At long last, Luther was finally gone.
Sheffil sat down in a quiet corner with his bowl of food, refueling his energy while his mind drifted to the string of bizarre events that had unfolded since the previous weekend.
The imposter pretending to be him.
Jianle’s sudden anger.
Tianxia’s abrupt transfer and inexplicable interest in him.
And the inexplicable mutation of the favorability system, something he’d never seen before…
“Good thing the midterm level assessments ended last week. Otherwise, I’d be dead trying to juggle all this,” Sheffil muttered as he mentally mapped out the recent chaos.
Originally, he had pushed all the competitions and social events to the second half of the semester due to his packed academic schedule.
But the moment a few classes ended, these absurd events swooped in to fill the gap.
Thankfully, Sheffil already had a year’s experience with competitions and social events under his belt.
He was used to this sort of thing, which allowed him to squeeze out time to deal with these unexpected messes.
As things stood now, his top priority was clear: deal with the arrogant fake Sheffil who had the audacity to send him a direct letter of provocation just yesterday.
The enemy lurked in the shadows while he was exposed under the sun.
As long as that impostor roamed free, Sheffil couldn’t shake the feeling that he might wake up one night with his kidneys missing.
Still, there was something that bothered him.
He wasn’t so vain as to think of himself as an idol like Dorothy Byrne, but he did have plenty of acquaintances both inside and outside of Jadecrest Academy.
And yet, despite someone blatantly impersonating him, not a single person had approached him about it.
He knew many of those friends were casual, but a few of them were genuinely warm-hearted people.
Even so, if those seven rainbow punks hadn’t come looking for trouble, he might never have realized someone was pretending to be him.
That was what unsettled Sheffil the most.
He sighed.
But no matter how much it bothered him, right now, the urgent task was catching that fake and giving him a proper lesson.
There was no time to dwell on unanswered questions.
“Ah, Sheffil, I knew you’d be here.”
Amid a faint rustle of student chatter, a familiar voice reached his ears as a slender, jade-white hand appeared in front of his eyes.
Sheffil looked up.
There she was—Dorothy Byrne, bending down with a flutter of her snow-white hair and those crimson eyes that seemed to sparkle with restrained annoyance.
“What’s the matter, little princess? You don’t look happy. Where’s Jianle?”
Sheffil glanced behind her but didn’t see that ever-present figure at her side.
As he looked back, he teased lightly.
“She’s mad. And it’s your fault,” Dorothy replied, plopping down beside him and resting her chin in her hand with a pouty mumble.
“Hey, don’t pin that on me. What did I do to make her mad?”
“You don’t expect me to believe that bruise on your face came from tripping on flat ground, do you?”
Dorothy shot him a sideways glance full of disdain, then dropped the subject.
She knew all too well that her childhood friend had a silver tongue sharper than any blade—if she started an argument, he’d twist black into white and wrong into right.
She hadn’t come here to bicker.
After all, she usually lost when they did.
“I came to see what you think… about that letter from yesterday.”
Dorothy leaned back casually in her chair and reached down to touch the badge at her waist.
In an instant, a glass of milk appeared in her hand.
“Witch’s badge—gift from the Witch Association. Just found out a few days ago that it’s inscribed with a storage rune,” she said with a smug grin, swaying the glass proudly as Sheffil eyed the milk in confusion.
“Look how smug you are.”
Sheffil gave a snort, shook his head, and lowered it again to focus on eating.
He could’ve complimented her, but honestly, he just wanted to finish his food.
“Hey, don’t ignore me. I came all this way because I saw you were in trouble! Don’t you think there’s something seriously off about that letter?”
Seeing Sheffil act indifferent, Dorothy frowned and began to scold him.
Usually, the two of them joked around and threw jabs at each other without a care.
But Dorothy knew deep down that whenever she was in real trouble, Sheffil always helped her—whether openly or behind the scenes.
Even her far-fetched dreams were something he supported without hesitation.
It felt distant to say it outright, but Dorothy had always wanted to return the favor.
Yet since she’d met him, Sheffil always carried himself like someone with no desires and no weaknesses.
Every time he had a problem, he’d already solved it before she could even offer help.
She’d never had a chance.
This time was different.
This time, the trouble had come straight to her face.
And for some reason, girls like Tianxia and Bluebell were all popping up and getting close to Sheffil one after another.
Even Jianle, her bestie, seemed to be drifting.
With such a rare opportunity in front of her, Dorothy couldn’t help but wonder—
Was this the one chance she might ever get?
To restore the dignity of the childhood sweetheart, Dorothy had no intention of backing down.
So—
She leaned her head against Sheffil’s shoulder and whispered softly in his ear, “How about tonight… the two of us go catch that letter sender together. Sound good?”