[James's Pov]
Leaving sub-me at home, spending the day alternating between meditating and punishing the poor dummy in my practice room, my feet were carrying me over the academy grounds. Today, something was clearly different. The other students all looked at me with a range of different expressions, everyone seemingly having some kind of opinion on me after the tournament.
"Hey, James!"
The huge girl had arrived. Now jogging to get to me after she noticed my presence, giving me a lot of eye candy on her way as her curves couldn't quite keep up with the movement.
Looking up at her, it was hard to imagine that this innocent-looking girl, albeit large, had crushed someone's heart yesterday.
"Can I help you with anything?"
Her forehead creased as she spoke about yesterday, "So you are just going to pretend like nothing happened yesterday? First, you suddenly just skipped the tournament after playing around with Arthur for some reason I don't even want to know. Then you..."
My mind zoned out as she kept blabbering on and on about the events that had unraveled yesterday, so I just kept walking as she spoke.
Though I could hear her tone getting harsher, my mind just wouldn't allow me to focus on what she was vocalizing.
"Are you listening to me?!"
She had grabbed my shoulder in an unrelenting iron grip, making sure I wouldn't be able to move before I had gotten the sermon I deserved.
However, my mind was too tired, too exhausted after having spent most of the night thinking about anything and everything.
Turning my eyes up from the ground, I gave the woman a forced smile, "Please let go of me, Sophie. Honestly, I don't have the energy for this right now. You can beat me up later if you want, but for now, just let me get to class."
The anger in her face quickly started to disappear as the amazon became speechless, unable to comprehend what was happening.
So, she released me. "Thank you. See you in class."
==========
"As you have seen on your smartwatches, and as you can see around you, there have been a lot of changes after the weekend. Everyone, please make sure to welcome the newcomers to the class consisting of James, Sebastian, Suzan, and Adriana. They will be taking the places of Bellatrix, John, Sarah, and Peter."
After all was said and done, half of the class had been switched out, something that had seldom happened in the history of the academy.
The reason? All of the students were in many ways pretty even if one considered their stats, thus the first distribution had pretty much been randomized. Thus, the ranking event ended up shaking things up a lot.
However, this was a fact that was still unbeknownst to all of us. In my mind, the A- and the B-classes were now fairly representative of the strong and the weak. With me as a bit of an outlier.
What Mr. Laufeyson said had been stuck in my mind all night, and in the end, I was forced to look at myself more objectively. If I were to look at someone else's status right now, it would probably be obvious that I wasn't 'weaker' than them.
Though I had come to accept that I probably wasn't weak, I still didn't think I was strong. If I were to duel the monster that is Sophie, Arthur, or Sebastian, I would most likely never come out on top.
However, if I were to go up against Sarah, Bellatrix, or Peter, I would have incredibly good odds of winning.
I still didn't want to fight anyone though, but his words had somewhat woken me up from the 'unsightly' state I had put myself in. Therefore, I had already made the decision to go for a bit of a trip on the weekend to come, a trip that hopefully would help me shed some of that old skin of mine.
'He is so loud...'
Having been used to the sweet voice and appearance of Ms. Turner, I couldn't say I was happy about getting Mr. Brown as my homeroom teacher instead.
Though he appeared to be quite an easy person to deal with, based on his warm demeanor, I still felt like it would be better to at least get to distract myself from reality by watching Ms. Turner.
'Oh, are we done?'
At some point, he had stopped talking about whatever he had talked about and walked out of the room. As a result, all my classmates started getting up from their seats in order to get ready for the first real class of the day.
Just as I was about to follow suit, one individual decided not to walk out and instead come to the desk I was seated at.
"Hey, James! Nice job in the survival event! Though I guess it's inevitable that a commoner wouldn't dare to fight in the duels tournament, I'm still impressed!"
Mike had approached me, loudly praising me while at the same time insulting me, making my already weary head even sorer.
It didn't take a genius to conclude that he wanted to make use of me in some way, most likely maybe wanting to recruit me to his guild because of the utility my element could bring.
'Oh, hello Sir Denver! Thank you! But I'm unworthy of your praise!'
"Haaa... What a fucking drag to have to endure this idiot again..."
...
'Wait...'
Noticing how the fake smile of Mike slowly twisted into an intense scowl, I realized my mistake. An honest mistake to be fair, it was hard to control two bodies when my head wasn't in the right place.
"What did you say to me, commoner...!"
It was frustrating, having just lost one of the persons I felt like I had a pretty good grasp of. It was as if I played a gacha game and I accidentally killed off one of my heroines.
Knowing there was no coming back from here, I just brought out a bright smile, "Haha! Calm down there, no need to be so angry! Now, what about you just let me get to class and we will pretend like this never happened? Hm? Sounds good?"
At this point, I was legitimately afraid that he might suffer from an aneurysm. 'Wait, is that even a thing in this world?'
"You want me to forget about this?! How about you get on your knees and apologize, you filthy commoner!"
Suddenly, a very familiar move was used on the unsuspecting mind as a hand was placed on his shoulder, throwing him off his plans of showing me my place.
"Mike, get over yourself. James, come one, let's go."
Sophie had for some reason stayed behind when the others were leaving and after hearing Mike yelling, she had gone back into the classroom just to see the situation.
As I walked passed Mike, who was growling in frustration, I made sure to give him another big smile, before Sarah let him go and followed me out of the classroom.
Hurrying to my side, walking beside me in the corridor, she couldn't stay quiet, "James, what the fuck are you doing?! Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?!"
Turning to her with the same smile I had shown Mike, my patience had also reached its limit, "Sophie, I do appreciate you helping me, even though I was fine. But please, leave me alone. If there is something you want to talk about, you can come over to my apartment after class."
Having spent the last of my energy reserves, my feet started to drag me to my destination.
"Where are you going, James?"
"I'm going to sleep."
****
[Sophie's Pov]
"Stop. Let's take a break. Sit down, Red."
"Arg! Fine!"
Taking a seat in the middle of the arena, I couldn't argue with my instructor about stopping our sparring. And for a good reason.
"Now, I know there is something you are thinking about, but it's completely disrupting your flow. Because your mind is preoccupied your body is slow and mechanical. Take the rest of the lesson and get process whatever you are thinking about. I expect you to be ready to fight after lunch."
Letting my arms hold my body up, I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, my thoughts still turbulent and confused. Not only was it not enough for James to constantly make me angry, but now, he had forced me to get worried about him as well.
It was stupid, idiotic even, as I barely knew the man. There wasn't much of a difference in the duration I had known him and my other classmates, yet the fact that we originated from the same world was somehow enough for me to feel some kind of connection to him.
"Haaa... Is it really just that you are tired?"
*Thud*
I let go of the power in my arms, making my body fall to the ground as I continued to ponder just what could have made the silly joker act like he had done this morning.
****
[James's Pov]
Large clouds of mist were dancing over a flowery field of green, telling me through their movement to follow them. Without me having to decide whether to do so or not, I floated behind them as we quickly passed eons of evolution, ending up at the time when humans were walking the lands.
It didn't take long until skyscrapers had been built and cars dominated the roads, slowly but surely clenching the world that had birthed them. Finally, we had reached our destination as the mist led me into a familiar house, a house I had seen so many times during my time on earth.
Flying in through the window, my vision was filled with the memory I never wanted to think of again. Luckily, my hero had come to save me once again.
==========
*Knock! Knock! Knock!*
"AAAH!"
I finally woke up, tears in my eyes and my body trembling with weakness, all thanks to the sound of a loud knock on my door.
Trying my best to repress the emotions that were erupting inside of me, I got out of my bed and went to answer the door, knowing full well how taxing the upcoming encounter would be. Even if I couldn't say that I slept well, I did at least sleep, meaning my mind felt at least a bit fresher than before.
*Click*
"Welcome in. Tea?"
Trying my best to uphold a friendly façade, as even though I had told her it would be fine, I worked hard to avoid getting beat up by the big woman. Of course, she hadn't hurt me to the point where I would actually get injured when we played hide and seek, but it had still been quite painful.
So before she even got the chance to make a move, I had already made my way to make some tea. After all, no one could attack a person that was making tea, that would be preposterous. Noticing what I was doing, my visitor just sighed and made herself comfortable at my tiny table.
It was pretty funny, me standing and staring at the electrical kettle as the pink-haired amazon was staring at me. Sadly, it didn't take too long until it was done, forcing me to accept that I had to confront my fears as I handed Sophie a cup.
Then, the most frightening thing I had ever seen happened. *Gulp!* The girl just took a huge mouthful of the scalding hot tea as soon as handed I her the drink, and swallowed it.
"Thank you. It smells pretty great, what kind of tea is it?"
"...what?"
She didn't scream, no, her face didn't react at all as she poured the almost boiling liquid down her throat like it was a glass of water. With my words as the trigger though, she just realized what a monstrous feat she had done.
"Oh shit! What the fuck?! Did I just drink that?!"
"That seems to be the case, ma'am."
It appeared that Sophie was just as shocked as I was, her eyes opening wide at the sudden realization. After spending a few seconds being astonished, the girl calmed down, her cheeks red with shame.
"Please don't tease me about this..."
"Pfft! Ha...hahaha!"
This was all too chaotic for me to control myself. Sophie had somehow managed to put me on a ridiculous rollercoaster of emotions that my tired brain just couldn't handle. "Shut up! You... you... you... stupid goblin!"
"Aahaa... hehe.. hi..."
Somehow, I managed to reel myself in, slowly closing the gate of laughter that was my mouth. Finally, I could feel my mind gaining some kind of relief, the dark thoughts ending their stay in my brain and moving on. On the other hand, Sophie was just giving me a death stare as she pouted.
Feeling a bit guilty that the woman who had come to show me my place was currently pouting like a child, which was pretty cute, I tried to deflate the situation, "Haaa. I'm sorry, okay? It was just so sudden and, you know, absurd?"
Crossing her arms, she didn't seem to find my apology especially meaningful, "Hmpf! I don't care anymore!" Then the corners of her mouth suddenly rose a bit, "Anyway, it seems that you did get some rest at least. I'm glad."
Seeing her subtly admit that she cared about me, I couldn't help but tease her a bit, "Oh! Is this like the shows I watched where the violent girl finally admits she cared about me all along? Did you already move on from the golden boy?"
"Shut up! Why can't you just let us have a nice friendly moment for once, you stupid dungeon crawler!"
Almost as if forgetting why she had come here in the first place, we just continued our session of banter until she left, exiting my apartment without me getting a single bruise on my body.
As soon as she had closed the door I looked up at the ceiling and let my fake outer appearance go away, once again letting my dark thoughts consume me for a moment.
"She cares about me, huh? Would she still care for me if she knew what I did? Even in this world of blood and death, isn't my sin still heavy enough for me to get shunned just like on earth?"
Of course, my questions never received an answer. After all, I was alone.
****
"What do you mean you want to take the rest of the week off? Do you think that just because you got promoted to my class that you would suddenly be able to do whatever you want?"
Sitting in Mr. Brown's office before the first class started, I tried to make a case as to why I needed to get some time off. "I do not, Mr. Brown. However, this is something I want to do. No, this is something I have to do! As a man, how could I allow myself to not follow my convictions?"
It was obvious that the man behind his desk reacted to my words as they resonated with the very core of his being, making his round shoulder slump a little. Sadly, even though he seemed to personally agree with me on a deep emotional level, things weren't quite so simple.
"Kid, I don't know what it is you have to do, and I don't want to know either, but I still can't just accept such a sudden request. I'm sorry but..."
"Let the young man go."
Rotating my vision, there was now another man standing in the room with us, able to somehow emerge without a sound. When my teacher saw the man, he quickly stood up and bowed.
"My greetings to the principal!"
'Oh? So this elderly man is the principal?'
I had actually never seen the principal during my time at Ainu, and scanning his body clad in a white uniform, there was not a single thing I could determine about him. His old face and body were both completely neutral, almost as if there was no soul inhabiting the earthly vessel. And I didn't like it.
All humans had their own set of rules on which they acted, mostly based on personalities that were birthed by circumstances and environmental causes. And these almost always shone through to at least a small degree through one's body and face. Yet, I had already found two outliers that did not do so, although one of them had already faltered, beginning to show who he was to a lesser degree.
The first one was, of course, Sebastian, but he his porcelain outer self had started to show cracks during his fight with Sophie, showing some of the values he found important. The man I was watching right now was the second. Even as he spoke the inherent neutrality didn't falter at all.
"No need to be so formal, Oliver. Just let young James get this week off, you have my permission to do so. Now, I will be going."
*Clack, Don*
When he exited the room, I could clearly hear the sounds of him opening and closing the door, something that caused my mind to rapidly spin. 'When he entered the room, he didn't make those sounds. That means that he either didn't use the door at all, or he has some kind of Skill that eliminates sound. But why would he feel the need to do so when he just barged in anyway?'
Two different hypotheses, with one making a lot more sense than the other. 'So what kind of Manual lets you move through walls? It might be some kind of application that wasn't possible in the game, that would mean that all of the...'
"I guess that settles it then. You are free to leave. But do know, if I don't see you on Monday in class, I will make you spar with me every night for the whole week."
Oliver didn't let me conclude my thoughts before he concluded our discussion, clearly motioning for me to leave his office and get on my way.
Getting permission to skip class felt both great and awful, creating a vortex of conflicting emotions churning in my soul. The reason behind my desire to leave the academy was both something I had to do, and at the same time desperately wanted to escape from.
'Let's get used to killing then...'
****
[3rd person Pov]
"LOKI! GET OUT HERE, RIGHT NOW, OR I WILL DRAG YOU OUT!"
In a very strange godly domain, Theia was currently searching for the man who owned the building of the office she was currently standing in. The building in question was a huge skyscraper, with Loki having his office on the highest floor, making him able to look out at... Nothing. There was nothing else in this domain, just a single modern office building.
The office itself was also incredibly modern, with Theia standing right in front of a huge desk where a computer was planted, illuminated by the LED lamps installed in the ceiling. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling were all completely white. The god had even brought in several showcases standing on the floor showing off exclusive items that he had through less than fair means gotten hold of.
Then, a blur appeared sitting in the chair behind the desk, as the masked god made his entrance, one leg crossed over the other, still wearing his gray suit.
"Oh, I did not expect guests at this time. Do excuse my tardiness. Now, what is so important that the little miss Theia broke her own desire of not seeing me for a millennium?"
Golden light started to shine around the extremely curvy god as her white robe started to flutter as if catching the wind.
"First of all, just because you are older than me does not mean you get to call me 'miss'. Secondly, you broke your promise of leaving James alone. Therefore, I am here as the ruling god to judge the god of mischief!"