Leg day

A young man with black hair and red eyes was walking quietly among the busy corridors of the Athena Academy.

"Hey Kein, what's up!"

"Hey!"

This young man was the famous commoner Kein, a student renowned for his amazing sword skills capable of rivaling Leticia Pendragon, considered one of the greatest prodigies of this era

"Will you eat with us today?"

"I'm sorry but I promised Leticia we would train today."

"Oh man, bad luck. Anyway, it's amazing how you can endure a training session with that monster."

"Hahaha, it's not easy at all."

"Alright, we have to go to our class, Good luck in your training."

"Bye"

Kein made a name for himself not only for his sword skills but also for 'representing' the commoners in the academy after defeating so many nobles who challenged him

This brought him a lot of trouble at first, with the nobles playing dirty behind the scenes to get rid of him, They did everything—fixed duels, blackmail, and threats—but he did not back down and overcame all those problems with his sword.

A fixed duel is easy to solve; just make your victory very clear by overwhelmingly defeating your enemies. just be strong enough to not care about it.

Of course, there were problems that could not be solved just by raising his sword, He was not stupid, and he would not endanger his friends and loved ones just by raising his sword recklessly towards an important nobleman who annoyed him a little bit.

If necessary, he would put up with the mockery and provocations, not to the point of being intimidated, but if necessary, he would swallow his anger so as not to make the problem worse.

Luckily, he had Beatrice backing him up so the important nobles didn't mess with me recklessly, just some teasing and malicious glances 

"Hello Anisa."

"Hello Kein."

After greeting Anisa, I sat next to her and waited for the class to start.

"H-em...hey Kein"

After a few moments of silence, Anisa began to speak. 

"Hm?"

"I was wondering if... would you like to, I don't know, go out to eat this Saturday?"

As she spoke, Anisa's face was getting redder and redder.

"Sure! I don't have anything to do that day."

When Kein said that Anisa's eyes seemed to take on an intense glow, she said it excitedly. 

"Really? well, I saw that they opened a new restaurant that serves delicious wild boar meat."

"Wow, really! It's my favorite!"

"Hehe~, I know."

"Mm? did you say something?"

"Nothing, anyway; I also saw a cake store that looked super delicious."

"Tell me more."

While the lovebirds were planning their date, in a seat not too far away from them, a deep red-haired boy was listening to them with an almost imperceptible smile on his lips

'Ha, how good it is to be young'

Although his body is that of an 18-year-old, his mind is that of a 26-year-old, even though he doesn't like to admit it

He can no longer experience these cute stages of young love, partly because of his trashy reputation and partly because it would be too uncomfortable for him, Teenage love is riddled with doubts, confused feelings, drama and uncontrolled hormones, he's too 'old' to put up with something like that, he prefers something more simple and straightforward. 

I like you, you like me, let's try to date—that sort of thing.

Of course, having the body of a healthy 18-year-old I had the problems of a healthy 18-year-old body; it was especially complicated to control my urges with the brothel girls and I once thought about trying something with Livia, I can tell she likes me and I like her very much, We could try something in the future but not now, There was a lot to do still and I couldn't afford to get into a relationship with my closest associate

"Well, maybe half way through."

But that's not something to think about now; today will be the day when the 'main event' will officially start, You could say that this is where the plot of the novel truly begins

"Hello, my dear students."

Right on time, Miss Vivian entered with her usual lively attitude, contrasted by her lethargic voice.

"I have something to inform you today."

She stood in the center of the room, catching the attention of all the students.

"In 2 weeks, the academy will be taking the students on a field trip to learn first hand what it's like to fight monsters, but it won't be just a normal field trip; they will be accompanied by the top 3 third-year students as their guides and they will be taught everything there is to know about the job."

The students were clearly very excited by this news, Not only will they get to experience first hand what it's like to fight monsters, but they will also receive guidance from the top 3 students in the entire academy, This is a golden opportunity to improve their skills, and if they are lucky, they might get a tip from one of the top three to grow even more

"Alright, I know you're excited but that's no excuse for not learning, Let's get started with the class."

After that followed a long class about magic formulas for defensive barriers, Although I already knew a lot about this subject thanks to the classes with Miss Vivian, I paid attention anyway and took some notes.

Speaking of Miss Vivian, ever since she told me that I have something inside my body that apparently gives me a connection to 'The Flow' we have been checking me during her classes to find out what it is or if it could cause me some kind of damage, but no matter how hard we looked we couldn't find anything, except for the fact that he seems to be able to absorb and control mana much better than normal people, something I'm ashamed I didn't realize until now, basically because I didn't have anyone else to compare myself to besides Livia, a prodigy in every field, you can't compare her to a normal person.

When she asked me if I knew anything about this, I ended up telling her the truth about the Reclesia family, When I finished telling her, it didn't seem to impress her much; she said it was because the Reclesia family always gave her a bad feeling and she was expecting something from this, but anyway, she said she would help me in any way she could. 

But back to the subject of the thing I have in my body, I think I have an idea of what it could be, In the novel, it was told that the Reclesia family was kidnapping people from the slums to experiment with something, At the end, when the protagonist group faced the head of the Reclesia family, he seemed to have implanted something that greatly increased his abilities and also gave him the ability to cast spells as if he were a very powerful and experienced magician. The protagonist group almost did not count it, but luckily whatever was implanted in the head of the family got out of control and ended up exploding.

"This is very troubling."

The only thing I know about this thing I have implanted in my body is that it seems to have a connection to the flow and could end up exploding if it ever gets out of control

"I don't like it at all."

Having a possible ticking time bomb inside your body is not a pleasant sensation

"Sigh~ it's okay, no use worrying about it now".

I have to worry more about the event that's about to start, even though it seems like just a field trip to educate the students, Of course, it will all end up going to crap

The members of 'The Order' will attack the students in the middle of the excursion, It seems that there was an infiltrator among the students who gave them all the information they needed to be able to act at the best time; their target was the sons of Pendragon, Kivelia and Reclesia, in order to generate an internal dispute after assassinating the sons of the three ducal houses 

"As I am one of the targets, I will have to be careful."

Although in the novel there was no mention of Arthur being in danger, anything could happen, it was best to be prepared.

After class the bell rang indicating lunch time and everyone left for the cafeteria, I, on the other hand, took a detour and headed into the forest. After walking for a few minutes, I arrived in front of some bushes, I pushed them aside and came to a hidden clearing with a large tree in the center, Under that tree sat a silver-haired elfess

"Hey Arthur!"

When she saw Arthur, she shook her hand energetically. 

"Hey Freydis, what do we have today?"

I asked her as I centered myself next to her under the tree.

"Hehe~ admire The super and mega delicious ham, fish, meat, cheese, tomato, lettuce and chocolate sandwich made by me!"

What was the last thing?

"Don't you think it's too much for a sandwich? the bread can barely hold everything in it, plus I assure you it'll give you a stomach ache."

"Hmp! Arthur, Arthur"

She said this as she shook her head

"You don't know the greatness of this sandwich; by combining a lot of delicious things, the result will logically be something even more delicious."

"I don't think the cooking works like that."

"Whatever! What did you bring?"

"This."

From my dimensional ring, I took out a bento, Since I started having lunch with Freydis secretly in this place, I told Livia how to make one. It was not really difficult; it was just making food and putting it in a box, but it was very efficient and delicious. When I traveled to Japan once, I remember that the local workers always ate them at lunch time. They said that if a woman could prepare a delicious bento, then she would be a good wife, and I can assure that Livia prepares the most delicious bento's.

I opened the lid and caught a glimpse of beautiful white rice, meat cooked to the point with a juicy sheen that urged me to try it right away and fresh vegetables and greens for a balanced and healthy meal

"Glup!"

I heard a swallowing sound and when I turned around, I could see Freydis staring at my plate as drool dripped from her mouth

"Are you really a princess?"

"Yes, I am a princess, and that's why I demand you treat me of that tasty lunch!...please?"

"Fine~...but just a little bit."

"Yey!"

Since I don't know how to use chopsticks, I took out a fork and knife and started eating, inviting Freydis a little bit, She also wanted to invite me her 'her'super delicious' sandwich, but I politely declined (I didn't want to die).

Lunch time flew by and when we were about to leave, I said something to Freydis.

"Be careful on the hike." 

"Huh? Why?"

"I just have a bad feeling; just take it as a friend's advice."

"... Fine."

Although she's hesitating a bit, she accepts my words, I don't know if she'll take them seriously or not, but it's better to get the idea into her now.

The day went normally after that: the usual, annoying a bit, not attending classes, being warned by the student council, telling them to fuck off and going on with my thing, but in the training with Mr. Lucius, something new happened

"I think they're ready for me to teach them a technique now."

He said suddenly as Livia and I were sitting on the floor drinking water after training.

"What?"

"Their level has already reached the minimum standard for me to teach them some of my techniques."

"Minimum standard?" 

This time, Livia was the one who looked surprised and I couldn't blame her. We went through all that hellish training and we barely made it to the minimum standard?

"Don't be too discouraged; the techniques I will teach you from now on will be very powerful, but they could have serious consequences on your bodies if you are not careful."

Listening to him, we understood the situation better, If it is a technique that Professor Lucius wants to teach us, clearly it won't be a normal technique

"Well, today I will only give you a demonstration and you will try to do it to get used to the feeling; tomorrow we will start training it for real."

After saying that, he walked away from us a little bit. 

"Pay attention!"

Professor Lucius let himself fall forward and then.

-Fum!

"Eh?"

He disappeared

"What?"

Livia and I were equally shocked; we didn't take our eyes off him for a single second, but before we knew it, he had disappeared.

We looked all over to try to locate him, until I found him.

"Don't fuck with me..."

An insult escaped involuntarily from my mouth, but I couldn't help it, The professor was at the opposite end of the training ground we are at, Professor Lucius is terrible at magic and I highly doubt this is an advanced spell like teleportation magic, so that distance he traveled on foot with pure speed

This training ground is as big as a soccer field; that's 120 meters traveled in the blink of an eye, How fucking fast do you have to be to be able to do that?!

"Pretty cool, right?"

We heard a voice behind us, and when we turned around, it was Professor Lucius. 

"Hahaha, what the hell are you trying to teach us?"

"A movement technique that I created myself, I call it Dragon Race, I'm not asking you to reach this level in no time, I'm just showing you what my technique is capable of."

He said with a proud smile, which I totally understand, that I would also be proud for creating such a crazy technique like this one

"Alright, how do we do it?" 

This technique will definitely come in handy when it comes to fighting.

"It's not easy at all, If you think that to achieve this, you only have to improve your legs, let me tell you that you are very wrong, If you only improved your legs trying to perform this technique, you would end up losing all your upper body before you go 2 meters."

He said it with a warning tone before continuing with his explanation.

"To perform this technique, you must strengthen all the muscles used when running—absolutely all of them—the hip flexors that control knee flexion and stabilize the spine and pelvis. The glutes, more specifically the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius, propel the body forward, extending the hip by bringing the leg backwards. The glutes act as an anchor for the pelvis to stabilize the movement, especially during the flight phase when both feet leave the ground. The quadriceps bend the hip and extend the knee, which stabilizes and absorbs the impact when landing, and the most important for this technique are the hamstrings, which are in charge of the thrust force to be able to run faster. Besides these muscles, there are many more. Are you ready to learn this technique?"

""Yes!""

We said without a bias of hesitation that it may be devilishly difficult, but we both know that the really good things come after going through a lot of hardship 

"Okay, get ready!"

""Yes!""

After that, we spent the rest of the night practicing that technique, and I couldn't make it to Miss Vivian's class

***

I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, Strangely enough, Livia was lying next to me, also staring at the ceiling

"Livia..."

"...What"

"I don't feel anything from the waist down... besides pain."

"Me too"

After that, we didn't say another word and just stared at the ceiling as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

I didn't go to school for a few days after that.