The previously and always empty mountain was full of people today. It even made the desolated place look like a village of sorts. The one in the middle of all the attention was of course, the new Ruler, Raven.

“Did this school have so many students? “asked Raven as he looked at the crowd and back at Stein a few times.

“No, there are some scouts here.” answered Stein.

“In case the Ruler is strong?” asked Raven with a bored tone.

“You’ll see.” answered Stein with a weird smile.

‘I wonder what this guy is thinking.” thought Raven as someone patted him on the back.

“Yo.” said Robert with a gleeful grin. “Today’ll be interesting.” He was dressed in casual clothes, much like the other students. He had a green short-sleeved shirt and blue shorts.

“The hell?! Even you?” shouted Raven in surprise.

An unknown voice echoed through the mountain as a girl shouted loudly “Raven Cangard, I challenge you for the seat of Ruler!!!”

Looking at the owner of the voice, it was a petite girl with red twin tails and scarlet eyes. She was wearing a red one-piece dress.

“Here it comes.” mumbled Stein behind Raven’s back. “Today, anyone who challenges a Ruler and results in a loss will not be punished. Furthermore, a Ruler may not refuse.”

Raven then facepalmed. ‘This is what this stinky geezer was thinking.’

“This works too.” he said with an evil smirk and gave his answer “I accept your challenge.”

[Blood Pact]

Red lines started appearing all over her body in a mysterious looking manner and they shone a brilliant red. Raven could feel the girl’s magic power plummet upwards.

[Blood Lances]

Dozens of sharp objects made of blood materialized all around Raven and launched at him with unbelievable speed. One would have been impaled with it, but that wasn’t the case for Raven.

He activated both [Steel Claws] and [Dragonic Scales], becoming impregnable. That wasn’t all, he clawed and bit the hardened blood lances as if they were flesh.

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

The lances all fell to the ground, turning into puddles of blood. He sinisterly licked his bloody lips and asked the girl “Still want to fight?”

“Of course!!!” she shouted and the red lines brightened.

[Soul Suppression]

Raven used the skill he learned from Crow and days’ worth of torture. It would allow one to, as implied by the name, suppress his opponent’s spirit and overwhelm them.

He had a smile on, on the other hand, the girl felt like she was being pushed to the ground by an unseen force. It wouldn’t be strange if her opponent was using gravity magic, which in truth, he wasn’t.

She then channeled more energy into [Blood Pact], her empowerment skill and tried to resist the force. To her surprise, instead of fighting back, her body succumbed to the external power and fell to the ground.

“I give up!!!” shouted the girl. The pressure became even more and she couldn’t move a muscle now. Fear hit her and she started screaming hysterically.

Stein then interfered “Okay, Adelaide has lost the match. If you WOULD, Raven.” He put an epitasis on the ‘would’.

As if snapping out of a trance, Raven said “Oh, I forgot.” and released the pressure on the poor girl. She quickly ran away.

The crowd’s eye was on him and he felt like he was suffocating. Raven in his past life, or Marcus for short, was quite the introvert in his past life. He regretted being such a gloomy kid before and decided to make sure that he would become a social person in this life.

But, the anxiousness didn’t disappear and he found himself in a situation that he was never in before. He could manage looking like some rare specimen, but this was different. Their eyes felt like flowers and daggers, some admiring, some lurking and some even hateful.

…

1st Person POV (My first try, so tell me if I’m doing it wrong.)

Lao San (Qu Xin’s first brother, the one with the blue hair, if you don’t remember him)

I looked at the crowd before me and could only smile in disbelief. This is the second time I saw this many people on the nearly abandoned mountain. The last one was during the coronation of Vivian. She was too cruel for the tastes of some and had attracted some dangerous people.

If I really wanted to take the throne, Vivian wouldn’t have been able to protect it. However, none of the stronger students wanted to risk permanent injuries. This of course, included me.

A boy with orange hair approached me, who was dressed in awkward clothes. I knew this person all too well, even if I didn’t want to. The person in front of me was, of course, The Kind King Robert.

He was followed by a girl with snowy white hair, who of course, was The Ice Queen Laura. They were really close even though their personalities were different, at least from the outside. I knew that Laura would drop the cold act in private places which I found out accidentally.

“Hey San, long time no see.” said Robert with a smile.

“Yeah, had the honor of not meeting you since last year.” I answered with a sigh.

“Geez, you ought to stop that. You won’t make friends like that.” said Robert pouting. Honestly, he was like a younger sibling.

“At least be more composed. I think the Ruler is in your house, what is he like?” I asked with a serious tone.

Of course, Raven knew better than anger me in my serious mode. His eyes sharpened and he had a mature air around him now “The best description would be a Freak.”

“So, he’s just like you?” I asked with a surprised face.

“Nope, he’s freakier than me.” answered Robert as the mature air disappeared.

“Oh, I got a big scoop this time around.” said I as I walked towards the Ruler’s plateau.

Raven was standing there with the principal and Litmus. I easily walked through the crowd with an unbelievable speed and patted him on the shoulder.

“You should seriously stop that, Robe-“ he said while turning back and stopped his sentence midway after seeing me “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m called Lao San, if you’re interested, you can join the Disciplinary Committee.” I said as politely as possible.

“No way, I don’t want to become some goody two shoes. I’d rather join the mafia in the academy.” he answered, trampling on my expectations. Well, that’s to be expected, he’s that idiot’s junior after all.

“Then how about joining the Committee if you lose a match against me?” asked San.

The black-scaled dragonman looked back at the principal, who nodded and back at the smiling San. He should probably thinking something along these lines: ‘I’m so gonna get even.’