User:Shrysha

The Seven Princess Knights and the Dark Lord Hero (Original Light Novel Attempt)

 

Foreword:

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plotline chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

 

Prologue:

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black hooded cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he gave a very intimidating dark presence. Carrying the scent of blood and death around him, he could very well be mistaken for the grim reaper or angel of death himself. And those would be rather accurate guesses, as he was widely known to the rest of the world by the name <God of Death>, and not just for his physical appearance alone.

After all, he was the one responsible for having single-handedly staining this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law, with no one left alive to oppose him.

Despite the <God of Death>’s actions, the child still did not fear him. To the child, this reaper was a savior, having killed the now former slave merchant owners and their bodyguards.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to his expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, he patiently waited for the child’s next actions. This child who was on the steps of death’s door. This child whose life was in the hands of this “god” ruling over death itself.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose to an oppressive level, completely overwhelming the child’s senses. The child suddenly collapsed back to the ground, seemingly crushed by an immense unknown pressure. But the child who had nothing left to lose, and nothing left to fear, only stared unwaveringly back.

Suddenly the pressure ceased, and the child could suddenly breathe gain. The <God of Death> turned around and full faced the child.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back, showing his firm resolve. It may have been just a trick of the mind, but the child thought he felt the <God of Death> smile for just a moment. The voice continued.

(But power is something I can offer you. And the price…)

Without hesitation, with a single breath:

“My soul.”

 

Interlude 1:

Such a clichéd development.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response, like “It had already been paid for” or something anti-climatic like that, had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, and at the climax only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

This was an eight-year-old memory that he hadn’t remembered for quite some time.

Perhaps even a fated reunion could occur.

Could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

 

Chapter 1:

Chapter 1: Part 1:

Today was supposed to be a normal day, link any other.

What kind of ridiculous development was this?

“Uhmm, Shryza, are you alright?”

A cute high-pitched voice interrupted him from his thoughts.

Trying to sort out his thoughts, Shryza had absent-mindedly brought his right hand to hold his temples underneath his messy head of silver-white hair, which was quite the unusual color for an eighteen year-old student.

His school uniform was ordinary enough: a white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shryza felt uncomfortable wearing it, let alone it was a bit too flashy for his taste, it couldn’t be helped; as one of the most prestigious academic institutions worldwide, it was expected there would be an excess of unnecessary rules and regulations to maintain its lofty image to the rest of the world.

Asides from the standard-issue uniform, Shryza’s appearance was altogether rather unnatural.

His left eye was covered with an eyepatch, mostly obscured by the longer left-side bangs of his unnaturally white hair. And when combined with the pair of rectangular glasses on his face, the eyepatch was almost unnoticeable, especially from further distances. He also had wrapped the entire length of his left arm in bandages as well, most of which was hidden unearth the sleeve of his uniform.

Overall, Shryza’s appearance seemed to be one of a particularly unlucky accident-prone teenager.

If he had claimed to have been involved in a horrific accident that had injured most of his left side, and that this injury was the cause for his late enrollment to the school, most people would unquestionably believe him.

“I apologize. I’m just a little tired this morning, thanks.”

Shryza in response to the question in regards to his well-being settled for a simple apology, which he thought would suffice.

Standing facing Shryza was Professor Ruegger a comically petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat over her simple teaching attire, which only seemed to reinforce her rather child-like appearance. Contrary to how she looked, most students would unequivocally agree that she was an extremely knowledgeable well-liked teacher, always putting forth her best efforts for the sake of her students. Professor Reugger was looking up sternly at Shryza with her large orange-hued eyes, but it was rather difficult for him to take her seriously when she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, which was one of the greatest mysteries within this academy, Shryza would decline to comment.

Professor Ruegger smiled and, as expected, quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

That’s right.

Shryza and Professor Ruegger were now standing at the front of a small lecture hall, or rather what looked like a mini-theatre, in front of twenty or so seated students. Although it wasn’t particularly necessary, she thought it a good idea for Shryza to take the opportunity to introduce himself as a new transfer student. There was quite a bit of whispering and murmuring in the classroom, which quieted down as Professor Ruegger took a step forward towards her students.

“So if you could, please introduce yourself.”

As Professor Reugger turned her head at back at Shryza, he could feel the curious stares of the students being redirected at him.

As he thought earlier, this was a ridiculous scenario, being forced to attend school.

There could only be one culprit.

And that someone would definitely later on receive a punch to the face.

With no other choice for now, Shryza decided to just go with the flow for now and accept his fate.

“My name is Shryza Doe. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at the teacher, Shryza gave her a looking that said he was done with his introduction. Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, was satisfied with such a short, information-lacking introduction.

Shryza sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach for someone trying to maintain order within the classroom, not that Shryza actually cared though.

As to be expected, the class erupted with noise and he was bombarded with questions and comments from all directions, without any opening for him to answer.

“Hey hey, where did you come from?”

“Why did you transfer? Did you get into an accident?”

“What was your former school?”

“You look pretty cute, do you have a girlfriend?”

“Say something about your hobbies or favorite activities!”

“Why did you transfer into our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Are the rumors true? Is it true you got top scores on the transfer exam?”

“Apparently he completely aced the written portion.”

“No way, that’s impossible!”

“How were his practical results?”

“Wait, I heard you beat an exam-proctor in a fight. Is that true?”

“Seriously?”

“Unless he’s at the level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Did you get into an accident?”

It was complete chaos.

Shryza made zero attempts to answer any of the questions or rumors being wildly thrown around. Not that he had the chance to. On the other hand, there was one person in the class valiantly trying to rein in this disorder.

“Enough, everyone! Can everyone please quiet down!”

Professor Ruegger tried to tame the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over her own students. Even though she was a very well-liked teacher, her competence in being able to direct her class was in question. Many teachers were brought in by this school primarily for magical research whereas others were hired for their outstanding combat abilities; teaching students, although still a core focus of any academic institution, seemed to have a backseat role here.

“Sniff…”

As Professor Ruegger started tearing up and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their questioning session and started to reprimand each other.

“Everyone quiet down!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Hey! Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We’ll promise to stop!”

Shryza could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Ruegger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather as a young child. But it was somewhat sadistic of the students to initially force her to the brink of tears before consoling her.

Well, it looked like Ms. Ru did the ability to control and direct her class, but not via traditional methods.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll forgive you. I’m also your teacher! Please call my name properly!”

Ms. Ru stuttered a little as she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. Looking around the classroom, it didn’t look like her request would be easily fulfilled.

“So again, let’s do this properly. If anyone has any questions, please raise your hand…”

“Hey, transfer student. I heard you are strong.”

With those words, the rest of the classroom continued to remain silent.

Shryza turned his gaze to the student standing up, who had earlier been sitting in the back of the classroom. Admittedly she had quite the dazzling appearance. Ignoring her rather pretty face and nice figure, she had bright crimson-colored shoulder-length hair and similarly-colored eyes, which were very hard to ignore. Despite the uniform requirement at this school, it seemed that students were still able to be quite liberal with their physical appearance. This student in particular wore her uniform very informally; her blazer was taken off and placed on her desk, her shirt was untucked with rolled-up shirt sleeves, and her skirt length was too short for what Shryza expected from such a traditional-style school.

This student would be considered a very attractive lady, if it weren’t so difficult to picture her as anything other than a school delinquent or gangster.

Without question, this person had the most imposing presence in the classroom.

“Uhmm, Ms. Himika…”

Ms. Ru tried to interject, but the delinquent was focused solely on Shryza and ignored her.

“To be transferred into our class immediately, your transfer exam scores must have been pretty good. I also heard that you beat the examiner during the practical test as well, is that true?”

For someone who looked and acted like a gangster, Shryza found her to be quite eloquent.

Shryza hesitated about how to answer before settling for a vague response.

“Who knows?”

“Haha, that’s a nice response!”

The delinquent laughed as she ran her hand through her hair before grinning widely at him.

“My name is Himika Cou, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank Three! And with my rank on the line, I challenge you to a duel!”

What a lame line. It sounded like some kid was trying to challenge him to a children’s card game, or something similar to that. But if what she said was true, at rank three, she was the third strongest student at this school amongst several thousands. And Himika’s surname “Cou” was one that belonged to the three great families. Given her innate talent, it was very likely she was one of the daughters of the Wei house. To engage in battle with one of the scions of the three great families was quite the interesting offer.

But in the end, it sounded too troublesome for his liking.

“I refuse.”

It wasn’t really in his personality to accept such a troublesome proposal.

Unfortunately for Shryza, Himika was not deterred at all by this rejection.

“Make no mistake, transfer student. I’m not giving you a choice.”

Shryza sighed softly at this reply.

“I thought I was allowed to decline.”

“I see, so you don’t know the rules yet. Normally you’d be able to avoid this fight, but I have special privileges as a single digit ranker.”

How… annoying? Despite her delinquent appearance, it seemed that Himika was actually rule-abiding. Her forceful personality and ability to exploit the rules were completely separate matters.

There were few feasible options that Shryza could choose to respond with.

He could run. But where to?

He could try again to suspend the duel. But it looked like it would be too difficult to convince her.

He could choose to lose on purpose. But if he was found out, she looked to be the type of person that wouldn’t let him off easily.

He could just accept the duel and win. But that would draw too much attention towards him.

Whatever choice he made, it would be a lose-lose situation for him.

Resigned to his fate, Shryza thought it better to just win and get this matter done with. As long as it looks as if he just barely won, then he could avoid the worst possible outcomes at the very least.

“Where and when?”

“Someone who doesn’t mince words, that’s great. Are you prepared? And how does here and now sound?”

This delinquent was surprisingly considerate as well, showing the most basic of etiquettes of giving Shryza time to find a weapon or determine an alternative time or place to have the duel. Ms. Ru looked like she wanted to make an objection to the fight taking place in the middle of a classroom, but both of them seemed to have completely relegated her to a background character at this time.

Shryza raise both hands to show that he didn’t have, or need, any weapons.

“I accept, whenever you’re ready.”

At these words, the two badges pinned on each of the students’ shirts quickly flashed with light, which signified the school’s acknowledgement of the legitimacy of this duel.

“Great! Don’t go disappointing me!”

With only a single step, Himika warning leapt from her seat over the heads of his fellow students. To traverse the classroom in one step was actually quite the considerable feat.

Screams could be heard… only from Ms. Ru.

In this school, it was not uncommon to see fights, or rather these “duels”, breaking out randomly across the campus. Thus the rest of the class was already quite accustomed to this type of scene. However, most students would agree that Himika’s act of interrupting Ms. Ru’s class with a duel without asking permission first was quite rude.

On the contrary, Ms. Ru, no matter how many times she witnessed these duels, could never get used to them. She was never a big proponent of fighting and violence.

While in midair, Himika led with her left knee while drawing back her right fist, presumably in preparation for a preemptive attack.

Despite the lack of warnings, Shryza predicted this kind of development to a certain extent. With the vast amount of accumulated experience he had gained fighting on innumerable battlefields, to him an attack coming directly from the front was not much of a surprise, and dealing with it was mere child’s play.

Despite landing a meter away from Shryza, with the left foot she landed on, she used it to quickly propel herself in Shryza’s direction and punched forward with her right arm. Shryza in response slightly tilted his body to sidestep the attack, but only just barely enough that he could still feel the air pressure caused by her arm barely passing by where his head was only moments earlier. Upon missing her initial punch, she quickly leaned forward onto her right foot and pivoted her body, sending her left foot flying upwards at Shryza from behind. This beautiful follow-up roundhouse kick was met and easily deflected with the back of Shryza’s right hand.

However, Himika’s attack was not finished.

Upon having this kick repelled, she used her left foot to bring down Shryza’s right arm towards the ground, leaving an opening in his defense. With her free right knee, she attempted to viciously knee her opponent in the groin. However this crisis was averted by him taking a step back and moving out of range. Himika’s then used that knee to step forward and raised up her other leg in preparations for a drop kick. And in one fluid movement, she brought it down, as if swinging down a heavy battleaxe onto Shryza’s head, but only to have it blocked once more by the palm of his right hand.

Four fluid attacks in one movement. She was extremely skilled and well-trained for unarmed close quarters combat.

And even though none of her attacks connected, it seemed that she was enjoying this fight too much.

“Isn’t your skirt too short? You should be more concerned that people will see what’s underneath.”

Shryza wanted to interrupt the current pace of the battle and slow it down. He thought that this question might cause Himika to be more self-conscious and slightly throw off her composure. Contrary to his expectations, she was completely unmoved by this inquiry and easily brushed it aside.

“If you have time to be so worried for me, let’s see how you handle this!”

Unfortunately for him, it had the reverse effect.

Her left leg unexpectedly ignited with bright red flames, prompting Shryza to let it go immediately and retreat two or three meters away from her.

The flames seemed to emit intense heat and pressure, but Himika was completely unaffected.

Despite the duel taking place in the front of the classroom away from where the students were seated, there was no barrier or protection in place to prevent collateral damage from the fight should it come their way. But most of the students were quite unconcerned; most were quite happy to skip a boring class lecture to watch this high-level fight between this classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Although the fight had just barely started, there was a question that Shryza still had in regards to her Himika’s motives.

If what he recalled was right, a student’s rank was the most important possession amongst students in this school.

“Your rank. Why are you willing to put that on the line for something like this pointless duel?”

“Rank, something uninteresting like that? I’m more than willing to give it up, but that’s only if you can entertain and defeat me!”

She responded as if this explanation was the most natural thing in the world.

Himika then quickly charged, with her flaming left leg forward, again closing the distance between the two combatants.

 

Chapter 2:

As the two students continued to clash with each other, Ms. Ru could only scrunch into a ball and pout. She was now sitting in the front row of her classroom, after having been brought over by some of her students. A few of the female students were still by her side actively comfort the poor teacher. Although her skills and knowledge as a professor were real, she had neither authority nor respect in her own classroom. Rather than being looked up to as an older mentor, she was instead treated as an adorable younger sister to be teased and played with.

Unfortunately for Ms. Ru, with the exception of the authority from higher up, until the conclusion of the duel, no one was permitted to interrupt it once underway. Not even the teacher of her two students was allowed to interfere, which was why she had made multiple earlier, yet futile, attempts to stop the duel from starting.

Duels in this institution had three fundamental conditions.

First, there must be mutual consent, implicit or explicit, between the two dueling parties. Consent did not refer just to the duel itself, but also extended to the details and conditions attached to it as well. Forced duels and duels instigated by single digit rankers were the only exception.

Second, duels will only be recognized on the academy grounds. The badges given to each student upon enrollment allowed the academy to track and monitor each duel participant. This was especially important to resolve possible conflicts regarding the two parties should a dispute arise in regards to the duel’s conclusion.

Lastly, a duel is won once the opposing party has conceded defeat or is left unconscious. Killing the other party, however, is considered forbidden and is harshly punished, with very few outliers.

Asides from those three rules, everything was essentially unrestricted or fair game.

Power is the only truth.

With duels capable of deciding and resolving almost every matter in the school, power was indeed the absolute truth of this academy, or the International Combat Academy.

Despite the school’s name, this was a privately-run institution located on an exclusive island not belonging to any nation, independent from all international pressures. This academy was founded just only five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet very wealthy backer. Despite all initial doubts, it had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest warriors, magicians, and combatants.

As a result, and largely in part due to its strict international neutrality, nations worldwide sent many of their promising talents there to be raised and cultivated. And naturally those who achieved a high rank in the school system would be placed highly in the International Ranking System as well.

There are two types ranking systems at this school.

The first type of rank, and most important rank as a professional in the industry, was the international Ranking System.

With combat talent and abilities highly valued worldwide, there was a growing necessity to be able to rank people objectively and holistically on an international basis. The International Ranking Commission, comprised by a committee of professors and other highly qualified professionals, was set up to fulfill that informational requirement.

The vast majority of the students at the International Combat Academy were not ranked under the international system, and they would not be expected to have been assigned a rank until after graduation.

The second type of rank, and far more relevant rank as a student, was the interschool ranking system.

The interschool ranking was the method how students at this academy were assessed, which are similar to grades from a more traditional institution. Exemplary written and practical exams results were indeed important to achieving a higher rank. But ranking duels were the much more influential method of determining school-wide ranks. With ranking duels, one could fight another higher-ranking student and, if victorious, swap for their higher ranks.

Normally higher ranked students would not allow lower rankers to challenge them due to risks of accidentally losing and having their rank drop significantly, but there are a few exceptions.

The first and most common exception is that there exists an academy rule permitting those with lower ranks to “force” a duel from a slightly higher ranked, the methodology not stated here, with the purpose of encouraging more school-wide competition, thus the “forced duel” rule.

A second common scenario where a higher ranker will voluntarily accept a duel from a lower-ranked student is when another “prize” or condition is offered by the lower ranker as an additional compensation for the risk the higher ranker assumes.

There was also a rare third scenario. There are people in this academy who have enrolled for no other purpose other than to fight other powerful students, without care for his or her ranking. Ranks were just a means to an end. Such students in the academy were very few in number, and such a person was the high-ranked delinquent-looking student currently in front of Shryza.

Having been on the receiving end of a few attacks, Shryza had that Himika was an extremely skilled fighter. Her current Rank Three was well merited. However, even that level strength was not enough to concern Shryza. At any point of time during the fight, he could have chosen to end it immediately with a well-timed counterattack. But suddenly winning a fair one-on-one duel against the third strongest person in the school might cause future problems for him.

After having dashed at towards him with her leg ablaze, Shryza had thought that she would use that same leg to land an attack. To his surprise, she dove downwards and turned her body to use her other leg, her right leg, in an attempt at a leg sweep. Taking another step back to avoid it, he was now met again with her left leg wearing a boot made of flames. Where did she find the time to rotate her body and fire off another kick? With no time to dodge, Shryza quickly gathered mana onto the palm of his right hand and bare-handedly caught her flame-clad foot.

Himika did not expect such a response to her attack, and she started laughing in enjoyment again.

“It doesn’t seem that you tree-lovers burn as easily as I thought!”

Shryza stared directly back at Himika with his only visible violet-colored eye and smiled back wryly, understanding the deeper meaning of his words.

Each person born with a certain level of talent for magic also had affinity to at least one of the seven core elements or two sub elements that exist in this world. And a person’s primary elemental affinity was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with red eyes, like Himika, was someone who excelled with fire magic. Likewise, a person with purple eyes was more skilled with wood and plant manipulation.

Additionally, certain elements were more “effective” than other elements in certain confrontations. In this case, to fight fire, wood was the absolute worst element to use.

In theory by just comparing their elemental affinities, Himika should have had a significant advantage in this matchup.

But by concentrating mana into his right hand, Shryza was able to easily withstand Himika’s flame-infused kick. Mana, the source of power used by all magic and spells, in its natural state was neutral, or void of any elemental attributes.

“Oh? Your hand is still fine, but are you sure you’re fine with only using one?”

Himika had quickly glanced down at Shryza’s bandaged left hand, which had largely remained motionless since the beginning of the fight. This could have been seen as a considerate gesture, had she not ignited flames in her other arm and thrown an elbow to side of his head. This action prompted Shryza to quickly release Himika’s fist and sidestep the attack.

Shryza was actually reasonably impressed with the quality and durability of the academy-issue combat-ready uniforms, as Himika’s clothing were largely unaffected by her flames. However, the uniform is no substitute battle-armor: its defensive properties were actually quite minimal. The material of the uniform was made to let magical and elemental attacks go through the cloth unobstructed rather than to block them, but that did little to stop sharp objects from easily cutting through them.

“One arm should be more than enough. No need to go easy on me.”

“Haha, that’s a great response!”

Along with her answer, Himika also ignited her other leg and two arms with flames as well. Each of them had the same heat and intensity as the one originally enveloping her left leg.

Shryza could only sigh. This was a development he should have seen coming.

For several moments, Shryza and Himika continued to trade blows, providing a mesmerizing lightshow to the student spectators. Or rather, it was Himika throwing an increasingly complex yet constantly fluid combination of attacks whereas Shryza was continually on the defensive.

From the outsiders’ perspective, it seemed that Shryza was continued being pressed back. It seemed logical that only being able to use one arm should be a crippling disadvantage to Shryza in close quarters combat. It looked like only a matter of time before Shryza’s impressive defense would reveal an opening, and for Himika to land a decisive attack to end the fight.

But this was not the same view that Himika held. Himika prided herself in her strength, and rightfully so as the third strongest student in the school. But she was quick to acknowledge and assess the strength of others with almost a beast-like instinct. Being able to ward off every single one of her attacks, she was made immediately aware that her opponent was skilled. His mana levels were nothing incredibly special and neither were his physical speed in strength; in fact it can be said that his stats were almost too average. However this one armed opponent was actually able to easily maneuver around Himika’s aggression with only the most basic of techniques or movements, which required an incredible amount of real combat experience and knowledge.

With each attack that was deflected or dodged, Himika’s estimation of Shryza’s strength only rose. Where the seemingly increasing gap in power may have overwhelmed other students and cause them to be distraught, this only fueled Himika’s fighting appetite; she genuinely enjoyed fighting against this caliber of opponent.

However, she was still not completely satisfied. Although there was no proof that this was the case, she felt that Shryza was holding back his full strength against her, even to the point of just testing her.

“How annoying. So you’re one of those guys who won’t hit a girl?”

Himika, clearly displeasured that Shryza refused to go on the offensive, continued to assault Shryza with a flaming elbow, which was neatly dodged. The fact that she had yet to land a solid attack on him did little to help to improve her mood.

“I’m busy enough just trying not to get hit.”

“You’re such a terrible liar. I know you’re stronger than you’re letting on. It’s just annoying that I can’t make you fight seriously unless I do so first.”

And with these words, Himika suddenly disengaged from close quarters combat by stepping back away from Shryza and completely ceased the raging flames wrapping around each of her four limbs.

For just a moment, Shryza was caught off guard at Himika’s words. He thought that he had put a reasonable amount of effort to hide this very fact. But during his limited exchange of blows and words, he realized that Himika was not only just powerful and talented, but she was also quite the intelligent fighter. Actually he could go further and say that many of her attacks were quite sly and sneaky. Regardless, she was much sharper than everyone gave her credit for, and this hot-headed idiot personality was perhaps merely a calculated façade to lower the enemy’s guard.

Whatever was the case, Shryza mentally upgraded his evaluation of the opponent before him. Even though it looked that Himika still had a few trump cards up her sleeve.

Holding her right hand open with her palm facing upwards, she slowly closed her eyes.

“Dragon flames, ignite.”

Suddenly she released an enormous wave of pressure and heat, blowing away the air in her vicinity, before gathering onto her palm a small ball of raging red-white flames. These flames were on a much greater intensity than the smaller ones used when he was using them to enhance her attacks earlier.

Although he didn’t verbalize it, Shryza was quite impressed at the level of Himika’s abilities, as she was still only of teen age. Even though he had fought numerous high-ranked fire-elementalists in the past, he could count those who could use higher-level flames on only one hand.

Dragon flames were considered amongst the hottest of all flames in existence, flames rumored to continue to burn until its target was completely disintegrated. This was a very fitting name.

Himika then closed her right hand into a fist, completely squashing that ball of flames. This caused the flames to shoot out from one side of her fist, which then gathered and condensed into the form of a blazing two-meter long sword.

Although the sprinkler system was activated, it did absolutely nothing to mitigate the potency of these flames. This did awaken the student spectators from their trance-like state, having been bewitched just by watching this high level fight.

With this much higher level of fire magic being contained in such a relatively small classroom, the spectators started murmur with worry, and some even were on the verge of panicking. The potential collateral damage that could possibly result from the seemingly inevitable clash was on a level that could no longer be overlooked. It was extremely rare that such a fight between such high-ranked students should occur so informally inside a classroom. Usually they were schedule beforehand and fought in an appropriately-sized spectator-filled stadium, as it was very likely that larger scaled magic abilities were going to be used. Only relatively low power attacks had been used so far in the fight, but it looked like that would soon quickly change.

As a side note, Ms. Ru admirably tried to go forward to make a few last ditch attempts to interfere with and stop the fight. But as expected she was quickly stopped and carried off by her own students to safety.

Additionally in response to Himika’s dragon flames, a powerful water barrier was casted over the students to prevent damage from reaching to them. The caster of this magic, presumably named Yuki, was a pale blue-white haired student who was now standing with an arm outstretched. Her attractiveness was on the same scale as Himika’s, but she had a calm graceful elegance juxtaposed against Himika’s wild unrestrained beauty. But more importantly, Shryza judged her to be just as powerful as Himika as well, most likely another single ranker.

He couldn’t help but think that there was quite the number of talented people in this classroom.

“Thanks Yuki!”

She responded to Himika with only a nod.

No longer worried about her flames reaching her fellow classmates, Himika again refocused her undivided attention backed to Shryza. But he returned with a rather interesting remark.

“I’m surprised that you’re actually a pretty considerate person, taking the time to worry about your classmates.”

“Why would I be? It would just be annoying if they interfered in our fight. Enough of the small talk, it’s time to finish this!”

As if to confirm this statement, she pointed her flaming sword in Shryza’s direction. Despite Himika’s fierce words, she was not very convincing in trying to hide her embarrassment.

First looks impressions were indeed quite a bit deceiving.

“Dragon flames… That sword looks a bit dangerous.”

“And yet you don’t look the least bit concerned. How strong are you really?”

“Who knows? And aren’t you going to draw your real weapon?”

Shryza tilted towards Himika’s seat in the back corner of the classroom, where a rather long, bulky package wrapped in bandages lay against the wall. Judging by the shape of the wrapped weapon and the current magic Himika was using, it should probably be a sword of similar proportions to the current one she was holding made of flames. By wielding that weapon and channeling magic through it directly instead of fighting with her conjured flame sword, Shryza estimated that Himika’s battle potential could easily increase at least two or three-fold, if not more.

As expected, his suggestion was readily turned down.

“That wouldn’t be fun. After all, you’re unarmed as well.”

“I see. Then brace yourself.”

With little effort, Shryza rapidly concentrated his mana to the tips of his fingers. Noticing that Shryza was preparing to go on the offensive for the first time this battle, Himika, who had raised her flame sword slightly above her head and was about to launch headlong into an all-out attack, suddenly stopped.

Dangerous.

Her instincts, which have rarely failed her and have helped her win fights time and time again, were loudly screaming to her that Shryza was extremely dangerous. She felt as if the blade of a knife was being held to her throat. What kind of heavy killing intent was this?

If she made just even the slightest mistake, she felt that she that a single strike might be enough to even kill her. She was afraid to even take a step forward. Wait, she was feeling fear? Himika wanted to convince herself that this sensation was only an illusion, but to no avail.

Himika had fought her fair share of opponents, and only a handful had alerted her instincts as powerfully as Shryza had. None of them had been around her age, until now.

“Damn, just who exactly are you?”

In sharp contrast to Himika’s animal-like grin, Shryza only responded with a light smile.

Both combatants, with just a few meters separating each other, waited for the other to make an opening. Or rather, it was Shryza that waited for Himika to make the first move. Although Shryza felt that his opponent had too many openings that he could exploit and that the fight was all but decided, he felt lenient enough to let the fight end on Himika’s terms.

Wild flames on one side on the classroom. Zen-like calmness on the other.

Everyone in the classroom was silent, holding their breaths. The tension created by this standoff could be said to be thick enough to drown in.

Himika cautiously moved her foot slightly forward. Shryza did the same.

Inching ever closer, the two opponents…

…were rudely interrupted.

 

Chapter 1: Part 3:

“This duel is declared null and void!”

The classroom door was loudly slammed wide open, completely disrupting the fight.

The tension in the room was killed immediately.

Reluctantly, Himika instantly extinguished her flames and dematerialized her sword. Similarly Shryza dispersed the mana concentrated in his right arm along with his killing intent.

At the door of the entrance were two female students. Apparently they were either very popular or well known within the student body, or very likely both, as suddenly the classroom once again erupted into chatter and noise. It was also to be noted that they were also beauties of a very high level, similar yet different to those of Yuki and Himika.

Shryza hadn’t expect so many people with model-like appearances to have attended this combat-oriented school, let alone be in the same classroom at once. He also hadn’t expected there to be so many talented students in the academy; the two female students who had just interrupted the duel looked to be rather skilled.

Also he made a mental note to himself that this classroom was really a chatterbox. Is this what a normal classroom was supposed to be like?

The first female student, presumably the one who had interrupted their fight, ignored the noise coming from the student spectators and confidently walked forward within inches to Himika, glaring at her accusingly. Like Himika and Yuki, she easily stood out from the rest of her students with her platinum silver hair matching her similarly colored eyes. And with a pauldron on her left shoulder and a sheathed longsword by her waste, she looked very much like a female knight. Although it was quite common to see students carry weapons within the school grounds, Shryza felt that she was prepared to unsheathe and use it anytime at a moment’s notice. It was just a feeling, but Shryza assessed that she was, if not only just slightly, stronger than Himika.

And if Shryza had to make a first impression guess, he didn’t think this female knight and Himika got along well.

Unfortunately it seemed like Shryza guessed correctly.

“As expected of you, Himika. Only you would cause this much trouble in the classroom.”

“Huh?”

Himika aggressively stared back, of course with a fearless smile. It seemed that they shared some history together given their current familiarity, although the relationship was probably not particularly amicable. These two female students had the compatibility of oil and water.

“I’ve done nothing. Aren’t you in the wrong for interrupting this duel?”

“Of course I have the proper authority. But to choose to fight in the middle of class? Especially in the middle of Ms. Ru, I mean Professor Ruegger’s lecture.”

This verbal slip didn’t escape Shryza. Although

“That’s allowed, right? Tell me, where did I break the rules?”

Apparently Ariana, with her aura of authority seemed to have held quite a fair amount of political power within the school. This was particularly surprising as she did not look to be a student at the university level yet.

“It’s not just rules. Etiquette is also important…”

“Etiquette. Oh please shut it, how can you be so stuck up?”

Shryza turned his head away from the two female students. He wanted absolutely no part in this squabble.

While Ariana and Himika continued to verbally berate each other, two other female students approached Shryza. The first was Yuki, who had earlier erected the high-level water barrier. The second was the other student who had entered the classroom with Ariana. The second of the two was the first to speak.

“My name is Ivy, Vice President of the Student Council. Shryza, was it? It’s my pleasure to meet you.”

“And my name is Yuki. I must apologize for Himi’s rather rude behavior. It’s very nice to meet you.”

Himi was very likely Yuki’s personal nickname for Himiko, and it seemed that the two were on very good terms with each other. Whether “Himi” liked being called by that nickname was a different matter.

With a pretty peach-shaped face with waste-length raven-black hair outlining her rather curvy body, Ivy had quite the alluring appearance. With her charming smile and seductive violet eyes, and with her ability to easily manipulate men, she had all the traits of a dangerous femme fatale. And with her ability to rise to a particularly high role within the student government, she was someone he should be cautious around.

Yuki on the other hand seemed to have quite the traditional, graceful appearance, which seemed to match her rather reserved and shy personality. However, she gave Shryza a rather strange yet curious stare, one he chose to ignore at this time.

“Yes that is correct. It is a pleasure meeting you two.”

Any other male student would have been entranced by talking to these two beauties, but Shryza was immune to their charms. At least that is what he tried to convince himself with. But more-so than their appearances, he was even more interested in the power of these four female students: Himiko, Yuki, Ariana, and Ivy. They were extremely skilled, and to a much larger extent than every other student in the classroom, if not the entire school.

This was without a doubt a question he would have to bring up later.

“Ivy, may I ask why was it that you and Ariana, correct me if I’m wrong, came to interrupt our duel?”

Ivy showed a little surprise at being addressed in such a forthright manner with no hesitation. She probably wasn’t used to men being completely unmoved by her charms.

“Ah, I’m sorry to not have introduced Ariana earlier; she is the current Vice-Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. Both of us came under the direct orders of the headmaster, and thus have his authority to end this duel.”

Shryza couldn’t help but groan at this explanation.

“Raylz…”

“You are acquainted with Headmaster Raylz, I presume.”

Ivy gave him an inquisitive look, which he responded to with only a slight nod.

“He instructed the two of us to pass you, the new transfer student, a message.”

 

Chapter 2: Part 2:

“You look pretty terrible, Shryza. It seems like you had a nightmare last night, or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

The source of this deep yet gentle voice came from a rather handsome elderly man. His age was, however, betrayed by the wrinkles on his face and his grown out white hair and similarly colored goatee. Regardless, this man still had quite the imposing presence. Not only was he taller than the average man, he was also very physically fit and well-built, with his well-toned body still easily discernible underneath his hooded cloak. Behind the pair of round glasses, his soft grey-hued eyes seemed to kindly wait for a response.

Shryza, with a lone violet-colored eye hidden behind the bangs of his white hair, sharply gazed back. While bringing his hand to his forehead as if he had a headache, he closed his eye and sighed.

“Wouldn’t you the cause?”

The elderly man smiled and showed an innocent-looking face that said he hadn’t the faintest idea what Shryza was talking about.

That was of course a lie.

Backtracking a few moments earlier, Shryza had received the following message earlier from the Vice President of the Student Council.

(I trust that you didn’t run into too much trouble this morning. Now that you’ve had time to get to know your classmates, please come by my office when you get the chance.)

From an outsider’s perspective, this message had little meaning. It seemed to just instruct the recipient of the message to stop by the headmaster’s office, presumably for a warm welcome.

But to Shryza, it was just another annoyance.

“You know how badly I want to hit you in the face right now?

“Hey, hey. You know what they say about violence and it not solving anything!”

“But it’d be extremely satisfying at the moment.”

“I’m sure it would be.”

Despite Shryza’s threat, Raylz was not disturbed at the slightest.

Shryza found it difficult to stay cross with this smiling old man for long. After all, this man had a sincere light-hearted fun-loving personality that easily attracted people and brought them to his pace. Of the various people Shryza encountered in his line of business, the old man’s presence was rather refreshing.

“Before we get started, I’m surprised that it already has been eight years. You’ve changed quite a bit since the last time I last saw you.”

“And you are surprised, because?”

“Ah, I wasn’t talking about your appearance. Although now that you mention it, it’s true you have grown taller. I mean you were only ten at the time, and now you’re almost as tall as me now.”

“Wouldn’t that be the thing most people would comment on first?”

“That might be true. I was actually quite surprised that your flow of mana feels quite different now. I almost couldn’t recognize you.”

Each individual was born with a certain talent in using and manipulating mana. Although it was common for a person to increase the amount and power of mana he or she was able to handle, it was almost unheard of, or rather considered impossible, for someone to change the composition of their mana.

Although being able to recognize a person by just sensing or feeling someone’s mana was considered a very high-level ability, this was child’s play to the two people sitting in the room. And having known Raylz for a very long time, Shryza felt no need to hide this from now.

“So how does my mana feel now?”

“Hmm… It’s a bit difficult for me to verbalize it. Although it is weaker than before, it feels much more complex. I’d be very interested to hear about what you did these past years to change it.”

Shryza again was made fully aware of the old man’s abilities to sense mana, as the number of people in the world who could had senses as good as his could be counted with a person’s two hands. Raylz smiled kindly at Shryza, who could only nod back. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable at this unusually warm atmosphere, Shryza quickly returned with his own remarks.

“I see you haven’t lost any of your sharpness since becoming headmaster. I thought you were supposed to grow more senile with age.”

Speaking of which, this room was rather bare and simple for a headmaster’s room. Asides from bookshelves full of thick ancient-looking books, plain wooden desk, a few chairs, and the large windows behind him, there was not much else in this room to speak of. Likewise, Raylz was a rather simple man, unconcerned with such extravagance and grandeur this school was supposed to reflect.

However, he was also of the belief that the headmaster should be the strongest in the school. Otherwise, in his own words, how can he be qualified to lead the next generation? Not just mentally, but Raylz’s physical and magical strength seemed to be as impressive as they were in the past.

Before Raylz could continue on his nostalgia trip, Shryza decided to cut it short. He wasn’t against continuing this talk and catching up with an old acquaintance, but this wasn’t the purpose of his trip here.

“We will have to save catching up for another time. Now getting down to business, please tell me why you’ve called me here.”

The old man was completely unfazed by this change of pace, and he smiled while leaning forward bringing his hands together on top of his desk.

“I have a request to make of you.”

“A request?”

Suddenly Shryza’s interest in the old man’s words increased considerably.

It wasn’t very often that Raly made a request from anyone. Normally he was the independent type of man that would never involve other people in his own troubles, and was also the sort of benevolent person who would accept other people’s requests without asking anything in return. So this request must involve a problem that must’ve been too difficult for Raylz to overcome alone, is what Shryza surmised.

Shryza’s conclusion was correct, but only to a certain extent.

“Yes. I apologize to have to ask this of you, but I want you to enroll at my academy.”

There was a brief moment of silence followed by a sigh. Shryza felt that he’d been sighing too much lately.

“It’s not like you gave me a choice. But wouldn’t it be easier if you had explained yourself before?”

“Is it that strange?”

“Of course it is, to be told to come to your office just only to find a teacher standing outside telling me follow her. Wouldn’t it be more proper for you to have talked with me earlier?”

“But that wouldn’t be as much fun, now would it?”

There was another moment of silence. Shryza felt another strong urge to clock the grinning old man in the face.

“About this entrance test requirement, I don’t recall ever having taken it.”

If he recalled correctly, some students in the class mentioned he had extraordinary high transfer exam results. Not that they weren’t difficult to achieve at all, but…

“Forged.”

A third moment of silence.

“For the headmaster to forge a student’s documents, wouldn’t that be quite the scandal if you were to be found out.”

“You think I’d ever be caught?”

Well let the old man have his fun. Shryza, already prepared to carry out this request, decided to stop asking his tangential questions.

“Back to the main subject of my enrollment, I’m fairly certain that there is something more to this.”

“I just thought it would be great if you could somehow settle down and finally live the life of an ordinary student… is what I would like to say. But unfortunately things are a little bit more complicated.”

Raylz slowly got out of his chair and turned around, looking out the office windows. Outside was quite the grand view of the academy’s main campus. With his back facing Shryza, Raylz continued where he left off.

“Shryza. You are aware of the ranking system of this school?”

“It essentially mirrors that of the International Ranking System, correct?”

“Correct. With our approximately ten thousand students on the island across both our high school and university systems, this ranking system is a convenient compare and measure everyone’s combat prowess. Naturally those in higher grades, and hence the older students, are more mature and have had more time to learn and develop their abilities. Thus as you move up in grade, your rank will increase along as well.”

“So where are you getting at with this explanation.”

“Haha, forgive this old man for being so wordy.”

Raylz then turned back around and, while still standing, again faced Shryza.

“As this ranking system only judges an individual by their ability alone, sometimes there are outliers where some young prodigies will be strong enough to surpass their upperclassmen’s ranks.”

“I see. In the class I went to, there was a student around my age who was highly ranked. Himika Cou was her name, if I recall.”

“I know.”

Because I sent you there purposely, is what Raylz’s mischievous eyes seem to say.

“How was she?”

“She was stronger than what I expected.”

“I meant as a potential girlfriend.”

A fourth moment of silence.

“Anyways…”

The headmaster decided to cut his joke short, as he felt that he would have been in imminent danger should he have continued.

“There are six more students like her who were gifted with immense powers, and each with a unique element. All of them are now in their final year of the high school curriculum, the same year as you, but they have recently completely monopolized the top seven ranks, surpassing every student at the university level.”

Raylz picked up the pre-prepared tablet from the side of his desk and handed it to Shryza. Before him was a public listing of the top ranking students at the academy.

Rank 1 | Leoi, Venus <Wind Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wind

Rank 2 | Syun, Ariana <Steel Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Metal

Rank 3 | Cou, Himika <Flame Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Fire

Rank 4 | Smith, Yuki <Ice Dragon Valkyrie | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Water

Rank 5 | Lau, Ivy <Rose Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wood

Rank 6 | Evant, Emile <Lightning Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Electric

Rank 7 | Stariva, Selena <Earth Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Earth

Four of these names were familiar to Shryza. These seven comprised the seven Dragon Valkyrie sisters, the term he had briefly heard from his classmates earlier. They had quite the grandiose nicknames, but admittedly they did have the power to back up their titles.

And along with Himika Cou, he also was able to pinpoint two other surnames belonging to the other two great families: Ariana Syun and Ivy Lau of the Wu and Shu houses respectively. As all three were blessed with incredible talents far surpassing their peers, it was likely that all three would succeed as the heads of their respective houses.

“Seven prodigies of similar age and the seven core elements, it shouldn’t be a coincidence…”

“As you and I have already surmised, this was most likely a result of Heaven’s Fall. Having taken place eighteen years ago, it is also the same year all of you were born.”

“So what does this have to do with your request?”

“I want you to protect them.”

A request to protect seven beautiful girls. What was with this unlikely harem-type setting? Shryza felt a mounting headache just listening to this request, and he had yet to carry these requests out.

“These girls are prodigies only seen once every few generations. And there are many international organizations and governments that would strongly desire to obtain their power, even if they had to take more forceful measures. The war-potential that each of these girls would add to any of these groups is not insignificant, especially as their talents mature. Additionally, a number of these girls are heiresses to well-established houses and families, and thus they have their fair share of enemies as well. However at the end of the day, they are still students of my school. And I have an obligation to protect them, at least until they graduate from the academy’s university. And as hired bodyguards are not permitted in the academy or academy-related events, it would be ideal if you could protect these girls behind the scenes as an undercover student.”

Shryza had to admit that Raylz’s rationale was quite reasonable.

“Shouldn’t they already be strong enough to fend for themselves? And even then, no one should be strong or foolish enough to enter the <Silver Demonic Tiger>’s Den, right?”

Having fought one of the <Dragon Valkyries>, Shryza estimated them to be on the level of a three-digit ranker in the International Ranking System. In other words, there were less than a thousand people in this world who could contest the <Dragon Valkyries> in a fair one-on-one fight.

But even in the event that someone stronger than them was to enter the campus grounds uninvited, they would have to somehow bypass the old man standing before Shryza. This old man was the infamous <Silver Demonic Tiger>, whose name top rankers spoke in reverence and the one used to scare children during bedtime stories, was currently the fifth highest ranked person in the world.

The fifth strongest was not a title to be taken lightly.

“Typically I would agree with you, Shryza. However, I cannot be everywhere at once. There will be times when our students will accept missions and assignments outside the academy grounds. And of course during these times, they will be outside the reach of my protection. And I want you to appropriately deal with anything that the <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters can’t handle.”

“Wait, there is something I want to clarify. Why now?”

Having been students at the academy for at least a year, the issue of protecting the <Dragon Valkyries> should have been addressed earlier.

“According to school policy, while the academic year is in session, students are not permitted to receive assignments requiring them to leave campus…”

And with some reluctance, Raylz slowly opened his mouth to finish his statement.

“…that is, until they reach their senior year of high school.”

Seeing where the conversation was going, Shryza had pushed himself out of his chair and started to head out the door. It was true that he felt indebted to Raylz for having taken care of him in the past. But this extended bodyguard request was not something he anticipated, nor nothing he wanted to take part of.

“So this is not a one-time deal?”

“Please, Shryza. There’s no one else I can ask.”

“Raylz, I honestly would like to help you. But you also know that I have no inclination to babysit them until they graduate from this academy’s university. Please find someone else.”

“This arrangement is also beneficial to you as well. Amongst the organizations and people targeting the <Dragon Valkyries>, <Nine Dragons God> is without a doubt one of them.”

Just as Shryza touched the handle of one of the double doors, the mention of the name of that person caused him to stop his movements. Shryza turned around and met Raylz’s eyes, which were unwavering and resolute. There were no lies behind his earnest words. Having been lured with that person’s name and with the obligation to at least hear him out, Shryza walked back to the desk and stood face-to-face with Raylz.

“Fine, I’m listening.”

“One of the <Dragon Valkyries> is the only blood-related daughter of <Nine Dragons God>. So in time, as long as you are with them, that person will come and find you.”

There was too much information this story was lacking, and thus Shryza continued to press forward with more inquiries.

“If that is the case, then why haven’t they reunited earlier?”

“That is because those two don’t know it, yet. One thought the daughter passed away at childbirth and the other thought she was abandoned as a baby. I was requested to keep the daughter’s lineage hidden away from her, but I cannot hide this fact forever and that person will definitely find out the truth.”

Although Raylz was a fun-loving old man who loved to joke around, he would never lie whenever he was serious. But this seemed to be a ridiculously improbable, if not impossible, situation that I’ve only read or heard about in fictional stories.

“In truth this theory sounds incredibly absurd. What’s your justification for it?””

“I have none.”

This is exactly as Shryza thought; he found it very strange that Raylz should hold this much information and yet the two concerned parties had none. However, he did not expect Raylz’s follow-up response.

“But what if I told you that the information came directly from <Black-Flame Phoenix>?”

<Black-Flame Phoenix>. A mutual acquaintance whose information and intelligence Shryza had never found to be wrong. It was person whose abilities Shryza had absolute trust in.

“Okay Raylz, have it your way. You’ve convinced me to babysit these girls.”

Although Shryza expected Raylz to break out in a relieved smile, his face remained unnaturally stoic.

“There’s one more thing I want you to look into.”

“Is this related to your current request? Or is this another one entirely?”

“I wouldn’t call this a request, but this is an issue that you will not ignore. Have you heard the recent rumors spreading around the underground.”

“You’re aware that I’ve been out of the country until just this morning, right?”

“I know, which is why I’ve taken the time to bring this topic up. Although both of know that this person… should have been dead for many years already, apparently he has somehow managed to come back from death’s doors.”

In regards to this subject matter, Raylz’s was uncharacteristically grave. All traces of his usual smile were completely erased.

“It’s been reported that he has recently been appointed as one of Revolutionary Army’s thirteen leaders.”

The Revolutionary Army was the largest organization seeking to overthrow the current empire. Their cause and efforts were widely supported by the vast majority of people disillusioned by the empire’s darkness and corruption. This army was a rather significant force that the empire could not afford to ignore, as they were supported by numerous two and three-digit rankers. It was also a well established fact that this organization was one of the major recruiters of the International Combat Academy’s students as well.

Despite the empire’s objections to this, they had no jurisdiction over this neutral island academy.

“And what of it? Are you implying I should be cautious of this imposter?”

“Perhaps. Well imposter or not, no one has yet had the power to step forth and contest his identity.”

“His name then?”

“It should be one you’re very familiar with. He’s returned…”

Shryza was suddenly overcome with and overwhelming sense of foreboding. And at Raylz’s following words, Shryza’s violet-colored eye widened for just an instant.

“…The <God of Death>.”

 

Interlude 2:

<Nine Dragons God>

A person he had been hunting down for years.

The one being responsible for killing his master.

<God of Death>

A person who had long since been dead.

The one existence who was closest to him.

The seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

Students he was entrusted to protect.

The seven girls who had the potential to change the world.

Three troublesome issues.

Three sources for his headaches.

And what a stupid premonition the dream turned out to be.

 

Chapter 3:

Chapter 3: Part 1:

“Thanks for waiting, Student Council Vice President.”

As soon as Shryza had left Raylz’s, or rather the headmaster’s, office, he was greeted outside by Ivy, the same person who had initially brought him here. Despite her behavior, she was actually quite the diligent Student Council officer, having waited patiently for him during the duration of his talk with Raylz. Apparently she was also entrusted with the duty to serve as his guide around the academy’s campus grounds.

“It was no trouble at all. Also, there’s no need to be so formal, you can just call me by my given name. After all we are in the same grade and class.”

“Is that so? That’s a bit surprising.”

“Both the Student Council and Disciplinary members have joint-morning meetings once a week, one of which was today.”

And that was why she was not present when Shryza first arrived to our classroom, is what she seemed to imply.

“By the way, Shryza, you’re not affected?”

“Affected?”

Shryza slowly asked back, trying to determine what Ivy was referring to. Although he ended up shaking his head at her inquiry, Ivy for some reason only smiled brightly back.

“If you haven’t noticed, then don’t mind it. So I have been assigned to be your personal guide for the rest of this morning. Is there anywhere on campus you want me to take you? Or is there anything you I can do for you?”

With these words, the beautiful Student Council Vice President grabbed Shryza’s right arm and lightly pulled it her way. At the same time, she tilted her head upwards at him with an alluringly smile. Whether her actions were subconscious or purposely calculated, even though this was already his second interaction with her, he thought she was acting a little too close. However, this could work to his advantage, as there was other information he wanted to ascertain from her.

“There is something I wanted to ask. What would be the fastest way to increase my rank?”

During Shryza’s meeting with Raylz, he was informed that assignments and missions were given to pre-assigned groups of students, and these groupings were primarily based on their inter-school ranks. To ensure that he would be grouped with the other seven girls to more easily protect them, should the need arise, it was highly suggested for him to first raise his rank to the same single-digit level.

Thanks to the headmaster’s influence and the forged and nearly flawless transfer exam results, Shryza was initially placed at Rank 994, which, although barely a triple-digit rank, was already considered extraordinarily high for a student in the high school level.

Raylz had given him a two week timeframe for Shryza to raise his rank to the same level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

“Let’s see…”

Tilting her head upwards with a finger lightly pressed on her chin, she briefly hesitated to think before responding.

“The fastest way would be to win duels against high-ranked students. But most of them won’t accept unless you use the forced duel rule.”

According to the forced duel rule, as a triple-digit ranked student, Raylz could fight now force a duel from a student within ten percent of his rank, rounded down, or within 99 ranks of his current Rank 994. As a double-digit ranker, that percentage would increase to twenty-five percent. And as a single-digit ranker, a student could only force a duel within two ranks of his or her own rank.

Assuming he could somehow pinpoint the exact students he wanted to force a duel with, the fastest and most efficient way he could achieve a single-digit rank was as follows:

Rank 994 -> Rank 895 -> Rank 806 -> Rank 726 -> Rank 654 -> Rank 589 -> Rank 531 -> Rank 478 -> Rank 431 -> Rank 388 -> Rank 350 -> Rank 315 -> Rank 284 -> Rank 256 -> Rank 231 -> Rank 208 -> Rank 188 -> Rank 170 -> Rank 153 -> Rank 138 -> Rank 125 -> Rank 113 -> Rank 102 -> Rank 92 -> Rank 69 -> Rank 52 -> Rank 39 -> Rank 30 -> Rank 23 -> Rank 18 -> Rank 14 -> Rank 11 -> Rank 9

To save the effort of counting:

32 duels. Minimum.

To accomplish this feat his two week deadline looked to be a huge pain.

Two weeks was when the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters would be assigned their first assignment outside of the campus grounds.

Having done these calculations mentally, Shryza couldn’t help but groan internally.

There was a shortcut he had considered, and had discussed this plan briefly with Raylz. He thought it incredibly amusing, and Shryza less so. Although he wanted to avoid drawing the entire academy’s attention to him, it couldn’t be avoided. Normally Shryza would not attempt to take such a reckless gambit, as he preferred to keep his actions hidden in the shadows. But it would probably be easier to quickly get this task done and over with in one sitting, with the alternative being to spread the pain across two weeks by having to fight and win at least 32 duels.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.

And at least it would kill two birds with one stone.

“Although this seems like a somewhat unrelated question, what time does the joint-meeting end?”

“Sorry, but can you repeat yourself?”

Ivy heard the question the first time around quite clearly, but she was busy determining the relevance of Shryza’s question.

“The joint-meeting between the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee, at what time does it end?”

“Usually we can finish our discussions before noon.”

“I see. It looks like there is still about an hour left.”

She couldn’t help but tilt her head in confusion at Shryza’s murmuring.

“Ivy, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“If it’s something I can help with.”

“Would it be too much trouble to attend whatever is left of this meeting?”

Walking from the administrative building, where the headmaster’s office was housed, to the meeting location took only a few minutes. While en route to their destination, Shryza couldn’t help but notice again how truly big this academy was, taking up the entire of this island. To house both the high school and university level students, there were many classrooms and dormitories in this academy to accommodate them and more. However, there was an abundance of recreational facilities and other rather irrelevant buildings as well. It was said that walking from one side of the campus to the other could take a good hour or so. In those situations, students just used the available interschool transit.

This meeting room was actually one of the larger boardroom made available by the academy that students could reserve to hold meetings or work together on group projects. Normally the Student Council and Disciplinary Committee had their own personal rooms they could use for these types of meetings, but both groups thought it best to hold their joint-meetings at a neutral site. After all, despite the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee working hand-in-hand, they were at least to maintain the appearance of acting independently.

Having reached the designated meeting room, Ivy knocked the door lightly with the back of her hand before reaching for the handle and opening it. As she had texted the Student Council President prior to coming in order to get approval, both her and Shryza’s presence were already expected.

The meeting room consisted of a rather long rectangular table with twenty seats: nine chairs on each of the table’s sides and two chairs sharing the end, opposite to where the large meeting room screen was placed. This meeting room was only half filled: what Shryza presumed to be the top five members from each organization were present.

At the end of the table seated the Student Council President and Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, the two students holding the most political power within the academy. Sitting in the four seats following from each side of the table were their respective underlings. However the side chair closest to the Student Council President was empty; that was where Student Council Vice President Ivy was typically seated. And on the chair on the opposite side of the table, the side chair closest to the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, was where Vice Chairwoman Ariana sat cross-armed, staring at Ivy and Shryza’s direction. Her face had the expression of asking why Shryza was currently here.

At Ivy and Shryza’s entrance, the entire table went silent as both the President and Chairwoman opened their mouths to greet the new transfer student.

“Welcome to the International Combat Academy. My name is Eliza Mari, and I am the current President of the Student Council. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”

“And I am Bara Obarna, Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. I heard what happened this morning from my underclassman and I hope that this incident didn’t cause too much trouble for you.”

It was incredibly troublesome, Shryza wanted to retort. However he settled for the expected response.

“Thanks to your intervention, it wasn’t much trouble at all.”

Having been elected in their second year of university and completely uncontested in their reelections as third year students, both of the women who had greeted Shryza were incredibly popular. And it was not difficult to see why.

President Eliza seemed to speak very softly yet politely, maintaining a certain aura of elegance around her. Her long curly blond hair complemented her slim and petite doll-like figure. Despite her frail physical appearance, she was not to be underestimated as she held claim to being the ninth highest ranked student at the academy.

In contrast, Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman seemed to portray a rougher image. Although she was a very charismatic speaker and had a friendly atmosphere around her, if needed to she wouldn’t hesitate to resort to using force. She had short cropped hair and had a more muscular yet slim athletic figure. And just like she looked, she was unquestionably powerful at Rank Eight in the academy.

Although not to the extent of the seven monsters given the collective nickname <Dragon Valkyries>, both women were incredibly beautiful and talented. If the seven sisters had never attended this academy, the President and the Chairwoman

Speaking of which, Shryza was still somewhat baffled at how the school had such a large concentration of powerful, talented women at the top of the interschool rankings. Not that he was in a position to complain about this harem-like setting.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Also after hearing from my Ariana, my assistant, I heard you are quite strong. Would you like to join the Disciplinary Committee?”

Chairwoman Bara seemed to imply that strength was the only prerequisite to joining her committee. President Eliza in response also provided an offer.

“Or perhaps would the Student Council be a better fit for you? It seems that you are quite capable.”

To have these two powerful students acknowledge him wasn’t a bad feeling. However, he had no intentions of joining either organization. The first reason was that he did not have time to spare doing work for either group, as he already assumed the duty to babysit seven girls. The second reason was that he would be certain they would rescind their offers. After all, he was just about to antagonize them, both.

“Actually I have something else to discuss. You may call it a request for you two.”

“A request?”

“Interesting… At the very least, we can hear it out.”

At Shryza’s subtle change in tone, Eliza and Bara both changed their expressions. How sharp, Shryza thought of the two of them.

Now for the moment of truth.

“I would like to challenge you both to a duel.”

The whole room was stunned into silence. The President was the first to regain her composure.

“Shryza. Unfortunately, I will have to decline. After all, you have not provided the necessary collateral and there is nothing for me to gain.”

“As Prez said, there’s too much risk and no reward. However I like your guts, kid. My offer for you to join my Disciplinary Committee still stands.”

As expected, both of the two top-ranked university students would turn down this challenge. The risk of such a large potential drop in rank, from single-digit to triple-digit, was too high, and there was no reward to be gained. And as the ranks were too far apart, Shryza was unable to use the forced-duel rule.

It was time for him to pull his trump card, the one he had Rayl prepare for him beforehand. From his pocket, he pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper and held it up.

“Actually I do have something to offer. And I hope it is something you cannot easily refuse.”

While speaking, he walked up to both leaders and handed the paper to them. The President warily took it from him and unfolded it, while still keeping eye contact with him. Finally she turned down her eyes and quickly read the paper’s contents.

“This is…!”

To have surprised the Student Council President, the message must have quite unexpected. The Chairwoman leaned towards the President to also read the letter, and even she was shocked.

“This can’t be real, can it?”

Going back several minutes after Raylz had just mentioned <God of Death>’s name, Shryza had agreed to his request. However Shryza had quickly realized that in order to achieve a single-digit rank to better monitor the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters, he would have to fight a rather large number of duels. He then proposed to just fight whoever was Rank Eight or Nine in order to quickly finish this task in one go. Raylz, upon hearing this shortcut, he knew that these two students were the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman and the Student Council President, and he thought this quite the interesting proposal. But to get them to agree to this duel with no merit to them, he offered to personally provide the incentive.

And after all, regardless of the wager he had to provide, he had absolute confidence that Shryza would not lose.

“I can assure you that this was approved by the headmaster. His seal at the bottom of the letter is real enough.”

“I see. This is something I cannot just ignore. For the headmaster to make this personal offer…”

“In any case, this might be worth the risk. So which one of us would you like to challenge?”

Both the President and the Chairwoman were convinced that they could not lose to a high school student that was not one of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters. However Shryza could still feel some hesitation coming from the both of them. After all Shryza was a student that was able to hold his own against Himika, Rank Three, despite her being unarmed and not having used her full power.

Although this was not quite in the original plan, perhaps they just needed a little bit more confidence. If he was to make the leap to a single-digit rank with a single duel, he would already draw quite the amount of attention towards himself. A little more wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Shaking his head while smiling, Shryza gave them the final push.

And again caused the whole room to freeze in silence.

“I never said it had to be a one-on-one duel. Both of you are welcome to come at me together.”

 

Chapter 3: Part 2:

“For you to challenge our pride, not just as upperclassmen but as leaders of this academy, is unforgivable.”

“Don’t regret it when you lose, underclassman.”

There were two armed students standing twenty meters away in front of Shryza.

Right now the time was almost 2:00pm. The location was on a flat grassy field, roughly 100 meters by 50 meters in size. Surrounding the four sides of the field were stadium seats, capable of seating 20,000 or so students, twice the student population of the academy. This was actually only the second largest of the academy’s stadiums, which left Shry amazed at the academy’s unnecessary expenditures.

President Eliza stood to Shry’s front and left, wielding an elegant rapier by her side. Despite the fragile-looking decorations on the guard and the thin appearance of the blade, it was without a doubt very well crafted as it had won numerous battles for her. She wore only a simple Academy-issued battle suit, which was made of light-weight magic-permeable materials, similar to that of the uniforms. Despite the close-fitting suit accentuating the curves of her body, it allowed for her movements to be completely unobstructed.

To the right, Chairwoman Bara stood with the imposing image of the modern-age paladin. Except her head, which was left helmet-less, every inch of her body was clad in form-fitting dense metal armor. She also carried on her shoulder, with ease, a giant double-sided battle-axe with a two-meter long handle. To be able to carry that weapon, let alone wear the heavy armor, required an immense physical strength.

Putting their ranks on the line for this duel, both university students were prepared to fight with their full force.

This duel had turned into a full-blown event. During the meeting, it had been suggested that the duel be scheduled to the afternoon, in the academy’s second stadium. After all, it would take time to book the stadium and have the request approved. Additionally it would allow around two hours for both parties to make preparations for the fight. Somehow despite the meeting taking place behind closed doors, word of the duel had spread throughout campus like wildfire: that the new transfer student had challenged both the academy’s leaders to a one-on-two duel.

It was a rather uncommon occurrence for both leaders to be fighting in a duel, especially in a non-tournament setting. To see both of them fight was something most of the university students did not wish to miss.

Having generated a fair amount of publicity by having fought on par with the academy’s third ranked Himika Cou on his first morning in class, quite a number of the academy’s students started calling him the eighth prodigy. It was natural for both university and high school students would be curious about his potential strength to rival the school’s top seven.

Both parties had agreed to Vice President Ivy as the referee of the duel, which only increased the number of her fans coming to watch the duel as well. It was sad to say that she probably had as much, if not even more, popularity as President Eliza.

Combining the above three rationales, about a fifth of the stadium seats, which equated to about four thousand students or forty percent of the academy’s students, have come to the stadium stands to spectate the duel. This was a much higher turnout than anyone could have expected.

Whether there was one observer or thousands of spectators made little difference to Shry, as he looked down at his own weapon. He held only a combat survival knife, well-maintained but very battle-worn. However, the length of the blade was less the 30 centimeters, which meant that he his effective attack range was very short. And as he was not issued a battle suit, he wore only his uniform. With minimal protection and a simple knife for a weapon, it seemed that Shry was not only very underdressed and underprepared for this duel, but also seemingly outmatched and outnumbered with a one-to-two man disadvantaged.

“Hey Shry, are you looking down at us? To suggest this two-versus-one duel, you must be severely underestimating us.”

“For you to bring only a combat knife, I’m certain you could have found other weapons to borrow for this duel.”

While President Eliza remained as polite as ever, Chairwoman Bara was truer to her aggressive personality. Shry shook his head at the Chairwoman’s question and at the President’s follow-up comment.

“It would be best if you didn’t hold back.”

“I see. How arrogant.”

Chairwoman Bara released an incredible wave of fighting intent, which greatly intimidated the spectators. Shry was not impressed; Himika’s fighting spirit earlier this morning had been more intense.

“Vice President Ivy, if you could kindly start the match?”

“I apologize for the delay, President.”

As Ivy stepped forward between both sides, the audience in the stands suddenly went silent.

“My name is Vice President Ivy Lau and I have been given permission by both parties to oversee this duel. The challenged party, President Ivy and Chairwoman Bara, do both of you agree to the conditions of this match?”

These formalities were generally unnecessary for interschool duels. But as both the President and Chairwoman were involved in this match and there was quite an audience observing, this politeness from Ivy was understandable. Also due to the circumstances of there being a large audience observing the duel, Ivy also held a microphone in her left hand to project her voice to the crowd.

“I, President Eliza Mari, fully accept the conditions of this duel.”

“And I, Chairwoman Bara Obarna, also agree to this match.”

Having heard both of their approvals, Ivy then turned to Shry.

“And the challenger, Shryza, do you also agree to the conditions of this match?”

“I, Shryza Doe, likewise agree to this duel.”

“Now are both dueling parties ready?”

Ivy had turned her vision to the middle of the field again while holding her right hand high above her head. Neither of the dueling parties said a word, where in this scenario silence was assumed acceptance.

President Eliza had brought her rapier parallel to her side and parallel to the ground and Chairwoman Bara lifted her battleaxe over her head, both staring at their opponent intently while preparing to strike immediately.

Shryza loosely held the combat knife in his right hand, in a backwards grip. However he appeared to be in no stance of any sort, giving him the appearance of him having multiple openings. However, Ivy, as well as the six other <Dragon Valkyries> who were attending the match were not fooled; only they could noticed that his defense was pretty much impregnable.

Due to vast increase in the audience as well as the much higher stakes between the dueling parties, the tension in the air was incomparably heavier than that in the fight between Shryza and Himika.

All was silent.

Then.

Ivy swung down her right arm.

“Duel start!”

Suddenly the Chairwoman dashed forward with her battleaxe still held high while the President followed closely behind her. Shry was a bit impressed by Chairwoman Bara’s swiftness considering how heavy her armor and weapon looked.

Unexpectedly it was the President who made the first move. While still dashing behind the Chairwoman, she rose her rapier high above her, gathering mana to its tip. Suddenly from that source of mana, torrents of water spread towards every direction, enclosing the three students on the field.

“Crystal Castle!”

Suddenly all the water on the field solidified into ice. The water that was the in the process of splashing froze into spiked walls while the stream of water and frozen into pillars of ice connecting from the ground to a dome at the middle. Rather than say castle, as it barely resembled one, it was more accurate to simply call it an ice cage to trap Shry in and cut off his escape routes.

Less than a meter separating him from Bara, he tried to lift his legs in an attempt to sidestep or dodge. However, he realized too late that his legs became partially frozen in President Eliza’s ice spell, something he shouldn’t have overlooked, and was now stuck to his current position. It looked like he had no choice but to withstand the full brunt of the incoming attack.

“Pentagon Strike!”

While roaring, she brought down her battle-axe violently yet swiftly, not just once but four times in succession. With each of her swings from her mana-infused axe, she caused an enormous earth spike to emerge from the ground. As each spike was created, a huge cloud of dirt and shattered ice was also scattered about as in the process. Then she lifted her axe once more, with her orange-colored eyes staring into her creation. Then with her final strike, the most powerful of her five, she again brought her battle-axe down with a ridiculous force and brought a final earth spike, the largest of the five she created, erupting from the ground.

The end result of the President and Chairwoman’s combination attack was a five-pointed star of earth that had bloomed from the ground, breaking the side of the ice cage in the process.

But the barrage of attacks was not over.

Chairwoman Bara then stepped aside as President Eliza stepped forward.

“Ocean’s Thrust!”

As implied by her attack name, she gathered a torrent of mana along the entire length of her blade and thrust it forward in Shry’s direction, assuming he was still in one piece. As the rapier stopped, as the president’s arm was fully extended, a single torrent of water had completely pierced through earth and ice, reaching to one of the ends of the field. With a giant hole drilling through the middle of the earth flower, it caused the structure to inwardly collapse into a pile of rubble. This prompted both opponents to back off a few meters to observe the situation.

A weaker opponent would have been absolutely skewered and crushed by these high-level attacks.

“Damn, did we overdo it?”

Killing an opponent was one of the forbidden acts in a duel. Both the Chairwoman and the President had expected him to be around, or slightly lower than, the level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters. Seeing as there was almost no resistance from their opponent, they were having second thoughts about going all-out from the start.

But voice of the one who responded to the Chairwoman was not that of her partner.

“No, it wasn’t enough.”

Sitting on the pile of the pile of earth and ice sat Shry. Although he was somewhat dirtied by dirt and wet with water, he was completely unscathed.

And seeing that the transfer high school student had survived the onslaught of his two opponents, the crowd erupted in noise.

“Impossible! How did you stop my Pentagon Strike?”

“And to deflect my Ocean’s Thrust after-”

Suddenly at about the same time, both the President and the Chairwoman collapsed onto their knees before going down head first. They both struggled to tilt their heads in Shry’s direction.

“Huh? I can’t seem to move at all!”

“What the hell did you do to my body?

“Isn’t it obvious?”

After having dusted himself off, he walked towards to within inches of them before crouching down onto one knee. He then purposely looked at both of them in the eyes.

The President made the realization first after having looked at his single violet-colored eye.

“Wood Element… No, it can’t be… poison was it?”

“Huh? Just when did you poison us, you coward?!”

To someone like the Chairwoman who fought in fights straightforwardly with pride, a victory by incapacitating her opponent with poison was dirty and weak.

“Coward? Yes I suppose you could call me a coward. And as for how you were poisoned…”

Shry, who still held his combat knife, stuck out his index finger and pointed to the small scratch on President Elisa’s sword hand before pointing it at the small red line drawn across Chairwoman Bara’s left cheek.

“You two have far too many openings.”

Earlier during the fight, Chairwoman Bara had used her Pentagon Strike attack after Shry was locked in place. On each of her first four strikes, Shry had only slightly deflected the trajectory of the battle-axe to cause it to barely miss him. Having the dust and ice arise as well as the eruption of the pillars only obstructed her vision, thus causing her not to know whether any of the five strikes had landed. As Shry, from the called-out attack name, had correctly predicted a total of five strikes, he chose to counter on the fifth and last strike. While the battle-axe swung down for its final strike, in one motion he deflected it as normal but continued his swing to just barely carve a small line onto the Chairwoman’s face. Distracted by the adrenaline rush, or probably thinking it was one of the shards of earth or ice that had hit her, she did not notice that the knife did indeed land an attack on her.

On President Ariana’s final attack, he assumed it was a forward thrust, having gleaned that much information from the attack name “Ocean’s Thrust.” In response, he was able to block and deflect the rapier from the side and bypassed the blade’s guard, clipping her sword hand in the process.

Granted, Shry could have easily countered both his opponents regardless of whether they called out their attack names. They just made his job easier.

Shry didn’t feel like explaining the details: they could figure it out themselves if they thought about it long enough. Instead, he gave them just a small word of wisdom.

“As a few last words of advice, calling out the names of your attacks is completely idiotic.”

Having finished what he needed to say to his opponents, or rather former opponents, Shry stood up and glanced up at Ivy, who understood his look.

“It seems that both President Ivy and Chairwoman Cara are unable to fight. I present to you the winner, the transfer student, Shryza Doe!”

Although the audience cheered and shouted loudly at this announcement, most students were very shocked at this development. A high school student had defeated two top-ranked university students in a fair one-to-two duel in the span of less than two minutes.

Or was it even a minute?

It was ultimately a very one-sided victory for Shryza.

On the very afternoon of his transfer to the academy, Shryza had unceremoniously risen to Rank Eight in the academy. For another high school student outside of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters to achieve a single-digit interschool ranking was unprecedented in the academy’s history. And the method he used to achieve such a rank was rather flashy as well.

For the next few weeks, Shry would inevitably be the hot topic to talk about throughout the academy.

Despite the air of surprise and confusion amongst the spectators, seven of them felt something different. These seven felt something akin to anticipation, or perhaps premonition. But something was definitely changing.

And the seven understood that Shry could be the catalyst to that change.

Having finished with this troublesome duel, Shry started moving to the side of the field while the school paramedics rushed towards the President and Chairwoman. One of the paramedics had stopped to see whether he needed any assistance, but his help was rejected and he was waved off. Although the poison would wear off in another few minutes, he didn’t feel the need to reveal this.

“Wait!”

Stopped by the President’s voice, Shry stopped momentarily and tilted his head to the side.

“Just… who, no what are you?”

“Who knows? Aren’t I just a troublesome high school transfer student?”

 

Chapter 4:

Chapter 4: Part 1:

(In Progress)