Extra's Path: The Eternal Frost Monarch

Mary set her fork down and looked at him with wide eyes. "Wait. You want to become friends with me?"

"Yeah," Noah said simply. "I do."

She stared at him for a moment as if waiting for a punchline that wasn’t coming. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"But... why?" Her voice dropped slightly. "I mean, you’re from a noble family. You’re..." She glanced at him briefly, then looked away.

"You’re obviously very good looking. And you already seem to get along well with Lyria and Damien and the others. So why would you want to be friends with someone like me?" She folded her hands in her lap. "I’m just... ordinary. A commoner. Not even talented the way Arisha is."

Noah went quiet for a moment. He hadn’t expected that.

*Was she always this conscious of where she stood?*

He looked at her properly. She wasn’t putting on false modesty. She genuinely meant every word of it. That was what caught him off guard.

He leaned forward slightly and gave her the warmest smile he could manage.

"How can you think that way?" His tone was easy.

"Why would my background or my face have anything to do with whether I want to be your friend? Those things don’t matter for that." He paused, then added, "And for the record, you’re cute. So stop selling yourself short on that front too. As for me being noble... I’m exiled, so I’m no better than a commoner. As for talent..." he laughed softly, "I’d bet you have more of it than me. Haha."

Mary’s cheeks flushed a light pink at the word cute. She dropped her gaze to the table.

"Y-you think so?" she said quietly. "Thank you."

"I mean it." He settled back in his chair. "So, we are friends from now on. And if you ever have a problem or need help with something, just say the word."

Mary looked at him from across the table. The Noah sitting in front of her was nothing like the version she had heard about in rumors around campus.

She wasn’t entirely sure what she had expected, but it wasn’t this. This easy, warm, completely kind person who had just sat himself down across from her and meant every word he said.

She felt her shoulders relax without knowing. "Okay, Noah."

He smiled and reached into his storage ring, pulling out his phone and setting it on the table between them.

"Then you’ll have to give me your number."

She pulled out her own phone. "Yes, alright."

They exchanged contacts without any fuss, and Noah slipped his phone back into his ring.

"One more thing." He rested his arms on the table. "I’m planning to focus on training until the VR battle next week. But after that, on the weekend. If you’re free, how about we go into Novaris City and hang out for a bit?"

Mary looked up from her phone.

"You... want to take me out on the weekend?" She processed the words for a second. "Like... taking me on a date?"

Her hand moved to cover her mouth as her cheeks went noticeably pink.

Noah rested his right elbow on the table and propped his chin up on his palm. His left hand moved idly, his index finger tracing slow circles around the rim of his coffee cup.

"Date is a bit of a misleading word when I’m asking as a friend," he said, his tone teasing. "I just meant hanging out together. But..." The corner of his mouth curved slightly. "If you want it to be a date, I genuinely don’t mind. I can make it feel like one."

"Ehh!" Mary straightened up immediately, shaking her head. "That’s not what I meant! I just, yes, I can go, but..." She fumbled slightly over her words. "Going out with just one person. A man. I haven’t really done that before."

"Then it’ll be fun," Noah said, completely unbothered. "You don’t need to overthink it. We’ll just enjoy ourselves."

Mary looked at him. His expression was open and genuine, no pressure behind it, just a kind of sincerity that was somehow harder to refuse.

She gave a small nod.

"Okay. I’ll come."

Noah’s smile widened. "Hehe. Thanks. I’ll look forward to it."

---

They left the café together a little while later, stepping out into the evening air side by side.

The sky above the campus had deepened into a soft dark blue, the last of the daylight fading at the edges. A cool breeze moved between the buildings, quiet and unhurried.

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

It was a comfortable kind of silence.

"By the way... after that day in the cafeteria. Has Edward ever bothered you?" he asked, looking straight ahead.

He was curious about this. That day the drama had occurred because Mary, as a commoner, had collided with an arrogant young master who was then beaten by Noah. But surprisingly, he hadn’t heard a single word about Edward doing anything to Mary since then.

"No... surprisingly he never tried anything." She replied, thinking back to the incident that had happened with her.

"That’s good news then. Seems like he became a better student."

"Really? You really think so?" she asked, looking at him. Her eyes were gazing at him through her glasses.

"There’s a possibility. I mean, I was a bad boy as well. But then I changed, didn’t I?"

"That’s true." Mary nodded with understanding.

"Oh, so you actually used to think I was a bad guy?" Noah turned to her with a slight frown. His expression was displeased.

Which made Mary nervous and flustered. "No! No! I didn’t mean it that way! I mean yes, I used to think you weren’t a good guy– No wait, I mean, oh... shit!"

"Pff — hahaha!" Noah burst into laughter seeing her expression.

She blinked at him in confusion about why he was laughing like that.

Then the realization hit her. He had been teasing her.

She turned to face him and pointed her finger at him, her cheeks pink. "You! You- you were making fun of me! Don’t talk to me. Hmph!" She turned away with an annoyed pout.

"Okay, okay. I’m sorry alright. I won’t do it again."

"I said don’t talk to me."

Noah suddenly stopped and went completely silent. His expression turned cold.

Not hearing anything from him, she turned to look at his face.

"I said I was sorry, didn’t I? Then why are you acting so arrogant?" He said in cold tone.

With no warmth in it.

"Heeeh!" A small startled sound left her mouth after hearing his cold words and seeing his stern expression.