As soon as I entered the house, I saw the neatly arranged pairs of shoes at the entrance. One was definitely my sister's shoes, given that they were smaller in size, while the other was my father's, given how big they were.
It was a bit hard to remove my shoes with someone clinging to my back, but I still managed to complete it without fail. Honestly, I was already accustomed to her clinging to me like sticky tape while inside the house, so it's no surprise. However, now that my strength had increased, my ability to ignore her was further enhanced.
I proceeded towards the dining room's table, where a black-haired man wearing a prim-and-proper suit and blue-rimmed glasses sat reading a newspaper with a frown. Of course, that man was none other than my Father, Giza Tatsumi.
As soon as I entered, I felt his gaze sweep over us for a brief moment. My body stiffened on reflex, knowing what was soon to follow.
"Mahiro..." His deep voice, reverberating with a cool undertone, called my name. "It's good that you're getting proactive with increasing your level, but you need to be more careful from now on."
"Yes, Father!" I responded almost immediately, then waited for his next words. "...?"
However, nothing followed. I thought he'd be roasting me before Mother's sermon came, but he just returned to reading his newspaper and drinking what looked like coffee from his mug, completely ignoring the previous topic as if it were already over and done.
"Dad, no! Hiro should just stay as is; he doesn't need to get any stronger! If it's fighting, I can handle everything for him!"
My sister, Kaede, raised her voice as she hugged my neck tighter. It was uncomfortable, especially since she was blocking my carotid artery. I tapped her arms, signaling for her to let go, but to no effect. I forcefully wrenched her arms off my neck, but that alone required me to use my full strength just to barely lift her arms away.
"Can you protect him all the time?" Father muttered as he sipped his coffee, not even turning to gaze at her. "Yesterday, he was even injured heavily. Where were you then?"
"Ugh..."
Hearing a logical argument from Father, Kaede could only grunt in chagrin for a moment. However, soon she found the words that she wanted to say. "That only happened because he's trying to level up! If he just stays with me, then nothing bad will happen to him!"
"You think you can protect me all the time?" I added, interrupting her words. "We go to different schools, you remember? You can't protect me 24/7. And I don't need it anymore."
Honestly, right now that I've reached level 5, there's nothing that can threaten me in the neighborhood. Well, going to the next city, where her school is, would still be impossible since I probably lack the strength for such an excursion.
The borders of this city are surrounded by areas that have a level requirement above beginner class level 1, which is about 6 levels above mine, or 3–4 levels above stat-wise.
*Clank!*
Just as we were about to continue our little talk, Mother, Giza Chidori, slammed the pot on top of the table, creating a little diversion and making all of us quiet down.
"Enough chat; let's eat dinner first."
The feast, for some reason, looks much more extravagant than last time. I guess because Father and Sister came back, Mother went and displayed her wide repertoire of our favorite recipes.
As soon as everyone took their seats, dinner began. Food got passed around left and right, while Kaede kept on trying to feed me herself. I appreciate her pampering, but honestly, it's more of a bother than helpful. Mother just smiled at our interactions, though, while Father completely ignored everything else and kept praising Mother's cooking skills, which got better and better.
The dinner was peaceful and ended without many incidents... However, hell for me soon followed. As Father and Sister returned to their rooms, Mother let me sit down before her across the table. With a serious expression, she started her long sermon about manners and safety.
We started around 9 p.m., but her sermon only ended when the time reached 2 a.m. It was to the point that I was amazed at how she hadn't run out of words to say for that long. Honestly, I felt like my ears would fall off, my eyes were so heavy from sleepiness, and my mind was so muddled that I couldn't recall what she was telling me halfway through.
As soon as her lecture ended, I lumbered myself back to my room and slumped face-down on my bed, falling asleep almost immediately. Although I planned to sleep long enough, I was woken up before even 4 hours passed. I need to prepare for classes, after all. Rather, I wonder, When did Mother sleep? Her sermon lasted until 2 a.m., and when I woke up, breakfast was already prepared. Did she even sleep at all?
I forced the sleepiness out of my system by washing my face with cold water, but the lack of sleep and, most importantly, the abuse I did to my body made me feel lethargic. It feels like if I let my guard down, I'd fall asleep from being too tired.
Fortunately, Father and Kaede had already left earlier than me. Since they both needed to travel to the outer parts of the city, they needed to leave earlier to arrive on time. Why the hell did the school and office systems not adjust even after the start of the disaster? They should adjust the time a bit—at least two hours later, or something.
When I reached school, I quickly slumped down on my desk, face down. I don't care what others think of me, but fixing my sleep deprivation was my top priority.
Classes started and ended, started again, and finally, I woke up just before the third period ended. I gently lifted my head and saw Sir Andrew reading a textbook near the teacher's podium. Just as my mind was slowly booting up, trying to understand his words, the bell marking the end of the morning period rang.
"Okay, that's it for today's lessons. Before I leave, the usual. Set your levels to public and share them with everyone else. Come on, double time!"
After hearing his instructions and being encouraged by his rhythmic clapping to hurry us, everyone set their status to public. Soon the entire room was covered with floating displays, with various levels showing up in bold letters and numbers.
Within my muddled consciousness, I too moved my fingers sloppily and set my status to public. Soon, a string of words appeared above my head. After confirming that it was now visible, I was about to return to sleeping on my desk...
"W-WHAT?!"
But Kyouya's loud voice irritated my ears. I lifted my head slightly, only to see that half of the entire room was looking at me with disbelief.
'Did I do something wrong?' I thought, trying to recall what I was doing. However, before my imagination could even spring to a start, Kyouya's voice made me realize the reason why they were so surprised.
"How did you reach level 5 in just two days?!"
As soon as his words echoed, the other half of the room turned to look at me curiously, before they had surprised expressions upon realizing that Kyouya's words were true. Faster than lightning, even, the apparent reason for my sudden level-up circulated instantly.
"It seems like getting turned down by the QUEEN hit him so hard that he took his anger against the monsters..."
"Rejection-fueled hunting or not, gaining four levels in two days is unprecedented!"
"Poor monsters, they ended up accepting the rage of a broken-hearted man..."
"I heard that a student got hospitalized this Saturday; could it be one of Giza's Victims?"
"No! I-I'm suddenly the lowest-leveled one in the whole room?!"
Whispers spread, and a lot of half-truths gained traction and soon became the undisputed "reality". In the end, the story became, "After getting rejected, he took his anger against the monsters, gaining levels at lightspeed. While hunting, someone interrupted him, which ended up sending them to the hospital with grave injuries."
The story spread faster than influenza and quickly reached the entire school before lunchtime even came. Technology is really something that is both a blessing and a curse, really.
I'm glad to finally have the "Level 1 Loser" title off of me, but gaining another one in exchange isn't any better. "Rejected Berserker" sounds good, but thinking of the history behind the name, it's nothing but another page in my dark history.
Sir Andrew finished the class and left the room. As soon as he did, Kyouya rushed to my side and asked with zeal.
"Really, what happened to you this weekend? How did you gain four levels that fast?!"
His voice was loud, making my head pulse with pain. I waved my hand, shooing him away, but he was pretty stubborn, not letting me go until I told him the full story.
"D*mn... So hunting like that is effective?" Kyouya muttered after I finished relaying my entire weekend. Of course, I left the part of me getting hospitalized out since he'd just worry if I told him about it.
"At this pace, it looks like you'll be reaching my level soon enough."
Well, I was actually planning on hunting again this afternoon, but we have Practicals on Mondays, which is today, meaning we would need to gather at the auditorium later after eating.
"... Well, at least I wouldn't be observing at the sides anymore," I muttered as I stood up, heading towards the door and to the cafeteria.
With my level now, I'd finally be able to participate in practical classes too!