Chapter 62: Eating at the Big Boy Table

Julius left the cafeteria and wandered about campus, occasionally bumping into another student on accident. The idea of leaving Heston crossed Julius’s mind, but that seemed like an overreaction. He needed to calm down and think it through. Odds are that Tristan wouldn’t recognize him and even if he did, did Julius believe Tristan would send someone to assassinate him at Goldencrest? Samuel and Duke Greyson might be bold but going that far that would be stupid.

Goldencrest is one of the safest places on the continent. It was renowned for being untouchable even by nobles and their schemes. People have tried and failed throughout the years. Every time those who attempted to would be punished or killed as an example. It would be ridiculous to jeopardize that by sending assassins for one boy who nobody would believe anyway. Also, it would be a silent confession of the truth. Julius started to calm down and relax. It wasn’t ideal, but it could be worse.

He would just need to stay aware and be careful, and he should be fine.

Julius didn’t go back to the underclassmen cafeteria. Instead, he made his way toward the main cafeteria. For one, he wanted to limit how many interactions he might have with Tristan, two, it was much nicer there, and three, he was still hungry.

Forging ahead, he walked into the cafeteria doors. It was much busier than the last time he was here but it didn’t have the chaos like the other cafeteria. It was still loud, but everyone was acting behaved and he didn’t see a single fight break out, unlike earlier in the other cafeteria.

Julius noticed the weird looks he was getting. Some noticed the single dash over his uniform, indicating his first-year status, and were probably wondering why he was there.

Julius got in line to get some food, it was short since dinner had already begun some time ago, but there were still stragglers like him. However, it was while he was waiting in line that someone seemed to finally want to speak up. A guy and a girl who were behind him in line took note of his uniform. The girl was surprisingly the one who spoke up. “Hey, newbie! Your cafeteria is on the other side of campus.”

Julius turned around to look at the girl who was causing trouble for him. She was tall and very pretty, too bad it was overshadowed by the nasty look on her face. The guy to his credit seemed embarrassed at her actions.

“I’m sorry were you speaking to me?” Julius played dumb.

“Yeah, you see another first year here?” The girl snapped at him.

Julius made a show to look around, acting innocent, “I don’t know, maybe.”

The girl got even madder seeing his reaction, “First years are not allowed to eat in the main cafeteria. Now get out of here.”

Julius was about to respond again, telling the girl that there was no such rule, but someone beat him to the punch.

“You know very well that there isn’t a rule like that Jessica. It is more like a tradition but there is nothing that prevents first-years from eating here. The only thing that does, is the bullying and harassment people like you subject them to.”

Julius recognized that voice. Lily must’ve seen him enter and was now protecting him from the mean girl named Jessica. It felt quite good that someone was sticking up for him.

Jessica turned around and heard Lily contradict her. “It’s an unspoken rule, Lily, everyone knows it. They have their own cafeteria for a reason, make them stay there. Otherwise, this place would be crawling with the annoying shits.”

“Well Julius is different, he has been eating with us for a few days now and we like his company, so back off,” Lily said menacingly, no longer sounding like her jubilant self. It was quite a change, and a little bit frightening if he was being honest.

Finally, it was the guy who stopped Jessica from creating more of a scene. He grabbed her shoulder and told her something in her ear. Julius didn’t make out everything, but he did hear Derek and Edgar’s names mentioned.

The girl listened and with a disdainful look, she stormed away. The guy gave Julius an apologetic look and followed after her.

“Come on let’s get your food, we saved you a spot just in case.” Lily was back to her bright self and hooked her arm through one of Julius’s.

Julius did notice that once she spoke up for him he was starting to receive way less looks. It was like she had staked her claim on him and he was protected. Julius found this hilarious for some reason and was smiling like an idiot.

“What’s so funny? She asked him.

“Nothing, nothing. I just didn’t know you could be that scary.” Julius told her.

Lily blushed and smiled as if she enjoyed hearing that compliment from him. He didn’t think a person like Lily would take scary as a compliment.

Make a note not to piss Lily off. Julius told himself.

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Lily stayed with him until he grabbed his food, piling on plenty of food since he was still quite hungry and hadn’t eaten much before he left.

When they walked over to their usual table, Julius saw that the group had saved him a seat.

They all said hello to him, and even Kyle nodded toward him. Lily was telling Aubrey what had just happened to Julius with dramatic detail, it was funny. She made it seem like she had just saved Julius from an awful monster.

“So I’m taking you didn’t like the other cafeteria?” Edgar asked him with a laugh.

“What? Did you all predict that I would come back here?” Julius asked the entire group.

“Kyle was actually the one who made the prediction, he said you enjoyed your food too much to want to eat in that hellhole,” Derek said.

Julius noticed a burst of mana emit from Kyle and slam onto Derek’s foot. Derek pretended like he didn’t even notice with a stoic face. Julius was surprised that Kyle was the one who made that observation. Julius looked over at Kyle who was ignoring his eyes, and smiled at him.