Brennan: “Savannah was there? Boy, it’s a good thing Oliviera wasn’t allowed to come. Hehe.”

Noel: “Why couldn’t she come?”

Li Shun: “Because she has ‘chore duty’ today. Hehehe. Her and Leos both have to take care of the classroom.”

Noel: “Oh. Okay then.”

{I dunno what this ‘chore duty’ stuff is, but I know about classrooms. We had those back at home. You sit around in chairs while attending class, waiting for your turn to spar or show how much you’ve improved. But brother taught me that these normal Herotopians do something different. Hmm.}

Alyandrea: “...Noel… are you sure you weren’t the one harassing them first?”

Noel: “I was not! It was all in self defense! I swear! Oh – I also called that Valkyrie girl a ‘little birdie’ and told her to ‘shoo fly’ or something like that. Oh and-”

Ian: “...N-Noel… buddy… friend… heheh. That isn’t ‘teaching them a lesson…

Th-That’s BELITTLING them! That’s no different than picking a fight!”

Rise: “Mr. Abrams, I’ll try to give you an exact rundown with all of the ACTUAL details involve-”

Noel: “No, I’ll do it. You’re not needed!”

Rise: “...You little-”

Alyandrea: “Oh jeez, have you guys been fighting ever since the invasion? That’s crazy.”

Li Shun: “Like Oil and Water.”

Mr. Abrams spent a few minutes listening to an exact rundown of their encounter with those ‘visitors’ Noel even begrudgingly told Mr. Abrams that Xano visited, after Rise brought it up. Of course, he didn’t mention anything about the supposed alliance their families formed. Just that the guy got embarrassed by him 2 years ago and stopped by to gloat. Nonetheless, Mr. Abrams was still surprised. That’s the brat Borg is watching! Does that mean the cocky punk Borg is here too?

He’ll investigate later.

Finally, after the last ‘King’ Momo’s visitation was described in full detail, Noel was about to finish his report. When suddenly, the boy seemed to recall one specific piece of news.

Noel: ...Oh! That’s right! We did actually have one more visitor – one last one! Big-Mouthed Queen showed up.”

Rhys: “? (Was there a queen candidate like that?)”

Mr. Abrams: “Hmm? Noel, what did this student look like? Or better yet, did she tell you her name?”

Noel: “Mhm. She said her name was Nilia.”

Alyandrea: “…”

Ian: “...Is-Isn’t that…”

Li Shun: “…(Nilia… why does that name sound so familiar?)”

Brennan: “…”

Elijah: “!! Nilia? Wait… Big-mouthed Queen?”

Rhys: “PFFFFFTTT! AH-Ahahahahaha! Big - Mouthed Queen?! Ahahaha~ I can’t believe you called her that! I‘m gonna try using that from now on too!”

Elijah: “Wait, hold on! You didn’t… call her that to her face, did you?”

Noel: “Of course I did. In fact, that was the first thing I said when she came barging in. ‘Ah – it’s the Big – Mouthed Queen!’ Something like that.”

Mr. Abrams: “Nilia… granddaughter of the new Balanced Lands Leader. Hmm. What business did she, AND Xano, son of the Chaotic Alliance’s Leader, have for coming here?”

Rhys: “Ahahaha! And then? What… what did she say next?”

Noel: “Umm. Well, she got mad at me, and said something about how dangerous it was for us in this school. Then Rise called her a Scaredy Queen and made her cry.”

Mr. Abrams: “…”

Rhys: “Aha---

…”

Rise: “No way in HELL is it my fault! YOU were the one telling her so confidently how it was her duty to protect us, and even made it sound like her worrying over the both of us was her own cowardice! Grrrr!”

Noel: “That was YOU!! YOU were the one saying she *Impersonates Rise’s voice* ’Smelled like fear’ before she left! It’s all YOUR fault that she cried!”

Alyandrea: “The ‘Rage Queen’ herself … cried because you both made fun of her? Why do I have a hard time believing this story…”

Li Shun: “I know...right? It seems so… unrealistic. How can that unbeatable woman cry over a little teasing by a twelve year old… Oh! No offense Noel.”

Noel: “...”

{Offense taken!! Offense taken!!}

Noel: “It’s fine.”

Ian: “...It’s...not unreasonable if she’s under butt-loads of pressure. Hey, Noel, what did she say?

Noel: “That they were tears of anger.”

Ian: “…”

Rhys: “AHAHAHAHAHA! Hahaha~ Ahh, that’s rich. So she got so mad she started getting all teary-eyed, huh~? I have to remember this for next time! Hahaha!”

Elijah: “So she was angry, but because you’re both currently non-combatants, she had no way of venting her anger at you...and the result…”

Rise: “Oh yeah, she also threatened us.”

Elijah: “!!”

Rise: “Well it was more like a warnin-”

Noel: “Rise, it was clearly a warning and NOT a threat.”

Rise: “I was JUST about to say th-”

Elijah: “What did. What did she say?”

Noel: “She said that we better not regret our decision to stay at this school when more shit hits the fan.”

Alyandrea: “Oh, pfff… is that all? That was probably her venting steam. Y’know, her ‘Rage’ Queen status, or whatever the fuc-- er, or whatever the heck it’s called..”

Elijah: “…I…… agree. There’s no need to worry. Probably…”

Mr. Abrams: “Hm...(She used the word ‘When’ instead of ‘if’… does this little lady know something?)”

Discreetly, Noel slipped Mr. Abrams a note. Naturally, that ‘list’ wasn’t the only thing he spent his time writing down. Also, this was quite the surprise for his homeroom teacher as well. It was thrown with such speed of the wrist, that even Nathan Ericson’s ‘1st place’ speed appeared sluggish. Normally, the Malierano’s favored the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ type of physiques. It appeared this kid before him was clearly one of the few that broke the norm and focused most of their attention on a specific trait, instead. At least, he knew right now that his son Rhys could not handle that speed quite yet, if it came from a villain that ruthlessly harbored the intent to kill.

And normally, he would’ve thought this punk was far more distrusting. Who would’ve known that his brother had paid a secret visit to Noel when no one was around and disclosed everything that Mr. Abrams did that night, all alone? Although Noel didn’t have a clue about Mr. Abrams’s true identity, he at least, considered this teacher in a brand, new light.

He thought the popular role model was pretty cool. In conclusion to this thought, he decided to share with his teacher about the abnormalities in both Savannah and Nilia’s personalities during their visitations, how both Savannah and Harvey held not just animosity, but a hint of rage-blinded killing intent, and that all three of them were all mentally unstable during their individual conflicts against him and Rise. Not only that, but that Rise noticed somebody was plotting something during one of the upcoming ‘King’ matches – more specifically, one of the matches involving the Pharaoh kid that stood up to Harvey. Faced with this bit of intel, he gazed slightly at Noel, only to find Rise staring at the paper he was currently holding while Noel happily chatted away with the others.

Occasionally, Rhys would gaze over, before turning his head back to the crowd. He wasn’t interested in what his father was reading, and he knew his father could very effortlessly pop a paper into his hand without help, but the face his father made… he wasn’t easily fooled anymore! His father was about to do something – and he knew it would cause him trouble. There was a chance that his father would drag him into something soon, because whenever his father made that face, the guy would somehow drag Rhys into hard, sleepless work! Such torture – He wanted no part of it! Because of this, he decided to pretend he was happily conversing with Elijah and the others.

And as they talked for a bit, the conversation was brought back to the forest.

Elijah: “Speaking of, How DID you distract him for so long, Noel? You just said the two of you split the mercenaries up, after that beam of light revived the first killer and held out until Mr. Abrams showed up… but how in the world did you hold out for so long? Rise...he clearly was hi-- ahem, not showing off his powers before. So even though it was surprising, he can be counted in the same situation as Ophelia. But you...didn’t you say you handled the strongest of them? That sounds…”

Ian: “Impossible.”

Alyandrea: “Unbelievable”

Li Shun: “Forget believing you, it sounds more reasonable to think that you hit your head somewhere along the way. (So Rise is what they would call; a ‘hidden expert’? A ‘Hidden Dragon’, or a ‘Crouching Tiger’?)”

Brennan: “I think it’s easy for him to get someone’s attention. He may be weaker, but isn’t that why they would want to take care of him first? After all, they wanted to kill us, remember what that gunning witch lady said?”

Ian: “She wanted our heads. But she got angry and tried blowing us up instead.”

Li Shun: “...I suppose… (She DID blow us up, Ian. We just came back to life…!)”

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