This wasn't in the curriculum

Orifil was the lover everyone wanted and the husband no one wanted. To put it nicely, he was a flower that attracts bees and butterflies. To put it plainly, he was a scumbag playboy. He treated his date with utmost care and attention but within two months they’d be kicked to the curb and replaced with a new love. Raising them up with so much fanfare and then ruthlessly pushing them down from the apex.

How very ‘thoughtful’ of the nephilim.

Hale looked down at the person he couldn’t bring himself to like.

It is said that people showed their truest self at their most vulnerable. Then was this Orifil’s true self? The confident, ever-smiling young man’s mouth was uncharacteristically downturned and he tried to hide his tattered wing behind his back awkwardly.

There wasn’t anyone else in the space and from the direction of the blood splatters on Orifil’s clothes, it looked like he plucked his own feathers.

Hale put his palms together and gave his most dopey look. “Sorry, senior! I’m a fan of the famous Morinith so I just had to explore the magnificent craft he designed! I can leave if I’m disturbing you.”

“Oh, really?” Orifil’s face seemed to regain some color. “When was the Seraph’s Wings first conceptualized?”

“In the first half of N.A. 199… or so it was widely believed, but! The interview in Form[Shapes] Digest confirmed that it was a year earlier.”

“Name 5 of the rarest materials used in the ship.”

Hah, are you looking down on the Watchers?

The nephilim threw tricky questions one after another and Hale answered them with ease except for some of the hardest which he returned wrong answers on purpose.

Hale narrowed his eyes behind the large glasses and said in a muted tone, “Senior… I suspect that you…”

“W-what? I have nothing to be guilty of!”

Ha, ha, is breaking hundreds of hearts nothing to be guilty of?

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and exclaimed, “Are a fan too?!”

“You could say that…” Orifil rubbed his hair-feather evasively.

Sensing that there was a story here, Hale pushed his luck. Blame it on the occupational hazard.

“It’s so hard to find one these days… Morinith hasn’t released a new work since the celestials named him a traitor 21 years ago. Isn’t it funny that they’re making money off his work on one hand and calling him a traitor on another? Ah!!! Sorry, senior!” It belatedly hit Hale that he overspoke. His conversation partner was half a celestial. “I was only referring to the Council.”

Orifil wondered if the kid before him knew something because he kept stabbing him with knives. But his suspicions evaporated upon seeing the ordinary face and dorky glasses. Yes, Orifil didn’t realize it himself but he tended to judge by appearance.

If Hale knew what he was thinking, he would proclaim his innocence. The boy probed because he didn’t know anything but who’d expect to probe the hornet’s nest?

Orifil suddenly walked to the wall and it turned transparent after he typed something on a panel. The night view was pretty but there were many distractions, the biggest of which was the ragged wing Hale had full view to. The bleeding had stopped but he definitely needed medical attention.

The nephilim tapped the glass that separated him from the outside. The glass was so clear that it felt like he could touch the sky if he simply reached out but he knew there was an insurmountable barrier between them.

“Who worked most closely with Morinith on the Seraph’s Wings?”

Wasn’t Q&A over? Hale sighed but with the status of a fan, he could only answer dutifully. “I believe it’s the avian animus engineer, Qian.”

“Pin pon! That’s right. And I’m their son.”

“But…” Hale’s science scores were pretty good. He clearly remembered learning in Biology of Celestials that they were born from a tower that housed divine power and not through sexual reproduction. Which meant that the bodies of celestials had no reproductive function and they couldn’t mate with those from the other realms.

Come to think of it, he knew through his memories that the nephilim was a half but it didn’t occur to him how that came to be.

Hale didn’t know if Orifil was particularly depressed that night or if he found it easier to talk to strangers or if he liked that Hale was a fan (Hale’s regret for picking that persona is skyrocketing every minute) of his parent but Orifil bombarded Hale with bombshells that Hale wished Orifil kept to himself.

Is it too late to leave now?