Chapter 41

Strength is not the only way

  Hans was itching to refute but this was his reality. He punched the ground in agony and before anything else happened, the physical education professor and his assistant made their presence felt. The hierarchy was set so there was no need to turn it into a dogfight.

She said to him,

I will claim that wish, sometime soon, so be ready, Shorty.

  Chris grabbed hold of Hans and pulled him back. Hans did not understand what happened at the last moment, he clearly felt that someone was behind him, he instinctively dodged her but she appeared out of nowhere and the result was his defeat.

He asked Chris,

Hey, what the hell happened? I clearly felt her from behind.

my friend, the moment you went for her, was the moment your defeat was written.

What?

Why do you think she was glaring at you?

Hans was thinking and got many possible answers but none of them was satisfactory. Chris understood that and answered,

It's simple, you are short-fused, and she expected you to explode. She rejected the duel with you so it agitated you more and with the handicap too. She knew your pride won't allow you a handicap battle and you will either propose the same or reject it completely but see, what happened when you rejected her proposal. you got manipulated and proposed the same condition.

  Hans looked back at his past actions and everything Chris was saying felt true. he realised that she was in control of everything from the very beginning. He was glaring at Chris for not mentioning this sooner.

Looking at his dubious glare, Chris refuted instantly,

You idiot I was telling you from the start to not fight her, I even warned you before you went on and challenged her.

  Hans admitted he was adamant about not listening to him since the beginning and now he had an embarrassing defeat to bear, on top of that, he didn't know what that manipulative Elf wants from him. The thing which was troubling him the most was why he felt her behind but not from the right. So he asked this from Chris and he replied,

Hans, you are not proficient in duelling, right?

  Hans acknowledged Chris's words. He was more prone to fighting beasts or heavy foes like Rudolf and Aldrich, who didn't use their head in battle because they didn't feel the need. But this was not a reason to be mistaken about the presence he felt behind him.

  It started in his early days when he could instinctively detect anyone aiming at him in close proximity. He soon got the answer he was looking for by Chris's next words.

And you are extra sensitive to intent, too.

What's that?

It means you could feel that something intends to harm you or not. This is called battle sense, usually, a knight develops this.

Yes... I guess.

Chris smiled at him and said,

It's a very good thing to have but Deli exploited it against you since you can't differentiate intent and presence.

Hans was looking at him with more doubt in his eyes so Chris explained further.

If someone doesn't intend to hurt you, your battle sense won't alert you, that's why she flicked you like she was playing. Her emotions did not contain the intention to hurt you so when you couldn't feel her intent you unconsciously focussed on the changes in the environment to feel her presence.

Hans reiterated the words which he understood,

so feeling the intent means battle sense and observing the change in environment is what you call presence, these are the two ways for finding the location of the enemy in the battle, right?

yes, She distracted you with the gust of wind because you don't know the difference between intent and presence since you are not well-versed in fighting mages, well most of us are not either but she is different.

  Hans couldn't understand it completely but the gist was, he lost because is misunderstood the gust behind him as her and she suppressed her emotions that rendered his battle sense useless.

  it was not an overstatement that she was currently the strongest one but one thing that was bothering him more was how come she and Chris knew this when he himself was not even aware of it.

He asked back Chris,

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Hey, one more thing, how do you two know my strengths and flaws?

I found out because of the way you lost but she, that's how keen she is, she only required to see you fight once and she could practically dissect every flaw in you, or how to use your strength against you.

  Before knowing about her prowess he was still confident in defeating her but now his confidence was shaking. That keen observation of hers was not something that a person could have without going through intense training. Apart from her odd behaviour, this was enough to earn her his respect.

The physical education professor looked at Delimira and Hans and asked,

Do you two have problems?

  Delimira confidently denied and Hans followed. The physical education professor was a retired knight with a big scarred face through his eyes. The assistant confidently followed him and announced,

For the whole first year, you all will have to be present here in the morning and our professor will guide you to keep you healthy. We won't be doing some intense things like your peers from earlier but the light exercises. So form a line and get started.

  With five laps around the ground, all forty children of class A ran approx five kilometres and with the light stretches were dismissed to their dorms.

  Hans, who was feeling embarrassed before, recovered during the exercises. He wowed to recover his honour in future but the lost wager was troubling him. He repeatedly asked Chris what she would ask of him but Chris cheerfully enjoyed the fact that he was possibly off the hook from Delimira.

Hans called him,

Hey buttstabber, you ready?

Chris sighed,

Are you really gonna keep calling me that,

Yes, buttstabber, you sold me out.

Buddy, I didn't sell you out, ask her why she is so infatuated with you.

Like hell, she would answer.

Yeah, let's go. It would be more embarrassing than the morning's blunder if we get late on our first day..pft...

  Hans ignored his teasing and both of them left the dorm building. Exiting the building, Chris inwardly stopped when he noticed Delimira waiting for them and was ready to run away but she caught him.

You have really grown something down since we left home, haven't you?

  Hans chuckled and felt relieved that he was not alone with her and was glaring at his buttstabber friend who was ready to run, leaving him alone with her without even warning him.

  Chris sighed and led the trio to the lecture halls. Hans and Delimira were already famous and he was profiting from their reputations. Many people approached him because Delimira's face clearly said, mind your own business and Hans was just plain scary after his stunt in the initiation ceremony. The only approachable person in their group was Chris and he was enjoying his day because unlike before Delimira was not focussing her attention on him.

Hans sighed and turned to her,

Just tell me what you want.

What, can't wait?

The tension is killing me.

She smiled all of a sudden and said to him,

Good for you then.

  Hans felt that talking with her was like he was in an anger management class. He kept breathing to calm his mind. The three of them reached the lecture hall and Chris dragged Hans at the back. Hans asked him why they were sitting at the back and Chris looked at Delimira who was planning to sit at the front.

Hans whispered to him,

Nice.

But soon after they separated, Delimira came and sat beside Hans at the back. Hans whispered to Chris again,

Swap seats with me.

Am I out of my mind?

You buttstabber.

Buddy, I can stab you several times wherever you want but just keep her off my back.

Chris looked at Hans pitifully and added,

I am sure now, you are the new toy.

  Seeing both of them whispering, Delimira got annoyed as she was listening to everything while the other party was whispering as softly as possible. Pointing her finger at Hans, she said,

Hey shorty, I am claiming my wish now,

What?

You need to do what I ask of you, without asking questions

Hans annoyingly replied,

In plain words, you are telling me to be your slave, and without any time limit too.

Then how about you follow me for three months, I can't reduce more than this.

Heck no, a month at most.

Fine, shorty.

Chris facepalmed and said to Hans,

How gullible you can be, you idiot.

  Hans realised that he got played again and it was into a month of slavery but what can he do but tolerate her for a month? Chris was the only one who was happy right now and was chirping with others.

  Their homeroom teacher came and the class became silent, she introduced herself as Janet Rease, a high Knight of grade 47. She was responsible for the A class. She only demanded one thing in front of them, " The 'A' class is the cream of the crop and all students must be promoted to the next year's class."

  Getting as many students promoted to the next year will give her merit so she was fully invested in the students and seeing her confident look. All the students got motivated and replied to her in unison that they understood.

  After the little introduction, she told them the first lecture will be on Concordia’s history by none other than the Dean of the Foundation department, Professor Martha.

  Hans felt uncomfortable hearing her name, last time she looked like she had given up the prejudice against him for being a recommended student but having to see her was not what he wanted right now.

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