Before classes even started the next morning at eight o’clock, I paid a visit to my beloved Alice. It was the perfect time to enter her building without being watched over by any teacher or warden. Not even the president and other members of the female student council would dare to show their faces there.

Gladly, Raven’s room was located in a dark section, making it easy to slip in and keep walking without sounding any alarms of sorts.

The girls’ dormitory looks quite clean, even a bit classy in my humble opinion. Its floor was made of fine and sturdy oak wood, unlike my stone building that was some sort of monument to masonry. So I had to walk slowly, trying not to make a noise. Done.

Finally I was right in front of her room. I then knocked on her door and she soon opened the wooden door while yawning, as if she had forgotten about our agreement. Her long hair looked matted as usual and she was still wearing her black pajamas. That wild look of hers makes her look quite sexy.

I thank her blond roommate for not being there, it would have been a mess otherwise. At least I could not see her from the doorstep while I was waiting for Raven to give me that amulet of hers. So I thought that I could whistle some old tune in the meantime.

“Erik, couldn’t you just wait till we’d meet in the history or algebra class?”, Alice asked me.

“As far as I can remember… I think we don’t have neither today and I was planning to leave the academy before my lunch hour in order to explore the woods”, I recalled.

“Why is it so important, darling?”, Raven wanted to know.

“It’s not my idea”, I clarified. “I’m simply following orders, hoping that female voice will later reveal more stuff about what treasures I might find there and why I gotta retrieve them before anybody else finds them.”

“And why can’t I tag along and help you find them?”, my girlfriend queried, grabbing my left arm with some force.

“Err, good question indeed!”, yours truly got startled. “Yet, I can’t assure you that you won’t get hurt or killed in the process so I’m not gonna take the risk. You better stay here, my love.”

“Oh really? Leave me behind and you’ll learn how terrible my curses actually are, you goof!”, she warned me, pointing her finger at me.

Honestly, I did not know what to do then. I had to leave as soon as she handed over her present, still, Alice was using it as an excuse to follow me anywhere. I was no longer sure that talisman of sorts ever existed in the first place.

“I gotcha, you wanna come with me but are you ready to travel long distances, my dear?”, I had to find out then.

Nobody said that restarting our relationship would be easy peasy, right?

After making a turn to the left to flee away from her room, I stumbled upon the missing blond girl. And I dared to think she would have been tied up by my lovely crow and hidden in their large closet. Was it just a casual encounter?

“Hey! I had been waiting for you ever since I managed to get untied by some friends of mine”, she commented. “Where have you been the whole time, darling?”

I could not tell her that I had slept with her roommate, could I? I hate getting desperate to come up with a plausible story that would satisfy her curiosity in short a period of time.

“She made you forget about me, right? It’s me, Sienna. I’m your dear girlfriend!” she remarked.

“Oh thanks, Sienna. I’ve certainly forgotten your name because of her magic spells but I’m glad that you’d help me with that”, I thanked her.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, my dear!”, she uttered. “So tell me, darling, what happened yesterday?”

“You see, I was kidnapped by her right after I had fallen asleep and had no control over my will” I asserted.

“Of course, you were! She’d not let you stand by me for even a split second. I hope nothing bad happened to you while being her hostage”, Sienna said.

“Nah, nothing serious except for some strong hallucination that made me think I was floating in space the whole time”, I narrated the events, omitting critical details.

“I really hope so for we still gotta travel to my home city this weekend in order to finally introduce you to my parents”, the blondie surprised me with her recent disclosure.

“Yeah, how could we miss such a great opportunity to get their blessing…”, I expressed insincerely.

Crap! What a pile of crap! When will I finally stop looking for new matches? Every time I talk to a girl, she ends up calling herself my long lost fiancee or anything the like. Is it even legal to marry several women in this country? Or will I wind up being thrown in jail by any of my parents-in-law?

“Fine, I gotta go now, yet, don’t forget to ask me anything we might need for our travel”, I reminded my second partner.

We kissed each other and said good bye. She entered her room and start yelling at Alice just as expected. Meanwhile I left the place troubled by Raven’s decision of traveling to Foresta Daghe and Sienna’s plan of meeting her parents very soon.

So there I was, walking all the way down to my own bedroom without any amulet in my pockets. It felt as if I were walking several miles and, still, I had only traveled half the distance between both dormitories.

Allegedly, I had plenty of time to find a way to go visit the forest on my own and return just a couple of days later. Then I would have to pack my belongings really fast, take a bath and later take the carriage headed to the region of Tarentia with Sienna.

You might like to know that the girls’ dormitory is located to the most eastern part of the complex. I had to go back to the western section in no time to pick up all my stuff and run to my first class, namely biology. Feeling a bit tired, I rested for a moment at the southern fountain.

Then a few classmates got close to me unknowingly. After taking a look at them, I realized they were the same mates that were planning to enter those dangerous woods. They were Elvio, Nestor and three others I could never talk to before.

“What’s up, guys? It’s me, your old friend that has been cursed by that blondie slut and her scarecrow companion! I’m still hoping you do remember me after a few days of slumber”, I told my classmates all of sudden.

This was the very first time I had even tried to get involved in their weird schemes, and I do realize now that my introduction really sucks. Why did I come up with such denigrating details of my recent misadventures!? That should be especially hurtful for my beloved… wannabe wives!?

Unsurprisingly, they preferred to ignore me for the time being.

As far as I knew, my fellow students were too popular as to talk to some nobody like me. Everything would clearly indicate my attempt to figure out why the forest was so intriguing would soon fail, right?

“Hey guys! The name’s Erik”, I greeted them once again.

“Oh yes, it is you, Erik! How are you doing as of late?”, Elvio finally reacted, barely turning around.

He is a blond male, the tallest of those five guys and his attitude is quite obnoxious indeed. This means I should not be caught off guard for he had never had a reason to realize I even existed. What is he up to now? Is it too late for me to spin around and pretend I have never talked to them?

“You know, I happen to have learned about your trip to the woods and I just wanted to let you know that I’m interested in joining your team. Let’s explore Daghe together!”, I made my offer.

“So you’re the one eavesdropping on us!”, Nestor accused me.

“I’m afraid we have no room for a stranger in our team but thank you for being so kind as to come here and offer your unrequired services to us”, the petulant Elvio replied.

“Oh, it’s fine! I’d have expected to be rejected by you for not asking sooner. Thanks anyway!”, I simply asserted.

Leaving the fountain at once, I then headed to the Baroccan Clock Tower. It was not the shortest path to my bedroom, still, I did not care about anything at that point. Later I walked all the way down to the boys’ dormitory. People did not notice I had returned from my brief visit to Alice.

I easily slipped into my room without uttering a single word. My roommate was too busy running around looking for his biology book. He could no longer remember Gastone had borrowed it the other day and had never returned it. So I ignored him and quickly laid on my bed.

What a problem, my friends! Thanks to me mister quick mouth, they now know for certain about my intentions of entering the infamous Foresta Daghe. We had become bitter rivals and the worst part is that they have got the upper hand here.

Yes, I was growing seriously desperate then. Should I take Alice with me? How could we go there without Sienna finding that out? Everything looked as awful as if I had already lost the bet against the plans of the wheels of destiny.

After closing my eyes for a few minutes, Chiara’s face crossed my mind all of sudden. She was in another class but I clearly recalled a day when she told us about her uncle the tour guide during lunch break. He had visited several famous places including Foresta Daghe and Civitas Antiqua dungeon. Hopefully she could still be in the academy that day.

If I ever had a chance to defeat my foes, it got to be by asking her to introduce me to her relative before Elvio and his lackeys could even leave the campus. And yes, my lovely and quite evil Alice Raven will surely hate me for approaching another female, without regard to my irresistible urge to recover the artifact at all costs.