4 Mike Thorn

The hero had arrived!

'Play it cool, Alex!'

Straightening my back, I put on a very business-like smile, one that I had practiced a lot when dealing with stupid authors who believed themselves to know best.

"Ah, nothing I was just..."

Tilting his head a bit, the hero waited patiently for whatever stupid lie I was about to come up with, showing the virtue of someone who would save the world. Though I had no idea why he even came up to me, I wasn't about to waste this opportunity.

I only had one chance, and even though time was slowly running out, I knew I had to make the most of it. In some way or another, I had to make it so that he was the one to stop Mike from bullying Robert.

"... looking for my key. I think I dropped it somewhere, and now I can't find it."

'Please, please, please, please!'

"Is that so? Do you want me to help you look for it?"

'YES!'

"Oh, are you sure? You don't have to..."

Giving me a bright smile, George just shook his head, "It's fine. It's not like we have anything else to do today anyway. So, where do you think you might have dropped it?"

Hook, line, and sinker!

"I'm not sure... Ah! I did walk around the martial arts building earlier when I was taking a look around the campus. I think I remember hearing a sound when I was walking behind it, but..."

"Well, let's go take a look then!"

Before I even had the time to suggest we should look there, George was already on the move, making it so I had to jog a bit to catch up to him.

Without a word, we quickly made our way toward the martial arts building, following a small path that led us to the other side of it. And there...

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

It didn't even take a second for George to spring into action, yelling at the black-haired man who was holding onto the collar of a smaller, brown-haired man, just about to punch him.

Next to them, another man was watching everything go down from the sidelines. And I now knew who that man was.

With fiery red hair, it was now suddenly impossible for me not to recognize Mike Thorn, the heir to the Rose family. The man who had made it so his friend was now holding onto Robert's collar, getting ready to, for some reason, show him his place.

A disgusting smile appeared on Mike's face as he turned to us.

"What we are doing? We are just teaching Robert that all nobles aren't equal. Why? Do you have a problem with that?"

Taking a step forward, I didn't even need to hear him speak to know George's answer.

"I do. In fact, I have a big problem with that."

Flashing his teeth, Mike still didn't back down.

"Fine. But then you will have to take his place. Fred!"

Acknowledging Mike's command, Fred let go of Robert, who quickly scurried away, and also turned to us.

And with that, the mission panel disappeared, letting me know that I had now completed the mission. Now all that was left was to swiftly make my escape.

Unfortunately, as I was just about to take a step...

"Take his place? As if! Me and Alex here will show you your place!"

'I will do what?'

"Umm, I'm not sure if..."

"Are you really going to let them get away with acting like this?! They are defiling the sanctity of the academy!"

Although I nodded a bit to show that I sincerely agreed that they were acting badly, I was still pretty sure that even if I did join the fight, it wouldn't help much.

"That's true and all... but..."

"But?"

"I just remembered that I left my stove on, so I really have to get back to my apartment! I don't want the magic stone to run out of mana, after all!"

Two extremely skeptical eyes were cast on me as George instantly called my bluff.

"We don't have kitchens in our apartments..."

"I-Is that so?"

"That is so."

Silence enveloped us as a cold wind swept through the air, allowing the two of us to bask in the extravagant awkwardness that arose. There was, however, one person who didn't particularly enjoy us acting like this.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the red-haired young master raise his hand and from it, a small fireball was conjured.

"Don't you dare to ignore me!"

"Watch out!"

George quickly pushed me to the side, making me fall onto the grassy fields next to the little path we were standing on, before lifting his arms in front of his face.

*Bam!*

A small explosion rang out as the fireball made contact with the hero, forcing him to take a step back to brace due to the impact. Other than that, however, he was completely fine. Albeit extremely pissed off.

It was pretty cool to see that the uniform was also completely unscathed despite having just been subjected to a fireball.

"You fuck...!"

"What's happening over here?!"

Just as George was about to show the two bullies their place, another familiar voice rang out from behind us. And due to that, Mike was the first one to notice his arrival, quickly putting on a very polite smile.

"Mr. Froid!"

"I said, what's happening here...?"

Acting in line with his very nasty character, it didn't take long for Mike to answer him, while I took the chance to rise to my feet again. No matter how much I wanted to, I knew it wasn't a good idea to try and sneak away right now.

"Nothing, sir. We were just sparring a bit. Nothing serious."

"Sparring?"

Mr. Froid scanned the situation once again before focusing his eyes on George, waiting to see if he had something else to say about it. Which, surprisingly to me, he didn't.

"Yeah, we were just... sparring."

Our teacher took yet another second to analyze the situation, followed by him sighing heavily and putting his hands to his side.

"Haaa... Fine. However, first of all, sparring is not allowed on campus outside of class. As this is your first day here, I will overlook it, but make sure this never happens again!"

Although I didn't know much about this world, I couldn't help but critique our teacher's way of handling things a bit in my mind.

"Yes, sir!"

"Absolutely!"

With that, our teacher turned around with a frown, muttering some bad words about us as he walked away.

Afterward, it didn't take long until Mike and Fred also started to move, walking past us with two huge grins, as Mike couldn't stop himself from poking the bear once again.

"Good that you know what's best for you, commoner! Hahaha!"

Clenching his fists, George managed to keep his cool despite Mike's taunts.

What was weird, though, was that he then turned to me with a hardened face...

"You are a coward, Alex.",

...only to then also take his leave.

So, in the end, I was left alone on the backside of the building, a bit confused as to why George had decided to take his frustrations out on me.

'But, I did it...'

No matter what, I could only think of this as a huge success. Mostly due to the fact that I wasn't dead.

Which was pretty great in and of itself, but that wasn't all. I wasn't sure to what extent I had managed to keep myself out of Mike's way, but I had a good feeling that I wouldn't be of any major concern to him.

The logical follow-up to this situation should be that he set his sights on George, which would then translate to them having the same kind of relationship as they did in the novel.

This incident had simply accelerated it a bit.

Today would serve as the catalyst for the hero to grow even stronger as he overcame Mike and everything he threw at him. At least that was what I was telling myself.

In reality, I had no idea how things would turn out, and I was aware that no matter how I thought about it, I wouldn't be able to predict anything either.

I was still stuck as the victim of whatever that loathsome author threw at me, having no choice but to dance to his tune like a rat.

Tomorrow classes would start for real, and there wasn't much I could do to prepare myself for them either.

*Gurgle!*

"Ah, I should probably get something to eat..."

Having already decided what my next destination would be, I headed towards the cafeteria to find something to fill my stomach with. Simultaneously I prayed to a higher power that I wouldn't have to hear that stupid 'bing' sound for a long time.

'At least allow me this first week to get used to things... Please...'