– This person, it was this person! From the first day to the base until now, had given him countless lessons. (Iris)
***
"... I want to continue."
It seemed like Angus was very pleased with Iris' answer. He smiled slightly, reached out his hand with a a piece of black cloth on it.
"Cover your eyes." Angus almost ordered.
Iris looked at the cloth, then he looked at Angus again, seeing Angus' eyes still calm and dispassionate as usual. The calmness and dispassion of a person who clearly knew what he was doing.
Other members of class K standing outside the track all rolled their eyes and gaped.
After that, all saw Iris steadfastly taking the cloth, using it to cover his eyes.
Class K: "..." Damn it? He did it for real?
Angus himself took Iris to the starting position of the running track.
Then when everything was ready, the people at the training ground heard Angus' stern voice.
"Iris, this is the last chance that I and everyone give you."
Those words just ended, the air of the training ground became quiet like a sheet.
By this time, the expression on every face of the student presenting was no longer joking.
All held their breaths waiting.
They had a hunch, just omitting a small detail next, they would miss something very important.
Angus' voice was still steadily sounded. Each of his word carried some kind of infinite weight, hitting straight into Iris' heart, also hitting straight into the hearts of class K.
"I want you to ignore everything around you."
"Use your most natural primitive instinct to feel the speed."
"Chase it. Catch it. Master it."
"You, have to make it."
In front of the gaze of the class, Iris unconsciously lowered his head, and his body fell slightly forward.
Everyone knew this was not the standard starting posture of the short distance running category.
But now his his eyes were covered, could only feeling everything surroundings through his remaining senses, Iris completely acted instinctively – choosing the posture he was most comfortable with to start.
Fweet!
Angus' whistle rang.
Iris dashed away like an arrow cutting the wind.
When Iris' back was faded away, Angus took his gaze back, eyes lowered to the ground. But just a moment later, he could not help but look at Eugene standing beside him. If it was not because of this man...
The reasons why Angus decided to hold the race tonight, besides making some impacts on the attitude of class K, he had another purpose.
It was no coincidence that he assigned the task of flag capturing to Iris.
On the first day of training, in the long distance running category, Iris was the first to finish, and he came in second. Then Iris questioned him that "Why did you yield to me?"
Angus remembered he did answer: "I didn't yield to you. You ran really fast in the sprint phase."
Angus did not lie.
It was true that to prevent the situation that he would be exhausted for the other activities after running, Angus did not use all of his strength right at the beginning. But after having passed the top leading students on the track one by one, Angus had a feeling that, he could reach a higher rank. Therefore, he did use all of his strength for the sprint stage.
Angus has never been a rigid person. Agree that initially his intention was to save energy, but if he had the chance to win, why didn't he grab it?
But then even using all of his strength to run, he could only finish the track secondly. Iris was the one ranking first.
Angus still remembered, at the last few hundred meters, Iris ran just like that was the last time he could run.
Since that time, he had identified Iris as a Lightening mixed blood, and at the same time, was definitely the one who had the fastest sprint speed at the base.
But later, probably because Iris got the habit of saving energy for the other two categories, Angus no longer saw him running like that again.
Just like... the wild horse had been reined.
Angus did not want that.
Those who wanted to follow him, if they had the ability, then that ability should be promoted to the best. If that person could not do that, he would give that person a chance to choose.
That person's choice represented his will, and at the same time decided, if he deserved to be the one fighting next to Angus him later...
About five minutes later, Neil carrying Iris on his back slowly walked to Angus' position.
All members of class K looked at Neil with expectant expressions, waiting for him to report on Iris' results.
Neil carefully took Iris off his back, and looked at Angus with an awkward expression: "Sorry Leader, I, I pressed the time one second late. At that time he was so fast..."
Although Neil had told himself to stay focused in order to accurately press the time when Iris crossing the finish line, he was still one second late!
After that, Neil had to hurriedly blow the whistle to signal to Iris that he had finished the line and stopped.
After the run, Iris was almost exhausted, so Neil carried him on his back.
A faint expression of disappointment appeared on the faces of class K students. How many seconds exactly was "one second late"??? Did you know what one second meant in a sprint???
Hudson thought for a bit and then said, "So... can we just deduct one second?" Anyway, what happened already happened, what they should do was finding a solution, rather than insisting on blaming on Neil.
Iris gasped, nodding his head in agreement: "I said so... but he kept on... saying sorry..."
Even Iris also said that, the rest did not say anything more. Actually they did not blame Neil, they were just a little disappointed.
On this side, waiting until those people were sad enough, Angus said leisurely , "Don't worry. Teacher Eugene did turn on the speed firing and camera system on the track."
Class K members looked at each other.
What???
Speed firing system? Tracking camera? This meant, they would have both the exact running time and accurate speed?
Ouch! This privilege was not available to everyone!
The Leader should have said it earlier so that they did not need to be sad for the recent two minutes!
Wait, who did the Leader just mentioned... Teacher Eugene?
Hey? He had still been here the whole time???
If the Leader did not say, we would not know that he was really presented!!!
Perhaps class K should warmly applaud Eugene, but they did not. They just looked at him for a few seconds and then returned to the character who was standing next to Eugene.
"Gosh! Now we have the speed firing and camera system! Our Leader is so amazing!"
"He can even foresee this to happen!"
"No wonder the Leader took teacher to the race today!"
Eugene was quickly forgotten in the training ground: "..." You guys were such great!
Angus felt a bit ashamed, he cleared his throat a few times to remind his classmates: "The idea of getting Iris blindfolded was from teacher, the cloth was also his."
Class K briefly regained their senses, turning towards Eugene with their most expectant expression: Teacher, please show us the results!!!
"Huh," Eugene said, "If your Leader is such that good, can I go back to sleep?"
Leader-Angus-was-such-that-good: "..." Teacher, could you stop joking?
Class K: "..." Teacher! We're all wrong!! Please forgive us!!!
There were a total of three speed firing stations on the running track, at four hundred meters, seven hundred meters and one thousand meters, respectively.
After Eugene manipulated to display the results, class K nervously looked at the big screen at the starting position.
Seeing every station flash with unbelievable numbers, all students were dumbfounded.
400 meters - 14.4 meters/second, equivalent to 51.8 kilometers/hour.
700 meters - 16.0 meters/second, equivalent to 57.6 kilometers/hour.
1000 meters - 19.8 meters/second, equivalent to 71.3 kilometers/hour.
Total run time: 63.2 seconds.
63.2 seconds! Just over a minute for a thousand meter distance?
And also – 19.8 meters/sec! Was this still human speed???
Iris stared at the screen without blinking, feeling the corners of his eyes heat up slightly. He quickly blinked his eyes some times to calm down.
Not knowing who was the first one to clap his hands, waking the crowd up, then consecutive applause, loud cheers immediately followed. In one flash, Iris was lifted up by the Fire dragons and then tossed into the air a few times.
After having received everyone's congratulations, he walked to Angus, returning the black cloth.
Then in front of the remaining eighteen members of class K, Iris stately bowed to Angus.
This person, it was this person!
From the first day to the base until now, had given him countless lessons.
He used to hate his name so much.
A name for girls.
Which was arbitrarily given by the people at Metis Home, did not need to know if it was suitable for the child or not.
It was that name making the thugs to notice him. They laughed at him, mocked him, used that as an excuse to bully him.
On the first day of entering the base, there were also many new students either surprised, or funny, or curious with his name. They did not understand why a male dragon was given such a feminine name?
But unlike any other ones, Angus called his name with a very dispassionate attitude.
As if there were nothing wrong with it.
Then the first training day started.
He tried his best to finish the track at first place and then being exhausted in the following two categories, while Angus finished second but won in the last two categories, becoming the highest-performing person of the day, ranked first of the base.
From that day, Iris began to silently observe and learn from Angus.
In every category, whether it was running, climbing or swimming, Iris always tried to adjust his speed so that he was just a short distance behind Angus.
Also in the team competition category, whenever was placed in a group with Angus, he would be the first to support Angus' plan. If he was in a different group, in difficult situations, he would wonder, if it was Angus, what would he do?
Because Angus was so quiet, and his appearance color was so pale, the first impression of all freshmen for him only stopped at: This was a dragon with good physical strength.
Not as humble and friendly as Hawley, nor scary and aggressive like Hudson.
But Iris knew, it just was because Angus did not care. Or rather, he did not care about showing in front of others.
Angus not only possessed formidable strength, but he also had a smart brain.
While those around him who only planned one step in advance, Angus could deduce and plan up to three steps, four steps, with a full backup plan if the situation got worse.
Most importantly, he had a sense of "covering" for people who were within his scope. The story of Hudson and Cody before was a good example.
When Cody had not ask for help, and Hudson had not touched Angus, Angus did not show up any attitude.
But when Cody brought the socks to the dorm room of four, Iris knew that, not only himself or Neil, but also Angus – all of them felt uncomfortable.
Then a few days later, the Hudson trio started a fight with Angus.
Everything happened as everyone had seen.
The Hudson group was beaten so badly that they were hospitalized for two days and then was fined by the teachers after returning.
In the meantime, Angus did not suffer any injury after the fight. He did not make use of that fight to threaten anyone, call upon anyone to build his "forces", or any other actions. What all others saw was just he calmly studied, and calmly ranked first in all categories.
Later, even Hudson also showed an attitude of wanting to follow Angus.
Great strength, good performance, self-control attitude. Going his own way, but also having a caring attitude to fellows surrounding. Always balancing his own interests with the collective interests in team activities.
Iris could see it, Neil could see it, Hudson could see it, of course the rest of class K would see it over time.
Especially with the race tonight, Angus had truly won the admiration of the entire Class K.
Strong one scared others.
Smart one had the appreciation from others.
And the one who was both strong and smart would have the trust and respect of all others.
Angus calmly accepted Iris' bow. When Iris lifted his head, Angus smiled and asked, "Have you known where's your limit?"
Iris also smiled. He answered, in a voice mixed with trembling: "I know, Leader."
"Oh, so where is it?"
Iris looked at Angus, then turned to look at class K. For the first time since entering the base, he held his head up and said confidently, "It is... there's no limit. The real limit lies in each one's determination."
Angus lifted the corner of his mouth, showing satisfaction.
"I think, today you guys all get something. I just wanna say a few words."
"It is good to have a competitive spirit, as it helps everyone to grow. But we should not be too insisting on comparing ourselves with others and then forget our goals."
"Every one has their own situations, strengths, and goals, making a different path, and we must stay focused on ourselves to be able to grow well on that path."
Angus looked at his watch, finished the "try" tonight: "All right. Time to come back and get a sleep. Dismiss!"
Eugene had been standing behind Angus, observing everything from start to finish.
The curriculum had not yet come to the direct teaching part, so the teachers and the students had not really interacted much with each other. But that did not mean that the group of teachers knew nothing.
In addition to following the rankings, the teachers also spent time observing individual's personality, attitude and relationship with classmates through the dense camera system throughout the base.
So what Iris and other students saw and felt about Angus, Eugene not only knew, but he also knew very thoroughly, very detailed.
Eugene slowly walked back to his room.
Well, looks like this year he didn't need to wait until the end of the month to choose the Class Leader, right?
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[Small gift ^^~] A short spin-off.
On the way back to his room, Eugene suddenly bumped into Fred – the main instructor of class I.
Fred curiously asked: "Where've you been at this time?"
Eugene: "My class had a race. I came to watch."
Fred: "Oh, suddenly inspired today? Had you discovered a new talent?"
Eugene: "Nope."
Fred: "So why did you go?"
Eugene: "To release stress."
Fred:"..." What the hell kind of stress did a person like you have?