It had been quite a while since the year had begun. Ever since then, the students at the military academy had been doing the best they could to grow stronger through training, all to ensure that the Earth would have a fighting chance against the Shales in the future, and also to enable them handle their issues which they may encounter in the future. At the end of the day, everyone must face multiple problems as they go about their respective lives.
While breakfast at the cafeteria was going on, a couple of the students couldn't bring themselves to focus on why they were there in the first place. Their attention was more focused on other matters. For one, Kayden was wondering what might have possibly happened to Paul the night before.
Meanwhile, Zain was wondering if there was something going on with Kumon that he wasn't aware of. He had started acting rather strangely after sometime, which was beginning to make him grow suspicious of the latter's behavior.
Eventually, breakfast had come to an end, and it was now time for the students to head over to combat class, their next class for the day. Kayden was glad that he was improving rather well. He ensured that he wouldn't let other thoughts get in the way of his training. The same could be said for the others, as well.
While the class was going on, Kayden suddenly remembered something else which had occurred the previous day. Henry, Kayla's older brother from the second year, had appeared out of nowhere and attacked the first years during the magical weapons class later during that day. He couldn't stop wondering why on Earth he would do such a thing, and also how it might all be affecting her.
'If it was Stacy who had gotten in trouble for doing something bad, I know how I would feel. I just hope this whole thing doesn't get to get too much and she doesn't go ahead and do something worse than she has already done,' Kayden thought, remembering when her minions had taken Zain to get room for her to interrogate him.
There was also Dan-his classmate from the mystery class division during the abilities class. Although Kayden didn't know much about this classmate of his, he couldn't stop thinking about the fight between him and their instructor that had taken place that same day, as well. Remembering the fight from that day, he couldn't stop wondering how the student had managed to come back on to his feet after suffering such a blow from the instructor.
'Maybe it's just from all the training he's doing,' Kayden imagined this to be the case. How else would Dan be able to improve so much in such a short period of time? At least this was his way of convincing himself that there wasn't anything much to it.
For the rest of the class, Kayden was wondering just what might have happened to Paul in the first place. He couldn't afford to keep on pressing Kayla for answers, for fear of how she might react to it. And moreover, he couldn't bring himself to think that Shawn had something to do with it.
Then, there was the thought that perhaps it was a bunch of lower ranked students who had banded together to deal with Paul. This made a whole lot more sense, considering the fact that Paul's new rank was 43. This was a pretty low rank, considering the fact that there were a lot of first year students at the academy to begin with. At first, Kayden was wondering that it was just one of Kayla's minions, since she seemed to have a lot of them-something he came to believe after observing her and her confident demeanor over a period of time.
But now, he was starting to think that it must be the working of another popular figure in the first years, someone who must have a number of students loyal to them, who are willing to do as they please to enable them claim rank and status amongst their fellow students.
'That girl….' Kayden had suddenly remembered a girl from over a month ago, someone who had planned to fight against both Blake and Carter one night. He was quite lucky that the system had given him a quest that night, allowing him to figure out that something was going on, and thus allowing him to come to the rescue before he was too late.
Although he was too late and failed to complete the quest, Blake, the student who was unconscious at the time, who had to figure against the students, hadn't lost his rank since he hadn't been defeated. Kayden didn't care much about this at the time. He was more concerned about the fact that neither of them had been severely beaten that day.
'What is her name?' He asked himself, as his eyes moved around the classroom, glancing at the various students present. Suddenly, a fist had connected with the side of his face, forcing his head to turn to the side, as he was forced to bear through the intense pain that accompanied the blow.
"Stay focused, idiot!" Kayla yelled, not giving her sparring partner anymore time to prepare himself, as she had gone ahead to perform another movement, this one aimed for his abdomen. Still distracted, the blow had connected, causing Kayden's body to hunch forward from the impact, his mouth wide open along with his eyes from the pain delivered by the blow.
'I think that should be her,' His eyes had fallen upon a certain student amongst his classmates. And although it had been a while, he couldn't bring himself to deny the fact that she was the very same student he had encountered that night. Glancing at her, while raising both his arms to block a barrage of strikes from his new sparring partner, he couldn't stop glaring at her ginger-coloured hair, and the sinister look she had in her eyes that night. But also, there was another student as well who had caught his attention that night.
There wasn't anything about him that seemed special. Though the students from that night seemed to hold him in high regard and respected him, seeing the way the communicated with him during the time that Kayden had encountered them.
Kayden wished to know more about these two students, thinking that they might have had something to do with Paul's current condition. Once the combat class had come to an end, Kayden had decided to do just that. Walking up to both of the students, he had gone straight to the point, asking them what he wished to know. Also, he had taken a look at both their watches, however, neither of them displayed the rank of third strongest first year.
Seeing this student standing before her, of course, she couldn't forget what had happened back then. All she wanted was to go after some strong students and claim rank. However, from the orders of the group leader, she and the others had refrained from taking over either of the students ranks that night.
"Who do you think you are? Coming to us and asking about something that's none of our business. Do you think that just because you're strong that you can go around harassing the weak for answers? Is that what you really think about yourself?" The male student, who was standing beside the ginger-haired girl had said after hearing what Kayden had to say.
Kayden's eyes were wide open in shock upon hearing his response. In the first place, he wasn't even asking him the question, as his eyes and attention were fixated on the girl right beside him.
"Hey! I asked you a question. Don't be a pussy and fucking answer me!" The boy yelled, suddenly standing between the girl and Kayden "Do you think you're some sort of bigshot?!" The boy yelled out, curling his hand, forming a fist as he threw it forward, aiming to hit the student right across the face.
Kayden was able to see the fist coming towards his face just in time, allowing him to grab hold of it before it could connect, gritting his teeth as he stared straight at the boy in the eyes.
"Just who the fuck do you think you are, huh?! First, you went after my friends, and now, you went ahead and attacked one of my roommates! Did you really think that I would let you and your little gang get away with it twice?!" He asked, as he began to apply more pressure on the fist of the male student.
"Let me show you why I outranked you!" He declared, as the next second, cracking noises could be heard. The male student began to yell out in pain, however, there was no one present to hear his pleadings.
"If it wasn't for the fact that there is another class I have to attend, then I would've gone ahead and broken every single bone in your body if it means I found out the truth!" He yelled, letting go of the curled up hand, while also delivering a punch to the gut, hoping that it would be enough to get his message across.
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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.