There was a moment of silence for the fallen Francis who realized how grave his mistakes were. Afterwards he asked everyone, 'Then please tell me what kind of letter do women like? Everyone, please help me correct my mistakes!'

I haven't gotten a single clue as I do not write letters to any women in particular. The girls raked their minds to give him a healthy suggestion to send a better love letter to Orchid. Hawkeye was as confused as Francis, for I doubted he had a thought crossing by to write a letter to a girl he had found interest in. I glanced at Nineheart. He seemed uninterested for such a topic and merely kept quiet while standing beside Cygnus.

'Well, I think you should get rid of the male bravado, for a start,' Irena said.

'I agree. Love letters should be pure and romantic,' Oz nodded, moving the lollipop stick sticking out of her mouth up and down.

'And the last statement should be impressive enough to move the girl,' Cygnus added.

Francis looked at them, confused. 'Ugh, listening to you three talk makes my head spin. Can't I get some sort of sample?'

'Well, why don't you get some romance novels from the reading room? They should help,' Oz suggested with a smile.

'Oh, that's a great idea!' Francis nodded, then he looked at me. 'Evan, could you go find some romance novels in the reading room? I need to stay here and write a letter of apology.'

I doubt I could reject this. 'Sure. I'll be back soon.'

'Well, it doesn't seem like I would be of any help. I'm getting myself some grub,' Hawkeye excused himself. 'I'll drop by afterwards.'

The both of us left the office. Hawkeye sighed heavily as soon as the door behind us was shut. 'Can't he just man up and confess to her straight in the face?' Hawkeye asked me as we walked away from the room. 'It would be much easier to do so than writing a cheesy letter.'

I shrugged. 'Francis isn't as brave as you are, Hawkeye.'

He laughed. 'Yeah. I wonder if Orchid would even accept him, if she rejects someone like me.'

I grinned. 'Hey, you never know.'

We both parted ways in the middle of the first floor corridor as Hawkeye headed to get lunch. I saw Mihile and Eckhart standing by the entrance as Hawkeye ran towards them before walking into the cafeteria. Mihile waved at me when he noticed me. I walked towards the second floor along with Mir, wondering how the romance novels are like and how it would improve Francis's writing skills just by reading it.

Master, I smell Elwin past this door, Mir said as we stopped at the door leading towards the library. Will we need to fight again?

Maybe. I shrugged and opened the door. Miss Appropriation was behind it, to my surprise. 'Oh… I'm sorry,' she said timidly. I let her out first as usual, and she nodded at me before leaving the room. I entered the room and saw Elwin popping out from the back of a pile of books. Mir's scales scratching on the doorframe made a short, awful sound. I closed the door right after he had entered and crouched in front of Elwin.

'You're as busy as ever, Evan,' Elwin shook his head with a sigh. 'What brings you here now?'

'I'm looking for romance novels. Have you read any of them in here?'

'Romance novels? Of course I tried them,' he scoffed at the term. 'They were so melodramatic that they made me cringe, but I guess women in this world like that kind of stuff.'

'That doesn't sound good,' I bit my lower lip. 'Well, I'm new to reading this kind of genre, so do you have any suggestions?'

He shook his head, then as if remembering something, he ran under one of the tables in the room and came out pulling a piece of paper with his mouth. I walked towards the table as he seemed to have trouble pulling the large piece of paper with his small size of now. 'What's this?' I asked as I picked up the piece of paper. On it was written several titles of some books.

'It's the list of this month's bestselling novels. You can find the novels from monsters in the reading room,' Elwin replied.

'Why did the Dusts take them away?' I narrowed my eyes at him. 'Aren't you supposed to do something about it?'

'Hey, I cannot prevent them from taking away certain books!' Elwin protested by barking. 'Maybe the girls were jealous of the characters in the novels and spawned Dusts from that negative feeling!'

I blinked at him. 'Do girls of this world do that?'

'Well… I don't know,' he avoided my gaze. 'But that might be the most logical explanation I can ever give you of why the Dusts take them. My job is to move the Dusts into Dust Zones so they wouldn't be in contact to any students in this school that may have an immense amount of negative feelings inside them.'

'Right.' I looked at the list. Some of the titles were ridiculous. "You must be from the West", "Wolf Romance"… wait, does that mean a human girl fell in love with a wolf? I looked at the title wryly. I didn't know girls like bestiality. There were also "My Love from the Temple", "Losers in Paris" and "Sudden Secret". Maybe I should judge them when I actually receive the books and read a few pages of them rather than looking at the title.

'Happy hunting! There are a total of five titles.' Elwin then kept a look out at the door.

'Remember Mir, don't burn down those books,' I said before stepping into the portal. 'I don't know what those Dusts would be holding, but I only need five titles from them, okay?'

I'll try my best, Master. Using Flame Wheel or Blaze wouldn't burn down the items they drop.

I nodded and entered the portal located at the end of the room, located right beside of a bookshelf filled with fiction fantasy books. I glanced past a few books and found nothing of the books from the list Elwin gave me. Upon entering I remembered the spawn of the Dust Zone was low. I sighed at the low monster count. 'Let's get over this quickly, okay? I can't be bothered to kill these few monsters.'

Right, Master!

All of the Dusts inside apparently drop books, but sometimes it wasn't what I wanted, so I had to pick up every single book that I found and toss it out when it wasn't one of the titles written on the paper Elwin gave me while being careful of not destroying the books scattered on the floor and platforms. I also had to check out Mir's platform above me to find the books I needed. Before leaving the portal with all of the books in hand, I realized the timer was down to 4:29. That certainly took a while.

I thanked Elwin before leaving the room and headed downstairs towards the end of the hallway. 'Oh Evan,' Francis looked up from the table as the girls aided him into writing an apology letter. Several crumpled papers rested around the table. 'Did you get me some romance novels?' I carried the novels and placed them onto the table. Nineheart was nowhere to be found.

'Nice pick,' Oz nodded as she examined the titles.

'I've read this one before…' Irena said as she picked up "Losers in Paris" from the stack.

'Thanks Evan, you're the best!' Francis smiled. 'I'll refer to these novels to write a good love letter.'

'Good luck Francis,' I nodded at his determination. 'I'm going to get some lunch. I'm hungry already. You should, too.'

'Maybe afterwards… Here, what do you think about this letter?' he showed the girls the draft he had been working on. Oz shook her head.

'Another misspelling!' she cried, pointing at one of the words.

'I think you should read the books…' Irena sighed.

'The last sentence isn't moving enough,' Cygnus replied.

'Ugh…' Francis was frustrated at his work. I should leave him alone for now. I headed towards the cafeteria and brought a red bean bun and some hamburgers for Mir. I stuffed the hamburgers into my bag and stumbled upon the male Chief Cygnus Knights as I was heading towards the vending machine close to the entrance of the cafeteria.

'You traitor!' Hawkeye scowled as he pointed at the red bean bun I was holding. I raised an eyebrow. What did he mean by that?

'Get some milk. It tastes the best with it,' Mihile gave me a thumbs-up.

'I heard you forced the culprit of the threatening letter to give himself in,' Eckhart said. 'Is it true?'

'No I didn't. Did Nineheart tell you that?' I inserted paper money into the machine. 'He turned himself by his own.'

'It wasn't a threatening letter, but a lame love letter,' Hawkeye told them with a scoff. 'The first grader was trying to personate into a braver self.'

'Your classmate then?' Mihile asked.

I poked the button for milk, taking on Mihile's suggestion. 'Yeah.' The milk carton fell into the take-out port and I lowered myself to take it out. 'By the way, why weren't you guys there?'

'Not interested,' both Mihile and Eckhart said in sync. Hawkeye chuckled at both of their responses and the Chief Cygnus Knight of Light and Dark glared at each other, grumbling.

I took a bite from my red bean bun. 'I see.'

'How's his work going so far?' Hawkeye asked me. 'Did you sent him the love novels?'

'I think he's reading them right now. Oz, Irena and Cygnus weren't letting him go without a good letter in hand.'

Mihile chuckled. 'Well, good luck to your friend.' And the three of them left the cafeteria. I swiftly took my simple lunch and went to a corner to feed Mir with the hamburgers I brought. Red bean bun and milk weren't the best I've tasted, but it has a unique taste when eaten together. It was a simple meal, and I could see why Mihile liked it. I received a text from Oz. "Francis is writing his letter of apology but he's gotten all the spellings all wrong! What should I do?" The bell rang after I've fed Mir its fifth hamburger. It quickly got the food into its mouth and I tossed the wrappers into a nearby thrash can, then ran towards my classroom. Coincidentally I saw Francis back in class. I wondered if he was done reading all those novels.

After school, he slumped onto the table. 'Ugh… My friend, why is it so hard to write a love letter? They kept on rejecting my ideas…'

I received a text from Nineheart. "More reading will help reduce misspellings. Come, bring me the books, Evan."

'Were you having spelling problems, Francis?' I asked as I put the phone into my pants pocket. He managed a nod. 'Nineheart is helping you out. Bring the books along. He should be in the reading room.'

Both of us headed upstairs. I helped Francis took three of the novels from his hands. As I have expected, Nineheart was there, all alone at the last table while working on his documents. 'So you're here,' he glanced at the books we were holding. 'Are these the novels for research?'

'Yes…' Francis sighed heavily.

'Don't worry. The both of us will help you. Right?' Nineheart flashed me an evil grin. Darn you, Nineheart. It seems like I would be stuck with them for a while. 'I've picked some books for you, too.' Nineheart pointed at the stack of books in front of him. Francis's jaw dropped. It must be at least be ten books tall. This would be one hell of a day. Both of us sit across the student president and I took the advantage to text both Elwin and Lily to tell them that they didn't need to prepare my dinner. Afterwards, the three of us buried ourselves to read these romance books.

I've barely manage myself to finish three of the romance novels before the sun fell to the horizon. As Elwin had said, the romance novels were cringe-worthy, and they were extremely predictable after a while. It wouldn't be my favorite genre of books. Francis was yawning while reading the last few pages of the first book he held. Nineheart closed "Sudden Secret" that was on his hands and noticed the change outside. 'We cannot stay in school much longer. Let's move to a different area.'

'Where to?' I asked.

He smiled. 'Follow me.'

We took half of the stack of books Nineheart had handpicked along with the five top bestseller romance novels and entered the street that was hidden away from the mini map. He stopped at the entrance of a restaurant named "Kennedy's Fried Potatoes". Wow, I can smell the scent of potato and bacon from within! Mir told me when Nineheart opened the door to the restaurant. I want some of them! Master, please?

I'll try. There were many citizens walking up and down on the street, so it would be too risky for me to buy something and feed it to Mir right away. Speaking of which, wouldn't Mir be seen right now? The effects of the potion should be weakening soon. I entered after Francis and got ourselves a seat in the restaurant. Mir remained outside as the door weren't big enough for it to move in.

'Let's order some food and drinks before we started again, shall we?' Nineheart suggested. 'It should keep our mind fresh.'

'These romance novels weren't what I think they are…' Francis muttered and nodded at his suggestion.

We asked our orders separately. The woman by the counter frowned at me when I asked for twenty pieces of "hash brown" and bacon. It was apparently made out of potatoes. After receiving my order, I slipped out of the restaurant with the food and headed towards the nearby alleyway. Mir's illusion potion effects coincidentally faded right after I did so. I looked around. There weren't anyone around. 'Here, the food you want,' I handed it one of the hash brown and bacon. It was as big as the size of my fist. Mir sniffed on it and stuck out its tongue to get the food into its mouth. I searched through my bag for another vial of illusion potion I remembered getting a week before.

It's delicious, Master! You should try it for yourself, too!

It certainly smells nice. I gave it a few more and finally found the vial buried deep inside my bag. Sometimes having too big of a bag with too many slots could prove fatal when searching for something. While it was eating its seventh piece, I took a look around us again. There wasn't anyone there. I applied the illusion potion onto Mir's skin by pouring on its back to make sure their effects would apply evenly onto its body.

After a good five minutes giving food to Mir, I tossed the box that once contained food into the nearby bin. 'Sorry Mir, but you'll need to stay outside for quite a while. Nineheart pulled me into this mess.'

It's all right, Master. I can bear with this.

I nodded gratefully at it and entered the restaurant once more. 'Where were you?' Nineheart asked sharply. 'I thought you had ran away.'

'I wouldn't.' I placed my bag on one of the empty seats. 'I'll get myself some coffee. We will be here for a while, won't we?'

The same woman in the counter frowned deeply as I asked for a hamburger with hash brown and bacon with an addition of a cup of coffee. I think she is petrified at the fact that I could eat so much.

After a simple dinner, the three of us worked our way on the remaining novels placed on the white, rectangular table. The waiters and waitresses who walked past us to clean the mess left by other customers seemed to be confused by our presence, perhaps thinking, why are there three male high school students sitting in the restaurant for a long period of time while reading romance novels? I had to drag myself through every story. All of them had a cliché flow. The main female character and the main male character met each other at the beginning, and the main female character would never fail to fall in love with him, no matter how horrible his personality or attitude towards the girl would be. Then something would happen towards the middle of the story, and both characters would fall in love together. Afterwards, there would be something that seemed to get in their way of love, and both of them would brave through it together. All the while I seemed to cheer for the fact that they wouldn't overcome with their "power of love" but it failed. A mushy, happy ending exist at the end of the book. It seemed similar to most of the action manga I have brought under Francis's suggestions, except it wasn't about love. I wonder if the romance manga would have the same thing as well.

I fell asleep on my seventh book for the day, which was "You must be from the West", with the book covering half of my face. It must had fallen onto my face when I changed my gesture on reading the books. Nineheart was the one who woke me up by shaking my hand. I lifted the book up from my face and lowered my head, frowning at him. 'You're supposed to be reading them, not sleeping!' he scowled.

I noticed that there were an additional two plastic cups of coffee placed in front of him. 'Seems like you're having trouble reading them too,' I smirked while pointing at the dozen of plastic cups near him.

'At least I was making effort to keep my eyes peeled for the next page,' he said, returning his gaze to the novel he was holding. It was close to the last page. 'I thought your hobby is reading books. What happened?'

'I never knew romance books were this cliché, melodramatic and boring at the same time,' I told him. 'I've never read them before.' I yawned and put the book down to the table, looking at Francis. His head was on the table, his expression was clearly bored while reading "Wolf Romance". 'How are you doing, Francis?' I asked. 'How many books have you read until now?'

'My third book.' He lifted his head up and looked at the both of us. 'How about you two?'

'Starting my eighth book.' Nineheart shook his head to keep his spirits up and picked up "Losers in Paris" in front of me.

'Halfway through seventh,' I replied, yawning again.

He had a shock mask on his face after hearing both of our responses. Baffling, he said, 'How can the two of you read so fast? I can barely even read one book every hour! Tell me your secrets, please?'

'The books weren't too thick,' Nineheart took a sip from his coffee. He was clearly worn out from all those books despite trying to make himself look good. 'Take a break once a while and don't stress yourself too much.'

'It's 300 pages per book! How is that not thick?' he scowled at Nineheart.

'What time is it?' I asked Nineheart. He peered at his watch.

'Ten-thirty.'

'I'm surprised you would go so far for someone you've just talked to for the day,' I said to him. 'Pretty sure you haven't talked to Francis before this.'

'I am in charge of all students' wellbeing, and I will do my best to solve their problems for them. That is the duty of being a student president,' he forced a smile and pinched his nose bridge. 'Both you and Francis are under my care, too, so I am helping the both of you to realize Francis's love letter.'

'Strong words,' I grinned. 'Though you would send me to do most of your work when you found others having troubles.'

'I trust you, so I'm leaving the case to you,' Nineheart flipped to the first page of "Losers in Paris".

'Great way to cover up that I am your errand boy.'

'I am not lying, Evan. You are the one I trust the most.'

'Right.' I got up from my seat and asked for another cup of coffee.

The receptionist got curious of our activity after our long period being inside the restaurant. 'Why are you three boys here? A study session?' she asked. 'If you don't mind me asking,' she added at the end.

I shook my head. 'Helping a friend to write his love letter,' I chuckled. 'What a great sacrifice we both make for a friend.'

She smiled gently. 'You three must be best friends, then.'

Best friends? I don't quite know. I returned to my seat with the coffee in hand and glanced at the both of them. I still don't quite like Nineheart, but I guess he is a reliable person at times and cares of others around him. I was friends with Francis because he was the only one I know in the class at the time. We've been getting closer as I've entered the anime and manga culture which he loves. Are we three best friends?

I guess it would hurt if I were to leave this place all of a sudden. It's only been three weeks and I felt like I've develop a bond with almost every familiar face I've seen in Maple World to the students in Shinsoo International School. There will exist a day where I will leave the school for good, when all of this matter is finished. I sighed when I thought about it. It saddens me when I know I will have to leave someone I have strong ties one day. 'What's wrong?' Nineheart asked. 'Is the coffee poorly made? You can ask for a refund.'

I shook my head and put on a smile. 'No, it's nothing.' He frowned but didn't say anything afterwards, and shifted his gaze back to the book he held. I picked up "You must be from the West" and braced myself to read towards the end of the book.

An hour later, Francis gave up. 'Argh, I can't read anymore!' he leaned against the chair and dropped the book on the table. Both Nineheart and I lifted our eyes away from our books to him. 'I think I get it now. I'm not a book person! I'm writing a letter right now, and the both of you will check how it is, okay? This should be saving some time.'

'Really?' I'm finally out of the torture of reading such romance novel! I couldn't be any less happy than this moment. He pulled out a piece of paper and started to write his letter. Nineheart yawned and took a sip from the plastic cup. Looks like he's finally too tired to act.

A moment later, Francis looked at us with a weak smile. 'So… do the both of you have any ideas on how to start?'

I placed "Wolf Romance" in front of him. 'Finish this book.' I sighed. What a short-lived joy. Nineheart shook his head.

Fortunately, KFP is a 24-hour store. When midnight strikes, I took a breather by walking out of the store, looking at the dark, empty streets while leaning on the steel fences surrounding the road. Master… are we going home? Mir asked, nudging my back with its head. It seemed like I had fallen asleep.

Mir, if you want to go back, you can do so. I don't think we would be finishing very soon. I turned around to look at the other two. Nineheart took a break by sleeping as his eyes were tired. Francis may be pretending to be reading, but he was actually asleep a while ago. Mir let out a soft whine as I yawned, and I chuckled while giving a pat on its head. It had been a long day, and staying up reading boring books would end up being tired than before. I looked up to the night sky. It had been a long time since I last seen this scenery.

A gentle breeze caressed my skin. I felt like falling asleep with the cool air around me, so I've decided to run around the streets to keep myself awake. I came back five minutes later and woke Francis up. 'You do know that we're not going to write the letter, right?' I said when he grumbled. He got up from the table growling and stared at the paper for a good five minutes.

'Evan, my friend,' he said, yawning. 'How do I start?'

'Like how you did before. "Dearest Orchid", wasn't it?' I shrugged at him. 'I'm not you.'

He scribbled "Dearest Orchid" on the upper left of the paper, then paused. 'What next?'

'Now, who's going to confess to Orchid? You, or me?' I asked him.

'You like Orchid?' he looked up from the paper, surprised. He seemed to be fully awake now.

'Of course not,' I said with a sigh.

'Good,' he muttered, nodding to himself. 'Good.'

I decided to rest my eyes as I was too tired while Francis wrote his love letter. I jolted myself awake after realizing I had fallen asleep, and it was an hour later from then. Nineheart was rubbing his eyes, yawning. 'I'm finished!' Francis said, then showed us the draft. Both of us read the letter.

"Dearest Orchid, no matter how much I struggle to reach you, I know this letter is useless. Why does my heart feel this way? It's… hard. You are the loveliest angel sent down from Heaven, dear Orchid. I'll never get over you. Bye."

'Why did I open my eyes to see this?' Nineheart grumbled silently. 'Ugh…'

I cringed at the contents of the letter and couldn't help but feeling coldness creeping up my skin. I had to agree with Nineheart on looking at the cheesiest letter I've ever seen in my whole life when I just woke up from a sleep. 'So? How is it?' Francis asked, eager to know our response.

I glanced at Nineheart. He seemed to be reading the letter over and over again before putting it down a moment later and gave Francis a nod. Francis was happy at his response, and waited for mine. 'It doesn't have any grammatical mistakes, and it looks good,' I replied.

'Finally!' Francis threw his hands up to the air, then looked at the both of us. 'Thank you, student president. Thank you, Evan. Without the both of you, I wouldn't have completed the letter!' I was too tired to understand how he could be full of energy at that point and merely nodded. He picked up some of the books on the table, packed his bags and skipped back home. Nineheart stretched himself from his seat.

'It's finally done, huh,' he muttered and looked at his watch. 'Good grief, its fifteen past one in the morning.'

'I'll bring four home, and you take the other three. We'll return it tomorrow,' I yawned. 'Good job, student president, on staying with him till the very end. We ought to reward ourselves with sleep.'

'I agree. Good night, Evan.'

'Good night, Nineheart.'

Both of us parted ways. Mir couldn't be any happier that we finally returned home to sleep. I didn't bother to change my clothes as I was too tired and tossed myself onto Prefect's bed after putting down the four books and my bag on the ground. Perhaps it was due to the caffeine, I had trouble truly sleeping on bed. I found myself waking up what felt like every few minutes. After several times doing so, I managed to doze off until twenty minutes before school started. Prefect was the one who attempted to wake me up.

'Evan, you're going to be late!' he cried. Reluctantly I got up from the bed and faced him, half asleep.

'Time?' I asked.

'Ten past eight.'

'It's still early, isn't it?' I yawned.

'No it isn't! Haven't you heard me? You only have twenty minutes to prepare yourself to school!'

My brain finally processed his words. 'Oh.'

'Mir had already eaten, so it's only you,' Prefect added. 'Seriously, where were you? When did you come back?'

'About one-thirty.' I got out from the bed. 'Thanks, Prefect.'

I went into the shower and cleaned myself. My school uniform (Dragon Tail Mage Robe) smells horrible, so I tossed it into the laundry basket and took another set that I got from Cygnus's good deeds. I silently thanked her for insisting to give me three sets instead of one. Then I shoved the sunny side-up and hotdogs into my mouth and left to school with the books and my bag after applying the illusion potion on Mir. I met with Nineheart who came to school about the same time as me. He had eye bags under his eyes. I laughed at him. 'You look terrible, Nineheart.'

He forced a laugh. 'You too, Evan.'

I went straight into class afterwards. Francis seemed to have a smile on his face. I wondered if it worked this time. Mr. Stan entered the class with a stern look a moment later. Uh-oh. I think it didn't. 'Despite my warnings, another threatening letter has been received,' he said with a scowl. I glanced at Francis. He was red and sweating again. 'I'm afraid a heinous criminal-in-training is in the midst of us. Whoever they are, I'll see that they will be expelled from school.'

'E-expelled?!' Francis whispered loudly.

The male student in front of me raised his hand. 'Teacher, expulsion isn't enough. They should be turned in to the police.'

'P-police?!' his voice was getting louder.

The male student sitting closest to Mr. Stan nodded. 'I agree. They should be sentenced to life!'

'S-sentenced… to life?!' Francis let out a sharp gasp. I looked at Francis. His face turned pale and he fell to the ground again. Everyone looked towards the direction of the sound.

'Teacher, Francis fainted, again!'

And so I was, once again, asked to bring Francis up to the nurse's office. Hilla gave me a strange look as I placed him down on the white bed. 'The boy fainted again?' she asked as I was prepared to leave the office.

I nodded. 'It seems like he had quite a shock in class.'

'What, did Magnus asked him to run a hundred laps around school?' Hilla seemed to show interest of his extreme situations.

'No, not yet,' I shook my head. 'Mr. Stan was announcing to the students regarding the consequences of the threatening letter someone received.'

Hilla raised an eyebrow. 'So, is he the one…?

I feigned idiocy and shrugged. 'I have no idea, miss.'

She narrowed her eyes at me and nodded. 'You may leave now. I will contact you if anything happens to your friend.'

I left the room with a yawn. I hope I could stay awake for the rest of the day. After school, I hope to return back to Prefect's house and slept through the night while skipping dinner. I felt that my sleep was much more important than some food.