Chương 30: On the Roof

Ch 30: On the Roof It was just one day before the fundraising tournament had started when something unusual happened. I was on my way to the library to spend the morning creating a few prototypes of my own simplified peer-to-peer translation spell, determined to create at least three different versions to compare accuracy, when I stumbled across Niko. Stumbling across him in a school corridor at this particular time of the day was definitely weird.

My furry friend would never miss combat class to go to the library unless he needed my help with something extremely important and urgent.

"What is up?" I asked.

"Don't tell me you're worried the spells I gave you yesterday won't be enough to carry you through the tournament."

"That's not it, Eric." Without explaining what was wrong, Niko looked down both sides of the corridor, then even sniffed the air, his wet nostrils opening and closing.

"I... need some advice about something." The fear and hesitation were unlike the alpha Zufi, but I still wasn't thinking too much of it. At worst, I thought he might have developed a sudden interest in runes and was having an existential crisis over the conflict between his newfound passion and his warrior spirit.

"So, are you about to tell me you're a hopeless rune enthusiast just like me and you can't deal with your urges to skip classes and create spells that will most likely explode on your first try?" I was smirking at how far I'd taken the self-deprecating humor this time, but Niko didn't seem to appreciate it. He looked both ways again and sniffed the air once more. Only then did he speak.

"No, Eric. Your expertise with runes is not the reason I'm looking for you today." He checked behind him again.

"I'm seeking advice about your... ah... other expertise." I wasn't going to lie. I was getting pissed at the furball now. What was so damn important that he had to be this mysterious?

"Well," I said, "it's not like I can't teach you the principles of gambling, but you should at least wait until you see how the Greys react to it during the tournament." To my surprise, he didn't even check behind him before screaming.

"Females of other species!" I stared at him without a semblance of a reaction. Damn. All that prior hesitation just to say it way too loudly. Now I was the one looking both ways. When I didn't see anyone nearby, I had to make sure I'd heard him correctly.

"Are you really here to ask me of all people for advice about women?" Niko remained silent at my question, staring at me with the expression of someone who had eaten bad food and couldn't wait to reach the nearest bathroom. Then, out of nowhere, he shouted again.

"Lili slept in my room last night!" Even I struggled to believe my ears. It couldn't be that Elitha had gotten bored and decided to prank me by messing with the translation spell, right? I mean, how did it even make sense that a proud, pointy-eared combat lunatic who looked down on even her own shadow would spend the night with the semi-feral furball? Niko was the guy who started conversations about personal hygiene. I sure as hell couldn't see how that would appeal to anyone who wasn't a Zufi themselves.

Then again, if I remembered correctly, our furry hero had been the one who kept Lili's body from being claimed by that disgusting worm before Sahirah and I had arrived. But could someone like Lili really fall for the brave warrior type? Seeing a group of Grey workers walking toward us from the far end of the corridor, I said, "Look, we can talk about this if you really want, but I really think we should do it somewhere else." Niko noticed the Greys too and offered a suggestion.

"Can you climb the school and wait for me on the roof?" Weird request? Sure. But considering I was talking to a human-sized alpha furball who was troubled because a tomboy elf had apparently violated the dorm rules to spend the night in his room, why not accept it?

"Yup," I said.

"The roof sounds like the perfect place for this conversation. The library or the food court would just be boring, right? Too normal." Niko nodded happily and left without understanding my sarcasm. I sighed, already considering how I would have to tweak Haste so I could use it to climb the school.

Navar could be a beautiful place. Given the impossibility of exploring this planet beyond the school walls because of the lack of translation, I unfortunately hadn't explored much yet. But looking at beautiful city near the horizon and the snow covered mountain in the background, with the blue moon visible even during daytime today, I couldn't help but thank Niko in my mind... even if the furball himself was late for the meeting that he himself had suggested.

I observed the busy road connecting the city to school to pass the time. It was unusually crowded with those floating vehicles as people arrived for the preparations of the tournament that would start tomorrow. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. It was only when I was starting to get bored of the scenery that I heard heavy breathing from the wall below me. I carefully walked near the edge, and when I looked down, I saw Niko.

He was jumping up from window frame to window frame, using nothing but the power of his bare hands to propel himself upwards. A barbaric approach, in my opinion. But as dangerous looking as it was, it took just moments for the furball to finish his final push, and soon enough I was looking at a tired body that was covered in brown fur and no clothes while carrying a backpack on his back. Oddly enough, the backpack was the weird part.

"Did you bring something?" My thoughts were already taking a weird turn, considering that it might be some dead animal he hunted dawn and wanted to ask me if I would make a good gift for Lili. He reached into the backpack, and retrieved a bottle.

"You are always complaining about how much you miss that thing you call coffee and that thing you call beer," he said, "So I asked my seniors to buy something from the city when Hoko brought them there to enlist in the military." He showed the bottle, and it took me a single look to conclude this was no coffee or beer, but some kind of strong alcohol. Soon enough, Niko took a seat beside me, and before I could refuse, he poured us a small dose into a pair of glass cups he also brought in the backpack.

"I'm... not sure it's such a good idea to drink unknown alcohol on the roof." Of course, I wasn't a coward. But there were certain things that were extremely stupid, like drinking alien alcohol for the first time while being on the roof, several floors high from the ground. Niko seemed slightly disappointed at my refusal, saying nothing but staring at me with sad puppy eyes I sighed, and decided to be polite. I reached for the cup, and took a very tiny sip, just enough to feel the taste and nothing more.

"Oh," I said, "that's actually good." The furball smiled now, not taking a sip, but gulping down the whole amount he had poured for himself. When he was finished, he asked, "How do you do it, Eric? How do you deal with the fact that your people are going to look down on you by choosing a life mate from another planet?" My people looking down on me? Niko clearly was unfamiliar with humanity... But that question still could apply to Sahirah's side since she had mentioned something about her importance to her people.

Still, this wasn't about Sahirah and me, and to help Niko I needed to know a bit more than what he told me so far.

"I'm not sure the extent your question applies to us." Trying to hide my curiosity, I asked, "But maybe I could help more if you told me how you and Lili started having... well, something." Niko, as if deciding to relax, laid down on the roof tiles, and only then he spoke again.

"I'm not sure myself." A gust of wind touched his fur, sending some loose strands into my face, which I did my best to ignore. He continued, "After that day where I helped her defend herself from the Mimic, she became especially mean to me in combat class. She would throw me into the dirty pool whenever she had the chance, and then she would urge the other Driari to make fun of me."

Well, I wouldn't know, because I only attended combat class once and didn't dare to show up again after Hoko made body runes against the rules. He turned to look into my direction, and continued, "But yesterday, we had a particularly competitive fight, and both of us used some of the spells you gave us for the tournament." Wait, did that mean both of them would need more copies? I let out a long sigh.

"Good thing you both have a free spell printer at home, isn't it?" He ignored my comment and continued, "After a badly cast Haste, both of us fell into the dirty pool water, and Hoko sent us out of class because he claimed we were putting the others at risk of injury with our dangerous spells." I kept listening and said nothing this time.

"But what I don't understand, Eric, is that she followed me into my room, and used one your presence Erasure spells she wasn't even supposed to have to enter undetected." I noticed a trace of anger in his voice, as he went on, "Can you believe she just got herself into my shower without asking for permission? And then she told me she would stay for the night because her roommate deserved to be spared of the lingering scent of the dirty pool that refused to leave her.

"But she was lying. My nose is sharp and I can assure you there was no pool scent on her body, Eric, and she actually smelled very nice." Here it goes, I could already see where this was going, and I didn't even need to be told the rest.

"Let me guess," I said, "Then she claimed a spot in your bed with another bad excuse, and when you gave in like the soft alpha furball you are, you noticed the two of you were side by side in bed pretending to sleep but failing badly at it." He raised his body, staring at me as if I had just invented a revolutionary spell.

"Are all humans that talented with f–""No," I cut him off before he could say something absurd.

"It's just that you're such a dummy you didn't realize you'd been outplayed by a dangerous predator with pointy ears, my friend." His yellow eyes went wide.

"Is that how you and your life mate ended up in this arrangem–""Wrong again," I cut him off once more.

"Sahirah and I are not softies like you, so things are more complicated between us." Silence finally got some room to exist. Niko apparently couldn't find a good argument to refute me and was struggling with the fact that I had simply told him the truth. I observed the clouds above us while silence reigned, but Niko eventually found another topic he wanted to discuss.

"What about leaving descendants, Eric?" Niko brought up the topic without even flinching.

"Have you even thought about that? Because I don't think Lili and I can do it." I reserved the right to be speechless for long enough that the shadow of a large cloud covered the sun above us. And only then did it truly sink in. Had Niko really spent a single night literally struggling to sleep beside Lili, and he was already considering the problem of leaving descendants? What the actual fuck?

Not even I, who was struggling with the very real possibility of becoming permanently bound to Sahirah as her cultivation partner, had thought about that. And this fluffy furball was seriously bothered by it on literal day one? Should I just pretend I hadn't heard any of that and call it a day? No. For the sake of my friendship, I had to say something, even if it might not be something he would like to hear.

"Listen," I said.

"If this really bothers you, you should just end things with her before it becomes serious. I know adoption is a possibility you two could consider far into the future, but right now, it literally doesn't matter.

"You don't even know if the two of you will still be together five days from now, and it's not like anything will bind you together if you change your minds later and decide you don't want to be together anymore." What I didn't say was that other possibilities might exist if we ever reached the level of an archmage. Elitha herself had mentioned that reconstructing her eyes would have been possible if the nerves hadn't been destroyed, but all of that was speculation about a distant future.

The thing to really worry about in the present was whether they could live together and be happy. Descendants, adoption, or just enjoying their best life alone with each other were questions for the future. As long as everyone involved was fine with the limitations and okay with the uncertainty, their relationship could absolutely flourish into a source of happiness for both of them.

"Thank you for the wise words, Eric," Niko suddenly said.

"You must really have thought a lot about this to reach that conclusion. Sahirah is lucky to have you." Me, thinking about this a lot? I had just thought about it now, and I hadn't even realized something extremely basic and obvious until Niko had mentioned it. A lot of what I had said to Niko also applied to Sahirah and me... I smiled from ear to ear.

Why, after so many days and nights of trying to beat my brain into submission to find the right answers to all those hard questions Sahirah had thrown at me that night, had I only found a really good answer when the problem wasn't about us at all? Could Sahirah really have this effect on me? Making me more stupid than usual whenever I thought about our problems? And what a place to discover my own peculiar intellectual limitation.

There I was, on the school roof with a friend made of fur, discussing his relationship with the tsundere elf who acted all mighty and proud during the day, but was apparently just a closeted furry during the night. Damn. But as absurd as the topics we were discussing were, another obvious thing I realized was that I had been wrong to see the conversation with Niko as a favor I was doing for him. No. As I kept casually chatting with him as a friend, I was gaining as much from the conversation as he was, if not more.

The hard truth was that spending a lot of time with my runes, with the archmage, and with Sahirah might be awesome in their own ways. But at the end of the day, I was just a man. A man who needed some time with his buddies every once in a while. And from now on, I just had to face the technical challenges of my translation spell, because I already knew exactly what I would say to Sahirah the moment we had our privacy.