“I refuse”

“Wh…what?!”

At hearing the unexpected response, Aren’s face expresses her feeling of disbelief. She never thought of whether he would accept or decline. While she attempted to comprehend the situation, a devious smile appeared on her face.

“Ho… So you are indeed afraid to show everyone that you’re just a weakling!”

Hearing her futile attempt to infuriate him, a grin formed slightly on Azrael’s lips before returning to its original position.

‘She’s still a child huh…’

“Aren, you speak about duels and all that but don’t you remember that dueling is allowed only between people in the same class and with supervision?”

Hearing his reasoning, Aren looks at him with a blank face. Being so angry, she had forgotten about that rule. While attempting to muster up a reply, Azrael shortened the distance between them and whispered so that only the three in the direct vicinity could hear.

“Also, wouldn’t it be too shameful to the house of Dufont if one of their child was seen as attempting to bully someone who was five years their junior? Truthfully, you’re in a lose-lose situation right now. Why don’t you just retract for now before losing more face? Most importantly though, it’d just be flat out embarrassing to lose to someone five years your junior. Don’t you agree?”

Even though she felt so angry that she wanted to attack him right now with his last statement, she reluctantly agreed. What Azrael had said was true. Even if she wanted nothing more than to beat this kid in front of her into a pulp, she already knew that she could at no cost lose face and bring scorn onto her family.

After glaring at Azrael with deep hate in her eyes, she swiftly turned her body. To the surprise of all the students in the cafeteria, Aren turns around and heads toward the entrance of the hall without hearing the reply of the boy. Even after a few moments, the cafeteria stayed silent as people were attempting to understand what had just happened.

“Remind me to never get in an argument with you”

Coming up beside Azrael, Winston pats him in the shoulder and slowly shakes his head in wonder. Seeing his new friend in amazement, Azrael couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Well that was enough entertainment for a day. It’s about time for the next class, let’s head out”

Nodding his head in acknowledgement, the two head out. The both of them had ‘History of Xiosu’ next. As they were exiting, the rest of the students kept glancing at the two, especially Azrael, with eyes of curiosity and interest. Ignoring them, they head to the classroom.

By the time they reached the room, they saw that the seats were filling up so the two ran over to two open seats toward the back of the room. As the time for class to begin neared, the last remaining open seat was filled just as the door opened and a male teacher entered.

“I see that everyone is here. Good, good. Well then, why don’t we start begin with self-introductions. You in the first seat on the left, begin.”

With that, everyone slowly began standing up and introducing themselves. All the people in the class that had introduced themselves were of noble birth and proudly named their house. Seeing this, Azrael could already see what would happen when it was his turn.

“Winston Wozeal, from the house of Wozeal in the Sunder Kingdom”

Hearing the name of Winston’s house, the people around them started a small commotion. The way that everyone looked at him changed to looks of jealousy and respect now. Seeing this, Azrael could tell that Winston’s family was a lot more influential and respected than he had suspected.

After the teacher halted the commotion, Winston slowly sat down in his chair. Letting out a small sigh, Azrael stands up and gave his own introduction.

“Azrael Celeste, a commoner from the Nifl Kingdom”

The class immediately broke into a commotion. Well, it was to be expected as he was the only child here wasn’t from a noble family.

“Ew, a commoner is in our class…”

“How did a commoner even get into the academy?”

“Some teacher must’ve saw him and felt pity…”

“Tho…those bastards! Why I ought to…”

“Winst, calm down. I’m fine man”

Hearing the whispers between the students, Azrael couldn’t help but show a bitter smile. Winston, hearing the commotion was furious at the students. Gritting his teeth, he was just about to stand up and blow up on everyone when unexpectedly someone comes to Azrael’s defense.

“Haa, you low lives. Just because he’s a commoner means he’s weak? I bet ten gold that Azrael can beat any of you here”

Hearing the retort, everyone turns to look at the boy seated in the back with luscious green hair and startling stormy grey eyes. The boy’s discontent toward his classmates was visible on his face as he sneered at everyone. Slowly, the class quieted down and the introductions continued.

Azrael looks back toward the boy and see that he’s looking at him. He wordlessly mouths thanks and the boy just simply nods his head.

After the majority of the introductions were over, it was finally the boy’s turn to introduce himself. Everyone in the classroom paid close attention as they were curious to see who dared speak to them like that. Looking as if he thought this was a hassle, he lazily stands up and introduces himself.

“Zer Aiur from Rhostaz Kingdom”

Before quickly seating himself again. The classroom, upon hearing his name, went into a frenzy.

“He’s that Zer Aiur?! The son of Rhostaz Kingdom’s Prime Minister?!”

“He supposedly a genius who is a dual elementalist!”

“Not only is he from one of the most influential House in Rhostaz, but he’s also a genius!”

The students weren’t even attempting to whisper and were in an uproar. Well it wasn’t too surprising given the fact that he was a dual elementalist and from one of the most influential House in the West. Word about him had spread even before he arrived as the Aiur House had boasted about him to the whole continent.

The teacher attempted to regain control of the classroom in vain for a while. The students eventually calm down with much effort. Sighing in relief, he begins to introduce himself.

“Well then students. My name is Sevan Qinzed. I’ll be your teacher for this semester. For this class we..”

As the teacher was introducing himself, a buzzing sound floats through the room. Looking at something on his wrist, the teacher sighs with a dejected look.

“Haa…. Well it looks that will be all for class today. For class next week, make sure to read up to chapter three as we will be having a test about it!”

Hearing the teacher speak already about a test, the students in the class complained in disapproval. Maybe it was because he was irritated that he didn’t have time to teach anything but it seemed as though a grin was working its way up to his face while he was leaving. Azrael, seeing that, shakes his head a couple of times, trying to fool himself that it was only a trick of the lighting.

After he had finished putting up all his stuff, Azrael started to walk toward the back. Winston, seeing this, also follows. Already guessing what his roommate was going to do, he smiles as he sees Azrael approach Zer Aiur.

Noticing people approach him, Zer raises his head from packing his books to see Azrael and Winston. Curious as to what they wanted, he waits for them to speak. Seeing that they had his attention, Azrael starts off.

“Zer, I would like to thank you for the help earlier”

“Oh, about that? No need, everyone was being an idiot”

“That may be so, but it’s rare to see people stand up to against them you know?”

“Pfft, like those fools could scare me”

Zer snorted in disdain when Azrael mentioned that he stood up again them.

“I’ve always hated nobles who felt they were better than commoners just because of their rank. Some of the most brilliant people in the Rhostaz Kingdom came from commoner background. What you are born into doesn’t determine one’s strength or talent”

Hearing Zer say this sincerely impressed Azrael. Even though his family was basically the second most influential in the Rhostaz Kingdom and considered a genius, he still didn’t look down on others with a lower rank. Even though he had seen some nobles like that in his previous life, for a child to have such resolve about that idea gave him a much better impression of Zer.

“Hey Zer. I wanted to thank you for helping my friend out. Hey why don’t you come eat dinner with us? It’s almost time for dinner anyways”

Winston, it seems, was also impressed with Zer. His family had started off as commoners until his grandfather did very well for himself and made a lot of money, vaulting his family into nobility. Thus, Winston’s family thought more highly of commoners than most nobles. For Zer to have the same opinion while being born into an ancient noble family was rarer to see.

“Sure, why not I was planning to go eat anyways”

Agreeing to go eat together, Zer finishes packing his bag and the three head out of the classroom to the cafeteria.

“So how is the West like Zer? I’ve never been out of the Nifl Kingdom…”

“It’s alright I guess. We have a lot of open space for the farmers to grow their crops. The weather is mild so it never gets too cold there which I love. There’s a lot of rivers too, used to go swimming all the time”

“You’re so lucky… it was so hot in the Sunder Kingdom and there was almost rivers or lakes there... Haa… Anyways I heard you have two elementals man. What elements are they?”

“Earth and Steel. How about you two?”

“I’m also earth”

“Umm…well about that… you see”

Azrael hesitated over whether to tell Zer about his elementals. If people found out about it and spread the news, it would become a headache. Unless no other method was possible, he planned to not mention it.

But he had helped him. Azrael felt like Zer would become great friends with him and Winston. He didn’t want to lie to his friends.

After looking around to make sure no one was near enough to listen, Azrael leaned in and told Zer in a very quiet voice. Hearing that he was tri elementalist, Zer’s eyes opened in shock. His first impression was to just think that it was a joke but Azrael didn’t seem like the type who would lie about something like this to him. While trying to determine if he was telling the truth, he turned to look at Winston who just laughed at seeing Zer’s face.

“hahaha don’t worry man. I had the same face and doubted it too until Azrael showed me”

“Hm… It really is hard to believe… In all the history of Xiosu there’s only been two who had been confirmed…”

“Well I guess it’d be understandable that you’re skeptic. After we eat I’ll show you both again”

“… I usually practice swordsmanship at night”

At hearing that Zer practiced swordsmanship at night, both Azrael and Winston’s were surprised. What a coincidence that like Azrael, Zer also practiced swordsmanship.

Even though it wasn’t that rare to see mages wield weapons, the majority of mages didn’t take up the sword until they had reached a bottleneck at the emperor rank. Until then, most mages just focused purely on training their magic.

“What a coincidence! Azrael had agreed to teach me swordsmanship starting tonight too! How about this? After we eat and Azrael shows you, let’s all three train? You guys can teach me while you two practice together?”

Hearing Winston’s words, neither Azrael nor Zer couldn’t find anything to disagree with. In fact, both of them were quite curious to see the other’s skills. With both Azrael and Zer nodding their heads in agreement, Winston becomes excited as he had always wanted to learn swordsmanship.

With Winston pushing them from the back, the group of three new friends laugh while quickly going forward to eat and then train tonight.