—Asher Frostblade's point of view.
Professor Bridget looked at Asher, then her lips curved and she spoke.
"You are arrogant."
"..."
Asher looked at the teacher, confused.
Why did she say that to him? That kind of behavior was not supposed to be allowed at this academy, and even less so towards the cadets themselves. Asher looked at Professor Bridget; she seemed very upset by what Asher mentioned.
"It's not arrogance."
"Yes it is."
Asher nodded, looking at the teacher. She again spoke up.
"Ha, a cadet fighting two members of the ten families. For a nobody, you're pretty arrogant to think you're the strongest. How naive."
"..."
Asher's eyes grew wide, revealing an anger rising from deep within him. He looked at the teacher with eyes that wanted to hit her for those stupid words.
Asher is not someone who tolerates these kinds of insults towards him. His gaze sharpened even more, and then the teacher took notice and her eyes went wide as she watched Asher act that way.
"You fucking kid," Professor Bridget's mana began to appear in the form of an aura.
"Heh, how pathetic. A teacher making this kind of scene for a cadet."
Asher spoke, and Professor Bridget looked deeper into him.
"Okay, you can fight both cadets at once. I hope you lose, you arrogant brat." His mana dwindled, and then quickly Professor Bridget disappeared from the scene.
"What the hell was that?"
"She's too arrogant to be called a teacher."
Encrid and Isabella spoke at the same time.
Sighing, Asher left his anger behind and looked at Grey and Freddy, who saw everything that happened.
Then, Grey spoke.
"It looks like you have a teacher as an enemy."
"But why is he acting like that? He's a teacher at this academy and that kind of attitude shouldn't happen in teachers."
Grey spoke, and then Freddy added at the end.
At Freddy's words, Asher thought the same thing. He doesn't even know that teacher, and just by asking for a two-on-one fight, his attitude towards Asher shot up more than it should. It was really strange, which left Asher with some questions, but he'll save that for later.
Looking at Grey and Freddy, Asher spoke up.
"Let's save the teacher thing for another time. Let's finish our fight first."
"You're right, I really don't care about losing or winning, I'm already getting bored with this test."
Grey spoke in a tone that showed how bored he was with this whole situation. In fact, Asher felt the same way.
At that moment, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Grey and Freddy stood side by side as they looked at Asher, who had an emotionless look on his face and his hands in his pockets.
"You look very confident."
"That's because I'll win."
"Well, we'll see about that then."
At that moment several water arrows materialized, as well as spiked water spheres. The ground shook and then the atmosphere changed to a very cold one, filling the whole place with steam, while ice crystals appeared and water began to accumulate to the surroundings, freezing and turning it into different weapons, such as spears and arrows.
At that moment, a smile escaped Asher and suddenly everything around him changed to endless darkness, while noises echoed as if something was breaking into pieces.
"What's going on?"
"It's Asher's ability, he seems to have something really strange."
Freddy asked and Grey answered, only hypothesizing.
"Rumbling."
The ground shook and then earth hands appeared, but this time of large sizes.
At the same time, the air filled with arrows of water, and more spears of ice appeared.
Quickly, the spears darted in Asher's direction, and the hands stretched toward him.
With quick movements, Asher skated across the ground, which was covered by a layer of ice. Moving quickly, he appeared in front of the two cadets, raising a wall of ice and, at the same time, a wall of earth. Both cadets were covered with several spheres of darkness; in the process, the walls were destroyed.
Ice crystals and chunks of earth scattered into the air.
Raising pillars of earth and several ice spikes from the ground, they shot up from Asher's feet.
"Rumble."
Striking each attack, Asher easily destroyed them, then approached Grey and Freddy. In his hand, flames of darkness appeared, making a river of flames in their wake.
Rushing sideways, the two cadets lunged, and Grey raised a wall of earth, while pillars of earth shot toward Asher.
Freddy raised a wall of ice, while spheres of spiked water and ice spears surrounded him, and then were quickly shot towards Asher.
"Starburst!"
Both of the two cadets' attacks reached Asher at that moment, raising a curtain of steam and dust at the same time, but in that instant....
"Xiu" "Xiu"
Several arrows of darkness appeared, striking Grey and Freddy, who covered themselves with their forearm; scratches appeared on their body in the process.
Both cadets fell to the ground, but Grey quickly raised his hand, and then a fist of earth four meters square appeared behind Asher and....
"Boom!!!"
The fist landed on top of Asher, kicking up dust. Then Freddy raised his hand, and a five-meter glacier appeared from above and fell on Asher. Both attacks were simultaneous, and they both smiled at the same time, but their gazes widened.
"That was amazing, but it's not enough."
"How did you...?"
At that moment, hundreds of dark spheres appeared, surrounding both cadets. Looking in all directions, the two cadets simply had no escape.
Then, with a small hand gesture, the spheres fell on the cadets.
"Starburst!"
After a few seconds, everything dissipated, revealing the two cadets on the ground.
"Looks like I won."
In fact, it was faster than Asher thought.
After all, all that experience gained on the battlefield for six months meant that a mage from the first and third circles could not defeat Asher.
At that moment, Professor Bridget appeared. A smile formed on Asher's face.
"They were so weak, I didn't even use half of my power."
"Tsk..." Clicking her tongue, the teacher took both cadets away.
"Heh, I hope to see that teacher soon. It'll be fun to see her frustrated face."
***
—Scene change.
—Professor Bridget's point of view.
Professor Bridget was very angry.
How on earth did they lose two members of the ten families? It was absurd to her. She didn't understand why it happened; it was more than obvious that the winners would be Grey and Freddy, so why wasn't it?
"Tsk..."
Bridget clicked her tongue over and over, she was furious.
She wondered how the hell those two lost; nothing made sense.
Her anger dissipated when she saw a teacher.
"You've recently finished the test, Professor Bridget."
"Yes, recently finished the test," with a fake smile, Professor Bridget smiled.
She didn't want to show her angry side, so she tried to disguise an awkward smile.
"There will be thirty cadets who will be in class one."
"That's right."
"By the way, who won?"
"It was a cadet named Asher."
The professor put his hand to his head, thinking about the cadet who won, but nothing came to mind.
"I don't know who it is. I thought one of the members of the ten families would win."
"I thought the same thing too... Doesn't that make you angry?"
It was a curious question for the professor.
"Of course it doesn't. We teachers must be neutral and must not have any anger toward the cadets. This is a rule written by Principal Wilbek."
In that, Professor Bridget was well aware.
But then, why is she acting this way in front of Asher? It was relatively strange.
"See you later, Professor Bridget."
The teacher from before said goodbye, and then Professor Bridget continued walking while muttering.
"Damn arrogant brat."
It was a mutter that went on like this.
***
—Scene change.
—Asher Frostblade's point of view.
Being in the healers section, Asher was checked by some healers, who checked his body to see if he had a wound or something serious, but the moment they found nothing and saw that Asher was clean, with no wounds or scratches, they let him go.
Walking down the halls, he thought to himself:
"I guess it was a waste of time to go to the healer's section."
No, actually, why did I go in the first place?
Ah, because the teachers said to go, since they saw the fight beforehand and knew that several attacks that could hurt him quite a bit fell on him, but actually Asher used aura of darkness the whole time, so he didn't have any wounds on his body.
On the other hand, Grey and Freddy had a few wounds, but they weren't that serious, so they were healed very quickly.
"Asher."
At that moment, Asher's body froze as he felt a hand on his shoulder and recognized the voice.
"Hehe, hello."
"Why are you acting like that? You're weirder than usual."
Oriana looked at Asher with a frown.
"What the hell was that magic? I've never seen that before."
It was the question Asher didn't want to be asked. Looking at Oriana, Asher spoke up:
"I'm sorry, but... I can't tell you anything."
"..."
"It's okay, I won't insist, but some teachers will try to get information out of you."
"You know very well that's impossible. All teachers are not supposed to ask cadets that kind of question."
"..."
Oriana scratched her head and then remembered.
"That's right, I seem to have forgotten."
"..."
What the hell was that? Asher looked blankly at Oriana, who seemed to be doubting if she was really a teacher at this Academy. From Asher's perspective, Oriana didn't seem to be a responsible teacher.
Sighing, Asher turned his head and looked down the long hallway filled with wandering cadets.
"Then I'm off."
"Wait, I forgot to give you your room key. You didn't pick it up earlier, so I brought it to you."
Asher took the key and left a few seconds later, leaving Oriana behind.
***
—Scene change.
—Freddy Siegfried's point of view.
Walking across campus, Freddy was still thinking about the fight with Asher.
"He's awesome."
"Maybe I can fight him again when I reach the second circle," he muttered to himself as he walked.
Right next to him was Julian, who then spoke up.
"So who won?"
"Asher. He's a lot stronger than you thought."
"That's amazing. I would have liked to fight him, but I didn't think Luna would be that strong. She's barely been a mage for less than a week."
"..."
Freddy looked at Julian in surprise and then asked.
"Is that true?"
"That's right, she told me so herself, and so did Princess Gloriana."
Freddy was dumbfounded after hearing those words.
That means Luna has a great talent. If she's been a mage for a week now, that means she's growing up much faster than the others. But what about Gloriana?
"And the princess... she lost to me, but she's also very strong and has been a mage for five days."
"..."
Julian looked at Freddy in the same way, both of them so surprised by Luna and Gloriana's talent. Both of them are growing much faster than them right now.
It's the same with Grey, even though he's been a wizard for a short time, he's still very strong.
"So what do you think of Emilia?" Freddy asked.
"I don't know. She fought Grey, but she lost."
"I see."
The two continued walking around the campus, thinking about the test from half an hour ago.
It had been half an hour since the test had ended, and now the voting for the three most important members of the disciplinary committee was continuing. Although no one knew for sure who they would be, they had an idea who would be the chair of the disciplinary committee.
"I think I'll vote for Asher."
"Me too. He's strong and also seems very smart."
Freddy spoke up, and then Julian agreed with him.
They both decided who to vote for, but only the answers from the other cadets were missing. Still, they both decided to vote for Asher.
Despite not knowing him very well, they were sure that Asher was the best candidate for disciplinary committee chairman, not only because of his strength and because he had come in first place in the test. Freddy and Julian were convinced that she was not yet giving her all.
And so, the day of the voting came very quickly....