141 The Way Forward

"Pfffft!" I nearly spurted out my saliva in amusement.

Stefan went through all that trouble only to say that? It appeared he was taking the whole 'rival' thing a bit too far.

"Oh? He said that? Interesting…"

As my grin intensified, I noticed the worried expressions on by Edward's and Anabelle's faces.

"Those guys belong to the Upper Class, right? Are you sure you should be crossing them?"

"Yeah, I mean… can we really compete against them?"

Their tone displayed worry and inferiority. I could tell from the shades in their eyes that these two had given up on competing against the top dogs. To be fair, their disposition was justified. Normally, those who were already labeled as inferior couldn't rise above the superior ones.

Plus, they had only started actively learning the use of Mana for three weeks. With so much gap in experience between them and their supposed adversaries, shrinking to safety was the natural course of action.

However…