The atmosphere in the arena became havoc. Ren's declaration to surrender from the battle had turned the audience that watched the battle live into confusion state. There was no other person would surrender voluntarily from the Rank Test in the long history of Varion Academy since its founding.
The arena building was completely on silence as they still tried to process what had happened.
However, there was a cheer coming from spectator at the one part of arena building and then one after another spectators started following suit and chanting the name of the winner, Elena.
The chants become louder every seconds until the whole arena has been filled by the loud voices people saying Elena's name as the Rank Test finally been concluded as Elena has been named as the sole victor for this competition.
In the midst of loud screaming and cheering voices of spectators there, one particular person standing in the corner of the building, still staring at Elena through the huge screen that located at the middle.
The man was wearing a black poncho, where the hood was covering his face from public. The noisy environment surrounding him never bothered him at all. His gaze still stuck on that screen. It was not as he still looking what was on that screen, but rather he was in the middle of contemplating something.
After few minutes, he turned around and a gust of wind engulfing his body before he vanished from there.
***
"Ahhhh....!!!"
Ren fell on his bum. The thud sound was clearly heard as his bum hit the iron floor. After he declared his surrender, he was suddenly teleported from his previous location. He got up and rubbed his bum to ease the pain. As he looked around, he realised that he was sent back to the small room before.
"Gah!!" He was surprised as he finally noticed that he was not the only person in that room. His guide before, Miss Ryna Elsgard was looking at him with somewhat displeased look on her face. He put his hand on his chest to calm the nerves.
"What games are you playing at?" Ryna spoke up.
"What do you mean? I'm not playing any game." Ren answered nonchalantly. His eyes wandering at the room.
"Don't play mind games with me, boy? Tell me why you surrendered when you can win. I will not let you go until I get the answer."
Ren looked at Ryna. It seems that girl was serious. Whether he liked or not, he was forced to tell his reason to Ryna. He knew what her personality looks like. In his past life, he saw that Ryna was asking Firaz to teach her a magic spell. When the latter refused, she would bothered him every day and asked again. And it was continued for three whole months as she never missed even a single day.
Until finally Firaz gave up and taught her the spell. Reminding on that moment, Ren knew that Ryna on this life, would probably do the same on him if he refused to tell her.
"I thought being the first rank for the first-years would not be benefits me at all."
"Hah!!! Why it wouldn't benefits you?" Ryna yelled a bit. Confused with Ren's statement.
"If I become the first rank for the first-years, I would also be entitled to Rank 10 for the whole students as the Rank 10 was reserved for the top first-year students. It was the rule of this academy since long ago."
"Then, where is the harm?" asked Ryna curiously.
"The same rule also stated that Rank 1 to Rank 10 students had to become members of student council unless you had valid reasons to not become one."
"Hahahahaha!!" Ryna chortled at Ren. "I thought there was a grand reason behind. But it just for a petty reason like that." Ren stared blankly at Ryna as she continued her laugh.
As she finished her laugh, she asked Ren. "Why you don't want to become member of student council? There are many benefits for becoming one. For example, you will have authority on your fellow students. You can punish them on behalf of professors if they have violated the school rules. Furthermore, student council is the most respected organisation in the entire school."
Ren snorted. "Perhaps I value freedom more than bounded authority."
"Bounded authority? What is the reason you said so?" Ryna her eyebrow in response.
"Student council supposed to be the representative of the students. But here, it was just no more than guard dogs of those discriminating nobles that disguised themselves as professors for this academy."
"I see.. So that's how you see this academy. Fine by me. That's your opinion. I will respect that. But there was another thing that I need to know."
"What?" Ren asked her, although he already knew what the thing that Ryna was gonna asked him for.
"The thing that you pulled before during your duel with my sister. What is that? How you do that?"
"As you know, there are five nature elements of magic; fire, water, wind, earth and lightning. And, you are already know about Magic Union where you crafted two different magic elements on top of each other to get different properties or different outputs."
Ren continued. "Miss Luna, my opponent before was using Magic Union and combine Rock Charge and Rock Cannon with wind spell, Wind Boost. That made her Rock Charge or Rock Cannon become faster than normal.
Ryna nodded her head, agreeing with Ren. "I know about Magic Union."
"My Magic Fusion use the same concept with Magic Union, but instead of cast two different magic on top of each other, I assimilated those two magic into one. As the result, a new magic elements was formed from it. If you are used to it, you can even cast it from the scratch."
Ren rotate her wrist in half circle as a green-blue colour magic circle formed on his fingers. A rose made from ice emerged from the circle.
Ryna chuckled. "You made it looks easy to execute."
"It was never easy. It took me years to perfect this technique."
Suddenly, a loud thump was heard as the door of this room was widely opened from outside. At the outside, Elena Elsgard was there with menacing stare. She was breathing heavily as if she was just finished a sprint.
"How dare you mocking me!!" Her voice was filled with anger. She approached Ren with quick, furious steps. With clenched fist, she tried to swing it on Ren.
Ren put his hands above his head and bent his body a bit. He then closed his eyes, bracing himself of the incoming fist of fury from Elena.
But, to his relief, the attack was never coming. He opened his eyes slightly. Elena was there, in front of him with her fist high in the air. Ren saw her eyes became moist as if she was trying to hold back her tears.
And then, a sudden burst of tears was coming from her eyes as she was crying with high-pitched wails before turned to Ryna and hugging her sister.
Ren blinked a few times, not believing what he had saw. 'What the hell happened here? Why she was crying?'
"Big..Sis.. Look at this man, he was..mocking me. I..hate him." Elena spoke between her wails.
Ryna consoled her younger sister by stroking Elena's head few times. Ren peered at Ryna, still looking confused.
As Elena's wailing became slower, Ren asked Ryna, seeking for answer to clear his confusion.
"Hahaha.." Ryna laughed awkwardly. "Actually this girl is a huge crybaby and a little bit spoilt. When something unfair happened to her, she would started crying. As the pressure for being a princess, she put a tough front to hide her real personality. She never showed it to anyone outside from our family. This is the first time."
Ren shook his head. He was never expected that Elena Elsgard, the one who called 'Ice Princess' because she never shown any expression, apparently was a huge crybaby. He never once saw this personality of hers during his past life.
An announcement sounded out to Ren's ear, ordering all the previous test takers to gather in the arena's stage soon. Ren told Ryna that he needed to go the arena building. Same with Elena.
"You go first." Elena ordered Ren to go first as Elena was not moving at all, still hugging her sister although she was also heard the announcement before.
Hearing that, Ren excused himself and went outside straight to the arena.