Chapter 82: A pity friend group?

Lea Gilligan lost track of time.

She had no real idea how many times she had climaxed. How many position changes and how many times she had moaned with need while holding as tightly on to Caius as she could to keep him from pulling away.

When she started to come to after a particularly intense climax that left her spasming on the grassy floor, she placed her head on Caius’ chest, her wild hair fanning all about as she wrapped a leg around his lower half while her arm held tight to his midsection.

"So..." she said and found her voice sounding a bit too subdued so she cleared her throat and tried to speak in her usual more provocative tone. But her breathlessness still made her sound needy which, to be fair, was how she was feeling at the moment.

"I think we’ve made good progress on your trust issues."

"Very good progress," Caius agreed with a light smile while his hand stroked her back,

"Maybe next time I’ll actually reveal what I am to you. I wonder how you’ll take it."

"Doesn’t matter what it is, I can take it!" Lea said with conviction.

Caius chuckled.

"I’m sure you can," he said and he meant it.

He pulled away from her then and Lea looked so surprised she didn’t even try to pull him back. And then, when he was standing, she just stared at his body while he moved about to pick up his clothes from the floor and put them on.

When he covered up a bit, Lea snapped out of her lustful staring to ask,

"You’re leaving?" She asked and pulled up off the ground. Her feline-blue eyes were wide and pleading. Like the look a kitten gives to make its owner become absorbed in its cuteness.

"Break is over, Professor," Caius said with a laugh, managing to resist that pull,

"Surely, you’re not going to tell me to slack off in my education."

Lea smiled at that and rolled her eyes so aggressively that her boobs actually jiggled. Though, with their mass and softness, very little movement was needed to achieve that anyway.

"Please, if it’s not Study of Magical Beasts, it’s not important and can be missed," Lea said, and then reached her hand out to Caius, that imploring look back and the shape she cut across the carpet was especially eye-catching and enticing,

"Stay here? With me? Please?"

Caius had to admit he was getting hard again. But this was where he had to hold firm. That need was what he needed to cultivate in her. Sure, staying longer to keep going at it didn’t entirely ruin that goal, but it still was best, at least for now, to know when to take a bow.

He buttoned his shirt and pulled on his jacket before he stepped toward Lea to take her chin in his thumb and index fingers and press his lips to her forehead.

"Next time," he said after pulling away.

And then he walked to the door, and pulled it open just slightly to keep her from the view of the rare passer-by.

"I’ll be sending Karen to call you again!" Lea yelled at his back.

"And I’ll follow," Caius called back with a little chuckle and, as he closed the door behind himself, he was sure he had one last needy sigh escape the Professor’s lips.

•••

-Mage-Knight Training Classroom-

When Caius pushed the door open, the class hadn’t yet started but the few students taking it were already seated. Just like last week, the closest person to Delia Kragsten left at least three spaces between them. And just like last week, Caius took the one right beside her.

She looked to the side at him, gave him a long hard look, and then cocked her head to the side.

"Hello," Caius told her in greeting.

"You weren’t with your Girlfriends at Break," Delia said.

That took Caius by surprise and he smiled.

"Girlfriends?" He asked.

"What? Are you denying the other one? The perky one?" Delia asked with a dismissive tone.

"Her name is Eloise. And I’m sure you knew that," Caius said.

Delia waved him off,

"Irrelevant. You weren’t with them," she said, "They had to sit alone."

"Why do you care?" Caius asked, his eyes narrowed in a mockingly suspicious look.

Delia scoffed.

"I just think, with how eager they always are to see and talk to you, it’s inconsiderate is all," she said.

Caius nodded.

"You’re right," he said.

"I know I’m right," Delia said and turned her face away feeling triumphant, but Caius wasn’t done.

"Maybe you should sit with them," he added.

"Me?" Delia asked and whipped her head around so hard that her hair hit Caius in the face. He didn’t mind though. It felt very fluffy. Like how you’d imagine clouds would feel.

"Yes, you," Caius said, "You’re always sitting alone anyway. You could do with some friends."

"I have friends!" Delia said.

"Name them," Caius told her, his eyes staring hard into hers.

Delia opened her mouth a few times and always had to close it immediately after.

"Ugh!" She eventually let out in frustration, "Fine, I don’t have any. Not here at Lochxen, anyway."

"You don’t have any back home either," Caius added in a low voice.

"How would you know?" Delia asked, glaring at him.

Caius paused and then, he shrugged.

"I guessed."

Of course, he didn’t guess it. In the original story, Delia Kragsten was an important character so enough of her backstory was explored. Those her family chose to relate with were largely traditional Mages. The sort who would look at her brash, headstrong fighting ways as ’unfitting’. She had had friends when she was younger but, as they grew, and she didn’t grow out of her interests, they left her.

As for her isolation at Lochxen, well that wasn’t exactly the case in the original story. Not after the first week anyway. She should have started getting closer to Aurelius and his friends by now and Caius didn’t have to think too hard to know he was the reason for the change.

Because he attended Mage-Knight training last week (which the original character never did), Delia chose him as her sparring partner when she should have chosen Baler Khione. Defeating Baler and having Aurelius praise her for it while admitting it sort of sucked to see his friend get butt-kicked was the first step in the long friendship the two were supposed to go on to have.

And then, they’d go on to face each other in Combat Magic Class, similar to what happened this morning but also different because, in the original story, Caius didn’t get close enough to Eloise to make Baler jealous and volunteer his team to face off against Caius’ team. Delia and Aurelius faced off under slightly different circumstances but the result was the same. She lost and it sparked a combative mindset that made her determined to get the upper hand the next time. A good-natured rivalry of sorts.

Now the sequence of events and the catalysts for those events had changed so, while Delia was still pissed that she couldn’t defeat Aurelius, she had already turned her Combative mindset to Caius since last week when she defeated the son of the Greatest Mage-Knight in the Acheron Empire and he gave her a pushback on her mentality.

Caius furthered that even more today by showing he was already making enough improvements to be worthy of being termed a Mage-Knight in Training.

All in all, whether Delia realized it or not, she had picked Caius as her Mage-Knight ’rival’ and just wasn’t sure how to proceed as far as friendship went between them.

So Caius felt a bit guilty. If he left things alone now, the original relationship Delia had with Aurelius and, by extension, his two friends, Baler and Doran, might still be restored. But really, should he leave it alone? And even if he should, could he?

Delia gave him a look,

"So what, you’re offering that I sit with your Girlfriends because I don’t have friends of my own?

You’re offering me a pity friend group?" She asked with one brow raised and then folded her arms beneath her breasts as she added through gritted teeth,

"I don’t know what gave you the idea but I’m not starving for friends. It’s very arrogant of you to think I need you or your little Girlfriends to get by."