"Oh, would you look at you," Lirian said in a mocking tone, "Two months of proper training and you already think that you qualify to be a threat to me," his tone was icy and left some of the students feeling cold shivers.
Lucas glanced around and walked back to the others and discussed in soft voices, "He obviously won't give up on this we all know how stubborn he is, should we go easy on him?" someone asked.
"No, we can't," Shen Lim said, "He'll know if we are going easy on him," he said with an eye trained on Lirian, watching him carefully.
"Why should we, he has always looked down on us, and even now while he's blind he is doing the same," Hinata added in with a bit of heat to her voice, "We should teach him the price for being so arrogant, have you all forgotten what he did to us on the first day in the academy it's time for payback."
How could any of them forget that day, they were all convinced that they were going to die at that time, an experience like that stays with you forever, especially when you are raised having a pampered life.
While most of them didn't really agree with her desire to teach Lirian a lesson they knew that she had a point, beside it wasn't like they had the option of denying Lirian's request.
"Do you hear that; they plan to knock you down after you so graciously thought them a valuable lesson on that first day and now, they plan to use it as a justification," number 12 whispered, "You should just kill the ungrateful lot of them."
Alastor could hear Lirian muttering somethings to himself, it wasn't completely clear but he faintly heard the word kill and looked up with concern, "Lirian are you sure about this?" he said while tapping on his shoulder.
The touch caused Lirian to snap out of his thoughts, "Do you think that I would have even suggested this if I was certain of my victory," he said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.
Alastor shook his head, "You look down on them too much," he advised Lirian.
"Gghh," Lirian ground his throat and scoffed "The reason that I'll win this with ease, is because they look down on the current me if I can take down just two of their people before they move against me seriously, it will be my victory from the start."
Alastor raised his brow, he really struggled to understand where Lirian found his confidence, it was like he had an endless reservoir of confidence in himself, and he wondered if was just too much ego, or if the boy could back it up.
Alastor didn't say anything more and had the class assemble.
They soon formed up in a formation and stood facing Lirian.
Lirian took a breath and focused on his ears to hear the beating of their hearts, he followed the sound made by their every foot step but he quickly frowned, "What the hell is that crap formation you guys are using, you have the numbers advantage, why am I not surrounded from all sides," he shouted.
"Lirian, it's already unfair that so many of us are going to attack you, if we..." Karen started to say, they were using the most basic of tactics.
"Did I damn well ask for fair," Lirian spat, "Do you think that me being blind is fair, do you even understand how much more I have to do to prove myself now that I'm blind, I have to do a hundred times more than anyone else and I have to expect half the amount of the credit I would normally receive."
"Now stop acting like the world is fair and come at me properly," he shouted at them.
The students were taken aback but they felt a new found respect for Lirian, as they realised that they were the ones who really didn't understand, while they were focused on the small little things he was already looking at the bigger picture.
Alastor also looked at him with a new found curiosity, Lirian was so fast to adapt, he changed the rules, from using this as a simple means to get Alastor to join his future campaign and already begun using it as a way prove himself to the civilization once more.
He had a nagging suspicion that everything that had happened since he began speaking to Lirian was all a part of his plan including this exhibition match.
Miss Hira was beside him and watching closely, "Has he always been like this?" Alastor asked her.
Hira looked at the students with a look of contemplation on her face, "His always been an arrogant, rude, egocentric, narcissistic maniac," she said with a little heat in her tone.
"But yes, he has always been the smartest person in the room, always looking ten steps ahead while everyone else can barely even make out the first step, and forget about being able to read between the lines, he can read between the spacing of every word and come up with theories that almost always prove to be correct."
"Frankly I've never had a student like him, and sometimes when you hear him speak about a topic, you'll feel like you're experiencing the history yourself and no matter how much you know you'll find that he has something to teach you, unfortunately, that mouth of his is also extremely well versed in pissing people off," she said with a mixture of pride and anger, those things aside she still held a slight grudge for her ruined marriage.
"Does that answer your question," she said flashing him a charming smile.
Alastor nodded not minding her attempts to flirt with him anymore.
Alastor had read all the reports Sarah Jane had sent to the family, she was very thorough in her evaluations of Lirian, which gave the family hope about her future.
He had personally heard some of her reports, but since she was just a child he never took them too seriously, but now seeing Lirian in the flesh it completely changed the way he saw things.
"Now, that I've answered your question could you answer one of mine," she asked coquettishly.
Alastor recognized this tactic, woman always used it to ask him out, 'She is beautiful, it can't hurt to say yes especially since my recent demotion, I'll be lucky if even one of my old pursuers are still interested,' he thought, with such thoughts in mind he nodded proudly.
Hira smiled at him, "Tell me, how is it that you are still teaching here, after what you did, I can't imagine why the empress would allow you to stay so close to her son?" she said with a dangerous glint in her eye.
She didn't like Lirian all that much but she still treasured her students, and Lirian was the best student she ever had, if he could one day make it in life and become just the leader of a high world, which she felt would be easy given his natural gifts, she would have something to brag about till the day she died.
Alastor felt his face twitch, that was absolutely not what he expected to hear and he even felt embarrassed, "It was his doing," he said pointing at Lirian as the students made a proper formation around him.
"If you want to know more feel free to ask him," he added quickly as he saw Hira's confusion.
She just sighed and looked at Lirian intently, she couldn't understand what he was up to, but she was sure that it was because he was ten steps ahead if not more.