“Unless someone else that I do not know about obtained a system, it could only be Daniel, Norbert, or…” Mathew muttered under his nose.
And then, his eyes opened wide.
‘Only a single person managed to stay below my radar despite likely having a system,’ Mathew thought as he swallowed a gulp of his saliva.
She didn’t need to ask if Mathew was okay. She could easily see he wasn’t.
“I hope this is just me overreacting,” Mathew started, only to then shake his head. “But there is a chance that Carol’s boyfriend…” he said, only for his facial expression to freeze.
“What’s wrong?” Nadia asked again while taking another step toward her partner. This time, however, the curiosity on her face vanished and ended up being replaced by worry.
“Do you even know the name of Carol’s boyfriend?” Mathew asked.
Ever since he realized the point of not knowing Daniel’s name despite interacting with him a lot, Mathew grew sensitive to the topic of people’s names.
And yet, throughout the entire day, he failed to even ask the guy for his name!
‘Was it me just labeling him as Carol’s boyfriend?’ Mathew attempted to guess a neutral reason for the blunder.
And then, he shook his head.
‘No, assuming things that are convenient for the moment won’t get me far,’ he thought while he raised his hand to his mouth only to start bitting down on his thumb’s nail.
“Stop it,” Nadia took another step, bringing herself well within Mathew’s comfort zone. She then raised her hand and slapped Mathew’s fingers out of his mouth. “It’s not a good habit to develop,” she lectured with a stern expression on her face.
“Hah?” Mathew looked at the girl with his eyes wide open.
Her small scolding was so unexpected and sudden that it left the young man in a state of simplistic shock.
“I need you to take care of yourself, your fingers included!” Nadia said as she crossed her arms on her chest. “Don’t you know how uncomfortable it can get when you are fingered by someone with unkempt nails?”
Nadia’s question stunned Mathew even further. And then, a small smirk appeared on his face.
“You are right,” Mathew admitted and lowered his head in apology. “I will pay extra attention not to succumb to this bad temptation,” he added.
Mathew then reached out and placed his hand on Nadia’s head.
“Just in case, I’m really happy when you correct me like that,” the young man said as he rustled Nadia’s hair.
“Mhmm…” the girl only hummed in response, closing her eyes while she enjoyed the head pat. “I will be sure to scold you lots, then,” she added, her lips forming a little, shy smile.
“That’s my girl.” Mathew’s lips formed a smile on their own, reflecting the state of his soul.
This simple interaction was exactly what the young man needed to break through the stalemate his mind entered a moment earlier. Be it patting his crush’s head, having her worry over him, or suggesting interesting events to come later, Nadia did everything as perfectly as if she was following a script with exploits to Mathew’s soul.
“What is the problem, then?” Nadia asked when her therapeutic job reached its conclusion. “Do we need to kill more zombies?”
“Not this time, dear,” Mathew replied. He then reached out with both of his hands before pulling the girl into his chest. “For now, just let me think, okay?” he asked as he moved his hands down before laying them down on the girl’s waist.
‘This is so comfortable,’ Mathew thought when he rested his head on the girl’s shoulder.
The comfort coming from the warmth of her body gave him the peace of mind Mathew needed to focus.
‘I doubt Daniel or even Norbert would do something to intentionally bother me. Still, they used the merchant to summon me to the top floor,’ Mathew thought, analyzing the situation.
“Well then, let’s not worry too much,” he finally said as he raised his head and looked Nadia directly in the eyes. “Thanks for the help; I doubt you have an idea how much it helped,” he added.
“Sure thing?” Nadia replied in a reluctant voice, clearly not sure what exactly did she do to deserve such praise. “If it’s a hug you want, you can come to me anytime,” she added when she gave up on attempting to understand Mathew’s way of thinking and decided to just go with the flow.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Mathew replied before patting Nadia’s head one last time and then moving towards the doors. “We need to go back to the top floor. Hopefully, doing that will solve the problem,” he explained as he got on the move.
“The problem?” Nadia asked, leaning her head to the side as she followed in her partner’s steps. “Do we have one?”
“Hopefully, we do not,” Mathew replied, only to bite himself in the tongue. “But in the world of apocalypse, things hardly go the way one would want them to,” he added before turning silent.
‘Assuming that everything is okay and I only need to use the first merchant once, which of the options I should choose?’ Mathew asked himself as he climbed the stairs up to the floor, where Daniel created an entrance to the desolate shaft.
‘I don’t even need to consider the second option. And that leaves me with the first or the third ones…’ Mathew thought as he stepped inside the shaft and started to climb his way up the ladder.
‘I guess the third option sounds too good to be true,’ Mathew decided after a few moments, right as he reached the opening to the topmost floor of the school. ‘I guess I should go with the first one, then?’ he thought while crawling out of the small hole in the wall.
“You are already back?” Daniel asked when he noticed the couple returning.
“Just for a moment,” Mathew replied in just a few words before hurrying towards the merchant located right at the edge of the broken floor. He then gulped down his saliva and reached out with his hand.
‘Let’s hope it will work,’ he thought before grasping at the darkness hidden underneath the merchant’s hood.
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