The Author's POV

[Congratulations, Student Rank 197, Ren Dover, you have been selected as a candidate for the inter academy tournament]

[Read more...]

Turning on my phone and staring at the notification that had appeared on my screen since yesterday, a faint smile appeared on my lips.

'...I didn't fail'

I had successfully passed the tryouts like I had promised Donna.

"Attention!"

Snapping me out of my thoughts was a loud and hoarse voice.. Placing my phone back in my dimensional storage, I stared in front of me where a large field appeared in my sight.

With my back straight and standing next to a row of about thirty students wearing thin exercise clothing, under the cool morning breeze, a rather imposing man stood in front of me. Briefly staring at everyone before him, the man walked back and forth.

As he moved, as though the wind was blowing, each of his steps caused a thin undulation of magic power to sweep the area he was walking on. This was purposely done by him to look more intimidating to the students before him.

Walking back and forth a couple more times, after he made sure everyone's attention was gathered towards himself, the instructor finally started speaking.

"As most of you have been notified yesterday night, congratulations to you all for making it past the tryouts. You have successfully impressed us and thus are now eligible for participating in the inter-academy tournament."

Pausing and staring at a couple of students, the instructor continued speaking.

"For some, this may not be the only time you will be participating in the tournament as you may as well be able to enter to next year's edition...however, for some others, this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity."

"An opportunity to drastically change your life and actually accomplish something whilst you are here in the academy."

Halting his steps and imposingly looking at every single student before him, the instructor introduced himself.

"My name is August Bartolomeu and I will be the guest instructor in charge of you all."

"Is that really him"

"Waa..."

"Who would've thought that he was the one in charge"

As soon as the instructor finished introducing himself, some of the students besides me couldn't help themselves and started whispering. Thereafter, like a chain reaction, all of the other students followed suit and whispered amongst each other.

Standing with my back straight and staring at the large field before me, I kept my back straight and didn't utter a word.

In all honesty, the student's reaction was understandable.

August Barolomeu, an unranked <S> ranked hero who could very well enter the ranks if he tried. He had many accomplishments under his name and killed many demons back when he was fighting in the frontlines. He was one of the few unraked heroes whose name was known by most people in the human domain.

'The black ogre' was what they nicknamed him. Known for ripping his opponents in half with just his bare hands.

His relatively short hair spiked upwards, and he had a well-trimmed beard that extended all the way down to half of his neck. The feeling I got as I stared at him from the distance was that of a huge unmovable mountain. A monster if I would say.

Looking around the training grounds with his sharp eyes, the <S> ranked Hero August Barolomeu, murmured quietly.

"These bastards not paying me enough for this shit..."

It was so subtle that only a few people could hear it, even then, those who heard it didn't say a thing. That was due to instructor August being infamous for his short temper.

The reason as to why I kept my back straight and didn't say a thing was also because of this.

...fortunately, the professor seemed to be in a good mood today as no one was punished for interrupting him.

Ignoring the student's whispers, pointing towards the large field before us, instructor August started ordering us.

"Alright, your first task is to run around the field for five laps. Quickly get moving"

Staring at each other, the students didn't move immediately. They were confused. According to what they were told today was only an introductory class...

"...hm?"

After a couple of seconds, and seeing that no one was moving, raising his voice, instructor August stared at everyone before clapping multiple times. Each time he clapped a small shockwave swept everyone's faces startling them. Raising his voice he shouted.

"Hurry up, when I say do something you do it! You know what, I've changed my mind, you guys are running 6 laps now. Go! Go! Go!"

...I take whatever I said back.

It seems like he wasn't in a good mood.

Like a swarm of bees, most of the students present instantly sprinted towards the field and ran like there was no tomorrow.

Shaking my head as I watched the students run, I didn't mindlessly sprint like some of them. I kept at my own pace. Although this resulted in me being behind others, I wasn't concerned. These idiots probably forgot that this was only a warm-up.

"Hey R-"

As I was jogging, feeling a light tap on my shoulder I turned around and found Kevin jogging next to me

Raising my hand to stop Kevin from speaking, increasing my speed I distanced myself from him as I said.

"Nope, I do not know you, nor am I interested in knowing whoever you are"

Confused, Kevin increased his speed and once again caught up to me.

"What are you-"

Before Kevin could finish speaking, I quickly increased my pace once again.

"Nope"

Though my reaction seemed unreasonable, I was in fact purposely avoiding him.

...right now, Kevin's fame was at an all-time high. At the moment, he was so famous that there wasn't anyone in the academy that didn't know of his name. Especially since his exploits in the tryouts were seen by almost everyone.

With how widespread Kevin's name was right now, interacting with him publicly was definitely not going to do me any good. Especially considering the fact that [Blood supremacy] was after him.

Kevin was literally a walking contradiction of their beliefs. If they assumed I was his friend, high chance I could get swept in a ridiculous situation that I wasn't too keen on participating in.

Shaking his head, Kevin kept matching my pace as he spoke

"...It's regarding our trip to you know what"

"..."

Glancing behind me, slowing down my pace, I smiled brightly as I looked at Kevin

"Ah, is that you Kevin? where have you been? Been a while"

Scrap what I had just said.

Interacting with him a little bit shouldn't really be a problem no?

"..."

Speechless, Kevin didn't know what to say. However, used to Ren's erratic behavior, Kevin eventually relented and asked.

"I just wanted to know when we're going on our 'vacation' as I need to make preparations starting tomorrow"

Just in case someone overheard our conversation, as we spoke we kept it as vague as possible. We also made sure to use 'vacation' whenever we referred to Immorra.

Glancing towards my left and right to see if anyone was paying attention, after a bit of thought, I softly said

"In two months' time...we will be going on vacation in about two month's time"

There was a reason why I had said two months.

Currently, the situation in Glaxicus wasn't too bad. Although my intervention a month back had delayed the inevitable, according to my estimation the guild would be taken over in about seven months.

That's about how much time I had to look for the cure for the curse.

Honestly, the time was too short.

The reason why I delayed it for so long was because I simply wasn't ready.

Considering how dangerous the place was, I was far too weak to enter that place. Especially considering my current abilities. I was far from being strong enough to enter that place.

I needed these two extra months to increase my strength as much as possible. The stronger I was the higher the chance of success.

...and the first step towards that was my private training sessions with Donna which would start tomorrow.

If I said I wasn't nervous that would be a lie. I was actually quite excited at the prospect of having someone help me get a better understanding of how psyon worked as well as help me improve the mastery of my arts.

Since I could no longer increase my rank as fast, the only way I could get stronger was through increasing the mastery of my sword arts. Thus why I couldn't wait for tomorrow.

Placing his hand on his chin as he jogged, Kevin nodded his head.

"...two months, hmm, I understand"

"Kevin wait for me"

As Kevin and I were conversing, calling Kevin's name from behind was Emma. However just as she caught up with Kevin, as soon as she spotted me, I heard the sound of her tongue clicking as she softly mumbled.

"Tsk, it's this fucker"

Shaking my head as I glanced at her from the corner of my eyes, I briefly said

"I heard that..."

"Oh, you did? I'm sorry, wasn't on purpose"

"Is that so? Good for you"

Staring at Emma, I smiled and proceeded to ignore her. I wasn't sure why, but ever since the train ride back from the northern district, Emma had some sort of vendetta against me.

...well, I didn't really care if I had to be honest. As long as it didn't implicate me directly, she could hate me as much as she wanted for all I cared.

"Alright, Kevin tell me more later"

"mhh, alright"

Increasing my pace, I quickly distanced myself from Emma and Kevin.

Staring at my departing figure in the distance, jogging next to Kevin, Emma curiously looked at him as she asked.

"What were you guys talking about?"

After a short pause, Kevin glanced at Emma and responded.

"...nothing much, we were just planning on going on a trip in the near future"

Taken aback by the response, Emma suspiciously looked at Kevin as she asked

"A trip? Since when have you and that guy become so close?"

"It just happened"

"...you guys are suspicious"

"We just had matching interests"

As they were talking, trying to switch the topic, Kevin stared at Emma and asked

"Why do you hate him so much?"

He had been wondering this for a while now.

Whenever he saw Emma interact with Ren, he would always see her glaring at him. Though Ren didn't seem to care, Kevin was really curious as to what happened between the two of them. What caused her to hate him so much?

...was it perhaps because of what happened to Jin back in Hollberg?

Hearing the question, Emma froze for a split second. Thereafter her brows involuntarily knit as she murmured.

"Why?"

'Because he ignored me'

...was what Emma wanted to say, but as she looked at Kevin's red eyes that seemed to be able to see through her, Emma couldn't find any words to say.

Looking back at it now, Ren didn't really do anything to make her hate him. In fact, although he had only ignored her, she would've been a hypocrite to be angry just for that.

...thinking back at her past behavior, Emma realized that she had no right to complain. Having done a similar thing to many other people before, she would look like a total hypocrite if she said that.

As she thought that far, Emma realized how immature she still was.

I guess it all stemmed down to her pride being hurt. Thinking thus far, Emma stared at the blue sky in the distance.

"Just cause..."

In the end, those were the only words that came out of Emma's mouth.