After taking a few steps into the corridor and disappearing from the sight of the students outside, Alicia immediately let go of my hand and distanced herself a little.
"Sorry about that," she apologized. I shook my head.
"No, I should be thanking you. You saved me."
Breathing a sigh of relief, I glared in the direction of the Crowley's Academy students. Alicia must have caught my expression, for she lowered her head a little.
"Please don't think too badly of Cecilia. She really isn't a bad person. It's just that…she's a bit awkward." Alicia rubbed at her head, looking a little troubled. "She has been brought up like a princess, sheltered and isolated from most people. That's why she isn't used to talking to people…properly. She's used to everything going her way."
Yeah, well…she was the young mistress of the Stuart Family, which was one of the top ten most powerful, influential and wealthiest families in the Global Federation. They had some history behind them, apparently being the ones who took over vital economic restructuring and restoring the manufacturing infrastructures of the Federation during humanity's recovery after suffering such a violent assault from monsters and Emergence.
With such pedigree and status, obviously no one would dare to refuse her. Except me, but I was from the ancient past, so I wasn't as overawed by the Stuart family as everyone else. Not to mention my Dad's devil-may-care attitude rubbed off on me. He was practically fearless, and I saw no reason to fear a spoilt princess.
However, I wasn't tactless either, and I knew Alicia had good intentions at heart. So I merely nodded in understanding.
"I see."
"Cecilia might seem arrogant, but that's because she has no choice." Alicia turned toward me, her beautiful face grave. "She has grown up fending off suitors and she had to be strong, in order to refuse their advances. She made a promise, and in order to make sure she didn't have to fulfil her promise, she worked extremely hard and developed her magical abilities to the best extent possible. She never stopped working had."
She smiled slightly, glancing back out with a faraway look.
"And as you can see, she has succeeded. She has defeated every male opponent who challenges her. Even female opponents too. She has established a reputation for invincibility. Her name is known throughout the Federation."
In other words, Cecilia had earned the right to be arrogant. She worked hard to achieve her current strength and impeccable record (my victory didn't count – if it had been a regular match instead of a team-match, I would have 100% lost). As much as I abhorred to admit it, she had earned the right to display that kind of attitude.
Not to mention, she had to be condescending if she wanted to reject all those annoying guys who approached her and proposed to her. It was a façade to discourage them, to make her seem unapproachable, so that she didn't have to deal with an endless line of suitors trying to persuade her why she should choose them as a romantic partner.
Ironically, I wasn't one of them, but somehow I ended up defeating her and triggering that vow. Again, I insisted that it shouldn't count, but since when will anybody listen to my opinion? Whatever the case, I had a greater understanding of Cecilia's character, and empathized with her situation. If she went back on her word, all the reputation she had built up until now would be shattered, and her hard work would have gone to waste.
Unfortunately for her, that was her problem. I was not obligated to play along with her narrative or whatever promises she made to other people.
"Good for her," I said instead. "Sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to help."
"You don't have to." Alicia sighed and lowered her head again. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "I'll figure out a way to talk to her."
"I'll leave it to you then."
"Don't worry." Alicia then smiled. "But after seeing that, I believe Cecilia will no longer push the matter."
"That's good then." I realized that we were nearing my classroom. From the noise inside, it sounded like the lesson had already begun. "Thanks again."
"No, it's nothing." Alicia paused for a moment. "Before you go, there's something I have for you." she took out her smartphone. A few seconds later, I received a message.
"This is…?"
"A training room." Alicia smiled. "I know it's nothing much, but the Black Roses have a few spares and I think you'll benefit from it."
"This…" I read the contents of the email and noted the location of the room. It was secluded, but even so it belonged to the Black Roses. "I can't accept this…shouldn't this be reserved for your Black Roses members?"
Alicia giggled. "We have too many rooms, and not that many members."
That might sound counterintuitive, given how the Black Roses Society was one of the four great societies and the most popular club in Jing Tian Magic Academy, but it was precisely because it was the top, elite society that membership was limited only to a few. Not everyone could join the club. It was probably limited to a hundred or so members. No doubt the numbers would swell to five times that if they accepted every application, but they wanted to ensure they could invest large amounts of resources into the core members.
"And if you change your mind, you can just become an official member. I'm sure no one will complain."
"Oh, they definitely will." I could imagine Miranda throwing a fit if I were to become a member of Black Roses. Not to mention all the other ninety-nine members resenting me for receiving preferential treatment from their president.
"We were going to let go of the training room anyway, so I thought I might as well assign it to a non-member. If that's the case, the paperwork should all work out."
"Right." I nodded. "Thank you."
If she put it that way, and the room would no longer be under the Black Roses, then I didn't mind accepting it. It was extremely advantageous to have a single training room set aside solely for me, especially now that I wanted to try new methods and magic.
"I'll take you up on your offer then."
"That will be great." Alicia looked delighted. "I'll get the necessary paperwork done, so you'll be able to begin using the room today, after school."
"Thanks again."
I watched as Alicia left, and then sighed before opening the door to my classroom. To my surprise, there weren't many students in there today. Right…I saw many of my classmates crowding around the courtyard to watch the departure of the Crowley Academy students.
"Ah, there you are, Richard." Teacher Fielding looked up from inspecting a couple of students who were exchanging techniques. "I assume the students from Crowley's Academy have already left our campus?"
"Not yet, I think." Teacher Fielding was obviously wondering when the other students in his class would return. "I managed to escape."
"Ah, right. The promise." Cecilia was such a high-profile celebrity that practically everyone in the field knew of her declaration. Teacher Fielding certainly was aware of it. He grinned at me mischievously. "Escaped, did you? Then I assume you rejected her outright."
"Yeah." I shuddered. "I would rather not get involved with her or the Stuart family."
"Wise choice." Teacher Fielding nodded. "Now, go get paired up with somebody. We'll be doing a bit of light sparring today."
"Yes, sir."
I hurried to obey, searching out for a group with three people in it and joining them. With me evening out the numbers, we could split into pairs.
The rest of the lesson resumed without incident…and in the end, none of the absent classmates showed up for the lesson. Their loss.
*
"Captain Cecilia, are you just going to let them go like that?" Nick asked, astonished, when his leader said nothing and merely watched Alicia Violet and I leave the scene.
"What do you mean?" Cecilia asked indifferently. "Are you saying I should stop them or something?"
"Uh…" Nick was caught off guard by the question, and spluttered wordlessly.
"How dare he humiliate you?!" Hal Gunther was seething. "I've never seen a person so thick-skinned and arrogant!"
Wow…the idiot just didn't realize the irony of his own statement, did he?
"That's enough." Cecilia's voice was sharp. She then softened her otherwise glacial expression. "At least I somewhat understand the situation now."
"…that he's already in a relationship with someone else?" Doug Daniels offered, just in case his denser teammates didn't get the hint. He probably knew Alicia was faking it, but he decided to help me out this time.
"So what?" Elena sneered. "Who does that girl think she is? What's a small little family like the Violet clan compared to the Stuart Clan? There's no way she can compete against Cecilia!"
"That's enough, Elena." Cecilia's voice had grown so frosty that Elena actually jolted and shrank back in fear, shivering nervously. "Alicia is a friend of mine. I will not allow you to speak that way about her."
"S…sorry…" Elena had collapsed to her knees and was weeping. "I didn't mean to…"
Chang Cheng stepped in and helped her to her feet, while keeping his gaze on Cecilia. "What will you do now, Captain?"
"Nothing." Cecilia stared at her teammates blankly. "What exactly are you asking me to do?"
"Ugh…this will cause quite the outrage online, you know?" Louis groaned as he glanced at his smartphone. "The public will accuse you of breaking your promise and going back on your word. Already they are wondering why you didn't just straight up declare him as your lover yesterday."
Mostly because Cecilia was unconscious and in the infirmary for most of the time…but nobody cared about logic. They just wanted an excuse to go on a witch-hunt and burn people at stake.
"What do they expect me to do?" Cecilia demanded, genuinely bewildered. "Force him to break up with his current girlfriend just to go out with me?"
"Well…as the young mistress of the Stuart Clan, you have every right to break them up…" Elena whimpered softly, only to fall silent when Cecilia glared coldly at her.
"Then I will exercise my right to refuse that right." Turning away, Cecilia proceeded toward the luxurious bus that was awaiting them. "This topic is closed. I don't want to hear anything more about it."
"Yes, Captain."
Complying obediently, the rest of the Crowley's Academy students joined her aboard the bus.