[26 March 2023, 05:20 AM]
[Academy]
I spent last night going around the street to refresh myself.
Without me realizing it, I had a lot of stress building up from everything that had happened to me. It was now morning. I did light exercises such as push-ups and sit-ups before going for a jog.
Putting on my sweatshirt, I ran out of the dorm. The Academy was big, so I intended to run around the Academy and go to the forest to train my movement.
Even though I had high-ranked Talents and stats, all of it was useless without proper training.
"Good. Let's get going."
I ran lightly at first and picked up my pace as soon as I reached the main building where classes were held. Because I was already Awakened, my Endurance was at a superhuman level. I had run around the Academy three times, but I could still keep up my pace just fine.
"Should I try to run faster?"
Accompanied by such a thought, I sped up a little bit. I limited myself to a normal human level as I wanted to keep attending the Academy.
After running for around 20 minutes, a lot of male students began to exercise too. Some of them were running behind me, and among them was Zaiden. When he saw me, he unexpectedly smiled and waved his hand at me.
Although I was somehow irritated by him, a reincarnator, for changing my story, I couldn't bring myself to hate him, who was also the main character of my story.
Reincarnator or not, Zaiden was a character that I created. It was a strange feeling that I couldn't understand. I had a lot of reasons to hate him. But I somehow couldn't hate him even though I wanted to.
I did plan to become a villain to make him suffer, but after I calmed down, I thought that idea was really bad. There would be no way for me to become a villain, I had no guts to be one.
"Tsk!"
I clicked my tongue and fastened my pace, leaving the other students behind. Zaiden had a disappointed look because I ignored him.
***
My body was drenched in sweat from the exercise. Running in the forest was a bit harder than I thought. The forest had a complicated terrain with a lot of rocks and trees, so I needed to watch my step when I maneuvered inside it.
Because I used all my strength without holding back when moving around in the forest, I now got used to my superhuman speed and reactions.
I took a quick shower before putting on my school uniform and heading to class. If I skipped all my classes, I would be expelled from the Academy, which obviously something I would like to avoid. I needed to stay for at least three month in this Academy to get what I wanted.
Zaiden and the heroines were not here yet. I sat quietly on my seat and rested my head on the table, pretending to sleep. The students glanced at me a little before continuing their chat.
Because I was interested in what they were talking about, I strained my ears to hear them.
"Hey, did you hear the news about that?"
"Yeah! I heard that news! They said that an Awakener with S-RankTalent had appeared?"
"Totally! And it's not the usual Talent. That guy has Sharpshooting Talent!"
"Woah! That's crazy!"
It seemed like they were talking about me, or rather, Rai. My lips curved into a small smile as I heard the content of their conversation.
My appearance as Rai had even been spread to normal people. There would be a commotion with the appearance of S-Rank Talent, and the guilds should start investigating Rai's background.
I imagined the time when they found nothing and got frustrated before going to the information broker, Darkest Secret, in the Merchant Store. He would find nothing, too, as Rai was an artificial persona that I created to push my plan forward.
That would be funny.
'Do your best. I will just pluck the result in a few days.'
A few minutes after I pretended to be sleeping, Zaiden and Lisa, the only heroine who was in this class, entered while being followed by our teacher.
"Alright! Take your seat. We will begin our first lesson!" The teacher shouted and started the class.
Of course, I ignored him as I stealthy circulated Mana in my body. I just realized that the class was the perfect place for me to use the Mana Breathing Method.
I could use the Mana Breathing Method as long as I was in a comfortable position. Not only that, no one in this Academy could feel Mana, so I was free to train during the class without anyone realizing it.
***
[03:00 PM]
"Alright! The class is over today!"
The teacher dismissed the class and exited the classroom.
The classes in the Academy only lasted until 3 PM. It was short, but it was normal in this world.
After the class was dismissed, the students went to the gym to train themselves.
In the dangerous world filled with dungeons and monsters, the civilians were advised to train themselves to keep their bodies in shape so that they could run when wild monsters appeared.
For that reason, the school changed its schedule to allow the students to train themselves in the morning and afternoon.
As the class had been dismissed, the students began to leave the class. Lisa also rose from her seat and approached Zaiden.
"Good work for today, Zaiden."
She greeted him with a smile.
"Lisa! Good work for today." He replied with a bright smile.
"Do you have any plans after this?"
"Hmm, well. I have a plan with Mirana to hit the gym." He scratched his cheek with his finger embarrassedly.
"Oh, right. It's Mirana's turn to have a date with you today."
"Yeah."
At that moment, an energetic greeting came from the doorway.
"Yahoo~ Zaiden, let's go!" Mirana appeared and skipped over to Zaiden.
She then noticed Lisa, who stood beside Zaiden and greeted her.
"Lisa! Hello~"
"Ah, yes. Hello, Mirana." Lisa replied with a smile.
Zaiden smiled wryly at Mirana's energetic greeting. However, he then noticed that there was still a boy in the classroom who had yet to leave. It was Vincent.
He was still sleeping, and he felt bad about Mirana making a ruckus when Vincent was still sleeping.
"Hey, Mirana. Can you lower your voice a little? Vincent is still sleeping."
"…Huh?" Mirana let out a confused sound and glanced back. There, she saw Vincent was still sleeping soundly with his head on his desk. "That guy is still sleeping? What did he do at night? I bet he's hanging around with shady people every night. So he lacked sleep and chose to sleep in the class."
Zaiden felt like Mirana was going too far. They didn't know what Vincent did last night or the other nights.
"We don't know what he did at night, so don't accuse him, Mirana." Rebuked Zaiden.
"But…" Mirana said weakly.
"No but." Zaiden denied as he rose from his seat. "More importantly, let's go to the gym."
"Oh right!" Exclaimed Mirana. She then turned to Lisa. "Well then, Lisa! We will take our leave now! I can't wait to hang around together on Saturday!"
Lisa nodded her head, "Yes, I can't wait either. Have a nice date, you two." She waved her hand at them.
They waved back at Lisa and left the classroom.
When they left, Lisa's smile fell as she sighed.
"I wanted to be with him all day…" She muttered quietly.
"Then why don't you just take him for yourself?"
She thought that no one would hear her, but an unexpected reply came from the boy who she thought was sleeping.
"Eh?!" Lisa let out a surprised sound as she looked at the boy, Vincent, who slowly raised his head and ruffled his hair.
He looked at her with his deep red eyes. She was a bit afraid of him. Even though he was handsome, his eyes felt like he was able to see deep inside her and it scared her.
"As I said, why don't you take that guy for yourself? I mean, you love him, and you want him for yourself, right? So why do you share your boyfriend with the other girls?"
Vincent's words rang in the classroom. Boyfriend. Lisa focused on that word.
She was indeed hanging around Zaiden. It was also clear that the other girls liked him too.
Including her, five girls in total hung around Zaiden. They looked like his lovers, but the truth was not like that.
"He's not my boyfriend." Denied Lisa.
Lisa could see Vincent's eyes shook a little bit. Maybe he also thought that they were all Zaiden's girlfriends?
But she knew that Zaiden never treated them as girlfriends, even though they liked him. He only saw them as close friends at best.
After all, Zaiden was kind toward everyone and never denied the rumors. So the other students misunderstood the situation and thought that they were his girlfriends.
"I see…" Vincent let out a small sound. He sounded relieved. "Well, it doesn't concern me a bit, so I won't bother you any longer."
He picked up his bag and held it over his shoulder before he walked to the exit.
'Did he perhaps listen to our conversation before and pretend to be asleep to not disturb us?' She then knew.
His actions were similar to those of a delinquent, but Lisa somehow thought that he was kind. Not only did he not poke around at her problem, he even gave her a piece of advice.
He was not even mad, even though Mirana accused him earlier.
'He's… kind?' Lisa couldn't find a word to describe the boy, Vincent. 'No, he's thoughtful.'
After talking with him a little, she noticed that she was not scared of him anymore.
Although the advice that he gave was a bit impossible.
"Well, have a good day, Lisa." Vincent then left the classroom without looking back.
"Have a good day too."
After he left, she then noticed that Vincent called her by her name.