I feel like I’m going insane here. Because I can’t tell if I hate or love the fact that I know nothing about where we are and what’s out there.

“If that’s the case then I should fill in Shiro about sleeping in shifts.” Shin said as he got up.

“I hate it but he’s probably the only other one who’s figured out how screwed we are.” I responded.

Shin walked away to go fill him in while I on the other hand wanted to talk a bit with Ms. Gold.

“Ms. Gold can I speak with you over there.” I asked pointing behind me at the forest.

“U-uh, sure.” She said.

I brought her into the forest where I was certain that no one would be able to hear us or see us. Meaning I can freely do what needs to be done without anyone interfering.

“Ms. Gold.” I said breaking the silence.

“Yes?”

“You’ve been holding things back haven’t you.”

“W-WHAT?” She responded with her face burning red.

“How come you haven’t told anyone yet?”

“Well I thought that it would be inappropriate to talk about. Especially you Rin.” She said glancing between me and the ground beneath us.

“I don’t see how anything can be inappropriate to talk about with us. We’re all adults here Ms. Gold.”

“B-but don’t you think it would be moving a little too fast?”

“There’s no moving too fast here. There’s only doing what you believe is right and what you need to do. You can leave behind the rules of the classroom and just be honest with yourself. You can talk to me about anything. It’s just going to be Rin and Charlotte, here in this world.?”

“Ok..”

“So why didn’t you tell me you could use magic?” I said getting to my point.

“Huh?”

“What?”

“This was all about me using magic?”

“Yeah, what did you think I was talking about?”

“N-n-n-n-nothing!”

Literally what else could I be talking about here. Like if we could get another person here comfortably using magic. That would increase our chances of surviving by a shit ton.

“Weird but ok. Do you know how to comfortably use it?”

“Not really. When I tried to light the fire earlier I almost burned myself.”

“That’s fine, I’ll help you figure it out.”

I took her hand and placed it out in front of her. Then placing my hand underneath hers holding it in place.

“What are you doing?” 

“No no. Don’t take your hand back. Just let it lay there on my hand. And just focus on that feeling of my hand holding yours. Now close your eyes and tell me how it feels. Go on close them.”

“I-It’s surprisingly soft. The way your palm and fingers cradle my hand feels reassuring.. And you’re warm.”

“Good. Focus on the warmth. Try to picture something warm or my hand warming your hand. The way you would warm yourself sitting in front of a fire place.”

I glanced over at her face to see if she was doing alright. Since I don’t know what kind of effect low magical control can have on the user. Oddly enough she seemed fine but her face was still red. Is this that embarrassing for her?

“My hand feels warmer now.”

“Yeah I can feel it too. Try picturing that warmth surfacing up from your hand. Like our two hands are the wood to the fire place.”

And just like that a small and controlled flame sprouted from her palm.

It was weird. All I could think about while looking at the magical flame in her hand was how beautiful it looked.

“Good. Now remember those feelings I had you focus on and slowly open your eyes. Don’t panic. Keep focusing on our hands and the feeling of warmth. See, you’re perfectly in control.”

Charlotte seemed to be in control of the flame when she opened her eyes. So it doesn’t seem like she has low magical control which should’ve been obvious from the stat spread I got earlier. Meaning if there was any reason for her to hurt herself while using magic it was probably from panic.

Charlotte seemed to have less focus on the flame and more so on me. While I was more focused on the fire that could go out of control at any moment if she panics.

She put out the flame and wrapped me in a hug that caught me off guard.

*NEW STAT UNLOCKED*

*CHARISMA*

Oh fuck off! I'm not trying to seduce my teacher right now. Ohhh is that what she thought I was doing earlier. I want to punch myself right now.

*NEW QUEST STARTED*

*KISS CHARLOTTE BEFORE EITHER OF YOU RETURN TO THE OTHERS*

*REWARD: (CHARISMA: +10) (MAGICAL CONTROL: +5)*

Nope. Doesn’t matter. I’m not going to seduce her just for a bit of a stat boost.

"How'd that feel?" I asked pulling away from her.

"Better. I feel like I can confidently use magic now." She said with a smile.

"Just remember what I showed you. How to feel your way to bending the magic to how you want to use it." I said.

If it weren’t for the system giving me that nasty quest and for the fact that I thought Charlotte hated me. I think in this very moment my heart would have started going crazy. However romance can be damned right now.

“Can I ask one last thing from you?” She asked.

“Sure.”

“Please call me Charlotte from now on. Like you said, there’s no classroom here for us to keep that up for.” She requested.

“I can do that for you.”

“Thank you.”

Before the next thought could even enter my brain she gave me a quick peck on the lips. Stepping away from me slowly to gauge my reaction.

*QUEST COMPLETE*

*YOU'VE BEEN REWARDED +10 TO CHARISMA AND +5 TO MAGICAL CONTROL*

"You should go back first. I want to keep a look out for a bit so I’ll stay out here.” I said breaking the silence between us.

"Ok.. Be careful please.” She said before leaving.

I really wasn't expecting any of this to happen. Why the hell would this system even give such a dumb quest in the first place? Unless…

*TARGET CHARLOTTE HAS COMPLETED A QUEST

*CHARLOTTE HAS REACHED LVL 2*