“HUH!?” Lith questioned his teacher in shock.

Arya sighed and shook her head helplessly. She held Lith by his waist and brought him closer to herself. Hugging him from behind, she caressed his hair and said,

“It’s okay. Everything will be alright. Teacher is here for you now.”

Lith turned back and said hurriedly, “wait, what?! What is everything? What’s alright?”

“Sigh. My dear student, times have indeed been tough. Don’t worry, teacher will give you the love of a woman and make you understand that you like women more than men.” Arya said, sighing and hugging Lith tighter.

“Teamffcher, lemff meff gmffo.” Lith said in a muffled voice as he got his face stuffed into Arya’s bosom.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I know you are going to tell me you are not gay and you like women. Trust me, teacher knows. I also know that it’s only been a few days that you’ve been confused about it.” Arya said, patting Lith’s back.

‘WHAT THE FUCK?! WHEN DID I BECOME GAY? OR HAVE THOUGHTS OF MEN?! TEACHER, I AM NOT GAY!’ Lith screamed internally. He tried his best to resist and get out of Arya’s embrace.

Arya saw Lith struggling and held him tighter. She said while patting his back again, “you don’t have to worry about it anymore. Relax and leave everything to teacher.”

‘WHAT EVERYTHING?! TEACHER I AM 100% CONFIDENT ABOUT MY SEXUALITY! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!!?’ Once again, Lith screamed internally, which went unnoticed by Arya.

After a few more minutes of Arya’s consolation and Lith’s internal conflict, Arya released her hold on Lith and let him go. Lith walked away from Arya quickly and said to her from a distance,

“Teacher, I am not gay! Stop spouting nonsense! And also, I like women! I am 100% confident in my sexuality!”

“Oh my, is that so? You should’ve said it to me earlier.” Arya said, facepalming along with a fake shocked expression.

“You didn’t let me go! How could I do it?!” Lith said, knitting his brows.

“Alright, alright. I get it. Teacher was worried about you, you know? You seemed such an innocent and gullible teen at the entrance exam. Also, after you passed it and entered the dorms, you’ve been very quiet. I thought you had some problems.” Arya said while walking close to Lith.

Lith stood still and pondered over Arya’s talk. Indeed, what she said was right. He’s been much quieter lately. He thought back to the time when he acted like a gullible and innocent kid.

Why did he do that? Well, it was to get more benefits from the academy and more attention when he became an average student. And why is he not acting like that? It’s, of course, due to not being an average student.

He had plans to stay low key and act as an average student in the academy. By putting on an innocent and gullible attitude, the teachers would pay more attention to him and thus, wouldn’t have the attention of the other students, but just the teachers.

But everything changed as he thought of not being an average student but instead becoming the number one in his batch. Since he was number one, he naturally got more benefits as well as attention. He didn’t even have anyone bullying him or looking for trouble, as everyone was aware of him being a big shot and also powerful.

All the students feared Lith’s background as well as strength, so nobody caused trouble due to it. Had he been an average student, he would’ve gotten bullied but he wasn’t one anymore.

But now it seems that this thing backfired due to Arya misunderstanding this situation. He felt a headache due to it and had no idea how he would fix such an irregularity he had created. He thought for a bit and was about to say something when Arya closed in on him, hugged him and said

“Don’t worry. Like I said, it’s going to be alright. It seems teacher misunderstood the situation. I am sorry. I was only worried about you.”

Lith’s expression softened after listening to his teacher’s words. He hugged her back and let go of any grievances he may have had due to this talk. They stayed in such a position for a few minutes and Arya let go of Lith. She patted his head and said

“I have to go now. I have some work. Bye-bye~”

“Bye, teacher. See you in the dorm.” Lith said, waving goodbye to Arya.

Arya nodded her head and left.

Lith sighed and shook his head. ‘So it was all a misunderstanding it seems.’ Lith thought to himself.

He let go of these thoughts and walked towards the tree he was resting previously and had kept his flags. Reaching near it, he froze.

Lith panicked and tried searching for them everywhere he could.

“FUCK?! WHERE ARE THE FLA—”

BANG!

“TIME’S UP!”

Lith was interrupted in his speech by the noise of a gunshot and someone yelling time’s up. Before he could come up with guesses about what might have transpired, space fluctuated around him, teleporting him out of the jungle.

…

One by one, individuals started teleporting in front of Sel. After a few seconds, everyone was present in front of her. She looked at them and said with a neutral look,

“This assignment. You’ve all failed.”

“WHAT!!?”

Everyone said in unison, even Lith, Ralph and Dennis were no exception.

Sel ignored their question and continued, “not even a single team or person has their flag with them currently. All you had to do was hold onto your flag or capture someone else’s and you would’ve passed, but not only did you fail to capture one, you couldn’t even protect your own.

All of you have failed the assignment today, so for punishment, everyone has to do 24 hours of community service on Sky island. Failure in doing so would have your punishment extended.

Let’s end this class now. You are all free to go back to your dorms or clubs. There are no more classes today. Good day.”

Sel clapped her hands and teleported everyone out of the assignment facility.

Class A teleported back to their class and a heated discussion ensued among themselves, regarding the assignment.