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“Did it work?” Nadia asked, approaching Mathew from behind as soon as he pulled his hand away from underneath the merchant’s hood.

“I believe it did,” Mathew replied, only to then shrug his shoulders. “Or at the very least, it will work sometime soon,” he then added, recalling the last bit he heard from the merchant.

“So it’s not instantaneous?” Daniel asked, leaning his head to the side as he observed Mathew’s back.

“You tell me,” Mathew replied, shrugging his shoulders. “It said I need to vacate the merchant’s subspace for the processing of the request to continue,” he reported.

“How did it work back in the school building?” Daniel then asked, refusing to let go of the topic.

‘He is going to stay here so it’s only natural he is heavily interested in the details,’ Mathew thought, trying to hold back the annoyance welling up in his soul in response to the officer’s prying.

“I can’t say for sure, but by the time we left the merchant and went to the courtyard, the barrier was already up.” Mathew gave the spare bit of information that he actually had.

“And that means we are done here,” Leila joined in on the discussion. She approached Mathew’s side only to wrap herself around his arm only to then pull him away from the merchant. “We were supposed to be back at the school by now, so let’s not waste any more time.”

Mathew raised his eyebrows as he glanced over at the girl.

‘Does she dislike Daniel or something?’ he attempted to guess why the girl was so hasty. ‘Or maybe she doesn’t like this place?’

Mathew shook his head.

‘Well, it’s not like it matters,’ he decided before turning around on the spot, slow enough to give the girl all over his arm enough time to follow along.

“Yeah. Let’s go,” he said, getting on the move right away.

“Wait a second!” Daniel shouted after him, right as Mathew began to move. “Food for thought. According to what you said, the merchant called the place you go to visit him a subspace, didn’t he?” he pointed out the detail that Mathew didn’t pay much mind to. “Does that mean that your guess about the nature of that place was correct?”

Daniel’s lips curved upwards as he crossed his arms on his chest, staring right at the back of Mathew’s head.

“Or does it mean that it started using the nomenclature you came up with?”

“That’s…” Mathew muttered, lowering his eyes to the floor as he analyzed the suggestion. “That’s definitely an interesting point,” he finally admitted, turning his head and looking over his shoulder only to then nod at Daniel. “Thanks for pointing it out.”

There was no need for Mathew or anyone in his group to say their farewells again. They did so a few moments earlier already, after all. And so, without any further delay, they headed right back to the very hole they used to enter the building both yesterday and a moment earlier.

“Oh right,” Daniel shouted again, not bothering to follow after the group at all. “By the time you come again, make sure to use the main door. Blocking off all the holes is our priority!”

This time, Mathew didn’t stop to think over what he heard. Instead, he simply pushed ahead, dragging Leila along his side while making both Norbert and the rest of the girls follow along.

“The barrier is already up,” Mathew only muttered when he noticed the slight hue growing directly out of the grass, roughly two meters away from the wall of the media building.

“Then the fortress is already up,” Nadia chimed into the topic. “And with that, we no longer need to concern ourselves with this place,” she added, hurrying up to Mathew’s unoccupied left to claim her place by his side.

“That statement is only valid until we get the third fortress up,” Mathew pointed out as he stepped through the barrier from the patch of grass surrounding the building to the concrete by the side of the road. “But yeah, for now, we can forget about this place.”

“Good,” Daria muttered, pushing her cheek against Mathew’s shoulder. “I don’t know why but that place…” she attempted to say something only for a shudder to shake her body. “It makes me feel restless.”

‘Just like I thought,’ Mathew thought, his body tensing up a little. It was only a small, psyche-based change, yet it made him extremely resistant to the softness of two girls pressed against his sides. ‘She has the highest arcane stat out of all of us so I shouldn’t discount her feelings.’

Mathew’s group moved out. As they ended up taking the open road rather than squeezing through side alleys, it was only a matter of time before they would return to the school compound.

“A small pack ahead,” Norbert reported from the back of the group. “Two hundred meters ahead, hidden behind the house to the left,” he then added some details to his report.

“Do you want to fight them?” Nadia asked, looking up from Mathew’s side to her man’s face.

“Can we avoid them?” Mathew asked, glancing over his shoulder at Norbert’s face.

“Huh?” the officer jumped a little only to then look at Mathew with his eyes widened by a surprise. “Didn’t you say we are short of cores?”

“Yes, we are,” Mathew admitted, turning his eyes back onto the road ahead. “But right now I really want to get back home,” he added, only for his eyelids to slide halfway down his eyes. ‘It only took a bit over two weeks for me to consider the school to be my home,’ he thought, properly taking the time of his previous life into account.

“Well then,” Norbert muttered and gulped down his saliva. “I believe we should be able to run past them,” he added after a moment of thought.

“Then let’s do just that,” Mathew announced, sneaking his arms out of Nadia’s and Daria’s embrace before moving to the left of the group. “Leila, I want you to protect Norbert. Daria, you secure our backs. Nadia, you are my backup. If we won’t be able to avoid this fight, I will take the brunt of the first strike,” he quickly gave out the roles for the potential conflict ahead of them.

Mathew then shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times to chase away all the exhaustion that still shackled his mind a little.

“For now, though, let’s try to avoid them so that we can head home!”