"Lol. Even in another world, we still meet in this place." Yujin said with emotion and hugged Mariel tightly carelessly. As for Mariel, she burst into tears and hugged her old friend from the past world as well.
"How are you? I miss you so much, King." Mariel asked with concern.
"I'm fine. In this world, I really like it. It didn't seem as chaotic as the old world we had come from, and it was more like being in an adventure world. There is magic, puzzles, and many subjects to learn. What's about you?" Yujin said, questioning his friend.
"I like it here too. It's like a fantasy world because it has magic. There were many different monsters and I also got to meet a kind of family." Mariel said.
"I'm glad you were born into a family where your parents live together. It's been your dream all along. By the way...why were you born into the body of a woman?" Yujin asked, immediately getting to the main point.
"Well...things are a mess. Don't even think about it." Mariel replied.
"Are you ok with this? If it were me, I'd be really stressed out. Every day you saw other guys approaching at you who looked pretty and so cute too." Yujin said.
"Well, I refused this kind of compliment but that's okay, we were just being here in this world is the happiest thing. Everything else is non-necessary." Mariel said.
"What is your goal in this world?" Yujin asked.
"I wanted to be a famous swordswoman. If possible, I would like to be told as the Goddess of War." Mariel said with determination.
"Wow! The Goddess of War. So, can I be the god of war too? Can I be your partner?" Yujin asked.
"Sure! Let's practice a lot. Otherwise, you won't be able to catch up with me." Mariel said.
"Don't worry, my friend. I will be in sword and shield class. As for you, you can also be a swordswoman and a supporter. Therefore, we will definitely be invincible!" Yujin said, building up their spirits.
"Alright, it's almost dinner time. Do you want something to eat? I'll make foods in a box for you to take back to your dormitory to eat." Mariel asked.
"You know how to cook! Anything then. I can eat it all. Thank you very much, my friend." Yujin said gratefully.
They walked back to the dormitories and talked pleasantly until they were in front of the female student dormitory. Mariel asked her friend to wait there and went back to her room to make Yujin a boxed lunch and snacks. When everything was finished, she immediately put it in a bag and brought it down to the front of the dormitory. Coincidentally, Beatrix and Mania returned from their part-time jobs. So, they saw these all.
"My friend has a boyfriend!" Beatrix teased.
"The same person we met at the market. A True Love." Mania said.
"No, this is my best friend from childhood. I just meet him this afternoon." Mariel said.
"Yes, we just remembered this. We've known each other since we were kids." Yujin said with a smile.
"Let me know when you're going on a date." Beatrix said, smiling back as well.
"You guys." Mariel said, hopeless.
"It smells really good. Thank you very much, friend Ch... uh... Mariel." Yujin almost blurted out Chai's name from the previous world but held back in time because Mariel's friends would get confused. Then he thanks you again and immediately walk back to the male dormitory with a packed of lunch.
"We smell the food and feel hungry now." Beatrix and Mania said, their stomachs rumbling nonstop.
"I made it for you too. Let's go back to our room to eat together. All foods are ready." Mariel said.
"That's my lovely friend." Beatrix admired.
Mariel often chooses to practice together with Yujin, sometimes making Senior Jack and Jerrick feel jealous but when she explained that the Yujin was her childhood friend and didn't think of anything more than friend, they were understood in the end.
"If Mariel confirmed on this, I won't mind. I'm afraid that there will be more competitors in the future." Senior Jack said.
"To be Mariel's boyfriend. They must cross over my corpse at first!" Jerrick said emotionally.
"Who said that I would be your girlfriend?" Mariel said, feeling dizzy at the thought of these two people. Yujin, who was standing far away, also overheard this conversation.
"Good luck for it, Chai." Yujin said.
Time passed until the day of selecting that representative. Among the first-year students, there were over 70 applicants for swordsmanship, and about 60 for sword and shield. Most of them went to magic, with more than 150 applicants. As for archers and assassins, there were less than 50 applicants from each class.
Mariel easily defeats her random opponent, same as Jerrick, who was able to take down his opponent in a short period of time. As for Yujin, he defeated his opponent without much difficulty. Although it took a bit of time because the Sword and Shield class had advanced shield defense skills. Therefore, when attacking the opponent, he had to find the weakness points, to be able to cause damage to other's body.
In the class of magician, Bellany and Beatrix have shown other female students to consider them as favorites to win the competition in this class because both used strategies and took advantaged to take down their opponents quickly and without wasting much their magic powers.
"You're really good. The other side was barely able to fight back in time and finally lose to you." Mariel, who had made it to the final four in the Swordsman class, stopped by watching Beatrix fight and praised her.
"No! You're better than me. I'm trying to win against them in a short time because I want to go to see your competition, but you made it to the final four before me!" Beatrix said.
At lunchtime, Mariel, Beatrix, and Mania all sat together in the school courtyard to eat lunch while they were eating Yujin also walked in with another woman.
"Hello everyone, may I and my friend join the group to eat?" Yujin asked with his stomach rumbling.
"Sure, there are a lot of foods here. Come sit and eat together." Mariel said and invited, but she was looking at the woman who came with Yujin because she was looked like a familiar face that she had seen somewhere before but still couldn't remember. That woman staring at Mariel as well.
This woman has short brown hair, sharp eyes, and doesn't smile but what stood out was the red and gold heart-shaped brooch above the pocket of her school shirt. It's like something familiar but I don't know what the meaning is.
"Oh, I forgot! Let me introduce you guys. This is my classmate who named Raven." Yujin introduced his female friend to Mariel and her friends.
"Nice to meet you, Raven." Mariel and her friends greeted.
"This is my friend from the old days.... a girl who I told you before, Mariel. The others are Beatrix and Mania." Yujin said, extending his hand to introduce them one by one to Raven.
"Nice to meet you all." Raven said, bowing.
"Come and eat together." Mariel said, handing some delicious-looking dishes to Yujin and Raven. After that, they all talked happily, but Raven was rather quiet and didn't talk much. She chose to listen to other people's conversations instead.
During the time Yujin was talking with Beatrix and Mania about how to form a mission party in the future, Raven turned to meet Mariel's eyes as if looking into the other's mind until she could feel this feeling too.
"….." Mariel wanted to ask something, but she was silent.
"You came from the earth, right?" a voice echoed in Mariel's ears.
"Raven?" Mariel responded in confusion.
"Don't be afraid, I didn't have any bad intentions on you. You were Yujin's friend in the previous world. It's truly incredible to be born into this world together." Raven said, reflecting on the thoughts they shared together.
"Yes, what a small world, but we're glad to see you here too." Mariel responded.
"But....It's a bit difficult. You were born in a woman's body, and you still remembered that you are a man." Raven said with concern.
Mariel was shocked at how Raven knew this much. So, she turned to stare at Raven who was smiling mischievously.
"Let's talk about this more when we have a chance, we can sit down and talk one by one. Just you and me." Raven said, concluding in their thoughts and Yujin just finishing the conversation with Beatrix and Mania.
"Why are you guys staring at each other?" Yujin asked curiously.
"I doubt they like each other." Beatrix teased.
"It's not like that!" Mariel replied.
"I love to see at Mariel's face, she's so cute." Raven teased.
"Oh dear." Mariel blushed slightly.
"Lol, I just saw Raven compliment a woman this time. Ouch!" Yujin said with a loud laugh but was stabbed in the middle of his stomach by Raven's elbow, almost causing pain.
The selection test for the final four representatives went as expected. Mariel was able to easily defeat the representative of Room 3. As for Jerrick, he was able to defeat the representative from Room 2 as well, causing both to have to fight among themselves to be the 1st and 2nd representative again but Jerrick chose to request to give up on this final round. Then the board gave the title of first representative to Mariel instead.
"Why did you give up? I would like to test my skills with you a bit." Mariel asked with an extremely curious expression.
"We couldn't let others see your true abilities, my dear. Let's show them the full power in a quadruplet sports event. And one more thing...I still want to save my life first. Behind the scenes of practicing with you, I know how cruel you are." Jerrick said.
"I'm not that cruel and you also keep your true abilities too." Mariel said, smiling as if she could know what others were thinking.
"You're genius, worthy of being my girlfriend." Jerrick said, smiling back as well.
"Who is your girlfriend? Don't think about it on your own!" Mariel said with a sad expression on her face.
"As long as you haven't accepted anyone else. I still have a hope, Lol." Jerrick said and laughed.
After all, they had all come out from the Swordsman selection field. A woman rushed towards Mariel, looking extremely agitated.
"Mariel! The selection is finished, right?" Bellany asked.
"Yes, so what's happened? Tell me." Mariel said, asking back to her friend.
"There's an accident. You know the competition, right? There are other contests as well." Bellany asked.
"I don't know. I know it's just a battle of the 5 types of classes." Mariel answered truthfully.
"Oh...A cheerleader competition!" Jerrick shouted.
"Yes, they had a reward as well." Bellany said.
"I knew that you had already selected representatives along with the other rooms as well. There were 7 people in total according to the names submitted for this competition. So why?" Jerrick asked curiously.
"One female student suddenly asked to leave the team because she didn't practice dancing well enough and was worried that she would be a hindrance to the team." Bellany said. Until now, Mariel was beginning to feel strange that Bellany had informed her about this matter.
"Don't tell me that." Mariel said, praying in her heart that it wouldn't be like she expected.
"Yes...you must be the seventh cheerleader for our team, Mariel." Bellany look at her and said with a serious expression.
"WHAT!!!!" Mariel cried out in utter shock.