Part 1

“Think about it-” I said with the most persuasive tone of voice I could muster up “-our family's only real source of income is father’s wine shop; how can they sustain themselves if they have to send two silver coins every now and then? Also they’ll be spending a lot more money on Julie than me since I often went hunting under the pretext of training. And for us it’s like killing two birds with a stone!”

“How so?” Asked the perplexed Lucas without even looking at me. His gaze was fixed on the notice board in front of him. There, randomly placed to the extent that some notices were covering older ones, were all the requests given by the adventurer’s guild.

“I know you better than anyone. You care very little about learning magic, you are interested only in your blade. Yet you feel like the dojo won’t be enough, right?” I asked, giving an all-knowing smirk towards my brother who stood in complete silence.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes...If we get ourselves an adventurer’s license we could train ourselves out in the woods by challenging the monsters there! Of course we could be doing it without an adventurer license but what’s wrong with gaining a little money on the side?”

“...We could spare our family some trouble” I added with a light shrug of my shoulders.

I could hear the gears spinning inside my brother’s head as he unconsciously scratched his chin. It was a habit of his. Whenever something was bothering him or he was immersed in deep thoughts, I would see him maniacally scratching his chin.

As I leaned closer to his shoulder, bringing my face close to his, in order to put pressure on the so indecisive man he finally bursted out a liberating scream.

“Ahhhhh fuck it! I get it, I get it!...Ugh I’m in”

Not far from the board full of requests was a large wooden counter carved from a single piece of light brown wood, with the only being a small door that led to a room behind said counter. Behind the counter stood an elf lady. Her greenish blonde hair was kept in a clean high ponytail, kept together by a white silk band. From what I knew, the elvish races were one of the “long lived” races; with a life span that could potentially reach centuries and a body that aged much slower in comparison to our’s, it was impossible for me to figure out the age of the person standing in front of me. As the elf lady squirted her eyes and greeted us with a gentle smile, she encouraged us to approach her with a gesture of her hand.

“Welcome-” Said the lady with a soothing voice, so sweet that it sounded more like she was singing rather than speaking “-to the Alamaria branch of the Adventurer’s guild. How can I be of help?”

It took me some seconds before snapping out of my mesmerized trance and finally replying. I thought I grew accustomed to the elfic beauty since I knew, ever since I was four, how beautiful a half elf can be. But while Sora was indeed beautiful, the beauty that I laid my eyes upon just now was of a different kind. Wild yet controlled as if her body was molded by nature herself only to embody the concept of calmness. The smooth pearl-white skin, the lavish lavender eyes, her soft pink lips and her thin yet not frail body. Everything about her person was oozing an aura of royalty, more so compared to the nobles I was accustomed to.

“I..Uuhh...Yes, uhh, we would like to become adventurers if possible, miss…”

“Claire-” Said the lady pointing her slim finger towards the metallic plate pinned to her chest “-, Claire Asal...but I give you permission to call me Claire...since you are a cute kid” Said the girl with a flirty yet playful wink.

“Regarding the license, it shouldn’t be a problem. Would you mind giving me your ages?” Continued the clerk.

“Yes, I’m twelve while my brother here is fourteen” I said pointing to the still drooling older brother of mine.

“Mhhh, it’s not a problem whether I can or not sign you up as adventurers, you are both old enough to do so but...are you sure you want to take this path? Being an adventurer can be very dangerous at times” Said the girl with a both sad and troubled look in her eyes. Due to the nature of her job she probably saw many people coming to get a license, only to recognize them when lifting the white veil covering their cold bodies. I felt pity.

“Don’t worry Clair-san, we are not looking for adventures or anything of the sort. We are merely looking for a way to make some money on the side while having time to study”

After a moment of pause, with a defeated yet reassured expression she said: “*sigh* Then please fill those papers truthfully and come back in a couple of days to retrieve your plates”

“Thank you, Clair-san!” I said with a higher voice than I expected and a big bright smile that I, myself, didn’t know I was able to show.

- DELVIN GALLHER’S POV-

“Have you seen the redhead girl in the theoric basic tier magic class? She’s hella hot! How old do you think she is?”

“If you are that curious just ask her! On the other hand, I’m more interested in that elf in the magic history class….mmmhhh I bet she is older than she actually looks!” Said that perverted asshole of Joshua while a drool slowly fell from his mouth to stain my carpet.

“Oh oh, then how about that girl from the third yea-”

“Just shut the fuck up!-” I scremed out of blind rage. How could they be so carefree about the situation I was in? “-You imbeciles, I did not invite you here to leisurely talk about girls! You are here because I have a problem...and I want it solved!”

“Are you talking about that commoner and his half-elf friend? Just drop it man, it’s not even worth the trouble” Voiced that half-punk of Danthe Hannes with his usual half-assed mood that made it seem like he was superior to everything around him. I would rather be talking with that pet, Floyd, than with him. Unfortunately, he is strong, more so than anyone else sitting comfortably on those sofas. He was needed for this group.

“You are only here because of your abilities, Hannes. Your input in this discussion is not needed”

“It’s a pleasure to be around you too, oh-so-great Gallher-san”

“*cough* As I was saying, you are here because I have been wronged, as you may already know-”I said as I sat down on the red leather armchair at the head of the small wooden tea table in my room. Around me were gathered five nobles handpicked by be because of either their wealth, connection or abilities; this group was to become the strongest group in the academy. That was my only goal. In the five years that I had to spend in that academy this group had to come out on top, acclaimed as the absolute strongest. And I was to be at the head of that group.

“-Because people saw the act now rumors are spreading saying that I’m weak. I cannot allow my good name to be stained and our future plans ruined because of a mere peasant. The name of the offender is Raphael Bluesclae and I need to make an example out of him!”

“Why not just challenge him to a duel? You said you are strong right? Then just beat him senseless and that’s it” Suggested with a smirk Danthe.

“Hmph, as if I’d lower myself to such extent!...No no, this work is for you guys. Do whatever you want. Bribe teachers, poison his food, corrupt his friends, beat him up and make a fool out of him...whatever goes through your minds with only one exception: do not touch the half-elf girl!”

“Uh? And why is that Delvin…-san?” Added Clai Adam Roven as I gave him an angered glare. Clai was the son of a noble from a nearby city of these lands, Wellgard. His ability would be considered average and he lacked both intelligence and insight. Despite this, what made me choose him as a member was his family's extraordinarily large wealth and numerous connections throughout these lands. There was no man who hadn't heard at least once the Roven’s name.

“Why you ask? It’s rather simple. Because I want her!-'' I shouted, followed by a maniacal laugh sprung from deep within my stomach. I shocked myself knowing that I was capable of such laugh “-We are nobles my fellow miss and misters, we are all above the peasants of this world. They should grovel and serve with their lives under us! We take what we want. We do what we want and one should be able to tell us no! Yet people like that Bluescale still dare to challenge us...soo, for such an insult, I’ll be taking all of what’s dear to him and once he’s broken, begging under my boots, I’ll deflower and corrupt that pure little half-elf friend of his...right in front of his eyes! You know why Roven?”

“B-Because we are nobles…?”

“HAHAHA yes! Because we are nobles! Now go and bring me results soon…-” I said while falling down once again on the comfy leather armchair as my new fellow comrades were leaving the room with cheers and murmurs “-You will pay dearly for your actions. I can’t wait to taste your despair, Raphael Bluescale!”

As I imagined his bloodied crying face, desperately begging me to let his friend go as I took advantage of her, I couldn’t contain my laughter.

Part 2

- RAPHAEL BLUESCALE’S POV-

Two weeks have gone by ever since me and Lucas decided to try our hands with the adventurer’s guild. We were given a metal plate with our name and rank inscribed on it, of course we started as the lowest rank possible, wooden. The plate was used as a sign of recognition for other adventures and other guilds but also as a means to recognize the body in case the corpse was beyond recognition.

Since the first day of school had been soo chaotic, I expected possible friends or servants of Gallher to come at me in some way or another but instead I was peacefully left alone. Well mostly. Only one guy kept following me almost everywhere I went, I sometimes even caught him following me to the bathroom. Floyd Nave, that bowl headed blonde guy who’s basically Gallher’s lap dog. He didn’t do anything other than following, as if he was studying my actions. It didn’t really take a genius to figure out that I was being monitored. Perhaps it was just to make sure that I didn’t insult any other noble, or was it all done in order to meticulously plan an assault of some kind?

I spent days wrapping my head around it, listening to the rumors of a group of high nobles who recently gathered. That is until exactly ten days later it finally all became much too clear.

It was a Saturday morning, the sun had already spent a couple of hours up in the azure sky. A gentle breeze was shaking the leaves of the yellowish and green trees that composed a little forest west of Alamaria. The forest was rather small compared to the one close to Migur. As the map we bought from the guild suggested, the “Whitelight woods”, who’s name was given due to the splendid white light coming from the moon that reflected from the surface of the closeby lake, spread on a radius of not more than five kilometers in all directions. It was easy reaching it since it only took us fifteen minutes by foot. The whitelight woods was an overly explored forest that usually served as a trial for young adventures to prove their worth. But the reason me and Lucas were there was different: boars. To be precise “gold coat boars”, which I found funny since their fur is of a piss yellow color compared to normal boars, far from being classified as gold! Other than their coat, what really differentiated them from their animal counterparts were the “spoils” of the hunt. Everything about those monsters could possibly bring us money. It’s fur, even though it lacked any type of defensive buff, was very used by tailors and stylists to make scarfs and other accessories. It’s meat was much tastier than that of normal boars. The adventurers back at the guild who were able to try it’s meat said that it was like tasting nature itself due to the wild taste embed in it. At last, the majority of the bones and the two little horns on its head could be sold at a fair price to any alchemy shop. Their usage was rather mysterious it seems; some said that they were used for coating mixes for strengthening armors, others said it was for a potion that grants you a boost in speed but what the majority of adventurers told was that they were used for a hair growth potion. In the end, it didn’t really matter for us, we just needed to sell them for a fair price and the day could be called fruitful.

The problem was that those boars were fast, surprisingly fast. I saw boars in my previous world. Even though they were fast, their speed could not be compared to those one’s. One moment you saw them and the other a speeding blurring yellow mass of around a meter flashed through two nearby trees. Direct approach was impossible so, of course, the impatient and hot-blooded brother of mine grew tired of the hunt rather quickly when I suggested to lay traps.

In the end his complaints didn’t matter in the slightest since I was the one who had more expertise in hunting. We spent an hour gathering their favourite food, second only to human meat, a type of mushroom peculiar to that region: a reddish mushroom called “pepper mushroom”. The peculiar trait of said mushroom was it’s strange spiciness. As we gathered food we created small piles of mushrooms around an area of five meters around a big tree that kind of distanced itself from the nearby ones, granting us the gift of a free vision without obstacles. We exploited the fact that the shape of the boars’ head prevented them from looking too high up and hid on that tree. As the clueless boars approached from my side, I sniped them with small and precise stone bullets so that I did as little damage to the bodies as possible. On Lucas' side he flatly refused to use a bow firmly saying that “a bow is a weapon for those who are too scared to look the enemy in the eye”. Bullshit, I tought, but once that stubborn asshole decided on something I had little possibilities to change his mind, so I just gave up and let him do his thing. Which, in this case, consisted of him directly jumping above them and either slashing their necks or piercing their skulls...which basically meant less money for us.

Countless hours passed as me and my brother perched up on that tall tree. Once the sun started to say it’s goodbyes and grey shadows began to form behind the trees around us, we decided that it was time to gather our loot and travel back to the city before the butcher closed. We dug up the grey leather we buried in a hole we hollowed out beforehand. Inside that leather were the five corpses of the boars. The reason as to why we buried them was to hide the smell of blood from our other prey. I thought about skinning them there but I backed away from that idea since I didn’t have the right tools for the job. Carrying five corpses was impossible so, expecting a situation like this could happen, we loaded them on a rudimental cart that we borrowed from one of the adventurers who was taking a day off.

While Lucas hauled the cart I was in charge of protecting us from night predators such as a leopard-looking animal that they called “oocat” who was the only dangerous predator in that area...animal predator.

“You noticed right, Lucas?” I whispered as we were halfway out of the woods.

“Yeah...it’s been going on for the past two minutes. How many do you count?”

“Mmhh hard to say. I’d guess not more than six tho”

“That so uh? Are they here for us or are we just clueless victims?”

“That will have to wait for later...lower your guard, let’s see how they react”

“Roger that!” Said my brother with his expression now shifted into full battle mode. As suggested, he relaxed his shoulders, breathed excessively hard to fake tiredness and walked in a rather unsteady manner. I did something similar by just shifting my hands from my sides to the back of my head in a relaxed pose. Of course we did all this while still keeping our minds focused, more focused than normal I would say since lowering one's guard could be considered a gamble.

Our assailants did not betray our expectations. In about ten seconds we were surrounded. They were silent and able to hide their mana to some extent, but not enough to fool us who spent countless days training our bodies in the sword and instincts in the woods. Soon after surrounding us, the six assailants stopped their movements. They were in position. A light whistle from north-east of my position, where their boss apparently was, signaled the start of their assault.

Three human looking figures dressed in all black loose attires with just light armors covering their vitals attacked us from each side. Hands and eyes were not covered, rendering impossible the disclosure of their identities in case we fled. On my side, two of those assailants were armed with short swords while the third stayed a meter or so back with a bluish wand in hand pointed towards me. Lucas kicked the cart down the path we had just walked while unsheathing his two handed sword and parrying the first slash that came from a sturdy looking guy carrying a war axe.

[Oops! That was close!]

I thought while barely dodging a side slash from one of the two assailants because my focus was shifted on Lucas’ back. Another slash followed the first as I got into position. The right hand on the hilt of the short sword I was carrying on the left side of my waist. The sound of metal against metal reverberated through the trees as our swords clashed. I backed away rapidly with a half side-step to my left as the guy on that side thrusted his sword towards my side. As he lowered his center of gravity and exposed his chest to my right knee, now ready for the upper strike, I gathered mana on my free hand and casted a spell towards the chanting magician in the back.

“Stone bullet”

With enough strength to pierce a tree to back it up, my stone bullet hit its target just slightly off the mark. I had planned to pierce his right biceps in its center but instead, the bullet hit it more on the assaliant’s right, carving out a nice half moon from his right arm. As blood spilled copiously from his injury, my strength and speed enhanced knee hit the thrusting assailant right on his breastbone. A loud crack could be heard as the hard part of my knee clashed with a not so hard part of that guy’s ribs. He grasped for hair as he fell to the ground, not before being able to slightly curve the tip of his sword to try and cut my calf, only being able to leave a thin line of crimson blood dripping off a shallow cut.

Seeing the scene unfolding at such speed in front of his eyes, the first guy who I crossed swords with backed away with fear and shock painted in his eyes.Giving me just enough time to land a powerful kick on the still conscious guy on the ground while the mage on the back was screaming, holding his injured arm.

[He can’t cast healing magic it seems]

It was now a 1vs1 situation. The last assailant had just enough time to recollect his composure and once again point the sharp tip of his sword at me. This time he did not attack first; rather, he waited for me to make a move. A bad choice I would say but, seeing as the situation had unfolded it was probably the smartest move possible. After fleeing of course.

I made a fake dash to the left. To follow my movements he shifted the center of his body towards my probable position while keeping his feet stuck in place. My faint worked. It was a very basic faint but since my opponent’s judgement was already clouded by fear I challenged myself with the gamble. As soon as he turned to my left I had already won. His eyes catched up with me faster than his body could, but it was too late. A powerful diagonal slash coming from the left ground side up, cut a deep wound across his chest, deep enough for the tip of the sword to gently brush over his ribcage, without touching it. His light armor didn't offer that much resistance. A scream filled with pain echoed together with the mage’s as his eyes tuned in horror and his hands dropped the hilt of his sword. Another slash, this time orizontal, struck towards his right calf, creating a wound deep enough to incapacitate him. As his right leg gave away and the man fell on his knee, I hit him one last time right on the back of his head with the hilt of his sword. The black clad man fell unconscious, face first on the blood soaked ground as his mage companion screamed in horror, unable to move his legs.

As I rested my shoulder on the tree where the mage was cowering, only after gluing his hand on the ground by piercing it with my sword, the last loud “thud”, generated from the hilt of Lucas’s sword against a head, signaled that the assault had ended.

“I was kinda growing tired of waiting for you” I jokingly said while smirking at the bloodied face of my brother.

“Oh shut up! Admit it, you have just finished! Also, unlike you, I didn’t use any magic!” He said while kicking away a sword on the ground.

“What kind of pathetic excuse is that?! I’m a mage! Of course I’d use magic”

“Be it so...are those two alive?” Lucas pointed out with a scolding gaze as he gestured at the two men laying on the ground in a thin pool of blood.

“Yeah...they just need a tiny bit of healing...b-but one is still alive and kicking tho!” I rapidly said as I tried to escape the judgemental gaze.

With a small movement of his head, Lucas “kindly” suggested me to treat the two wounded. While doing so, I noticed that the enemies on his side had only shallow wounds and were all knocked unconscious.

[He truly is leagues ahead of me with the sword…]

In the meantime, my brother approached the only remaining conscious assailant. With an elegant flick of his wrist he ripped away the black cloth working as a mask revealing a short haired human girl with an expression of pure terror. Her wild brown hair, now soaked in sweat, trimmed just enough to not hinder her sight and the two thin but long scars on the far end of her cheeks, suggested me that this wasn’t the first time she had done something similar. Yet the freckles on the nose gave me a sense of childish purity that was really in contrast with the image of an assassin.

“Listen here and listen good ‘cause I’ll ask this only once and if I don’t get the answers I want well...I’ll be forced to pass you to that guy over there!-” Said Lucas while pointing at me with his thumb over his shoulder “- Mmhh but I gotta warn you. His methods are quite...ruthless as you can see”

Feeling her gaze on my back, I turned around and locked my eyes on her’s, waiving and giving her a painfully forced smile. Without knowing it, Lucas was staging the classical “good cop and bad cop” scene. Apparently I had the role of the bad cop. Then why not act like so? Showing that fake smile made me look like some kind of maniac judging by the increasing shivering of her legs.

“I-I’ll tell you everything. I s-swear!” Mustered the trembling girl.

“Who are you guys?”

“W-we are adventurers...I-ron rank sir. But because our boss is s-sick and we had spent all our money we w-were f-forced to do this kind of thing”

“I did not ask for the story of your life!”

“S-s-sorry” Cried the girl with tears now profusely falling on her cheeks.

“Last question. Who sent you? What was your objective?”

“W-we were p-paid to incapacitate o-or kill t-that monster there by-”

“Monster? That’s kinda rude, don't cha think?” I interrupted the girl as I casted the last healing spell. I only healed enough so that they didn’t perish, even though at that moment if those people lived or died didn't matter to me in the slightest.

“Shut up Raph! Continue, who sent you?”

“Y-y-yes, it was a g-girl with green hair in t-two twin long drills, s-he gave us a large sum of money...I-I don’t know the name!”

As Lucas looked back, our eyes met. With a condescending look from my part, he took action in rendering the girl unconscious. I picked up the sword still piercing her hand as I casted healing magic on her right arm. At my current level it was impossible to completely recover the wound, since I really sucked at healing magic, but at least the blood loss stopped.

“So?-” Lucas asked “-What do we do with them now?”

“Should we leave them tied to a tree near the walls? I bet a guard making rounds will see them at some point”

“Yeah I think so too...let’s strip them first though, they might have something valuable to sell in the end”

“Do you even listen to yourself when speaking? Those are the words of the man who was soo reluctant on becoming an adventurer hahaha”

“Oh shut up, I have a date next week and I saw a fancy looking jacket at decent price”

“Pffttt haha! Have you come here to train not only with an iron sword but with a meat sword too? HAHAHA”

“That is a question I won’t answer...just, just shut up! I’ll drag those guys you carry the cart!”

“Aye aye two handling sword master!” I shouted as I ran off towards the boar filled cart while being showered in a rain of insults.

In the end the unexpected hunt bore its fruits.

Part 3

- LARISSE HIGORA’S POV-

The loud shouts of the singing drunkards and the tingling sound of glass against glass were filling my ears, only fueling my current headache. It didn’t help that the smell of smoked meat and tobacco, the typical mixture of smells one could find in a tavern, was making me nauseous. Sitting right in front of me, on a small table in the far corner of the tavern, was Danthe Hannes. Who seemed to not mind the atmosphere.

“It’s been three hours already. How long do you plan to keep me here for, Higora?” Said the fifteen years old red headed boy in front of me.

“There might have been some unknown circumstances or complications...let’s give them a little more time!”

“Pftt! I say they ran with the mone-”

Before he could finish his sentence, a cloaked man interrupted him by slamming the door of the taver open. His gaze searched around the place, looking for a familiar face, only to finally meet mine as I raised my arm. The cloaked man approached. Under his hood was displayed an uncut beard and a big scar on his neck under it. He was one of my servants, an ex-spy. His combat abilities were painfully lacking but the way he was able to get any kind of intel excessively made up for it. He profusely bowed as he reached my ear and whispered:

“Raphael Bluescale and Lucas Bluescale were seen entering the school grounds five minutes ago...unscattered”

With a loud click of the tongue and a fist on the wooden table I expressed my growing discontent. Danthe smirked as if he already knew it would happen. My servant left with just a flick of my wrist, leaving the two of us sitting alone again.

“Follow me-” I said while standing up “-we gotta find what happened!”

“So they failed in the end uh haha” He chuckled as he gulped down what remained of his drink and tossed some copper coins on the table.

The two of us walked out of the walls and towards the “Whitelight woods”. It was now dark so it was difficult to look around us if it was not for the lamps with light stones spread around the pathway. Between the walls and the forest was a ten minutes walk. The assault was supposed to happen before the Bluescales exited the forest so it would probably take us some more time before reaching the scene. As my brain was running wild, thinking about the possible situations that caused their failure, the voice of Danthe with his annoying all-knowing tone shook me out of it.

“Rather than speeding to the forest try to look around you a little uh? Can’t you see that there are around six people over there?”

“Wher-” I didn’t have time to finish that the crimson lance of my companion was already pointing towards a group of four isolated trees. I squinted my eyes and focused, searching for human figures until I saw what looked like the pink outlines of the six adventurers.

“How did you even know they were there?!” I asked surprised while walking in their direction.

“What do you mean? I simply saw a faint trace of their mana duh!”

“You say it like it’s normal for people to be able to sense others’ mana!”

“Ha! Are you admitting that you’re weak? HAHAHA”

The way he blatantly bragged about the strength that everyone in the group lacked was annoying but it was true. He really was gifted with astonishing abilities, and with them came also an annoyingly huge ego.

Once we reached the trees and took a look at the condition of the adventurers it became painfully clear the reason that they failed. Even though I knew it, I still didn’t want to believe it!

“That hole in the arm of that girl...is there a weapon that can cleave out such a perfect circular shape?”

“Not that I know of”

“If so then what caused-”

“Magic” Interrupted Danthe with a smirk on his face.

“Impossible, they are both first years and their ranks are some of the lowest...could it be that someone else was inside the forest with them? That third year who’s always around them?”

“Naah, we checked with the guild. The Bluesclaes were the only ones who entered the forest today”

“Then you mean…”

“Yeah...that’s the work of Raphael. His brother is more of a swordsman than a mage. The fact that he’s here in Alamaria is only ‘cause of Raphael and the dojo”

“But for a first year...to do this kind of damage! Not even Gallher-san could be able to pierce like that the body strengthening of that mage girl! They were iron tier adventurers, Hannes!”

“No, it may have been possible...do you remember the rumors that started spreading around the academy not too long ago about a first year that was able to beat the examiner? I believe we’ve found that guy”

“...” I was shocked. My eyes were not betraying me and Danthe’s words held much truth in them. Even though I refused to believe it, one was the undeniable fact. Raphael Bluescale came out on top of my assassination attempt and now I had to report this to the boss.

“HAHAHA this is fun!-” Shouted Danthe while laughing at the scene “-It looks like the boss is keen on making an enemy out of a dangerous fucker!”

Part 4

- RAPHAEL BLUESCALE’S POV-

“Are you telling me you got attacked with that face? Just...just like it’s a normal thing?!”

Sora was almost shouting for the whole cafeteria to hear. The mixture of worry and anger was making her ruby eyes both swell with tears and redden. She wasn’t even sure herself if she had to be angry or worried about us.

“I told you it’s no big deal right? Look! I’m here, Lucas is here, everything is fine and no one is hurt...well except them”

“Bu-but who would do such a thing?”

“Oh apparently it was a green haired gi- OUCH!” With my free hand I pinched as hard as I could my brother’s thigh, preventing him from leaking that information.

“Oh? Did you hit your foot on the leg of the table?” I asked with a slightly menacing tone while glaring directly at my brother. A simple nod was his answer.

“Anyway, what he was trying to say is that they were just bandits. We were too careless and didn’t think that we could be attacked. Because of that we walked straight into a trap. Isn’t that right brother?”

“Yeah yeah, that’s totally what happened! Silly us ha ha ha”

[Gotta admit..your fake laugh is kinda pathetic]

“Really?-” Inquired the intrigued Sora “- I thought that bandits stayed clear from the whitelight woods. Something about it being too close to the walls and the guards”

“Ohh that’s very interesting!-” I said, trying to gain time to think of an excuse for that. I had already agreed with Lucas about keeping silent about all this green haired girl thing until we found out who that girl was. Apparently, Lucas didn’t quite catch the meaning of staying silent. As I was struggling with coming up with an excuse and Sora’s gaze was making me self-conscious, the bell that signals the end of lunch rang.

“-Uhh I gotta go...my next class is on the opposite side of the cafeteria and I wanna get a good seat! See you later!”

“Ah, no wait Rapha-” She didn’t get to finish the phrase that I was already on my way, fast marching out of the cafeteria.

“Huuff, crisis evaded...at least for now”

Since I left pretty early the corridors were lonely and silent. The white walls with their golden-like features and various fancy paintings, were paired with an outstandingly polished and refined red marble with white veins in it. The more I looked around this academy the less it looked like an academy. It felt more like the luxurious villa of a wealthy patron, like a well refined gem to showcase to everyone. It was no wonder that the Alamaria academy was the only academy in the War lands. Who could ever compete with this? Even rich noble kids from other countries studied there. I had been living in the academy for just over a month and yet I had this strange sensation that I could really grow there. Not only regarding academics but also as a person.

As I was lost in thoughts, a male student, not much older than me, stood in front of me in the middle of the hallway. He was shorter than me by at least half a head, ahd deep blued hair with some whitish hair strands. What intrigued me the most about that person were his eyes. Big yellow eyes, bright as the sun could be as if they had a life of their own. Those eyes were in complete contrast with his whole being. His constitution was rather scrawny with the skin on his fingers sticking close to the bones. The same was for his wrists and ankles, I could have probably been able to grip them whole with a single hand. Even his cheeks were emaciated. He seemed to be...suffering.

“You are Raphael Bluescale” Said the man with a surprisingly deep yet warm voice.

“Are you another one of those out for my head?”

“No...I come to warn you that you’ll be...wait! Another?”

“Yeah, another. Couple nights ago me and my brother got attacked in the woods. Seems like it was the handiwork of a kind lady”

“Fuck! They are faster than they seem”

“Seems like you know something about those guys uh. Care to fill me in?”

“...Don’t know much honestly. I knew they were planning on attacking you but I don't know who was the one directly behind it. But one thing I know for sure. You’ve angered one dangerous man: Delvin Gallher”

“HA! I knew that fucker was behind it...guess he’s still mad about the little prank I pulled last time we met”

“H-how can you be so calm? Do you know who HE is?”

“Yeah yeah, son of a duke and yada yada yada...Listen, I don’t know who you are but I thank you for trying to warn me about the assault. Just know that I know how to handle myself. Don’t get your neck exposed for someone you don’t know, will ya?...Also eat something dude! You look like you’ve been starving the past few days!”

As I finished the phrase I passed by him, giving him a sound pat on the shoulder and one last lasering look in his eyes. Then, silently, I walked towards my designated classroom.

I had already figured out that Gallher was the one behind it. Who else would want me dead? Even though wanting me dead for just that little offence is a little bit of an exaggeration. The gloomy feeling that I was about to be targeted by Gallher and his people was only smoothed by the fact that there were people around the academy that knew about it and still decided to bear the risk of telling me. That thought kind of made me crack a smile.

“Oh now that I think about it, I didn’t even ask for that guy’s name!”