In minutes, Ashen and Natal finally got to the second year hall, a small building behind the storey building where the student's lived, built to seat no more than two hundred students, which was more than enough since each of the three classes (A-C) in the second year of the academy only had fifty students each.
The place was already packed with students anxious to hear the results while the other half simply sat down quietly with gloomy faces, already conscious of their alarming fate.
Without dawdling, Natal trudged forward looking for two spaces closer to the stage while Ashen simply stood beside him, wondering why his new friend was trying to discover the impossible.
"Getting two empty seats right beside each other might as well be a miracle," Ashen thought with a serene look on his face, only to be jerked away from his thoughts when he unexpectedly felt Natal pull him into a row, three rows in front of the stage with alarming speed, the kind that was reserved for people being chased after by monsters,
Ashen then found himself being thrown into a seat, as Natal quickly did the same.
"Natal…you know I was gunning for one of those seats," came the whining voice of a girl, her voice drawing Ashen's attention to the cute, blue-eyed stranger with curly pink her who stood in front of him,
"Well guess what Shella… we were also after these seats and don't you even think you can steal them the same way you wanted to take Anared's globe," Natal mocked with a despised look on his face for the person that was standing in front of him,
"Whaat?…I would never do that. I wanted to help Anared hold it, just in case we got separated after we spotted the monster…" She explained, tears soaking her eyes in such a way that if Ashen didn't know and trust Natal, he would immediately side with her,
"Yeah. But last time I checked helping people is not by force," Natal fired back without pity,
Meanwhile, trying not to stare at the girl in front of him who was deep in an argument with Natal, Ashen looked around trying to see if he could spot Ara close by,
However, after checking his sides and in front of him, with a swipe of his neck about to check behind him, with hopes of finding her when his eyes suddenly landed on a group of people sitting directly behind him,
His heart skipped a beat, the moment he saw Makin who had been sitting quietly behind him along with Dosan on his left who looked like he would like to kill him all over again and Wein on his right, with his usual friendly face not in the least surprised to see him as he went as far as to wave at him,
Ashen had no idea when he unconsciously grabbed Natal's arm whipping his head forward, his shirt red shirt soaking with sweat as the image of the pain and fear they caused him slowly sank into his bones,
"I don't mind giving her my seat and moving to the back," Ashen said louder than he wanted to as he felt his heart pound harder in his chest as Natal turned to look at him a confused expression on his face, as he noticed the sudden change in Ashen,
Before Natal could reply, Shella did,
"Aaaah," she gasped with relief, her eyes landing on Ashen, as she finally noticed him, her eyes roaming over his face,
"A gentlemen in the making," she continued, a little disappointed to notice his ordinary appearance and even more annoyed when she noticed the rank number on the left side of his breast pocket,
"Rank 50," she internally sneered getting a little pissed when she noticed how Natal held him down with his hand and prevented him from even moving an inch from where he sat,
"You heard him…he offered me his seat," she exclaimed looking at Natal, already conscious of how much he disliked her, especially since she enjoyed hanging around the person he liked,
"Ashen was simply talking to me and voicing his thoughts. When did, "I don't mind" become "I give you"?, Natal smartly replied ignoring what Ashen said and unwilling to let him get up until he got to the real reason why, after Shella had left,
"He's a RANK 50," she yelled loud enough for everyone in the first ten rows to hear, as more curious eyes turned to look towards them, wondering what the argument was about and Shella couldn't help but be delighted about it, knowing that she was in control of the crowd,
"He is at the bottom of the class and he had no right sitting in the front rows," She yelled around staring solely at Ashen with a smirk, with a simple plan of simply bullying him into submission,
A minute of silence went by when Natal slowly removed the hand and leaned back into his chair before turning to the side to look at Ashen,
"If you want to leave, then go," Natal said with a smile and a cold aura that Ashen had never seen him use before,