The von Parseval main mansion was a place closely guarded by the patriarch himself. The only problem were his limited abilities. That was the headache every patriarch had to go through. 'Are thy sure to be bound by the system?' The voice of the crystal had a monotone feminine voice. To gain the power of the crystal one had to fuse themselves with it. It wasn't even really alive but it did seem to have a consciousness.

Tales say that in the middle of the earth lies the Aether Crystal which contains unimaginable amounts of energy. Thimaeuss himself had heard about the Aether Crystal a million times before but when he and some of his closer friends set sail to travel there in their younger years most of them died and he barely made it out. A huge black wall of thick fog closed out anyone from entering.

Back then he thought that he was invincible and that it would be just another adventure. Proven wrong Thimaeuss regretted his decision back then up until today. He lost his first love and his best friend to the guardian of that place. Its strength was incomparable to any of his comrades or himself so they got completely annihilated. Even today he knew the amount of Rankers it would need to beat it laid in the thousands. Obviously they weren't the first ones who tried to beat it but even others only had bad experiences.

Over time it had become less likely that somebody tried to do beat it or even go to the middle hence the rewards were miniscule compared to the losses. Instead dimensionary gates had become increasingly more popular. They were rarer than your everyday exploration gate or crystal gate but had far better rewards.

Hence the family crystal was broken he now had multiple problems. First of all he had no idea for how long the crystal would last. There were some ways to fix a broken crystal but they were almost impossible to do. One was to get a certain item from an S ranked gate and the other was to sacrifice people and create an item through that. He already was on search for option one but the second one would be considered black magic which was against the rules of the Ranker's Alliance. It would probably kill him in the process anyways. So he had to find some solution to at least guarantee temporarily security for the crystal.

The second problem was the future of the family. If the crystal broke the entire family would suffer extreme pushback. The crystal had strings attached to everyone who had their ceremony with it and also disconnected them if destroyed which meant lowering their stats by a huge amount. The rest of the stats would stay though since there is aether everywhere.

Pondering about the situation a little pool of red started to form on the ground. Only when he had to cough he noticed blood running down his nose.

...

A shadowy person threw itself at the students sitting in the training facility. Nobody seemed to notice other than Johan. The ability 'Shell of the Dragon' automatically activated and Johan noticed how time was passing by in slow motion. He could see everything so clearly that it was almost creepy.

LORD DO NOT MOVE TOO QUICKLY YET OR HE WILL NOTICE THAT YOU'RE ABILITIES ARE STRONGER THAN HIS. JUST SCREAM 'EVERYBODY MOVE!'. HE WON'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU. I CAN SENSE NO DEATH INTENT. TRY TO AVOID IT NARROWLY. THIS IS PERFECT TRAINING FOR YOU.

Placing his trust into Bahamut he did as told.

"Everybody move!"

His body moved to the side slightly and made a roll. Only Adrian tried to evade the incoming attack while the other students had a shocked expression on their face.

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Landing in the middle of the group a man in his forties with a training suit could be seen smirking.

"Wow! Incredible! Bravo!"

Theatrically the teacher congratulated the two students who managed to notice something.

"Only a couple of students in my time as a teacher have been able to predict my moves as newbies. It seems that this class will be interesting. So as we could see most of you would now have been dead if someone with my Rank attacked you. Even though you surpass normal human beings in strength among the Rankers you guys rank very low. What we are going to do for the next few months is to figure out your strengths and weaknesses and make your strengths stronger so at some point they cover up you weaknesses. Usually one would try to make their weaknesses into strengths but that is for amateurs and chumps. Euros Academia ranks so high in Euros because of our different teaching method. We don't want you to be well rounded. You need to have an edge. Something your so good in that regardless of your Rank you will prevail in a fight against somebody much stronger. But be prepared because this will be extremely demanding and extremely easy at the same time."

The students looked at each other dumbfounded. That was the first time they heard somebody telling them they had to ignore their weaknesses after getting ambushed. What the f#ck!?

"Let's get started!"

Two hours later the students left the first training session and went to their dorms feeling pains they never knew could be felt. Johan and Adrian went to the cafeteria and started talking about the family.

"So you didn't know about FRankers and this world before gthe ceremony?1"

"Well, not really,,, no."

"Why? Aren't you the grandson of the patriarch?"

"I don't know to be honest. He didn't really give me any information. The only thing he said is to get stronger and that's it."

"I see."

"What about yourself? You told me that you live with your mother and sister. Which part of the family do you belong to?"

Having a nostalgic look on his face he answered: "My father was the guild leader of a semi famous guild back where we used to live. During the Lyras conflict the guild got completely destroyed because they participated on the frontlines. My father,,, got killed during battle."

Johan immediately felt compassion with him. Having lost a loved one was extremely painful especially if it was a person like the father.

"My condolences. If you don't mind telling me what was the conflict about?"

"Well, it all started whe-"

"You guys were at the ceremony, right?"

Without introducing herself, Hwaa interrupted Adrian and went straight to a question.

"Why're you asking?", Johan asked surprised.

"Just answer the question."

She had her arms crossed and looked at them with disdain.

'This might actually be harder than I thought. Making her a Shadow Slave would need a sample of her blood. But to have a stronger grip on her I would need her liking me. But looking at her right now it might take a while for that to happen.'

"Yes, we were and you know it. Why else would you be asking us?" Johan asked her annoyed.

She glared at him and her eyes started to glow red.

'She has to be the embodiment of a yandere.'

"I want you to be my partner. I have a group project and we have to take people from other classes as partners."

"You mean you 'need' us, right?"

Johan looked at her with a smirk in his face. He had a plan in mind. He needed her blood and she needed his help. Give and take, right?

"What,,, WHat did you just say!?!"

"You heard me. Say you 'need' us. Don't lie."

She started to heat up. Her eyes looked like two fireballs and her face had the colour of a tomato.

"You... Why You...??"

"Hey, it's okay we can help you." Adrian interrupted their little confrontation.

"Let's help her, Johan."

"Sure, sure. Let's help Ms. Yandere."

Johan and Adrian quickly left after exchanging contacts. She looked like she was about to explode.

...

"Hey, Videl I'm back!"

"Welcome, my Lord."

"You can call me Johan from now on. 'My Lord' feels like I'm in my fifties."

"As you wish. Your meal is ready."

Sitting at the dinner table he looked at all the food she had prepared.

"Wow! That looks delicious! How did you make all of this?"

"It was part of the training program."

"Hmm, so good! Your cooking is the best!"

Videl had a slight blush on her face.

"I am grateful for your compliment, my Lo- Johan."

"Good. Now, Videl, we should talk about some things."