I turned around, prompting her to speak, but my body was ready to run away at any second.

"What do you want?" I asked in a cold voice.

"Would you be willing to be my partner?"

I froze, not expecting to hear these specific words spoken in that specific order coming from her mouth.

"You want me to be your partner?" I asked, trying to clarify the situation.

"Yes, I think that you would be the most fit to take that position."

"But why? First of all, I'm an unawakened demon, and I'm also a fallen noble from House Endendyk with no known power or connections."

"I've clearly seen how powerful you are from our spar a week ago, and I still remember that scene where you completely confounded the older nobles with your political prowess back when you were only 8."

"I am still considered unsuitable to be your partner as I am nowhere near your social status."

"Does it matter? If I say it, then it must be true."

"And if someone objects?"

"Then they will face my wrath."

"..."

"Sigh, write up the contract and meet me in the common area at dinner time."

I turned around and started walking away, leaving those words behind me.

...

"And that was how the hero killed the demon 100 years ago."

After those words were spoken, our lecture ended, and so did our school day.

Standing up, I started walking to my dorm.

You see, I had discovered some weird things today.

Like, did you know that there were no notebooks or backpacks in this world?

This was honestly mind blowing as I realized that we were all expected to just memorize our teacher's lectures from just listening to them.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Honestly, it was basically culture shock, as I was too used to seeing people taking notes in a notebook and wearing a backpack whilst walking around a school in movies and such.

Obviously, this made it pretty hard for me to learn, but I persevered, as it seemed like everybody else was doing just fine by listening.

Anyways, I still had a few hours before my meeting with Vasilie to negotiate the terms of our contract, so I headed to The Bruiser.

Entering the hellish training hall, I passed the equipment that gave it its name, before stopping in my steps, turning back, and reluctantly entering one of the rooms.

You see, although what you could gain from using these training rooms was immense, in return, you could be confined in a wheelchair for the rest of your life if you made one wrong move.

Of course, due to this, only students of the Noble class were able to access the rooms, and even then, almost all the geniuses would still come out with more bruises than they could count, covering their body from head to toe.

I wanted to see if I could fare any better.

Walking into the room, I watched as the darkness was lit up by a light that seemed to come from both nowhere and everywhere.

My ears picking up the little sounds that the door made as it closed, I waited.

And, right when the door locked shut, the room started the training fit to be called straight from hell.

"Pschhhh!"

A big metal ball the size of my head flew by my side as I narrowly dodged it, the glistening silver touching the creases in my shirt by just the tiniest bit.

"Pschhhh!"

Tilting my head sideways, I felt the wind ruffle my hair as the speed that it traveled caused a sharp displacement in the molecules of the room.

"Pschhhh!"

Dodging another ball, I started blocking everything out, my thoughts, my desires, my family, only focusing on my senses, on the fact that I had to dodge with my life literally on the line.

Moving my body into positions I had never thought possible before, I dodged each and every single metal ball as they started increasing in speed and number.

I kept going on and on, as the balls kept increasing and increasing.

You see, the only way that the magic room would stop was by hitting the person inside 5 times.

And, of course, the longer that a person was able to stay in the room, the deadlier it became for a ball to hit them.

So, me, with my dumbass weak body that was still below average mostly, I knew that it would be very unbeneficial for me if I kept going, but I did.

It was probably due to the screw loose in my head.

After all, I needed to get stronger, stronger to...

But I wasn't thinking about this at the moment.

I was just thinking about the brief coldness of the metal as it narrowly missed my skin, the fine movements of my muscles as I danced around, and the long and short breaths of my breathing, allowing me to more tactfully focus on my surroundings.

Yet, even with me being in a state of total concentration, I wasn't able to hold on, and after the first ball hit, the last 4 followed quickly after, and I was left on the floor with at least 3 broken bones and 5 fractures.

Grimacing at the pain in my ribs, my right leg, and my left arm, I could only bear the pain with the adrenaline still coursing through my body. I stood up and quickly exited the room, as if I stayed in the room, then it would have started another round.

Limping back to the dorms whilst holding my working hand to my rib, I noticed the gazes of many, but they all looked away quickly as they had seen an image like this too many times before.

Finally arriving in front of the door to my room, my hand shaking erratically, I dropped my keycard 3 times before finally being able to open the door.

Looking up from her book whilst sitting on the couch, Char immediately appeared in front of me as I started falling forward.

Knowing full well that she would catch me, I coughed out black blood, closed my eyes, and let myself black out before I even registered falling into her arms.

...

Waking up to the bland dorm room ceiling, I noticed that my body wasn't really hurting anymore.

Pulling my body up into a sitting position, I looked at Char and saw that she had taken on my injuries using an artifact she had.

You see, the reason I wasn't really worried about her was due to the fact that the injuries that had seemed life threatening for me would feel like nothing more than a hair being pulled when applied to her.

"Thank you, Char."

"It was only my duty, Young Master."

Seeing that I was awake, she looked at me up and down, making sure that nothing else had happened.

"I trained in a Bruiser." I said, answering her question before she even asked it.

Hearing this, she nodded, before returning back to her book.

"What time is it?" I asked her.

"A little under 10 minutes before dinnertime, Young Master."

'Shit!'

"Get me ready immediately, I have an appointment, Char."

Not asking questions, she immediately followed my orders and I was able to exit the room after only 5 minutes.

Running to the common area, I hurriedly looked around, trying to find my target.

Eventually locating her, I checked my appearance once more, before walking up to the bar stool next to her and sitting down.

"You're late."

'Fuck.'