Rulend was very relieved to find out that Serena successfully outrun everyone in the race. One thing I know about Rulend was that whenever anything he planned suddenly ended up at a wrong turn, he will always flips out. Given his descriptive mannerism, it was an unnatural behaviour for him.

Blax was also relieved as he lets out a relieved sigh, “Glad she did her job. I figured we might have been at least getting some points from the match but we ended up being 1st on the first match.”

Then I told to him, “Serena has always been a problem to us. But she’ll always does her best when you believe in her. Just like how White believed her. Kind of remind me of us, don’t you think?”

“Let’s not get too comfy now, Kin. There’s still a number of matches left before the end of the group stage. Anything can happen between those matches.” reminded Blax.

“We just have to believe in each of us, then.”

“True. There’s a reason I like you. You’re positive energy really shines on you.”

I was starting to get warmer to Blax but then Rulend snaps back to reality and interrupted us, “Okay, now is not the time to celebrate you two lovebirds. We have other things to settle right now. Let’s go.”

Well at the end of the day, Stardust was on first place. As we made our way back to our meeting room, we saw Team Purity’s Sonozaki Wakana who was already done with their race. Looking at the playback, he finishes the race quite fast especially when he just used his Light Manipulation ability. I’d imagine that he might be breaking new record just for that.

I remember the last school record was broken when Blax successfully destroyed a diamond wall specially made for a Test Your Might competition the school had few years ago. Of course, given that Blax had his Super Strength ability. But he will still be on number one even without using it. He’s that mighty. The only problem he had was that he can sometimes be doubtful of the things he done. I don’t know what’s going on but usually a black aura will always appear when it happen.

Having said all that, the following match will be a puzzle match meaning that there’s only one person who will be participating it and that would be Rulend himself.

“Well this is given…” pouted Hosuke.

Rulend noticed him and said, “Is something the matter? Wanna switch then?”

“Not really. I just haven’t given the opportunity to show my new power.”

“A new power?” Rider was interested.

“It’s still a part of my water magic but in actuality, I finally found my real ability. Water Manipulating was just a part of it.”

“Of course.” Kaym sarcastically replied, “Someone who ate a crystal will definitely be different than all of us.”

“Is there something wrong with that, Kaym?” Hosuke was riled up by Kaym's sarcastic remarks.

“Well there is. It’s called not fair.”

“You want fair? Let’s do this outside at the field!”

Nif tried to interrupt, “Can’t you guys not fight?”

But they ignored her calling and continued to quarrel against each other. I sighed and went towards them. Using just both of my hands I pulled their ears and stopped the two idiots from fighting.

“Grow up, you two! You should be ashamed of yourself, Hosuke.”

Kaym laughed, “Serves you right.”

“You as well, Kaym! Stop trying to pick on something so trivial like this.”

Blax applauded, “That’s my girl.”

I calmed down and let go of my hand and said, “Look, if you guys really want to settle this matter then I suggest you settle it peacefully.”

“Like what?” said Hosuke and Kaym coincidentally together.

We then skip a little bit of time to find ourselves hanging around one of the food stalls together eating some spicy noodles.

“Another one!” said Hosuke as he finished sipping a bowl of spicy noodles.

“Me too!” after that it was Kaym who was finished.

I suggested to them that they should settle their difference by having a food contest and see who eats the most. The funny thing was that they haven’t realized that their were using their own money. I wonder how they would last.

“Sometimes you can be brilliant. Sometimes you can be wicked.” commented Blax.

Rider pointed out, “Really reminds me of Rulend, to be honest.”

“Yeah.” nodded Nif.

“Where is he again?” asked Rider.

Blax replied, “I told you already, he’s still finishing the puzzle match. We don’t need to disturb him. He needs concentration. We can only just look from the television that the stall provided for us.”

Then I added, “And hope for the best.”

We continued to eat our food until Serena approached to us.

“What do you want Serena?” asked Blax.

She then said, “Nothing really, I was just looking around the place and I can’t help but notice that everyone seemed to be enjoying this whole thing. It’s like yesterday feels like months ago and people moved on or something.”

“That’s a scary assumption, indeed.” I agreed to her. “Even we ended up enjoying the Magic Duel just as it is.”

“But still.” Blax hammers down his fist to the table, “This is definitely Escher’s plan. They want to distract us so that we won’t realize the summoning of the Chaos Beast. Little did he know, Stardust is on the case. Anything new, Nif?”

Nif shakes her head, “No. Escher’s men haven’t step outside of the school compound.”

“That’s good. We don’t have to rush ourselves to get to the top fast. In the meantime, we can study our opponents for The Magic Duel.”

“One more please!” Kaym called for another meal.

Blax sighed, “And as for those two…I’ll think of something. Rider, come on.”

Blax and Rider finished their meal and walked around the stalls leaving me together with Nif and Serena.

“So, where have you been Serena?”

Serena simply replied, “I’ve been busy.”

“Busy? How busy?”

“It’s non of your concern. Trust me.”

I was getting curious and tried to press for answers from her, “Just tell me. It’s not like it’s the end of the world or something.”

Serena then said, “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure.”

Serena then turned to Nif and asked, “What about you, Nif? Wanna hear it too?”

Nif was unsure, “I…uh…don’t know. But I don’t mind, really…”

“Well then, go on Serena.” I asked her to start telling her story.

Serena took a deep breath and begins he story, “So, I was walking around the stalls looking for some food and then I saw something. It was a prize for a mini game but my goodness…It was amazing.”

“What is the prize?”

“Its a new model H3H3 Rhythm by Dray.”

“What is that?” wondered Nif.

“Serena answered, “It’s the latest headphone design made by the one and only Dray!”

“Oh I see.” I was kind of disappointed, “So you’ve been busy trying to get the headphones.”

“Well I was until I saw our Head Prefects, Faith.”

“What’s the Head Prefects had to do with this?”

Serena continued, “Well, she just stole my prize. Just. Like. That.”

“And then what happen?” Nif was curious.

“Well I uh…Kind of…took advantage of the moment?”

Somethings not right. I pressed for answers, “What did you do, Serena?” I made a very serious face.

It was too intimidating for Serena that she struggled trying to hold on to herself.

“Alright. Alright. I tell you. You see, I was pissed at how she just won the one and only prize that I wanted. So I kind of hatched an idea and went on with it.”

“What did you exactly do, Serena?” I raised one of my eyebrows.

Serena nervously laughed, “I used a hypnotic song on our Head Prefects.”

“Are you serious?”

“...yeah…aren’t I smart?” she continues to nervously laugh.

“We’re going to have a long talk, Serena. But first, we have to see Faith.”

“Wait. No. But my headphone.”

I grabbed the stolen headphone away from her and dragged her away from the stalls.

“Bye, bye, Serena.” Nif waved to us.

“Wait! I haven’t even eaten yet! My meal is going to get cold!”

“Don’t worry about that, Hosuke and Kaym will finish it for you.”

“No!”

And so I dragged Serena towards Faith and settled everything with her. Thankfully, she wasn’t mad about it and forgiven Serena’s mistake. She was nice enough to even invite us for a cup of tea. We declined it however because I just had to talk with Serena concerning something important. I went on and on towards Serena until she was probably getting tired of me nagging to her.

“Are we done yet?” asked Serena.

“No. Besides, it’s not like you have anything else to do today, right?”

“That’s just the thing…I…uh…have to stop my hypnotism song on all the stall that I went to…”

“Serena…” I crossed my arms in anger.

“Yes?”

“Today, I will you teach something. Do you ever wondered what is the meaning of insanity?”

And let’s just finish that part just like that. We don’t need to know what happened. What’s important was that Rulend won 1st place and we are still in the lead. That's all matter.

TO BE CONTINUED