The next day.
The students had been sent back to the base. After that incident, the commander had informed them about the two incidents and formally announced the end of the practice class. After that, they were informed to wait for the dean and the student council to escort them back to United Asia.
So, they had to wait in the stadium for two days until they could go back. In the meantime, the commander decided to teach them about scouting and patrolling instead. After all, they wanted to make the wait productive for all of them.
It was not until a few hours later that they finally saw a series of helicopters hovering in the sky above the stadium.
A few students led by a muscular man slowly descended to the ground. They were going to report to the commander before one of them suddenly spotted Kai. One of them didn't care about anything and broke the rank.
She teleported to his front and tried to hug him. Unfortunately, Kai suddenly reached out his hand instinctively and grabbed her head to stop her advance.
She didn't care about it. She went around him and observed him up and down, making sure that her beloved brother didn't get hurt or anything.
After confirming he was fine, she finally felt relieved. She said, "I'm- Guah!"
Haruko suddenly appeared behind her and hit her head. After that, she grabbed her head and dragged her back while saying to everyone, "I'm sorry for her inconveniencing behavior. She's just worried about her little brother."
The students just dumbfoundedly looked at her. They knew Kai was Tasha Carter's younger brother, but it was very surprising to see such a famous person act like that. After all, in front of the media, she only showed the elegant side of her. But seeing that side of her, it was very refreshing, especially for the male students… They were thinking something like, 'an elder sister that's really worried about her brother… moe…' or 'I'm jealous.'
Of course, at this moment, Katsuragi Takaki was the only one who had a serious expression. He looked at Tasha Carter with his eyes narrowed, trying to come up with another plan.
...
After reporting to the commander, the first thing Tasha did was visit Kai. Sadly, at that time, Ayaka was beside him.
Tasha's attention immediately shifted to her. She looked at Ayaka with narrowed eyes. "I see. We meet again..."
"Ye-yes."
"According to my knowledge, the students must use shared tents in this practice test. I assume you shared a tent with my Kai… right?"
"Yes." She nodded timidly. There was even a tinge read on her face.
"Then you can switch with me. We got an extra tent, so all of us will get one. You're not Kai's spouse, so I think you should get your own tent, especially since you're Kudo Group's princess. You don't want to make a huge rumor with something like Kudo Group's princess suddenly getting pregnant in her first year or something, right? Or are you planning to seduce him?" She glared at Ayaka.
"Wha- What?! Pregnant? Seduce him? No no no. I'm just his partner on the battlefield," Ayaka said hurriedly, a bit embarrassed.
"Good. Then we'll switch tents. I'll protect my Kai from predators." Tasha didn't say she was the only predator. She remembered that Kai also had two other teammates. But when she tried to look for them, she couldn't find them.
"Even though you're his sister, I think Kai also has his right to speak. You said you're protecting Kai from 'predators,' but aren't you one of them as well?" Ayaka didn't back down. She didn't know why, but she didn't want to give up her position and switch tents.
"Ho…"
Just before the fight started, Katsuragi Takaki finally made his entrance. He looked at Kai before turning to Tasha. He was angry because he couldn't take how his Ayaka and his target, Tasha, was flirting in front of him, fighting over Kai.
"I'm blessed to have such a beautiful S-rank magician as my upperclassman. I'm Katsuragi Takaki from the Katsuragi family in the north and I'm your fan, Miss Tasha Carter…" Katsuragi Takaki bowed like a gentleman. "I came to Genesis Magical Academy just to see you and have you as my upperclassman."
Anger also started swelling inside Tasha's heart, but if she acted according to her anger, all of the plans that she devised with Kai would go to smoke. She could only politely greet him back, "I'm honored to hear that from Katsuragi's family successor. I see, so you're my younger brother's classmate… Please take care of my younger brother."
"Of course. If it is my idol's order, then I'll happily oblige," Takaki said.
The male students were clicking their teeth as they could see why Katsuragi Takaki showed himself. He was targeting Tasha Carter to be a part of his harem… After all, Tasha Carter's beauty was on par with Ayaka. Still, unlike Ayaka's graceful body, she had a seductive body that could make men wander around with their minds.
"I need to tell you something after this, so I'll meet you at night. For now, you'll need to deal with him, but be careful," he whispered. He then left together with Ayaka.
In their eyes, Kai wanted to create a perfect chance for Katsuragi Takaki to talk with Tasha. Sadly, unbeknownst to them, he just wanted to make Takaki lower his guard by talking to her.
…
A few hours later, Kai came to Tasha's tent. Ayaka was already asleep as she was a bit tired since she had been constantly researching her magic.
Kai made sure no one followed him with his ears. And the moment he entered Tasha's tent, he immediately put up a Sound Insulation Room.
But when he saw Tasha's expression, he knew she was mad because of what happened earlier. Sadly, he didn't have time to listen to her complaints. She also knew that, so she decided to calm herself down with a cup of coffee.
"We have a big situation now. I need you to raise money as soon as possible. We need to have at least enough for our parents to escape to the US base within a month. Can you do it?"
"I can do it… probably. Our family is only a small family, and even though I'm an S-rank magician, I can't make money easily since I'm still a student. But what's the rush?"
"Do you know about the magical beasts' incident? Or at least, have the commander told you about that?"
"Yes. I've been informed, but your teacher kept looking at me."
"Well, I made a deal with her. She'll help us in the investigation against the Katsuragi family. Anyway, I'll-!" Just as he wanted to explain, Tasha immediately stopped him and grabbed his shoulders.
"Wait? You made a deal with her? What kind of deal? Don't tell me you're selling your body for this?"
"It is just your imagination. Anyway, it won't cost us that much for her cooperation. In the meantime, I want you to focus on gaining money and send our parents to the US base. We'll have Michelle's family take care of them there."
"Oh, that girl…" She twitched her eyebrows when she heard that name.
"Anyway, the magical beasts were targeting me, and the perpetrator was Katsuragi Takaki. However, there was another accident. The south prince, George, has been murdered. Although we already know the assassins, we're not sure about who sent them, however, the fact they wanted to kill me… we might be able to relate it to Katsuragi Takaki.
"After failing to kill me with those magical beasts, he wanted to kill me with the assassins that killed George," Kai explained.
"…" Tasha contemplated for a while. She could somehow relate them, but they lacked proof at the moment.
"Our best clue would be from the magical beasts' incident, 1H," Kai said while writing 1H on the paper.
"Yes. I tried to come up with something, but the best would be something like one hour. I can't think of anything other than that."
"I know. But the fact that my life is targeted is enough for us to make preparations, and the one that attacked us is Katsuragi Takaki, no, the Katsuragi family. We might be able to escape from them, but our parents will be their next target. So, we need to have them leave United Asia.
"That's why our current priority is making money. You hear me? We need to send our parents to the US base within a month," Kai said while clenching his fist.
"I know. I'll try my best."
"If you can't, maybe I'll sell myself to Kudo Group. Well, Ayaka is a smart and powerful girl. She's also beautiful. Her grandfather also seems to accept the relationship when we visited her family back then." Kai shrugged his shoulders.
The moment she heard that, her body shook, and she involuntarily dropped her coffee. The coffee covered his 1H, making the H become longer until it looked like an 'n'.
When he saw this, he thought of something ridiculous as he remembered that that incident happened while raining. He tried to recall everything, such as the body position, the rain, the blood, and the writing. He finally realized something ridiculous.