Arin breathed in the clean fresh morning air at the academy gate. A nearby garden was filled with numerous beautiful flowers that would catch the eye of any girl. He briefly glanced at the gardener tending to the flowers and looked away. He sensed that even this humble-looking person was also terrifyingly strong.
Numerous other students were walking past him as he stood there observing the school he going to attend. They had already been acquainted with one another through various means. It seemed as if Arin was the odd one out.
His eyes then darted around. The academy gate and the actual main academy building were quite far apart, with multiple branching pathways to other faculties and buildings. Arin took his time looking at everything, trying to take it all in as he tried to see anything that might’ve caught his eye.
“Other than the staff, everyone’s too weak. No one else is worth my time.”
As he was about to walk past the halfway point his ears picked up something interesting. Arin followed the sound to one of the multiple branching pathways and found a more secluded area inside a makeshift maze. He entered it as the sound revealed itself to be someone threatening another.
“Acting tough, huh? Hahaha, take a look at this guy.” Right after this person said his piece, a sound of a fist hitting flesh could be heard, and a muffled grunt right after.
“It was so easy, you just needed to hand over all your wealth and we would’ve left you alone. Tch, typical, don’t even know what’s good for them.” Another bully spoke out loud as another pained whimper came out of that bullied person.
Arin was amused, he never thought that this would happen so early on, on the first day no less. He thought that he would be the first one to strike but apparently, he was still lacking in that department. He quietly waited for those two students to finish up extorting the other kid.
As those two were about to leave, Arin slowly showed up in front of them and blocked their escape, the smug look on his face showed no fear.
“Who are you?” A tall muscular kid sized up Arin and saw that he looked pretty thin as the uniform perfectly fit his physique unlike how his muscles were bulging out. This small detail made him think that they would win in a frontal battle.
“Arin.” Immediately, without missing a beat, Arin struck the tall muscular kid straight in the face, completely knocking him out as he fell on the ground, unmoving. The pure force behind his fist would’ve killed a normal person but as a student of Seal Academy, he should be able to handle this much force.
The other bully went down to try and check how his friend was doing, “Patrick? You, alright?” Unfortunately for this person, Arin didn’t wait for his enemies to come to their senses as he casually kicked the other kid in the stomach, causing him to rise up from the pain.
He clenched his stomach as he tried to back away from Arin, slowly crawling away as he was afraid that he would get hit even more. And as expected, Arin continued to inflict pain that the bully never thought possible.
As the bully was crawling on his back, Arin casually went over and stepped on his foot, breaking it. To make it even worse, he pressed down, hard. Although his foot was already broken, he could still feel the pure sensation of having his crushed bone mesh around with his flesh.
“Ahhhh!” The bully screamed out his lungs as the pain was sent straight to his brain. This feeling was something he never thought he would ever experience in this lifetime. “Help!” Left with no other choice, he screamed out even louder for help yet due to how secluded this area was, no help arrived to save him.
He screamed and yelled as much as he could yet the only thing he ever managed to achieve was to wake up his companion from his daze, Patrick slowly raised his head as he saw Arin brutally stomping on his friend’s leg, continuing to crush his leg bone, bit by excruciating bit.
Instincts overwhelmed his rational making him run at Arin, trying to tackle him down so that he could stop him from torturing his friend even further. Unfortunately for him, Arin kept his attention on him the entire time, fully keeping the entire situation within his grasp. He sidestepped Patrick’s tackle, immediately raising his knee to strike Patrick’s chest.
Patrick felt his vision blur for a brief moment, blacking out for but a second. The very next scene he saw was Arin’s leg stepping on his chest. The pressure within his lungs was starting to hurt as Arin slowly lowered his feet, putting in even more pressure than before, intending to crush his ribcage, ultimately turning his heart to paste.
“What do you want!” The other bully who had half his leg pulverized gathered up as much courage as he could possibly muster and shouted it out. There had to be a reason why Arin was doing this, if not, then they would definitely die. Unfortunately for him, Arin looked at him for a brief moment before continuing to torture Patrick.
"Madman!"
“Robert! Run away!” Patrick grabbed ahold of Arin’s leg and gripped it as hard as he could, intending to break Arin’s leg. Arin merely smirked as he pushed down on Patrick’s chest ever harder to the point that there was an audible crack. Patrick's desperate moves weren't even able to budge Arin at all.
“Gah!” Pained screams came out of Patrick to the point that he couldn’t even muster any strength in his arms anymore.
“Arin, what the do you want?!” Robert screamed out even harder as he wanted this to end. This was going too far, beyond anything that he had seen. Arin was a complete psychopath, he seemed to have been doing this out of pure pleasure.
Arin didn’t look or glance at Robert anymore, wholly focusing on slowly pressing down on Patrick’s chest. At this point, the bullied kid saw that this was going too far, if Arin kept on going at this rate, then Patrick would die. Despite him initially being happy that his bullies were getting their asses beaten, murder was still too far of a concept for him to accept.
All of a sudden...
“Sir Arin, please stop!” The bullied kid shouted out as well, hoping that Arin would stop his actions. He had gathered enough courage to speak up for those bullies, despite the pain they had inflicted on them, he firmly believed that they didn't deserve this.
Even though both Patrick and Robert didn’t hold out hope, Arin did stop his actions as he lifted his leg up, letting Patrick take those sweet deep breaths of survival. They both suspiciously looked at Arin yet his blank expression made it hard for anyone to guess what he was thinking. As he slowly walked up to the bullied kid, everyone just braced for the worst.
“Why should I stop?” Arin leaned in closer, staring daggers into the bullied kid’s eyes. He was afraid, he had every right to be, he never thought that the person who beat up those who had abused him was actually listening to his words.
“H-He’s going to die!”
“People die all the time, what makes him so special?” Arin's deep and devilish tone made the bullied kid even question his own words.
The bullied kid couldn’t think of an immediate reply, what Arin said was true. People were dying daily from violence or sickness, Patrick’s death doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things. After thinking it through, he decided on an answer that would satiate Arin, “Then… you wouldn’t achieve your goal?”
Despite being physically weak, he was still admitted into Seal Academy, the 8th-best academy in the City of Sin, his wits and connections let him enter this prestigious academy. From his observations, Arin had a clear goal, from what he saw, he was instilling fear in them, creating an image of an unbeatable monster in their minds. Make it so that they will never do it again.
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“Goal? Haha, then tell me. What am I trying to do here?” Arin’s smile made the bullied think that he was right.
The bullied kid already knew what, from Arin’s tone and mannerisms he was apparently correct, all he needed to do now was say it out loud.
“You’re trying to stop them from bullying-” The bullied kid seemed extremely confident in his answer, enough to smile.
Yet Arin immediately laughed in his face, “Hahahaha! I thought you were smart. One more guess, if you don’t then you’ll suffer too. Want to bet?”
The bullied kid's confident smile instantly shattered as he gritted his teeth, his initial observation was correct, he knew that it was correct. Now that Arin confirmed that his train of thought was correct, he needed to pierce together what he was missing. From Arin’s actions and his way of handling the situation, it definitely was to instill fear within them but what another motive be for that?
“W-What if I get it right?” The bullied kid tried gathering more clues, this was the most essential skill for every aspiring Solver, to find out the clues of the puzzle and to piece it all together to get the final answer.
“Since you’re obviously fishing for clues, I’ll admit you have a good head on your shoulders. So, if you get it right, you’ll be free.” Arin pointed at both Patrick and Robert with his head, nudging it ever so slightly to show his intentions. From the bullied kid’s point of view, Arin was the devil, inviting him to sign a contract that would forever bind his freedom away. The pressure was palpable, completely overwhelming.
At this point, the bullied kid finally understood, that if he didn’t figure it out based on what Arin said then he wouldn’t be fit to be a solver. “You want to terrorize them so that you can control them.”
Arin stopped pressuring the bullied kid, “What’s your name?” He started looking at both Patrick who was severely injured, barely hanging onto his life and Robert, who was still suffering from having his leg pulverized to shards.
“Elliot. Elliot Bandgerette.” Elliot felt his knees weaken as he fell down to the ground. This was the most stressful point of his life, never before had he felt as if he was walking down a razor-sharp wire ten kilometers above the ground. The fear of failure and the relief of reward was something he never thought to ever experience, at least not until now.
“You got a good head. Use it well.” Arin innocently waved his hand at them as Elliot ran up to support both Patrick and Robert. He slowly went with them but as they were about to leave this area, Arin whistled right behind them.
“Forgetting something?” Arin showed them his palm and he raised all his fingers up, flapping them up and down. Elliot immediately understood what Arin meant as he took everything from their pockets and threw it at Arin. They immediately left right after, knowing that if he delayed, they might not make it in time.
Arin looked at the three pouches in his hand and counted the money contained within. He sighed as their entire wealth combined wasn’t even a third of his allowance, this made him regret not picking it up this morning. Sighing in annoyance, he reluctantly left this hedge maze and finally went to the assembly hall.
As expected, most of the seats were already taken, forcing Arin to find an awkward seat at the very back. He didn’t much this as much since he wasn’t going to listen anyway. Slowing going to the back, a few students smelled the scent of iron and slightly complained. Although Arin removed the visible blood, the scent remained.
As he sat down, like clockwork, the assembly finally started with a calm and composed middle-aged man wearing a notable black suit as he welcomed all this year’s students. His voice echoed throughout the entire hall, forcing everyone to focus on him.
“Welcome, students! As the dean of Seal Academy, I truly welcome you all! As the founder of our grand academy had always stated-” Arin couldn’t care less and started to drift off into his own little world. Instead of listening to the pointless drivel that the dean was spouting, he would rather check out the competition.
He quickly glanced over everyone around him and noted a few figures in his mind, carefully taking note of them in the future. Some of them were barely able to put up a fight against him yet as far as he could tell, no one was strong enough to even compete with him. He sighed at how weak everyone was, completely disappointed at the current roster he was dealt with.
“And to start off the day with a bang, our current Student Body President will now give the opening remarks. Please welcome, Fiona Pierre!”
A white-haired girl dressed in an extremely clean dress started going up the stairs to enter the limelight. She was exquisitely beautiful as she was skilled, her reputation had already preceded her. She had an extremely exotic amulet on her neck, seemingly antique. As she stood, centerstage, not a single person who knew her doubted her qualifications for the role.
Arin’s eyes locked onto the only person that his father warned him about, Fiona Pierre. To be able to catch his father’s eye meant that she would be exceptionally skilled. Fully placing Fiona on his radar, he took a mental note to see just what she was about.
The murmurs within the crowd were immediately suppressed as Fiona started talking, “I’m Fiona Pierre, the current acting Student Body President. I know how many of you are displeased. So, as a show of good faith, I’m willing to take on any challenge towards me for the duration of an hour. If anyone manages to beat me then I’ll step down and let you take my place.”
The crowd immediately broke into countless murmurs. For Fiona to challenge everyone without discrimination, showed just how confident she was in her abilities. Although her intentions were innocent, trying to showcase her abilities, it came off as extremely conceited and arrogant to everyone else.
“Hohoho, how lively.” The dean of the academy quietly watched from the sidelines. He was quite proud of the turnout this year, especially catering to Fiona’s needs. From his perspective, without a shred of doubt, Fiona would be the top student of this year again without equal.
When Arin heard this, his blood started boiling as if he couldn’t wait but jump out to challenge her outright. His seatmates could feel the air around them heat up, forcing them to sweat uncontrollably. His heart pumped wildly yet he reigned it all in, there was no need to be the sacrificial lamb that tested her prowess. His racing blood slowed down as he intensely started at the first fool to challenge her.
A man immediately stood up and took out a wooden staff from the rack right beside Fiona. Apparently, she already had everything planned out as the stage was already set up with a circle in the middle of the stage.
Fiona nodded at the challenger and didn’t even take a weapon from the rack, solely relying on her fist.
“You’re awfully confident, aren’t you?” The challenger was slightly annoyed at the fact that Fiona wasn’t even going to bother picking up a weapon. This was the same as saying that he wasn’t even worth drawing his sword.
“It’s not that I look down on you, it’s so that I could help you.” Fiona’s pure gaze made the challenger somewhat calm down. He took his stance and carefully circled around Fiona, trying to find an opening in her posture.
He slowly bid his time, taking this extremely seriously. To win against the famed child of Jack Pierre was a reputation that would easily let him join any league of Solvers in the future. Not to mention the benefits of becoming the Student Body President, the resources that he would receive were well beyond his wildest dreams. To ensure that he had the best chance, he took his time even as the audience was cussing him out as a coward.
Knowing that he was trying to find an opening, Fiona intentionally let her guard down. The challenger immediately spotted this and went in for the kill, he used his staff as a spear that would immediately pierce through her defenses. Yet somehow, for some reason, his steady spear barely missed Fiona, not even damaging her flowy dress. She grabbed hold of the challenger’s spear and using both hands, worked her way up closer to the challenger’s body.
The challenger saw that Fiona was trying to disarm him so he immediately tried to pull his staff away. Fiona slightly smiled and let him do as he pleased. The challenger used more force than he initially thought he would’ve needed since he saw Fiona grab hold of his staff. This small misuse of strength caused him to be caught off-balance to which Fiona went straight for the finishing move. Her long slender arms grabbed ahold of the staff, and with the challenger in an awkward position, she managed to wrest away her opponent’s weapon with ease.
As a finishing move, she grabbed it with one hand with the staff lining her arm straight to her back. She was now pointing her weapon at the challenger’s neck. Fiona smiled slightly as she finished, putting away her weapon and reaching out her hand to pull him up. He looked at the pitiful gesture, feeling completely defeated. Seeing how much of a fool he was made out to be, he couldn’t take it and immediately ran away.
“W-Wait! Don’t leave!” Fiona was flustered at the fact that he immediately ran away. She was about to offer her pointers to him so that he would be able to improve yet reality turned out so much differently than she anticipated.
“Fiona, you can just write it down. I’ll send it to the challengers later. Don’t worry about it too much.” As the dean, he was fully involved with Fiona’s plan to try and help everyone out, acting as the perfect role model for everyone to rely on.
“Thank you, Dean Alabaster.” Fiona went back to the rack beside her and placed the staff back. “Who’s next?” She patiently waited, standing there for a while as no one seemed to have gathered the courage to be made an example of.
Arin saw and heard everything and couldn’t help but laugh at how naïve this person was. “Help others? What’s the point? Hahaha!” He couldn’t help but mock Fiona’s motives, it was just too idealistic in such a cruel world. Although as much as he loved to mock her, there was something that he had to admit, that with what he had seen, she definitely had the strength to back up her status.
“…” Arin had multiple thoughts running through his mind yet the strongest word that could be associated with her name in his mind was battle.