I woke up to an empty bed that morning.
If I was being completely honest with myself, the feeling was a little lonely, especially when I considered what had happened just the night before. Just a few hours earlier, I had been fucking a married woman, and now I was waking up alone in the same bed where everything had happened. The contrast was honestly a little strange.
Waking up to an empty bed was particularly disappointing, but it wasn't as though Minerva had simply disappeared without saying anything. She had actually woken me up earlier and told me that she was going back home. Her husband would probably wake up eventually and notice that she wasn't beside him, and staying away for much longer might have been pushing things a little too far.
I couldn't really blame her for that.
Even though she had told me that she was mine now, for all intents and purposes, she was still married to that bastard. Her life wasn't exactly miserable, either. It was relatively stable, and she still had a life that she needed to maintain. Walking away from everything wasn't something that could simply happen overnight.
Meanwhile, I was still an undergraduate.
I couldn't exactly support her properly if she decided to leave everything behind and stay with me. Well, technically, I probably could, but she still seemed to think I was young. Maybe she was simply trying to be considerate of me and didn't want me to suddenly take on more responsibility than I was ready for.
Either way, I was still happy.
I had sex with Minerva.
That fact was still firmly embedded in my mind, and honestly, it was difficult to forget. If anything, it felt like the memory had somehow settled somewhere much deeper than my thoughts.
I never would have expected the quiet wife living next door to be that lewd, much less that hungry for dick.
Honestly, I was still shocked whenever I thought about it.
She usually seemed so quiet and reserved, so discovering that side of her had been quite the surprise. I definitely hadn't expected it when everything started.
Of course, I didn't feel bad about her husband in the slightest.
That bastard didn't deserve her.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Going to the university was much easier now compared to when I had to walk all the way from my apartment to campus.
Having a motorcycle made a surprisingly huge difference.
I honestly never expected that I'd be able to buy this kind of motorcycle, but somehow, I had actually managed to do it. Now that I owned one and could ride it to university whenever I wanted, I couldn't help feeling pretty happy about the whole thing.
People were always going to tell you that buying something like this was a waste of money.
Normally, I might have understood where they were coming from.
But money was different for me now.
Money had basically become a resource that I could gain much more easily because of the system. Since earning more wasn't nearly as difficult for me anymore, spending some of it on something I actually wanted didn't feel like such a huge deal.
Besides, I liked the motorcycle.
I felt really good riding it.
While I was parking my motorcycle, I was greeted by the sight of Samantha first thing in the morning.
"Heya, Leon~!" she called out.
"Hey," I replied, raising my hand for a moment.
It was still a little weird seeing a beautiful woman like her suddenly appear in front of me and casually greet me like that.
I wasn't exactly used to having someone like Samantha just show up and say hi to me first thing in the morning.
But whatever.
"Are you heading to the internet cafe after this?" she asked.
"Well, if everything goes smoothly, I will," I said.
At this point, I was already leaving most of the work to the current staff at the internet cafe.
So far, so good.
There hadn't been any major complications up to this point, which was honestly a relief. I had expected something to go wrong eventually, but things had been running surprisingly smoothly.
The only real problem I had at the moment was finding someone who could properly handle the kitchen and prepare food for the customers whenever they got hungry.
The internet cafe was still a cafe, after all.
It wasn't simply a place where people came to sit around and play computer games for hours.
Customers could also relax there, order food, eat, and use the internet indoors. The food side of the business was therefore still important, and someone needed to handle it properly if the cafe was going to keep operating smoothly.
"I see...!" Samantha said. "I'm going there too, so I'll see you later!"
She immediately started running toward the campus.
I watched her for a moment as she hurried away.
Was she running because she didn't want people seeing her enter the campus with me?
Well, that seemed unlikely.
It was probably because she was running late.
Her department was much farther from the campus entrance, after all, and there were only five minutes left before classes started. She probably didn't have enough time to walk casually all the way there.
Actually, now that I thought about it, why didn't she simply use the other entrance?
That entrance would have taken her much less time to reach her department.
Was it because she wanted to see me?
I was probably just assuming things at this point.
Whatever.
I headed toward the campus.
As I walked, I could feel quite a few people looking in my direction for some reason.
They seemed a little confused by me.
Well, my appearance had changed significantly, after all.
From their perspective, I had probably gone from looking like a complete loser to someone who suddenly showed up at school riding a motorcycle, had a beautiful woman who was also a model like Samantha around him, and actually looked pretty good now.
I guess I'd become something of a normie.
That thought was honestly a little funny.
Me?
A normie?
After everything that had happened?
Whatever.
They weren't really something I needed to worry about right now.
There was only one thing I actually needed to focus on.
The test.
Fast-forward to the test itself, and...
It was perfectly easy.
I didn't even have to think that hard about most of the questions.
I simply read them, considered the possible answers, and wrote down what I believed was correct. Most of the questions were straightforward enough that I didn't have to spend much time staring at them.
I managed to answer most of them without much trouble.
And honestly, I didn't feel like I'd done badly either.
In fact, I was pretty confident about practically all of my answers.
I wasn't just hoping that I had passed.
I genuinely believed that I had done well.
The results would probably be posted tomorrow.
So, for now, my QUEST to unlock Professor Sarah's interface was still pending.
If I passed the test with flying colors, though, that meant I'd finally completed it.
I stretched my arms after finishing everything.
"Now that that's out of the way, I guess it's time for me to head back to the internet cafe."
I muttered it to myself while getting ready to leave.
The test was finally finished, and there wasn't really anything else I needed to worry about for the moment.
Then someone tapped me on the shoulder.
"How did you do?"
I turned around.
It was Clara.
I made a small gesture with my fingers, forming a circle, before looking at her.
"It's very easy."
And I wasn't lying.
I was extremely confident in my answers.