Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 84

Chapter 84I plucked at my dumb skirt as I watched all of them eat. My stomach sat on the edge of growling, and I almost regretted my decision to skip food today... and that's after drinking Jack's Sun Kicker this morning! Maybe I should bring a cup with me fill it from the canteen whenever? A normal cup would be a lot less eye-catching.

Aaron, the dog-like guy, smiled brightly at me. “So, I haven’t seen you around here before?”

What a shit pickup line. “O-oh, I’m new. J-just started today!”

Jayce glowered at Aaron, not even looking at me as he asked, “What’s your name?”

”Meno Maeni… Jayce, right?” I put on the biggest and brightest smile I could in hopes of easing along the conversation. Sure it was disgusting social interaction, but it had a purpose. Sean Sentinel, the son of Sentinel’s CEO, was on my list of individuals from Mr. Kalis.

Jayce froze for a moment, probably shocked I got his name right after only hearing it once. The moment passed as he slowly nodded his head and his cold blank expression returned. “Meno, huh? Odd name…”

Sean coughed lightly. “I think your name is beautiful, Lady Meno. Don’t mind these fools.”

”Th-thank you.” I forced another blush to my cheeks and looked down. Ever so slowly, I twirled a loose lock of hair behind my ear.

Aaron quickly spoke up, shooting a subtle glare at Sean that wasn’t all that subtle. “Your name matches you in b-beauty.”

Has school rotted these guy’s brains? Why do they keep bringing up beauty? Guess it's a good thing I dropped out after all. I can’t even imagine what my life would’ve been like if I had grown up like this lot.

Sean tapped his metallic palms together once more. “So, do you have any hobbies, Meno?” 

Did he not hear me earlier? I could’ve sworn he was in my first hour. “I- I like to read… and mechanics are cool. I uh, absolutely love art too.” 

I shrugged and sent a glance around the room, ignoring most of the common rabble. Three things immediately stood out to me. First, Torren’s plate was absolutely loaded as he went through the cafeteria to the point it was a surprise he could even hold it up. Second, there were far too many eyes on our little table. Most of them seemed like idle curiosity, but there were a few that stood out with more calculated Cues. There were even quite a few who looked on with poorly hidden hostility. Third, the three guys seemed like they must be pretty popular as I caught sight of far too many teenage girls staring at me in envy. 

I dropped my observations and returned to whatever Sean was saying. “…like me could only love high-class hobbies. In particular, I find Holo to be quite entertaining. Don’t you agree?”

”I-I’ve never tried Holo, so I wouldn’t know.” What the hell was Holo?

Aaron laughed lightly. “Holo is alright. Not quite exciting enough for me though… you said you were interested in mechanics?”

I put on that radiant smile once more. “Of course! It’s all so- so interesting.”

”I-“

Torren finally returned, cutting off Aaron as he walked up to the table with his plate laden with food. The plate looked like it would snap under the pure weight of the food as he gently set it on the table like it was a precious child. He looked around, seeing that there were no seats for himself around me. 

“This- this is Trovare, my closest mikato.” I flashed an innocent smile to Torren.

Torren gave a nod and moved around the table to an empty seat, sitting down and immediately diving into the food with a muttered, “Hey.”

“Mikato, huh?” Sean said with a well-hidden sneer on his face. If it wasn’t for the subtle twitching of his eyebrows and a slight tilt of his mouth, I never would’ve noticed it. 

Part of me wanted to get in his face about the sneer, but that wasn’t Meno. I calmly wrung a hand through my hair. “‘Course! A-and bringing him around puts my grandfather’s mind to ease…”

“Grandfather?” Jayce asked as he pushed up his glasses. 

Sean took an even more prideful look onto his face. “Lady Meno here is the granddaughter of Archduke Maeni of Pyrus.”

”Ah.” Aaron nodded as he snidely looked at Sean. “Makes sense why you took such an interest then-“

Sean coughed lightly once more, his voice sounding incredibly posh as he stared Aaron dead in the eye. “Someone as lowly as you could never understand my interests.”

Torren chuckled, the pitch being incredibly deep just the same as his voice. “Classic corpos.”

Aaron’s friendliness dropped significantly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

”Ah, you just fit the stereotype is all.” Maybe he didn’t want to get into a fight on the first day? Regardless, Torren quickly changed the subject. “M’lady, how are you holding up so far?”

It worked, and the conversation tilted back towards asking me questions. I tried to keep up the best I could, though it was difficult when they started asking about my ‘home’. I had done some re

“Yeah-“

The bell rang, cutting her off.

The three started to pack everything up. Christine waved me off as I tried to help. "It's your first day. You go on ahead."

"T-thank you." I rubbed my arm and headed for the door. Claire and Torren already awaited me out in the hall. As I came out, a smug smile faded from Torren's face and returned to the 'knightly' neutrality he had been going for all day.

Claire clapped her hands together as she spotted me. “Alright! Last class of the day. Ready?”

—

I flopped onto my bed and I took a moment to settle myself back down. School had been… not exactly as I remembered, and yet it had been the same in some ways. Still a drag, for one.

But it was kind of nice? Sure there were… ew, but interacting with people my age-ish had been a refreshing change of pace. Sure, they were all probably from uber-wealthy families and I wouldn’t share anything in common outside of my lies, but it was still kind of nice.

Other than that, my targets had been… interesting. I’d have to get the other two's opinions, but as it stands both were slightly suspicious. 

Sean seemed to be an elitist, which really wasn’t all that surprising considering where he came from. Elitism could be a scary thing. And Claire- well, Claire seemed to be completely unfazed by her best friend's disappearance. Sure, she could’ve already moved on, but it still seemed a bit quick.

As for the Inquisitor's request, nothing stood out to me yet. To be fair, I had only been around most of the teachers in passing, so there was still ample time to find something amiss.

Overall though, I had a surprisingly good day back to school.