Forming factions

"So you'll have a duel against that boy we met on the first day?"

I was in my room after classes were over and explained the situation to Livia.

"Yes, it will be in 2 weeks."

I answered her while drinking the delicious hot tea she had prepared.

"And what do you plan to do? Leave him half dead."

"No, if I do that, I'll only get a 'good reputation' as far as strength is concerned, and that's just what we don't want, besides..."

I took a sip of tea to freshen my mouth before I continued talking

"I don't think I'm capable of defeating that guy."

"You don't think you're capable of defeating him?"

Livia asked clearly surprised

"How can you be so sure?"

"Intuition."

Also, because of 'it' that will awaken in Kein in our fight, it's a bit frustrating to know that I can't do anything against 'it', at least not now

"Please be careful."

"Sometimes we have to take some risks."

I looked at Livia, who had a worried look on her face since I told her that she wouldn't be able to defeat Kein

"Don't worry, I'll make sure I don't hurt myself too much."

I said to her as I stroked her head to calm her worry

"Sigh~ it's okay, I won't spare him if you die."

"Hahaha, you're exaggerating; I plan to live a long life rotting in money."

After that talk, we continued to enjoy our tea quietly.

***

The next day, in the corridors of the academy, Athena was talking about the hot topic that came up on just the first day of class

"Did you hear about the duel?"

"The one with Arthur Reclesia and that unknown commoner?"

"Yeah, I can't believe that Arthur is already causing a fuss."

"Well, he has a reputation for being a jerk; this could be good, I hope the guy he fights against hits him in that smug face."

Nobles and commoners alike were talking about it.

Some were supporting Kein to kick Arthur's idiot ass, the prouder nobles were supporting Arthur to teach the superiority of the nobles to the commoners; and others were just interested or straight up didn't care

"Hello, dear students, did you miss me?"

Vivian greeted the students with her characteristic excitement, that contrasted her lethargic voice

"Today we will see a bit of monster anatomy, It may be gross to see all those guts and blood, but I assure you that it is very useful to know which gut to cut to quickly finish off a monster."

Vivian started with her class with the corpse of a stuffed orc.

"Monsters have all sorts of unique bodies with unique characteristics and unique weaknesses; even among members of the same species, there can be several differences. This big guy here is an orc."

She said this as she lightly hit the corpse of the orc next to her.

"This guy here has some pretty interesting stuff; did you know that his ridiculous healing factor is due to a special organ?"

At that information, the students seemed more interested in the class. 

"Hehe, I see no~"

She walked over to a shelf that displayed various monster organs and pulled out one that was the size of a basketball with a dark purple color

"This one here is the so-called regenerative organ. What an unoriginal name, right? but at least it makes its function clear."

I placed the organ on the table in front of the students; some showed interest and some showed disgust

"This bad boy is usually found in the area near the kidneys; I say usually because there are other orc sub species that don't have it in the same place, like swamp orcs or mountain orcs. When the body of an orc receives damage, this organ is responsible for generating bones, veins, muscles, and even new organs as if nothing, although it takes a huge amount of nutrients and mana to do so, so if you hurt an orc much, his regeneration will become increasingly slow, but it is always best to destroy the regenerative organ first so that the fight does not drag on". 

After that, she continued showing several corpses of monsters like goblins, kobolds and even a wyvern, Although it was a baby wyvern anyway, it was impressive to see one.

I paid close attention during the whole class as it was genuinely interesting and I made sure to make a mental note of everything I didn't know that I could find useful, even though in the library of the mansion I was in there were books on the anatomy of monsters The information was basic and without much detail.

After what seemed like a short time the class ended and I headed to the dining room for lunch.

"Hello Sir Reclesia, would you care to join us for lunch?"

A group of nobles approached me to ask if we could eat together.

'I see it's already starting'

"I see no problem with that."

"Thank you very much for accepting, My name is Will Serpia, and my family is a very important merchandise distributor."

"Of course I know them; the wine they make is splendid."

"Hahaha, it's an honor to hear that from you."

The others also introduced themselves, mentioning the name of his family and what he does for a living, After the introductions, we headed to the dining room

"I heard about the commoner who dared to challenge you in a duel."

Will, who seemed to be the leader of the group, struck up conversation after everyone sat down with their food.

"Hmp, don't even mention it; that rat dared to be disrespectful to a member of the Reclesia family." 

 "I understand that for a filthy commoner to mix with us nobles is simply insulting."

The conversation continued the theme that commoners shouldn't be in the same space as nobles, how inferior they were and that they simply served to work for us 

As we talked, I also noticed that a group of people also started talking to Kein, but in their case, they seemed to be all commoners

"It's already starting."

In the division of factions in the academy, the haughty and powerful nobles will follow Arthur's side as their leader, while the commoners and some petty nobles will go to Kein's side as their leader

Although it is said that in Athena Academy everyone has the same status, no one really takes it seriously, Some teachers have preferences towards the sons of noble families, the commoners are careful not to offend him recklessly, and some nobles can't stand the fact of sharing the environment with commoners.

This is an important plot in the novel, The nobles and commoners are separated little by little, creating the noble faction and the plebeian faction, Several disputes are brewing during that time, At first, they were harmless things like not getting together with the other side, but it escalated to insults, fights and finally to hatred.

The academy became a mess, with commoners and nobles fighting all the time, In the end, the academy had to take measures and things calmed down with Arthur's expulsion.

It is also a period where the protagonist becomes stronger by facing several nobles who see him as the biggest nuisance, and in this period is also where he starts his relationships with important characters like Beatrice, who supports the commoners to defend themselves from the proud nobles and also to create an equal coexistence between the two, trying to change the perspective of the nobles towards the commoners, Kein would help her in this and they would become quite close

"I want you to know that we support you in this, sir Arthur; commoners should know their place and not mess with the nobility."

Will said, showing his 'good will'

He's really just taking advantage of the benefits; having a member of the Reclesia family, even if he is a jerk, is still a great way to make connections with other nobles

After another 10 minutes of listening to Will lick my ass, recess ended and we headed to another classroom. 

This time we were in a huge, beautiful garden where several tables were set up with herbs and glass containers

"Good morning, students, I am Milfir, and I will be your alchemy teacher for the next 3 years you will be at the academy."

A beautiful elven woman introduced herself with a sweet and animated tone that exuded a bit of a motherly aura

"Although alchemy may seem like something boring and easy to do, I assure you that is not the case at all, The different effects and reactions that can be created by combining just a few materials are endless and exciting!"

She said with an animated tone, giving a hint of her love for alchemy.

"But, as with any activity, you first have to start with the basic and boring stuff, but even the boring stuff is fun!"

She pointed to the herbs stagnating on her table, which were the same as the ones on the other students' tables and began to explain the class

"The herbs that are on your tables are among the most common to find and are practically everywhere, but that doesn't make them any less valuable. These herbs are solar flower, fairy heart and vitelium; they are the most commonly used in basic healing potions or stamina potions."

After that, the teacher explained the correct way to create the potions and prepare the herbs, It was very simple: boilthe fairy heart for 5 minutes to extract its healing properties and then mix the water with ground solar flowers that enhanced the healing properties of the fairy heart to create a basic healing potion. To create the potion of resistance, it was the same process but instead of boiling the fairy heart, you had to boil the vitelium.

After that, the teacher explained some more things, like that the potions always have an enhancer that improves the attributes of the mixed herbs, Unless the properties of the herb itself are very strong, it is better not to put an enhancer in because it can even lower the performance of the herbs.

After about 2 hours the class ended and everyone was returning to head to the next class.

"Still here, huh?"

On the branch of a tree, a young black-haired man dressed in a hakama was sleeping peacefully while several butterflies were perched on his body.

When the students first saw him, they asked the teacher who he was, but she just sighed and said to ignore him

"It's best not to mess with him."

Knowing how powerful this guy was, I decided to stay as far away from him as possible so that nothing would go wrong with my plan to get expelled

"Although I highly doubt I could wake him up, only that muscular guy is capable of doing that, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious."

With that thought, I left the garden and headed to my next class.

***

Several days passed, and the division between nobles and commoners was becoming more and more noticeable. The hostile looks began to tense the atmosphere every time they met, but they did not advance much more than that.

Of course, that was about to change today.

"Watch where you're walking, commoner!"

One of my 'followers' pushed a guy to the ground after he accidentally bumped into me.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"That's what you get for soiling Sir Reclesia's clothes!"

'Jeez, what a devotee worrying about my clothes'

I joked a little in my mind as I watched the situation, I always did when these followers of mine performed exaggerated acts like this, I'm not lying when I say that some would use their own bodies as a bridge so that I wouldn't dirty my shoes in a mud puddle

"This better not happen again, or we won't be so nice to you."

"Nice, my ass! You're all just plain arrogant young masters!"

"What did you just say!?"

The two began to build up their mana, about to get into a fight and the first to move was my follower.

-Pam!

He hit the other guy hard in the stomach; he couldn't react in time and ended up on the ground, clutching his stomach in pain.

"Leave him alone, you fucking bastards!"

Another guy came up and hit my follower in the face; this one responded with a hit to his ribs and they started fighting

The others, seeing this, instead of stopping the fight, joined in to help their respective side, After a few minutes, the situation got out of control.

-Pam! Pam! Pam!

I effortlessly knocked down some guys who tried to hit me, and when two others approached to continue with the assault, a shrill voice stopped them all. 

"What's supposed to be going on here!"

Turning to look at the person who shouted, they could see a woman with rimless glasses and navy blue hair, just like her eyes, a tall stature for a woman and piercing eyes, She also wore a red badge with the golden symbol of a sword and a wand intertwined

Rivelia Lukvit is the student council president and Anisa's older sister.

"I want you all to follow us to the student council room now!"

She said with an authoritative tone that shook even the nobles, Several people wearing the same insignia as Rivelia but in white approached the fighting students and escorted them to the student council room

They questioned them all to find out why they were fighting and there were two versions of the story

The nobles started it or the commoners started it.

"Why were they fighting?"

Rivelia asked me as she looked me in the eye.

"It's all the fault of those classless commoner barbarians; all we did was give them a little warning and they got violent."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's why I say there shouldn't be commoners in this prestigious academy; they only bring trouble with their classless attitude."

Rivelia, who seemed to be suffering from headaches, sighed and let me go, but not before giving me a reprimand. Clearly, I complained, but she just told me to shut up if I didn't want to receive another one.

After that, the days flew by, with the relationship between the commoners and the nobles getting worse by the day. In the short period of 2 weeks, they practically hated each other.

If I had to comment on why things escalated so quickly, it would be because of the intolerant attitude of the nobles. They grew up in an environment where they could get whatever they wanted without even lifting a finger; someone else could do it for them.

This developed a mentality of being superior to the commoners and logically seeing them as inferior; clearly, not all nobles are like that, but most of them are.

The commoners' constant displays of contempt by the nobles must have generated in them some resentment and hatred, which finally exploded with the incident a few days ago.

Also, another factor that we can say was the trigger for this division.

The duel between Kein and him was about to begin.