Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer
chapter-52

The first Black Magic Class continued with Nina introducing the students to the subject.

She already set their expectations for the class and told them what's going to happen on the next class.

Once the period ended, Ashton went out of the classroom and is now headed to the Grand Library to report to work.

Today, is his turn to man the station while Aria check the durability of each books.

When he arrived there, he didn't see Chief Leon. He guessed that he must he conducting a class somewhere so he didn't bother looking for him. He heads straight to the 3rd floor and see Aria there, still immersed on her books.

This girl is really something else, now that he thought about it.

Chief Leon told him that Aria is a 2nd year student but he never saw her attending any class at all. Every time he arrives here, she's here as well. Most of the times, she's reading sometime and wouldn't even notice anybody's presence unless they do something to startle her - which usually ends-up in an embarrassing scene for Aria.

But, even though he curious about why Aria was always in the library, he never intended to ask her anything simply because they're not that close yet. Even then, he probably wouldn't ask since he doesn't want to pry.

If she wants to tell him the reason, he'd listen. If she doesn't want to, that's fine as well.

Ashton walked-up to the station, deliberately making a noise as he did so. That caused Aria to raise her head and look at him. She smiled and nodded at him. She closed her book and stood up, stretching slightly.

He blinked several times before looking away. Murmuring inwardly: 'Woman, be careful will you? Darn.'

Aria seems to have noticed Ashton acting weirdly and saw him looking away from her. That's when she realized what she just did and once again, she blushed madly.

Aria was a well-endowed girl. She's curvaceous, had a fair and supple skin as well a gorgeous black hair that flows like a waterfall behind her. Her uniform hugged her figured tightly and when she stretched, her blouse revealed some of her skin as well as emphasized her curves and her chest.

Ashton cleared his throat and said: "I'll clock-in now. I'd be on the station for today, would that be fine with you?"

"Y-yeah. I'll take care of the books. Let me just get the things here." Aria said as she bent down to gather the tools under the table.

This time, Ashton had to bite his lips and prevent himself from looking.

'Damn it, she really needs to be careful.'

Even though Ashton was looking up front, he could still see the 'audacious' sight next to him.

Really, this girl is too careless. Bending over like this without even thinking. Had she been with the wrong guy, things would've gotten more chaotic.

Aria doesn't seem to notice it this time. She just grabbed the things she needed and stood-up. She then noticed that Ashton seems a bit stiff, he wasn't saying anything so she just said that she's going to do her job now.

Ashton just nodded and Aria just walked away.

As she began checking the durability of the books, Aria couldn't help but feel distracted. For some reason, she felt like she was missing something. The stiff expression of Ashton was bothering her for some reason.

She tried to get her mind out of it but it was really bothering her so she decided to stop for a bit and think. She recalled what happened and murmured:

'Weird, I don't remember doing anything though. I just stretched and he looked away, I noticed that and that was embarrassing but he seems to recover from that quick so it's nothing anymore.'

'Then, he told me he's manning the station, then I said I'm going to do this, then I be-...'

"Oh my god!" Aria exclaimed out loud when she realized it.

Due to them being in the Library, Ashton heard this so he stood up to check what happened to her.

He then found aria slumped on the ground in between bookshelves, red as a tomato and covering her face.

"Hey, hey. What's wrong? What happened?" He asked softly, still maintaining distance.

"A-ah! No, uhm...I-it's uh...a cockroach. Yes, I saw a cockroach and I freaked out because it flew."

Aria was shocked to see him here, thankfully she managed to think of an excuse for what happened.

"O-oh." Ashton was somehow relieved for some reason. "Where was it? Did you kill it?"

"M-mn." She nodded, "I think I hit it with a spell and it died. I don't see it anymore."

"That's good." Ashton sighed. He looked convinced by this excuse so he stood-up and asked: "Are you going to be fine? We can switch you know."

"No, no. I'll be fine." She shook her head, somewhat avoiding his gaze now. "Y-you can go back and man the station. I'll be good here."

Ashton nodded softly and said: "Alright, if you say so. But if you change your mind, just tell me."

Aria nodded and saw him walking away. Once he disappeared from her vision. She sighed and relief and clutched her chest. Her heart was beating so fast right now.

'Idiot. Idiot. Idiot!!' She berated herself inwardly.

She stood up and found a seat nearby where she can calm down for a bit. The reason why she screamed was because she just realized that she did something careless and bit indecent.

'I can't believe this! I'm such an idiot! How am I supposed to face him now?' Aria huffed and felt like crying. 'I literally was pushing my ass to him. How could I do that? What was I thinking?'

'And I was supposed to be the senior here. Ugh.' Aria wanted to pull all of her hair out in stress.

'Wait!!' She just got reminded of something. 'Did he look!? Don't tell me looked!? No, I must check.'

In her panic, she swiftly accessed her smartwatch which is connected to the library's network. She accessed the security cameras and saw Ashton reading a book at the station.

He looked as if nothing just happened. All of his attention was focused on the book which caused Aria to be relieved.

She then replayed the recording until around the time where he arrived. She watched as how she, like the dumbass that she is, careless stretched in front of him. She then saw Ashton blinking then looking away almost immediately.

Next, she saw how she bent down, back arching while Ashton stood behind her. She then saw how he mechanically twisted his body away, and stared somewhere else, but it was obvious that he was trying so hard not look.

Aria bit her lips in embarrassment. Then she saw herself walking away after saying something. She saw Ashton looking at her and sighing once she's done. He shook his head and slapped his cheeks, then he took out several books and began reading them.

Aria stopped looking at the footage after that. She rested her back on the seat in relief.

He didn't look. He tried his best not to. She can accept that at least.

At least he wasn't like others she worked with before. There were many working students who became her partner in this job once and all of them, be it a girl or a boy, couldn't keep their hands to themselves. They even had the audacity to blame her that it's her fault for being so suggestive.

That ended-up with them being kicked out of the job or worst, being expelled from the Academy itself.

The situation with Ashton was a bit different since she was the one who's careless. Aria would've truly be unable to forgive herself if he loses his job because of her carelessness.

Ashton was the only boy whom she felt comfortable working with. She wouldn't want to be the cause of him losing this job if she could help it.

"I should really pay attention next time." She whispered to herself. She stood up with the intent of continuing her work. "Chief Leon would probably see this and scold me again."

She sighed and continued her work. She had to finish before Ashton's shift is over since this is the only time when she can do it.

Meanwhile, Ashton already forgot about the incident. Currently, he's absorbed to whatever he's reading.

No one else is in the 3rd floor right now aside from the two of them. Since Aria was doing something, nobody was really disturbing him.

Right now, Ashton was doing some advance reading for the classes he has. He figured that it wouldn't hurt to read in advance just so that he can be prepared.

The book he's reading right now is about Magic 101, something Aisha was carrying around as well.

Here he saw some activities that would help beginners to move mana inside their bodies more efficiently. He planned on memorizing the book before his shift ends so that he can practice at home.