บท 18: Lia's POV

The students stayed on the ship for a few hours while fighting with the monsters continuously.

When the reinforcements came, they replaced the students and started to fight the monsters in their place.

The students are still children after all and are not yet mature enough to fight a prolonged battle with the monsters. So, Ms. Anna ordered the students to get on the ship.

After the students who were still alive got on the ship, Stormwalker left the Roult islands. The expression on everyone's faces was extremely sad. During this monster raid, about 50 students died, and every student was more or less injured.

This matter is extremely serious. Not to mention that the academy will have to bear the scolding of the families of the students who died on this trip.

The academy will now have to take responsibility for this. After all, this tour was the academy's suggestion in the first place.

And what Anna feared ended up happening in the end.

The news about this incident reached the media in just a few hours. A huge commotion broke out on the social platforms discussing this incident.

Several enemies, who have always sought to undermine the academy's reputation, immediately seized this opportunity to criticize the academy.

The internet was flooded with questions about how the academy would accept responsibility for such a significant incident.

In the end, the academy had to compromise and pay a huge amount of compensation to the family members of the students who died during the battle.

Although the media's questions were somewhat alleviated by this compensation, the incident resulted in a decline in the academy's popularity, posing a significant challenge for the academy in the coming years.

All these events transpired within a brief period, during which the students were returning to the academy by ship.

It was truly a shocking incident in the history of the academy. This was the first time when so many students under the guidance of the academy died together.

There have been incidents where students died before, but this time the number of casualties was just too high, leading to the current situation.

Without a doubt, this incident will leave its dark shadow in the history of the Academy. Always highlighting itself when necessary.

Anna also got an official notice from the academy. This incident will cause her perfect profile to be ruined.

'In the novel, she did not get suspended; she continued to be the one teaching the protagonist and his class.'

Putting all this at the back of his mind, Rio focused on the current situation of the students.

'After a few days of rest, everyone has woken up already; why isn't she waking up yet?'

...

Lia's POV:

When I was young, my mother died from a curse, right in front of my eyes. Back then, my dad was also not present for me at that time, and I slowly sank into depression. Something inside me changed due to that incident.

I began to experience intense jealousy when I observed others experiencing happiness with their families. My best friend Kira was living such a happy life with her family.

I was so jealous of her in my heart that I was not able to control myself from spouting curses on her every time I saw her.

I didn't even notice when my friendship with her turned into hatred. Eventually, I started to see her as my nemesis, my mortal enemy.

I was rather panicked when I realized these changes within me. I was getting more and more of a bully with each passing day. I asked my father for help, hoping that he would help like he always did.

But what crushed my hopes was that my father became a workaholic after my mom's death. He started to raid more and more dungeons.

Eventually, he even stopped coming home for several months. I got distanced from him too. Now I was alone.

It was a very lonely time in my childhood. But then I found a way to relieve my loneliness; I started to practice swordsmanship.

I dedicated all my attention to my sword training, and with each passing day, my skills improved. It also helped me to stop my symptoms of depression.

Eventually, I started to enjoy swordsmanship so much that I started to train day and night.

Weeks and months passed by, and people started to call me a battle maniac or other ridiculous names, but I didn't mind it and just focused my whole being on the sword.

My hardships showed success, and I got an invitation from the great Freya Academy. I was really happy at that time.

Who wouldn't want to go to the biggest and greatest academy? It was like a dream had come true. I was already imagining my happy academy life.

I was thinking that I would make several friends.

But.

After coming to the academy, reality burst my bubble of dreams like giving a slap to my face. The atmosphere in the academy was no better than the outside. All the students were busy scheming something on others.

Trying different methods to take advantage of others. Not to mention Link, the son of SS rank awakener, was always trying to make his dominance all over class. The bullying and scheming of these individuals filled me with disgust.

Due to my gloomy nature, I didn't approach anyone, but those who approached me ran away a few seconds later with fearful expressions on their faces. I felt deeply saddened by the sight of others fleeing from me.

Rumors such as "Lia is a battle maniac or a battle-crazy woman" began to spread among the students.

Maybe it was because whenever someone approached me, I always invited them for a battle first. After all, this is the only way I can get to know others more easily.

I have never learned about those scheming talks that other children have learned. According to me, only when in a fight will your real personality show up.

This approach of mine led to a misunderstanding, but rectifying it would have been extremely time-consuming. So, I just ignored it and minded only my own business.

Things became frustrating when I noticed that Kira was constantly surrounded by multiple friends. Not to mention that several boys were trying to please her in a variety of ways. She had a huge friend group.

She seemed so happy.

Seeing her like this, I got really angry and started to harass her even more. This causes even more rumors about it. The rumors started to get very annoying when Kira started walking around everywhere with that trash Fade.

They were like a couple strolling around. She appeared to be conversing with Fade, displaying a shy expression on her face, which frustrated me. I was already at my limit.

Day by day, I was feeling my heart darkening a bit. The emotions that I had buried in my heart by concentrating on my swordsmanship were starting to show up again.

If it had continued just like that, I would not have been able to hold for long.

...

However, a ray of hope shone on me.

During the midterm exams, I met a rather interesting fellow.

When I thought that I was going to end up injured by that boss monster, he saved me at the crucial moment. I knew it was maybe just a mere coincidence of him saving me.

It was my first encounter with that strange fellow. He had pitch-black hair and eyes. Such a color of hair and eyes has become rare after the dungeon gates opened in this world so many years ago.

It was said that a mutation caused humans to develop supernatural powers, and in the process, the humans lost their original color of hair and eyes. That pitch-black color, which was rather common, became extremely rare, even close to not being present at all.

I got interested in that fellow, so I did a background check on him through my father's guild information sources. What I found was rather sad.

This young boy was an orphan and a victim of the Drift City massacre. Seeing this, I developed some sympathy for him, and since he had saved me, I chose to visit him.

When I asked him if you wanted something in exchange for saving my life, he just replied that he wanted money. I was dumbfounded by his answer.

After all, everyone knows in the academy that I am an S-rank awakener's daughter, who has a high-rank guild under him.

Therefore, if he requested any skill books or other items, I would be able to provide them to him. These skill books can't be bought with money; they can only be bought if you have connections.

But since it was his choice, I didn't mind it much and just transferred it to him. I transferred a huge amount worthy of saving my life.

After that, I started to observe him. He was just a decent student; there was nothing much special about him; the only thing worth noticing was that he had great speed. Yeah, his sword attack speed is fast.

I don't know why, but it's just abnormally fast. One more thing is that this guy is even more of a battle maniac than I am.

Every time I saw this guy leave his private training room, it was either to attend class or to use the gravitation room for training. Even I was dumbfounded by how much he trained.

I started to doubt if he was neglecting his studies, but his marks in written exams denied that possibility too.

He had better marks in written exams than me. Then, on one fateful day, when the tour was decided, I got seated right next to him.

However, due to my suppressing my emotions, I ended up talking about irrelevant things too much. Remembering that makes me embarrassed even now.

I was flustered when I found myself in his room, but then he said he was fooling around.

Anyway, I was saying that meeting him changed my course of life.

...

"Hmm…."

"Oh! You finally woke up! You got me worried, you know!"

"….where..?"

"You're in my room again! You lost consciousness while fleeing from a monster. I saved you!"

"Oh,…..th-thanks…"

"..."

"What? Why are you silent?"

"Nothing. Take this food; you will get energy by eating it. I will go out now."

Saying this, he immediately left the room. Seeing this, Lia got confused, but she stopped paying it any mind and started to eat.

Without noticing, a beautiful smile appeared on her face.

"Even though he doesn't show any expression on his face. He is kind."

While outside, Rio stared at the distant horizon with his expressionless face and wondered:

'As I have read the novel, I know Lia's character; she never said a word of thanks to anyone. Yet! She just now thanked me!? That's very strange from any way you look at it!….'

'What's going on here? Maybe I have triggered some unknown plot without even knowing. Well, whatever... I will observe first, then decide what to do next...'

"Looks like this world has become even more interesting now."

Rio didn't have any idea at that time that he caused a maiden to fall for him with just a little bit of effort.

Just as Rio was lost in his fantasies, the ship suddenly shook violently, and a very familiar presence revealed itself.

"This damn Octopus is here again!"