Chapter 24. New strategy

"Ken! Time to get up!" Shouted Emma as the girls waited outside of Ken's dorm on a Tuesday morning about a month into the second semester.

Shortly after, Ken opened his dorm door and greeted the girls before walking up to Lovetta and pressed her into his chest.

"Happy Birthday Lovetta! I will buy you food today! Whatever you want to eat." Ken offered while hugging the wolf girl tightly.

With her ears perked and tail wagging, Lovetta happily accepted the hug while the other girls watched in jealousy.

"Ken, do you even remember when my birthday is?" Alice asked as the group headed to the dining hall to group some breakfast.

"Of course, I remember the birthday of every single one of you. Emma is on 2/2, Alice your birthday is on 2/14, Clare is on 7/7, Lovetta is today 8/15 and Genesis is on 12/31." Ken answered confidently.

"I can't believe Genesis is even younger than you are. How did they even figure your birthday is on 12/25?" Alice asked curiously.

"According to my adoptive mother, someone find me in the middle of the road early morning of the 26th and from the way I looked, they were pretty sure I am a newborn no older than a day and so when my mother took me in, she decided that my birthday was on the 25th"

"What about Emma?" Clare asked this time as the group got interested in how the orphans knew about the day they were born.

"Supposedly, from the story old man John told me. Emma's parents were from wealthy families that fell in love and had to elope because obviously one was an elf, and one was human. Not sure where they were from or how they met but they lived in the village until they ran out of money shortly after Emma was born and decided to just abandon her and just left one night.

They left a note on my mother's door since they knew she took in abandoned kids and since Emma was born in the village, we knew exactly the day her mother delivered. Terrible people for sure, when I was growing up, I hated how her parents could just abandon her." Ken answered while remembering how much he hated Emma's parents when he was growing up even though he had never met them.

When the group arrived at the dining hall, Lovetta went with her normal free breakfast and extra free servings from Alice and Clare and told Ken that they would go to town for dinner, and he could treat her then. Emma, Ken and Genesis also got the free breakfast since staff members like Emma are also provided with the same daily free meals as the students.

After about a month at the academy, Emma is now pretty used to her daily life. Growing up having to take care of her family at a young age, doing the chores as a housekeeper including cleaning the garden and general areas, cleaning the private rooms and dorms and cooking and cleaning the dishes when on dining hall duty provided Emma with no challenge and she had no trouble with her daily duties. While not working, Emma of course, spent all of her time with Ken and the girls.

For Ken, with Alice providing him with private tutoring on every subject, the beginner classes were no longer able to keep pace. To use his time as wisely as possible, Ken stopped attending all of the beginner courses and is currently only going to his physical training, martial arts and weapon techniques classes.

Since he already passed the beginner portions on both the physical and elemental practical exams, Ken had no more reasons to attend those classes and decided to train and learn from Alice, Lovetta and Clare instead and hoped that he could pass the intermediate level on the finals and start next year joining the advanced courses.

Lovetta on the other hand, struggled greatly with the written courses that she simply couldn't keep up with and when Ken decided to stop attending, she lost all of her reason to attend as well. To help and prevent her from having to drop out, Ken was doing his best to tutor Lovetta with Emma tagging along on the basics in hopes that she would be able to retain some of that knowledge, but things are not looking great for Lovetta.

"You know Lovetta, if you don't start remembering those lessons, you will be kicked out in 4 months and be forced to go back home, and I won't get to see you ever again." Ken commented trying to motivate Lovetta into putting more effort into her studying.

"It's fine, I will just get a job here like Emma did. I have already spoken with Agnes, and they are more than happy to hire ex-students who are already familiar with the academy ground and are willing to do the work." Lovetta replied casually, already given up on passing her written portion.

"Isn't your dad the chief of your tribe? I don't think he would be happy that his daughter ended up working as a housekeeper when she had the potential to achieve greatness. Emma isn't here working as a maid because she wants to you know. She had no other choice, and you are here trying to waste this one in a million opportunity." Ken continued, trying to guilt trip Lovetta knowing just how rare an opportunity it is to be selected and how much of a wasted potential it would be if she had to drop out.

"I really tried my best, I promise! But I am not smart like you Ken! I am just good at physical enhancement and nothing else!" While Lovetta protested, Ken suddenly had a light bulb go off and realized the resolution.

"I got it!" Ken shouted excitedly.

"I scare myself with how smart I am sometimes. Why haven't any of you suggested this." Ken asked in disappointment to the confused girls, none of which had no idea what he was talking about.

"Achieving advanced level on all the subjects by the end of year 3 and you are good for at least five years at the academy right. And passing an expert level on any exam within 5 years, you will be good for the next three years.

Why haven't any of you suggested to Lovetta to just ditch all the useless subjects and just focus on physical training and if she could pass expert level by the end of this year. Wouldn't she be guaranteed enrollment for the next 7 years?"

Shocked at Ken's logic, Alice and Clare agreed that what he said made total sense, but they just never thought about it this way since it's so much easier to pass the beginner sections rather than getting to expert level.

"Alright Lovetta, change of plans! Won't force you to do any more studying but you need to put in extra effort into your physical training to make sure you pass the expert level which I totally believe you can!" Ken said happily while also getting Lovetta excited. Mostly, she is just happy that she no longer had to worry about lessons in language, numbers, history or science. Getting to focus on the things she is good at is just icing on the cake.

Excited that he was able to figure out a new strategy to help Lovetta enrolled in the academy, Ken spent the free time they had in between lessons to help come up with a new schedule for Lovetta to follow and after their physical training class ended, the group met up in the common room and headed to town to have a nice dinner.

"I am not skipping my 8pm class." Clare stated, not happy that Ken decided to skip the weapon techniques class with Lovetta.

"Come on Clare! It's just one class! Won't you feel guilty that you would rather go to class that I know you don't need at all since you are already beyond that level than be at your friend's birthday party?"

"Nope. I will just pay for the meal and leave early so I can make it to my lesson on time."

"If you offer to pay for the food. Then I will go buy a cake. Lovetta! Alice! You two come with me to the bakery and help me pick out a cake. I only had them once at the banquet, so I wouldn't know which would be good."

After leaving the academy grounds, the six split into two groups with Clare, Genesis and Emma headed for the restaurant to get the food ordered, while Ken with Lovetta and Alice each holding one of his arms headed for the bakery to buy a birthday cake.

The group decided to eat at the restaurant where they had the feast a month earlier since the food tasted great and it was easier for the two parties to meet up at a known location. When Ken and the two girls arrived at the restaurant with the cake, their table was already full of food since Clare does not know how to hold back and always goes all out with her ordering.

Not long after the group started eating and having a great time, Clare got up to get ready to pay for the feast so she could make it back to school in time for her lesson. As she started to walk away from the table, Ken sneaked up behind her and lifted the startled elf girl off the floor and carried her back to the table.

With Lovetta to his left and now Clare to the right, Ken held both girls tightly and made the final ruling that Clare was not allowed to leave. Since Ken was clearly right that missing a class for Clare was no big deal, she did not put up a fight and the group continued with the feast, laughing and joking while having a great time.

From a malnourished boy who was noticeably underweight, Ken had packed on a lot of muscle mass and size over the past half a year from proper nutrition and training and his appetite is getting to the point of rivaling Lovetta. The table full of dishes that seemed way too much for 6 people slowly disappeared as the night went on and as the empty dishes got removed by the waitress, Ken placed the cake he bought onto the table while the group sang a birthday song for Lovetta.

For Emma, who had never had cake before, she was appalled when Ken told her it cost 20 points but when she had her first bite, she was shocked at how something could be this fluffy, airy, sweet and delicious.

"Why don't you girls eat this every day! This tastes so good!' Emma asked in shock and bewilderment that girls such as Clare and Alice who are wealthy aren't eating something that is great every meal.

"You know Emma, stuff like cake and sweets are made from things that will make you gain weight super quickly! If you were to eat it every day, you will get plump like Agnes and Ken will no longer find you attractive and he will dump you for a more attractive girl!" Alice answered half-jokingly while Emma made a mental note to try and never eat cake ever again.

After Ken and Lovetta finished up whatever leftover food still remained, the group left the restaurant late into the night and leisurely walked back towards the academy.

Since Ken's confession of love, the girls decided on a few things amongst each other to keep things fair and equal so no fights would break out. First decision of the group is that Emma and Lovetta had to get protection magic done as well so none of the five could make love with Ken in secrecy and the two reluctantly agreed.

Once all five girls had protection spells cast, they all decided to try their best to keep all the other girls away from Ken and so far, they haven't had to do much since Ken's reputation amongst the first-year student is still the worse and no one especially no girl would approach the group much less trying to get friendly with Ken.

After the group reached the common room, it was almost midnight and even though Ken, Genesis, Alice and Lovetta could sleep in since Ken and Lovetta no longer had any classes to attend on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Clare still had to get up early for class and Emma for work.

Another decision the girls made is to register all five for both rooms that Clare and Alice are paying for so they could move around freely as needed. With Clare and Emma having to get up early, Lovetta will be staying in Alice's room tonight so the three can sleep in without getting disrupted by Clare and Emma.

When the group reached the staircase, before they could head up, someone tapped Ken on the shoulders.

"Hello, I am sorry to bother you so late at night, but I am really desperate, and I have no one else to turn to." A soft quivering voice spoke.

When Ken turned around, he was met with the petite merman girl he almost ran over on the first day of second semester and she looked to be in distress. With her eyes bloodshot seemingly from a lot of crying and her body shaking uncontrollably, even the girls who all vowed to keep girls away from Ken couldn't help but feel concerned for her wellbeing and offered a helping hand.

Since it's so late into the night, after verifying with the merman girl that her dorm room is a safe place for her to stay. Ken told her to remain calm, try to get some sleep and they would come to pick her up tomorrow morning at 8:30 and they could discuss what she needed over breakfast.

After walking the girl to her dorm room to make sure nothing happens, Ken said good night to Clare and Emma as they headed to bed for an early morning and told Lovetta to come and get him around 8:15 so they can all escort the merman girl tomorrow.

When all the details were set, Ken wished Lovetta a happy birthday one last time and the group parted ways as Ken went back to his dorm room hoping that he didn't just get involved in any situation that's too big for him to deal with.