25. A Normal Day (3)
The Administration Office was located on the second floor, where second and fourth-year students resided. Students from all four years dined in the cafeteria, leaving the halls deserted, like those on the first floor. It allowed her to traverse at a slow pace and relax her tensed shoulders.
At the end of the hall, there was a floor-to-ceiling window similar to the one below, but she didn't stop for it. Leila turned and entered the adjacent room, labeled "Administration Office."
A woman with brown hair sat behind the desk. She rested her chin on her hand, staring at a distant wall with a blank face, and maintained it as they met eyes.
"I was just about to get lunch. Now, tell me," she said, tilting her neck to one side and massaging it. “What do you need?"
“I’d like to change dorms.” Leila said.
“What’s your grade and name?”
“Third Year and Leila.”
The woman retrieved a hand-sized sphere from under the desk and infused it with mana. It glowed, and above it, a transparent screen emerged. She shifted and tapped the screen multiple times before gazing up.
"All first-year dorms are full. Unless you know someone willing to share a dorm, you cannot move into another.” She dismissed the screens and stored the sphere. "You can go now.”
Leila gazed at the spot where the sphere had disappeared. Were they all affected? Did Zain cast Seduction on them? None had ridiculed her for her indecent behavior, and now no dorms were available when she needed them most. It was crazy to consider, and maybe she had lost her mind, but it provided her with direction.
Leila sprinted through the halls, down the stairs, and stopped when passing the floor-to-ceiling window on the first floor. The training grounds were empty at this time, but classes resumed after lunch, which made them off-limits.
She returned to the window and stared out. The garden's stone path was narrow but widened and disappeared around a corner. She could practice there without drawing much attention. The gardener and their assistant could access it as they wished, while everyone else needed permission from them or the Professors, but she didn't have the time to ask or care.
She tiptoed.
****
The garden was massive, as it revealed more than what the window could. There were countless numbers of flowers, bushes, and trees in shades of pink, red, blue, yellow, and purple that the garden held.
She stopped as the path widened into a circular dead end. Without chips or cracks, a stone-curved bench lined the edges of the circle. Less space than she desired, but it would suffice.
Leila took slow breaths as she sashayed to the bench and back, calming herself as her hips traced a sexy figure-eight, engraving it into her muscles.
After an hour of sashaying, she sat on a bench. Since then, the sun had drifted far past its peak, casting heat onto the garden. She had to keep adjusting her skirt to protect her legs from the hot bench and unbutton all five buttons of her shirt to ease her sweating, all while keeping her hair on one shoulder. Her throat dried as she inhaled the humid air.
"I should've brought water," she muttered while squinting at the flowers. "Or if I learned a water spell—could I even learn one? If I could, wouldn't it be lust?" An idea popped into her mind. She sat up and cupped her hands.
Leila closed her eyes, channeled mana into her palm, and visualized filling it with water that didn’t spill through her fingers. As something tickled her palm and grew, a sensation met her abdomen, igniting a fire that burst into rhythm with the increasing weight in her hands. She opened her eyes, and the growth stopped.
Leila smiled.
A bowl of pink water had formed in her cupped hands, and none slipped through.
Leila sipped it, and a flame fluttered onto her tongue—not hot or cold, but provoking as it fueled the flames in her abdomen. It quenched her thirst and satisfied her mild hunger, which was an added bonus. Her smile widened as she took another sip, savoring it. It was better than what the academy offered.
When she finished, the sun's shadows climbed to her shoulder, bringing the day close to dusk. Leila stumbled and stood up, a screen emerging in front of her. Had her mana changed her system?
[Leila]
[Titles: Sex Slave, Fallen Light Hero, Tainted One]
[Lust Level: 96 Percent]
[Race: True Succubus Princess]
[Level: 23]
[EXP: 357/1300]
[MP: 23,240/23,250]
[Strength: 125]
[Agility: 160]
[Stamina: 185]
[Charm: 20]
[Skills: Basic Dream Mastery III, Basic Mind Mastery II, Empathy III, Intermediate Sex Mastery I, Telepathy, Demonic Possession, Intermediate Lust Mastery III, Basic Soul Absorption I, Basic Corruption Mastery I, Lust Sense I]
"What?" Leila froze, her mouth half-open and her eyes wide. How did her stats increase? Her level remained at 23, and even if she leveled up, her stats would not have increased fivefold. It’d be in the 40s or 50s, while her health would be between 5,000 and 6,000. The next moment, it came to her.
Her self-indulgence. After that, her charm stat increased from 4 to 20. And before she sparred with Zain, her speed, agility, and stamina also improved. Adapting to such an increase shouldn’t be easy, as it took time to synchronize with the new strength. But she never lost synchronization with her body, indicating that she had adapted to the stats, which she shouldn't have.
Leila crashed head-first into the stone.
“Ugh!” She rolled onto her back and examined her nose and forehead. No bruises or bleeding. “What a day.”
"It's nice, isn't it?" a familiar voice asked. A head full of long hair leaned over as her crystal earrings sparkled through the hair strands. Freira smiled. “I’ve been looking for you all day.”
Leila crawled to her feet and walked past her, but Freira grabbed her hand before she could leave. Leila grimaced, jerking her arm away, and continued to the garden's entrance.
Freira’s footsteps clanged against stone, and a hand yanked her back.
Before Leila ripped her arm out, Freira said, "Wait! You weren’t given permission to enter the garden. So—“
"What about you?” Leila sideglanced at her.
"I am the gardener's assistant." Her smile widened. “Don’t you get it? I—“
“I do.”
“Then why are—“
Leila stepped through the entrance, pulling her arm free. Freira rushed past her, slid in front, and blocked her path.
“I said... wait.”
Leila bumped into her, trying to push past, but Freira stood her ground, her feet sliding back across the floor.
“I… I should’ve known. I didn’t mean—I really didn’t mean it.” She said, “I thought—is your relationship with him that bad?”
Leila stopped pushing, tilted her head up as Freira was a head taller, and locked eyes.
Freira relaxed her shoulders. “He forced you.”
She knows.
“What makes you think that?”
“You’ve avoided the eyes of the students and avoided me all day.” She hugged Leila. “I’ll protect you." A recent memory resurfaced of Zain embracing her, tousling her hair, and treating her as if she were fragile.
Leila grabbed Freira’s shoulders and pushed, breaking the embrace. She glared, clenching her fist. “Don’t touch me.”
Freira had broken her last straw.
Leila shoved into her, knocked her to the ground, and then left, leaving her as Freira called her name. After a series of turns, she arrived at the training grounds. It was empty.
I was going to...
As her heavy eyes closed, Leila fell to the ground, landing on her stomach. She had lost another day—a day she longed to be normal. Would she get another? Could she? Before answers came, she dozed off, marking the end of such a miserable day.