The energy from their breakthrough session still hummed under Vel's skin as he stepped out into the main courtyard. He was still smiling to himself when he spotted a familiar figure on the stone bench beneath the oak tree.
Celia sat alone, staring at the Academy grounds with unfocused eyes.
Strange. She usually stays late for extra practice.
Vel approached, and Celia's expression shifted the moment she noticed him. Her posture straightened, and she managed a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Finished already?" she asked, turning to face him properly.
"For now." Vel settled beside her on the bench. "No extra class today? Why are you sitting alone out here?"
Celia paused. Her mouth opened slightly, then closed. She looked away, searching for words that wouldn't come.
"Celia, what happened?" Vel asked gently.
She shook her head, still not meeting his eyes.
"We've been friends for how long?" Vel's voice softened. "You can tell me anything."
Her shoulders sagged. The careful mask she'd been wearing finally cracked.
"I tried to be independent. To stand on my own without running to you every time something went wrong." Her voice grew quieter. "But look where it got me. An outcast."
"What do you mean?" Vel leaned forward slightly.
Celia told him what had happened during team formation—the averted eyes, the polite excuses, the way every potential spot evaporated the moment she approached.
"Even Merin, who I thought was my friend," she continued, her voice growing quiet. "Even groups that desperately needed a third member. Excuses so thin they might as well be insults."
Vel leaned back against the bench, the calculated cruelty of it settling in his mind. This was too coordinated to be a coincidence.
He watched her stare blankly at the path, her hands clenched in her lap. He couldn't leave her like this. A moment passed in silence.
"You know," Vel said finally, his voice carefully neutral, "there are only five students in my class. So we have to find someone eventually, otherwise two of us fail by default."
Celia looked up at him, a flicker of hope in her eyes.
"How about us outcasts stick together?" he offered, his tone more a serious proposition than a lighthearted joke.
Her expression brightened. "Really? You'd want me on your team?"
"Are you serious? Of course," Vel replied without hesitation.
"But... is it even allowed? A standard class student teaming up with... your class?" Celia asked uncertainly.
"Well, there's no rule against it as far as I know. Even elite students can team up with standard classes, right?" Vel reasoned.
"Master Vel, Miss Celia."
Both turned toward the voice. Vel wondered how long she'd been standing there.
YOU ARE READING
GameDev Reincarnated into His Own Creation
FantasyWhen renowned game developer Giri meets his untimely end, he awakens as twelve-year-old Vel in the magical realm of Aeonalus-his own creation. Five hundred years have passed since he crafted the world, and Vel finds himself in the village of Oakhave...
