“You're Luc’s brother?” Aster asks, his voice is deep, reminding Eryx of the sound of a bass. The man approaches him, touching his arm, making him flinch in response. “Wow, you look nothing like your brother!”

“I do consider myself to be a perfect mix of all my brothers so I'll disagree with you”, Eryx answers, more often than not he would avoid long answers when dealing with people he finds annoying, but it's enough to speak about his brothers to make the boy speak more than 5 words at a time.

Aster laughs again, with the corner of his eye he can see all the people that are surrounding the white haired man sighing in admiration. “Sure, that's the spirit!” 

Now Eryx is annoyed, but he isn't the only one.

“What are you doing?” Luc’s voice is clear behind Eryx, he sounds angry.

“I was just telling your brother how different you both look”, with those words Aster puts his arm around Eryx's neck. Fuck, this dude is fucking annoying, he curses, his gaze goes to Prometheus, who seems utterly uninterested in what was happening.

Even if he can't look at Luc’s expression, by his voice Eryx knows Aster seemed to strike a cord. “Faucher, you should focus more on your legion of fans instead of my… younger brother”. 

“How could I not when he's the infamous baby of Luc’s phone?” Huh?!

“What does that mean?” Eryx can't avoid asking, curious.

A basketball hits Aster on the head. “Shut the fuck up you conceited asshole!” Luc yells, grabbing the attention of even more people.

“Can someone explain it to me?” Eryx begs, anything that makes Luc that flustered is worth knowing.

“Go find some friends Eryx, don't mingle with assholes, or I'll tell Zacharie you're hanging with the Mayor's son”, his threat is on point as their older brother always told them to stay away from the Mayor and his family as they're a nest of snakes.

“Ha” Aster laughs, his expression is one of disbelief. “Should he tell your brother that you hang up with this loser of a Mayor's son?”

Time is passing, this is fucking useless, Eryx thinks, sliding off Aster’s grip as the man seems more focused on Luc.

A Sub-quest was updated!

Introduce yourself to all of the targets (In Progress):

Targets met: (5/7)

That counted? 

Well, at least now he only has two remaining targets to meet and… 20 minutes left? Fuck…

Although Eryx was truly interested in speaking more with Prometheus, as he wasn't lying when he said he was a fan, he must run to finish the quest. The only ones left are the one I don't know and the student council president, he thinks, walking away from the mess that place became, leaving behind a crowd that was curious about the fight between the two good-looking prestigious kids.

He doesn't need to look far to find who he was looking for, after all, the student council president is the one that'll make the speech, however there it was, the heroine again, introducing herself.

True to his character design the man seems mostly uninterested in the heroine, focused on his tasks, enough for Eryx to be able to approach him organically.

“Hello”, he says, approaching the group of student council members and the heroine, “I'm new to the Academy and I have a personal question about the dorms”, of course he has no questions. But to be honest, he's strongly considering the student council president as his target, because he seems slightly normal. 

Sevan Helge

The Student Council's President 

20

As all of the leads, Sevan is gorgeous, he's not the tallest, but he's just tall enough, his short auburn hair is styled back, giving him an adult vibe, his white eyes are hidden behind his glasses, his body is slim, perhaps even too skinny, his lips are blood red, a strong contrast to his extremely pale skin. He's almost the exact depiction of vampires humans imagine. 

“Yes?” Another member of the student council answers but it takes Sevan a second to recognize Eryx and speak to him.

“Teacher Algeo told me about you”, he says, his tone is calm and serious, his voice sounding like the wind. “If you have any issues, please don't hesitate to approach me”, his words are sincere, whatever it is that Milo told him, it works in Eryx's favor.

“What did my brother tell you?” He asks.

Sevan looks at him for a moment before answering, “He said his baby brother was entering the academy and asked me to take care of you as the president of the student council.”

Eryx nods, that sure sounds like Milo, especially the baby part of the sentence. “I understand, I'm Eryx Algeo”, as needed he introduces himself extending his hand which Sevan takes it. 

“Sevan Helge”.

A Sub-quest was updated!

Introduce yourself to all of the targets (In Progress):

Targets met: (6/7)

Thank god I only have one left, Eryx thinks with relief. But time is ticking and he has no idea who's the last target he's supposed to meet.

“So what's your doubt?” Sevan asks.

“I heard the dorms are mixed, are the rooms mixed as well?” He asks.

“No, as that could lead to indecent acts”, Although Sevan seems to find Eryx's question to be redundant, he still answers calmly. 

“But… um…” he says as he thinks, “I prefer having a girl as my roommate”, he takes a deep breath, what even is he saying? He should've thought about a decent question before approaching them, but he was pressed for time.

“Why?” Sevan asks, tilting his head, his white eyes focused on Eryx's.

This time, Eryx approaches the man, leaning over so that he can whisper in his ear, startling Sevan. “I’m gay”, his words are soft, only for the Student Council's President's ears.

Sevan nods, he's taking Eryx's question seriously, is this the effect of Milo Algeo’s special request? 

“I see, unfortunately we cannot change the rules even due to your… circumstances”.

“Isn't the objective of separating the students to avoid indecent acts?” He asks, blushing.

“Yes, don't worry I'll come up with a solution in a moment, after the ceremony come talk with me again”, Sevan says, glancing at his watch. “Thank you for being honest and not taking advantage of the situation”, he's sincere.

Eryx remembers that Sevan was quite popular as well, due to his appearance and personality, something along the lines of not being an honest person, one of those people that treats those he's interested in with cold and rude words while being deeply in love. Maybe that's why he's ignoring the heroine so adamantly, he thinks, although the heroine left a while ago, probably going to the other targets.

He isn't sure if she's a real person, a manifestation of the game or maybe someone under the same circumstances as him, however he doesn't care in the slightest if it won't stop him from beating her, the more he worries about her, the less will he actually progress in his own quest.

Only one left and I don’t have much time, he thinks, this time he finally uses his future sight, as he has no time to lose looking around to see who’s hot enough to be a male lead. In his future sight all he sees is the back of a man smoking behind the stage, there’s no need for more information than that, though. He moves quickly, time against him. Oh he’s a male lead alright, Eryx thinks with a scoff, as he spots the man.

Cassius Felix

The Actor

21

Black short hair with light blue highlights, piercing yellow eyes, tall just like all the others, a decent built body hidden under black clothes and a leather jacket, to match his bad boy look he’s wearing sunglasses that are hanging at the tip of his nose and on his fine lips is a half-lit cigarette. He’s good-looking and has the right type of attitude for the players to want to fix him, at least that’s probably what his sister was going for when designing him.

‘’Look if it isn’t the bastard of the Algeo family’’, his voice is deep and hoarse, probably because of the cigarette because he coughs right after speaking. 

Eryx can’t hide his expression of disgust, sure Mael also smokes, but he always does so far from him, the smell is strong and he can’t say he enjoys it. When he was hanging with his human friends they often smoked, but it was far more illegal than a mere cigarette.

‘’And you are? A chimney?’’ Eryx jokes, grabbing his arm, awkward, he isn’t sure how to get to know the basics about this new character he never saw before.

‘’Ha, funny’’, Cassius says, tossing the cigarette on the floor and stepping on it, his voice becoming clearer now he has stopped smoking. ‘’I’m Cassius Felix, my mother is friends with yours’’, he says as if suddenly Eryx was supposed to know who he is. 

‘’Oh, sure’’, he answers, looking away.

‘’You don’t know who I am, do you?’’ Cassius asks, walking towards him. ‘’Didn’t your mom ever mentioned me?’’

Eryx shakes his head, all his mom ever talks about at home is about his brothers and deceased father, well, sometimes she would talk about music and flowers as well.

‘’Well, she talked about you a lot to my mother, about how worried she was about her human son’’, his words carry a strong accent, he’s probably not from the Republic.

‘’Not a human anymore’’, he points out.

Cassius nods, looking Eryx up and down. ‘’Surely’’.

‘’So, you’re a senior?’’ He asks, trying to keep the conversation going until the message saying he completed the mission appears.

‘’Yes, how could you tell?’’

‘’Freshmens wouldn’t be smoking behind the stage, and the second-years have those dead-fish eyes’’, he observes, making Cassius laugh.

‘’And what about seniors?’’

‘’They all look like they’ve seen the end of the world and nothing else matters’’, his words make the man fall silent.

‘’Does that include your brother?’’ He asks, as Luc is also a senior.

‘’Perhaps’’.

The man laughs again. ‘’You’re quite interesting Eryx Algeo’’, ugh such a male lead line, Eryx thinks, and maybe that could work in his favor, since he seems at least slightly interested in him compared to the others, although he isn’t sure if risking it with a character he knows nothing about is a good idea.

Especially considering he barely remembers anything about the game anyway, and he only knows what his sister told him because of the system rewards.

‘’I beg to differ’’, another voice comments, Eryx turns to see Sevan leaning on the corner of the back of the stage, staring at them. ‘’The ceremony is about to start, what are you two doing?’’

Cassius wraps his arm around Eryx, why do they keep doing this? ‘’Can’t you guess by looking at us Mr. Glasses?’’ The smell of smoke is quite strong, he observes as the man leans closely to him.

Sevan twists his nose in disapproval, ‘’You should stop trying to be a rebel Cassius, it doesn’t suit your…’’ he tilts his head. ‘’Everything’’.

It’s interesting how all male leads know each other one way or another, be it friends or enemies.

‘’Ha’’, Cassius snorts, ‘’You’re one to say’’.

‘’Just join the freshmans, Eryx’’, his tone is softer when talking directly to Eryx, ‘’We’ll start in two minutes, and you, if you start another fire at the academy I’ll be obligated to cancel this year’s New Year’s Play’’, his words make Cassius’ expression change from playfulness to pure horror.

‘’You wouldn’t!’’

‘’Try me’’, the Student Council’s President says before turning to take his place on the stage.

‘’I should go’’, Eryx says, backing off from the man and running back to the crowd, as the notification he was waiting for finally appears.