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"Why will I have to be so easy to convince when it comes to video games?" Idia mused while looking at the screen of his mobile phone, where a kind of little creature appeared on one of the tiles of the road that was in the academy garden.
The day before, Ortho had shown him a mobile game that consisted of catching creatures that appeared on the screen of the electronic device and then confronting them with those of other players who were online. The catch was that you had to travel to several places to catch the different creatures, but unfortunately for Idia, the vice had taken hold of him, and he had "been forced" to walk around the campus of the academy to catch several of those creatures, finally ending up in the inner courtyard of the main building, which, by the way, was practically deserted, because either the students had retired to their respective dormitories or they were finishing the club meetings.
Idia looked up from his mobile phone, realising that it was already starting to get dark.
"Maybe I should go back to Ignihyde now..." he said to himself before turning his gaze to the phone, realising that there was a notice indicating that there was a creature near him.
The boy followed the indication until he reached one of the trees in the courtyard, in an area far from the centre. When he raised the phone in order to capture the creature, he could barely avoid a laugh -he succeeded, but with effort- when he saw that the virtual creature, a kind of cat/dragon, was on the head of neither more nor less than Malleus Draconia, the housewarden of Diasomnia, who apparently slept leaning against the trunk of the tree.
"I can't believe it..." he whispered while smiling, making a screenshot to have a souvenir photo, and then, he captured the little creature with ease.
"Are you taking a picture of me?" Idia was startled when he heard Malleus' voice, who slowly opened his eyes, and then looked at the housewarden of Ignihyde.
He denied several times before musing several phrases that Malleus did not understand at first, so he pursed his lips, but when he saw the screen of Idia's cell phone he thought he understood the situation.
"Ah, were you playing "Catch All & Go"?" the fae replied as he bent his knees and brought them closer to his chest.
"Do you know it?" Idia whispered, surprised that Malleus knew about the existence of the game.
"Yes, Lilia showed it to me the other day. He was in a very high level range, what was it...? Ah, one hundred and eighty-three”, Malleus snapmed his fingers while smiling and looking at Idia again.
Idia laughed proudly before taking the cell phone to his chest and saying:
"I am proud to say that I have exceeded his level: I am going for the exact two hundred”.
"Unbelievable! How long have you been playing?”
"Ehm... One day”.
Malleus opened his eyes like plates and applauded, excited, when he heard that, which embarrassed Idia, who put his hands to his face.
"Tell me more, please! Sounds interesting”, asked Malleus.
"Eh, this, I think I should go back to my bedroom now, and I think I've already exceeded my ability to talk to someone in one day," as he spoke, Idia decreased his tone of voice until it almost became a whisper and walked backwards, taking short steps.
Malleus denied before tilting his head and telling him:
"If you want to avoid crossing people, you'd better stay here, next to this tree: it acts as a blind spot, and in addition, you will avoid an avalanche of students coming out of their extracurricular activities”.
Idia looked at the hole next to Malleus, hesitant and without being completely convinced. Being crushed by an avalanche of students was not funny to him, but having to sit next to the fae and start a conversation with him...
"I promise I won't talk to you if you don't want to," said the housewarden of Diasomnia, sensing his concern.
Oh, thank Seven. Idia pursed his lips before approaching the tree and sitting next to Malleus, who smiled kindly at him. The housewarden of Ignihyde looked away, embarrassed again, before fixing his eyes on his mobile phone’s game, on which someone had challenged him to a battle.
Malleus did not open his mouth to say anything, but watched the battle out of the corner of his eye, pretending to be looking at the shrews.
"He’s pretty good," he thought when he saw how Idia knocked out one of the three adversarial creatures.
"I know you're looking at me sideways, Malleus-shi," Idia whispered as he hit another of the adversarial creatures.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I've recognised Lilia's avatar," he said, pointing to the screen, where a kind of human with bat wings and pink hair with black wicks stretched out his arm for one of his creatures to attack one of Idia's.
"Is it his avatar? So I'm fighting him. Then...”, Idia smiled, with an idea in mind.
When it was his turn to attack, he used one of the most brutal attacks of his creatures, ending the second of Lilia's. Malleus smiled, excited, as he looked over his shoulder.
"And... checkmate" and at the fourth turn, he finished with Lilia's third creature, winning the battle and obtaining the rewards. “This has been a piece of cake”.
Malleus applauded, amazed and said:
"The anger that Lilia is going to have this afternoon is going to be very big, but, wow, you are good at having started playing just one day ago”.
"Oh, ah, well, it's not that complicated, you just have to take into account the attacks of your creatures and memorise the opposites, analysing what is the best strategy to win," Idia replied with a thread of voice, turning hus gaze to the screen.
Malleus blinked before laughing slightly and saying:
"For that you have to have an analytical mind, and I, honestly, it's not that I have one”.
"Mhm, that will have to be seen," Idia mused before turning to Malleus and telling him: "Do you have your mobile phone at hand?"
“Yes. Why?”
"Give it to me."
The leader of Diasomnia extended his phone to Idia, who took it after having kept his’. He entered the download app, downloaded the game and entered the app.
“Username... DrakOniric," Idia said while creating the profile and avatar. “You can change the name later if you want”.
Malleus looked over his shoulder as Idia created his avatar, which, amazingly, looked quite similar to him.
"Okay, first capture..." Idia focussed the cell phone towards Malleus' head, capturing the little creature, which, fortunately, was still there. “And that's it. You just have to go through the academy to find more creatures and when you reach level three, you can start making battles against other users”.
Before finally giving the cell phone to Malleus, Idia wrote her own username in the search engine and pressed the "Send friend request" button.
"Ready."
"Wow," Malleus took his phone and smiled. “I'll see if I can get to the same level as you”.
"That will be complicated: I'm a really good player," Idia replied while smiling, proudly.
At that moment, a wave of students began to go from here to there, causing Idia to become a ball in his place.
"I told you," commented the housewarden of Diasomnia when he saw how none of the students passed near the tree where they were, being, in truth, a blind spot.
Idia just gave him a furtive look, sulking, before lowering his head again, waiting for everyone to leave.
"Now I think I should go back to my bedroom," whispered the housewarden of Ignihyde when he heard the sudden silence that had been left after the students left.
"Yes: it's getting late, and the sun won't take long to set," Malleus stood up, and with him, Idia. “Do you know? This little moment we have shared has been quite pleasant. I wouldn't mind repeating it... of course, if it's okay with you”.
"Oh, well, maybe... I don't know..." Idia mused, which made Malleus smile.
"Well, whenever you want. See you tomorrow, Idia”.
"Yes, see you tomorrow."
And with those words, each of the students took a different path.
While walking, Idia turned for a moment to see Malleus, and then looked at his mobile phone.
"It hasn't been that bad," he whispered before making his way again, noticing how some parts of his hair were hotter because they had gone from blue to a light pink.
On the other hand, Malleus smiled, because he had heard the whisper of the housewarden of Ignihyde.
*
"Yū!"
Malleus entered the Ramshackle room, where the girl was found holding a scoreboard from a chess game that Riddle and Grim were carrying out.
"One second, Malleus, now I'm with you..." Yūka said while looking at both students.
Grim moved his tower near the king of Riddle, who pretended to be scared. However, he smiled, moved his bishop and checkmated the cat, so Yūka wrote a ten on the blackboard on which she kept the score.
"Riddle wins ten points on one," Yūka announced while smiling. “And that one has been in the test game and because Riddle wanted you to win so you knew exactly how to play”.
"It's not true! I have won by my own means!”, Grim replied.
"Whatever you say," Riddle smiled before starting to put the pieces in their place.
Yūka smiled as she stood up and approached Malleus.
"What did you want, Malleus?" she asked.
The housewarden of Diasomnia took Yūka by the shoulders and began to shake her, nervous.
"You have to teach me what you know about this game of catching creatures! I need to know how to play!”
"I'm getting dizzy..." the girl said as she looked at the boy in front of her blurry.
Riddle left the white queen on the board before approaching the other two and separating Yūka from Malleus, who calmed down instantly.
"What's going on? Why are you coming like that?, asked the housewarden of Heartslabyul as he made Yūka sit on a chair.
"Malleus has downloaded a game that Idia has become hooked on and wants to know how to play to engage in a topic of conversation with him," Yūka replied while shaking her head, getting rid of the dizziness.
Malleus pouted with his lips when Riddle's gaze fell on him.
"Do you like Idia?" the housewarden of Heartslabyul raised an eyebrow, which made the housewarden of Diasomnia blush.
“For a while. He asked Lilia the name of the game and was reporting on it to look interesting to Idia”, Yūka smiled while leaning on the armrest of the chair. “Isn't it adorable?”
"Malleus Draconia, the lord of Diasomnia, prince of the fae, in love? Yes, it has it’s adorable side," Riddle said as he sat on the free armrest.
"Riddle Rosehearts, the lord of Heartslabyul, future of this school, in love?" Malleus replied, taking a quick look at Yūka and then at Riddle.
"Right, but the difference is that I'm in a happy relationship and you've barely established contact," Riddle took Yūka's hand, kissed her back and intertwined his fingers with the girl's.
Yūka smiled and shook her head several times before telling Malleus:
"Good. Let's see, show me the game, see if I can help you.
Malleus approached his friend and handed her the unlocked mobile phone. Yūka took it and entered the application, and then focussed the camera around her, hunting several creatures.
"Wow, there are too many in this room," the girl commented before hunting the last one. “I just hunted ten creatures, which has made you go up to level two. They have given you Power Up materials, I raise the level of the first creature you captured... and that's it, level three”.
"And that's it? Have you climbed two levels in two minutes? It’s that easy?”, Riddle asked.
"It's a game for addicts and dumb people, not for engineers," Yūka replied as she got into the battle section. “Let's see, battles are easy: you simply choose your strongest creatures and attack based on the levels or elements of the opposite. You can always play the test game to gain experience”.
"Thank you very much," Malleus picked up his phone and smiled. “And how do you know so much about this game?”
"It's a mixture of several games in my world: Pokémon Go!, Bungo Mayoi... there are several names, in general," the girl replied.
Riddle looked at Malleus, tilted his head and said:
"It's very good that you want to know more about this particular game, but why don't you expand? Try to discover some other taste he has and that you don't force yourself to like just because he likes them”.
"And why is that?"
"Because your feelings will be genuine, and you won't have to hide in the shadows, literally, to see what he does or likes. Start with this game, and through it, find out more. Surely this way you can create a connection with him beyond this game of catching creatures and making them fight among themselves, and in the blink of an eye, you even get him to get attached and decide to be friends, which is the first step”.
Malleus blinked, confused, before asking him, with a raised eyebrow:
"Have you achieved all that experience of love advice just by having Yū as a girlfriend or have other colleagues and friends with more experience been telling you?"
The girl laughed lightly while Riddle crossed his arms over his chest and replied, offended, and with a vein marked on his forehead:
"It's called common sense, idiot."
-MGGBBRAE