Chapter 289: Getting Used to the Attention

“Hey! What do you think you are doing?”

Julius turned his head to look at the dude with an innocent expression on his face. The guy was quite the handsome fellow, but it was marred by the severe frown on his face.

“Have some respect. You can’t treat her like that!” The guy berated him.

Julius confusingly looked toward Reinera and she just shrugged her shoulders, as if saying she didn’t know what to do either. Not knowing who this person was, and since she apparently didn’t think to try to explain things to him, he decided to ignore him.

Julius gave him one last glance before pulling away with Reinera in tow.

Unfortunately, the other boy wouldn’t allow him to leave so easily. A hand latched itself onto his shoulders once more. This time, a little more strength went into it. Julius could feel the mana flowing through the guy’s body as his enhancement skill activated.

“I was talking to you,” the unknown boy said angrily enough that the people around them realized something was wrong. The chatter died down a little as they became curious about what was happening.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Julius said with a soft bob of his head before whispering over to Reinera. “Do you know this person?”

She leaned forward and gave him a soft shake of her head. “Kind of, his name is Adam, and he’s not really a bad guy. He’s just a bit…” She trailed off.

“A bit like a noble?” He finished for her.

“Yeah, like a noble,” she admitted in a soft hush.

“What should I say to him?” He whispered back.

“I don’t know, it wasn’t like I was expecting you to come over here. I thought you wanted us to pretend like we didn’t know each other?” She mumbled with a quick look at all the people who were staring at them.

“I did, but then I thought about how annoying it would be to pretend to do all of that and that it would eventually come out anyway. Also, you looked pretty miserable over here and thought you could use some help,” he said with a light laugh.

“Well, thank you. I thought when I gave you that look earlier, you decided to ignore me,” she said to him with a grin.

“I thought about it,” he said with a matching grin.

She shook her head and kicked him in the shin for his teasing.

The boy who had obstructed them seemed pretty close to blowing his lid while they forgot about him as they talked.

However, Reinera thankfully turned over to this ‘Adam’ person. “It’s alright, Adam, I’ll see you and the others later,” she said gently.

“Who is this?” Adam asked with a derisive look toward Julius.

“This is Julius, the other student who was transported with me,” she explained before turning away. This time, she was the one who began dragging Julius along by the wrist.

“Woah,” he said as she almost made him fall off his feet, but luckily kept up with her. He also felt Adam reach out once again in an attempt to grab his shoulder, but this time he did something about it.

The first two times Adam grabbed his shoulder, he could accept. But after she had explained things to him, he didn’t think the guy had any need to touch him again. This is why he used a brief pulse of kinetic energy to halt Adam’s movements.

It was surprisingly easy to do. Since he was only Tier 2, Julius didn’t even have to focus on overcoming his willpower. It felt like it was barely there in the first place.

He didn’t completely immobilize the boy, either. He simply made sure that he could not reach over and grab him. He released him quickly afterward, and by that time, they were already out of reach.

Thankfully, the boy didn’t come chasing after them, and he followed along amusingly as Reinera dragged him off to the cafeteria.

However, he couldn’t help but notice the weird looks he was getting from the other students as they all spotted the princess hauling him away.

***

“How have you been enjoying your first day back?” Lily asked him.

“Some stares, but for the most part, it has been pretty boring, to be honest,” he said to her, looking around at the cafeteria.

Whereas the first years had swarmed Reinera, now that they were in the upperclassmen’s cafeteria, the other students didn’t really give them much attention. Of course, there were some stares, but it wasn’t bad at all. Most of the older students didn’t seem to care all that much about the princess’s return, at least not enough to come storming towards their table to interrupt.

Reinera, who was sitting on his other side, chuckled. “I suspect that things might change pretty soon,” she said with an empathetic shake of her head.

There is that, he thought to himself sadly.

“Yeah, I noticed that you aren’t exactly hiding that you know each other,” Edgar said with a mouth full of food.

“Chew before you talk. You are getting food everywhere,” Lily said to the big guy.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“No, I’m not,” Edgar said while crumbs were falling off of his face.

Lily pinched her nose and turned back to Julius. “Anyhow, why did you decide to do that? I thought you were still trying not to attract attention?”

“I went over what we talked about last night, and you guys were right. There is no way that I am going to be able to hide things for very long anymore. If it’s not my recent advancement to Tier 3 getting attention, it will be something else, like my relationship with Reinera. So I thought it was better just to get it over now.”

“See? I give some good advice,” Aubrey stated proudly.

He ignored her, much to her displeasure.

“I am still wondering if it’s worth it to stay at Goldencrest. I feel like this place is limiting me,” he said to them.