Everybody Gangsta Until Science Meets Magic

42 - Morphology

When the morning session ended, everyone went into the dining hall to eat. Strangely, Aiden still hadn't come yet.

Unlike the others, who spent their time outside, Aiden and the organization's trinket engineer spent their time in a room inside the common building.

As Eara sat down by herself in front of a small table, placing down her tray of food, she wondered if she should send Aiden a message and ask him if he was done, but she decided against it. He probably would come out to get lunch soon enough anyway. Shrugging to herself, Eara began eating.

Two girls approached Eara, who were participants in the swordplay lesson, holding food trays of their own.

"Yo, Eara." Greeted one of the girls, who had ponytailed hair. "Can we sit here?"

This was Ehrille, a rather boyish girl with a tall, slender figure. The girl always with her that Eara remembered to complain about things was called Irena. They got to know each other while doing swordplay exercises.

"Of course." Eara answered, and the two girls seated themselves around the small round table.

"God, my arms hurt already." Irena mumbled, her face drooping with dramatized exhaustion. She then asked Ehrille. "Are you still going to take swordplay lessons for the next session?"

"Yep." Ehrille answered before beginning to eat.

Irena took a deep breath and looked at her food, before mumbling, "Maybe I should try magic techniques . . ."

"I mean, go. Why did you pick swordplay anyway?"

Irena heaved a weary sigh. "To be honest, I don't want to do anything. I didn't even want to go to this camp. Sir Stevan just forced me."

"Forced you?" Ehrille grinned. "Didn't he say it's not a requirement to come?"

"Yeah, but he personally asked me to join if I'm free. No way I could turn him down."

Ehrille chuckled and shook her head, "God, you're so difficult."

After a few seconds of silence, Ehrille then asked Eara. "So, Eara, where's your boyfriend?"

Eara paused, "Boyfriend? Aiden?" The word didn't exactly exist in this world's language, so she understood it as 'male friend.'

"Yeah. Uh, I mean, your lover." Ehrille corrected herself, realizing that Eara probably didn't get what she said.

Eara paused, remembering that Aiden had basically announced that they were lovers yesterday. "He's . . .  He doesn't seem to be done yet."

Ehrille hummed in acknowledgement. Everyone was aware about how Aiden was going to teach the organization's trinket engineer, so she didn't ask anymore questions.

A while later, Eara was almost finished with her meal, but Aiden still hadn't appeared. As such, she used thought input to send Aiden a message, asking if he had eaten yet.

Eara waited for a reply, but nothing came, even after waiting for a minute. Eara thought something was wrong. The system was designed to immediately flash received messages, so there's no way Aiden couldn't have seen her message.

Before she could worry for an extra second, Aiden and a lady wearing glasses started going down the stairs leading into the kitchen. As he was from high up, Aiden and Eara noticed each other almost instantly.

"Hey." Aiden greeted her and the girls with her, "How was swordplay?"

"Not doing that again." Irena immediately answered, not taking her eyes off her meal.