TIME PASSED LIKE a breeze, the first years of the Knight Department have already seated themselves inside their respective classroom in the main building. They seated closely, and upfront. The thirteen of them were enough to fill the first two rows. They waited patiently for their professor, Yahto.
Cornelius is sleeping on his desk. Hades, Tevin, and Lorenzo were reading their own books. Silver, William, and Brandon were quietly lost in a thought. While the others were lowly talking among themselves, passing their free time, and carefully not disturbing their noise-sensitive classmates.
However, even after half an hour had passed, Yahto still hasn't shown his face to his class. The gossiping bunch ran out of topics, Cornelius is still asleep, and Hades finally finished his pocket book. The twelve were quietly staring into nowhere.
"… don't tell me he overslept?" Jarrett asks, he looked clearly upset.
"That's impossible, he wakes up early than we do," Alonso reasoned.
"Do you think he's at the training hall? I think he might be there," Brandon utters. '
"Hah… he's too carefree for a professor. Now I understand why the department dean losses patience when it comes to him," Hollis says, and sighs to herself in impatience. Hades nods at her words.
'He's the complete opposite of Father in terms of character', Hades thought, and it was a fact. While Grand Duke was a ruthless yet diligent teacher, Yahto was walking at his own pace.
"I was wondering where you bunch have gone to, but here you are huh," Heads turned towards the door after hearing that familiar voice of a woman. It was their senior, Nowela Phieleghard. She was wearing her training clothes, and had a towel hanging above her shoulder. "The one you're expecting won't be coming."
"What do you mean, senior?" Curtin mutters his confusion.
"Oh, you haven't heard from Professor Yahto then. There's this tradition in our department that happens every first day, instead of doing the orientation. First, we gather at the training hall, and second," her smile widen, and it reached her eyes.
'Ugh, it's that ominous smile again.' The first years felt shivers down their spine.
"… the seniors gang up on you, first years, until you beg for us to stop."
BEFORE THEY KNOW it, all thirteen of them were already in their training clothes, and standing at the stone grounds of their training hall. Surrounding them were all their seniors from all nine years above. It seems that they had just returned about a while ago. They all wore nasty grins, and they did not hide their excitement at the thought of beating up their own juniors.
But the thing is… it wasn't just the Knight Department who are present at this event. They spotted a few faces from different departments, even their batch mates were here. Hell, aside from Yahto, they can also spot a few professors in crowds. One can tell that this tradition has been one of the infamous events inside the academy.
In front of them stood the senior who they had a chat with yesterday, Corin, and like the others he was smiling in exhilaration.
Although unlike what Corin had expected, the first years in front of him… are barely fazed by what was happening. Five were grinning in eagerness, one was yawning and sleepy, four were standing motionless and expressionless, two were casually chatting, and the last one… was reading another book.
"Since there are only thirteen of you, this year's event isn't a full on clash with the seniors. Each year will provide seventeen official students to face you one on one, but why seventeen when you're only thirteen? It's because the class representative gets to face the five of them. May I know who your class representative is…?"
With that question, all twelve glanced over to Hades, who shut his book close with one hand. He looks up to Corin with a smile, "I'm from the sword course and the representative of the first years, Hades," he introduced himself even before Corin could ask.
Corin's eyes were filled with amusement, this was unexpected. Everyone from the Knight Department are clueless of the results from the entrance exam since they were out to the North during those days, while Corin and Nowela who stayed behind were plain oblivious, and were too busy to mind the results.
'I heard from the others that a commoner from our department placed second in the overall rankings, I didn't believe it, but to think it was true', he thought himself, and chuckled.
With a big smile, Corin faces the crowd, and shouts, "Alright! We need three each from the shield, spear, and archery course, and eight from the sword course! Line up your representatives, and we will officially start the 12th Annual Knight Department's Butthead Event!"
The hall was full of noises from their seniors after hearing Corin's loud voice. Hades had his eyes set on Corin's tall figure. It seems that he's the anonymous leader of the whole department, and Hades was finally able to confirm it with his own two eyes.
'And since he's the tenth grader… he must've at least met Brother Slate', Hades thought to himself, then soon followed his classmates to the sidelines.
Not long after that, Hades, Silver, Alonso, and Griffith real sheathed swords by some of the seniors. "For some excitement, why don't we start with the class representative and his five opponents?!" Corin was in the center with a sheathed sword, announcing the start of the event. Hades simply sighs before stepping up to the center.
'What a hard cliché', he thought to himself. He was getting tired of waiting.
"Pft— suddenly I pity our seniors," Rufus mumbled to himself, and his classmates heard it all. He wasn't wrong, since they know that Hades is strong, however…
"It might be different this time, though. Our seniors just got back from training with the Grand Duke," Silver interjected, the others nodded in agreement.
The past three days when they had nothing to do, they've never seen Hades pick up a sword, and self train. They would see him either meditating by the tree, reading a book, watering the plants he panted outside his window, or taking a stroll around the academy alone. Thus, they couldn't figure out how strong Hades is.
All they know is that he's stronger than Silver, but can he take a total of forty five students older and had more experience than him?
"Ugh, what useless worries, Hades wouldn't step in if he wasn't a hundred percent sure he could win," Rufus reasoned with them, but that did not completely erase their doubts for Hades' results in this competition.
Their conversation was disturb when loud cheers erupted from the crowd. They faced forward, only to see Hades finally being surrounded by five seniors holding onto the handles of their sheathed swords.
'Huh? They're taking him on all at once?'
"Hah! A commoner as the representative? Have the first years lost their mind?" a female senior comments.
"I thought the imperial prince was the representative, I was so agitated to fight him, now I'm just disappointed," a male senior says.
"Tch, when will you two get rid of that habit of talking down on your opponents? Did the Grand Duke not warn you about that annoying attitude?" another male senior scolds the two.
"Pft— I recall how many punishments you got from being cocky all the time," a male senior mocks his classmates.
"Shh! Senior Cor is getting ready!" another female senior hushed his noisy mates. Hades stood in the middle, completely blank and apathetic. There was no excitement or any fire in his eyes or expression, however… he's too laid back for a first year. No one knows what was going on inside his head.
"Knocking out the opponent and leaving scratches are allowed, however that will be a sign that the fight had ended. Surrendering is also allowed," Corin informed them and all six nodded back at him. He then unsheathes his sword, holding it out. "The second this sheath touches the floor, the fight begins," he informs again, and at that cue, all six took out their swords and stood in a proper stance.
As Corin lets go of the sheathe, it felt like the world had slowed for a second.
In a millisecond, Hades' lips curved up to a smile.
'Since they trained under Father, and are older than me… it's okay not to hold back, no?'