The day has finally arrived, it's Ryu's first day of school in the Helbram Soul School, Letters Division. In the Helbram soul school, the grades are divided into 3 forms, and each of them lasts for 4 years. The first one was a symbol, then to numbers, and lastly, letters. Now Ryu has belonged to the most excellent letters division, the A Division.
Surprisingly, Ryu's already appeared in the school at 6 A.M. There's also a female teacher that amazed to see him this early. She's a beautiful teacher with a side bangs hairstyle sprayed by a dark pink tone, it's length was quite long as well. She also has brown almond eyes and pink rose heart-shaped lips.
"Ryu? You're already here?"
"Oh, Mrs. Farroh. Good morning Miss."
"Are you feeling unwell?"
Mrs. Farroh places its hand against Ryu's forehead. In response to this, Ryu starts to hang his head down, sighing to the inquiry.
"Why lately everyone keeps asking me that question, I wonder..."
Noticing that her question was rude, Mrs. Farroh immediately gives an apology while rubbing her finger against her cheek.
"I'm sorry, but it's really an unusual thing."
"It's okay, by the way, did you change your hairstyle?"
"Oh? I'm changed it to celebrate my leveling up. Does it suits me?"
Mrs. Farroh pulls the side-bangs to the back of her ears, enabling her student to take a better look.
"Miss, you get another level up? Congrats! And, yeah, it fits you perfectly."
Mrs. Farroh leaks out a light chuckle, hearing Ryu's response.
"Thanks, well, see you in the A-Division room later, Ryu."
"Yes, miss." After that brief exchange, Ryu heads out toward the main building of the Letters Division. When he steps into the A-Division room, he sees an orange-haired girl sitting alone in the corner of the broad place, gazing at the outside scenery through the windows. Ryu's somewhat captivated by this spectacle. He's just standing still in the door entrance.
"Wait, this is a good chance to grab a talk with her!"
Snaping out of his dazed state, Ryu brings his foot towards Ayano.
"Morning, Ayano."
Startled by the sudden greeting, Ayano takes her sight out from the window and glances at the source of the voice.
"Ryu!?"
"Oh, you already know me?"
"Yeah, the one who's always late."
"That's kind of depressing, but, yes, you're right."
Remembered for his disobedient acts, Ryu can only scratch his head using its hand with embarrassment. Seeing this, Ayano gives a faint laugh.
"I'm sorry, so do you need anything from me?"
"No, I simply want to greet you. Is there anything wrong with that?"
"I see..."
Finished saying this, Ryu then took the seat in the farthest back that's quite far from her and brings out a book to kill his time while waiting for the lecture to start. Meanwhile, Ayano just looks at Ryu strangely. Except for the family member, it's her first time that someone gives her a free space like that. Being the City Lord daughter's, she's always surrounded by a stranger that tries to win her favor.
This makes her develop an easy-going personality, but as a human, she still needs a moment where she can be alone, like the activity that she does earlier. So seeing Ryu's attitude towards her, she can't help to be slightly confused.
"What a strange fellow..."
Decided to not thinks about it that much, Ayano resumes her activity to stare at the outside. Ryu's also focused on the book that he currently reads. Just like that, both of them peacefully enjoying their silence together.
The silence lasts for about 30 minutes before a crowd of students begins to enter the room. Ayano was also already surrounded by the students, talking happily with them. In the distance, Ryu quietly takes a peek at the scene.
'Her eyes... She didn't enjoy the conversation...'
'Seriously, why she can't be herself.'
Sighing inside his heart, Ryu can only read the book silently. For now, he can't do anything about the current circumstances. After all, he still doesn't have a place inside her heart to change that mindset of her.
Before long, the lecture eventually commences. When Mrs. Farroh entered the room, all of A-Division students quietly go to their respective seats.
"Good morning, students."
"Good morning, Miss!"
"Well, since this is maybe the first time we meet each other. Let's start by self-introducing like the usual, to make things fast, you can do it in your seats."
Putting her hands on the lecturer's desk, Mrs. Farroh clear her throat.
"I'll start with myself first, I'm your lecturer, Farroh Mayher. You can call me Mrs. Farroh, I'll be responsible until you're graduate from here."
"Don't tell me, for 4 years straight?"
The sudden announcement makes the students wear a perplexed face. Meanwhile, Mrs. Farroh simply nods her head in response to the question.
"Yeah, for the Letters Division, the homeroom teacher will be responsible until the end."
"Eehhhh!?"
Seeing those reactions makes Mrs. Farroh a bit irritated.
"What, are you guys not content with me?"
"No, it's not like that, miss..."
"Well, the school has come with those systems so the teachers can exactly know each of its student's traits and how much they've grown."
"So, stay put with me until the end, okay?"
It's not the student's fault that they're shocked like this, the school suddenly changes its curriculum for the Letters Division without telling it to them. So Mrs. Farroh does owe them an explanation for these things.
"Now, let us continue with the self-introduction. The order is from the farthest back to the front following a snake pattern."
Because the one who sits in the farthest back is Ryu, he doesn't have any other choices to initiate the introduction. When Ryu stands up, some of the students begin to chattering among themself.
"Its the irregular."
"Yeah, a level 4 person who can enter A-Division."
"I heard he beats Ryo in a single move, and because of that, he swaps Division with him."
"Well, in the end, he's still a level 4, right? I don't think that he's qualified to enter here."
"Yeah, I agree with you, there's also a rumor that he cheated during that match."
"Sounds right, well let's see how much he can fare against us in the first semester."
Although he can hear clearly what those students have said, Ryu simply stays indifferent to them as he proceeds with his self-introduction.
"My name is Takazaki Ryu, I'm 14 this year, nice to meet you."
Ryu quietly sits back to his seats, it's a really straightforward and fast introduction. After that, the self-introduction continues until the frontmost. Each student gets a different reaction. Some don't get commented at all. Although they're extraordinary individuals, the Division itself in the first place is exceptional, so those kinds of students become the new ordinary. While the one that is seen unusual is someone like Ayano and Inazuma, who's proven to get levels 7 and 8, respectively.
"Well, it seems we have 24 students here."
"There are roughly 500 students in your generation, and there's only a few who can enter this Division. You must be proud of yourself, okay?"
"But, remember this, don't act arrogant, it can bites you back sometimes."
Mrs. Farroh was really similar to Ryu, she wants to use her time efficiently as much as possible. Giving her students a bit of encouragement, Mrs. Farroh then takes out something from her storage magic. It's the red orb that usually can be seen used by the Hunter Association.
"Now, we will move to the next course."
"This is Status Orb, it's function is to know the precise stats you have with you."
When Mrs. Farroh takes out this item, some students instantly feel intrigued by how amazing that orb was, and some thought what the purpose of this sudden check is?
"You've must be wondering why I took this guy out."
"It's because in these 4 years you guys will be divided into a Sub-Division each contained 4 persons."
"In the past semester, you've been taught how to distribute your free stats. So to help balance the teams out, I need this tool help."
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Again, the students get stunned by the sudden changes. This is another brand new course. Ryu also seems to be startled by this development. Because he's level 3 before, he got sent out to the C-Division. And there are definitely no such things in there.
"Did you guys any question regarding this?"
Being given a chance to ask, the students finally begin to throw their questions to Mrs. Farroh, one by another.
"Does the team will stay the same for 4 years, miss?"
"If there's a special circumstance, maybe the member can be switched."
"Mrs. Farroh, what's your base for the Sub-Division member setup?"
"It's a bit complicated, but it mainly consists of 2 students who majored in Strength, 1 in Agility, and 1 in Int. According to your level, this format can be tweaked a bit."
"Miss, will the Sub-Division remains even after graduation?"
"It's up to your choices, you can disband it if you want. But, I advise you to carry on with your Sub-Division while recruiting some more members to join the train. It's because 4 years of combat chemistry isn't that simple to achieve."
Mrs. Farroh keeps answering the question asked by her students until there's none.
"No more?"
"Well, time is precious, so let's start already. This time it's from the front to the farthest back."
"Now, please be quick on your feet!"
With that, the first students go to the front and touch the orb. The orb color transformed to transparent and emits a faint light, and before long, a hologram of stats is being shown.
Name: Verdi Boch Class: Novice Free Stats: 30 Res:6 Level: 6 Total Level: 6 STR: 12 VIT: 6 AGI: 12 PER: 6 INT: 12 MANA: 6
Seeing that the stats really being shown, the students get astonished just like a child witnessing a magic trick. The first students seem to be an unusual case though, he's not distributing his stats at all.
"Why didn't you distribute your stats? Did you don't know how to?"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Farroh, I know how to do it, but I'm not so sure what path I should take."
"Hmm, well, that's not a problem too. Instead, it's better that you thought about it carefully first before distributing it."
"Yes, thanks for the advice, miss."
Seemingly to remember something, Mrs. Farroh makes an additional explanation.
"Listen well, students."
"These stats here, don't ever think that by increasing your Strength your muscle size will get bigger, but they indeed will raise your power;"
"Or by raising your Agility doesn't mean you will easily evade those who attack you, but becoming more agile is a definite thing;"
"And lastly, the dumbest and the most question I ever heard, by investing your points on Intelligence, doesn't make you smarter! It will only increase the power of your magic, so if you're born idiot just live with it!"
Mrs. Farroh appears to be annoyed by those kinds of questions that she starts to tells them even before the students ask about it. And especially the last explanation, her veins can be seen popping out from her head.
"Do you understand!?"
Sensing something dangerous might happen if they're just staying quiet about it, the students simultaneously giving nods to the question.
"Good, let us proceed again."
After that, the students swiftly moving one by another. The result really varied between one that majors at Strength, Agi, Int, or sometimes, nothing at all. There's a specific thing in this stats checking that everyone in the Division is curious about, that's the stats of the star students, Inazuma and Ayano. They're sitting next to each other, so their stats can be compared instantly.
"Well, next student, please."
It's finally their turn, the first was Inazuma,
Name: Rodaci Inazuma Class: Novice Free Stats: 0 Res:6 Level: 8 Total Level: 8 STR: 40 VIT: 8 AGI: 30 PER: 10 INT: 16 MANA: 8
And then it's followed by Ayano.
Name: Ayano Lestanya Class: Novice Free Stats: 0 Res:8 Level: 8 Total Level: 8 STR: 16 VIT: 10 AGI: 16 PER: 8 INT: 46 MANA: 16
Immediately, after those two-person stats get revealed, the Division yelled in astonishment. What's more surprising is that Ayano already caught up with Inazuma.
"Wow, she's already level 8!"
"To be expected from the City Lord daughter's."
"Inazuma is also great, he'll definitely reach the legendary 3rd tier in the future, maybe even reach the rumored 4th tier!"
"Those two seem to be great together!"
Hearing this conversation, one student suddenly cuts in.
"Ah yeah, I recently remember that there's a talk about Inazuma, and Ayano gets engaged."
"It's great if it turned out to be true! They're definitely fit each other."
"Let's just ask them directly!"
Suddenly one of the students asks Inazuma, with quite a loud voice at that.
"Hey, Inazuma, Is it true that you're engaged to Ms. Ayano?"
Hearing the question, Inazuma waves his hand slightly.
"That was untrue, Ayano is too great for me."
"Really? Why don't you tell us the truth already."
The crowd appears to urge Inazuma to spit out the truth. In response to this, Inazuma only stays silent about it, while looks troubled by the sudden interview. Before long, he stole a peek towards Ayano. Seeing her nods her head silently, Inazuma finally replied to the question.
"Yes... I've indeed been engaged with her."
Instantly after hearing this, all the students start to give a cheer. The marriage between two talented individuals, how much gifted will their kid be? When the situation becomes too loud, eventually, Mrs. Farroh puts the break at the uproar.
"Congratulations to Inazuma and Ayano for getting engaged. I'm sure your kid will be very talented."
"And for the rest of you... Can you be quiet now?"
Following that, the atmosphere of the Division spontaneously quiets down again. Inazuma and Ayano also sit in their respective seat. Then, the stats checking is resumed;
Meanwhile, there's a dangerous aura seemingly leaking out from Ryu's body. Its cause is undoubtedly a thing called a jealousness. He now knows that the mysterious identity of Ayano fiance who's getting killed by the Dungeon outbreak is Inazuma all this time.
In the past, Ryu's indifferent about politics, news, etc. He's just busy living in his own world doing whatever he wants. So all he knows is that the city lord daughter has a fiancee but doesn't inquire about it that much.
Also, after they've barely started dating, Ayano seems to want to avoid the topic that's related to the outbreak, so it's hard for him to ask for who's her fiance actually. He never expects that it's Inazuma all along.
"So you're my rival Inazuma, interesting..."
"Although, in the end, I'm the one who has the advantage, though."
Ryu starts to put his hand on its chin, lost in his thoughts.
'They're still not married even after 10 years, there should be something shady behind those engagements.'
'Unexpectedly, maybe there's some dark secret behind the Forest City too.'
"I should investigate it after I got stronger."
Noting that things to his "to do" list, Ryu continued to read his book until his turn to be checked has come.
"Finally, Ryu. It's your turn."
"Ah, yes, miss."
When he's called, he has heard another comment being made for him.
"I bet he's still level 4, at best 5."
"In the end, he's still not qualified."
"Psst, don't let him hear you."
"What can he do anyway?"
"He may beat you like what he did to Ryo."
"That was merely a fluke."
Once again, he ignores those words. After all, his goal is not to look for a fight. The only motivation for him to keeps going to school is to see Ayano. The other things are not that important. But, suddenly, one remark caught his attention.
"Ah, hey, Mr. Pervert!"
When he looks at the direction of the voice, sure enough, it's Mizuha. She waves her hand at him, giving a good luck sign. Ryu greets her back and smiles at her.
'Pfft, It's not even a test.'
'And... That event makes her called me that, huh...'
Still remembering the awkward moments, Ryu arrived at the front of the orb. He quickly places his hand on the top of it, and the hologram starts to appear before him;
Name: Takazaki Ryu Class: Novice Free Stats: 0 Res: 10 Level: 10 Total Level: 10 STR: 20 VIT: 10 AGI: 70 PER: 10 INT: 20 MANA: 10
When the stats are out, one Division began to shout unanimously. That's including Mrs. Farroh too.
"Ryu! What happened to you!?"
"Nothing, in particular, is there something wrong?"
" I guess you've decided to not say it. Even so, leveling up 6 times in a month is too..."
"Oh, if it's about that, I simply got a good place to train."
"And that place is?"
"..."
Accepting the silence as an answer, Mrs. Farroh nods its head off.
"So be it, it's your choice after all. But why don't you upgrade your tier?"
Scratching the back of his head, Ryu gives a light smile.
"I've got some special planning that I can't afford to tell you, for now."
"I see. Well, you've already far surpassed me when I'm still at your age. I'm really proud of you now!"
Mrs. Farroh can't help but think that there's a lot of talented monsters in the current generation. They've 3 truly gifted individuals that even having one of them in every 100 years is considered to be great. There seems to be a bright future waiting for Forest City.
Meanwhile, the students are currently getting dumbfounded in their place. There's quite a lot of them that make fun out of Ryu just because his level is lower than them. Then, suddenly he becomes the top of the class?
"Isn't that the machine error?"
"Yeah, it should be the machine fault."
"There's no way he can level up that much in a month."
"You're right, he's not talented at all, it's only a stroke of luck."
Some that didn't want to admit this fact keeps making a reason to hold their superiority over Ryu. But, there's also a student who begins to speak up for Ryu, one of them is Mizuha.
"Why don't you guys go up to the stage again?"
Being surprised by the sudden question, the murmurings students don't know how to answer it.
"Based on your logic, when you go up to stage, your level will be level 11, right? Go test it now."
"That's..."
Although Mizuha still has her usual cheerful tone, her face seems to tell that she's fed up with the nonsense that keeps being uttered one by another.
"We're already at a Letters Division, try to act like an adult already. Don't you feel embarrassed to far-fetched things too much like that? He's simply so gifted, that's all. What's so hard to admit such things?"
"But, he's the unqualified one just a moment ago..."
"Yeah, in a month, he had changed a lot. Why don't you guys start to focus on your growth too? It's much better compared to commenting on someone else life all the time."
Mizuha words seem like throwing a bucket of cold water in their head. Indeed, instead of wasting their time on something worthless like that. Why don't they strive to improve themself?
The appearance of Ryu the unqualified individual that transformed into an overqualified one in only a month, and also Mizuha's words seem to lit up the student's desire to develop faster.
When the commotion starts to die down, Mrs. Farroh also has finished arranging the Sub-Division members.
"Okay, with the stats also being put into consideration. There'll be a 6 Sub-Division in total."
Looking at her note, Mrs. Farroh starts to read it out loud.
"The first Sub-Division has consisted of Ryu, Verdi, Mizuha, and lastly, Ayano."
When the first team is announced, there's a lot of students confused by it. Just a moment ago, Inazuma and Ayano announced that they're engaged, but Mrs. Farroh didn't put them in one division.
"You guys must be confused about why I didn't put them together."
Sensing that the students wear a perplexed face, Mrs. Farroh starts to explain why she did that.
"Even Ayano is a talented individual, she's still an important member of the royal family."
"That's why I need the strongest person to be in the same group as her."
"If I put Inazuma too in addition to Ryu, the balance of the other Division will be trampled."
Realizing what Mrs. Farroh just told them has made a sense. The students slowly nod their heads without uttering a single complaint. After all, thinking about it, they'll have a chance to team up with Inazuma. Somehow, Inazuma also doesn't seem that troubled with that. Following that, Mrs. Farroh resumes up the Sub-Division allocation;
Meanwhile, in that event. Ryu simply sits in his seat in the back quietly.
Jackpot! Ryu instinctively shouted inside his heart. This pairing will surely expand the opportunity for him to be together with her by a lot.
"I thought I need to propose a complaint about the Sub-Division."
"It turns out destiny is in my side..."
Looking at Ayano with the longing gaze, Ryu said an extra word;
"Ayano, we're bound by fate after all!"