The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 163

Chapter 163: 163 | Welcome to the Rest of Your Life [SEASON 1 FINALE]

I maintained my distance while three more people cycled through the line. Koda kept talking at roughly the same volume as before, which was to say she had given up on indoor voice as a concept and decided projection was a lifestyle choice. The girl with the short black bob eventually appeared from the stairwell carrying a single cardboard box that looked like it had been packed by someone who understood geometry. Gia, presumably.

She set it down near the cluster of bags by the elevator without looking at anyone and picked up a form from the check-in table.

"Mercer. Third floor."

The RA scanned the list, nodded, handed her a room assignment card.

"Elevator’s down the hall to your left, but there’s a wait right now."

"I’ll take the stairs."

It wasn’t really a question. The sentence came out flat and dry and perfectly self-contained, a statement disguised as an inquiry that expected no answer because Gia Mercer had probably already calculated the elevator’s average cycle time and found it wanting.

"Move-in day," Dash offered from somewhere behind me. "Everyone’s using it at once."

"Stairs exist."

"Third floor with boxes?"

"I have one box."

She walked past all of us toward the stairwell door without breaking stride or acknowledging that anyone else in the room had thoughts about her decision. The door clicked shut behind her with a sound that communicated her entire opinion about communal elevator dependency and the people who practiced it.

Koda tracked her movement with visible appreciation. "I love her already."

"You love everyone," Dash said.

"Not true. I love people who are interesting. She’s interesting." Koda turned back toward me with the pivot speed of a fighter in the ring who had just registered I was still standing there. "So, Belmont. Your girlfriend is Sloane Fitzgerald, right? Pink hair? Legendary rarity? Blew up half her testing field during the practical?"

I blinked once before I could stop myself. "How do you know that."

"The entrance exam scoreboards were posted to the student portal yesterday. Top ten results by field. She was number two in Field Five with the second-highest combat score in the entire applicant pool." Koda’s grin widened in a way that suggested she had already started planning future sparring sessions with someone she had literally never met. "I’m going to fight her. I’m going to lose. It’s going to be great."

"I’ll let her know you’re excited about it."

"Tell her I said hi. And that I’m going to hit her so hard her grandkids feel it."

"I will absolutely not tell her that."

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