Let It Begin [1]

"And since matter can't be created, according to the law of conservation of matter, we all are as old as the universe since we too are created from matter!"

"What are you trying to say, Kent?"

"I'm trying to prove a point. So what if she was a minor?"

"Dude, ew! Get the fuck away from me!"

"Joke! I'm joking!"

It's been three days since the 'incident' in the 5th district forest.

All I would like to say is my reputation has improved a LOT! And by LOT, I actually mean a LOT!

Nero has been talking to me without that distant look in his eyes. Anastasia has started to put down her guard around me. Amelia has been awfully quiet in front of me, which is a very good thing since I don't need to listen to her annoying voice and remarks anymore. And Kent… is Kent.

By playing the sacrificial hero, I showed them how much I had changed. Sure, I didn't need to do something so dramatic as to let a fucking wolf bite me, but hey, I was really getting frustrated by their behavior.

Not to mention how many Edit Points I got by pulling that off! 57 Edit Points! Can you believe it?!

Although their behaviors didn't undergo a complete transformation, they ultimately aligned with my plan to a significant degree.

Hmm? You're confused?

Oh, yeah, I never revealed my plan, did I?

Well, by now even the dumbest of you must've understood what I did. But for the sake of those who didn't grasp the plot yet, I'll explain.

…In short, of course.

Remember the fatty guard?

Yeah, so basically, I bribed him and shared with him my live location. Then I asked him to come to my location in exactly 57 minutes and bring a low-ranked Venom Wolf along.

I instructed him to release the wolf right after he saw a bright light, which would be Nero's spell, and make the mana beast attack Amelia.

The guard had the ability to compel low-rank mana beast, so for him to make the wolf target a specific person and attack them wasn't a difficult task.

I knew everyone would be distracted at that time so it'd be the perfect time to create trouble and play the hero by solving it.

Yes, I calculated everything.

I had foreseen the encounter with Alberto and Grace's unit, the inevitability of Nero using magic, and even the specific spell he would likely cast to hunt the Steel Winged Eagle.

After that, all that was left for me was to calculate everything by the minute and I was done with orchestrating a perfect plan.

And do you know what's funny?

This Unit test event was skipped in the novel as the story directly jumped to the 'mock war' arc.

That means the Unit test was only briefly mentioned and not much information was provided about it in the novel, so I had to make do with what little information I had.

And even then! I executed a plan that not many would've been able to come up with in my situation and perfectly pulled it off!

Ahh~ Sometimes my own genius scares me.

What did I lose? My left hand and ten watches from my collection.

What did I gain? Restoration of my reputation, chaos and drama.

What's the chaos and drama in it?

You see, the academy dismissed the Venom Wolf's attack as an unexpected, unfortunate accident.

But our class is still hell-bent on believing that class 1-C-8 was somehow involved in it, as I basically accused them right before I lost consciousness.

Later when I was asked to clarify my accusation by Nero, I told him that I overheard Alberto's Unit talking about a secret plan or something.

Intentionally, to make it more believable, I left my explanation as vague as possible. And sure enough, the fools bought every word that came out of my mouth.

Word spread among the rest of the class and the spark turned into a full-blown forest fire.

They had no reason not to believe the rumor since Nero was the one who confirmed it.

"Class 1-C-8 attacked us," he said in front of our whole class.

Right now, the situation is that classes 1-A-1 and 1-C-8 are at each others' throats. By now the majority of the cadets from both classes have been in conflict.

This was supposed to happen anyway. I simply made it more intense.

Just three more days are left for the mock war to start and I couldn't be more excited about it.

"Oh, by the way, how's your hand?" while walking our way toward the class, Kent asked. "I see it's still covered in bandages."

"It hurts," I lied. "But yeah, it's healing, I guess."

"I still can't believe the academy didn't give you a healing potion."

"Well, the healing potions are expensive and cadets usually have to buy them with Merit. Since I wasn't gravely injured, they didn't need to use it on me for free."

"Still, isn't it hurting?"

"Yeah, but according to the medics, it'll fully heal in a week. And if it still hurts, I can go take a healing potion and  they'll put it in my tab."

"That makes sense."

Kent's worry was reasonable. I lost consciousness but according to medics, the wound on my hand was deep and I lost a lot of blood.

Even right now, my left hand is completely wrapped in bandages. I can't move it even a little.

Of course, I can heal it anytime I want by using my Pen to create a low-grade healing potion.

Anyway, while making small talk, we arrived in front of our class. As we entered the classroom, we noticed a boy sitting at the front desk with a visible bruised face full of wounds.

"What the hell?" Kent exclaimed.

Several cadets were already surrounding the boy in the spotlight while angrily murmuring amongst them.

"Oh, Kent!" 

As we approached the group of cadets swarming the bruised boy, a short-framed dwarven boy present there greeted Kent with a nod but pretended not to see me.

The side characters were still too skeptical of me to acknowledge my presence. 

Which is fine since I knew my reputation couldn't be completely changed overnight amongst everyone and nor do I care.

People tend to only remember the one mistake you made in the past, even when you've done ten things right.

Kent nodded back and inquired, "What happened to him?"

"Unfortunately, he was assaulted by some members of class 1-C-8," the boy replied with a sigh.

"What?! Isn't that a violation of the rules?"

"Indeed it is. William, Nero, and a few others have gone to file a complaint with Instructor Liz."

"Hmm?" my ears perked up as I overheard the conversation between the blue-haired elven boy and the short-framed dwarf.

My mind instantly raced as I turned to look at the boy who had allegedly been beaten by the cadets of class 1-C-8.

"Oh," I could only raise my eyebrows in understanding when I saw the face of the victim.

It was Chase Woods. One of the future main cast of the novel and he was known for his foul mouth.

I swear to god, there was not one dialogue of his in the novel where he didn't curse.

In fact, some of his curses were so innovative I couldn't help but admire the author's creativity. Oh if only he had used that creativity in the story.

According to the plot, today a group of individuals from class 1-C-8 had an altercation with Chase. They tried to exploit his high temper. 

As Chase has a tendency to use profanity, he began to verbally, for lack of better words, talk shit about them. 

After that, the argument very quickly escalated into a physical conflict as the group of cadets had originally wanted.

Since one can't use magic spells and martial arts against a fellow cadet unless, in a duel or combat exercise, Chase had to fight them the good old way— hand to hand without using mana.

It's not hard to imagine how he got his ass handed to him after that.

Sigh. Keep in mind guys; you should never fight against a group alone. If you've ever been put into that situation, run, beg or do literally anything else you can to avoid it.

Unless you're a masochist and you like pain, of course. Ahem!

Anyway, after he was beaten shitless, the patience level of class 1-A-1 reached its limit.

And as a result, the mock war was declared to occur between the two classes in the following two days.

"Haa, whatever~" sighing, as if all this had nothing to do with me, I took a quick glance at the beaten and bruised boy.

"That looks painful," Anastasia calmly approached Chase and carefully touched his swollen face. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the infirmary?" 

As Chase stared into Anastasia's deep, golden crystal-like eyes, he felt a sense of calmness washing all over his body. 

The pain and aching he was feeling in his body disappeared for a moment and he felt utter tranquility.

Only when Anastasia shook him and repeated her question did he finally come back to his senses.

"A-Ah no, I'm fine," he said, stuttering. "I want everyone to see what those fuckers did."

"Well, you should still get it checked though," Anastasia persisted.

"Haa," I let out a contented sigh and made my way to my seat next to the window now that my interest had been fulfilled.

The plot was progressing as it should be for now. That little gesture of worry and concern from Anastasia sparked an unknown yet warm feeling in Chase's heart.

Over time, he began to feel envy toward Nero for his constant proximity to Anastasia, which ultimately drove him to improve himself and gain strength.

Unfortunately, his fate was just to be one of the sidekicks of the main hero.

In the end, his strength wasn't enough. In the end, he died protecting Nero from the members of Spider in volume 3. In the end, he wasn't strong enough.

Tsk, poor guy. Didn't get the girl and didn't get a proper ending.

Although, if he had been alive during the final war, then maybe, just maybe, the United Military wouldn't have suffered so many casualties.

Anyway, all that doesn't matter to me. When that time comes, Nero will deal with it.

†

"As I've told you all before, I can't do anything regarding that matter."

"But–"

"Instructors can't intervene in disputes between cadets unless it's a matter of life or death. This is one of our academy's policies."

In front of a crowd of cadets, a woman with the darkest shade of violet hair and matching eyes stood. Calmly, she tried to reason with the angry crowd of cadets.

As soon as Liz entered the class, everyone swarmed her and began to request her to issue some kind of punishment against the group of cadets of 1-C-8 who ganged up on Chase.

"Then what should we do? Fight back? Because if we were to do that, you know as well as me, I will not hold back. They have been on our back for days now!"

Nero, who entered the classroom right behind Liz, voiced his frustration to which Liz only facepalmed before suggesting:

"Go to the Cadet Council. However, you must have a solid proof ready if you wish to have the council involved."

"Look at him," Nero pointed at Chase, whose face was still swollen and bruised. "That is proof enough!"

-"Yeah!"

-"This is really getting out of hand now!"

-"Such antics should not be forgiven!"

Following Nero's speech, several other cadets from the crowd began to express their own opinions.

"It is really not," Liz shook her head and the crowd silenced. "Bruises and wounds can easily be dismissed as self-harm. Then you all will be charged with defamation and attempted slander instead."

As she finished speaking, the cadets present were left silent. They couldn't argue with her reasons.

Despite clearly being in the wrong, they had no definite proof against class 1-C-8.

"Alright, now that everyone understands, please gather at the training gym for the first class," said Liz, before leaving the classroom.

Once she was gone, the murmuring among the cadets broke out once again.

"Tsk," Chase got up from his seat and clicked his tongue. "I don't care. I'll beat those motherfuckers myself!"

"Chase, calm down!" Nero yelled, clearly annoyed by the situation himself. "If you do that, you'll give them one more win."

"So what should I do?!" Chase slammed his fists on his desk. "Those bastards! If only I'd used mana, I would've reshaped their faces!"

"Chase, as I said, calm down," Nero repeated. "Doing that would accomplish nothing."

-"Yes, Chase. He's right."

-"Let's not be hasty and make the wrong decision."

-"They really are crossing the line here!"

Others surrounding Chase started to calm him down. After a long pause, he finally nodded his head.

"Fine, I'll-" he spat out, his eyes filled with anger and frustration. 

However, before he could utter another word, a chill crept through the room, sending shivers down the spine of every cadet. 

Suddenly, the temperature started plummeting as if a door to the Arctic had been flung open.

The classroom was enveloped in bone-chilling cold, causing everyone to hug themselves for warmth, their breath visible in the freezing air.

Clomp—! Clomp—! Clomp—! 

In that eerie moment of that sudden cold and confusion, she made her appearance.