Inside the classroom, Fu Hua's returning hand was still suspended in mid-air, her fingertips slightly trembling.
The light inside the classroom suddenly became glaring. Sunlight shining through the window cast the silhouettes of the two onto the blackboard.
Van suddenly laughed.
He reached out and grasped Fu Hua's wrist that was frozen in mid-air. A warm sensation followed, "My dear class monitor, don't look at me with that expression like I let you down and abandoned you. You'll make others think you started a relationship with me and then dumped me."
"But your body…" Fu Hua flipped her hand and grabbed his pulse. The unique perception of a fusion warrior rippled out, "Why is it so weak?"
The noise outside the window suddenly ceased.
Van lowered his head to look at their overlapping hands. His memory seemed to return to those years in Shenzhou.
"After the final battle ended, I heard the echo of a being from a level even higher than the Imaginary Tree's dimension."
Van bent his arm and turned to look outside the window,
"As a reward for saving the world, 'It' asked me if I had any unfulfilled wishes."
Fu Hua's pupils shrank suddenly. She seemed to have already guessed what the man before her was about to say.
"Hua, you should know that no matter how many years passed, no matter how many things I experienced, my wish has only ever been one…"
Along with Van's words, many familiar figures emerged in Fu Hua's mind, along with that faint pink silhouette.
"Exchanging everything I had for the present peace, isn't that a worthwhile deal?"
After that, Van briefly explained the whole story to Fu Hua.
Looking at the calm-faced Van, Fu Hua finally understood why the world was forgetting him, why even powerful people like Kiana and Rita couldn't break through the memory seal.
She suddenly pressed Van's shoulder and asked with agitation, "How long have you been in this state?"
"Shh," Van raised his index finger to her lips, "Class monitor, don't ask anymore. If you keep asking, I'll start charging you."
He turned his head to look toward the back door of the classroom, from where Kiana's noisy voice was coming, saying she was hungry and wanted to eat.
Fu Hua took a deep breath, looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar boy before her.
Back then, he also smiled like this, shielding her gravely injured self behind him, saying, "Leave the rest to me."
"So, is there anything I can do?" She took off her glasses, and the flame of the Vermillion Bird awakened in her eyes.
"Of course, just act like nothing happened, continue being my class monitor, and then…" Van pulled out a crumpled class fee payment slip like performing a magic trick,
"Help me pay the class fee for these few months. Of course, I'll pay you back once I make some money, in exchange…"
He suddenly leaned in close to Fu Hua's ear, warm breath brushing against her reddened ear tip, "I can tell you some of Rita's embarrassing black history."
The footsteps in the corridor got closer and closer.
Fu Hua looked at the boy's reflection in the window glass, the figure was eerily transparent in the sunlight. She suddenly reached out and grabbed Van's school tie, pulling hard enough to make him stumble.
"If you dare disappear without a word like that again," she said through gritted teeth, voice carrying the frost, "I'll let you taste what it feels like to split the heavens with an inch-force strike!"
The classroom door was slammed open. Kiana and the others saw a scene that made their jaws drop.
Their class monitor, Fu Hua, who was always a model student, was pressing a boy down onto a desk.
And the boy was lying on the desk groaning, "Class monitor, I was wrong, but I really have no money to pay the class fee."
Fu Hua adjusted her glasses and slapped the payment slip onto his head, "Make sure it's paid before the end of the month."
Sunlight resumed its flow. No one saw the faint half-feather in the girl's hidden hand behind her back.
That feather's edge was scorched black, like a crest that had just passed through fire.
———
"So, class monitor, just now you were actually urging him to pay the class fee?"
Kiana stared in shock at Fu Hua who was eating her meal slowly and calmly, so stunned she lost her appetite.
Thinking about how she had also blown the class fee this month by impulsively buying stuff, Kiana started to feel uneasy.
"Uhh… class monitor…"
Afraid she'd be the next one pressed down on a desk, Kiana quickly tried to explain, "Actually, sometimes being late on class fees isn't intentional… maybe he ran into some difficulties?"
After eating a few more bites, Fu Hua set down her bowl and chopsticks and looked at Kiana.
Kiana felt nervous under Fu Hua's stare and cautiously asked, "Class monitor, wh-what is it? Do I have something on my face?"
Fu Hua shook her head and then turned to look at Raiden Mei and Bronya.
After some probing, Fu Hua finally understood what Van meant by "being forgotten."
Even though she had told Kiana and the others Van's name many times, they would always forget it shortly after.
Moreover, in Fu Hua's initial perception, the three of them were no different from ordinary people. She couldn't detect any extraordinary power in their bodies.
But as her perception went deeper, Fu Hua still found that deep within the three of them, there was a power sealed layer by layer.
'As expected, aside from you, nothing else has changed much,' Fu Hua thought to herself.
Thinking about how all the peace and beauty she and the others now had was exchanged by Van giving up everything, Fu Hua felt heartache like never before.
Recalling all the little moments she had spent with Van, Fu Hua decided she must do something for him. Even if she couldn't help him bear the curse of being forgotten by the world, she could at least make his life a little easier.
Bang!
Fu Hua suddenly stood up, picked up her tray, and was about to leave.
The sudden action left the three girls dumbfounded. Watching Fu Hua preparing to leave in such a hurry, Kiana weakly asked, "Class monitor, leaving so suddenly… is there something urgent?"
Fu Hua didn't look back. She simply packed up her tray and turned to leave.
Just as the three exchanged looks, Fu Hua's voice drifted back on the wind, "I'm going to find Van."
After hearing Fu Hua's words, the three of them fell into a short silence.
Watching her departing figure, Bronya narrowed her eyes, feeling that something wasn't right.
"Based on what I know about class monitor, someone like her who's such a bookworm wouldn't suddenly pay attention to someone for no reason. And that someone is even a guy."
So, the truth is, there is only one truth.
That is…
Just then, Kiana suddenly slapped her thigh and looked enlightened, "Ah! I get it now! Class monitor went to find that guy to urge him to pay the class fee!"
Bronya, "…"
Ignoring Bronya's look that said "are you stupid," Kiana continued talking to herself, "You see, someone as responsible as class monitor wouldn't forget even one task. That's why she rushed over right after eating, to remind him about the class fee…"
Thinking of this, Kiana silently mourned for that handsome boy for a few seconds.
"Ai~ Who told you to not pay the class fee?"
As she said that, Kiana picked a meatball from Raiden Mei's tray and popped it into her mouth.
But before she chewed it a few times, Kiana suddenly remembered, the ones who hadn't paid the class fee weren't just that boy, she hadn't either.
Recalling that tragic scene in the classroom after school, Kiana howled loudly in the cafeteria.
"Meatball Spicy!!"
[T/N: Hey everyone! If you're into mystery, magic, and a whole new twist on the wizarding world, check out my new fanfic "Harry Potter: Transmigrated Detective Link." A sharp-minded detective finds himself in the world of Hogwarts, and things are about to get interesting. Give it a read and let me know what you think!]
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.
https://discord.gg/bYAfGyp98y