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"How can this be!?"
"How is that possible!?"
"Is this for real? Am I dreaming?"
*Slap!*
"Ow! What was that for!?"
"Confirming if this is reality. Holy shit it is real!"
"How on earth did they do that?"
"Did they used Alchemical Pills?"
"Must be…I mean they came from great backgrounds after all."
"No! Even though they used pills, they shouldn't be this fast! I'm also regularly consuming such pills but look where I am now?"
"Maybe because of their talents then?"
"If that's the case, then those boys shouldn't be there as well. They have Red-grade Talents!"
"So how!?"
Old Lee and the students had been gone for sometime, leaving the students to gossip amongst each other. They still found it hard to believe that these people only took some measly five or six months of being absent and then came back with the fabled Marrow Cleansing Realm and ask for a promotion.
All of them thought, that if it was the girls, then there's nothing for them to say, they would even be happy and cheer for them. But what made it confusing for them was the boys.
"Argh!" One random student scratched his head in frustration, which caused the others to look at him weirdly. "How!? Of all the people that would be promoted before me, why the Disappointment Triplets!? Oh god why!?"
"I agree!! They shouldn't be promoted before us!? We're more talented that they are!? They must've cheated!"
"Right! Right!"
"Hoh…"
As soon as this amused sound was heard inside the room, the students froze and slowly turned their heads in front of them. They paled when they saw the smiling, but not really smiling, expression of Old Lee.
"Is that it?"
His voice sent shivers to their spine, it was cold, callous and strict. The people who used to be the loudest were reduced to meek baby that obediently sank down on their chairs.
"Is this truly what our knights are protecting? People like this?" His cold voice echoed once more. "If so, then I think it's better for them to feed you onto the beasts instead of protecting you."
The students shivered once more, they sank even deeper to their seats as they realized the weight of their casual words.
"Such disappointments. Every single one of you." Those words cut then deeper than they wanted it to be.
"All you think of is your superiority over others. Completely fixated about your backgrounds and how you are better than everyone else."
"You have been born with silver spoon on your mouths, and yet instead of being thankful and giving back, you people think it was fine to degrade someone's hardwork just because you think they're unworthy?" Old Lee's voice turned colder and colder by each sentence. "How laughable."
He roamed his gaze to each one of the students remaining in the room, and obviously all of them avoided making eye contact since they felt very guilty right now.
"You see…" Old Lee snickered and continued: "…there are times that I observed you. Not in class, but in public."
Many eyes constricted on his words, unknowingly their hearts start beating faster and faster. Blood drained their faces and an ominous feeling emerged on the depths of their minds.
"One student here..." Old Lee glanced briefly at the student he was referring before looking somewhere else. "…instead of training and cultivating, this person was busy roaming the kingdom to satisfy his taste buds and emptying the pockets of their dear parents."
That student were sweating coldly as he wished to the ground to open it's maw and swallow him whole.
"Another student here, spent most of his time peeking at women's bath. Gotta give it to him, his ways are certainly effective as he wasn't caught even once. Too bad he never knew that I was watching him and planning on telling his parents about his little endeavours."
A small whimper escaped from the mouth of the guilty student. Heads turned towards his direction so there goes the chance of hiding it.
"This next student, is probably the worst student that I ever taught. He spent majority of his days chasing skirts and threatening young girls that if they don't satisfy his…urges, then he would use money to reduce them to slaves."
The guilty student shuddered fiercely as Old Lee revealed his crimes.
"There's this one girl..." this prompted mixed reactions from the young ladies, "Spent most of her days spending her parents money for cosmetic products like, breast enhancing pills, skin-whitening pills, fat-reducing pills, hair-growing shampoo's and etc. And she done this, with the cover of her buying 'pills that aided her cultivation'. What a she-devil."
"Another girl I know, spent most of her days trying to do some…strange experiments, in hopes of pleasing her lover once they met."
Another whimper, another student caught red-handed. Now, she had to live the rest of her life in embarassment.
"Now this girl, will make the previous girl pale in comparison due to her…resourcefulness." Old Lee didn't even bother hiding his glare at the student that he was referring to. "She even tried to hook me in and attempted to threaten me using her 'great background.' Hands up for her being this creative, Am I right?"
No one laughed, cheered, or even reacted. All of them lowered their heads in shame and didn't have enough courage to meet his gaze. And Old Lee wasn't done, he then proceed to reveal dark secrets of the students that are present in here. He only finished when every single one of the students's secrets were revealed. And let's just say, that none of them came out clean.
"Some nobles you are."
They physically felt that attack.
"I heard someone ask 'How on earth did they do that?' Why don't I tell you?"
"At first it was guys who stayed together. Mark, Paul and Vendrick, mostly known as Raven, brothers not by blood but by bond. Ever since the start of this term, they spent most of their days training. Paul picked up a spear and a shield, Mark picked up two short swords and Raven trained by using his bare hands. The took a copy of the basic weapon manual and practiced it everyday, they will only stop to either drink water, eat, sleep or if they fainted because of fatigue. Whoever was left standing had to drag the other one on a medicinal bath to recover from the bruises and cuts they received. This happened, Every. Single. Day."
"Raven and Ellen are cousins. One day she, Anne and Luna decided to pay a visit. It should've been a simple greeting but the girls saw the conviction behind their foolish appearances. Their hardwork inspired them and from then on, they trained together on a day to day basis. The girls followed the pace of the boys even though it was tough for them. And because of their hardwork, they were rewarded."
"I want to inform you that none of them used any alchemical pills to boost their cultivation."
Collective gasps echoed across the room, at this time there are no reason for them not to believe his words after spilling out their darkest secrets. Even still, they find it hard to believe what they hear.
"Aside from the medicinal bath that they soak in after hard day's worth, they used nothing else. Their breakthroughs are natural and their foundations are as solid as it could get. How did I know? That's because I always watched them after seeing that none of you was worth it."
That felt like a punch to their guts.
"One day, they asked me if they could be excused from attendances. I gave them my permission and that's when they truly picked up the pace of their training. They sparred against each other, they forged their teamwork by doing mock team battles. They discussed strategy, worst case scenario, first aid, and one even sneaked inside one of the barracks just to see how proper knights train."
The amount of lies that Old Lee spilled just now should make him rather embarrassed but he carefully hid those signs as he was trying to make a point here. And it was proven to be effective since he is now seeing the downcasted, guilty and embarrassed expression of his students.
"Students, talent is just 50% of the battle. The other is fought with hardwork. I was honestly prepared to give you resources in a form of a healthy competition if you just asked. I even implied it multiple times during my discussions but all those words entered your right ear and escaped on your left ear."
This truly happened, there were multiple times that he implied that if they could prove to him the results of their so called 'training' then he would definitely reward them with resources that they need. It was just rather disappointing that none managed to decipher his intent, and he can't just tell them these outright since he was testing their resolve.
With another bout of silence. Old Lee heaved a disappointed sigh.
"I will stay true to my words. Your parents will hear about everything I revealed earlier. If you want to see whether I'm lying about everything I said, then come watch how your classmates do during the Promotion Tests. It will happen at the Central Stadium. If you'll excuse me."
And just like that, Old Lee disappeared like a phantom, leaving the students conflicted about themselves.