Chapter 106 - Jealousy and Dilemma

Many of the students that were watching the scene were making echo of the snide remarks made by the long-faced girl. Even Karles and Reina felt a bit wronged by said comments, and even if they were at the bottom of the Inner Class Rankings, they were still part of the upper class both in the School and outside.

Even Nerun, for that matter, for he was the only known brother to one of the Dragon Generals, and as such, it's not like he had absolutely no one to depend on. However, the pressure they felt was nothing to scoff at, after all, the students surrounding Julieth were, like them, the cream of the crop, and could very well be on a rank of their own. Hernani Moira Dai Baruna, Julieth Dai Corena, as well as many members from the high nobility of many Provinces throughout the Kingdom of Ansem.

Nerun looked at the rude remarks made by the girl, and there were many people waiting to see his reaction. Had Nerun been low-key, staying in the periphery of things, and trying to pass unnoticed, it was possible that after a few weeks, people would start to ignore and forget about him, and just let him be. However, that was far from Nerun's mind. He might be filled with wisdom, however, he was still a teen, and he was one that loved to go by his gut feeling. Had he seen anybody else, he might not have cared, but friends for Nerun were something more than precious, something he was willing to bet his life for.

Julieth Dai Corena was part of the sweet memories of his childhood. Perhaps, in his heart, this was also a test for the girl. Had she changed over the years? Maybe she was not the naive-looking girl, that got fooled by her own escort of guards, however, were the feelings she expressed towards Nerun all a lie? Were their friendship and camaraderie worth so little? Nerun simply had to know.

So, Nerun simply treated the comments of the rude girl as nothing but a fart, and right in front of everyone's faces sat next to Julieth, gave her the dessert, and smiling at her said: "for you ugly girl. Make sure to eat it, it cost a pretty penny, if I might add."

Julieth was actually going to tell the other people that Nerun was an acquaintance of her, that they were on good terms, and hoped that everyone could become fast friends. After all, she also was on pretty good terms with Elijah, and her father was more than willing for them to become closer since he wanted to bet on his future. Also, even though Nerun had all those nasty rumours surrounding him, for one, Julieth did not believe any of them. Who better than her knew, that that little freak, before even becoming a Qi master managed to defeat a Qi Praetorian, and that there were many secrets inside him? On the other hand, even in the preposterous case that the rumours were true, so what? He was Elijah's brother, and that was a good enough reason for her to give him face. Therefore, she was prepared to invite Nerun to sit in with a smile, although later, she would tell him that It was more appropriate for him to sit with the people from his own year and class since it would help to bond.

But, the moment she heard that cringy salute, she just could not keep it. Indeed, there was something about Nerun, that simply drove her out of her mind. "I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING ME UGLY GIRL. UGLY GIRL THIS, UGLY GIRL THAT, Could you, for the love of EON, tell me, what is according to you so ugly about me?". An exasperated Juieth was breathing quickly, as her voluptuous chest was inhaling and exhaling quickly, with the uniform threatening to burst right from the seams.

However, not many people paid attention to such imagery, since the fact that Julieth, the goddess, the one that simply smiled kindly to everyone as if she was way above the others, ethereal, untouchable, lost her self-control from the words from someone people thought less than a mongrel. The surprises were not yet over. When Nerun listened to her rant, he simply smiled back and pointed at the cake. A smile so genuine, and pure, which could only be described with the word beautiful emerged from his lips, and some of the girls around him actually blushed when looking at it. Even Julieth was stunned, but not by Nerun's smile, but by his thick skin.

In the end, she only humphed and sat angrily next to him, took a fork and started pinching the cake so hard, that it was not hard to imagine what it was that she was picturing. Afterward, she put the cake in her small mouth, and while it was succulent and soul-stirring, she was not paying any attention to the flavour, but staring directly at Nerun while chewing. Nerun then just laughed happily and started eating as well.

"What... Just what the hell is going on?", said the long-faced girl.

"A friend of yours?" asked Nerun while eating.

The food was even better than he could possibly imagine. He had never had something so delicious in his entire life. The meat was perfectly cooked, with a slight char on the edges, that stimulated every single cell on his tongue. The energy in his body started moving on its own and going through his meridians, making them stronger and fiercer. Nerun quickly understood, that if he was able to eat like this every day, the benefits were insurmountable. Definitely, the core disciples, who could eat like this free of charge were such, not only because of their great talent but because of the many resources spent on them. This was just the tip of the iceberg, and Nerun, with his staggering amount of points, that would be renovated monthly could even be treated as a quasi-core disciple, something that he was more than willing to do for his objective.

"She is a recent acquaintance. Lorena Dai Calcutta. From the Calcutta Family, one of the ruling families of the County of Lakis, which is in the middle of the kingdom. She is a third-year like me, however, she is from the class in the middle rank. We were formally introduced recently, and today was the first day she was having lunch with us. You can ignore her from here on out, I won't likely keep gathering with her. Hernani, pass the thousand-year bee syrup, please." answered Julieth, still staring at Nerun, while talking fast and freely. None had ever seen Julieth talk like that before. Lorena, the long-faced girl had gotten pale all of a sudden. But with a humph, she simply got up and went to look for some friends of hers at another table.

"This is Hernani, by the way. He is your brother's teacher's brother. So I guess he would be something like your uncle master. But I digress. I hate that cringy nickname you came up with, so change it. From now on, I'm Senior Sister Julieth to you, otherwise, I'm completely cutting you off!" said Julieth in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

"Do you really want me to call you Senior Sister?" asked Nerun while raising an eyebrow. However, he knew that while he could take some liberties from Julieth, especially if they were alone, it was not good to push her around in front of so many people. Well, he could not care less about their thoughts, and he was mildly annoyed at the fact that Julieth still wanted to save face, however, he understood her, and decided to compromise a bit. After all, she had still talked to him and made it clear by accepting his dessert, that she was in fact, his friend.

So, before she could answer his question, he said, "You are absolutely right Senior Sister Julieth." Julieth's eyes opened widely and she started grinning like a small child that just got her favourite toy, however, she almost choked when she heard him mumble, "Ugly Senior Sister, more likely..."

"Are you still a child?" asked Julieth with a close-to-exploding vein emerging on her beautiful forehead. Thankfully the last comment made by Nerun was only heard by her. They stopped bickering and started talking about Elijah and Julieth's family, however nothing too deep on the surface. It looked as if two friends were simply getting reacquainted, however, this was enough for a hubbub of noises to start spreading in the cafeteria. Reina and Karles were a bit scared themselves, but quickly went and sat next to Nerun, and started enjoying their meals as well, getting to know the people that were nearby, and that were their upperclassmen. They were quite happy since they had never used their hard-to-come Contribution Points for a full Special Menu, since that could be considered wasteful. They were a bit worried though, since they thought that Nerun had spent foolishly the Contribution Points he had, and they had no idea how would Nerun do to gain some for his uses on the Academy.

People could simply not believe that Julieth would deign herself, not only to talk to Nerun, but it was quite apparent that their relationship was apparently close as well. Many people were too far away, so most people simply thought that Julieth was being her usual accommodating and ladylike self, however, the ones closest to the action knew that Nerun had apparently insulted her, but this was something like a secret only known to them both. Hernani was the one that understood it the most.

"So you are Senior Brother Hernani. My brother has talked to me much about you, and he thinks very fondly of you. I hope we can become friends then," said Nerun with a genuine smile on his face.

Hernani looked back at Nerun. His face, for a second there, however, showed an ugly grimace. The thoughts going through Hernani's face were not difficult to picture. He was, for one, madly in love with Julieth, so he was not very fond of the idea of another male getting so close to her. On the other hand, he did know Elijah, and he respected him on the surface, after all, Elijah was his sister's direct disciple and current position heir, and on the other hand, his whole family had invested a lot in Elijah, an investment that was already yielding returns. Nevertheless, in his heart of hearts, he could not help but feel that Elijah owed everything to his family and that the latter was nothing more than a poor yet talented upstart. He could let that go, but to also have to like Elijah's brother just because of a matter of face, a person rumoured to be a good-for-nothing wastrel that simply got into the Lyceum because of connections was more than he could endure. What was this feeling, Hernani wondered.

Jealousy! Pure unadulterated jealousy.

So Hernani's face when hearing Nerun's greeting was quite ugly and disfigured from his usual good looks and radiant smile. However, he quickly adjusted it and showed a somewhat pleasant smile and greeted Nerun back. His change was imperceptible and no one truly noticed the change in his face. No one, except Nerun of course. Nerun who was talking with him, looking at him, and whose senses could not be fooled by a fake smile.

"It's good to meet you Junior Brother Nerun. I'm Hernani Moira Dai Baruna. Indeed, your brother is a person I deeply admire, and I hope we can all be friends. I sincerely hope for you to do quite nicely here in the Lyceum, I'm sure your brother must have worked hard to help you get in here, so work hard and pay him back with your full effort." Hernani's words were nice to hear, and there seemed to be nothing behind them. There was however a tinge of reproach in his tone and choice of words. Julieth made a small frown but said nothing else.

Many people laughed at the remarks, and many people followed up, since both Julieth and Hernani had talked with Nerun fondly, and said some fatuous words, though many of them were either a bit mocking or insinuating that Nerun was there because of connections. Not that that was an issue in of itself, after all, connections were also important. But people needed to know their place, and if connections were all that there were to Nerun, he also had to play the part.

Nerun said nothing, however. This was not the time, nor the place. This was also a test for him. And he was learning. Watching. Listening. The phoney words, the fake laughter, the innuendos, and the condescendence. Nerun was not used to this kind of treatment. Had his brother fought against this type of assault? Perhaps the army was better, but political struggles tended to be more deadly there. Then what about his father? His father also had only Maikal back then. Had he also encountered this type of treatment?

He probably did. And thinking about his father made Nerun's mood turn for the better. Neither Julieth nor Karles nor Reina said anything more than necessary. They neither attacked nor defended Nerun. Perhaps for them, this kind of way of speech was par for the course. When in front of so many people only a few could remain carefree and truly be yourselves. Reina was a bit better. After all, she was quite feisty, however, her banter was also controlled. Besides her first yell when they entered the cafeteria she had not said much but seemed to be happy of knowing some upperclassmen she had not been able to meet beforehand.

Nerun was in a conundrum. Should he also go with the flow?