"Ryan," was all the young man said before sitting back down, and quite a few people in the room who knew who he really was frowned at that, Ariana included.
'Why did he change his name?' she thought, unable to make sense of it, because among nobility, publicly declaring a new name only ever meant one thing, that the person had disowned themselves and their family name.
"Hey, Isa, what do you think about," she started to reach for her friend seated beside her and Rizel, then stopped when she caught the look on Eloisa's face.
"Isa!" She shook her leg firmly and Eloisa snapped back to awareness, "Haah, haa, hah," she panted, closing her eyes and trying to calm herself down.
"What's wrong?" Ariana frowned, because she couldn't ignore it anymore, something was clearly off with her friend.
"I've just been feeling strange lately," Eloisa admitted, taking a slow breath until she steadied herself. 'That amulet, why does he still have it?' she thought, staring at the amulet that had slipped out while he was sleeping.
"Strange in what way? Does it have something to do with him?" Ariana asked carefully.
"I just need some air, it's nothing, really," Eloisa said, standing up, getting permission, and heading outside.
"Pardon me for prying, but what exactly happened between them?" Rizel asked, unable to hold it in any longer, her eyes following Eloisa as she left.
"I'm sorry, I can't get into that, it's sensitive," Ariana replied, then sent a sharp glare toward the young man who had already settled back into his seat, his expression completely unbothered, which only irritated her more.
She was definitely going to make him feel what she felt back then, and she already knew exactly how to do it. 'Let's see how you handle this,' she thought with a quiet smile, then turned back to face the teacher.
Rizel, however, couldn't stop watching him, and with each passing second she felt this growing and increasingly hard to ignore need to understand what he was and what he was hiding. It was still manageable for now, but she had no idea how long that would last. 'I need to find out everything I can about him before it gets worse,' she thought, already working through a plan in her head, because if she didn't find a way to reduce or completely get rid of this growing curiosity before it took hold, things were going to get very bad for someone, and that someone wasn't going to be her.
"Why are you sitting here?" Lorelle, or rather Ryan, asked, looking at the young man with green hair and green eyes who had just introduced himself as Silver.
"Because I want to?" the young man replied with a raised eyebrow, not really following where Ryan was going with that.
Ryan looked at him for a moment, then leaned back in his chair. "You said you were a Pariceon, right?" he asked.
"Are you racist?" Silver asked, frowning.
"What? Why would you even ask that?" Ryan said, genuinely thrown off.
"I don't know, your questions seem to be heading that way," the guy replied.
"Racist in what way, you're human, right?" Ryan asked, now watching him a little more carefully since he couldn't place this character anywhere in his memory.
"Of course I'm human, what else would I be? A shape-shifting Gyrod working as a spy for the vampires? Definitely not," Silver laughed, though it came out a little nervous.
'Who is this guy?'
[He's strange, I'll give you that.]
'So he's not human?'
[No, he is, and an absurdly powerful one at that, I think. It's just that something feels off about him.]
Ryan stared at him for a moment, then looked away entirely.
"You're pretty sharp," Silver said after a while, apparently reading Ryan's silence as him not taking the bait.
"Just be quiet and save your brain cells," Ryan said, not looking at him.
[Was that supposed to be an insult?]
'What?'
[Nothing.]
"Lucas Macendial," said a voice, and Ryan's attention snapped to the young man seated next to a shy-looking girl with long purple hair held in place by a purple flower, her eyes the same shade.
[Let me guess, the protagonist and the main heroine?]
"Close."
[Huh?]
"The main protagonist and the major antagonist of the third volume."