Chapter. 6 Progression

"Ken! Time to get up! I can't believe Lovetta does this every morning. Are you some sort of a king that needs maid to wake you up every morning?" Clare complained as she shouted for Ken outside of his dorm room.

As Ken got ready and walked out of his dorm, he was greeted by the pair of friends he has made since the start of his school life.

"Rare to see you here as well Clare, why aren't you waiting in the common room like you normally do?"

"I got hungry, and Lovetta won't come wake you up because it's Sunday and want to let you sleep longer even though she is starving herself, I can hear her stomach growling."

"And that is the difference between my best friend and a tagalong." Ken joked with a smirk while getting playfully smacked by Clare.

One month has passed since the start of the school year and the once mutually beneficial tutorship quickly grew into a friendship and the three have been hanging together ever since that first Sunday.

While Clare acted extremely cold and distant at first and seemed like this perfect and unapproachable princess who strives for perfection.

The real her behind that façade is actually quite immature and easily irritated while also extremely competitive.

From the very start, she and Ken developed this friendship where they would always be joking and throwing harmless shades at each other for laughs and giggles. It's hard to believe that the unapproachable ice princess would turn everyone's expectation upside down.

While everyone could see Clare laughing and joking with her two friends and many kept trying to get on her good side due to her status. Their efforts have all been ignored as the ice princess shows no mercy when approached by anyone else.

"Why do you act so cold to everyone Clare? I wish I could have people wanting to be my friends like the way they trying to be yours."

"They aren't trying to be my friends. They just want to get in good standing with my family. If my last name wasn't Yelwraek and my father wasn't the king, they wouldn't even look at me twice" Clare answered without hesitation.

"Now I know that's a lie. A girl as beautiful as you would definitely have people turning their heads and looking at you multiple times even if you are just a commoner like us."

Giving him a soft kick from behind, "You can't just say that to a girl like it's nothing." Clare murmured softly so Ken couldn't hear.

As the group got to the dining hall, they got their typical meals and sat together as always. Since Clare is not short of money and her luxury room alone costs 500 academy points a month. She has offered to buy the pair whatever they want but has always been turned down except for the extra free meal that Lovetta takes to save 3 points daily.

As Ken once said, "As much as I want to enjoy the luxurious lifestyle. I don't want anything I won't be able to maintain so until I can afford it myself with my own worth, I will just stick with the free meals."

As the group chatted and enjoyed their breakfast, a group of elves approached them.

"I see you are still hanging around those commoners from inferior races Clare. Oh, how much more will my wife be disgracing our royal elf blood."

Xandrian Nafluica, an elf in the class of 1998, is the most persistent detractor of the friendship between the three. From the kingdom of Nafluica, he is the son of a duke and self-proclaimed future husband of Clare due to the close ties between the two kingdoms as the two largest elf kingdoms and 2 of the 10 major powers.

"Xandrian, I will never marry you or have any intention of ever taking you seriously so if you could just leave so I don't have to hear your voice anymore." Clare snapped at the elven noble.

"Just what do you see in this human boy Clare? Does it make you happy and feel superior hanging around the lowest of trash?"

Before either Ken or Clare could respond, Lovetta stood up with a bang as her chair fell over and stared the elf right in the eyes with a deadly glare, her ears straight up and canine bare.

With all the those around intently focusing on them, the elf boy decided to walk away with his groupie laughing and joking without causing a bigger scene.

"Thanks for sticking up for me Lovetta, but you really should be calm when you are dealing with people with power like him. who knows what he would do with all the groupies he has if you become a target."

"He better have zero thoughts of targeting anyone or I will make sure his family hears all about it." Clare replied angrily.

"Calm down you two! Geez, can't believe I have to be the rational one in the group when I am the target! Let him say what he wants, I know it's not true, so it doesn't bother me at all." Ken said calmly trying to get the two girls to settle down.

"He went way too far with that comment even when it's not true." Lovetta declared angrily, still shaking from the encounter.

"Just ignore him you two, he has been provoking us for weeks now, just let him be and we just need to worry about getting stronger and passing our classes."

While Ken spoken with logic and composure, deep down he is just as fired up as the girls are but after 4 weeks at this academy, he understands the hierarchy and even though he got the support of Clare, they are in no position to make enemies with someone as important as Xandrian.

"It's Sunday! Why don't we go to town, explore and have some fun!" Ken suggested to the two girls trying to change the topic and get them to calm down.

"No, I need Lovetta to go train with me. We get too busy with everything else during the rest of the week, I can only get her to train with me properly on Sundays."

"Class, studying, and training. That is literally all we have done! You see other nobles and royals just having tea parties and gatherings daily while you, who is already the top of the class is spending all your free time studying like you might be kicked out or something."

"Well, you see Ken, different people have different goals. Most of them don't care about studying because they are only here to build connections with people in power. What's your goal Ken? What do you want to achieve?"

"Before I got this once in a lifetime opportunity here, I was going to become a traveler and just travel around the world to different kingdoms and see different things since I absolutely refuse to just be some servant and live out my life that way. But since I got selected, my world has opened up greatly. The king of my home even offered me one of his daughters for marriage after the selection happened."

"He what?" Clare shouted while Lovetta also looked shocked.

"I know right? I'm just some poor uneducated orphan but after getting selected to this academy. I can marry into royalty if I choose to do so. I don't even need to try to pass those stupid exams. I can just go back home after a year, marry some princess and live happily ever after."

"So what? You are just going to drop out after a year and go back home, marry a princess and enjoy a luxurious lifestyle?" Clare asked in a frustrated tone.

"Yes, that is exactly my plan. I will drop out so fast that I decided I will risk the onslaught of the icy queen for a second time just so I could get some help understanding this stuff.

What do you think my life would be like if I actually did just go back and marry some girl I never met before? What do you think the people will say behind my back?

You know why even when Xandrian says I am worse than trash I won't be bothered? It's because I know one day, I will prove them all wrong and show them that I am not inferior in any way."

"Then hurry up and finish your food so we can go get training and studying!" Clare's mood suddenly improved dramatically while Lovetta also got way cheerier.

"Oh, call me icy queen again and I will accidently send an airball at your stomach when we are practicing."

"That doesn't sound very accidental to me. Also, you still haven't told us what your goal is."

"Simple, become the strongest hero. Anything less is unacceptable."

"Well. With a goal like that, I can see why you are always studying instead of having tea parties like a normal princess."

Even though it's only been three weeks since Clare started tutoring Ken and Lovetta. It was pretty clear early on that Ken is definitely the much smarter one. While it takes Clare explaining most things once for Ken to understand and connect the dots and be able to figure out a lot more things just from understand this one new concept. Lovetta still struggles with all of the written subjects.

The current dynamic revolves around Ken getting help from Clare and tutoring Lovetta once he has a good grasp on the subject. On multiple occasions, Lovetta apologized for not been able to understand the materials nearly as quicky just to have Ken brush her off and reassuring her that it's good practice for him to be going over the materials with her.

On the practical front, Ken is also improving much faster on the elemental portion of the magic compared to Lovetta and slowly but surely, he is getting better and better at physical enhancement as well and with the proper nutrition he is now getting, He's frame is getting more and more filled out and with the physical training they are doing as well, he is slowly but surely improving on every area.

"I wonder where I rank right now with all the hard work we been putting in while most of them are just having parties all day. I can't believe I won't have a chance to know where I rank until the end of the semester and that's almost 4 more months."

"More time for you to show them just how much you can improve in only one semester. More reason we should just train and study as hard as we could so those people can't make fun of you ever again when you are ranked higher in only 6 months."

"I don't think I can rank higher than anyone in only 6-month, Clare. Many of those people have already passed advanced level and we still here trying to get good enough for the beginner stuff."

"Stop aiming so low! You should aim high! Like rank 2 for our class!"

Since after the first three years, the goal for the students changes from general overall performance to been able to advance in at least one area. The overall ranking really only matters as a bragging right while the ability to reach divine and holy level is the actual goal.

"I feel like aiming for second is too low for my potential. I might as well aim to reach holy level in everything and be the number 1 hero instead of you!" Ken replied with a smirk.

As the three trained, studied and ate, trained and studied some more. Another Sunday quickly came to an end, and the friends said their goodnight and headed to bed so they could be ready for another week of training and studying while getting to know each other better and grow as individuals as well as their relationships.