"H-he's a monster!" The girl beside them screamed in horror.
"Jules!" Chris leaped towards them immediately from across the table, he quickly shoved Jules' arm away from the robust guy and he went falling on the floor.
"Oh my goodness!" Anne rushed towards them as well.
Elise stayed seated on the bench and stared at Jules with a somewhat stunned expression. Their reactions came only then as it had all happened so fast.
Jules froze and stared at a distance, he seemed to be in a daze. What did he just do?. That was until Chris whispered to him.
"Jules, hide your aura" he spoke with urgency.
Jules stared down at his body and noticed the brown air surrounding him making his eyes widened. 'Okay, calm down Jules, calm down' he thought in a panic.
He abruptly closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, soon enough he felt the cool air move back into his body slowly and settle in his chest, where his energy core resided. The feeling of carrying a heavy burden coming back to him.
"Phew" he let out a huge sigh of relief
Anne moved closer to him with a slightly shocked expression. "I'm surprised you can lose control like that"
"Hey you!" A female voice yelled, bringing the three back to reality and the current situation at hand.
The girl from earlier who went by the name Rosa and had previously called Jules a monster was currently helping the robust guy up, afterwards she went to stand in front of Jules with an expression of obvious rage.
Jules stared down at her. She had long blonde hair with bangs which covered her eyebrows and cool features.
"Uh...." Jules couldn't think of what to say, how was he gonna get out of this? The entirety of students at the cafeteria were already staring at him like he was some unwanted creature and worse off is they had most likely seen his aura. Just then, Anne stepped in front of him.
"What is it huh? Are you gonna reprimand him for standing up for Elise!, You were obviously the ones talking nonsense about her" she snapped at Rosa.
Rosa scoffed "So what? We weren't lying! And this dude here.." her fingers stretched out to point at Jules.
"What was that you did just now? How could someone as skinny as you lift Pete up?! And that brown..."
Anne quickly covered Rosa's lips before she could utter another word. "Don't you dare say another word"
Elise who had been watching the entire scene let out a huge sigh and abruptly stood up. "Stop that Anne, it's embarrassing" her expression remained serious and barely flitting.
Anne rolled her eyes at Elise's comment and slowly released her hands from Rosa's lips, the girl panting heavily afterwards.
Rosa shot a glare at Anne, "How dare...."
"Hold up" Elise's calm voice sounded instantly thereby cutting her short. "What right have you got to say anything?" she slowly raised up her head to stare at Rosa and finally noticed her physical appearance.
Rosa froze. The way Elise stared at her, those shiny blue eyes piercing deep into her soul only made her body slightly tremble. She had badmouthed Elise a number of times but upon seeing her face to face, the atmosphere felt so heavy that it was impossible to deny that she was rather scary.
Elise looked away, folded her arms across her chest and scoffed. "Of course, you've got nothing to say"
Rosa had a fist clenched and bit hard on her lip upon hearing her words. It was true that she had nothing else to say, she was obviously in the wrong here.
Admist the tension, another voice spoke.
"Jules Martin, isn't it?"
Everyone turned to the direction of the voice and noticed it was the robust guy who had just been victimized to Jules' outburst moments ago.
Jules was a little taken back. "W-what...how did you.."
"Your name tag" the guy pointed towards his chest.
The realization dawned on Jules. Oh, that was true, every student had a name tag attached to the chest pocket of their uniforms. His eyes then darted back to stare at the guy again, the thought of what he would possibly say next lingered in his mind.
"C-can we be friends?!" His next words came as a huge shock to everyone.
Jules was greatly taken aback. "Huh?.."
Before he could say more, the guy moved closer to him and grabbed his arm. "You can call me Pete!" His voice spoke excitedly
Rosa furrowed her brows. "Pete, what are you...."
"That move you pulled just now, how did you do it?! You must be really strong! I'd like to train under you!" Pete didn't seem to be listening to her and kept flooding Jules with his requests, the excitement in his tone and expression not wavering.
Jules stepped back a little with utter confusion. "Uh...."
'What?!'
A FEW MINUTES LATER...
The quad walked down the school hallway in relief after the huge scenario that had unfolded in the cafeteria.
"Ha, who would've thought the Pete dude would switch up and ask to be friends with you. For a second, I thought we were in big trouble back there" Anne let out a huge sigh of relief.
Chris snickered upon hearing her words "What's the worse that could happen, non of the lunch ladies caught sight of the commotion so I'm pretty sure Jules would've only gotten a scolding from our homeroom teacher if anything got reported"
"You're too laid back for your own good" Anne rolled her eyes at him. She then turned back to look at Jules.
"To be honest, that move you pulled earlier was badass. You know, leaving the fact that you literally exposed your aura to everyone at the cafeteria" she spoke
Jules looked down. "I'm so sorry for that" he facepalmed in embarrassment.
"Awwn, don't be so glum about it okay?" Anne reached forward to pat his shoulder with a faint smile on her face.
"And yet once again, Chris saves the day" Chris' voice sounded then. He had his eyes closed and his lips curved into a smug smile.
"Huh? Must've been the wind? Seriously? You call that a save?" Anne scoffed.
Jules let out a laugh at that moment as he was reminded of what Chris had said back at the cafeteria. Pete had questioned him about the brown aura in his confused state and Chris reflexly yelled to everyone that it must've been the wind.
"Hey! Are you making fun of me buddy?" Chris asked feeling somewhat embarrassed.
"Of course not" Jules laughed slightly once again. He was feeling much happier now.
Anne snickered at Chris and smiled upon Jules' cheerful expression, she then asked. "So, what do plan to do about the Pete guy? Do you intend to train him like he wants?" She teased.
Jules sighed "Of course not". "I-i I'll just try to avoid him for now". The flashback of him running away from the cafeteria without giving the dude a reply crossed his mind.
"As expected of Jules Martin" Anne teased further.
"A guy who speaks ill of one of us doesn't deserve to get close to my buddy" Chris balled his fist and acted angry.
"Pfft, sure sure" Anne snickered.
Just then, a voice that hadn't spoken for a long while was heard.
"Jules"
Jules abruptly turned to his side in surprise to stare down at Elise. "Huh?"
"Can I speak to you?" Elise spoke, the same stoic expression on her face. She slowly turned to the others then, "Privately" she uttered.
"Oooh" Anne grinned widely almost immediately. "What could the oh-so-stoic Elise want to talk about with Jules that requires privacy? Huh? Huh!" She spoke rather excitedly.
"Urgh, sometimes I wonder who's the mature one between the both of us" Chris rolled his eyes. "All this happened because those two stirred up trouble by saying those things about Elise, she probably wants to talk to Jules about it"
Anne snickered once more. "Oh Chris, how dense you are"
Chris furrowed his brows. "Huh?.."
"It's no use trying to explain things to you, let's give those two some privacy" Anne then grabbed Chris by the wrist and slowly dragged him away from them. "Take your time" she waved without turning back.
Jules stared blankly at the two as they slowly drifted farther away from them.
"Jules" Elise called out one again causing him to immediately turn to her.
"Ah! Yes, you wanted to speak to me" Jules scratched his neck awkwardly. He couldn't help but wonder, was she about to scold him and warn him never to step up for her again? or perharps she intended to thank him? In all honesty, he had no clue why he had done that back there.
"Why did you do that?" Elise's next words came calmly in the form of a question.
Jules stared down at her for a while, thinking of what to say. "To be honest, I don't know....I just felt.."
"Don't ever do that again, I beg you" Elise cut him short.
She slowly raised her head to look up at him. "I can handle myself, it's not like it's the first time this is happening. It would've done you good to just ignore them" she spoke, her voice remaining calm.
"Oh...is that so?" Jules let out an awkward chuckle and scratched his short hair, perharps he didn't feel that bad due to the fact that he had expected those words from her.
He slowly glanced at her. "Then, can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead" Elise replied.
Jules let out a breath, he was going to use this opportunity to learn more about her and how her ability was supposedly innate. "How long have you had to deal with this?"
"Hmm" Elise paused. "Since I was little I guess" she shrugged and looked up to see his strangely neutral expression.
"You must've already known"
Jules was taken aback. "Ah, yeah that's..."
"I know what you're probably wondering....why can't she just dye her hair and wear some contacts to hide her natural appearance" Elise spoke before he could complete his sentence.
"Well, too bad that's impossible" She sighed afterwards.
Jules raised his brows. "Really?"
"Yeah" Elise nodded. "I've tried several times despite hearing it from master himself and it never worked just like he had said.
Jules' expression gloomed a little. 'Not only does her appearance stand out so much to attract criticism from others but she has had to deal with it for so long?,that's.....'
"But what can I do?" Elise spoke. "I've grown to accept it"
"I'm far from normal so I don't expect to lead the kinda peaceful, quiet and attention free life I envisioned. Plain nonsensical criticisms are too fickle to make me waver"
Her words generated a bright smile from Jules. "How cool" he uttered.
Elise looked up in surprise. "You think so?"
"Ah! I just meant it was c-cool that you don't let the criticisms of others hurt you, y-yeah that's what I meant" Jules spoke hastily and ended up stammering in between the lines.
"I see" Elise nodded. 'Why is he sweating so much then?' She wondered.
"In addition...."
Jules waited to listen to what next she had to say.
"Besides me who couldn't see your aura due to my restriction glasses, everyone else who caught sight of what happened must've seen it" her expression became more serious than it had been before.
"Jumping in and grabbing that guy like that was a very irrational and stupid thing to do. You almost exposed your ability to everyone, well you actually exposed it but you're lucky you were able to get off so easily" she spoke sternly.
Jules stared down with a glum expression, "I know, I-i'm sorry"
"Don't apologize to me, I have no clue why you would get angry over that but your outburst also had to do with me so I guess i'm a little bit grateful"
Jules was surprised. "Huh?"
"Ha" Elise sighed. "Do expect people to start calling you names though, just like they do to me"
She then slowly looked away. "It's not just me but every single one of us saviours are entitled to disastrous lives I guess. Whether it's your ordinary life or your life as an ability user fighting dark associates" she added
"That means we saviours can't be normal students as well" her eyes stayed glued to a distant space as she spoke.
She then turned to look at Jules who had his eyes glued to her and was listening in awe. "I'll report what happened back there to the master for your own sake, you won't be able to fight properly if you can't even control your energy core in your every day life" she spoke seriously.
"O-okay" Jules nodded and smiled faintly afterwards. "If you feel it's best for me then I can't oppose then"
"Urgh" Elise groaned irritatedly afterwards. "It's annoying that you made me say so much"
"Pfft" Jules soon let out a laugh which made her even more irritated.
"Wow, did you just laugh?" Elise asked.
Jules flinched. "Uh..of course not"
"Tch" Elise rolled her eyes and Jules tried his best not to smile from ear to ear, this was the longest conversation he had ever had with her.
Suddenly...
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...small beeping sounds immerged at that moment. The sounds were barely audible but enough for both of them to hear and it was obvious why as the source of them were the brown watches wrapped around their wrists.
"Ha" Elise let out a huge sigh.
"See this Jules?" She slowly lifted up her wrist towards his face. Jules could clearly see the big red button at the middle of her watch beeping rapidly, he stared down at his and was met with the same beeping red light.
Elise retracted her hand afterwards and stared at him intently.
"This is what I'm talking about"