Helpless

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

"Oh, Kent!"

As both of them 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.

All the other students were still too skeptical of Lucas to acknowledge his presence.

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?" Lucas's ears perked up as he overheard the conversation between the blue-haired elven boy and the short-framed dwarf.

Lucas turned to look at the boy who had allegedly been beaten by the cadets of class 1-C-8.

"Oh," Lucas could only raise his eyebrows in understanding when he saw the face of the victim.

It was Chase Woods. One of the possible main cast of the novel and someone who was known for his foul mouth.

Lucas could already foresee how the confrontation between him and the class 1-C-8 had gone. No doubt he spat curses left and right at every given opportunity resulting in him getting beaten.

According to the dwarf, today a group of individuals from class 1-C-8 had an altercation with Chase. And it seems that 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.

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

It's strange though.

Lucas thought after hearing the details. Although not noticeable his words clearly indicated that the other party knew Chase's character.

It wasn't that hard to know about the character of other students but Lucas felt that the person who caused this incident knew too well about Chase's character. Coupled with specific curse words used by Alberto at the cafeteria, Lucas judged that Kai Wiseman wasn't just a schemer. There was definitely something strange about him. 

"Haa, whatever~" sighing, as if all this had nothing to do with him, Lucas took a quick glance at the beaten and bruised boy and walked towards his seat.

"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," Lucas let out a tired sigh at the scene and made his way toward his next to the window.

"Great, out of all the people he could fall in love with, it had to be Anastasia." Lucas sighed in lament as he gazed at Chase.

That little gesture of worry and concern from Anastasia sparked an unknown yet warm feeling in Chase's heart.

It was clear to Lucas that over time that feeling would develop into love. If it was simply that then there would be no issue. But Anastasia was part of his unit. Whether he liked it or not, Chase would definitely be jealous of all the male members of his team, especially Nero.

How that feeling will evolve, only time can tell but Lucas hoped that he wouldn't swept in it.

Anyway, all that doesn't matter to Lucas. 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."

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

-"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.

"Show off," Lucas muttered as he looked at the entrance with a smirk.

I guess it's better for me to not get involved.

Lucas thought to himself as he could already guess the person behind this phenomenon.

Clomp—! Clomp—! Clomp—!

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