved a hand in front of Feili’s eyes when she got no response.

“Hmm? Dailina.”

“What are you thinking about, Feili?”

“Just about some happy things~”

Feili kept that smile on her face.

‘Happy things? What happy things? Oh, it’s so hard to guess~’

Xi Ya concluded that Feili was a lost cause.

Earlier, when she had been keeping her guard up against the coachman, he had almost praised her.

Now he saw that her brain must be ninety percent lesbian thoughts.

Xi Ya suddenly realized that ever since Feili met Doloris, her hostility toward him seemed to have diminished.

He understood now: Feili’s mind was entirely on Doloris, right?

She wasn’t even concerned about the Demon God anymore?

Actually, at the very beginning, his relationship with Feili had been quite harmonious.

When he first came to the Royal Capital for the academy exam, the first person he met was Feili.

Other nobles wouldn’t even spare Xi Ya a glance—every encounter was a dose of cold mockery.

But Feili was different.

She had been adopted from an orphanage by Count Granville a few years ago.

Though she was a noble, she had none of the airs.

Whenever Xi Ya was mocked, she would step in to stop it.

Perhaps because they both came from commoner backgrounds, they had many topics to discuss.

They hit it off, and Feili quickly became his friend.

However, starting from the ranking exam on enrollment day, Feili suddenly kept her distance from him, contacting him less and less.

At the time, he had felt a bit hurt, thinking that Feili was just like those other nobles.

But now, with his past-life memories, Xi Ya knew that day was the starting point of the game.

Feili must have been reborn at that moment.

With her prior experience, it wasn’t strange for her to distance herself from him.

If he hadn’t awakened his past-life memories yesterday, he might have indeed followed the game’s path—willingly accepting the Demon God’s control and going all out against Feili.

Of course, he couldn’t have won.

Feili would have killed him and the Demon God together at the exit of the ruins.

Xi Ya wasn’t sure what Feili’s future would be like, whether she would continue to be hostile toward him.

But now she no longer harbored such strong enmity.

He posed no threat to her either.

They could gradually reconcile later.

‘So sleepy. Today, all told, I’ve barely slept two hours.’

‘I can’t worry about that anymore. What’s done is done. Time to sleep first.’

Overwhelmed by drowsiness, he leaned back against the seat and fell asleep.