Lazing About in a Dating Sim

A few minutes after the bell rang, Lucia and I parted ways and went to our respective classes.

The atmosphere in the Calligraphy classroom was a bit more tense than usual, since an exam on the history of imperial writing utensils was coming up in a few days. 

Luckily, I’ve gotten my grade high enough so that even if I bombed the test, I wouldn’t be put in danger of failing the class.

So instead of studying like everybody else in the classroom, I just cracked open a novel and started reading through it.

The novel's title was Putrid and it had a knight plunging a sword into a green blob on the cover. Also it was another one of Lucia’s recommendations.

“Hmm.”

I muttered under my breath while examining the cover.

I never thought I’d see the day when Lucia would recommend a fantasy novel. As she usually gets fed up with these types of books a few minutes after she picks them up.

And since Lucia’s not the type to compromise when it comes to her taste in literature, the stuff that’s in this book must be at least somewhat palpable.

“Okay, now I’m getting a bit excited.”

I mumbled to myself before skimming through the first few lines of text in the book.

Unlike most fantasy novels I’ve read, the first few paragraphs were concise and devoid of much magical or technical jargon.

And while I'm not as averse to that type of stuff compared to Lucia, it was still a nice change of pace.

Moreover, just by reading the first couple of pages, I could tell that a good amount of work had been put into the characters, as it wasn’t hard for me to tell them apart or remember their names.

The setting was also pretty interesting compared to most of the novels I’ve read recently. 

As the story was set in a world overrun by gelatinous creatures that melt and consume human flesh. 

Looks like Lucia’s taste in literature has finally improved. Well, either that or my taste in literature has deteriorated.

Thirty minutes later, I finished the first half of the novel. Fortunately, the book didn’t lose its appeal halfway through, as Jar of Memories had. 

Unfortunately, before I could get further than that, the school bells rang and forcibly dragged me out of the world the novel had crafted for me.

In turn, I got up, haphazardly stuffed my belongings into my bookbag and headed towards the path that Lucia and I took everyday during the lunch period.

And when I got there, as usual, I was greeted by a mildly irritated Lucia.

“You’re even later than you were yesterday!”

“Yet you still waited for me, like I said before if I’m more than 5 minutes late, you can go on without me. I won’t mind.”

“If I did that, you’d probably never eat lunch for the rest of the year.”

“And why’s that?”

“Do I seriously have to remind you again? First off you’re terrible with directions and secondly you’re lazier than a sloth, if I’m not there to force you to do something, you’re not gonna do it.”

“That’s not true, I do tons of things unprompted.”

“Name one thing aside from reading that you do on a daily basis without me forcing you to.”

“Breathing.”

“Oh fuck off.”

“Anyhow, what’s with the line today? Usually it’s like half the size.”

I remarked before stretching my arms a little.

In turn, Lucia just sighed.

“The vendors are selling tickets for the picnic happening in 2 days while also giving out food today, so there are a lot more people here than usual. You probably would’ve known that had you read the packet we got yesterday.”

“That thing was like 10 pages long, and besides I can just get the most important parts from you.”

“Whatever. Anyway, are you gonna be going to the breakfast picnic on Saturday, or are you gonna just sit it out like most events?”

“Depends on whether or not you’re gonna force me to go like last time.”

“Ah, so I guess you’re not going then. As I’m getting my wisp ward recharged that morning and won’t be able to make it.” 

“Wisp ward?”

There was a smidge of confusion in my voice.

“You know, the thing that we have to get renewed every once a month?”

“No?”

“Wait, hold on, didn’t you get one of these things on your first day here, Otto?”

Lucia said before pulling out of her satchel a grotesque figurine that had the head of a chicken and the body of a mule.

“I don’t think so, what is it even for anyway?”

I asked while staring intently at the grim figurine that Lucia just pulled out of her satchel.

“It keeps away the magic draining wisps that float around the school every night.”

Lucia tapped on the side of the grotesque statuette.

“Ah I think I know why I didn’t get one now. My magic score is 0 so I don’t have anything that the wisps would want to drain and therefore the school has no real reason to give me a ward against them.”

“So… because your magic score is low, you don’t have to walk halfway across the school and wait in a fuckin three-hour-long line once every month?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

I said, nonchalantly.

“Does your luck ever run out?”

“Whenever I come face to face with you.”

“Why you-”

Before Lucia could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Alright, break it up. I can’t believe this is the second time I have to tell you guys this.”

It was the vendor from before.

“...Sorry.”

Lucia and I said in unison before quickly grabbing a couple of the food items at the stall and leaving.

How does this keep happening? I could’ve sworn that the vendor was at least a few miles away when I looked back at them a second ago. 

And now that I’m thinking about it, stuff like this seems to only occur when I’m around Lucia.

...Does she have some sort of time magic that she’s just not telling me about?