Ethan sat next to the trees, hiding under their shade, boredly looking at the sky. Why is today's lesson outside? It's too hot!
He wishes he was in his dorm, away from everyone, and taking a nap beside the air conditioner. But unfortunately, he was forced to come out by his second best friend, Emily, who always managed to sneak into the boy's hostel and find his dorm.
He should have closed his eyes when she gave him the doe eyes; she is not stronger than him, and he could have resisted her. Now he has to listen to his least favorite teacher on campus teach, and that is Reginald Myster, the friendliest and weakest teacher in the academy, the teacher that everyone likes.
Well, he doesn't like him.
Why?
Well, for some reason, this man is hell-bent on making him get out of his comfort zone and getting him to interact with his peers. "Try to open up to them, Reginald told him when they first met. "After all, you don't know when you'll need their help."
No way! He doesn't want to be friendly with them. A lot of them are disgustingly hypocritical. They are always talking about bravery and justice, but many of them are nothing but cowards; their auras are corrupt, and their tongues are full of lies.
Silver Field should up their standards.
Yes, Silver Field Academy, the hardest school to get into and a school for reincarnated heroes, is filled with hypocritical reincarnated heroes.
He doesn't think he is a reincarnated hero, or maybe he is because of the school's extremely strict policy of only accepting reincarnated heroes. But he doesn't think he is one of them.
He suddenly appeared at this school six years ago, when he was eleven years old. He was brought here by an unknown hero, injured and barely alive. Unfortunately, he didn't remember anything from before he woke up except his first name, age, and the basic functions of the body.
He is remembering bits and pieces from his childhood, but all he sees is a boy with black hair and blood red eyes.
"Ethan!" he heard Reginald call him.
"Yes, Reginald," Ethan answered the white-haired middle-aged man dully.
Reginald was visibly upset that Ethan refused to interact; he brought class outdoors because he thought Ethan felt cramped in the classroom with how dull he usually is. He shouldn't have done that because Ethan looks like he's been deprived of his priorities. "Are you listening to what I am teaching?" he asked.
"Yes," Ethan replied, yawning, and then proceeded to give a short summary of what Reginald had just taught. "The most important factor to being a hero is showing kindness to all and being compassionate about your duties as a hero," he said, then he muttered, "Which is totally useless." Reginald had heard him, and he shook his head helplessly. 'What am I going to do with this boy?''
Ethan didn't say anything else as he waited for Reginald to scold him.
Everyone's wrist bands chimed, and they all made sounds of surprise. Someone is getting challenged publicly?
He checked his wristband out of curiosity to see who was getting challenged, and when he saw who it was, he sighed in irritation. "Tch, why does it have to be me getting challenged?" he said. This is the second time he's been publicly challenged. If he refuses, he will be viewed as a coward.
He noticed everyone was looking at him weirdly. "Is there a problem?"
They looked at each other before Reginald spoke. "Please try not to permanently disable your challenger."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" he asked, acting curious. "Shouldn't heroes be ready for anything that comes their way, including the risk of death and permanent disabilities?"
"Also, I didn't try to permanently disable my last challenger. I planned on giving him enough physical trauma to last him two sessions under the healing ray," he said casually.
"That's why everyone is afraid to challenge you," a curly, green-haired elf said.
Ethan looks at her coldly and says, "And if I like to keep it that way, if I am getting challenged by a reincarnated hero, then I want to fight the hero the same way we would fight on a battlefield. He defended his cause, and I fought against it. If they are willing to run away like cowards and complain like children, then they are nothing but clowns in my eye."
The girl kept quiet, and everyone else was quiet. "If no one has anything to say, I'll be going to my dorm to prepare for tonight."
Once he was gone, and everyone was sure he was gone, everyone sighed in relief. "It's amazing how powerful his aura can be," a red panda beastman said.
"He was very rude; Mr. Myster hasn't even dismissed us," the elven girl said, flailing her arms.
"But we can't deny he is right," a gray-haired boy said.
Everyone nods in agreement. "It's actually terrifying how right he is," Reginald said.
"That's the villainous hero for you," a blonde boy with hazel eyes said.
Then everyone sighed. "By the way, who challenged Ethan?"
Everyone checked their wristbands at the same time, and they all felt a shiver down their spines. "It's Hadrian," someone whispered in fear.
"I wonder why Hadrian suddenly wants to challenge Ethan?" Reginald said.
"He's been challenging every strong person in the school since he came here, and everyone of them has been severely injured, its just as bad as what Ethan did to his last challenger."
"And with Hadrian's ability, there's no telling what the outcome of the battle might be—the Villainous Hero versus the Heroic Villain."
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When Ethan returns to his dorm, he sighs in relief as he closes the door behind him. He closed his eyes as he took deep breaths.
He felt something jump into his arms. When he opens his eyes, he sees his familiar, a black twin-tailed cat, rubbing itself against his jaw.
He smiled softly; his cold face was immediately replaced with softness. "I'm back, Midnight," he said.
The cat purred happily as he stroked its chin.
Midnight is an F-tier magical beast, one of the weakest there is. He found him a few months after he got here, being attacked by the so-called heroes of this school. It was just a small kitten back then, and he was very enraged by the heroes bullying a helpless creature. Although the bullies were a lot bigger and stronger than he was, he fought them until his caretaker at the time found him. The bullies were punished, and the kitten was taken to an animal caretaker.
He refused to leave the kitten alone because he was worried something would happen to it once he took his eyes off it.
He learned a lot about the kitten, which he had named Midnight because of its black fur. He learned that the kitten might be orphaned because its mother was nowhere around its area. The mother might have been killed by the teenagers Ethan found hurting the kitten.
Unfortunately, because of this, the kitten didn't trust anyone, and he kept scratching and biting everyone. Ethan stayed by his side to calm him down a bit. When the time came for the kitten to find a new owner, no one wanted to adopt an aggressive kitten or a magical beast that was in the F-tier, and Ethan couldn't take in a pet because of the school's policy, but the school allowed familiars.
So Ethan studied the ritual of making a contract with a familiar and performed the ritual once he had the information he needed.
And now he has a fully grown cat that enjoys premium canned fish and a bit of his food.
He carried Midnight gently in his arms and walked to his study desk. He was challenged in public, and everyone in school knows he was challenged, and they all expect him to accept the challenge. Well, if he wants to, he can just burst their bubbles of excitement by declining the challenge and going to sleep.
But he wants to know who the challenger is because everyone seems excited about the battle.
He checked the school's database to know who his challenger was.
His name is Hadrian Ignia, an illegitimate child of the Ignia family, one of the oldest families in the human realm. The family is known for their connection to the Phoenix, the bird of rebirth.
His mother is unknown, but she is from the Ignia family, and his father too is unknown. He looks nothing like the rest of his family, who have blazing red eyes with hints of yellow and orange; he has blood red eyes. For some reason, those eyes look familiar; it feels like he has seen those blood red eyes before, but he doesn't remember where.
But none of this interested him. What interests him most is who he was in his past life. The divine creation of the Primordial Goddess of Night, Nox, chose Hadrian Ignia, or by his previous title, the Bloody Tyrant, to be his first star. There are no stories about him or his origins because after Nox passed away after he sealed away the Entity of Chaos, he went insane and began killing the other stars for not trying to save Nox while he was holding the Entity of Chaos' army off.
He wasn't killed; he refused to be killed by anyone; instead, he committed suicide, hoping to be reincarnated by Nox's side once more.
Ethan began tearing up for some reason; he scolded himself internally before wiping his tears.
He wished to know the full story of the Bloody Tyrant; he is an example of a hero turned villain due to circumstances.
His ability is the same as back then: Blood Manipulation. An amazing ability to have; fighting him would be amazing.