Most of the students were already in their respective classes.

Few that were late, were now running fast to 'not be late'.

​​

Me?

I was taking a laid-back stroll.

But in reality, I was fuming way more than I could have imagined. I thought no one would be stupid enough to actually buy into this BS and even if they were, they wouldn't be stupid enough to attack me, but honestly, I was more disappointed than mad. Were human beings really this shallow and stupid?

So with a sigh, I followed directions. And with four minutes to spare, I entered the nearly full room of the third years.

I'd heard third years mostly stayed out of the academy and went to various places across the globe. Clearly, my information had holes in it. Or maybe the standards had gone a bit down.

Seeing so many third years made me feel a bit nervous. I wasn't scared, rather, what if, no one believed me? It wasn't like, I could just whoop everyone's butt and make them believe. I had to take this seriously, and smartly at the same time.

With a deep breath, I controlled everything and just walked straight in. All eyes were on me.

"Can I help you?" Rose was the first one to come towards me.

I guess she was a third-year too. I never really asked around about her anyway.

There were many faces in here and I hardly knew any of them. I did know a few though, the two grinning guys in the back and a girl- Selene.

There were whispers floating around but so far no one actually made an effort to say anything. The girl I came here for, however, didn't even look at me.

"Can you call over- what was her name again?" I'd gotten all heated up, but I kind of forgot her name already.

"Raea?"

"Yeah, her."

Rose gave me an awkward stare. "Well, I did warn you but you acting rashly here would be disadvantageous for you. And as class would soon begin, trust me, you'd only complicate things."

I came at this academy nearly two weeks ago and within that time had countless meetings with this girl. I knew she wasn't messing with me.

'Disadvantageous for me, huh?'

"But if I let this go now-" Then all of this would just repeat for the rest of the day too.

"Hmmm…" She thought for a second. "How about, a duel?"

"A duel?"

"Yes, duels are here for a reason. Whenever disputes break out since the teachers never intervene, it's best to let the students beat each other up: of course, it has to be regulated. That's why we have duels. And that is also why we don't let students start unauthorized fights."

I didn't know why but hearing that from her made me feel awfully weird.

But now that I thought about it, this wasn't bad. And me just going up to that Raea girl and making her impotent or perhaps potentially crippling her would have surely made me a criminal, the last thing I wanted to become.

"Hmm… that's not a bad proposal. But- what will be the stakes?" After all, I didn't think that girl would just accept my proposal. I need a very good reason for her to fight me.

Rose turned around. "Raea, stand up!"

Promptly a girl stood up. I knew her. She was glaring at me. "Why should I? I left the club ages ago. And besides, I have nothing to gain from this duel." She was listening to us rather carefully, I guess.

She irked me, she really, really pissed me off. But now that I thought about it, I had to offer some good rewards to her, enough to entice her, and I had just the thing. "Well, let's just say, you don't have to be in a club to duel." I smiled. "Tell you what, you may bring all your followers to battle. Even hired ones are fine. The limit is one hundred of course, since anymore and the gym would be too crowded. Or we could fight in the field and in that case, I'll let you raise the limit to one thousand. Oh and your prize? You get to live of course." My grin intensified.

"Are you implying, you'll kill me if I declined?" She turned a bit pale.

The whispers turned to silent panic. I guess my threats had weight in this academy, even to the third years.

But then again it was just a threat. I didn't have any intention to get expelled anyway.

I acted ignorant. "I don't know. Did I say that?"

She composed herself. "A thousand men, huh?" She was sweating but her smile didn't waver. "If you lose, you'll become my slave. And if I lose, I'll become yours."

I guess that was her intention from the start.

"Sorry, but I don't want bitches like you." I taunted a bit. "Anyway, if you lose, I'll just make your life a living hell, don't worry about it. I'll also have to make you confess that you framed me, but I guess I'll think about them after beating the living crap out of you. " I winked and turned around.

Why she framed me didn't really matter as much as that 'she framed me'.

There was a guy by the door. Even with my heightened senses and alpha particles, I hadn't sensed him till now. 'Guess I shouldn't count on this, too much.'

"Yo-You-" The girl was, however, stuttering when she finally processed my words.

"I understand you're done?" But this man by the door was really different. His voice was deep and he was serious. He had a pretty built body too.

"Yes, I am." I looked back. "I'll give you a day to prepare. We'll hold our duel tomorrow afternoon." I turned forward again and walked. "Thanks, Rose."

"No problem."

A set of whispers floated around but I just ignored them.

But when I went past the man- "Not bad kid, for a second there, I thought I'd have to stop you." Meaning, he was here from a while ago.

This guy wasn't kidding. I didn't know how he could be so confident, but I chose to ignore him. And just walked.

"Okay, take your seats, let's begin."

The third year's class started and that reminded me…. 'Oh I should run too.'

***

I was exactly eleven minutes late. And Miss Maire made me stand for ten minutes by the door for it. She did let me in though afterward and I didn't really miss much during my absence.

The first class ended.

"So…" The voice came from behind me. I knew it rather well. "You became a fiend yourself?"

Her voice was quite nonchalant, I guess she wasn't hung up about things like I was.

"Unfortunately, I'm not that type. If I want someone, I'd ask them directly. Like I asked you."

No responses came. So reluctantly I had to turn around. Our last encounter kind of left a rather bad scar on my heart.

But what I was met with was… a smile. A sincere relieved smile. For a second I got mesmerized again. But in the very next second, I controlled myself.

Marg didn't say anything, so I didn't say anything either.

'One step at a time.' I was yet to find out her feelings for me… but I still had hope and I wasn't going to let anything get in the way, not the Battlesuins, not the Rodwichs.

But maybe this all being framed thing wasn't so bad. After all, I got to see Marg smile and that kind of made me think she might have had feelings for me. Or it could have been that I was just being stupid and my mind was playing tricks on me.

At the heat of the moment I kind of went out of my way and asked that girl to bring a thousand men, but now that I thought about it, wasn't it a lot of people?

But this was the perfect opportunity to teach the people that framing me was a bad idea.

And this was also a good opportunity to show off to Marg. She probably won't come to the duel though.