The Delinquent Duo

Thomas raised one eyebrow in disbelief. "As if. You and boring don't belong in the same sentence." He spoke with a smile while elbowing me softly in the side. I pushed him away with my shoulder before responding.

"Hey, I'll have you know I was very boring back on Earth." I spoke with indignation. It's not like I wanted to have this Level Cap, nor did I want to work harder than everyone else, I just had to. It was the only way to survive, this world wasn't one that you could live in while being weak.

"Y-you aren't boring, Caesar!" Jasmine, who was seated on the other side of me, seemed to have heard only my sentence and not the conversation leading up to it. "You're very interesting! E-even back on Earth!"

I smiled and patted her head, letting out a small chuckle. "Thanks, but I want to be boring. Being boring is easier than being interesting." I ruffled her hair a bit, like a parent does to their kid. Her cheeks flushed, she was embarrassed. How cute, if only she wasn't Gordon's crush…

My best friend, who got left behind on Earth, Gordon. I hadn't thought about him in a while. Not that it was my fault, my days had been busy. I looked at Jasmine's blushing face and sighed lightly, I wasn't dense. I realized that she enjoyed my company more than a normal friend would, but even back on Earth I held back because of Gordon and because I didn't feel the same. She was attractive, very attractive, but I didn't love her.

"But I suppose being interesting isn't bad either." I said with a cheeky grin as I retracted my hand. She caught my hand in hers and seemed to open her mouth to peak but the door to the room suddenly slammed open. She quickly flinched back, removing her hands from mind and turning towards the front of the room. It was time for the lesson to start.

The lessons seemed to stretch for far longer than they actually did today, maybe it was because I had free time today that I was looking forward to. But I managed to get through them so far, it was currently time for my last class of the day to begin, swordsmanship training. I wondered who was going to teach it as Oephilia was currently off campus, but as I went to enter the practical arena a hand tapped my shoulder.

I turned to see Cardinal James standing there, smiling towards me. "Been a while, Caesar. How have you been?" I turned fully around, moving away from the entrance to the arena, before answering.

"I've been the same, still stuck at level one, despite all my efforts." James seemed to wince slightly at my statement. I sighed, "It's not your fault, James, don't worry about it. What'd you need? I have class soon so it's gotta be quick."

James nodded, "Actually, your swordsmanship class was canceled today, the school couldn't find a replacement teacher. Well, they actually said it's self-study but that's essentially canceling the class." He spoke while recovering his smile. It suited him far better than his self-deprecating face did.

"Hm, I'll go straight to exp farming after this then. Is that all? Did you really come all this way just to tell me that?" There were plenty of other ways of telling me that class was canceled, and it wasn't even his job to do so, it was Hera's. So I was suspicious. A Cardinal in charge of someone else entirely went out of his way to interact with me.

"Right, um, well, Cameron is inside, and is in a bad mood. So I didn't want you to enter." He scratched the back of his head as he spoke, looking sheepish. I sighed, James had the bad tendency to blame himself for Cameron's attitude. He thought that it was his fault that he couldn't change Cameron, when it wasn't at all. His job was to guide Cameron, not to change him.

I shook my head and let out a second sigh. "James, how many times do I have to tell you to not blame yourself for that guy's behavior?" I scolded him lightly, almost like a parent would their child, even though he was older than me. James dropped his hand that was scratching the back of his head and lowered his gaze before nodding. I let out a third sigh, before patting his shoulder in encouragement.

"Hey! James!" A loud voice called from the arena doorway. I turned and saw a clearly angry Cameron standing there, wooden sword in hand. "And you! Both of you come inside, right now!" He spoke forcefully before turning and going back inside. I wanted to ignore him and leave on my own, but I couldn't since who knows what he'd do to James if I did.

"Welp, looks like I got caught anyway. Let's go see how big of a beating I get this time, shall we." I spoke lightheartedly, but my stomach felt like I just swallowed a brick. This wasn't the first time I 'sparred' with Cameron. And everytime the outcome was the same, I got my ass beat. The difference in stats was too high for me to combat. Cameron was one of the highest levels amongst the heroes, having raised himself to level twelve in this three month period. His physical stats were all over twenty, compared to mine the gap was far too big.

"Sorry," James muttered as we entered the arena. The only people in the arena aside from us were Cameron and Alex. I sighed, I was doing that a lot today. The lack of other people meant that Cameron wasn't going to be holding back today, he liked maintaining a good image in front of the other students in the Academy.

He lobbed a wooden sword at me. "I'm a little upset today so be a good punching bag for me, Caesar!" He charged forward the second I caught the sword, he wasn't nearly as fast as Oephilia could be, but he was still too fast for me to react to fully. I activated my body-strengthening, it wasn't much, but it would help me out at least a bit. I still managed to bring my sword in front of me to block his slash. I slid backwards due to the impact, my hands ringing from the weight of his hit.

Cameron gave me no time to reset, once again rushing forwards at full speed. This time he swung with one hand only, so the weight of the hit lessened and I was able to block it without being knocked back, but his other hand wasn't idle. He curled his hand into a fist and swung at my face. I leaned backwards, breaking my steady stance in order to dodge his fist. I succeeded, but with my stance crumpled I wouldn't last long. He let the momentum of his fist carry him into a spin and rotated fully around, using the force of the spin to increase the speed and weight of his swords. I jumped backwards, avoiding that swing at all costs.

He expected this, stopping his rotation and rushing forward faster than I could land. He reached me right as my back foot came into contact with the ground. He swung upward, and I brought my sword down to meet his. Despite blocking the swing, the weight of the hit caused me to fall backwards, unable to catch myself. His foot came in as I was landing, hitting me right in the pit of my stomach. The force of the hit almost made me throw up, as I slid along the ground.

The fight was over, I had no more chance of fighting back, and Cameron wasn't the type to allow me to get up. I curled into a fetal position and tried my best to endure the hits that came. Kicks and downward sword swings came one after another. Each hit was heavier than the last. He was really angry today, because the hits just didn't stop. Bruise after bruise turned into broken bones and blood as my mana ran out and my body strengthening dissipated. Alex's laughter rang out, her personality was worse than Cameron's.

"How pathetic. He's supposed to be a hero? Are you sure, James? He's so weak." Alex taunted me as I continued enduring Cameron's hits. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the hits stopped and the only thing left was Cameron's heavy breathing. He spit on me, before walking away.

"Pussy." He muttered. I waited until I was sure Cameron and Alex left before allowing myself to roll onto my back, releasing the fetal position I had been in, and simply laid on the ground.

"Greater Heal." A bright golden light enveloped me, as James kneeled beside me and began healing me. Tears lined his eyes, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He muttered over and over. I raised a hand weakly, resting it on his leg.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." I coughed between words, the pain in my chest lessening thanks to his healing but still prevalent enough to hurt. "You and I both know that you can't stand up to him, a Hero is too special an existence for you to be able to do anything about it. Not for a 'Broken Hero' like me."

'Broken Hero', a nickname given to me by Alex. It spread around school before I had befriended everyone. I was somewhat thankful for that nickname, as I brought the other students to me. A lot of students approached me curious about that nickname and I had befriended most of them. But it didn't change the fact that it was the truth. Until I could figure out how to break this Level Cap, I was 'broken'.

I left after being healed by James. I still had a dull throb in my bones, but it was manageable. I quickly completed my exp farm, before returning back to my dorm. Hera was waiting for me there, her expression downcast.

"Are you okay?" She asked, worried. I surmised that she had heard of what happened from James and sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time today. It was supposed to be a boring, relaxing day, but it was anything but.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I'm gonna wash up then maybe go to the library." I dismissed her worries with a wave as I walked past her towards the bathroom. "Let's hope nothing else happens today." I muttered.