CHAPTER 161: BELIEVE IT OR NOT

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Kaya, Eloise, and Delia walked into the Cafeteria, and neither was all too surprised to see Calus seated at the table already. They joined him. Kaya and Eloise looked eager, and Delia looked tentative.

"Morning," Caius told the three ladies with a smile.

"Morning," Kaya and Eloise said almost simultaneously.

Delia didn’t say anything. She mostly just stared at Caius as she took a seat on the other side of the table they were at and put so much distance to ensure she wasn’t directly opposite Caius. Still, her eyes never left his face.

Caius smiled at Kaya and Eloise as they sat down and then his eyes rolled over to Delia causing her to flush. Lightning was already starting to flicker around her body as she got ready to fire out an attack.

"It’s nice to see you too," Caius said accepting that as her form of greeting. Even then, his fingers were moving knowing he could need to defend himself at any moment from now.

Delia wrinkled her nose, trying her best to override any nervousness she was feeling with annoyance.

"Ugh, I knew you were going to be insufferable about winning and you’ve proven me right for a whole week straight now," she said.

"I literally only said it was nice to see you," Caius said.

"It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it," Delia said, "It’s all over your face. Your stupid, good—I mean dumb face.

Don’t look at me!"

"It’s hard when your eyes are basically boring through my skin," Caius said, "How about you look away and I’ll try to do the same."

"No, I have to look at you to make sure you look away and keep looking away," Delia said.

Caius paused.

"You’re cute when you’re not making much sense," he eventually said and then looked at Eloise and Kaya for a second to ask them to weigh in,

"Doesn’t she?"

Eloise had a wide grin and nodded.

"Oh, she does," she said.

Kaya shook her head.

"So much tension," she said, "You two should kiss again and get it over with."

Delia paused then and her eyes rolled away from Caius’s face to look at Kaya instead and her sparking lightning seemed to freeze in an eerie way.

"You know about that?" She asked slowly.

"Of course I do," Kaya answered the question.

"So do I," Eloise said with a hand raised.

It was now that Delia turned her attention back to Caius’ face and her Lightning moved again.

"You told them?!" She asked with her voice fairly raised and her face getting hotter.

For all her aggression toward Caius since that kiss happened, Delia had never talked about it. It did funny things to the way her heart beat in her chest whenever she remembered that moment. That closeness...

Anyway, Caius hadn’t mentioned it either. Not in jet presence anyway.

His presence and his very indicative smiles were always enough to tease her about the event without ever talking about it. Delia decided that if Kaya and Eloise knew about it then Caius must have talked about it behind her back. And for some reason, she felt betrayed.

She didn’t give Caius the time to answer the question because it hadn’t really been a question. How else would Kaya and Eloise know about what happened with them if he hadn’t told them?

So she fired her lightning.

Caius thrust his hand toward and a purple spell circle appeared to conjure the ~Galleon’s Gate~ spell that opened its maw wide and swallowed the lightning in its entirety.

This had happened so many times since that day and that kiss that this hardly caused either Kaya or Eloise to have all that big of a reaction. Eloise was especially focused on getting as much food as she could on her plate.

"I didn’t tell them anything," Caius said.

He was being honest. He didn’t go around regaling his lovers with details about his other lovers. That seemed crass and was usually just never something natural to bring up while he was with them.

"You lie!" Delia said and slammed a palm against the table top.

"I assure you, I’m not lying," Caius said calmly. He looked at Kaya who technically set this reaction off and gestured with his head,

"Tell her."

"Hmm?" Kaya said looking taken by surprise as she was raising food to her mouth. And then she nodded.

"Yeah, he didn’t say anything."

"You expect me to believe..." Delia started but Kaya interrupted her almost immediately.

"Oh come on," she said and was so amused that the tip of her pointy ears twitched,

"You spent five days blushing hard whenever he looked at you and were shooting attacks at him at every turn. If that’s not an Elementary level show of affection, I don’t know what is."

"A-a-affection...?" Delia said sounding so incredulous, she was almost shocked.

For an answer, Kaya tapped her nose.

Delia turned even redder, causing her beautiful bronze face to look like it was burning.

"I don’t have affection for him," she said, and tried to speak with as much vitriol as she could but she couldn’t even manage it.

Still, Caius placed a hand over his heart in jest,

"You wound me," he said.

Delia rolled her eyes at him but focused her attention on Kaya as she sought a retraction of an observation that hit her harder than she would have liked.

"I don’t like him," she affirmed.

"If Kaya says you do, then you do," Eloise said then after a swallow of food,

"She’s part-elf. They are perceptive to things like this."

"Oh look who’s learning more about Elves," Kaya said looking both amused and touched.

Eloise smiled.

"Just seemed silly that I know nothing about them while being your best friend," she said, "I had to change that."

"Aww," Kaya said and the two girls reached out and held hands for a minute before going back to their food.

Delia looked between the two girls and their almost mushy exchange, looking dumbfounded and unsure how a conversation about her amorous moment with Caius had turned into what looked like a bonding moment.

"Well, your perceptiveness is wrong this time," Delia said then and folded her arms beneath her breasts,

"I. Don’t. Like. Him."

It was interesting how despite her emphasis, Delia’s redness never reduced in intensity. It seemed to grow deeper in hue actually whenever she happened to glance over at Caius.

Kaya paused as she noticed this and then she shrugged.

"Maybe you’re right," she said, "But it was still so obvious something happened between you two. A kiss seemed to be the most natural possibility..."

"How was it?" Eloise asked Delia then.

"What?"

"You know, the kiss," Eloise said, "I’ve been dying to ask. It was incredible wasn’t it?"

"I-I don’t want to talk about it," Delia said and looked up at Caius but he wasn’t really paying her any mind.

He cleared a space for himself on the table despite the amount of food that was now spread all over it, and dropped his personal Grimoire on it. He had decided last week that the fact that he didn’t feel the interest to partake in eating didn’t mean Breakfast should only be to talk with the girls and tease them whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The time could also serve him to continue a never-ending research into Arcane symbols. Getting in some of the study and practice that he couldn’t get at home because of sleep or whatever other reason.

That said, he did feel it when Delia didn’t stop looking at him so he glanced up at her and smiled.

"Eloise is curious. You should tell her all about it," he said.

Eloise nodded and leaned closer. The intensity of her interest in the events of that day caused Delia to hyperventilate but, for the first time in over a week, she didn’t start sparking with lightning for an attack. She just clenched her fist.

"Hngh, I do want to punch you in the face," she said to Caius.

"I thought we agreed," Caius said easily, "That’s not going to happen until you get better. And I can help with that."

"You just want to get me alone and do that with me again!" Delia said and, considering how agitated she sounded, it was a miracle that she managed to keep her voice low and out of the ears of their classmates eating breakfast.

"Believe it or not, I don’t go around forcing kisses on unreceptive ladies.

The question is, would you like me to kiss you again?" Caius asked with an alluring smile.

"What? N-n-no!" Delia stammered to say.

Caius kept his smile and shrugged,

"Then there’s nothing for you to worry about. I assure you, I’ll only kiss you if you want."