His people judging skills sucked.

Cale winced as he heard Julius brutally berate a young girl who had bravely confessed her love for him around the corner. He had no idea what Julius was thinking, being so blunt. They were in the middle of the hallway! Cale wasn't even the only one hiding behind this corner.

There were two young women who looked increasingly upset by his side and from their furious whispering, he had concluded that they were there to encourage the girl confessing. They hadn't expected this to be the result and Julius was now becoming their number one enemy for daring to distress the poor girl.

Well, Cale couldn't say that he blamed them. Julius really was going too far.

He leaned his body back against the wall and stared up into thin air. How long would he have to wait before it would be appropriate to leave? Was there some sort of etiquette in these sorts of situations? Some manual that he could follow?

Because he had no idea what to do.

Cale was basically an otaku. He read manga and books and spent his vast majority of time indoors. He had a few close friends, but it wasn't a large circle by any means. He was good at bluffing and he could fake knowledge in most cases from all that time watching TV and reading, but he had no idea what to do in this situation.

"Should we just interrupt them?" one of the girl's asked.

Yes, Cale thought, discuss this problem out loud so that I can piggyback on your solution.

The other girl shook her head. "Are you kidding? Of course, we can't, she'll be humiliated."

They nodded to each other in understanding without helping Cale out at all. He sighed and heard the sound of sobs from around the corner. Julius was in the middle of a rant directed at the girl calling her, amongst other things, "foolish", "naïve" and "ignorant to the real world".

There was no way that Cale could come out now. Not when the girl was crying. He sighed again and pulled a book out of his bag, thumbing through it as quietly as he could. If he was stuck here, then he might as well get some use out of the time.

Otherwise, it would just be a gigantic waste of time.

The book was about the subject of Offensive Magic. It wasn't required reading, but it was a book that he had recently loaned from the school library for cross-referencing.

It was kind of dry and had a very monotone tone, but Cale pushed his way through it anyway. It contained a wealth of useful information that helped with the basics that were no longer covered in class. Truly, he wished that he had found it sooner, but his family didn't have it in their library.

Which was a shame, because despite how dull it was, it actually covered a really interesting subject.

It was just too bad that it was the villain teaching the class, keeping Cale from ever really relaxing.

He thumbed through the pages until he reached the point where he left off. Cale stared down at the page with lost eyes for a few seconds as he listened to the sound of the sobbing getting louder and Julius berating the girl at an even higher volume before Cale was finally able to immerse himself in the book.

The letters had finally stopped swimming in front of his eyes which was a certifiably good thing. It meant that he got less dizzy and was less prone to headaches when reading.

Not that they went away completely. Calla's body really was weak.

A loud bang made him jump in fright. Shocked, Cale looked up from his book and peeked around the corner. The girl had thrown her bag at Julius. But because Julius apparently had no decency, he had stepped out of its path and it had hit the wall instead.

Cale felt like sighing but kept it in through sheer force of will. Instead, he just watched with bated breath as the girl growled something too low for him to hear at Julius, grabbed her bag and stalked away. The girls he had been hiding with took this opportunity to run after the girl and comfort her.

All three of them threw glares at Julius as they left.

"I know you're there, Calla," Julius stated.

Cale grimaced and went out of hiding. "How?" he asked, genuinely wondering.

Julius rolled his eyes. "The air around you is colder."

An unvoiced duh was clearly conveyed. Cale frowned and stepped around the corner following after Julius when the boy started walking. They were en route to the library as they had been every other day this week. Unfortunately, the library was fairly isolated from the rest of the castle and there weren't many paths there, hence Cale spending about half-an-hour awkwardly eavesdropping on a confession. Why it would take so long, he could only blame Julius for.

Julius' words made his mind start spinning. He had never noticed that the air was colder around himself, so it must be one of those things that were common knowledge in this world if Calla's mother hadn't hired a healer to deal with it. It must be his magic's doing, he supposed. He didn't think that there could be another explanation.

"I've never noticed," he mumbled to himself.

"Of course not." Julius scoffed and waved a hand in the air. "When your elemental affinity is related to extreme temperatures, it tends to affect the area around you. The fact that you're still exuding coldness at your age is a testament to your poor control."

Cale furrowed his eyebrows together. "Have I always done it?"

If he hadn't, wasn't this really bad?

"Yes." Thankfully Julius' tone wasn't gentle and the boy had no tact.

Cale rolled his eyes and stepped into beat with Julius, walking beside him as they crossed hallways, turned corners and went both up and down staircases. Occasionally they crossed paths with other students but they all immediately ducked out of their way. Cale saw the way that Julius was stared at.

This wasn't the first time that he had witnessed Julius berating someone and it appeared that the boy now had a reputation.

At the library, they settled down at the usual table. Cale curled up in his chair with his shoes off — the librarian was both strict and terrifying — while Julius settled down to do his homework. Unlike Cale, that was all Julius ever used the library for. Cale didn't even know why Julius would insist on coming here with him when the boy would purposefully drag out the time he spent on homework because otherwise, he would have nothing to do.

Was Sayer really planning something? Was that why Julius spent so much time hanging out with him while Cale just read?

Cale frowned and ignored the pang in his chest at the thought. There was nothing he could do if that was the case. Julius was devoted to Sayer, this was made clear in the book. In the face of that, what card could Cale possibly play?

There was a knot in his stomach and he twisted in his seat. Every day that passed, his homesickness faded just a little more as he adjusted to this new life, but it never really disappeared. And he had a feeling that it never would.

He missed his family. He missed his mother's cooking and his father's complaining about work and his friends fighting over manga.

He missed it all.

And he had found no way to get back.

Cale was starting to doubt that such a thing even existed.

He breathed out and a cloud of white left his lips. Cale furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and stared at the air as the cloud dissipated. So Julius really hadn't been kidding when he said Cale made the air around himself colder, had he? He exhaled again and another white cloud left him, bringing a smile to his lips.

There was something fantastical about it.

He didn't know what. Maybe the fact that he was inside and didn't feel cold at all? Or the fact that it brought to mind cold winters spent in front of the fireplace with his family? Regardless, he found himself smiling in something like joy, a prideful feeling uncurling in his chest.

"What are you laughing about?" Julius' voice was sharp enough to cut.

Cale looked up across the table. "Nothing, I guess."

Julius narrowed his eyes at him and Cale got the absurd urge to laugh. Instead, his smile grew, and he went back to his reading with a lighter heart.

"You're weird," Julius muttered and Cale just laughed gently in response.

Yes, he supposed that from another person's perspective, he was weird.

There was nothing that he could do about that though.

Another few hours were spent reading in peace, undisturbed by anything at all. Cale dutifully took notes of anything that was even remotely interesting or implied to be common knowledge while reading. He kept track of all of the info and made sure that he cross-referenced absolutely everything.

He was in a whole other world. One with magic. There was no such thing as over preparedness.

Cale didn't stop studying until Julius announced in a sharp tone, "It's time for dinner, idiot."

With a soft exhale — and another marvel at the resulting white cloud — Cale gathered up all of his books and hurried after Julius. The boy had already started walking away, seemingly uncaring that Cale wasn't with him.

Hurrying after the boy, Cale stepped back into beat with him and together they walked to the cafeteria.

After gathering his food on a tray from the buffet, Cale looked around to find a place to sit. A table in the corner was ideal but it wasn't always possible. Although tables could be reserved, this cost money and wasn't something that Cale was willing to do. He was saving every penny that he had for when he would move out, ideally to the countryside and far away from any of the novel's characters. Hopefully, there would be a library or bookshop that he could work at too.

Julius was no longer with him. When Cale looked up, the boy had already moved to sit at Sayer's table.

Cale walked between the tables until he found an empty one fairly secluded against one of the walls. He stalked over quickly before someone else could claim it and sat his tray down on the table first before he followed and sat on one of the two chairs.

Absentmindedly he ate his dinner, his mind preoccupied with other things. His table had a good view of the rest of the room and he could observe both Julius and Sayer easily.

They weren't speaking.

In fact, they didn't even appear to be looking at each other. Sayer was in the middle of a conversation with his girlfriend and Julius was looking down at his food. Cale guessed that Julius was probably upset that Sayer wasn't paying him any attention.

He wondered if Julius was in love with him. That had never been made clear in the book. It was always from Sayer's point of view and Sayer, of course, was preoccupied with the female protagonist. The girl who was currently his girlfriend. Still, even if Julius was in love with Sayer, did that change anything?

No, it didn't. Julius was still very clearly on Sayer's side. The only thing that Cale could do was keep going with what he was already doing.

He had no other options.

Cale finished his dinner and rose from his seat. Collecting his tray, he carried it over to a tray rack and left it there. As he left the cafeteria, he passed by Sayer's table. The protagonist didn't even spare him a glance, which was actually pretty revealing of his relationship with Calla.

Well, Cale was happy as long as he was left alone. Being around the protagonist was like begging for death and Cale was neither that stupid nor suicidal.

He left the cafeteria with a lighter heart.