Chapter 67: Strategies and… Love?
Noah walked toward the bench and Iris sat at the opposite end.
The distance between them was considerable.
Noah placed his food on his lap and Iris turned her phone back on.
"But don’t distract me."
"Okay."
"And don’t talk during fights."
"Got it."
"If I say a decision is bad, don’t try to argue while I’m playing."
Noah nodded.
"Understood."
Iris opened the game again and Noah caught a glimpse of her profile.
At the top appeared her username.
[CRYSTALZERO.]
Below it was an emblem for the highest rank in the game and it also showed a huge number of followers.
Noah blinked.
"Wait."
Iris looked at him.
"You said you wouldn’t distract me."
"Are you CrystalZero?"
She gripped her phone tighter.
"Yes."
"That CrystalZero?"
"I don’t know which one you mean."
"The player who reached first place using control characters."
Iris looked away.
"That was two seasons ago."
"You also created a strategy to block routes using temporary structures."
"That wasn’t a strategy, it was just a terrain interaction that nobody used correctly."
"There were videos about it."
"Most of them explained it wrong."
Noah smiled and Iris looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You’re smiling at me."
"I didn’t expect you to be a famous player."
"I’m not famous."
"Your profile has more followers than several official accounts."
"It’s not that big a deal!"
"It means a lot of people know you."
Iris lowered her gaze to her phone.
"They don’t know me."
Noah noticed the change in her voice, so he didn’t press further and Iris entered a new match.
During the first few minutes she didn’t speak.
Noah ate in silence and glanced at the screen from time to time.
Iris was controlling a different character, a defensive unit capable of creating crystal surfaces that altered the terrain.
Noah quickly recognized her plan, she was trying to funnel the enemies toward specific zones.
"You’re going to cut off their bottom exit."
He said.
Iris turned her head.
"I told you not to talk during fights."
"Sorry."
She looked back at her phone.
A few seconds later, she raised a wall and blocked the bottom exit.
Two enemies were trapped and her team eliminated them.
Iris didn’t say anything, but Noah noticed her foot moving slightly.
The match continued.
At one point her team took a bad position and Iris began to retreat.
Noah saw an opportunity.
"You can use the small structure to extend the barrier’s range."
Iris didn’t respond, but she activated the ability, making the wall appear from an angle the enemy didn’t expect and separating three opponents.
Her team won the fight and Iris looked at him.
"How did you know that would work?"
"In the game I used to play, some abilities took reference from any obstacle created by the player."
"That doesn’t appear in the description."
"But the edge of the structure glowed when you moved the indicator over it."
Iris looked at the screen again.
"You noticed that really fast."
"I had a lot of free time in my oth..."
Noah stopped himself again.
"B-Back when I used to play."
Iris kept watching him for a moment, then returned to the match.
They won five minutes later and the screen showed the results.
Iris raised her fist again.
"Nice."
Noah smiled.
"Congratulations, looks like we make a good team."
"You didn’t do anything."
"I gave you an idea."
"I was going to figure it out anyway."
"Then I just sped up the process."
Iris didn’t reply, but she also didn’t ask him to leave, and during the next few minutes they reviewed the stats together.
Iris knew every character, every item, and every recent change.
She explained the differences between team compositions, positioning mistakes, and the exact moments when a match could swing.
The more she talked, the less she resembled the quiet girl from the classroom.
"This item is a trap."
Iris said.
"Why?"
"It gives good stats, but it delays the main power spike too much."
"It could work against teams with a lot of immediate damage."
"Only if you can’t keep distance."
"Your character can’t always do that."
"Yes it can if you play it right."
"That sounds arrogant."
"It’s correct."
Noah let out a laugh and Iris looked at him.
"Did I say something funny?"
"A little."
"It wasn’t a joke."
"That makes it better."
Iris looked back at her phone, but her cheeks were slightly red.
’He’s sitting right next to me.’
She tried to focus on the stats.
’Not that close.’
She looked at the distance between them and there was almost a meter.
’But it’s still too close.’
Noah pointed at one of the numbers on the screen.
"What does that percentage mean?"
Iris felt his voice was closer.
’I shouldn’t be getting nervous.’
She had avoided Noah since the beginning of the school year not because he had done anything wrong, nor because he bothered her, but because the problem was exactly the opposite.
From the first day, Iris had noticed that Noah was attractive and later discovered that he was also kind.
He tried to greet her, asked normal questions, and never made fun of her short answers.
That only made things worse, because Iris didn’t know how to talk to boys and any conversation with one drew attention.
When Noah approached, other students looked, and when he spoke to her, Iris felt like everyone was analyzing her reactions.
She didn’t know how much she should reply, or if smiling could be interpreted strangely, or if accepting a conversation could start rumors. Plus, when Noah looked directly at her, it was hard to think clearly.
’I didn’t want him to think I’m weird.’
That was why she would walk away, it was the simplest thing, but now Noah was talking about the game.
He wasn’t looking at her like he expected a personal answer, nor was he asking about her life; he was only analyzing mechanics, strategies, and decisions.
That was something Iris handled well.
"That percentage shows damage efficiency per resource invested," she explained, and Noah tilted his head.
"Then that build is worse than it looks."
"Exactly."
"But it’s the most popular one."
"Most people just copy setups without understanding them."
"That happened in the game I knew too."
Iris looked at him again.
’I can talk about this.’
Noah continued eating and seemed comfortable.
He wasn’t pressuring her or trying to get closer.
’Maybe it’s not that hard.’
Right then, voices from several students approaching could be heard in the hallway, so Iris immediately turned off the screen and her body tensed. Noah noticed.
"Do you want to leave?"
Iris looked toward the opposite exit and for a second considered leaving, but then she looked at Noah, who remained seated without worrying about the voices.
Iris took a deep breath.
"No."
The students passed by without entering the garden and Iris turned the screen back on.
Noah didn’t make any comment and she liked that.
"Are you going to play another match?" he asked.
"Maybe."
"Can I watch?"
Iris hesitated.
’He wants to stay.’
She felt her cheeks warming again.
"Just don’t distract me."
Noah smiled.
"I’ll try."
Iris opened the matchmaking queue and Noah remembered the pin still in his pocket, but it still wasn’t the right time to give it to her.
He had finally managed to talk with Iris for the first time without her running away, so he didn’t want to ruin it by immediately explaining that she needed to become a magical girl.
For now, he could wait a few more minutes.
Iris found a match and, before starting, glanced sideways at Noah.
He was watching the screen with interest.
’He’s not so bad.’
Then she corrected her thought.
’He is bad.’
Noah was a guy, so he drew too much attention.
Besides, from what she knew, he was Yume’s boyfriend and spent time with Luna, so talking to him could cause problems.
’I’ll only let him watch this match.’
Iris selected her character, but Noah pointed to another option.
"Wouldn’t it be better to use the support unit with displacement?"
"No."
"The enemy team has two siege characters."
"That’s why I’m using this one."
"How are you going to get close?"
Iris lifted her chin a little.
"Watch."
Noah stayed quiet and the match began.
For the first time since he received the mission, Noah felt he had found a real way to get close to Iris Valentine without having to chase her or stop her in the hallways.
He just had to talk to her about something she actually cared about.
Iris, meanwhile, tried to focus on the game, but part of her attention remained aware that Noah was sitting nearby.
’Just this match.’
Her character advanced to the front line.
’Then I’ll leave.’
Noah made a comment about the enemy’s position and Iris answered immediately.
The conversation continued and, when the match ended, Iris started another one without asking him to leave.