Part of the 'Gang'

My first three classes weren’t anything interesting, just physical training and learning how to control blessings. Two of those classes were dedicated to blessing training, so as you’d expect, there wasn’t much for me to do. I just used that time to practice my ascended elements. I was beginning to get the hang of celestial and slowly starting to master radiance. Well, I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered it, but I could release it as easily as a basic element. It took me a lot quicker to get this down than I thought so I started to integrate radiance into some spells.

Seeing how powerful everyone’s blessings are, I needed more creative and powerful spells to match up. Sure I was able to do well against Akiko, but I felt like I was only able to do that because I’m physically strong. Her ability is to take out magic power but even without that, I’m a capable warrior. I don’t mean to boast or anything but I feel like I’m stronger as a warrior compared to as a mage. Just means I need to work harder on being a mage to even the playing field.

Even though most of the class was useless towards me, the instructor would go through some things at the beginning of class then split us up so we can practice our blessings. I would pick up some things at the beginning of class. One of these things was chants. You can amplify the strength of a spell through chants or even calling out your attack. I was surprised that I’ve never heard of this. This was probably a technique held from the common people. These damn nobles, they’re scummy no matter the world.

Anyways, it got me thinking about my duel with Akiko. At first, I thought that it was odd to call out an attack before releasing it, but it makes sense now. I wonder, how much stronger can I get if I start calling out my attacks.

After these three classes, I decided to head over to the cafeteria. I saw Haruki and Tsubaki standing there, they must’ve been waiting for me.

“Hey Yakusei!” Haruki yelled.

“Hey.” I replied.

“How was your class?”

“It was kind of boring since everyone else trained with their blessings but me.”

“Oh yeah,” Tsubaki jumped in, “Are you able to keep up with everyone without a blessing? It seems a little unfair that you don’t have one while having to deal with everyone else.”

“Yeah it does suck but—”

“You know,” Haruki cut me off, “He’s really strong.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he was able to keep up with Akiko in a magical duel.”

“Seriously?” she turned over to me.

“Yeah.” I admitted. It felt kind of embarrassing to admit that for some reason. It felt like I was boasting about being able to keep up with her.

“Then there’s nothing to worry about then. It’s nice to see that you’re not at such a disadvantage.”

“You were worried?” I asked.

“Yeah, after the orientation I heard people wanting to find out how strong you really are. They thought you must’ve pulled some sly trick to push Gareth that far.”

“To be honest, I was only able to do that because he was holding back. I think if he went all out then I wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“Don’t be so modest,” Haruki said, “You were able to duel Akiko. Speaking of which, where is she?”

“She should be on her way here.”

After a few minutes of waiting, Akiko finally arrived.

“S-so sorry that I’m late. The professor made me stay back a little to ask about my blessing.”

“Don’t worry about it, just glad you were able to make it. By the way, the guy with the spiky hair is Haruki and the girl beside him is his sister Tsubaki.”

“Pleasure to meet you madam,” Haruki said.”

“I-it’s nice to meet you too. And you don’t have to be so formal.”

“Of course I do. I have to treat you with the utmost respect. For you are a lone dandelion in a field of grass.”

“Thanks?” Akiko stared at him with a confused look. I expected her to be disgusted by that response so hopefully he knows that she’s a lot nicer than what people say.

“Sorry about him,” Tsubaki said. “My brother can get weird at times.”

“‘At times’ is an understatement.” I said.

“You guys are mean, you know that?” Akiko let out a little giggle. “Don’t tell me you’re laughing at me too?” Haruki said.

“Oh n-no, I just think it’s nice how you interact. You really seem like good friends. To be honest I kind of envy it.”

“You don’t have to envy it if you’re with us. Feel free to hang out with us if you want. You can be a part of the gang.”

“Gang?” I asked.

“Yup,” Haruki said. “We’re all one big gang and that includes the great Akiko. No backing out, Yakusei.”

“R-really?” Akiko asked.

“Yeah, feel free to eat with us or hang out any time you want.” Tsubaki said. “And if Haruki here starts to harass you then I’ll be here to keep him in check.”

“Harass?” Haruki placed his hand over his chest with an offended look. “These are compliments I’ll remind you of. Nothing harassy about them.”

“Yeah like I said,” Tsubaki turned back to Akiko, “I can keep him in check for you.”

“Yeah sure.” Akiko giggled.

“Don’t say yeah to that.” Haruki said.

Seeing how he’s talking to Akiko now, he doesn’t seem very scared. Maybe after talking to her a little he knows that she’s a genuinely good person. I just hope everyone else realizes this about her. But something about her seems off, she seems a lot more shy than usual. It might be because she’s meeting two new people at once.

We eventually decided to head in to eat, I of course got the wagyu. Once seated I started digging into my food. I made sure to skip out on breakfast that morning so that I could enjoy this even more. They do say that the hungrier you are the better the food tastes. While eating, we just talked about our classes. We also exchanged contact info, Akiko seemed happier when we did that. We didn’t go too crazy while celebrating but it was nice. Just being able to hang out with people without worrying that they’re using me for something is nice. I just hope all of them are really this genuine.

After eating we split up and headed to class.

“I’ll see you guys later!” Haruki said. “And Yakusei, good luck.” He did the same stupid pose with his thumbs up again.

“Yeah… see ya.”

“We’ll see if we have time to train with you two after our classes.” Tsubaki added.

“Sounds great, just let me know.”

After waving goodbye we split up. Haruki and Tsubaki had the same last class while Akiko and I had ours. We decided to just walk to class since it wasn’t too far away and we didn't feel rushed. Our lunch break was a lot longer than I expected so we could take our time.

“Thanks by the way.” Akiko said.

“For what?”

“For introducing me to new friends. It means a lot.”

“Don’t thank me. It was Haruki’s idea to go out and eat.”

“But I wouldn’t have been able to join without your invite.”

“Maybe but I think that Tsubaki and Haruki are just really friendly people. I didn’t do much to deserve your praise.”

“Hey, I’m trying to thank you here. Don’t brush it off.”

“Alright fine, I accept your praise.”

“That’s better. And I wanted to ask, do you think that Tsubaki and Haruki think I was weird?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, I felt really anxious and nervous while walking to them. I just hope that I didn’t say anything mean by accident.”

“Now that you point it out, they definitely did.”

“Seriously?!”

“No.”

“Hey, don't joke around like that. This is serious.”

“Sorry, you make it too easy.”

“Whatever.”

“But I doubt that they thought you were weird. Maybe just a little awkward.”

“Was it that bad?”

“Just a little. I didn’t expect Gareth to be right about you being that awkward.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing isn’t it?”

“Not really. That's just who you are. There’s nothing wrong with being who you are.”

“Oh…”

“Either way, they were probably more scared of you than anything.”

“Scared?”

“Yeah, you do know that people think you’re scary right?”

“No?” she turned to me, “What have I done that’s scary?”

“From what Haruki told me, people think you’re cold-hearted and intimidating.”

“Cold hearted?”

“It’s probably because you would say backhanded compliments to people. And your resting face does look a bit mean.”

“My face? I can’t change anything about it.”

“Don't worry about it. Once they meet the real you then they’ll drop those preconceptions of you immediately. From a scary powerful cold hearted noble to a shy awkward person. I’m not sure which one you would prefer though.”

“Both options sound bad.”

“Thought so. But I was surprised that you were that shy around them.”

“How come?”

“Well, you weren’t really shy when we first met. You just walked up to me and challenged me to a duel.”

“I kind of did that off impulse so I wasn’t really thinking.”

“Apart from that, when we talked for lunch that one time you seemed pretty normal.”

“Normal…”

“Oh not like that but—”

“No, I know what you mean. But to be honest, I’m not really sure. It just feels easier to talk to you.”

“Wow, special me.”

“Don’t sound so sarcastic.”

“Sorry. Ahem, wow, special me!”

“You just said it a bit louder with the same tone.”

“I’ll sound more enthusiastic next time then.”

“Good.”

Class went by quickly, I used most of it to train with celestial and radiance. Akiko even realized that I was pretty efficient with radiance. She was surprised to hear that I only recently learned how to use it. I guess I have a knack for all this magic stuff. Or maybe, it was the training. Either way, I was making progress. Once class ended, we went straight over to the training grounds. We practiced the same thing as yesterday, Akiko worked on suppressing her mana while strengthening her body and I worked on the ascended elements. After a few hours of practicing we decided to take a break.

“How’s the suppression training going along?” I asked.

“A bit better than yesterday. I can walk around a little better compared to yesterday.”

“That’s nice to hear. I’m surprised your body is adapting so fast.”

“Thanks but as of now, I’m nowhere near your level.”

“You don’t have to compare yourself to me. Besides, I’ve been doing this for the majority of my life so I have a little lead on you.”

“Yeah, maybe. Oh and how’s your training going?”

“Good, I think. My radiant blasts are much easier now, and I can even weave them into spells. But my celestial though, I think it’s getting better. It’s hard to tell if I’ve made any progress after a day.”

“When I looked over, your spacial and astronomical seemed to have improved. Have you been training without me?”

“If you consider the classes training.”

“But those are for blessings. Oh right, I forgot that you didn’t have one. It must feel really bad to not be born with a blessing.”

“Was that supposed to be sarcastic?"

“No? Wait, did it sound like that? I was just trying to empathize, I didn’t mean to say anything rude. I swear.”

“Yeah I know, there’s no need to freak out like that.”

“Okay then… Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, whatsup?”

“Why are you so keen on being strong? I can tell that you’ve put in a lot of hard work to be where you are right now and I want to know why?”

“I made a promise.” I said. An image of my parents appeared in my head. Not the ones from my old lives but the ones I have now. I couldn’t waste all their kindness and care, I need to give them a child they deserve. I can’t do that while I’m dead.

“Promise?”

“Yeah, I promised my parents that I would make it back alive. Seeing how much love they poured into me, I didn’t want it to go to waste. I want them to see me grow up, I don’t want them to lose their child.”

“That’s really nice of you.”

“Thanks but right now I have something else that’s driving me too.”

“What is it?”

“I made a deal with Gareth. In one month’s time, we’d have to duel and put bets on the line. If I won then he told me that he would do everything in his power to secure my parents’ safety.”

“And if you lose?”

“Then I would have to work for the nation and follow every order that they give me.”

“Are you really going to go through with that if you lose?”

“I mean I have to. We used a magical contract to make sure the both of us will go through on our end of the deal.”

“Magical contract…”

“Yeah, it’s like—”

“I know what it is, that's why I’m worried. You know how serious magical contracts are right?”

“Not really. I mean it sounds important but I don’t plan on losing.”

“Magical contracts have the power to control your life force depending on the contract.”

“What do you mean?”

“Say you were given an order to commit mass genocide on a village.”

“Hold up, I would never do that.”

“Exactly, you wouldn’t. But there won’t be an option. If you won’t do it willingly then the contract will take control of you and force you to do it. Every action you refuse to do, your body will act on its own according to the contract.”

“What if I just refuse to do anything?”

“It doesn’t matter, you’ll move on your own. Your body will move on pure instinct according to the contract. A contract can get so bad where you can just end up being a spectator in your own body while it obeys every order. It’s either that or you would have to pay a heavy price.”

“Is there any way out of it?”

“Either you fill in your part of the contract or the other person lets you free. Magical contracts are something dangerous and shouldn't be used for a bet like this. I can’t believe Gareth would do something this dangerous.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it either.”

“But you don’t sound so concerned.”

“I don’t sound like it, but I’m scared—and that’s good.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because, I can use this fear to drive me to get stronger.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to be this optimistic.”

“Well I wasn’t, not in my past life at least. But seeing that that ended I want to be different this time around. I realized that there isn’t any use of focusing on the bad things.”

“Did you say reincarnated?”

“Y-yeah…”

Oh shit, is everyone not reincarnated?”