Khalifa: Queen in the Apocalypse

In fact, what Cauis didn't know was that she was really planning on going to school that day.

In particular, to Botany class.

She continued going to Botany class since she'd be using the knowledge in the future. In fact, except for the one day when she couldn't stand up from the activities the night prior, she had actually not missed a single class.

She readied her laptop and other things, putting on temporary color on her hair, which would fade after several washes.

She arrived in class just in time, and sat down in her usual seat on the second row.

The semester was about to end and the basics, mostly its history, had already been covered. Other lectures like Plant structure and function, Plant cells tissues organs, and others.

Today was a particularly interesting topic: Morphology. The study of external forms of plants, which would be very important in identification and, if data was unavailable, educated guesses.

Plant diversity was next semester, so she'd have to study that herself. There were also the important plant ecology lessons, both of which would have more practical use.

Other than this, she also had to study basic gardening (because she didn't use her black land much back in her old world. Even if she did, there were magic spells to help her plant).

The Other Her's knowledge base was limited to succulents, so she didn't have a lot of ways around it.

Hence, she spent the rest of the afternoon in the library, to study what she could.

Granted, she already downloaded all she could in external drives (Cauis did, technically), but she wanted to learn the knowledge herself.

Anyway, her mage brain was wired a bit differently. In local terms, she seemed to have eidetic memory.

She settled in a relatively less crowded nook, and fortunately found an empty table. No one else was there, which was what she preferred. She liked being alone when studying.

She stayed there for a few hours and only realized how long she stayed when her stomach started growling.

"Oh, it's lunch time." She mumbled, standing up and arranging the books for return.

But as she walked out, her sharpened senses (well, relatively) heard unnatural clutters near her little nook.

She went over quickly and was very, very, surprised to see acquaintances making out.

It was Claire and Chris eating each other's mouths.

They were obviously both inexperienced at this, but they were young and passionate and they were learning very quickly.

Oh My. She didn't remember them being this open pre-apocalypse.

She took popcorn out of the space. It was harmless at first, but a piece was crunchier than the others, alerting the lovebirds.

They turned and met her eyes, looking very shocked.

"K-Khalifa?!"

"I didn't mean to disturb you, sorry." She said, a bit embarrassed, but her habit to chew when a snack was on-hand persevered.

Whatever it was, Claire was as red as an apple. "Khalifa, geez…." She covered her face but ended up burying her head on his back, hiding.

Chris looked over at the reddish cheeks of his girlfriend and felt his heart was full.

Come to think of it, he really owed this mysterious roommate a favor. Claire mentioned it was her that influenced Claire's frankness.

They had kissed a lot more often since that date, some of which were initiated by Claire.

Now, in the library, the quiet atmosphere somehow let them be a bit daring… adding tongue.

The sensation was amazing, and he wanted to do more with Claire.

But now that the moment had passed, it was time to thank this benefactor.

He stepped forward with a friendly grin. "Have you eaten lunch Khalifa?"

"Not yet."

"Shall we eat together, then?" He paused, smiling. "My treat!"

***

The trio entered the canteen gathering quite the attention. After all, Chris and Claire were the campus prince and princess.

But now they were walking with a nerdy girl whose face they could barely see.

It wasn't that they didn't know Khalifa. After all, she was the top of the batch and the consistent top of the class.

They heard that she also took the finals (which was a combination of several years of old exams), ahead of time.

The Finals, which everyone was still dreading, was actually taken by someone in advance.

These mumblings didn't bother the trio, who were really chatting about like old friends.

Claire was especially happy. She had always wanted to be closer to this roommate.

Interestingly, it was when she no longer stayed in the same room that they really became acquainted.

Khalifa was very funny and her dry humor made both of them chuckle. They didn't even realize it was their turn to order.

Khalifa ordered a bit of everything.

They were shocked by her appetite. Of course, Khalifa offered to pay for anything other than the first bento, but Chris insisted on paying for everything.

Claire looked at her worriedly. "What is it?" She leaned closer, reducing the volume of her voice as much as she could. "Are you pregnant?"

Cough!

"Of course not." Khalifa retorted almost immediately. Not only did she religiously take her medicine, but even without her power she could still check her own body for pregnancy.

It was how she knew the body before was extremely malnourished and weak, and how she had become much healthier now in comparison.

Speaking of abilities, the heroine, when she became sufficiently stronger, would discover a similar way to use her ability with her medical background.

Because the human body was predominantly water, she could use the molecules to peek at the conditions of the body. The girl discovered this herself.

Very clever.

Although Claire would only be able check within a few inches of where her hands were, it provided a lot of convenience in a world with limited medical technology preserved.

She couldn't control it though, because there was too much mixed in the blood.

To make an analogy, it would be like being able to see through a box, but incapable of pushing the same empty boxes through stone walls.

This was not the case for Khalifa, the mutated water mage, who couldn't just control water, but anything in liquid form. She could also control water itself to use it in its various forms, whether it was ice, steam, fog, etc.

As far as she knew, she had been the only one to do so.

Too bad she didn't have magic anymore…

***

The three being friendly burned Mira's eyes.

Especially Chris. When did he get close to another woman? She had never seen him smile so genuinely except when in front of Claire.

She heaved a deep breath before pasting her characteristic gentle smile, approaching the trio with a soft voice.

"Where's Laura?" She then turned to Khalifa, looking surprised. "Khalifa? Oh, it really is you…"

Khalifa was sitting slightly at an angle from where she came from, so it wasn't abrupt that she couldn't 'recognize' her from the get-go.

Claire had no idea Mira was trying to imply anything at all, as always. "She went home. Her mother is ill." She said with a worried face.

Khalifa recalled Laura was in the school when the Disaster happened. However, she did recall at some point Laura was crying to go home before the apocalypse because her mother and brother were both sent to the hospital for high fevers.

Fortunately, it was night and the girls convinced her to go the next day. Laura would've died if she had gone that day.

In any case, lunch was still decent even with the addition of Mira, though it was notable how she always shifted the conversation to Khalifa.

Of course, at the surface she was being friendly, so Khalifa answered most of her questions. "So what have you been up to lately? I haven't seen you at all…"

"I'm working on other things." She said, "Next semester I'll take advanced exams for the next year so I can graduate…"

Mira: "..."

Mira couldn't ask her any questions after that.

***

The group soon separated, with Khalifa leaving the school and the others going back to class.

Chris sent Claire to her class before going to his. He frowned and looked at Mira, who had been following. He thought she'd separate when he dropped Claire off.

"What's the matter?"

"There's something I need to tell you. Can we go somewhere private?"

He looked around and saw few people around and no one within ears reach. "This is private enough."

Mira pursed her lips, put on a very worried face in her soft expression. It just made Chris turn up his guard.

"I think… and I may be imagining things, but I think you should guard against Khalifa…" she said, whispering. "I think she likes you."

Chris almost choked on his own saliva. He could still remember how sticky Khalifa was with Kaize. "Me? No way." He said, and he said so with 100% certainty.

But he frowned and looked at Mira, making the latter blush.

Since he was slowly being 'enlightened' with Claire, he was no longer as clueless as he had been a few days prior. "I can tell when someone's trying to seduce me, Mira. Don't think I'm an idiot."

"I didn't—"

Mira thought he was just defending Khalifa. But the sharpness in his eyes made her heart drop.

"I am not calling you out in public only to save Claire the pain. But don't force me. Sometimes quick pain is better than a prolonged one."

He then faced her, a serious expression on his face, but still kept her beyond arm's reach.

"Be good to Claire, otherwise I'll force you out of her life myself."