Luna received much fanfare from the crowd.

The fact that she also had her own fans as a top ten actually shocked her since most of her attention had remained on getting her crush's affection. The fact that one day there would be players also showing the same reactions she had of her crush initially, made her feel both happy and unsure of how to go about this.

But when she saw her Sunshine's smile at the crowd she finally got to sympathize with him a bit. The feeling of receiving so much attention and fascination was indeed somewhat… pleasant but burdensome. Thus she decided to just be her previous self and continue doing what she does. Her crush also seemed to take this approach.

After all, she never saw him go out of his way to cater to his fans' expectations in any way.

He always was himself and those who considered his fans and admirers also preferred to see him being himself. It was just that simple. She wondered what her other party members were going to do from the discovery of their new stardom but everyone was their own person. She honestly didn't care much as she had her own matters to attend to.

The announcement of the results soon commenced after they got back to their gathering spots and Azure Sun party was ranked first in the player party ranking, an obvious conclusion to all.

The individual student ranking was also revealed.

She earned the second rank much to her shock as her level was actually not high enough to contend with those previous top three. It seemed that her three attainments had played a crucial role as it was actually very high compared to them.

Ever since her past memory started unlocking she had progressed leaps and bounds. This was somewhat disconcerting to her as she worried of gaining too much attention on such a massive growth but thanks to her crush hogging the entire academy's attention by reaching level 14 and very high stages in three attainments, her explosive growth seemed a bit… believable?

Anyways, the future will tell what awaited her.

The first ranking obviously went to her Sunshine as he had reached terrifying heights from his training. Most of the students were shocked to their core when he showed off the two new unlocked skills and his overwhelming might compared to others back at the exam.

The teachers had to calm them down lest they freaked out over his progress.

They finally revealed what reward he received from the vice principal and from the short briefing they were apparently green with envy at the massive opportunities that never seemed to come their way.

On the matter of other party members, all of them were now close to the top ten but still a bit distance away from it. It was a massive increase in ranking as even the farthest ranked support class party members had also jumped up higher which only awed the students at her crush’s capability to be able to gather so many young prodigies under him.

She looked in the direction where he was supposed to be and smiled warmly.

°°°°

Gregory received a call which made him raise an eyebrow from surprise.

Since he was at a position where only those close to him were ever able to make a call or those of his status so this call made him think if something important was up. There was nobody who would waste his time for meaningless chatter, after all.

He picked up the call while still kept busying himself on the documents he was reading in his office.

“What's the matter?”

He asked the caller in a much gentler tone than what he used on the subordinates.

“Grandpa, I just finished overseeing the second monthly evaluation of the first year students.”

“Is that so? Let's hear why you need to call me for such a small matter.”

“Well… there's a young man—”

“No! The answer is no.”

“...”

He instantly rejected his granddaughter as he already understood where she was going. It was actually her first time to have talked about a student who managed to gain her interest like this but even if that was the case, he wouldn't budge.

His family had suffered too much at the hands of those outer denizens since the epoch this union was formed.

It wasn't any honor or reward to have been given the responsibility for overseeing the territory of the domain that bordered the Outer Area. This was a severe punishment from the Grand Duke himself to the first generation Baron.

There was much history behind it and he only learned those depressing information from his predecessor, the previous Baron Auburn, when he was passed the title on their deathbed.

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So from the ignorant noble who considered his House Auburn as someone with great responsibility and honor bestowed upon by the ruler himself, he became someone who finally got their eyes opened. His family, the territory and the responsibilities were nothing but a subject of hidden mockery among the higher nobility.

He also got access to the information of how many family members had ended up being a casualty throughout the epochs and such a tragic truth only made him feel more bleak and despondent inside.

After many years of being a principal for this burden named Outer Player Academy, he had finally grown out of the despair that was ever present in his mind and now could keep his tranquility.

That being said his scorn for these outer denizens were still present. Though because of rules and regulations that were present since the first generation Baron he never did anything overbearing on those scourges but he made sure to keep his family away from them.

Either it be recruitment or teaching at the academy he had drastically shifted the previous approach taken by the predecessor and got the commoners involved.

Indeed, there wasn't a single commoner allowed within the academy before as all the higher positions and teaching roles were taken by the House Auburn's main lineage and the branch lineages.

The academy was considered a bestowed property of a noble house after all, so it was only natural to take this approach. But he had shouldered all the ridicule and subtle scorn from other nobles by giving the commoners such positions.

Though he kept the two main positions of principal and vice principal linked with his family, all the other roles had been delegated to commoner factions' representative players.

This decision had proven to be the most accurate even though the bad image among the nobility was established because of it. Anytime there was an abomination within the containment facility and somehow an accident still occurred only those commoners, who had to take the role of overseers from punishment because of dereliction of duty, became the casualties.

His family, from then on, didn't have to sacrifice anymore.

This was the best decision of his life. Though it came with the price of being constantly ridiculed and looked down upon by other nobles, was it significant than his House Auburn's safety?

Now, back to the present. Gregory, the current Baron Auburn, was nonetheless adamant at keeping this approach which had been proven and tested true for many years. He obviously wouldn't be changing it just because the granddaughter he dotted upon became whimsical like this.

He was the Baron for a reason.

“Sigh… I know that no matter how much I talk about it you won't be budging so just humor me for a second and see the file I just sent you.”

“... Julie, you need to understand. Those outer denizens—”

“Please! Grandpa, I am very serious. I wouldn't have bothered you if it wasn't an important matter. Trust me, you would also understand why I am serious after seeing that document.”

He felt a bit speechless from such a behavior. She was a very obedient girl and that's why she became the apple of his eyes. If he ever said no to something she wouldn't be insistent on it but instead would try to understand the reason behind his decisions.

This was a quality he appreciated of her.

She was also his successor, that's why he kept her near him to groom her to be a player worthy of this noble title. He had long declared to the family about this decision and thanks to her talent and tremendous potential since early years the family also didn't have any objections to it.

So seeing the future Baroness Auburn behaving this way for the first time his curiosity was successfully piqued. He decided to humor her so he checked the document file sent on his smartphone.

There were many videos, images and written information contained in it.

Gregory saw the name and picture of the student and he couldn't help but feel a bit amused. Wasn't this the same student she previously took to that special facility personally?

This student had also come to his attention after his element and unique grade class was revealed. That being said, he had seen many such cases even though the rarity was significant to encounter. The amount of outer denizens that rolled into the academy each year was indeed too high and the amount of years he had spent being the principal was also very high so him being accustomed to it was matter of course.

Though he heard of that student who was similar to another case in the pre-second year batch but his interest wasn't that deep so he had put it on the back of his head.

His granddaughter's previous talk to seek his permission for the entry into the Mountain of Triumph had indeed made him curious at that time but because he had other matters pertaining to a certain noble house creeping behind him, which gave him huge headaches, so he couldn't divert much attention onto it.

Actually he was still working on that matter even now. Her call had interrupted him.

That being said, the more he read the document file the better his mood became. He now kind of felt glad that he got her call and actually read the file as he now understood why she was so serious about this matter.

After reading the entire thing and also seeing the video of the latest result that student got at the second monthly evaluation he finally replied,

“Well… this young man is indeed interesting.”

“See! So I can invite him to work under me, yes?”

“No.”

“What!? Didn't you say he's interesting?”

“I did, so…?”

“... Ah! I nearly forgot about it. An individual may bear a good appearance like a lush tree but the inside could be rotten wood. So… you want to see him personally to see if he is rotten wood or not, right?”

“Hmm. Glad to see that my teachings still remained. Send him here. I will decide after that.”

“Alright then.”

With that the call ended.

Gregory put aside the work for now. It wouldn't take much time for the present case anyway. There were many who disappointed him even though they appeared perfect at the first glance. They were all too radiant just like that student, though not as much a looker, but they all had outstanding charisma to pull others towards them. But upon his further inquiry…

“I wonder if you're also the same.”

He thought out loud as he waited for that student who got his granddaughter’s such interest.

And his rare interest too.