It was my second day at the academy and honestly I am not sure whether to go or not go. Why do you ask? Well today is the day the plot officially starts, it is the day which changed everything for the side villain Akira.
Then again my mind tells me that events have changed, I am no longer chasing Lily, our engagement is off the tracks and most importantly Richard and me have no quarrel whatsoever so things should be alright? well I am not really afraid of him or anyone else in that respect, it's just cumbersome to me.
Things were as usual. I freshened up and went downstairs to the breakfast table and sat down, mom and dad were already there chatting about something they didn't want me to hear, most probably it was related to what happened last night and how would they continue their relationship with Jasmine and Lily. I am not feeling optimistic about their response and it's sad as Jasmine would be left alone, should I meet her sometime? Maybe today after school?
"Morning Akira, are you ready for the academy?" Mom asked me and as always she had that angelic voice which could sooth souls.
"Yeah I am good to go." I replied enthusiastically, of course my feelings were fake as yesterday's activities were still hurting me but they won't be able to differentiate.
"Why don't you walk with your Dad? His shop is on the way."
Oh, how did I forget about Roger's business? It's a small shop which sells below tier 5 potions,weapons, armour and the like. It was nothing extravagant but did enough business for the three of us, mom never asked for money from him, Akira saved every penny he could for Lily so the family's finances were in good shape and that was one of my major worries. I don't have enough money to buy new armour or some potions, the money that I earned from my first and only dungeon run is not enough.
"Akira? akira? Are you listening?" my mom brought me to the moment and shit I gotta do something about these inner monologues of mine.
"Don't worry mom, I will go with Dad."
"Okay but why are you spacing out?" She was worried about me.
"Sorry about that, I was thinking about stuff at the academy."
"There's no need for you to over think about your performance at the academy, just getting in there has made us immensely proud so keep it simple and try your best." My dad butted in and he was right I really am thinking too much.
"Yes father."
"Umm." he said and went back to eating.
"And don't go near that Lily by the way are you guys in the same Class?" mom asked
"No she is in the 1 A and I am in the 1 E, our building is the same but classes are quite apart."
"That's good, after what she had done yesterday I don't want her near you or any of us." Okay maybe this is my first time seeing her this angry.
"Don't worry mom, I don't have anything to do with her." Honestly, why would I ever be near her? She's irritating.
The rest of the breakfast went in silence and after that both me and dad left the house. His shop is in the market district near Uncle Adam's, both of them have been good friends. while walking together a thought clicked in my mind, 'when was the last time Akira had alone time with his dad?' and after searching for my memories, that thing happened way back when he was just six so that means it had been nine years, that's a crazy time.
"Have you been diving in a dungeon?" dad asked without looking at me.
"huh?" How did he know?? I made sure to remove all the evidence.
"Don't look at me like that, it was your body." He said but what does that mean?
"My body?" it's not that I want to hide my activities from them but since dungeon diving is dangerous and students at the academy only do it after their first month and I didn't want to make them worry so I didn't tell them.
"Your mom might have been getting sloppy but I was a tier 3rd level 5th adventurer and I am not going to notice a mana drained body in my house."
Okay so that's how he got me but still why don't I know that he was a tier 3 character? and as if guessing my question he said,
"When you came home yesterday, your mana cores were empty but still your overall strength had increased by a tier and that could happen in only one instance." I know its-
"Dungeon diving." he finished and we had reached his shop, he gestured to me to come inside to which I simply followed. His shop was neither too big or too small, a perfectly average one where you could find everything a new adventurer could want.
I stayed near the entrance while he went inside and came back after a few minutes. He had a couple of storage rings with him and then he threw them at me.
"The first one has enough potions to last for a month even if you went to the fifth floor and the other one has new armour and sword, your previous one was getting rusty." he said all these indifferent but deep down I know this must have cost him a fortune.
My feelings were again getting irrational, it was a warm current swelling in my chest words couldn't describe it but I knew how to do it physically. I moved forward and hugged him. His reaction came a little late, maybe he was not expecting anything like this, he hugged me and patted my back. Dads are like this, they won't show how much they love you like your mother but with small gestures and other things they show you that their love is not less than anyone else.
"You have grown up so start acting like one." he said while sighing.
"umm." I couldn't say anything else and honestly what else could I say in a moment like this.
"Akira have you cleared the first floor yet?" He asked after I calmed down.
"uhh no I haven't, there are too many slimes to kill." If I told him that I have already cleared the second floor he would definitely get angry.
"hmm there's still that 70 percent killing one has to do." He said and looked at the clock which showed 7:49 am meaning less than 15 minutes for the academy.
"We will talk later, you should get going." but there's still a lot of time left so why is he saying–
I looked at the clock and found that it was showing 7:50am which panicked me a lot, getting late at this academy was extremely bad and when I say bad it's actually worse.
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"Bye dad, thanks for the gift and take care." I didn't wait for his response and bolted out of the shop, there's no way I am going to get late and get punished by that sadist.
After running for ten minutes he just managed to reach the academy before it closed down, the student council president and vice president were standing there along with the rest of the members guiding new students and stopping the ones who got late. Evelyn was quite lenient with the late comers but Ichinose, let’s just say that she didn’t seem to be in a great mood.
“Haah… haah.. I made it.” He said after entering the academy grounds.
“Barely.” A cold voice rang out from his back he gulped and looked back.
“Next time come early.” Ichinose said maintaining that cold temperament of hers.
“Yes mam.” He saluted at her to make the atmosphere less tense but maybe that got her more annoyed as she was on the verge on bursting out but stopped when,
“Pfft..” someone’s muffled laughter could be heard from backwards and sure enough it was Evelyn who couldn’t control after watching Akira’s response.
“Who is laughing?” Ichinose shouted while turning her back and everyone that was present shranked in fear, her reputation was fearsome and coupled with her immense strength it was more than enough to deter them.
Akira sneaked away at this moment, there’s no way he was going to have a conversation with angered Ichinose, her Musashi was not just for name. He was going towards his class but for some reason there was a feeling of being watched and meanwhile back at the entrance,
Ichinose looked at her big sister and other members of the student council and when no one came forward she clicked her tongue and turned back to talk to the student who just came but she found that he was no longer there and that was shocking to her as she didn’t felt any mana movement in the air when he moved.
“President, where is that boy?” At the school she always maintained official custom and etiquette so she referred to her onee-san as the president.
“Uhh he went away when you were looking at us.” Evelyn answered.
“Hmm.” She now had an interest in the boy who could sneak from her without getting noticed, maybe she could ‘puni-’ teach him, yes teach him something about rules and regulations of the Academy.
At the same time Richard who was late for the Academy was currently running with his speed of a 3rd tier character and he could have made it in time if someone didn’t bumped into him, it was a girl with golden hazel hair, auburn eyes, thin eyelashes, pointed ears and a beauty which could bewitch man and woman alike.
Richard who bumped into someone didn’t think that anything could happen to him and with a body of tier 3 he was right to assume that but someone who was also in tier 3 could hurt him and she was in that range.
“Ouch.” both of them exclaimed and fell back on the ground.
Richard first wanted to curse at the person who bumped into him but restrained as this place was the Academy’s hostel and only the class A and B of all the three years could reside there, he looked at the girl who was rubbing her head and glaring at him after looking at her face he was mesmerised and he knew who she was Aurora the elf princess and her classmate.
He stood up from the ground and gave her a hand which she accepted and both of them glanced at each other and soon the atmosphere filled with their auras wanting to crush the other one but could only resist each other as they were equal in power.
She had a frown on her face and said,
“So it was you.”
“I could say the same thing about you.” he replied.
“But it was you who was running in the corridors.” She said in anger.
“I was not running it was just-” He couldn't’ complete his sentence as the bell rang indicating the start of the first class and both of them made a tacit understanding of dealing with this later.
Aurora was the princess of Fiora kingdom, it was a place which was ruled by elves, Her father was the current emperor of the Fiora kingdom and she along with her older brother were the heirs to the throne. She and Richard had been acquainted since childhood when their parents introduced them at one of the all empire meetings and since then she had made him her rival. When she first met him it was a normal meeting between that of heir of different empires and nothing else.
She was considered a prodigy of her race, her mana reserves were abnormal even by an elf standard and since childhood she always looked down on other children of her age as they couldn’t defeat her no matter how hard they tried but that all changed when she met Richard. At first look his mana reserves were just slightly larger than the average elf and that itself was rare among humans but to her it was nothing noteworthy so she ignored it.
But at the sixth Royal Rumble in which the new generation of all the empires came together and competed with each other not only in physical battle but in a variety of things. It was mainly a stage where empires on the Origin continent showed off their prowess and strength against each other. Aurora was the undefeated champion among the young heirs and since she was too overconfident in her abilities, she lost to Richard.
Well saying ‘lost’ would be an understatement, she was destroyed. Her mana reserves were indeed higher than our protagonist but her control and lack of other things spelled her doom. Richard was the ultimate spear user and adding to that was his streamlined mana flow and numerous spells in his repertoire which helped him defeat Aurora and become the undisputed champion in the future heir category of Royal Rumble.
For a few weeks Aurora was in a state of disbelief; she just couldn’t accept the outcome and no matter how much her family or friends persuaded she refused to go back to her normal state. Her father invited the legendary marksman, the powerhouse of the elven empire, Alfred Muller to help her daughter, to which he accepted.
Alfred gave Aurora the choice to become his disciple and since she was defeated and wanted to take what was hers she accepted and then started her hellish training with him, Alfred was the best marksman in the entire Origin continent and under his tutelage Aurora got to know about her new talent with bow and arrow, he also taught her about mana flow and a whole lot of spells which only added to her strength.
In the next Royal Rumble where everyone was expecting the same result as the previous was shocked to see how much she has grown in just a couple of years, RR are held every two years. Although she couldn’t defeat Richard in a physical battle but still tied with him and later in the other departments like etiquette, knowledge, application etc etc.. She scored more than him and finally got back her championship.
Since then they had developed a rival-like status with each other and she had become a perfectionist, no matter what she did everyone expected her to be perfect and that was the reason that despite getting a reserved seat in the Academy she preferred to go for the merit exam and guess what? She topped it.
Currently both Richard and Aurora were rushing to get to their class and on the way he teased her by saying,
“Now who’s the one running?”
“I have to if I want to maintain my perfect attendance record.” She replied without looking at him.
“You are always the same.” He said in an annoyed tone.
“You too.”
Meanwhile Akira was also reaching his class and that feeling of being watched was only getting stronger, he could not guess why he was feeling like that or was it just an illusion of his. He reached his class where almost everyone barring a few were already present and the moment he came inside something changed.