“Why did Sophia help me?” Eugene thought about Sophia as he headed towards the auditorium after leaving the dean’s office. According to Hobin Jessup, Sophia had injured her hand trying to forcibly break the barrier spell and had also suffered internal injuries due to the magical backlash.
In short, she had incurred both internal and external injuries from attempting to break the barrier spell. Additionally, her sword had also been broken.
‘Why on earth?’
Eugene couldn’t understand why Sophia would go so far as to help him, even hurting herself in the process. Was it because he had protected her from the assassin? No, in fact, it was the instructors who had come up to the dormitory who had really protected her. All he had done was provoke the assassin.
‘Sigh… I don’t get it.’
Eugene shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Regardless of the reason, it was a fact that Sophia had gotten hurt while trying to help him.
Creak.
“Leader!”
As Eugene opened the door to the auditorium and walked in, Rohen waved his hand. While serving as the leader of the 5th team, Rohen had always followed Eugene like a little brother.
“What did the dean say?”
“He just told me to do well.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“They called you over just for that… That’s too much!”
Aaron stomped his foot in frustration. How could they summon his leader for such a trivial reason?
“Tsk tsk.”
Ken Pelven shook his head and clicked his tongue as he watched Aaron. How could someone be so sycophantic? Before Eugene defeated him, Aaron had been cozying up to Arid, and after getting beaten, he now treated Eugene like a lord.
‘In contrast, Arid is always so quiet.’
Ken Pelven, being the only one aware of the situation between Eugene and Arid, quietly nodded to himself. He knew that Arid had been defeated by Eugene, a fact unknown to the other team members.
‘Where is she?’
Eugene scanned the gathered first-year students in the auditorium, looking for someone.
“What are you doing?”
“Where’s Sophia?”
“Huh? Why are you looking for Sophia?”
Rohen looked at Eugene curiously. Sophia hadn’t arrived at the auditorium yet. Rohen, being the first to arrive with the team members, knew she wasn’t there.
“Really?”
“Yeah. But why do you need Sophia?”
“Leader! Now that I think about it, I’ve seen you talking with Sophia a few times… Are you two close?” Aaron approached Eugene with interest. It made sense, as Sophia was the center of attention among all the academy students.
As the granddaughter of a Grand Sword Master, she was strong, beautiful, and her hair shone like moonlight. Many students had tried to approach Sophia, only to be met with cold responses or outright ignored.
“Were you interested in Sophia too?”
Rohen looked at Aaron with a slightly surprised expression.
“Hey, what are you talking about? I just hope our perfect leader ends up with someone as fitting as Sophia.”
“Tsk tsk… You sycophant.”
“That’s not it.”
Eugene sighed and shook his head. Listening to his teammates’ conversations was always filled with nonsense.
‘Well… they’re still young, I guess.’
“By the way, how are you so strong?”
“What?”
Eugene turned to Elber Rune, who had suddenly posed the question. Despite being his teammate, Eugene hadn’t spoken much with Elber. Arid, who had been quietly observing, showed a slight interest.
‘How can that monster be so strong…?’
Since Eugene had easily defeated him, Arid had felt a strong sense that he should never cross Eugene. Additionally, during the last test, unlike the other teammates, Arid had clearly seen Eugene’s actions: slicing off the Lizardman’s head with a practice sword and controlling the sudden burst of flames to melt the Lizardman. Arid was so awestruck by Eugene’s skills that he had developed a sense of respect for him.
‘He’s not at the level of someone our age…’
However, it wasn’t as if Eugene was hiding his age. After being defeated by Eugene, Arid had asked the butler in his family to investigate Eugene. He had expected the investigation to take a considerable amount of time since it involved a member of the Bedia family, even though Arid belonged to the prestigious Sabe family. Surprisingly, the investigation was completed quickly.
The information Arid received about Eugene Bedia was very brief:
‘A child neglected and abandoned by his family.’
‘A talentless waste.’
‘The only member of the Bedia family who hadn’t created a single circle by the age of 15.’
This was all the information he got about Eugene, making it even more puzzling.
‘How did such a talentless Eugene Bedia become so strong?’
Seeing Elber Rune voicing his curiosity, it was only natural for Arid to be interested.
Gulp.
Arid suddenly realized the sound of him swallowing was very loud.
“Just by training hard.”
Stumble.
Arid, who had been tense, momentarily stumbled.
‘Is he joking?!’
Training hard to become this strong at his age? Did Eugene think Arid hadn’t trained hard? Arid cursed Eugene inwardly. Even though he often acted recklessly, he had put enormous effort into his swordsmanship. At a young age, he had swung his sword until his hands bled and calluses formed. He had developed his strength to the point where an adult long sword didn’t feel heavy.
However, defeating someone like Eugene and killing dozens of Lizardmen in one blow wasn’t something achievable by merely training hard. If it were possible to become like Eugene just by training, the world would be overflowing with Grand Sword Masters and Archmages.
“Come on, you don’t want to tell us, do you?”
“I’m really just training hard.”
Eugene chuckled at his teammates’ reactions.
At that moment,
Creak.
The auditorium door opened, and most of the female students entered.
“Eugene.”
“Look, Sophia is here.”
Rohen tapped Eugene’s shoulder lightly and pointed towards the entrance of the auditorium.
Eugene, hearing this, immediately started walking.
Step, step.
“Hey, Sophia.”
“Hold on.”
As Eugene approached Sophia to talk, one of the girls next to her, Ophel Roudi, suddenly blocked his way.
“If you have any business with our leader, talk to us first.”
‘Looks like there’s an Aaron-like character here too.’
Eugene gave a wry smile as he looked at Ophel Roudi. He hadn’t expected there to be a sycophant by Sophia’s side as well. However, Eugene was mistaken in this case. Ophel Roudi wasn’t a sycophant like Aaron; her family was actually a subordinate family to the Dikantel family. To be precise, Ophel Roudi’s grandfather was a vassal of the Grand Sword Master, Kylon Dikantel. Hence, Ophel and Sophia had entered the academy together, given that they were the same age.
“It’s fine. Step aside for a moment,” Sophia said, calming Ophel Roudi. Ophel nodded and moved aside.
“What do you want?” Sophia asked.
“Um… is there anything you want?”
“Huh?”
Sophia was slightly taken aback by Eugene’s question. She had tried to remain calm when she saw him approaching her, but then he suddenly asked if she wanted anything?
“Is there something you want?” Eugene repeated.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m grateful. I heard you helped me. Thank you,” Eugene said, smiling.
Just as the dean had mentioned, Sophia had played a significant role in quickly breaking the barrier spell, which allowed the Deans to enter.
“It’s okay… you helped me against the assassin too,” Sophia replied.
“That was just to protect something important to me. This is different.”
Sophia’s ears turned red at Eugene’s words. He always managed to say such embarrassing things right in front of her. She wondered just how much he valued her. The assassin who had tried to kill her was a high-level mage, a 6-circle magician. Though she knew Eugene was strong, it was unreasonable to challenge a 6-circle magician. Yet Eugene, knowing the assassin’s level, risked his life to protect her.
‘I must be as important to him as his life…’
In truth, if Eugene had known the assassin was a 6-circle magician, he would have called for the instructors instead of confronting him. But Sophia misunderstood this favorably.
“Nothing you want? If not, never mind.”
“Oh… actually, there is something.”
“Really? What is it?”
“A glass gem necklace.”
“Alright. I’ll get you one as a thank-you for helping me,” Eugene said, nodding with a smile. He had been worried that Sophia might ask for something expensive, but was relieved she chose something reasonable. In fact, even if Sophia had said she wanted nothing, he had planned to buy her a sword to replace the one that had broken while helping him.
At that moment,
Thud.
“Everyone, take your places.”
Deiker, who had stepped onto the podium, struck the floor with his sheathed sword to quiet the students.
“You all worked hard on the test. Some didn’t pass, while others excelled, but everyone did their best.”
Clap, clap, clap, clap.
Deiker clapped, and the students followed suit. Although the ones who failed only had two chances left to retake the test, they had all put in great effort, so Deiker applauded them.
“As I mentioned earlier, the teams that excelled in the first test will receive potions.”
Snap!
With a snap of his fingers, an instructor wheeled a cart over to Deiker.
“The teams I call will come up and receive their potions.”
Deiker called out the male team 5 and female team 3. Both teams moved to the front of the auditorium and stood before Deiker.
“Congratulations on passing the first test with excellent results.”
With a gesture from Deiker, the instructors distributed a potion bottle to each student.
‘Finally…’
Eugene tightly grasped the potion in his hand, smiling. To get this potion, he had trained his teammates in formation drills, fought an assassin trying to kill Sophia… so much had happened.
“And, as you might have heard, teams 5 and 3 will receive a ten-day vacation. Of course, the rest of the students will also get ten days to rest within the academy, so don’t be disheartened and aim to win the next test.”
After Deiker finished speaking, teams 3 and 5 returned to their seats, while many students looked at Eugene and Sophia with envy and jealousy.
Among those students, Antonio, who belonged to the same family as Eugene, was grinding his teeth in frustration.
‘That… that trash gets a vacation…?’
On top of that, Eugene had demonstrated unbelievable power during the test, which was baffling.
‘He must have pulled some trick.’
Antonio clenched his fists and glared at Eugene once again. The fact that Eugene, who had been considered trash in the family for 15 years, had suddenly become so strong was suspicious.
Of course, he had no intention of confronting Eugene directly. Having already been defeated by Eugene twice, he wasn’t foolish enough to challenge him head-on.
‘Just wait… I’ll make sure you’re expelled from the family soon enough…’
Cliche Novel 