[6 April 2023, 08:00 AM]

[Academy]

Two days had passed, and it was now Monday. The Academy was open, and it was time to take classes again.

Yesterday, I spent my time training at Smith's place from morning to evening. Using a Training Facility and being trained require money.

I asked Smith about how much I should pay, but he brushed it off by saying that I should show results in a week to pay for his lessons.

I was really grateful to him for not asking for money for the lesson, as I wanted to save my money. Not to mention, being trained by a Sword Saint himself should've cost a lot.

When I came to the training facility, Smith greeted me wholeheartedly. It was strange, but he told me that the Artifact Dealer, Park Injun, had vouched for my integrity. He was also told that I was an Awakener. He promised to keep silent about it even from Ao, at least until I revealed it myself.

He taught me how to grip a sword and some footwork. After that, the rest of the day was spent by me swinging the wooden sword. I could use all my strength in the training this time because Ao was not with me.

Ao didn't come yesterday because she was hanging out with Zaiden and the others.

After training in Smith's place, I went to the Park Injun store to thank him for the favor while giving him a bottle of liquor that I bought from some stores. The rest of the night was spent with me doing the Mana Breathing Method.

As usual, I did my exercise this morning before heading to class.

There was a Physical Education class today, and the students were expected to spar with each other. The students were excited by the class that was only held once a month. Although it was called Physical Education in the paper, the students and the teacher called it Sparring Tournament.

This class would be held in the Academy's hall together with the other classes. The sparring itself was also held together. So someone from my class could be met with the students from a different class.

For that reason, no one exercised this morning besides me. Even Zaiden didn't jog today.

I was a bit tired from the training yesterday, but I pushed myself to exercise this morning. Entering my classroom, I flopped down on my desk while looking at the excited students who talked among themselves.

They ignored me completely. They didn't even talk about me behind my back anymore after they saw Zaiden and the other girls talking to me in the Academy.

'Well.. At least I can do Mana Breathing quietly in the class.'

At that time, the door of the classroom was opened, and two people entered. They were Zaiden and Lisa.

Seeing me already flopped down on my desk, they stopped beside my desk and greeted me.

"Morning, Vincent."

"Good morning, Vincent."

I raised my head to look at them. As it was rude to leave them hanging, I greeted them back.

"Yo, morning."

In an instant, they beamed into a smile and started speaking.

"Today is the day to spar, right? I am excited for today that I didn't exercise this morning to conserve my energy!" Exclaimed Zaiden.

"Me too! Vincent, do you have someone that you want to have a spar with today?" Asked Lisa.

For Zaiden, I could understand his enthusiasm. However, I never expected that Lisa would be excited by today's spar.

The story in the Academy was cut short only for Zaiden's awakening without introducing the heroines too deeply. So this was new even to me.

The heroines that appeared in the novel had already matured. Their personalities were a bit different from the ones that I knew and interacted with in this world.

Honestly, I was not too surprised, considering they were still in their teens. By Interacting with them, I could understand their personality better. It was fun to discover a new side of the heroines that I wrote.

All of that were for the sake of my plan in the future.

Talking about today's spar. To be honest, I wanted to spar with Zaiden or Ao. As far as I knew, in this Academy, only the two of them could give me a good fight. So I wanted to spar with either of them on this occasion.

..Well, it was not like I knew anyone besides them.

"Hmm.. I don't really care who my opponent is. I just want to have an opponent that's not afraid of me."

Although the students' view of me had changed a little after Zaiden and the others interacted with me, some of the students were still afraid of me. They still believed in the rumors of me being a delinquent.

"I see. Let's hope that we will get a good opponent." Zaiden flashed his smile at me.

Lisa nodded her head and added, "Me too. I hope I get a good opponent too."

We talked for a while as we were waiting for the teacher to call us. Lisa was unexpectedly a bit aggressive and always agreed with Zaiden.

The class suddenly became quiet as the teacher entered the classroom after a few minutes. The teacher was the bald man who hit me when I first transmigrated.

I had spent a week in this world, and only recently I found out he was called Doel McJohn.

The teacher, Doel, looked around the class before shouting.

"Go to the hall now! Change your uniform into a tracksuit, don't be late!"

As soon as he said that, the teacher left the classroom. Zaiden patted my shoulder and pointed at the exit.

"Let's go, Vincent! We should go to the hall before it's too crowded."

"Yeah, let's go. How about Lisa?" I asked as I turned to Lisa.

"Don't worry about me. I will follow you shortly." Answered Lisa.

"You heard her."

It seemed like it was no problem.

I certainly didn't ask her because I was a bit scared of her glare when Zaiden acted too friendly towards me. I meant, girl.. I was still normal, so don't glare at me as if I was trying to steal your man.

Without wasting any seconds longer, I picked up my school bag and walked out of the classroom. My school bag was light because I had put everything in my magic bag. By the way, I put my magic bag inside my school bag to serve as a camouflage.

Zaiden followed behind me shortly after saying goodbye to Lisa. Talk about being dramatic. Why bother saying goodbye now when we'd meet again later?

***

The hall that was used for sparring was big. It was smaller than a football court, but it was big enough to hold more than a thousand students from the Academy.

The seating arrangement was similar to the football court. There were three arenas for sparring in the middle of the hall, divided by year, while the spectators were on the second floor.

Although the Sparring Tournament was an annual event of the Academy, only a few people were actually seen sparring. There was no way for more than a thousand students to have a sparring match in a day; it was just impossible.

It was not divided by gender. Two winners from each year would face the other year's winners in the final.

Hence, the Academy allowed some leeway for the spar. The students could register themselves if they wanted to spar today. Only four people could register for each class. Two boys and two girls.

Naturally, the people who represented our classes were Zaiden and me. Lisa and one of my classmates, who introduced herself as Maria, were the girls who joined the spar from our class.

Maria was a cheerful girl with long brown hair and brown eyes. She was often talking with the others in my class. As my classmate, she was a bit afraid of me, but she was still able to talk to me, unlike the others.

Currently, we were in a waiting room reserved for the first years. There were ten classes for each year in the Academy, so the waiting room was a bit crowded. Surprisingly, no other heroines joined the sparring match. I only recognized Zaiden and Lisa among the students who were in the waiting room.

"It's surprising.. I never thought that you would join the sparring, Vincent." Maria said to me with a smile.

She was already comfortable with me after she saw Lisa and Zaiden talking to me when we registered ourselves.

"Well, I am aiming to be an Awakener one day. The fastest way to awaken, according to the researchers, is to train our bodies and have good fighting experience. This is a chance to have the latter." I answered.

"Hahahaha. That's true, isn't it? Also, I just came to understand that you are not the person that the rumor said you were. How do I put this? You are calmer and more sensible from the rumor." Maria

"He's also kind." Added Lisa.

"He's also good at bowling and darts." Zaiden unexpectedly joined to praise me.

I was not used to being praised openly like this. Even though it was my Talent that made me good at bowling and darts, I was still embarrassed when I was praised openly.

"You guys.." I muttered in a low voice while scratching my cheek. "More importantly, it seems that the other classes are looking at us strangely."

I couldn't help but be conscious of their stares, thanks to my enhanced senses. They were looking at us with hostile gazes.

"Umm.." Maria opened her mouth, but she hesitated to talk.

"Well.. about that.." Lisa also seemed to hesitate to speak what was in her mind.

"They are not looking at us, Vincent. They are looking at you." Finally, Zaiden said the reason.

I sighed at the truth that he had told me. While I had some idea about that, I thought that my reputation had improved when I decided not to continue my plan to act like a delinquent.

Scratch that, my reputation did actually improve. But some students still believe the old rumors about me sending some people to the hospital.

"Haa– It can't be helped." I could only sigh when faced with such a situation. "Well, I don't really care about their gazes. It's already normal for me to receive such a look."

"Vincent.. you have it hard, huh?" Maria looked at me with a sad gaze. Did she misunderstand what I said?

"See? Vincent is pitiful. Even though they know nothing about it, their mouths run around arbitrarily! Look at him! He's kind. He forgives them for what they did to him!" Lisa recounted to Maria with a passionate gaze.

These girls really misunderstood it.

Zaiden nodded his head repeatedly, as if he agreed with Lisa.

Well, it was convenient for me to be seen in a good light, so I would not bother to correct them.

The atmosphere around our table was light, unlike the tense atmosphere that radiated from the other table. We were talking while smiling.

Finally, after we had been waiting for around 5 minutes, a teacher entered the room and stood near the entrance while holding a stack of paper in his hand.

"Attention!" He shouted to attract the attention of the students. "The roster has been decided! I will now distribute them!"historical

The students were excited to see the sparring roster.

The teacher began to distribute the paper to each table. When the teacher arrived at our table, he glanced at me and said, "Don't go too far. Although we have hired an Awakener to heal the injury, even he can't fix someone if someone is crippled."

I just nodded my head obediently and answered, "Yes."

I did know why the teacher acted like that. I even slammed the table and cursed when I first arrived in this world. As it was partly caused because I was confused by what happened and got irritated by Zaiden's sudden change, it did make my image worse in the eyes of the teachers.

When the teacher was away, Lisa muttered, "What's with that teacher?"

"That's right! He only said that to Vincent!" Maria added.

"Now, don't say it like that. Even so, I also didn't like it when he suddenly said that to my friend." Zaiden had a smile on his face, but his eyes were narrowed while glancing at the teacher.

This guy.. because of the Trait that he had, he was even overprotective toward his friend. Thankfully, I had agreed to hang out with him at that time.

I smiled at them to show that I was not offended at all and said, "Well, let's look at the roster. I hope I won't meet any of you until it's the final."

We looked at the paper.

[Academy Sparring!]

Zaiden Archman vs Kiri Yanma

.

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Lisa Manrosa vs Mona Lopez

Maria Octavia vs Zeke Mansira

.

.

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Vincent Dihart vs Muz Lima

Zaiden had a smile on his face as he said.

"It seems that we will meet in the finals, Vincent."

"Yeah."

Although the students were Non-Awakener, they had trained since childhood, so their techniques were at least good. I could use this chance to see how skilled I was.