The sky up above the Imperial Academy was becoming clearer and clearer, with fewer clouds and more sunbeams passing through them. A huge commotion could be heard from just outside the Library. As the news of the fight spread through the Academy's Outer Court, disciples started to flow in that direction from every part of it, excluding those inside the cultivation rooms, who were more interested in cultivating than in wasting time by looking at someone else fighting.
"Elder Song, normally I would have appreciated your help in difficult situations, but, sadly, I know your motives behind today's intervention. I've always been alone in this Academy, except for the only person who treated me as a real friend in these 2 years, even though she is not in the Academy at the moment and we can already see how much more times I'm getting bullied by the other disciples, just because I'm not strong enough. You never helped me before, so don't expect me to say thank you just because you brought me to the Infirmary once."
Arslan's speech left Elder Song unable to talk back. He was right, Elder Song never cared about weak disciples and never tried to help those who were bullied against the rules of the Academy itself. Disciples could only challenge each other officially and fight in the arenas, where the elders could check that no one would have been killed by the opponent by mistake. This was made to allow everyone to cultivate with their own pace and to fight only when ready to do it. But this rule was never respected, to begin with.
"Thus," Arslan continued, "Now I'm gonna head back to my dwelling. Please, say to Elder Oak that it wasn't my fault if I wasn't able to fulfill the task he assigned to me for today."
"..." Elder Song could only look at Arslan turning his back on him and walking away. The elder's face looked troubled as he couldn't say anything to change Arslan's mind.
'It is too late to try to win me over now, after witnessing the power my father passed on to me.' Arslan thought. The environment he grew up in made him quite diffident from everyone else. Being so weak for all those years won him only countless beatings, both at home, where the absence of Joseph was making his life difficult, to say the least, and at the Academy, where the elders never intervened to protect him.
"Hey, you! Where do you think you are going?"
Arslan stopped walking and turned around to look who was calling him,
"You again, what do you want now? I have things to do." Arslan said as he noticed the one who talked was Jacob, 'It seems, he doesn't want to stop bothering me.' He thought as he looked at him with half of his body turned, but with his right foot still pointing in the direction of his dwelling.
"I didn't finish talking with you! Even if Elder Song is kind enough to let you go, it doesn't mean you can disrespect Cindy and hope to just leave like that! Come here to bow down to her and ask for forgiveness!" Jacob said looking at Arslan while pointing his left hand's finger at the girl behind him.
"Ohoh, did you hear him? He wants Arslan to submit to Cindy!"
"He only wants to win her love."
"Shhh, don't say it aloud or they could hear you!"
"I want to see what that trash will do now. He has been too exuberant lately. There is the need for someone to put him in his right place!" A disciple in the lower ranking's spots said.
The crowd got excited and couldn't stop talking about what would have happened. Cindy was smiling in satisfaction as she loved to be desired by someone as powerful as Jacob, but she loved, even more, to have someone submitting to her. She called Arslan closer with the movement of a finger pointing at her feet.
Arslan spread his eyes in disbelief at what they were asking him.
John would have liked to help him out, but he knew he wouldn't have stood a chance against Cindy and Jacob. His only relief was Elder Song's presence, thinking that he would have stepped in if Arslan had gotten hurt.
'They are always so fond of violence and power... How can they look for it so much when it just leads to that kind of awful stuff?' He thought as he looked at the two ranked and the crowd surrounding him, 'They are all waiting for us to fight... what is there of good in people getting hurt?' He felt distanced from all of them, as if he had been raised in a different world,
"Listen, I didn't want to disrespect her, but she intervened in the talk between me and Elder Song. I think it is only natural for me to feel annoyed by this. Thus, Why don't we end it here? We both made a mistake."
"Are you placing yourself on her same level? Obviously, she can do whatever she wants to you, she is the daughter of a powerful family! And what are you? Even if you learnt some tricks, you are still a powerless trash without parents."
In the Imperial Academy, Arslan's origins were well known. As most of the disciples came from tributaries of the Great families or the Great families themselves, they all hated the Crimson family, which, for years, caused them great losses in terms of money and power because of Argo Crimson's importance in the Celestial Empire. The rest of the disciples came from lower-level families and were able to get their youngsters to enter the Academy just because of their personal abilities, or thanks to the help of a more powerful family backing them. For sure, none of them would have defended someone the Great families hated so much.
'What a piece of sh*t.' Arslan thought as he clenched his fists, looking straight at Jacob.
"So? Are you gonna do it by yourself or do you want me to help you? We don't have all day." Jacob said while smiling proudly. What could there be better than hitting on Cindy and having that crowd of disciples witnessing his strength? Jacob just thought to have killed two birds with one stone.