After the compulsory class was over, Soren's group had temporarily separated and headed for their own respective classes.
Sylvia was the last one to leave the hall, since she had just fished copying the diagram on the board.
When she was about to reach the exit of the hall, Thud-Thud- the sound of someone approaching forced her to pause her footsteps.
"Oh, it's you?"
Sylvia's eyebrows raised as she examined the person in front of him.
It was a man with a Chinese sabre on his waist, Wang, who had entered the hall. Wang rubbed his chin and walked back and forth.
"That girl…! She was Mika from the Yui family, right?"
"...."
"No need to pretend; I already saw her in the noble family meet last year! I wonder why her ability is only D rank though?"
Sylvia frowned slightly. She had obviously come to the same conclusion way before Wang did, and just like him, had failed to guess the true nature of the ability.
There definitely wasn't any news from Yui family having such a capable D-ranker. Sylvia eye's blinked rapidly as she thought, 'Was there truly some glitch in the watch but for the rank instead? Well, it doesn't matter…'
"I don't care about her ability. All I know is that I will beat her up if she dares to mess with me!"
In the next instant, Sylvia held her head high and began to walk to the door.
Hearing Sylvia's words, Wang shrugged as he said, "Before you leave, you better hear me out."
"What…?
"There's one teaching my family has: Never mess with someone from the Yui family!"
Sylvia felt a shiver in her body for a moment but then quickly snorted.
Just before leaving, she turned back to Wang and asked, "Oh, right. Why was she hanging out with Soren?"
"Hmmm…"
Wang contemplated for a moment before he added, "I don't know… She probably has the hots for Soren or something."
Sylvia's eyes widened, and then she immediately shook her head.
"Impossible! How can she be interested in a C-ranker?"
"Who knows? She really does have nothing to gain from Soren at least…"
Sylvia's lips pressed together, trying to put two and two together of the situation. Her head tilted as she once again looked to Wang.
"Tell me… Why did you make friends with Soren?"
Receiving such a question, Wang's mind entertained a myriad of thoughts.
He truly himself wasn't sure why he was making a serious effort to befriend Soren. There was just some oozing confidence and mystery about Soren that made him want to stick close.
All Wang said to Sylvia though was, "Why should I answer your question?", before he exited the hall by himself.
Unable to receive a proper answer from Wang, Sylvia almost couldn't hold back her anger
"Goddamn Feng family!"
**
"They definitely know who I am…!"
In an empty alley by the side of the academy building, a schoolgirl was walking by herself. It was Mika, whose emotions were going through a tumultuous time.
She would occasionally bite her nail and then tug on hair the next moment.
"Ah… What should I do?! If they tell Soren, would he hate me? He's my first friend!"
Mika thought that it was really unfair. She didn't want to lie to Soren, but his worry for her safety really made her heart feel warm. Now, if it was exposed that she was from a noble family all along, Soren may think that she was nothing but a liar.
In the next moment, Mika took a deep breath. Her lips were slowly curling into a strange smile.
Come to think of it, everything was that Sylvia's fault, right?
Wasn't she the one who exposed her?
Mika chewed on her lips as a scene began to play in her mind. It was the one moment where Soren flirted with Sylvia.
'Perhaps, she needs to go…'
When Mika was reaching the peak of her emotions, a voice travelled into her ears from the distance.
"Mika, there you are…!"
Mika's heart fluttered when she heard the voice. She gently turned her glance to take view of the approaching person.
"Soren…?"
"Sigh… Everyone else has classes, are you free for lunch?"
"Ya…"
Hearing Mika's reply, Soren's expression grew brighter with a wide smile. His hand reached out to stroke Mika's hair as he said, "Good, lunch would be much better with you! Also… it's my treat today. I owe you for helping me take notes!"
Soren put his fist to chest, a shameless aura surrounding him. The school lunch was free, so where was the 'treat' in that?
Despite this though, Mika enjoyed the stroking of her hair like a cat. Soon she obediently followed Soren to the dining hall.
Any thought about the earlier incident was put in the back of her mind for now.
Ah… Soren is truly so kind to me. He will definitely never abandon me.
**
About an hour later…
I had just finished a pleasant lunch with Mika… Currently, I was roaming all the hallways of the massive Citadel academy by myself.
There were no classes left for me today, since combat based ones were going to be operational only starting tomorrow.
My first instinct was to head to the library or the training center; however, an unpleasant feeling of restlessness began to well inside me.
It made me subconsciously scour the hallways in search of specific people.
And when I finally found them, my chin trembled as I thought, "Found you, my prey!"
Thud…!
Hiding in the distance, I peeked at the ongoing scuffle between a group of people.
There were three boys, one B-rank and two C-ranks, who had surrounded a D-rank student. Their gazes were locked on to the D-rank student, twisted expressions on their faces.
In the next moment, the B-rank delivered a kick to the boy's torso.
"Arrgh!" The boy's eyes squeezed shut as the pain tormented him heavily.
"Bahaha! This boy screams like a pig!"
"Is this guy for real?! Screaming at only this much pain!"
The two C-ranks continued to mock, while the B-rank student's expression became more sinister by the second.
The man lasciviously licked his lips as he heard the screaming of the injured boy.
His expression made me want to puke in the distance, but I held on and began calculations in my head. While I was doing them, my hand had sneaked into my pocket and grabbed a black silicon mask that would cover the entirety of my face.
It was truly for the best that my identity remained anonymous for the upcoming show.
The B-rank student grabbed hold of the trembling boy with one hand. A poisonous miasma began to radiate from his other hand.
Very slowly, the student moved the poisonous miasma hand closer to the D-ranker.
His face was showing a euphoria of pleasure simply by imagining the sweet torture he was going to inflict.
Swoosh…!
All of a sudden, it came to his senses that someone had appeared right beside him. "Wh…"
Before the B-ranker even had time to process what was going on, Thump… he was hit right at the back of his ear.
Soon the B-ranker fell, and my figure appeared from right behind him. The boy's body twitched for a long moment before falling unconscious from the trauma to the brain.
The three remaining people's eyes fell on me with their jaw open wide.
"W-Who are you?"
"…"
Stalling for time, no answer escaped my mouth. I planned to subtly recover my energy, so that I would be able to unleash Vanishing Steps skill once again.
It was my precious trump card that was heavily draining and couldn't be used continuously.
Moreover, using my ability was a huge no-no. I mean what would be the point of using a mask otherwise?
In the meantime, the two C-rank bullies had sweat rolling down their forehead. The only thing they could see in front of them was man who had covered both his face and wristwatch with a black cloth.
Even though they knew the earlier attack was just a surprise one, they still held no confidence in fighting me with their meagre 2-star combat potential.
Just when they thought of escaping, I moved, leaving all their plans sinking down the drain.
My first target was the person closest to my vicinity. A little shell-shocked by my immense speed, the poor C-ranker could barely summon a small shield on his right hand.
It wasn't completely his fault, since how can his C-rank physical stats hold a candle to mine? At the end of the day, my physical stats were the same if not better than most S-ranks.
Unsurprisingly, he was unable to react to the trajectory of my attack and was kicked in the ribs. He flew a few meters and his summoned shield disappeared immediately.
"Ahhhh!" Only thing left for him to do was moan in pain as he tightly held on to his injured ribs.
While my confrontation was going on with the first enemy, it looked like the other one had opened a window in the hallway.
Crack-Crack-
In the next moment, a pair of gliding wings had sprouted from his back. He stood on the ledge and prepared to escape the hell scenario.
Unfortunately for him, my Vanishing steps had already recovered.
Swoosh…! I caught on to the boy's wings and then- Boom- slammed him down to the ground.
It didn't even take a few seconds for the winged boy to feel immense pain and fall unconscious.
After receiving the notification for this, a large grin developed on my face as I saw my XP points go up.
I wasn't too far from levelling up anymore…
"H… Help me!"
The shield ability user was crying for help as he crawled away from the battle. This made me realize that I was yet to get my XP fix from this person.
I slowly walked over to him and stepped on his leg, crushing the bones in it one by one until the XP notification resounded once again.
Satisfied with my performance, I nodded to myself and was prepared to set off.
"T… Thank you!"
"Huh?"
It was at that moment I noticed the injured D-ranker was reaching out to me. The boy had plain features and a body covered with wounds; however, one could feel some kind of sharpness in the boy's eyes.
"W…. What's your name?"
"…"
The boy pleaded once more as he asked, "Please, tell me! I want to thank you in the future for when I get stronger!"
Step-Step… I strolled away without replying.
Just when the boy's stare turned vacant from receiving no reply, a voice came from my leaving figure.
"Just call me Zero… and no need to thank me."
Before these words had been spoken, I had already disappeared from the boy's view.
…
A few minutes later…
I was walking in a populous and aesthetically appealing area of the academy.
It was a large courtyard housing many students who were chattering with each other non-stop. The bloody scenery from before had disappeared like it had never happened.
It was at that moment that I sat on a bench as my mind sunk into deep thoughts.
If I wanted to level up, I needed to repeat this incident again and again. But what exactly would be the consequences?
My eyes examined the surrounding students as I thought, 'Would it cause chaos to the hierarchy?'
A few instances later, I got up from the bench feeling more refreshed then before. For some reason, the idea of a little chaos sounded very appealing in my head.
At any rate, getting XP was the most important goal at the end of the day.