"As expected of a top five..." Falco fawned.

"Dude, Gustav's also a top five," E.E reminded.

"Oh, true," A wry smile appeared on Falco's face as he realized.

"It makes sense that I'd have this many challengers… More than half of them is from that time," Gustav said while checking the names on the challenge letter one after the other.

Falco and E.E also started sorting through theirs for who to pick while Aildris sat still and held a book in his hands.

One would wonder how he was reading the contents of the book without opening his eyes.

After a few more minutes, Gustav finished sorting out his challenge requests along with E.E.

"I have no idea who the others are besides the ones who are after Matilda's hand," Gustav muttered.

"They are probably rich kids with exquisite gadgetry who intend to make use of those techs to win the challenge," E.E responded with a look of contemplation.

"Also there are quite a number of people who are after you… You have a hate fanbase apparently because a lot of cadets dislike your attitude. I heard someone say he was gonna defeat you and make you lick his feet because you act so high and mighty," Falco stated.

E.E started laughing after hearing that, "Really played out quite funny in my head to see Gustav licking boot,"

"But yeah, you gotta be careful with these niggas man. Some of them are really out to get you, but it's you so I'm sure things will be fine," E.E added with a tone of seriousness and a smile.

"Oh, let them come… It's been a while since I felt my hand smacking on faces and fist breaking jaws and bones. I need the exercise," A smirk appeared on Gustav's face as he responded.

E.E and Falco subconsciously shivered as they heard that. They recalled scenes of Gustav battling with others and realized that it was always bloody.

"Elevora seems to be quite interested in you," Aildris suddenly voiced out.

"Hmm? Why do you say that?" Gustav questioned with a confounded look.

"She asked about you sometime back… It's the first time I've seen her get interested in knowing someone's background since we were kids… But I refrained from disclosing any information about you because it is not my story to tell. She must have missed the broadcast from Master Gon's media station," Aildris stated.

"Hold up you've known Elevora since you were kids?" E.E asked with a look of disbelief.

"Hnm, she's my little cousin," Aildris revealed.

"Whuuutt!" Both E.E and Falco voiced out at the same time.

"She's your cousin?" Even Gustav was a bit surprised by this revelation.

They had never seen both of them acting like they were related. Both of them not sharing a similar resemblance was understandable since they were cousins, not siblings. However, Elevora hadn't shown any sign that she knew anyone because she was practically a loner who liked being by herself.

"She has been quite the weird one since we were little… Always ruthless to bullies in school, but avoided making friends. Not that she isn't approachable but… It's just a little hard to explain. She has always voiced out how she was going to vanquish evil from this world due to an incident she went through in our childhood days. Sorry I can't reveal that to you guys," Aildris voiced out the last part with a slightly apologetic look.

"Damn she's so fine, but she never showed any interest even when I tried sending her signals," E.E voiced out with a wry smile.

"The only time she ever showed interest was during fights and sparring sessions… I never won against her. Not even once. I'm older, but she's stronger… knowing her well she probably wants to spar with Gustav because she can sense that his strength is higher than what he has shown so far," Aildris explained.

"I see… She's quite interesting," Gustav said with a look of interest.

"So I'm not the only one that can tell that Gustav is higher than the fifth position he was placed in on the cadet ranking board," Falco stated.

"Of course we all know that for some reason Gustav hasn't revealed the full extent of his abilities," E.E responded while turning to face Gustav.

"What does that matter? The ranking is not important," Gustav stated, not denying or revealing anything.

"I am also interested in sparring with Gustav at full strength," Aildris revealed

with an excited expression shown on his face.

"I'm not even thinking about defeating Elevora yet… I can't underestimate her since I haven't seen the full extent of her abilities yet," Gustav stated, but he couldn't deny the fact that he was interested in her.

She seemed to have an interesting personality that was a bit similar to Angy's in the sense of justice. However, Gustav could sense that Elevora was much more harder than Angy. He sensed a dangerous vibe from her at the time they had a brief conversation two weeks back. He could tell that she had killed several times before.

The three of them, Aildris excluded, made their decisions on challenges to accept and sent the report back to the hall where issues like that were sorted.

Gustav picked two people from Matilda's party and one of those so-called rich kids who intended to use high-end gadgets and weaponry to battle him.

One of the people he picked was the green-haired kid who said some words to him the other day in front of the simulation room, Deitrick.

Gustav and the others later visited one of the training halls together to go do some personal training.

__________________________

The night went by in a flash, and the late Cadets were once again awoken by the sound of the morning alarm, which reverberated across the entire camp, announcing that they had only thirty seconds to arrive on the field.