I spent the whole morning in the nurse's office. With breakfast and medicines, I did feel slightly better. And by noon, I could walk around without issues. But I guess this wasn't enough for practical classes. But now I had my excuse.

Merin was the one who brought me breakfast. All he brought was some salad and an apple though. Tasted terrible but oh well.

Robert did come to see me once but I got the impression that he was just doing it out of obligation. No one else really came. I guess no one even knew. It was better this way though.

"I'm heading off to the class." I didn't have much on me other than my clothes. No books, no nothing. So I didn't really need to waste time on gathering those. And since the practical class didn't require anything special, I didn't have to prepare either. But then again, the assignment was, something special, I guess.

Students these days didn't need their bags since they had their holo and they could always use the holo as a virtual book anyway. 'Maybe I should save up a few month's pocket money and buy one myself?' I was very tempted to say the least.

The nurse was seated in her chair. She was going through reports. I guess kids other than me had health issues too. Though I was probably the only one who spent so much time here on a regular basis. "Yeah, good luck. Don't overexert yourself." She stopped what she was doing and looked at me: a cold glare. "Actually, don't even think of doing anything that involves stress. And try to avoid dairy for a while."

"Huh?" It was as if the whole world had turned upside down. I was fine resting for days. But no chocolate milk?

'Oh no.' My world had ended.

"Just in case, I'll contact your mother." her words brought me back to reality and it was like she was torturing me with lashes.

Was this woman trying to rid of this world?

"Wait, you have mom's number?" I was cold and yet, strangely I started to sweat.

This wasn't good. I had a bad feeling about all this.

"Oh yeah. We became fast friends and exchanged contacts." She was speaking like this was natural. But they knew each other for barely a day.

Yup, a bad feeling.

"Can you not do that? I mean-"

"Uh, no. I don't trust your judgment, so I'll let her know."

Why was this woman so oblivious? Did she really have my best interest in mind? Or was she seriously just trying to end me? Because it certainly felt that way right now.

I tried to put on a smile and silently walked out. Mom would chew me alive if she found out this happened because I skipped meals and always ate nothing but bread and chocolate milk. Mom had forbidden me to drink chocolate milk more than twice a week. And besides, she gave me enough money to actually afford other food, but I was just cheap-ing out on everything. So, I was keeping my eating habits a secret from her.

Meaning, my death flag was already set. Living hardly mattered anymore.

***

I reached the practical class about three minutes early. A lot of eyes were on me but I guess that was natural.

Occasional glares. Also normal.

Everything was normal, except I had a running nose and felt like dying. Oh wait, I was going to die tomorrow anyway. Tomorrow was the day off and mom would have definitely…

Unless she decided to show up today, that is.

"Alright, turn in your assignments." The teacher came and spoke in a bold tone.

'This is my chance.'

Before I could even attempt to raise a commotion, everyone just started to act rather weird.

"Here, sir."

"Here you go, sir."

"Here's mine, sir."

Students flocked around him.

'Wait, what?'

One by one everyone turned in their assignments. Even the transfer students. I was basically the only one who didn't.

"What's wrong Helio, where's yours?" Even the teachers called me By Helio at this point. I guess there was no running away from this anymore. But at least no one knew about me being a Romswell, at least I most certainly hoped so.

"It was pretty easy, eh?"

"Yeah, totally." I heard all sorts of comments behind my back.

'Easy, my ass.'

Were my classmates total geniuses or was I just dumb? I really wanted to think it was the former. Though I didn't want to.

With a sigh, I gave it to him straight. "I didn't do it."

All the talk just stopped. Everyone was almost surprised.

The teacher looked at me with cold eyes. "I'd assume you had a good reason for it: after all that commotion only happened two days ago. But I suppose you're the only one who'll get negative credits."

"Sir." I started. I was already in a very bad mood because of the constant running nose and all the sniffing and the handkerchief action. And then everyone just had to say stuff like this was easy. "How in the world did we end up doing the first year's finals for our first assignment? I don't know how it was easy for them but it certainly wasn't easy for me."

I'd get laughed at. I knew that. If people found this easy and they saw me complaining, of course, they'd laugh. But strangely, no one was laughing.

"Finals? Are you sure?" The teacher, however, was actually taking this seriously.

"My roommate's a second year. Of course, I'm sure." And I'd already checked about a dozen times before making my claims. "It's in my room. I'm a little sick so I was at the nurse's. You can send someone to get it." It was just an excuse but I was definitely sick if nothing else.

He looked at me for a minute, blinked a few times, and started to blush. "So sorry about that. I have a daughter at home you see. She sometimes plays with papa's stuff." The way he said it almost made me want to punch him.

No wonder the paper had stains on it. But was this guy really going to believe me without even fact-checking first?

'Then don't let her get hear the important stuff!' I had a little sister so I knew how meaningless it was to prevent kids from having their way. And yet, I couldn't help but be angry. Did this guy have any idea how much stress I'd been in yesterday?

I sighed. "I won't ask for credits. All I ask is that you don't give me negative credits." I tried to be reasonable. As pissed as I was, I just wanted to get back and rest. I still didn't have lunch either. So I had a lot of things to look forward to.

"Hmm, that would be fair. And I do know your potential from last week's hunt. However, I cannot just exclude you from this either. You'll have to do at least something. But what?" He was thinking aloud a bit too much.

I was sick and I didn't want to do anything. Did he not get that?

"Sir, if I may-" A blonde raised his hands. If I recalled correctly, he was the one who was outside the clubhouse waiting for me. "Would it be appropriate, if we were to duel now? Of course, it'll be just friendly."

Was he crazy? Here I was dying from a cold, and he wanted to fight? Like, now? Seriously!?

"Ah-"

Before I could start the teacher started. "Yes, that does seem like a good proposition."

"I'm ill. I'll pass." Besides, the nurse already told me to not exert myself.

I didn't care if it was a good proposition. All I cared was that I wanted to go home and not die. But then again, nothing really mattered anymore as I'd be slapped silly by mom anyway. Just thinking made me want to sigh.

"Hmm. You also make a fair proposition. Hmm…" And he started to think again. Was something wrong with this teacher? No, maybe this whole academy was weird.

And I was the only sane person. Yes, the only sane person. 'Isn't that what an insane person say?'

Now my own thoughts started to contradict me.

"Alright. How about this? You two would duel and whoever wins will get one wish. You can ask for credits or you can even ask to skip the classes altogether but that way you won't get credits." Basically, you couldn't have your cake and eat it at the same time.

"And if I lose?"

"You won't get any credits but you won't get any negative either."

That actually didn't sound that bad. The only problem was, I didn't have my sword with me. Apparently, mom took the sword back when she learned people were just running around challenging me. According to her, if I didn't have a weapon, I'd be less prone to accept. Little did she know, I had no intention of accepting any in the first place. The only times I dueled with people when I was forced to.

"I don't have a sword btw, will that be okay?" My words came out a bit weird now that my nose was semi-solid. Even moments ago it was running loose and now it was hard to breathe. 'Just make up your damn mind respiratory system!"

"Then I shall fight barehanded as well." The Blondie sure was confident if nothing else.

Every single one of these transfer students was nothing but trouble. This blonde wanted to duel, that Battlesuin girl was plotting something while the redhead literally attacked me last night.

I hadn't yet reported the redhead either. She'd probably be punished severely instead of being expelled since nothing actually happened. But I sure wasn't going to let her off the hook either.

"Oh no, you two will fight with these." The teacher gave me a bow.

I tried grabbing the string and it glowed. I aimed at a nearby tree and tried stretching the string. Of course, I was just practicing and he didn't bother to give me arrows. But I felt something on the string, and when I let go, a thin beam went exactly where I pointed. It didn't pierce the tree trunk but there was a bit of a black mark on the tree now. Meaning this could do a small amount of damage: in other words, it would hurt like being pinched.

I never wielded a bow before, so this was a new experience for me. 'So we never needed arrows in the first place?'

And getting my first shot exactly where I wanted almost made me feel like I was some sort of genius. 'This might not be so bad after all.'

"I've set them to beginner mode. So you shouldn't miss even if you were an amateur. They shouldn't do much damage either. So feel free to fire at will when I give the signal. The first one to hit the opponent's chest wins."

My confidence ran away from whence it came.

I almost felt stupid.

The students around us made their way and they were quite far away, circling us in the process. I didn't want to do this but not getting negative credits was my main goal. And if things started to look bad, I could have just given up anyway. If I wasn't getting negative credits, then it probably didn't matter. And besides, I didn't want to exert myself.

I started off by emitting Alpha particles. Nothing fancy. This duel didn't have much value for me. My main worry was to successfully get out of this without exerting myself, which actually didn't seem all that possible right now.

'Sorry, Miss Nurse.' I still didn't know her name though.

"Begin."

And it began as I was too absorbed in my own thoughts. So the teacher's shout kind of startled me. But unlike Blaze, this guy didn't attack me with a preemptive strike. He waited for me instead.

'I guess I can take this at least a little more seriously.'

Maybe this guy wasn't that bad.

"If I win, your sister is mine!" And then the guy just had to spout nonsense.

I might have spoken too soon.

"Huh? Come again?'

Did something happen to my ears lately? I kept on hearing weird shit every now and then.