It’s been a few weeks since the duel happened, and Arnold transferred to a different class. I hadn’t seen him since then and as a result, had a somewhat peaceful life at the academy. The only part of my day which broke the peaceful atmosphere was after school, whenever I went to the library. Every time I was there, Lulli would always follow me around, trying to find out what I was researching. Though her presence wasn’t unpleasant, I couldn’t get any of my research done. It was more like I was keeping her company while she worked.
One day, Harry had an announcement.
“Alright everyone, the Selection Tournament is coming up. It’s a tournament to select three squads who will make up one team to represent our academy at the Phantom Squad Selections and will compete against two other academies. There will be three divisions for the Selection Tournament. Division 1 will be all A and B classes. Division 2 will be all C and D, and Division 3 will be all E and F classes. This tournament is not mandatory; however, if you were to win in the Selection Tournament, you’d be exempt from all school work for the rest of the year. If you were to win the Phantom Squad Selection, you’d have an early graduation and be shipped off to the front lines to fight against the Phantoms. For the Selection Tournament, you’ll have to form your own team of three. That’s all.”
When Harry finished his announcement, the class was in an uproar.
“Exempt from all school work, doesn’t that sound great?!”
“Yeah! I’m so psyched to aim for top now!”
The merry atmosphere was interrupted by a certain individual entering the room.
“Don’t be stupid. You guys will be going against upperclassmen that have been blessed by a god. There’s no way freshmen who aren’t blessed like you can win.”
The person had a haughty attitude. Standing at 110 cm, he had brown hair and brown eyes. Everyone looked down at him but there was a bit of fear in their eyes. Some were speaking in whispers.
“Oi… Isn’t that Torauk Nordukr? The Dwarf that was blessed by Hephasteus?”
“What’s a third year doing here?”
As his entrance caused a commotion, he slowly approached me with an haughty aura surrounding him. He scanned me once over.
“Are you Jin Crimson?”
“Who’s asking?”
“Torauk Nordukr. I heard you possess an ability to cut magic and regenerate. I’d like you to join my team for the Selection Tournament.”
As I pondered, my question was already answered for me.
“He refuses.”
It was Aiex.
“Who are you to answer for him?”
“His teammate.”
“Hoh~ You’re going to be entering the Selection Tournament as well? Very well, you can join my team as well.”
“... That won’t be happening.” said Aero as she entered the conversation.
“Like she said.”
“And why is that?”
“... I’m their third member.”
“Hoh~ Interesting… But why don’t we hear the answer from the man himself?”
As Torauk rebuked Aiex and Aero, their gazes were focused on me. I let out a tired sigh.
“Like they said, Torauk. I won’t be joining your team.”
Torauk stood there with eyes full of anger; eventually he let out a huge sigh and headed towards the exit.
“Very well… I’ll be seeing you guys at the finals, then. If you can make it, that is,” he said with an evil grin.
As Torauk exited, the class was once again in an uproar. It took a while but Harry managed to calm them down. Class proceeded without any problems.
Lunchtime came and Aiex, Aero, and I headed towards the roof with our food. There, we were greeted by Lulli. She has been joining us for lunch since we’ve met. She greeted Aiex and Aero with ‘I’m here to become close friends with Jin.’ and the three of them clicked right away. I always asked her why she didn’t hang out with her other friends and gave me an instant reply of ‘I see them enough during class.’
“Heh~ So you guys will be entering in the Selection Tournament? Interesting~”
“Well… Aiex already decided for me so I guess I’ll go along with it. I don’t see anything special about it anyways.”
“What?! Jin please. No matter how much of a country bumpkin you are, how can you not understand how special the tournament is? Listen, being in the top 9 is an honor. Even getting to the top 9 of any division will have major families and organizations keeping an eye on you. It’ll also increase your family’s reputation and build your connection network. Right, Aero?”
“... Mhm.”
“Still… I don’t see what’s so special about it. Besides, we have two more years. Why did you decide to enter this year?”
“It’s something my late father wanted me to do. He told me, ‘When you enter the academy, you must enter the selection tournament despite your year. It’ll be good experience for you,’ or so he says. So will you help me, Jin?”
“Well… I guess so. I just don’t want to attract any unwanted trouble.”
Upon agreement, Aiex hit me in the back with excessive strength, saying thanks. With this our team was formed.
“Hoh~ Maybe I should join too, then.”
“Do you already have a team?” I asked.
“Well~ A second year asked me and my friend to join her during class today. I told her I’d think about it while my friend agreed right away. Since you guys are entering, I guess I’ll enter as well.”
“Oh. Too bad we can’t fight each other with you being in class 1-A and all. I really want to see what you can do.”
“... Me too. Especially because Jin seems to be interested in you.”
“Oi Oi… I never said anything about that.”
“Really now Jin?”
Aiex and Aero made up a false accusation to tease me with smiling faces though Aero just had a small smile. Though I knew it was a joke, it seems that Lulli didn’t and looked away with a red bashful face. Aero then proceeded to clear up the misunderstanding.
“... Lulli, it was a joke.”
“O-Oh. A joke…” she said in a low tone.
Lunch was about to end as Lulli departed from us to head to her class. As we were walking, Aiex ran ahead saying he had something to do until…
“Ow! Watch where you’re going, plebian.” said a girl in a noble-like tone.
The girl was almost as tall as Aiex but a bit taller than me, around 175 cm. With long red hair and grey-ish green eyes, she gave off an imperial aura. She had a beautiful figure with perfect curves. Truly, a sight for sore eyes but… her personality had problems.
“Oh. I’m sorry about that. Are you alright?”
As Aiex extended his hands out to help the girl, she slapped it away and proceeded to stand up herself.
“Hmph. Who do you think you are, talking to me in that tone? I am Étoile Terra, the daughter of the headmaster. With this knowledge, learn your place.”
“Well… I’ll apologize but since you won’t accept it, I can’t do anything. I’ll be leaving then. Let’s go Jin, Aero.”
As we were following Aiex back to our classroom, we heard a scream from behind us.
“Who do you think you are to brush me off like I’m dirt?!”
“Hmm? I don’t think I’m anything. I just bumped into you and apologized. That’s all there is to it.”
“You call that an apology? You should’ve been on your knees.”
“... You… ”
As Aero was about to release major killing intent from the annoyance, Aiex stopped her as he put his hand in front of her. I then tried to break up the fight.
“Um… It was just an accident. How about we just leave it at that and forget all about it?”
“Hmph! No way I can forget a disgrace such as this. You… who do you think you are giving me orders?”
“Well since you won’t be accepting my apology I guess I’ll take my leave.”
Once more, we turned around and was about to leave. Then, Étoile took off her gloves and threw them at Aiex.
“Pick it up. I, Étoile Terra, challenge you to a duel. If I win, you’re to get on your knees and apologize to me.”
“Oh? What if I win?”
“That’s not gonna happen but if you win… I’ll listen to one command of yours.”
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With an intrigued expression, Aiex put his hand on his chin and looked down at her breast and said ‘Anything, huh?’ Once Étoile found out what he was looking at, she covered herself and said in a flustered tone,
“A-Anything but perverted stuff, you-you beast!”
“I was only joking. I’m not a pervert after all.”
“Or so you say,” I said jokingly.
“Really Jin… Well, I’ll take you up on the challenge. When and where?”
“Hmph. Good. It’ll be in front of the Education Hall tomorrow after school. Don’t worry, they have Nurse Aeros’s barrier for dueling everywhere.”
“Oh~? Well then, I’ll see you there.”
Due to the commotion we arrived late to class. Mr. Fenris sure wasn’t happy about that. We were punished and forced to hold weights with our arm straight while running a mile. It wasn’t as cruel as Master’s but it was still kind of tough. School ended peacefully and I headed towards the library.
“Hey Jin~”
“... Hi Lulli.”
“You’re here once more. So~? What will you be researching?”
“Oi Oi… We’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks you know. I haven’t even been able to do my research since you’ve been following me around trying to find out. Don’t you have your own work to do?”
“Well~ Not really. Not many people come to the library and at most we’ll only get twenty people so it should be fine.”
As I let out a tired sigh, I stared at Lulli’s mischievous smiling face. Once again, I was not able to start on my research and accompanied Lulli as she worked. Our conversations were pretty plain, we just talked about our past, hobbies, and what happened during class.
“Oh right. After you left, Aiex bumped into this girl named Étoile today on accident. She caused a huge commotion and ended up challenging Aiex to a duel. Thanks to her, we were forced to run a mile with weights attached. It was really tiring.”
“Huh? Étoile?”
“You know her?”
“Mhm~ She’s my friend and teammate who’s going to be participating in the Selection Tournament.”
“Oh. That’s interesting. That must mean she’s pretty strong right?”
“Yea. I’ve sparred against her a few times and can certainly say that she’s strong. Though, she uses a really unique weapon.”
“What would that be?”
“Well~ You see, it’s … ”
“Really?! This duel just might be interesting to watch.”
At my surprised expression, Lulli let out a little giggle. Lulli then said with a smile,
“Despite her self-centered personality, she's a really good girl. So once this duel is over, please try to get along with her okay? I want you guys to be friends with my friends too. I’ll even talk to her afterwards.”
“O-okay, I’ll try.”
Her smile caught me by surprise. It was quite cute, I might say. ‘If it wasn’t only for the fact that she seems to always be planning something… ’ I thought to myself.
The rest of the day passed by like usual and my excitement for tomorrow’s duel was reaching its peak. ‘I could finally see what Aiex can do.’ I thought to myself before I slept.
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After school, I parted ways with Jin and Aero. As I was walking home, I encountered some thugs who seemed like they were waiting for me. A black-haired guy with an ugly face came out. He looked to be their leader.
“Are you Aiex Tsukaru?”
“Oh? Mhm. Who might you guys be?”
“You don’t need to know. All you need to know is, you. die. here.”
“Really now?”
As I dropped my backpack, one of the ruffians attacked me with a steel pipe. I stopped it with one hand and stared at him with a bored expression. He looked surprised. I crushed the pipe with my bare hands and the ruffian fell on the spot. He fainted out of fear.
“Y-You bastard!”
“I really don’t want to do this, so can we end it here? I probably already know who hired you too, so can I just go home?”
“D-Don’t mess with us! Guys, attack!”
One by one, the ruffians surrounded me. I counted around 20 in total excluding the one who fainted. As I let out a huge sigh and said ‘Really now… ,’ they started their onslaught. Since it was against the rules to harm normal people unless they took out a deadly weapon, like a knife, I couldn’t physically attack.
I grabbed all their steel pipes, crushed them all into a ball and threw it into a trashcan. The ruffians then backed away in fear. The leader had a surprised look on his face. Then, a brown little stray puppy passed by. I accidentally let out an ‘Aww… ’. The leader of the ruffians took hold of the puppy and pulled a knife out.
“Take another step and I’ll slice this dog’s head off.”
My nerve was struck. The leader had an ugly distorted smile on his face.
“You...you dare involve an innocent life like that? It’s a cute little puppy, no less.”
“Hmph, like I care. This is just another filthy mutt, like you. Guys, get him.”
As the ruffians surrounded me once more, wearing their disgusting smiles, I could no longer hold back my anger. The sound of thunder could be heard even though the sky was clear. As blue lightning struck my two arms, I equipped my gauntlets, the ‘Thunder Breakers’.
“Gauntlets ON.”
“W-what do you think you’re doing? Don’t you care what happens to this dog?” said the leader with a dreadful face full of fear. “B-besides, you’re not allowed to harm us normal people!”
“Hahahahaha… Looks like you got the rules wrong. You see, I’m not allowed to harm normal people unless they take out a deadly weapon. In your hand is a knife. That’s classified as a deadly weapon.” My tone was low and chilly.
Blue lightning struck the ground and my opponents surrounding me were blown away and collided with the buildings around us. The leader took a step back and let out an unpleasant screech. Once he lifted up his knife, I made my move. I instantly flashed in front of him, staring him down with cold eyes. I grabbed his left arm that was holding the knife and squeezed it, the knife fell from his hand and he let out an agonizing scream.
“ARGH!!”
“Now, give me the puppy,” I said coldly as I extend my other hand out. He let go of the puppy and it jumped into my hand. Once I received the puppy, I fractured the ruffian’s left arm. I unequipped my gauntlets and proceeded to walk home.
“I could’ve ripped off your arm, but I didn’t. Now, don’t mess with me or these harmless animals again.”
Arriving home, I was greeted by my butler, Niles. He was a tall old man with grey hair and blue eyes. His family has served mine for over 50 years now. Though he may be old, he’s really strong, being blessed by Mars, the God of War.
“Welcome home Master Aiex. You’ve brought home another one? That makes 5, you know? If you include the 5 kittens, that’s 10 in total.”
“Mhm… It was caught in a fight between me and some thugs so I’d feel bad if I left it.”
“My, my, thugs you say? What did they want?”
“It seems that they were hired to take care of me by someone at our school. I’ll tell you who it is so if anything else were to happen, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Understood.”
My house was fairly large with eight bedrooms. Two of the rooms were guest rooms, one was for the animals, one mine, one Niles's, one the cook, and two for the two maids. As I ate dinner, I consulted Niles about tomorrow’s event.
“Hey, Niles. Do you have any information on Étoile Terra?”
“Miss Terra? Why would you need information on her?”
“Well, she challenged me to a duel so I was hoping to research more about my opponent to get some advantage.”
“Understood. I’ll report to you after I gather the information.”
After taking a shower, I played with the 5 puppies and 5 kittens to wait for Niles.
“Master Aiex, I have returned.”
“Come in.”
“I’m sorry, Master Aiex, but I could not find any detailed information on Miss Terra.”
According to Niles, Étoile’s strongest element was Earth, blessed by Gaia, Mother Nature, and used a unique weapon. As to what the unique weapon was, he didn’t know. I slept peacefully as I pondered on the information.