Why do weekends always fly by so quickly?

Well, weekends are two days and weekdays are five. I tried to wake up while thinking of this obvious fact.

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I spread half strawberry jam and half peanut butter on my toast. After living as an American for about a year, I can now handle bread for breakfast quite well.

As I took a bite of toast and chewed, Timothy asked while putting scrambled eggs on a plate.

“Juno, are you going to ride Bucephalus today too? I’ll take you to school!”

Bucephalus is the name of Timothy’s sports car. And he keeps pestering me about picking me up or dropping me off, as if he wants to show off his new car.

Thinking of the shiny red sports car he bought not long ago, I glanced at Timothy.

“No, I’ll go alone today.”

“Huh? But…”

“Elder brother, didn’t you say you were going jogging with your high school friends this morning? Don’t mind me and just go.”

I quickly brought up that story before Timothy could cling to me disappointedly.

Then Timothy opened his mouth as if he just remembered.

“Oh right, that’s true! I forgot. Then go alone just for today, I’ll definitely give you a ride tomorrow, Juno!”

“Okay.”

After easily shaking off Timothy, I finished my meal and put on my bag. As I yawned widely while crossing the garden, I saw something blue behind the low wooden gate.

“Hello, Queen.”

When I opened the wooden gate and went out, I saw Victor in his sports car.

“…”

Victor just nodded with a slightly sullen expression compared to usual.

I could guess the reason. He must be sulking because I only hung out with Adrian yesterday and left him out completely.

To think it would last until this morning.

I felt like laughing but held it in.

When I got into the passenger seat without a word, Victor’s expression loosened for a moment, then tensed up again as if conscious.

As if he wanted to maintain a sulky face on purpose.

‘I can see right through you.’

I glanced at that face once before leaning back comfortably in my seat.

Victor picked me up and headed straight for school.

Victor’s car stopped on the trail behind the school as if familiar with it.

After turning off the engine, I was about to put my bag back on when Victor slowly packed his bag with a blank face.

I got out of the passenger seat and stared at him.

“What are you doing?”

“What?”

“Why are you packing so slowly? Let’s go quickly, Queen. Class is about to start.”

Then Victor blinked his black eyes quickly a few times.

“…You want to go in together? With me?”

To that, I shrugged.

“Then what do you think I’m doing now? I’ve already gotten out of the passenger seat and I’m waiting for you. To go in together.”

Victor seemed to be conscious of me, who usually hurries to escape to the building as soon as the car stops.

“If you don’t want to, forget it.”

He looked at me with a dazed expression for a moment, then raised his eyebrows as if realizing something. Then he quickly got out of the car and swung his bag on.

“Who said I don’t want to? Let’s go!”

His mood has visibly improved, unlike just before.

I saw that and chuckled.

Since everyone knows me now because of Hunter activities, it was also wrong to keep quiet about school life. There’s no need to hide anymore.

As I was walking side by side with Victor along the trail, suddenly my arm went up.

“I’m in a good mood.”

Victor snatched my schoolbag with one hand and slung it over one shoulder. Then he acted as if he was doing me a special favor.

Is he only carrying it today as a special service or something?

“Wow, why is this schoolbag so heavy? No wonder you’re not growing taller carrying something like this.”

“I’m 166cm tall.”

“That’s exactly why I’m saying this.”

Victor said with a snort.

It’s only short to you who’s well over 6 feet tall…

Whether I glared at him with narrowed eyes or not, Victor even whistled and hummed a tune.

He looks strangely happy despite volunteering to be a bag shuttle.

The corners of his mouth keep twitching up.

I looked at him and burst out laughing.

What a strange kid, really…

After that, daily life continued as usual.

Timothy finally gave me a ride for two days in a row before returning to school. Timothy decided to continue working as a Hunter and suppress gates in the Massachusetts area.

And contrary to Timothy’s words, Massachusetts, where Boston is located, added that the collapse of the Harvard College building was due to a temporary disaster.

Timothy said the military would soon announce that monsters would come out of the gates, but it’s the opposite.

I guess they lied out of concern that citizens would naturally be anxious if they said monsters came out. But is that really okay?

Even after the military hid the fact that monsters appeared, Victor, Adrian and I participated in after-school training again after a week of rest. The focus was on basic physical training and training to use skills delicately.

The one who trains the hardest among us is Teacher Gina.

She trains an hour or two more than us, saying she doesn’t seem to have been helpful to us in the last amethyst golem incident.

As a result, Teacher Gina got a new active skill.

[System: An active skill opens.] [Active Skill: (C).] [When is activated, it blinds the enemy for 5 seconds.]

She now has a second active skill in addition to the healing skill ‘Heal(C)’.

I sincerely congratulated Teacher Gina, and she, who had been gloomy all along, cheered up a bit.

Seeing Teacher Gina’s case, my hypothesis that the number of skills increases depending on the user’s situation became even more solid.

While congratulating her, I thought I should research whether more skills can open up if experience or stats accumulate.

And…

While we focused on training for a few weeks, a gate opened again in New York State.

Right above the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And monsters came out of the gate.

It was called a monster wave.

They somehow managed to silence people and prevent rumors from spreading about the Harvard College incident, but the gate above the Metropolitan Museum of Art was different.

It was broad daylight and tourists were swarming. A gate opened in such a place and goblins popped out.

Videos taken by tourists at the time spread rapidly through YouTube.

A black gate floating above the museum and green monsters with bulging foreheads.

And a man who appeared in the middle of the chaos as if he had been waiting was captured in the video.

The black-haired man was holding a long black sword. A sensitive green aura flickered around the sword.

It was sword energy.

The man approached the goblins, walking steadily among the people evacuating quickly.

When the man lightly swung the sword he held horizontally, the goblin’s body was cleanly cut in half.

Kieeek-!

With a terrible scream, the goblin turned to ashes and scattered.

The surrounding area became even more panicked at the sight of the goblin dying. However, the man’s side profile that was glimpsed still looked emotionless.

The video of the man killing the goblin went viral on YouTube.

But in less than an hour, it was all deleted.

Fortunately, I was able to keep watching the video because I saved it before it was taken down.

This time too, as if noticing he was being filmed, the man turned his head towards the tourist taking the video.

The man’s mysterious green eyes, so pale and soft they looked jade-colored, were clearly captured on camera.

“Alan Jade…”

I muttered.

As expected, it was Alan again this time too.

I kept replaying Alan’s face over and over.

He was definitely the boy from Juno’s old memories.

I looked at that handsome face anxiously and sighed softly.

“Ah, at this rate, is he going to take all the extra credit?”

Even if it’s extra credit, college admissions are on a relative evaluation basis. If the New York team overwhelmingly monopolizes the extra credit, of course they’ll have an advantage, right?

I held my forehead for a moment.

If I could, I’d like to call right away and tell him I’m your old friend so quit the team immediately.

Gates have already opened at least five times in New York State alone, and Alan suppressed them all.

I flipped my phone over after finally reading an article about how citizens’ anxiety increased due to the appearance of monsters from the gate.

As I was painfully waiting for lunchtime to pass in the classroom, there was a crackling sound and the school broadcast came on.

“…Juno Huntington from Class A, Adrian Coleman, and Victor McQueen from Class C, please come to the front of the faculty office immediately. Teacher Gina is waiting.”

I jumped up from my seat.

What other reason would there be for calling just the three of us?

I instinctively looked out the classroom window.

Then I saw a tiny black dot floating in the sky very far away.

It was a gate.

I rushed out of the classroom, forgetting even my phone on the desk. Just then, I saw Adrian and Victor coming out into the hallway, apparently having heard the same broadcast.

“Juno?”

“Squirrel!”

Without saying anything else, I dragged the two of them straight to the front of the faculty office.

We absolutely can’t fall behind the New York team.

“Let’s go right now!”

After seeing Alan’s video, my motivation burned even more.

While the Roingham High School team went to suppress the gate, the phone left face down on Juno’s desk lit up.

Ding,

With a notification sound, the screen flashed blue.

A familiar number that had been saved for years, but used to call and text each other almost daily in the past, appeared.

Along with a short message.

[Are you doing well, Juno?]