Ch 7: ……It’s alright, go to bed early.

Free meals are always excellent, especially after watching others busy themselves for half a day; it tastes even sweeter.

On the way back to the dormitory, passing the small garden, I met Jian Ni, who was extremely angry.

“Have you seen Lan Bao? I haven’t seen him since I left with you today.”

Seeing a familiar face, Jian Ni barely controlled his emotions.

Having just been unjustly accused, he was angry, but he didn’t want to vent his anger on an unrelated person.

“Lan Bao should be in the dormitory now,” Rui Bu Si rubbed her somewhat full stomach, a little curious. “What’s wrong? You don’t look well.”

“How can I be alright?” He became angry as he spoke. “They have no evidence, yet they say I set the fire in the Potionology classroom! It’s outrageous!”

Oh~, like that, it sounds a bit excessive.

In this situation, a good friend usually responds in two ways: comfort the wrongly accused friend; ask if they really did it.

Rui Bu Si offered a third kind of comment: “Did someone make your daydream come true?”

He talked about setting a fire in the daytime, and then a fire really did start. Wow, what a self-fulfilling prophecy—his words were so potent.

“I didn’t have that kind of dream!” He now regretted saying that after the Potionology class ended.

As he walked along, everyone he met avoided him, looking at him strangely. Rui Bu Si was the first person he met who chose to believe him.

“Hey, you just said ‘someone fulfilled it.’ So, you believe I didn’t start the fire?”

Unexpectedly, besides Lan Bao, there was a second person in this school who was willing to believe him. Jian Ni was instantly very moved:

“Friend, if you ever need anything, just come to me. I will help you, no matter what!”

After eating and drinking my fill, drowsiness set in. I couldn’t help but yawn, and in the time it took to rub my eyes, Rui Bu Si noticed Jian Ni’s mood improving.

A bit dumbfounded. Is this year’s Flame Star’s self-adjustment ability really this strong?

Needs… ah, she has one right now!

Extending her hand, she slowly uttered two words: “Need money.”

One second ago, he said that he could be contacted for any needs, and the next second, he spread his hands mercilessly:

“I’m short too.”

…Such a disappointing answer.

Almost forgot, this human’s poverty level is comparable to hers.

“But rest assured, when I have money someday, I will definitely remember you!”

What kind of lousy biscuit? Tsk, she won’t eat it.

Waiting for him to get rich is no better than waiting for the System to have a change of heart.

“Relax, the truth will come out soon. Your magical ability is so poor, compared to successfully setting the classroom on fire, the probability of successfully summoning classmates after shouting an incantation is much higher.”

Putting Naiya Princess in danger, almost causing her death—such a serious matter was lightly dismissed. The school authorities, possessing the Magic Prophecy Book, have clearly determined—Jian Ni is likely to become the Flame Star.

Ah, with Meng Academy’s current defenses, the Dark Great Emperor should know by now.

Dark Forces have likely infiltrated the school; the school authorities are probably more eager to know the truth than Jian Ni himself.

“But Director Pa and Head Nurse Da Tiantian, along with the classmates, think I set the fire.” If even one person was willing to believe him, he wouldn’t be so angry.

“Huh?” Rui Bu Si’s confident smile froze on her lips.

What happened in these short few hundred years while she was gone?

So her previous guesses were wrong, the school authorities were not calculating, but simply acted out of kindness?

She went round and round in circles, guessing, while the other party was playing it straight.

Meng Academy is taking this route now… Argh, my head itches, it feels like my brain is growing out.

“But as long as I find Lan Bao, Rui Rui, who was trapped in the classroom during the fire, will wake up and clear my name!” After his mood improved, everything seemed optimistic.

For a moment, Rui Bu Si was conflicted about whether to tell him the cruel truth—

Lan Bao currently has a fifty percent chance of not having the energy to use magic.

The other fifty percent chance is that after returning to reality from the excitement of the game, he finds he doesn’t even have the energy to move.

Torn between telling and not telling, she ultimately chose to feign sleep, bid farewell, and leave the scene.

The dormitory—the ever-gentle home of boarding students.

“I heard that the Potionology classroom caught fire today.” Unknowingly, it was already late at night. Ya Ya hugged Fufu, Ya Ya nestled on her head, its chubby duck head bobbing slightly, looking very sleepy.

“Ah.” Rui Bu Si, who had been struggling with the beginner’s literacy tutorial for a long time, lifted her head. Her muddled brain was invaded by sacred knowledge, leaving her in a daze.

—Learning something for a long time, even if you don’t quite understand it, will leave you like this.

She just hadn’t touched it for a while! Is it that hard to pick up something you’ve already learned?

When faced with difficulties, you should learn to give up appropriately; today’s tasks should be appropriately left for tomorrow. Ample sleep is the foundation for long-term learning.

She solemnly closed the book, turned off the light, and lay down in bed. It was like reaching a respawn point; snuggled in her blankets, Rui Bu Si was full of energy and gossiped with Ya Ya.

“I met Jian Ni today, and Director Pa and the students all suspect he started the fire.” Suspicion is already a euphemism; according to Jian Ni, they skipped the suspicion and went straight to conviction.

“Wow, saying he set fire and then setting fire, Jian Ni’s execution power is amazing.”

Rui Bu Si fell into an eerie silence for a while; like Director Pa and the students, her roommate seemed to have skipped the suspicion and gone straight to conviction.

She spoke about her own opinion:

“Although Jian Ni has the magical ability of fire, his magical ability is so poor, just saying he wanted to burn down the Potionology classroom doesn’t prove it was him who set the fire.”

“That’s true, then who set the fire?”

Her tone was very doubtful, as if she was seriously thinking about it.

After a long while, Rui Bu Si tentatively said:

“Setting fire doesn’t require having fire magic; matches would work too. Jian Ni was deducted forty points; it’s entirely possible he set the fire in a fit of rage.”

“Right, if I were deducted that many points, I would definitely do it too.”

“…Setting fire doesn’t necessarily require having fire magic; Jian Ni wasn’t necessarily nearby during the fire, it might have been someone else.”

“Makes sense, who on earth set the fire, causing Jian Ni to be so wrongly accused, that person is terrible!”

You could hear genuine indignation in her tone. Rui Bu Si fell into an eerie silence again for a long time:

“My friend, don’t you think you’re a little like a fence-sitter?”

“Am I? I don’t think so… I am a fence-sitter, heh heh.”

The onomatopoeia at the end is the perfect finishing touch to the entire sentence.

“What’s wrong, Xiao Luo Bu?”

“…Nothing, go to sleep early.”