11 11. Oppression in the S class

"Let's go." Robert said when Emilia arrived at the cafeteria. This was their agreed meeting place.

Robert and promised Nana to look after Emilia in the S class as well as bringing her there everyday.

Emilia nodded.

The S class was in the third floor of the Academy's main building. The both of them entered the class and was surprised to see that almost no one greeted them.

"Remember, you must keep a low profile in the S class. All of the people there have great backgrounds and even the gods would not be able to save you if you offended anyone of them." Nana's reminded rang at Robert's ear.

"Hey!" A familiar voice greeted.

"Ash, you made it too?" Robert asked.

"Yep, rank 24, Ash Medace, greets you." Ash said jokingly.

"Introduce yourself!" The tall burly guy walked over and said in a domeeneering voice.

Robert gritted his teeth and said,

"I'm Robert and this is-"

"Rank?" The guy asked.

"Rank 30." Robert said in a small voice, intially he felt quite proud of reaching the S class, but now he felt like a tiny ant in front of these people.

"Rank 6,Midof Kuraekei." Midof extended his hand with a sneer. Obviously he was looking down on Robert's low rank.

"And you?" He turned to Emilia, disregarding Robert.

"Rank 1, Emilia Vin Astrea." Emilia said in a small voice.

The entire class went silent.

"She's the rank 1?" Everyone exclaimed in their heads.

"Hmph! Here i thought the rank 1 was from some big family, turns out its some lucky peasant." Midof scoffed arrogantly and walked away.

Following Midof's lead, the rest of the class also teased and belittled Emilia.

"Grr!" Robert was seething in anger and was about to lash out.

Emilia placed a hand on Robert's shoulder, her expression calm.

Robert felt as if a bucket of cold water was dumped onto him.

"Let's go." Emilia smiled warmly, took Robert's hand and dragged him to one of the more ambigouous seats in the class.

"Thanks." Robert said quitely. If he had lashed out, the consequences would have been terrible.

Emilia nodded.

Ash clenched his fists, angry at his other classmates for mocking Robert and Emilia. He dragged his bag and sat beside Robert and Emilia.

Upon seeing Robert's questioning face, Ash immediately said, "Better to hangout with old classmates than those stuck up geniuses." Similar to Robert and Emilia, he was also mocked when he had arrived, causing him to bear a grudge. All those geniuses came from the 10 great families, they discriminate agaisnt everyone else.

"Just wait, I rise to the top and sqaush all of you with my feet." He thought vengefully.

Just then the professor walked in.

"Morning, i'm your beast identification teacher, professor Kame." The professor said.

"Before we start, let's first talk about some of the rules for the S class." Professor Kame continued.

"The S class is a special class, all of you who are here will be nurtured into excellent commanders who will take charge in the front lines. Therefore, the requirements are 10 times harsher.

To prevent all of you from slacking, there will be a placement test every 2 weeks, to resort your ranks. Every month, the bottom five students, will be replaced by the top 5 students in the various A class.

Furthermore, to change your rankings, you can also challenge someone who is a higher rank than you. A student can only be challenged twice a week. If the winner is of a lower rank than the loser, he will take over the loser's rank." professor Kame explained.

"The loser will drop 5 ranks, regardless of what rank he is."

Immediately the eyes of various students lit up and Robert could already feel all eyes were staring greedily at Emilia.

"Challenges can of various sorts, duels, competition of knowledge, or anything related to magic. That's all." The professor concluded.

"Now let's get back to beast identification. Unlike your previous curriculum, this time we shall be focusing on the strength and weakness of each beasts."

"I'm screwed, I only have a month to climb the rankings." Robert said dejectedly.

"Me too, i'm barely pass the elimination mark, I'm sure a lot of people will challenge me." Ash sighed.

"But I'm most worried about her." Ash looked over to Emilia.

"Don't worry, Emilia must have some skills to acheive the rank 1 ranking." Robert tried to convince himself.

"Ok let's cheer up! We worry about that later!" Ash said trying to clear up the atmosphere.

Throughout the entire class, Ash kept trying to make conversation with Emilia, only to be replied with single word answers such as "ok" "yes" "no"

"Sure" or the ocassional "i don't know".

Robert stifled his laughter, he had long since gotten used to Emilia's short answer.

"What's with her?" Ash asked Robert.

"She doesn't like to speak very much." Robert replied.

"I saw you guys coming together, are you her boyfriend or something." Ash asked with narrow eyes.

"Nope! Some entrusted me to take care of her. What? You like her or something?" Robert teased.

"Just a tinge of admiration. But I'm curious, she's probably the number 1 beauty of the class, and you aren't attracted to her, are you homosexual or something?" Ash shot back.

"I already like someone else." Robert said in a dreamy voice, obviously thinking about Nana.

"You're lying, how could you have your eyes on someone else when a beauty is beside you?" Ash said.

"Hmph! That's because you haven't seen Nana yet. Nana is kindest and friendliest person ever." Robert continued in a dreamy voice.

"Oh, so her name is Nana." Ash laughed.

Robert stared at Ash in horror realizing what he had said.

"You better keep you mouth shut!" Robert flashed a deadly glare.

"Ok..ok I sure will." Ash said, nearly toppling over due to his laughter.