Chapter 38: The Big Four
"My hero name is 'Slumbering Crown,' Ryan said.
Hearing this, Tracy sat down in disappointment, while Jacob was relieved he didn't choose 'Descendant of the Sun' as his name.
"That's a good name," Jacob nodded with a smile, his mind preoccupied by thoughts. "It also sounds cool."
"Hmm... interesting," Alfred asked, interest evident in his voice. "Why 'Crown'?"
"... Because I'm still too weak to be a king," Ryan answered honestly.
Alfred nodded in approval.
"Phew..." Kevin whistled. "That's some strong-sounding words. Are you planning on becoming a king later? Hahaha." he laughed.
"..." Ryan was at a loss for words.
"At least he chose something realistic," Amanda commented. "Ryan is indeed bound to be a king in the future; he has that aura in him. But what about you..."
"What's your problem with my hero name?" Kevin grumbled with a scrunched-up face showing disapproval. "It's cute."
"Considering your build, I think you should have chosen something like 'Snow Polar Bear Twin,'" Amanda said half seriously.
"And live the rest of my life as my brother's shadow? HELL NO," Kevin yelled as if he had heard the most disgusting thing ever.
"Cough..." Alfred shot him a side look.
"I'm sorry," Kevin lowered his head, shooting Amanda an aggrieved look.
"Haha..." Amanda laughed before choking on saliva and saying not so apologetically. "I'm sorry, I was joking. Muhahahahaha."
"Ahem... Now since everyone's Hero names have been decided, let's move to the second main topic of today's class," Alfred resumed talking after sending Amanda out the classroom to cool down a little.
The students, who were in a cheerful mood, straightened up, ready to pull out their textbooks.
"Erou Academy will be hosting its 2569th-anniversary next month, as well as its yearly festival," Alfred began, watching his students relax into smiles.
CHEERS!
The classroom turned cheerful once again, the serious mood gone as if it had never been there.
"What should our class do?"
"Let's do a restaurant."
"No, let's do a play."
"A music show..."
Knock, Knock!
Knocking loudly on the class board, Professor Alfred reprimanded and once again demanded his students' attention, "Everyone's attention, please. I know you're all excited; however, things are going to be different this year."
"Different?" someone asked, confused. "How?"
"A tournament would be held for the first time in Erou's history," Alfred announced.
"A tournament?"
"Why?" Someone asked bewildered; there had never been a tournament before, so one out of nowhere sounded a bit weird.
"To answer that, let me ask you first, do you know the Big Four?"
The students nodded; if you live in this world, you're bound to know them. There are four major powerhouses on this continent.
The Marcoos presidency is located in the western center of the continent, dominating the Atlas Ocean, the sea route, and possessing multiple islands.
The second is Situstan, a presidency as well, which is on the far northern side of the continent closer to the ice mountains, the biggest by size, and had the strongest Ability users due to it being the closest to the restricted area.
The third is the Dorigan Empire, which still operates on an imperial system, is located on the southern desert side, and has a lot of resources that can make the world drool.
Last is Tamil; a group of tribes that stood in the middle of the world, dominating its trade routes and becoming the richest out of the four, yet it's largely divided by the five grand elders.
They were so strong it was hard to tell who was stronger, each possessing enough power to create chaos and disturbance.
And most importantly each had an SSS ranker as a guardian, ensuring the power balance never shifted to one side.
"You might already know this, but the relationship between the four has always been complicated, between friendship and enmity," Alfred stated and began to explain more on the topic.
Marcoos has a great friendship with Dorigan, but Dorigan has a good friendship with Tamil, while Tamil hates Marcoos because of an economic problem and basically doesn't want to pay back what it owes, and Situstan hates Dorigan due to political and historical issues.
"They are small other nations that exist, but they all fall under the jurisdiction and protection of the Farris Union," which basically is the ruler of the world. Professor Alfred didn't say the last part out loud.
Something that the students and most common people don't know is that The Big Four were just an honorary title for these nations, in the eyes of the union. It's true they're strong, but only if permitted to.
"The thing is that those four great nations, for the celebration of their unification and putting aside their grudges and the signing of the relation restoration Treaty, the first tournament would be held between the four representing academies of each Country," and their unification could not have been happening if the Farris Union didn't want it. Alfred explained once again filtring the last part.
The Union has found itself to be in great danger in the prediction made by the seer ten years ago.
The unification of the world would be a great help in preserving its stability, which is undoubtedly the union's first priority, although the Union is still unsure why the world would be endangered.
But due to a major blood contract that the seer signed with the Union, they trusted him.
He was an incredibly wealthy man, and his treasury could support the whole Marcoos for years; that's why he was entrusted with Erou Academy despite the fact he wasn't a strong powerhouse.
Alfred, one of his closest friends, was one of the rare few who knew about the seer and his connection with the union.
"Erou Academy would be representing Marcoos." he continued.
"Cloo Academy would be representing Situstan."
"Yarden Academy would be representing the Dorigan Empire."
"Soma Academy would be representing Tamil."
"In this tournament, since the number of hero applicants has greatly reduced in Erou Academy, and subsequently all 60 first-year students would have to participate and represent the academy, while only 120 would be representing the second year. The third year has been exempted from this tournament."
"This tournament will be getting worldwide attention, and it would be a good start for you to make your hero name known," Professor Alfred said with a smile.
Gulp!
The students gulped; in their minds, this was just an unimaginably huge burden; everyone vowed to become stronger in the next month to not embarrass themselves as a top priority.
Ding, Dong!
"Class dismissed."
-----
BOOM!
"It's too weak," Noah said.
Currently, in a special secret training facility provided by the seer, no one else knows about it.
Noah had a lot of fighting experience as a previous S-ranker, although he was a necromancer, his fighting prowess was a no joke due to the nature of the place he grow up in. Now that his ability has been reset, his power has fallen to the F-rank, but he was nonetheless happy. So he suggested helping Ryan train his body's physique when he complained about his body's strength, and Ryan gratefully accepted.
BAM!
Blocking a side punch with his arm, "Your attack pattern is repetitive, Slumbering Crown."
"... It feels weird to be called that, so stop." Ryan said to the smiling Noah.
"Yes, brother," Noah said happily, catching Ryan's outstretched leg that was about to hit him in the abdomen; he released it very gently as he caught it.
"Noah thinks that Ryan's sets of moves are limited and only repeat the same pattern of bunch up, bunch down then kick."
"Cough... Hah huh."
Ryan gasped for breath as he coughed violently, choking on air. It had been only ten minutes since he started training with Noah; both were wearing the same radiation-blocking bracelet, but his body had already reached its limit.
Noah said with concern, "Why don't you lower the capacity of the bracelet?"
With the bracelet cutting off his radiation source, his body felt extremely tired just from standing, not to mention moving up and down, left and right, to fight and dodge Noah's attacks. He couldn't count the number of times he wanted to slide down to the floor already.
'I want to sleep.' His body, supported by the pre-set radiation that directed his movements and helped him keep standing on his feet was on the verge of collapse, or so he felt every time he stopped channeling radiation throughout.
He couldn't even stay still; even that made him incredibly tired. Not to mention ten minutes of continuous work and training with Noah with such a body felt infinitely long for Ryan.
"You should lower the level of the bracelet so you can at least see with your eyes," Noah added. "Slumbering Crown," A happy grin on his face, obviously very happy that Ryan used that name even if it wasn't what he had chosen for him.
"What are you happy about?" Although Ryan couldn't see nor feel Noah's happy aura, he could still sense the happiness that radiated from his voice.
"Noah is happy you used half of the name Noah suggested for you," Noah said grinning.
Ryan's mouth twitched a bit; his body sprawled on the ground and said, "Well, you used the one I chose for you as well. Silver Moon."
Noah nodded his head happily.
"..." Ryan raised his hand tiredly over his eyes.
"But why is your body so weak?" Noah said crouching down and hugging his knees. "Without radiation, Ryan feels very weak, Noah could have broken Ryan's bones if Noah wasn't careful."
"I don't know; maybe this body was originally weak." Ryan didn't know either, despite his attempt in the past two months to raise his body's health to a normal level, it was like pouring water on sand, no amount of ability cards or potions helped him, and the medical devices couldn't detect any abnormalities.
"Hmmm? Ryan talks like this isn't Ryan's body," Noah wondered, tilting his head.
"Let's continue," Ryan avoided Noah's inquiry and raised the bracelet's setting to a level where he could stand on his own.
ONE MONTH LATER—