"Oi, oi, oi… did you see it, though?"
As the nine students walked away from the reception, they couldn't escape the loud noise generated by the conversation of nearby Adventurers.
It was rare to see grown men gushing so much, but that was simply a testament to the exciting topic they were talking about.
"Of course! You weren't there, right?" A bald man, easily the tallest in the group, grinned very widely as he addressed a more lanky man in the group.
"Yeah… I was on a Quest."
The lanky man's flat response made it clear how he regretted his decision to go.
His Quest probably ended up a bust as well.
"The thing was huge, I tell you!" Another person in the group of five exclaimed.
"Right? Insanely huge! That was my first time seeing an A-Tier Monster in my life."
"Can't believe they caught something like that."
"I suppose that's the level of Heroic Rank Adventurers, after all. Commons like us can't begin to compare."
"Dude, speak for yourself. I'm taking the Veteran Test next week, so don't lump me in with the likes of you."
"You said that last month and ended up failing. Pfft!"
"Shut up! This time will be different!"
The students ignored the bald man's reddened face as they walked past the group and made their way up the stairs.
"… Those two were exceptional. It's reassuring to see we have two new Heroic Rank Adventurers."
Adonis, who led the group, halted for a moment after those words echoed out from one of the Adventurers.
However, it wasn't long before he continued ascending.
A few of his classmates noticed his hesitation, but most of them were too tired or engrossed in their own conversations to care.
To them, it wasn't particularly interesting to hear low-ranked Adventurers make small talk.
********
A Group Room.
Just as the name implied, it was meant to house more than one person. Of course, depending on capacity, the number of occupiers could range from a measly two to more.
Maximum Capacity meant the room could occupy ten people, so it suited the nine students perfectly.
Well, that was what they initially thought.
But—
"H-hold on… we're actually staying in the same room?" Belle spoke up in shock.
She wasn't the only surprised person, though.
Literally all the students—save Adonis and Eric—looked stunned by what they were witnessing.
They were all expecting a similar arrangement as what they were used to in the Royal Estate, though, of inferior quality: A general parlor, and rooms dedicated to each of them.
That wasn't at all what they ended up getting.
Beds were placed in a tidy row, with more than enough room for a person to fit in the space between each one. Then, there were two study desks at the respective corners of the room.
There were three doors that led to the closet, the bathroom, and hopefully a second bathroom.
Sure, the room was quite massive—especially if they measured it by the standard of an Adventurer—but it didn't hold a candle to what they were used to.
It was, in simple terms, regressively degrading.
"Calm down. It's just for one night." Adonis sighed, gesturing for everyone to settle in. "We'll be going our separate ways tomorrow anyway."
The plan was to be assigned different Parties to join for the Conquest. And so, just as Adonis implied, they were better off managing the shared space for the night.
"I hope none of you snore!" Belle shrieked as she walked in, and while many people sighed and had neutral expressions on their faces, a few hid their guilty looks.
Adonis smiled, shrugging off casually as he proceeded to the door.
"Where are you going?" Alicia asked the moment she observed his attempts to leave the room. "We're supposed to be settling in, right?"
Her amber eyes carefully looked at him as he slightly shrugged.
"Just want to figure a few things out."
"You're going to look for those Adventurers from earlier, right?" She probed even further.
"You got me."
At this point, their conversation had gotten the attention of practically everyone in the room.
"What's the point? You could just find that out tomorrow." Belle said with a whiny voice.
"They're low-ranked Adventurers, right? Even if you want to scout for information, aren't they a bit unreliable?" Trisha added.
A few others gave their two cents, so it fell on Adonis to respond.
"You're taking this a bit too seriously, guys. I'm just curious about what they were talking about. Nothing more than that…" He smiled, slightly raising his hands to show how casual his efforts really were.
"You sure you don't want to go link up with that receptionist?" Justin finally spoke, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Broooo! I was literally thinking the same thing!" Clark added.
They both made a high-five and literally had stars in their eyes as they turned to Adonis, shooting him a thumbs up.
"Nice one, man!"
"Urgh, you guys… that's creepy." Alicia sighed as she shook her head. "She's like twice our age."
"EVEN BETTER!" Justin raised his voice, but was quickly met with a jab from Trisha.
"You guys are gross…"
"Guys? What did the rest of us do?" Billy and Eric practically said the same thing, their voices overlapping each other.
All through this, the only non-human in the room—the rabbit—
was already fast asleep on her bed.
Adonis watched his classmates through all this and gave a nervous smile throughout.
Perhaps it really was for the best that they split up.
"Anyway, it's fine. I wasn't stopping you from going or anything." Alicia said, finally walking away from Adonis as she approached the bed closest to her Familiar.
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Hey, can I come with?" Eric jumped from his bed and rushed towards Adonis, who pretty much gestured that he didn't mind at all.
"Well, we'll be right back."
The two exited the room, closing the door shut as they returned downstairs.
Both of them had a somewhat similar expression on their faces, which exposed the thought that they shared.
'I hope they've not left yet!'
*
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Thanks for reading!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I promise, this event is very much related to the overall plot.
Trust the process…
