'What's with this guy suddenly ?'
Henry had never spoken to this boy, although he was famous in the school for having a rich background he wasn't a friend of Henry at all, not even an acquaintance actually however since he was in a pinch he didn't mind played along.
"Sorry girls we have a few important things to talk about so I'd rather sit next to him."
Henry said with an apologetic smile, the one he should most apologize to however was the boy. He had avoided using his name during the sentence because he didn't know it even though the boy had called him by his name when he jumped in.
The look in the girl's eyes when looking at the other boy was different, they looked at Henry with reverence but they seemed annoyed by the other boy.
'Shouldn't he also be popular since he's quite handsome, tall and rich ?'
Henry definitely didn't understand anything to girls, he wasn't aware that his most attractive features to them was neither his height, his talent or his face but the fact that he was so friendly with everyone without being arrogant even though he was the most handsome and talented boy in school.
"As always you're annoying Thomas."
When the girls left angry at the "Thomas" boy and dejected because they couldn't sit next to Henry for a whole day Thomas stretched his hand with a smile
"Nice to meet you Henry, I'm Thomas as you heard hahah."
"Nice to meet you too, you saved me from an awkward position. Thanks."
"Everybody board the bus !"
Before they even had time to chat, the school's director started giving instructions. The school had sent 5 teachers, two guards and the director to accompany the kids.
The two guards were both retired soldiers of Buton who had decided to work on the field of protection, for someone who had spent their whole life fighting there wasn't much else they could do so this was the way most of them took.
Henry boarded the bus and Thomas came to sit next to him.
"Why did you do that earlier ?"
Henry asked, since they were going to spend the next day together it was best to find a subject of conversation.
"Just felt like talking to you, I've always been curious about the number one."
"Number one ?"
"You don't know ? That's how you're called in school. Number one on the fighting contest, number one on the handsomeness list, number one on the husband material list, number one on the intelligence field. Yeah since you're first everywhere you're called number one !"
"You're joking right ?"
Henry laughed out loud.
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The girls sitting in front of them looked at each other and started whispering excitedly.
"Did you take a photo ?! Seeing Henry smile is such an exceptional event !"
"Of course I did ! Maybe that Thomas guy isn't that bad, if he keep making him smile then we'll be able to take enough photos for years !"
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"So what's the secret behind your talent ?"
Thomas asked.
"What do you mean secret ? I spend most of the time where I'm not studying to train. There is no secret."
"Then what about your native skill ? Nobody has ever seen it !"
Of course Henry couldn't say that it was a system that gave him access to millions of valuable blueprints right ? Instead he had thought of something else, while some people could transform, throw fireballs, freeze stuff and other fantastic things, there were a few others whose skills were of the passive type.
This meant that they couldn't manifest their skills but it was always active and working inside them, for exemple a few people were born with a stronger body. That was their native skill and Henry had decided to use such a passive skill as his cover.
"It's a passive skill, I can think faster than normal people."
"Ohhhh no wonder you can fight so well, so your native skill help you with decision making."
Of course people with active skills looked down on people with passive skills but there were people who looked down on active skills too ! These people had unique skills : the best exemple of that was Henry, his unique skill was thousands of times better than an active skill.
"What about you, what's your native skill ?"
"My skill fall into the transformation category, I can transform my body into an indestructible ore."
Henry was surprised, he had never fought with Thomas on the school's fighting contest because he always fought the same final against another girl, now he started wondering how she had beaten this guy's native skill.
"Isn't that cheating ?"
"Not at all hahah, even though it's indestructible I can't move when using it. I can only use it to protect myself in life threatening situations but can't use it offensively."
"Oh I see... it's still a good native skill."
Then Thomas put on his earphones and Henry did the same, they listened music until they disembarked at the spaceport and switched from the flying bus to the spaceship. During all the day long trip Thomas and Henry spoke sometimes, sometimes they slept, sometimes they played games, until they made it to planet Reso !
Henry had gotten used to Thomas's presence and liked the guy, he was fun to be around and could make him laugh very easily. Who didn't like someone who could make them laugh ? Another reason he liked him was that he felt like Thomas was a genuine person, sometimes he felt like people approached him with a goal in mind but for Thomas he just felt like the guy had taken the first step towards him to save him from an awkward situation.
After disembarking from the spaceship into Reso's spaceport they got out into a beautiful city made of hundreds of buildings scraping the sky !
"Woooow ! This is so different from the small Buton !"
"I'd love to live here ! This planet's population must be at least a thousand times that of Buton !"
Every single one of Henry's classmates was excitedly jumping up and down and looked curiously at everything around them except himself who could control his excitement and Thomas.
"You don't seem very excited."
Henry said to his new friend
"Yeah I've been here a few times already, I'm impatient to eat tho ! The food here is sooooo good !"
"Really ?! What kind of food is the best ?"
Finally Henry couldn't control his excitement when it was about food !
"The best one I tried is fried Golden chicken wings ! It's a demonic beast !"
"You ate demonic beast's meat ?"
Henry started drooling when thinking of all the good food he would be able to try here.
"Alright kids, our hotel is not far from here let's walk there."
The director said and all the kids followed.
"There are only skyscrapers around here, since the hotel isn't far then wouldn't it be one of them ?!"
The student's eyes started shining when one of their friends said that out loud, a good trip was taking shape in their imagination.
They didn't expect to arrive in a small alley between two skyscrapers and go inside a small building that wasn't even 3 floors high.