Chapter 103: Still a Cafeteria?

Words : 1219 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Chapter 103: Still a Cafeteria? Kyle was trying his damned best to remember what was in that ancient training manual about bloodline abilities. But his concentration was shot because it was more important to stop Xavier before these ice shards crawled onto the surface of the table for everyone to see. "Captain," He called quietly, trying not to draw attention to their table but to no avail. Xavier didn’t respond. Kyle actually debated on throwing his spoon at him as his anxiety mounted over the thin layer of frost that slowly started spreading. "Captain!" He tried again, but this time, Luca noticed what he was doing and tried to help him out. "Psst." "Psst." When that didn’t work, he tugged on him and said, "Xavier, Kyle has been calling you." Then Luca noticed how cold Xavier was. He was not cold like a stoic person but like an actual iceberg. Didn’t he have Spatial abilities? How come he’s manifesting elemental abilities right now?! Luca was surprised about this because so far, he’s only seen the Orc Princess wield an elemental ability. He was not new to such abilities because this was how Espers generally were; the higher the ranks, the more abilities they had in their arsenal. But when he searched about them before, nothing even remotely similar came up. Were there people like the Awakened over here? Did they just not know, or was it just Xavier?! He was initially unsure but was surprised to hear D-29’s exclamations! "Host, this was on the book! There was a drawing of a little man who was suddenly on fire and needed to be calmed down!" "How do we calm him down?" Luca asked, surprised that a Guiding book really had something similar! "I’m not sure, Host, because the next drawing was the same little man on a stretcher?" D-29 was trying its best, but the book was really just a picture book with very minimal explanation. But, of course, that was expected. The book was for very young children, after all. So, in reality, the little system has been trying to do an interpretation of drawings by cross-referencing them with the information it learned from Luca’s terminal and Sid’s bios. It just wasn’t helping as much because several of the book’s illustrations used different small animals doing things that animals shouldn’t be able to do, like talking in speech bubbles. Of course, as a system, D-29 was initially programmed to process information literally and kept getting stumped by all the small animals! It was a battle of wits, and D-29 was struggling. "Stretcher? Does he need to go to the hospital?!" Luca really didn’t like hospitals or labs because they would often knock him out, but maybe that was how everyone was treated. Luca had no memory of his awakening because it happened right as Specimen 401 woke up with a consciousness. And Guides don’t seem to have the same destructive awakening as Espers usually do. But his memory really only had people rejoicing at collapsing buildings while praising the birth of another Esper. That was what the TV reports would show, and it wasn’t something the non-awakened discussed at school. In fact, during his very short stint as a student, their subjects strayed away from anything about the awakened because it felt like a mockery to those who didn’t awaken with any special powers. That was why he was treated like a pariah. All he knew was the required protocols when dealing with anyone suspected of awakening. The standard practice was to initiate an evacuation while immediately calling the emergency hotline to report a possible awakening, which often happened at the orphanage. So, what exactly did the emergency response team do to the awakened? Luca tried recalling more information but to no avail. However, Xavier wasn’t actually awakening. As a child, he often played with Ice and had long known about his abilities; he just didn’t want anyone to know. After all, the Imperial tutors said it would expedite the handover of the crown. And he wasn’t crazy enough to desire such a burden as a child. He usually had enough control over his abilities, but hearing the Princess’ words sent his control barreling out the door. And he’s been trying to keep it together, but that Princess just won’t shut up about her duties, responsibilities, and the need to marry the vendor—his vendor. Xavier couldn’t even pinpoint why he was feeling like this and was unfortunately unfamiliar with the possessiveness of an Esper when it came to his Guide. It was akin to someone stealing their lifeline, and his abilities would act in favor of self-preservation. The whole situation was so exasperating and distracting that it took a stronger tug from the little chipmunk to at least recover some of his situational awareness. Then he saw the worried look on the shorty’s face before suddenly feeling drawn towards him. Xavier operated instinctively as he leaned in closer, finally slumping his face on top of Luca’s head. The worried Guide, however, was about to react when he felt a bit of Guiding energy leave his body. "?!" Was Xavier reverse-guiding?! Luca heard about this phenomenon when he heard a ruckus at the center about a Guide almost dying because of a reverse-guiding Esper. And Luca did not want to die. So, in his panic, he decided to guide him instead of having him pull more than necessary. Luca angled his head before giving Xavier a smooch on the cheeks, just like before. He figured the big guy wasn’t dying right now and didn’t need a round of compressionless CPR. Xavier was surprised, not only when he pulled a unique and comforting energy from Luca but when he suddenly got more of it with that unexpected smooch. And Xavier could only blink as he tried to grapple with the situation. But to the rest of the people in the cafeteria, something else was taking place. Even the Princess, who was seriously lamenting over her duties and her Bunbun, smelled what seemed to be a more pressing issue. In the cafeteria, which was seriously a love nest by now, were two people who were too busy to notice everyone’s stunned gazes. While there were sighs from several girls and a few snaps from what seemed like professional photography gear, there were several people who were encountering their own crises. There was Ollie, who had to scrap years of imaginary dreams with little green babies; Kyle, who wanted to know which Planet he could hide on; and Jax, who was still hungry and wondered if there was really nothing left in the Princess’ bowl. This was the scene that greeted the senior students who came by, determined to greet the likely excited students. However, when they entered in full glory, there were no excited screams or giddy murmurs like those they usually received when the sign-ups were posted. Instead, all the attention was directed towards a particular table, where a mismatched group of people sat, including what seemed to be a pair of lovebirds who were very much out of place. It was a touching yet scandalous scene for many of the freshmen, but the seniors who had long lost hope of finding love in a military academy couldn’t accept such injustice!

Chapter 103: Still a Cafeteria?

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