Bruce gently grabbed Meredith's hand and dragged her forward. Meanwhile, Meredith was processing what just happened before she realized that she was holding hands with Bruce.
"Let me go!" Meredith attempted to break away from Bruce's hand.
"Princess, you lost the bet and now you have to honor the bet" Bruce still held her hand as they walked behind the other couple.
"Fine…" Meredith is a prideful person. Dishonoring a bet wasn't something she could do.
Chelsey turned around to see the commotion only to find Bruce and Meredith hold hands. This went against all of her expectations because she thought that Meredith would cast Bruce aside and spy on her date with Deion.
"Wow Bruce, how did you manage to hold hands with Meredith?" Chelsey now had an entirely different impression of Bruce. Meredith had never allowed the opposite gender to touch her until today.
"The princess and I met today by the stroke of luck. Our feelings for each other began to blossom as fate put us together" Bruce began to narrate the love story between him and Meredith.
"Is that true Meredith?" Chelsey looked at Meredith and found her best friend's face to be blushing surprisingly.
Deion also joined in the fun.
'Not bad Bruce, you managed to tame that tigress' Deion internally thought and gave a secret thumbs up to Bruce.
"My god, this couple is blessed by heavens and earth. They perfectly match each other. Don't you agree Chelsey?"
Chelsey didn't know what to say because she didn't want to put her best friend in an awkward position.
"Ehmm I don't know yet. Why don't we get to know each other at that restaurant" Chelsey said.
Chelsey led the group to an up-scale restaurant at the shopping center. The wealthy seemed to be the main customers of the restaurant as the group walked in and saw everyone dressed formally. The Imperial Academy uniforms in itself are high status so the group fit right in.
"Table for 4 please" Deion asked the hostess to provide them with a table that has a nice view.
The group sat down with Deion and Chelsey on one side while Bruce and Meredith sat on the other side. For some reason, Bruce still held Meredith's hand which caused her to blush even more.
"What are you doing? Let go of my hand now. We're in a restaurant" Meredith whispered quietly to Bruce. He found her to be quite adorable at the moment.
"Oh you're right. We'll continue our hand holding when we leave this restaurant" Bruce let go of her hand and looked at the menu.
"You…"
Meredith felt exacerbated when she heard Bruce's response. All her life, she had never held a boy's hand. She didn't have a good impression of Bruce initially as she thought he was just an average student at the academy.
However, his perfect control over water greatly surprised her. She didn't know how his elemental control was that good. As she kept thinking about what happened today, she increasingly got more curious about Bruce. At that moment, Bruce was an enigma to her.
"Ladies, please order anything you want on the menu. Deion is paying for all of us"
Bruce cheerfully informed everyone and ordered a delicious grilled chicken meal and a few expensive snacks. Meredith and Chelsey ordered a light meal for lunch. Deion, wanting to remain as a gentleman, also ordered a light meal unlike a certain someone who only cared about food.
"So Bruce, tell me how you actually manage to hold Meredith's hand" Chelsey couldn't hold it anymore and asked the question directly to Bruce.
"Like I told you, it was love at first sight.." Bruce began to tell the love story once more.
"Seriously! How did you do it? I don't buy the love story" Chelsey knew that Meredith didn't believe in romance or love at first sight. He must have done something to Meredith.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Bruce looked at Meredith who was slightly blushing.
"Ahem Chelsey, I'll tell you later" Meredith gave a look to Chelsey that only the two understood.
"Okay, let's leave it at that" Chelsey stopped pestering Bruce about the incident.
Deion began to ask the girls about their experiences at the academy and their hobbies. The group chatted happily and enjoyed the meal until a certain someone saw the group.
The young man with red hair walked to the table.
"What is a peasant like you doing with Meredith?" Waltz, the Prince of Fire Kingdom, stared at Bruce with a murderous glare.
"Sorry but who are you?" Bruce innocently asked for Waltz identity.
"You must be living under a rock if you don't know me!"
"My name is Waltz Therian, Heir to the Fire Kingdom."
"If you know what's good for you, leave Meredith's side now!"
Waltz had been pursuing Meredith for the past 3 years. He had always been receiving the cold shoulders from Meredith, but he never gave up. After he graduates from the academy, he planned to get his father, the emperor, to request for her hand in marriage.
To him, it's only fitting for a marriage to happen between two royal bloodlines. Seeing Meredith with some random commoner made him extremely angry.
"Waltz Therian, Heir to the Fire Kingdom…"
"Sorry, never heard of you"
Bruce continued to enjoy his snack and treated Waltz like a random fly.
"You stupid peasant, you'll pay for this!" Waltz turned enraged after getting ignored by Bruce. Especially in front of his crush. He felt that his manhood was threatened.
"Go out and fight me. If I win, you'll leave Meredith alone forever" Waltz decided to challenge Bruce.
Bruce put down his food and looked at Waltz like he's an idiot.
"First of all, it is Meredith's decision to be with whoever she chooses."
"Second, I'd knock you out in two seconds, so you better think again about this challenge."
"Lastly, don't threaten me with your status because that just shows everyone how incapable you are"
Bruce stood up and stared at Waltz face to face.
"Also, do you know that my teacher can come to the Fire Kingdom and kill your father like a headless chicken?"
"If you want to bring up status as a threat, make sure to do some research first you idiot."
Bruce sat down after giving a piece of mind to Waltz. On the other hand, Waltz felt like he was slapped in the face multiple times as he got verbally insulted by a peasant.
Deion started clapping and brought the entire restaurant's attention to the group.
"Well said Bruce. This idiotic prince doesn't even know who he is up against! Hahahahahaha"
Chelsey and Meredith were shocked after hearing what Bruce just said. No one in the academy dared to mock Waltz since he has a powerful background and extremely talented. He is currently ranked 8th on the leaderboard. It is incredibly stupid to offend someone like Waltz.
"YOU BASTARDS! COME OUT OF THE RESTAURANT AND SETTLE THIS"
Waltz had enough of this nonsense from these two clowns. He wanted to strangle them in front of everyone. He had lost so much face in front Meredith today that he needed to humiliate these two peasants to make up for it.
"Bruce, do you want me to kick this idiot ass? You still have a lot of food left" Deion ignored Waltz's tantrum and asked for Bruce's opinion.
"No need"
Bruce flashed in front of Waltz and landed a quick blow to his head which caused Waltz to immediately faint. He then threw Waltz out of the restaurant through the window.
"See? Just a pesky fly"
Bruce smiled at the group and continued to eat his food. One of the thing Bruce hated the most was someone interrupting his meal. He also liked the atmosphere of the date today, but everything got ruined by Waltz.
Chelsey and Meredith opened their mouths in shock because what Bruce just did was unimaginable to them. A lower ranked student just defeated a top 10 student in two seconds.
"Bruce, how strong are you?" Chelsey looked at Bruce like he was a monster.
"Heh, Deion could have done the same thing too so don't look at me like that" Bruce was being a great wingman.
"That's true Chelsey! I could have kicked that idiotic prince ass"
Deion nodded at Bruce's gesture and talked himself up as well.
"If you guys are this strong, how come your ranks are so low?"
Before the date, Chelsey knew that Deion had a low rank but she didn't care. She herself was ranked 20th in the class. Deion was handsome and fun to be around with. She was fine with dating him. After seeing what happened, Chelsey thought she didn't know Deion on that well anymore.
Recalling what their teacher said earlier, Deion felt that it was okay to reveal the truth to his girlfriend.
"Chelsey, I dare wage that in this academy, no one can defeat Bruce or me"
Meredith seemed to realize something when she looked at Bruce closely.
"Bruce, are you the Bandit of Solitude?"