Reborn as a Succubus: Time To Live My Best Life!

Chapter 302 - 302: Back to Basics

The professor's chalk squeaked against the blackboard. The sound should have been grating enough to hold Melisa's attention, but her mind had drifted far from the classroom.

[They found three more nim hideouts, which makes what, seven total now?] She sighed. [Wonder if Vira's still doing alright.]

Melisa's eyes glazed over as she stared at the intricate chalk lines without really seeing them.

A month had passed since the Koros incident, and she still couldn't get her brain to focus on "normal student life" for more than ten minutes at a time.

Every morning the papers had some new update about Queen Aria's "ongoing operation" against nim insurgents. Every day, Melisa scanned the list of names, both relieved and somehow disappointed not to see Vira's among them. Not because she wanted to see that she'd been arrested, but because part of her wanted confirmation that she was alive and well.

[... Honestly, she's probably smart enough to get the hell out of Syux,] she thought, absently doodling in the margins of her notes. [She's not a slave either. If she had any sense at all, she'd be halfway to Yalmir right now.]

"—of course, Miss Blackflame would surely know the answer to this. Wouldn't you?"

Melisa snapped back to reality, suddenly aware that the entire class had turned to look at her. The professor stared expectantly, one bushy eyebrow raised in challenge.

[Shit. What was the question?]

"Um," Melisa began eloquently, frantically scanning the board for clues. There was a spellsign diagram, something about energy transference and... was that elemental conversion? "The... uh... the balance between input and output Essence determines the stability of... the... conversion?"

It was a total shot in the dark, cobbled together from the few words she'd actually registered during her daydreaming.

The professor's lips pressed into a thin line of disappointment.

"Perhaps if you paid more attention to my lesson than whatever fascinating thoughts occupy that mind of yours, Miss Blackflame, you would know that we were discussing the amplification properties of crystalline matrices, not elemental conversion."

Snickers rippled through the classroom. Melisa's cheeks burned.

[What does that even mean?]

"Sorry, Professor."

"Indeed." He turned back to the board. "As I was saying..."

Melisa slumped in her seat, embarrassed and frustrated with herself.

A folded piece of paper slid onto her desk, pushed by Raven's slender fingers. Melisa opened it discreetly.

You ok? the note read in Raven's neat handwriting.

Melisa's brows shot up. Raven's face was expressionless.

Melisa scribbled back with a little smile:

Just tired. Thanks for checking.

She glanced around the classroom, taking in her other friends. At least some things were still normal.

Isabella, for once, wasn't trying to crawl into Melisa's lap. Instead, she was making eyes at some human two rows ahead, twirling a strand of pink hair around her finger in that way she did when she was on the hunt.

[Poor bastard doesn't know what's about to hit him,] Melisa thought with a small smile, though it was odd to see Isabella making those eyes at a human being who was not her, Armia, or Raven. It served as a reminder of her nature.

To her right, Armia was whispering to Raven, describing some battle maneuver she'd witnessed during her two weeks with the military. Raven's face remained impassive, but Melisa caught the slight widening of her eyes – the Raven equivalent of being impressed.

This was good. This was normal. This was what she should be focusing on.

... So why couldn't she get the image of Vira, or that nim being beaten in the alley, out of her head?

---

"UGH! If I have to spend one more minute in that dusty, ancient library, I might actually die," Isabella declared dramatically, dropping her tray onto the lunch table with a clatter. "Like, not metaphorically die. Literally die. My lungs will shrivel up from all the book dust."

"It's a re