More weeks have passed and now it's February.
Time goes fast when you have nothing to do.
Today was a day off for the students, Rei wanted to spend this day with Rose in the room, but she had to do laundry so she was turned down.
So now he wandered around the surroundings of the academy.
Arriving at the building that corresponds to the special class, we noticed a training field.
In the advanced class there are no training grounds.
Students are free to walk wherever they wish, unless access is restricted.
Rei watched as students from knightly families arduously trained their bodies on different equipment of the time.
Like weights made of metals other than steel.
Practicing swordsmanship with wooden swords.
Punching dummies and a bit of boxing, despite the fact that martial arts are not practiced in the country, boxing seems to be a fighting style rather than sport.
"It looks interesting, I haven't trained for a long time."
"Normally the academy should have a training camp for nobles like in the game, but I imagine that seeing the sons of prestigious families getting hurt is not good for the academy."
"So for that reason that I spend all day studying. I should complain."
"They wouldn't listen to you anyway..."
Rei ignored me and went straight to the training ground.
◇
After changing into something lighter, he picked up a wooden sword and began light strokes.
Normally one should do stretches, but Rei always does them after waking up.
And I'm talking about real stretches that don't involve Rose.
After a while of hitting the dummy, Rei got bored.
"This isn't fun anymore. It doesn't move so it's no good for me to practice."
He turned his head in different directions until he saw something that caught his eye.
"Oh, that looks exciting."
"What does?"
"There's a lot of people over there."
He pointed in one particular direction, a group of young men were having mock combat with wooden swords.
As I walked in that direction, I noticed something interesting.
It wasn't the fact that I was watching two boys fight, but one of them.
A very tall young man, well-shaped muscles, short spiky green hair, while his eyes were hazel.
The boy was using a destroyed wooden sword, to simulate a real fight when your sword breaks.
I know him well, he is one of the allies in the game, there were many times where you had to use help from men instead of your harem to complete missions.
When the boy used a move where his sword hit the opponent's hand, it was all over.
Various cheers could be heard from all directions.
One of his companions handed him water and a towel.
"Thanks, but I still can, who's next?"
It seemed everyone knew him perfectly well, so none of them dared to raise their hand.
Except for him, Rei.
"I'm next. I was starting to get bored."
The voices of the boys were hated perfectly by Rei as he approached the center.
"Who is he?"
"No idea, never seen him."
"He must be a new student."
Arriving at the center, the boy held out his hand to Rei as he introduced himself.
"You must be one of the new students, nice to meet you. I'm a second year student, Oliver Bennett, son of Captain Bennett of the magical knights."
"Magical knights?"
Of course, Rei had to ask that.
You could tell she wasn't paying attention in class.
But the boy─ Oliver without sounding annoyed by his ignorance answered him politely.
"If you don't know despite being from a family of baronets it's okay. It's never too late to learn."
"As you may know, in this country there are two types of military. The normal knights and the magic knights."
"Only the magic knights are divided into five categories: lower rank magic knight, middle rank magic knight, higher rank magic knight."
"Then come the two categories that everyone aspires to, the three categories mentioned are in charge of working together the army."
"The fourth category is called Royal Guard, they are knights personally chosen by royalty to protect their family members or the royal palace or ministers."
"Last of all is an honor and the one that all magical knights aspire to, to belong to the Royal Knights."
"Royal Knights?"
"Yes. The Royal Knights are the elite and the best. There are nine knighthoods, my father is the captain of the eighth knighthood, and I don't want to brag, but I'm very proud of him, hehehe."
Oliver said this with a smile on his face as he blushed.
He really means it, in the game he becomes one after being very helpful in the final battle.
"Unnecessary, the army lesson doesn't interest me. I just want to not get rusty, are we going to fight or not?"
Despite that self-centered comment, Oliver wasn't angry, in fact, he was pleased.
"Straight to the point, isn't it? I like you, men settle their issues with their fists and not with words."
(As always, a muscle head. You're called the sword idiot for a reason, much like the other idiot.)
"Well, let's get started."
Oliver couldn't finish what he was going to say, as Rei swung his sword.
The sword almost landed on his face, Oliver quickly dodged it, but there was something that was never said.
Was the method of fighting with the sword?
Such a simple and straightforward question did not enter Rei's head.
Which he lunged to punch him hard in the face.
As expected, Oliver couldn't dodge it and ended up on the ground with a broken nose.
Rei seemed satisfied, as he threw a towel at him before turning away.
"That was satisfying, see ya."
"Hey, what's wrong with that guy?"
"Even if it was training, he wasn't supposed to do that."
"Even sparring has a certain etiquette."
The disgruntled comments from the students who saw Rei's unfair duel argued their wrongdoings.
"I feel relaxed, I'll go eat."
We were heading to eat while I showed my deepest condolences to Oliver as I doubt we will ever see each other again after this.
◇◇◇
... Or, so I thought.
"Wow, to think you were a nobleman, my bad, my bad."
While we were eating lunch, a student approached Rei, who not having Rose around, got food that was not at all healthy and high in grease.
The student was Oliver who had his nose healed by the healing magic of the infirmary.
He sat down at the table, and with a cheek to cheek smile said.
"You're so strong! Normally no one would knock me out with a normal fist, but yours was very strong!"
"I'm sure you'll be a great knight someday!"
"Hey, what the fuck are you talking about? I'm a duke."
"Really! I didn't know that!"
Apparently he really didn't know that Rei was a noble, Oliver's surprised face was what you'd expect from some sports anime when the super muscle-brained fellow knew something everyone else knew.
"In that case, I apologize for not knowing and thinking you were like us. But I'm serious, I could feel your strength in that fist, you really are a strong man."
"It really is a waste that you're not a knight."
"It doesn't matter, I'm a Cheat Lord so I must be the strongest."
"What's a Cheap Lord?"
"Are you making fun of me?"
"No, I'm serious."
"..."
And somehow after that strange occurrence, Oliver proceeded to become the first human bond other than anyone in his family or Rose.
Rei made a friend, I feel happy somehow.
◇
About two days after somehow Rei befriended Oliver, he played an adjunct class between the first and second years.
It was magic, we were at the training ground for nobles.
A place that looked like a normal soccer field.
They were chosen in pairs of two at random.
So as fate would have it... or the fact that I'm the main character, I end up paired with another male character in the game.
A second year student like Oliver, but he was of noble origin.
A shorter boy than Rei, slim stature, short hair but combed to the side like a bookworm, and I wasn't saying that because of his glasses.
Dark blue hair and green eyes with a sharp gaze.
He was.
"We'll be partners in this practice, a pleasure, I'm Isaac Ashton, the heir of Count Ashton."
The son of the chief of all court magicians.
"Ashton? Sounds familiar from somewhere."
"It's normal that you know the name, but very strange that you don't recognize the person."
"And I'm talking about my father, not me."
"The Ashton family is part of the Four Noble Family's."
"We were given the responsibility of looking after the Kingdom through our position of the chief court mage."
"And what is a court mage?"
It's normal the face Isaac makes, after all, Rei knows he's a court mage. He just seems to have forgotten.
Isaac felt a little offended as I thought it was a joke, until he saw Rei's serious expression.
"As your superior, I'll take that as part of the ignorance of someone who doesn't know many subjects, in your future you should learn a bit of certain things for your life."
"... Listen, court mages are individuals who belong to noble families, it's the obvious that, but these mages are not the ones you normally see in your family."
"They are magicians who work exclusively in the palace and perform various activates, be it espionage, secret political dealings, assassination─ no, forget what I just said, that's not something normal public should know."
(We both heard it clearly Isaac, you were immersed in telling about court magicians with such pride that you forgot to shut your mouth at key moments.)
(That's why I call you the magic idiot, he's got nothing but spells and magic textbooks in that brain.)
*Cough*
"Well, they take care of different magical matters, among them helping magical knights."
"My goal is to become a sage as the first wizard of the court."
"Sage?"
(Oh. Isaac is revealing one of the protagonist's jobs.)
(I remember that the profession "Sage" was the one given to those who achieved full mastery of magic.)
(In the game it just meant that you had more girls coming up to you and achieved more importance in the palace.)
"That's a Sage."
Isaac seems to have explained to Rei what the job of Sage meant...
Wait Rei. What's with those eyes?
Don't tell me you're going!
"If what it takes to be that is just possessing a great talent for magic."
Rei's right hand moved to the dolls that were twenty meters away from the students.
"Then I am the Legendary Sage they wanted!"
"Extreme Magic: Bombardment!"
With those words, a magic circle appeared on the ground, after a few seconds, a huge explosion occurred.
The explosion was so big that it could engulf the entire academy.
And that the academy is the same size as a small town.
But Rei is not dumb, or at least not that dumb, as he activated a spell to prevent the flames from devouring everything.
"Prison of Light."
A magical circle of light formed in the air to trap the explosion.
Only a few seconds passed, and both Isaac's face and that of the others was to understand.
"You, w-w-w-w-what was that! Did you do that?"
"Obviously. with this I am now a Sage, no?
Before Isaac could answer him, a teacher came in shouting.
"Please go to the principal's office!"
◇◇◇
"Err, could you repeat that?"
"Like I said, I just activated a simple spell to show that I'm worthy of that title of the blissful Sage."
"When do I get it?"
Rei was called and sent to the principal's office after what happened.
I'm not surprised, it's the normal thing to do after scaring everyone.
But for some reason the vice principal received us, it seems that the old principal really is sick.
The office was a place of which there is undoubtedly a mountain of books, squares a window behind the director's back and above all furniture arranged in an H-shape as there is a square table in the middle.
"I'm very sorry, Reidel-kun, but do you understand what you have done?"
"I made a demonstration of my power."
"No, no, no. You caused an incident where you could have killed one of your classmates."
"The practice field is so incinerated that we'll have to use earth mages to get it back to normal!"
"I can rebuild it if you don't bother me."
"Do you understand that what you caused was a possible threat to the palace?"
"Threat?"
It looks like the thing is serious, even I didn't expect it. Rei's face implied that he really didn't think this would be problematic.
"Hey old man, answer. who exactly would it be a threat to, huh?"
"Hey Rei, don't act like that in front of the vice principal!"
"What the hell will we do if we get expelled, it'll be bad for our future!"
"Please understand that what you caused can be considered a threat to the Ashton family's son."
"That wasn't a threat, I just showed him my power so he could see if I was qualified for that title."
"Even if you say that, I'm afraid this is more serious than you think."
Rei as usual didn't care about the situation, he even placed his finger on his nose to show he didn't care."
"Okay. How much?"
"How much of what?"
"How much do they want so they won't bother?"
The assistant manager took offense at that comment.
"This is not a matter of money, this is a matter that has to do with the palace. This will involve your family since─"
"For you to stop blabbering I will give you 100 gold coins and 500 gold coins to the academy."
"Huh?"
I and the vice principal made the same idiotic expression upon hearing such a natural proposal.
I felt like I was watching those mobster shows where everything was solved with money.
"I'll give you that amount so you won't nag me anymore, give me three days─ no, give me two days and I'll have that amount for you."
"Please don't treat me like a fool."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Fine. I'll give 200 gold coins to you and 750 gold coins to the academy."
"Hey Rei, that amount is crazy even for you!"
"We certainly have a lot of money saved up, but still─"
"You said this would bring trouble to my house, right?"
"I don't want that, so instead of solving it the hard way. I'll solve it with the simple option, bribery."
"So give me two days and you'll get a lot of money, even your salary won't give you that amount in your life, right?"
"Just accept it, I won't lose out anyway."
"Rei, the vice principal is not an idiot to accept that─!
"Very well."
"Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! He actually accepted it!"
"I'll give you two days to bring the money by lunchtime sharp. Not a minute and not a second less."
"If you don't bring it, it will be bad for you."
"As you say old man. Can I get the hell out of here now?
"Yes, please leave."
I could sense some of that hostility, but it was understandable.
By the way, this old man sure is manipulable.
"Please tell the guy waiting outside the office to come in."
"Why should I do it?"
"Take it as a sign of mutual cooperation."
"Tch. How annoying."
"Well, your name?"
"Fionn Eisenberg."
"Right."
(That name is undoubtedly that of another of the characters, and also one of the strongest allies.)
Rei got up and said goodbye to the vice-principal in a disrespectful manner.
He opened the door and there sat patiently, but with his eyes closed the same tan-skinned boy I saw the first day.
"Hey you, come on in, you're next."
Opening his eyes, he looked at us in a disinterested manner.
He was taller than Rei, and more muscular.
Without a word he walked into the office.
Rei stared at him and after he entered he said.
"A weirdo no doubt."
"You're no one to say that!"
"Who cares. Kurono, I'm hungry."
"Sure you are, take advantage of the fact that Rose must not know about this yet since she went into town on an errand."
"When she finds out, your head will roll."
"Rose won't do that, she'll give me a lecture and that'll be the time where I'll relax her by kissing her."
"Don't make her look like an easy girl to please!"
"Huh? What's going on there?"
Rei walked straight to the dining room as we passed by a bridge connecting different buildings.
In the distance we saw something strange, a crowd of people gathered.
"What will happen there?"
Rei said that, and then activated Teleportation Magic.
Which took us to an attached building, where we heard everything from above.
"Release the princess, you bastard!"
"Never! The princess is mine!"
"We've been in love for a long time and I came to claim her!"
Now that I saw everything up close, a group of academy knights surrounded a guy who had a girl which he grabbed by the neck.
"Get away from me, let us be happy together!"
"Let go of the princess now and your punishment will be reduced!"
"P-Please let go of me. We don't even know each other, I never looked at your face so we've never made contact.
"You may say that, but I had always worked in the palace. I watched you from afar every time you came out of the dining room and when you strolled through the gardens. If that's not love, don't deny it!"
"Please let me go! What you're saying doesn't make sense, I don't even know your name!"
"Besides─!"
The girl who seems to be the princess of the kingdom said the worst truth in this situation.
"I'm sorry, you're not my type! Your face is really scary because of your thick and together eyebrows."
"I'm sorry to say it, but I don't like those eyebrows."
(Your honesty is one thing that's certainly admirable, but right now it's not!)
"Hey Rei."
"Cutting Wind."
Without waiting for him to say anything, Rei activated a spell with which the arm grabbing the princess was cut off.
The guy screamed in pain.
"My arm! My arm!"
Then he slowly descended and pointed his hand at the guy's face.
"You are very ugly and a stalker to boot. Rose told me that just because you're a stalker is why you failed as a man, die."
Before Rei blew his head off, the guy pulled something out of his pocket.
It was a red pill.
He swallowed it quickly and then his magic power as his muscles increased.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"I can feel the power pouring out of me! This is the power of the chosen humans!"
He grabbed his sword and lunged to attack Rei.
"If no one wants me to have my beloved princess! Then no one will have her!"
"I said shut up."
*Snap*
With a snap, the guy's head exploded.
The reason it exploded was because Rei used Open Status and then Edit so that his head was blown into small parts.
The remains were scattered around.
"Well, with this I'll have the vice-principal reward me."
Rei was walking away, but a voice like an arm grabbing his sleeve stopped him.
"Wait please!"
Rei turned around at the beautiful but still frightened voice that stopped him.
Turning around, with his usual nasty expression.
Rei gawked.
It was only natural, as a beautiful girl with blonde hair and purple eyes was watching us.
Her eyes also widened, and she said something I couldn't understand.
"I finally found you, I've been waiting for this moment. My prince."