Classes resumed after the break, and Riven and the rest had their Combat class with Quin, which he decided to hold in the training compound. And the reason for that? It was because the other classes were merging for that class, so over a hundred students had come for the class—all battle mages from all the classes.
Class A watched as the other students came into the training ground, and it was safe to say the air was not smooth. The academy had made sure they established the hierarchy, and it was now integrated into their minds.
"Sir Quin, I know they informed us of the merging of classes, but isn’t this a bit too soon?" Robert asked Quin.
Quin, who had been standing there saying nothing, heard the question and responded, "Well, that’s true. You all should be in your normal classes as of now.
But a lot changed during the last week. After word got to the Royal House of what had happened in the academy, it became very clear that our enemies are no longer outside, but now inside.
Normally, you are all supposed to focus on learning more theory this semester, but that has changed. The Royal Family has enforced a new curriculum across all schools, and it has made combat a priority.
More things have been changed as well, but you’ll all get to know them in due time. But for today, you all will be set in a duel. This is to show the strength of all the classes’ battle mages.
The academy knows that some of you have your issues with the classes that you have been put in. And so today, all of you will get to see why where you are is the right class.
Now normally, Class A was restricted from using mana in a fight, but for the sake of this, I’m allowing them to use it as they will—just to show.
And with that out of the way, we will start with random selection," Quin said. He let out a cheeky smile, and right off the bat, he pointed at Riven. What better way to drive home the fact that Class A was stronger than to throw in the rank one?
He then looked around the other classes and picked one random boy. "You’ll be the first to battle him. The rules of the fight are: the loser walks away and the winner keeps fighting until he can’t anymore," Quin explained.
The boy looked as though he had seen a ghost when he saw Riven walk to the center of the training ground. Everyone cleared out to the side and waited for the boy to come up.
The boy was slightly bigger than Riven. He had black hair and eyes. He walked to the center of the training ground, his footsteps were heavy, as if he didn’t want to be here—and he didn’t. Right now, he would be anywhere but here, fighting the rank one, but he had to represent his class.
"I’m Roger, rank 62, 12 of Class B," he said.
"Riven, Rank One," Riven responded without much care. It was not that he didn’t care about what was going on, it was simply that he didn’t see three people, and it had been on his mind since.
The transfer students—those three—they weren’t here, and from what he knew from the story, whenever they weren’t around, they were with Sally making a plan.
But it shouldn’t have started already. They should have waited at least a week to settle into the academy and slowly gain trust before they started. But they seemed to be in some sort of rush now.
’The story is slowly spiraling out of control. What do I do? If I allow this to continue, this world will get destroyed.
Before, this world was just a story to me. It wasn’t really connected to me, but now, it’s my home, it’s my world, and there are people here I don’t want to lose.
I have the information needed to help this world, but if I tell anyone, the issues that will come might be beyond what I can control. I can’t tell anyone.
But even as I tell no one, it’s still getting out of hand. What do I do? How do I set everything back to the way it was supposed to be?’ Riven thought, worrying about the state of this world.
Quin took out two training steel swords with blunt edges and threw them to both of them. They caught their swords and got into their stances. As Riven got into his stance, he realized something—
Something he had forgotten over the course of his stay here. He recalled it as he took control of the sword.
’The sword in my hand is mine to control. My mastery over it allows me to make the best decision whenever I slash or stab—and that’s because I hold it by the handle.
If this world wants to spiral out of control, I have to be the one that holds the handle. I’ll be the one that forces it back into the right path. Not just because of my family or for the betterment of this world. No—that was never my initial reason for all this.
My real reason had always been to show Frozen Fish I can run his world better than he wrote it. I came here to show him what a real MC looks like.’
Riven finally recalled the reason he was really doing this—mostly out of spite for Frozen Fish. Recalling this reignited the spark in him. He was going to do all it took to make sure that he didn’t allow this world to fall—so that he could show Frozen Fish he was better.
As Riven thought about all this, Roger launched at Riven, his sword at his side, ready for a slash. Riven’s eye lit up with a new light. He stared at the boy with a sinister smile.
"I’m taking full control," he suddenly said and attacked.