– Iris laughed. But in a place where no one was paying attention, his hand was quietly clenching.
***
It was seven fifty in the evening.
The training ground was shined with dozens of lights.
A group of freshmen were standing and chatting. It was easy to recognize that they were students of class K, gathered here according to Angus' words in the afternoon, waiting for his "try". All had finished bathing and changed into casual clothes, looking very comfortable.
"Eh, Maddox? In the afternoon who said not coming? What are you doing now?"
Maddox having a muscular body, fierce face and big voice, but being upright and often helping the weaker ones ⬅ By class K.
"It was my roommates taking me here! Otherwise, I would be enjoying in my beloved blanket now."
"So why did you change into sportswear?"
"I... I like to wear this going to sleep! OK?"
Dallton, who was Maddox's roommate, was standing next to him. After hearing what Maddox said, Dallton immediately gave him a kick. "If you wanna join, just say you join. You won't lose your face for that!" Then he turned to Iris, smiling: "Iris, later please yield to him a little bit."
"Ah... Okay." Iris was also in sportswear, smiling wryly. Perhaps because his mind was busy thinking about the race, he looked a little nervous.
At exactly eight o'clock, Angus slowly walked to the training ground in front of the expectant gaze of class K. There was one more person behind him.
After the training period, all now got into a routine. Having just seen Angus' shadow from afar, all freshmen there immediately split up and arranged themselves into two separate groups: The group joining the race and the group being audience.
When it was clear to see the one behind Angus was, class K members all rolled their eyes.
Teacher... Teacher Eugene?
This teacher just like a ghost suddenly hiding and disappearing for the past few weeks, why he came here today?
Was that... he came to give some penalty?
Ehhh! Was there any rule that banned students gathering at night?
In fact, because they had not entered the direct teaching stage yet, the group of teachers did not often interact with freshmen. However, compared to teacher Fred who often laughed and the six teaching assistants who were friendly and always willing to support freshmen, this teacher Eugene was really too quiet.
Sometimes the other teachers were so busy that their faces nearly down to the ground, and he sat on the other side, tilting his head sleeping in peace...
"Hem!" Eugene cleared his throat. "Just do what you need to do, don't care about me. Tonight I'm just an audience."
Being frightened by the sudden appearance of Eugene, class K now had time to look at Angus.
Seeing Angus wearing casual clothes with comfortable appearance, their mood slightly fell down.
So Leader Angus was not participating!
But... Glancing to the right, Hudson, Edelina, Jarron, and Genista were all wearing sportswear, even Maddox normally running like a tortoise crawling now also joining to add some fun, their mood was momentarily pulled up again.
All were fast runners!
And these people had never been in a face-to-face competition!
Maddox auto excluded from the list: "..." You guys were such great!
In fact, Maddox's motive was very simple and quite... kind.
He noticed that normally Iris was too quiet and did not interact with anyone, so in order to prevent the situation that no one wanted to race with Iris, he changed his clothes to join, so that Iris would not be... so sad.
However, he accidentally underestimated the weight of the Angus' words to class K!
Class K might not like Iris, but surely they would listen to Angus – the one who had just led them to win the match.
Now it was good! Not just one person but four people wanting to race with Iris! And all of them were fast runners! They all wanted to kill him, did not they?
Maddox silently cried. Could he change clothes now???
As usual, Angus swept his eyes over everyone to grasp the general situation, then surprised to find that all the Class K members had presented.
"Sorry, I went to borrow something so coming late." He looked the racing team: "You guys, get warmed up. Do it carefully."
Angus stepped forward and gave Neil a sports whistle, a two-way radio and a stopwatch, then gave him some instruction.
Neil repeatedly nodded his head, seemed to got what Angus said.
Fifteen minutes later, Angus and Neil respectively stood at the beginning and the end of the one-thousand-meter running track.
The audience group thought Neil's point was the finish line, so they all gathered toward there. There were only the racing team and Eugene, together with Angus, at his point.
Six participants, including Iris, Hudson, Edelina, Jarron, Genista, and Maddox, were in position to wait for the signal.
"Ready..."
Fweet!
Angus' whistle rang out, and the six participants immediately runned forward like arrows.
For the young dragons currently familiar with the sixty-kilometer running track every day, this one-thousand-meter distance was no longer long as it used to be.
The first run quickly ended.
The result was: Edelina ranked first, Hudson ranked second, Jarron ranked third, Iris ranked fourth, Genista ranked fifth, and of course – Maddox ranked last.
After hearing Neil announce the rankings, the audience started talking, commenting, complimenting noisily, some even jumped up to Edelina for congratulation.
"Keep silent, please." Neil stepped back, touching the earphone inside his ear, his eyes looked on the ground, showing how focused he was. About five seconds later, he lifted his eyes: "Leader said... the second round starts. My place now becomes the starting line, his place is the finish line. The participants, please get in your places and prepare."
Everyone looked at each other confusedly.
The second round?
Did he mean that the result of this round would not be counted?
Although all of them did not understand, they still followed what Angus said. Who had to run then returned to the running track, who were watching then stepped outside.
"Ready..."
Neil brought the whistle to his mouth, took a breath...
Fweet!
The results of the second round was: Edelina came first, Hudson finished second, Iris finished third, Jarron finished fourth, and the remaining two positions were unchanged.
Facing the six runners who were gasping for breath, Angus seriously said: "Get ready for the third round."
Therefore when the audience group was slowly walking along the track back to Angus' point, they saw those six runners passing with an amazing speed.
"What's this now?"
"Another round?"
"Who knows! Just follow them!"
The third round, the result was just exactly the same as the second round's.
The fourth round, the ranking remained unchanged. Beside that, the total time of running even increased by a few seconds.
Currently the audience had divided into two groups. One stood at Angus' position, the other stood with Neil.
Finally they understood why Angus brought two stopwatches! If it was just one or two races, basically just a stopwatch kept by Neil was enough. He could hear the signal from Angus via the two-way radio and then time the race. But... it was the fourth round now!
"Sorry but..." Edelina asked, "How many runs that we have to take?"
Thanks God that finally there was someone raised the question that all wanted to ask!
It was true that running one kilometer was not that long, compared to the sixty-kilometer running track that they had to finish everyday. They just needed a little rest, and then could start a new race.
But the point was, they could not run without knowing anything!
"Until you guys reach the limit," Angus said calmly. "Aren't you all confident that you run fast? Wanna try and see where your limits are?"
He stopped for a bit, then added:
"Of course, except for Iris, the others can stop at any time. So now, what are your choices?"
Class K's faces looked like fools.
Saying so... meant that they had to continue without knowing the stop?
Iris looked at the other five participants. He hesitated for a moment, then he said: "I'm sorry! If it was not because of me, you guys would not... I'm very grateful to you, but you don't need to run anymore."
Edelina looked at Iris, then looked at Angus whose face was always calm from beginning to end, then quickly made a decision: "I'm in. I want to see if he's really faster than me."
Hudson nodded, "Me too."
Jarron, Genista also nodded, especially Maddox slapped his hands and shouted: "Me too! At worst, I'll wash the dishes tomorrow!"
Everybody looked like: "..."
Actually, you did not have to appear "sacrificed" that much!
Initially this race did not need you!
"Guys..." Iris took a breath, then... he lowered his head: "Thank you."
"Alright, don't say thank any more!" Edelina grumbled, "Save your energy, this time I will run at full speed!"
Iris laughed. But in a place where no one was paying attention, his hand was quietly clenching...
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