In the novel, even though Cedric was the protagonist, he was always taunted by those noble students that jealous of his talent.
Some commoner students wanted to create a club just for commoners but it was not granted by HGA authority for a reason like it would create more divisions and splits among the students.
Meanwhile, clubs like Blood Supremacist and Noblesse became more rampant in oppressing the commoner students that were unlucky to become their targets such as Cedric.
I wasn't sure if the original Ares was also taunted by them or not, but like hell I would let them be when they planned something on me. Plus I also hate racism and social stratification.
Weren't all of us have the same colour of blood?
Everyone's blood is red and no blood is purer or nobler than the other.
The other nobles who weren't members of those racist clubs also didn't help much since they just act as bystanders.
Crack! Crash!
Suddenly someone flew out of the window near where I was walking. I saw a female student wearing a navi blue necktie for the first year standing at the window with an angered face.
"You bitch how dare you did this to me. I'm a noble," suddenly a guy yelled.
That guy who was being thrown out of the window just now wore a dark green necktie which indicates that he was a third-year student.
"I don't care if you're a noble or not. You molested me by grabbing my ass. I already told you I don't like it but you just laughed it off. So I threw you pervert out of the window," that girl yelled back.
All the students nearby looked at the guy called a pervert. They seem disgusted by him and none of them wanted to help him at all despite him being injured due to the shattered window glasses.
"You-you're the one seducing me. Why are you calling me pervert?" He yelled.
But nobody believed him since his face was not that impressive and he didn't look strong. No one was convinced that the female student or any other students would want to seduce him.
"Why do I need to seduce someone that I can throw out of the window with one hand. Do you even have a mirror in your room?" Said that girl before walking away.
It was considered a rare sight where a commoner student dare to fight back against a noble student. It could only happen if you're in HGA and you're talented. Even if the noble student report on you, HGA will side with you since the academy priorities talent the most that it almost seemed obsessive.
And Cedric was one of HGA's current obsessions which also helped him in many ways since he was an orphan on top of being a commoner.
"These rotten commoners. They think they're that great huh," the previous guy kept on blabbering nonsense but no one paid any attention to him thus I also kept on walking toward my classroom.
However, today seems like an unlucky day for me. A few male students from the third year purposely bumped into me and the food I bought fell to the ground.
When I tried to take the food, they were stomped by a few feets. I looked at them before I decided to just walk away since it seemed childish if I get angry. That was definitely their purpose in doing this.
I saw a small red metal badge shaped like a star with a shield and sword. That was the symbol for the Blood Supremacist club.
'Oho is it today? It seems I have to skip today's evening classes,' Ares thought and he felt a bit excited.
He acted timidly and slowly walked away from them as if he was scared and try to not face them. He even bowed slightly to them as if he was nervous.
Ares could see proud smirks forming on their faces seeing him acting like a coward. Ares quickly walked away from them without saying anything.
And of course, they wouldn't let me be just like that. They continue following me and their footsteps became faster and faster when they realized I was walking towards a desolate place near the first-year building.
Not many people walked through that area but I used it often to go back to class after lunch thus I knew about it like the back of my hand.
"Hey surround him," one of them started shouting while the others quickly surrounded me and I acted like I wanted to run but couldn't.
"Hahaha, you're more of a dunce compared to Adrian. I thought your brain is better than him but I guess not," the male student who acted as the group leader said with triumph.
"I don't understand. What do you guys want?" Ares asked in a timid voice.
"Oho, so you do know when to bow down huh? I take back what I said, you brain seems better than that Adrian now"
"Hahaha look, he's shivering. We aren't doing anything yet"
"What do you expect from a halfling?"
They continue mocking Ares before one of them suddenly grabbed Ares's shirt roughly, "Hey look at his hideous black earrings."
"Hey hey don't touch that. It was said to help manage the Zanuki raw aura that can harm other people," one of them reminded.
"He is so weak so isn't this the simplest way to check if he is a Zanuki," the others said while pointing towards the earrings.
"Yes, that's a good idea. After we confirmed he is not, we can beat him into pulp, until he can't get up anymore."
"Hey restrain him."
Two bulky hunks started to restrain Ares on both sides, holding both of his arms tightly while the group leader walked closer to Ares.
"No, no please not the earrings! It is dangerous. Even I never take it off including when I go to bed," Ares begged and it was the first time he shouted.
His acting seemed real and it made the guys more and more satisfied seeing his reaction.
"Just admit you don't want others to know that you, a halfling didn't even inherit any of the Zanuki's traits other than this red hair with weird silver hair on your head," someone smacked Ares's head from behind.
'Shit I shout too loud and now I'm thirsty,' Ares was annoyed but he didn't want to stop just yet.
He wanted these bunch of bastards to eat their own shits.
The group leader started to take off the earrings on Ares's ears and after he was done, nothing weird seemed to happen.
"Hahahaha he is not a Zanuki!"
"I told you! Now let's beat him up"
"Hey hey you two let him go, how can he fight properly If you two hold his arms like that. We're civilized human beings, we don't beat people one-sidedly," the leader said.
They laughed when they saw Ares bowed his head, not even showing his face to them as if he was ashamed.
However, their sense of triumph was short-lived.
Out of nowhere the two hunks that were holding Ares, fall with a gush of white bubbles coming out of their mouth. They fainted instantly.
"What-what happened?"
"Hey leader, don't you feel anything strange?"
"Bluerghhh, why is my body feel weak and I feel dizzy out of a sudden?"
One by one started falling on their knees, vomiting anything they have inside their stomach. Some were convulsing on the ground while some even have a nose bleed. None of them had the energy to do anything.
"H-hey you guys don't play around. What the heck happened to you?" The group leader asked seemingly irritated.
"I told you right, that I'm a Zanuki so how does it feel? Is it nice?" A chilling voice suddenly asked them.
They could see the red-haired youth in front of them standing leisurely watching them falling one by one. The tone he was using sounded contrastingly different from the timid one they heard before.
"You can just ask me nicely right? I don't like to do things roughly," Ares continued saying while still watching them looking at him in despair and confusion.
They could feel like they were on the verge of dying.
Ares's earrings that they have taken off fall on the ground but Ares just let it be because it wasn't the right time yet.
The area they were at have two CCTV from different angles that could record the event clearly and right after his earrings were taken off, the reason why his aura didn't affect them instantly was that he had the same earrings that were pierced on his tongue.
The moment they already felt victorious, Ares used it to sneakily conjure a lightning spell to crack the mana stone on the two CCTV. Once they were broken, HGA maintenance staff and security would check what happened.
The last scene they saw was exactly the moment Ares's earrings were taken off. It was well known that Zanuki wore special black earrings to filter their raw aura that was harmful to humans.
After the CCTV was broken, Ares quickly took off the earrings on his tongue and spit them out. The two hunks beside him realized what he did but they couldn't do anything before the raw aura affected them instantly since they were the nearest to Ares.
"So what should I do with you guys in the meantime?" Ares asked in a serious tone but he wasn't serious.
'I'm bored. It ended too fast and within one minute they all flopped down on the ground so I couldn't do anything much with them,' Ares felt a bit disappointed but he decided it was already time for him to wear his earrings again and continue acting like a victim.
Ares was sure his aura wasn't capable to kill them but just to be saved he proceed on wearing the earrings back on.
"If they die, there will be more problems for me and I don't want that," Ares muttered while sitting not far from them.
Not long after that, a few healers came in special suits that looked like astronaut suits. The healers quickly took away the unconscious students and they even handcuffed Ares with a special black handcuff and ordered him to follow them to the HGA student affairs office to be interrogated.
Ares had to give his statement after the officer in front of him finished watching the surveillance video.
"What is the reason they took off your earrings?"
"They wanted to prove if I'm a real Zanuki"
"Sigh. You're not purposely letting them take off your earrings did you?"
This officer seemed sharp but there was no way Ares would admit he purposely didn't shake them off and just let them subdue him.
"There were a dozen of them ganging up on me so how could I fight them. I don't even know that they would use that method to prove me as a Zanuki. I even felt guilty since my raw aura affected them like that. It wasn't my purpose," Ares said with a low tone as if he indeed felt guilty.
"...Please follow this healer for further check-ups and to treat any injuries. We will contact your legal guardian for further discussion but for the time being, you will be confined inside your room. This special tracker would be chained on your ankle."
'Woah they really treated me like a criminal,' Ares looked at his ankle which has a black bracelet with blinking green lights on it with slight interest.
On the hand, the officer thought Ares seemed genuinely worried but he didn't know what to say anymore since all the students involved were nobles and wrong move, HGA might get implicated. The most troublesome out of the bunch was the red-haired lad in front of him.
"Wasn't it just last year that Adrian Zanuki wreaked havoc by beating up all the students from Noblesse and Blood Supremacist Clubs? Can't we just give the same punishment?" One of the officers suggested.
"No, we can't. Adrian clearly admitted he was guilty for beating them up but Ares was not. Even though he said he felt guilty, that wasn't a legit confession. The surveillance video that could be used as evidence also indicates otherwise. Ares clearly make himself the total victim here."
"Woah, don't tell me he purposely luring all of them knowing there would be CCTVs there?"
"Yup most probably since most of his instructors said that Ares is far more intelligent and mature than most of his classmates."
"Such a perfect plan. So what should we do?"
"Let's see how the noble families involved reacted especially the Zanuki before we decide on the punishment."
However, the officers didn't have to wait long to decide since the next morning, the empire was shocked by the scandalous news about several noble families all at once.
Each news tabloid reported on different noble families but all of them were shocking news.
All students in HGA were focused on the news reported and some articles being uploaded in the academy forum.
"So where is Ares right now?" Cedric asked.
"Who knows. Maybe HGA authority locked him somewhere," Shino answered
Later another announcement was made demanding all members of Noblesse Club and Blood Supremacist Club to come to the student affairs office for interrogation.
"Damn, those two clubs might get disbanded for real this time," Shino commented.
There were a few attempts to disband the two clubs before but none was successful since the clubs were backed up by their alumni that were from rich powerful noble families. But now it seemed they might get disbanded for real.
"I thought it was hard to make them disbanded," Cedric asked.
"They touched a huge landmine this time" someone behind him commented.
If he was not mistaken the student's name is Justin Veer. Justin was also a commoner like him but unlike him, Justin's parents work as high-ranking government officials thus no one thought of him as an ordinary commoner.
"What do you mean?"
"Shino aren't you teaching your friend properly?"
"Sigh, Ceddie is a bit ignorant in this kind of thing. Zanuki rarely took any action but once they did, they always finished it until the roots."
"But this doesn't seem like how the Zanuki normally did though. Take Adrian, the Zanuki just let HGA decide on his punishment while they remained silent. But with Ares, they spread other nobles' dark secrets?" Justin said while looking at the tablet Shino was holding.
"So what? Those people deserve it. Just look at all the allegations," Shino said showing a news article.
•Money Laundering
•Human Trafficking
•Drug Trafficking
•Usage of Dangerous Substance in Factories
•Sexual Assault
The list went on that it made even Cedric lazy to continue reading it.
13 students have caused Ares's raw aura to leak out and accidentally harming themselves. Coincidentally today, all of their families were convicted of various crimes.
The evidence of the 13 students bullying other students was also spread widely in the academy forum. While there were pictures of Ares volunteering in orphanage and also a video of him during the Emperor's birthday terror incident.
The two contrasting articles in the academy forum sparked a heated debate among the students.
"You can't do this to us!"
"Fuck I will make sure that bastard Jered gets fired too!"
"Isn't this against the law? Where is the formal proceeding? I should call my lawyer."
Currently, there were commotions in front of the student affairs office where around a dozen third-year students were expelled from HGA all at once.
The academy was like in a hot water since more and more shocking news appeared around the empire involving a few noble families.
Their dark secrets were exposed to the government and many of them were immediately caught. Their properties were quickly seized by the government.
HGA took this opportunity to expel the students from those families since they were also involved in Ares's case.
That case was considered illegal fighting and harming other students which were strictly forbidden by HGA and whoever did it would be expelled immediately. The security around the academy also became tighter.