[Lydia's Pov]
"[Arrow of Stone]!"
Firing one last magic arrow with my bow, I had successfully cleared the assignment for the class, dealing with the last goblin by piercing his forehead with my arrow.
[Well done, you have defeated: Goblins, rank [F]]
[Duration of instance: 5:42]
[The session will now be closed]
Opening up my eyes to the real world, I wasn't surprised to see that most of the other students had already completed our assignment. It couldn't be helped that I was a bit slower, as an archer I always had to make sure to be at an appropriate distance before fighting.
Looking at the crowd, all of them were now standing behind our teacher, watching the giant screen in the form of a wall behind the row of capsules.
Joining them, I also watched the screen in front of us. On it, we got to see a white-haired student face off against the goblins. What was weird was that even though more than five minutes had passed, only one goblin appeared to have been defeated.
Even stranger was that when the other two goblins approached him, he nimbly dodged to the side and landed an absurdly heavy strike on one of them, sending it flying and defeating it instantly.
'Huh? If he could just defeat them with one punch, why is he still not done?'
"Umm... It seems like he lost once..."
Noticing my obvious confusion, Stella who had come to stand beside me explained the situation, making my mind even more bewildered. Just the notion of losing to goblins as a student of Augustus was ridiculous in and of itself but seeing him able to so easily take them down, it absolutely didn't make any sense at all.
Looking at the screen again, I now got to see what I could only imagine being the reason why he lost once. Though his fist landed perfectly square in the face of the last goblin, it just staggered a tiny bit before rubbing its cheek.
Then, no matter how ridiculous I felt it was, and how absurd it was to see, Aarick somehow ended up in a complete brawl with the goblin. Don't even mention technique, because, at some point, they were even down on the muddy ground, wrestling for supremacy.
Somehow, Aarick managed to gain the upper hand and finished the goblin by putting him in a triangle choke, ultimately achieving victory as the goblin passed out from lack of oxygen.
Then, he for some reason stood up, and though there was no sound coming from the screen, it was clear that he was shouting at the sky to celebrate his victory.
****
[Aarick's Pov]
After a long struggle, I ended up winning the match against the monsters, despite the fact that I was still just an [F]-rank.
Coming out of the capsule, I was immediately met with a lot of condescending eyes, but I didn't care. Because in the end, I won. And winners don't care about what other people think of them.]
Even if the teacher was an asshole who wasn't going to miss his shot at making a fool out of the student he thought to be Ms. Zito's favorite.
"So, seems like you are all finally done? Although it took quite a while for Mr. Laupier to finish, I am glad that it only took you two tries to defeat the goblins. With that, I hope that you all have a great weekend, and I will see you next week."
I didn't quite understand the reasoning behind him continuing to make fun of me, as it had already gone to the point where I just saw him as a very childish adult. Also, I couldn't comprehend just in what way this would ever make him 'win' against Dona in whatever kind of competition they had.
At least I wouldn't have to see him for an entire weekend after this. To be honest, I was looking forward to not having to meet anyone for an entire weekend and even though I would still have to use at least an hour to talk to Celina, that didn't feel all too bad.
What did feel bad, however, was the fact that Astor hadn't forgotten about the bet that I had 'agreed' to.
"Yo, Aarick! What happened to you? Last time you were so fast, and this time you were the slowest of all of us! Also, I saw that wrestling match you had with the goblin. Man, you looked so funny when you were trying to get a hold of him! Hahaha!"
Pinching the bridge of my nose, both in exhaustion, but also to try and hide my reddening face, I wasn't sure where to begin when trying to make this guy go away.
"Haaa... Nothing happened, I was just a bit..."
"Oh, we need to hurry up or we will be late for class! Man, Ms. Zito is really scary when she is angry, isn't she?"
"Astor, just..."
"Let's go!"
Pulling my arm, he suddenly dragged me with him, completely ignoring anything I had to say, while he continued talking as if we were the best of friends that had known each other forever.
==========
'How did this happen...?'
Although I was sitting in my usual rightmost corner in the front of the classroom, there was a very unsettling and very annoying difference from how things usually went. Because instead of the seat next to me being vacant, it had now been filled with an energetic conglomeration of annoyance by the name of Astor.
It was hard enough to keep up with what Ms. Zito was talking about as it was, but with him next to me, it had now become next to impossible. Not that he wasn't diligently listening to our teacher like a good student, but because my head wouldn't stop spinning.
From trying to figure out what he was after, to how to most effectively deter him from keep interacting with me, all these things were currently flowing through my head at record speed.
Before I knew it, the class was somehow already over.
"Let's go get some lunch, Aarick!"
"Ah, no. I'm good..."
"What do you mean I'm good? Hahaha! You're funny man! Well, see you later then!"
Watching the yellow-haired man take his leave with the other students, a slight wave of relief washed over me, knowing that I would get at least a small break from him. Sadly, there was another person who had perfectly misread the situation, walking to my desk with an excited smile.
"You did it, Aarick! You made your first friend!"
"He is not my friend. He just seems to find me interesting, and that's probably the extent of it. Also, I..."
"Aarick. Don't you dare do what I think you are planning on doing. Just be happy that you made a friend!"
"But there's...
"I said no! Period! Now, go get some rest before the next class starts, and by Lucifer herself, if you do anything stupid again..."
Dona had seen right through me in an instant, and although I wasn't quite sure why she seemed to believe I would need friends, it was also quite difficult to argue against her. Not just because she was eerily stubborn, but also because it was hard to justify my thought already.
In reality, there was no need for me to go through my school life all on my own, it was merely a byproduct of making sure Levi wouldn't try to get close to me since that would just increase the chances of something going south by quite a margin.
At the same time, I wasn't sure if I wanted Astor to be the first friend I made at Augustus. One of the reasons was that I didn't believe our wavelengths matched too well, and another reason was the fact that he was so annoyingly happy and excited.
Still, there was no way for me to oppose the demon in front of me, not with her eyes now glowing slightly, showing just how serious she was about me living a normal academic life.
"Haaa... fine."
Following the footsteps of my classmates, I also exited the classroom, only to find yet another person waiting outside it, obviously waiting for me for some reason. With his tall and extra large structure, I wasn't quite ready to see Bruno out of all people waiting for me.
Complemented by an unnaturally, for his age at least, rugged face, it was hard to believe he was just eighteen years old like the rest of us. Thankfully, he somehow managed to say and do something so incredibly childish that I didn't doubt for a second that he was just a brat.
"Stay away from Astor, Aarick."
Because all he did was tell me just one sentence before walking away, making sure I would not be able to respond at all.
'Does he think he is in a movie or something?'
'-Aarick! You should act more like him! A man shouldn't need to say a lot to get his point across anyway!'
'Lucifer, please shut up.'