There were almost always amusing sights to behold among the vibrant streets at Endnest's busiest times—sometimes an eccentric carriage, sometimes a heated argument—but as for this incident, it was a horde of flashy teenage boys that tramped across.
It seemed more like a showcase of the most unconventional appearances. Hair dyed into all sorts of different colours, physiques varying from thin as paper to big enough to take up an entire column on the street—not a very pleasant view to many, but it did seize the attention that those boys craved.
The one walking at the very front, their leader at least, it seemed, was surprisingly the most normal of them all. His hair colour was intensely black, his body shape was slim but reasonably muscular in some areas, and even the tattoos on his skin were minimal, only a modest yet daunting skeleton of a butterfly on the back of his hand.
He buried both of his hands in the pockets of his pleated pants, and the strong wind transformed his thin jacket into a cape. Nathan Modernson had a pretentious, unconcerned smile on his face as he took in the looks of the disturbed crowd and headed straight towards the Imperial Academy with wide strides.
Meanwhile, it wasn't exactly tranquil within the academy, either.
"Don't slack off, hey, Joseph, I'm talking to you." Daniel Whitedawn stood in the centre of a chaotic crowd, reforming them back into shape with every one of his robust commands. "Wait, Monica, do you see anything on the streets yet?"
Monica, who stood on a giant rock pillar that emerged abruptly from the ground, shouted back a reply. "No signs of Nathan yet, but I do see something that resembles a… rainbow? It's quite distorted, though."
"Yeah, I'm sure that would be Nathan." Daniel nodded to himself. "Oh, come on! What did I say like a minute ago? We want 'large-scale!' Why are you all standing that close to each other? Do I really have to tell you guys everything? Yes! That's what I'm talking about! That's what I call perfection!" Despite his seemingly harsh words, the tone carried a bright excitement that influenced all the other members of the Salvation Club; the excitement of the club finally being able to come back together.
In contrast to the disordered cheerfulness inside the academy, Jennifer Lumendra leaned against the academy gate without company. Her fingers clicked impatiently on her thighs, staring around randomly to remove the sense of awkwardness and boredom.
Fortunately, the person she was after did not keep her waiting for that long. Nathan Modernson, along with a few sketchy figures who followed behind, finally appeared at the far end of the street.
A bright smirk replaced the nonchalant look on Nathan's face the moment Jennifer entered his sight.
"I knew it; nobody remembers me except for you." He shook his head slowly.
"Nathan Modernson, are you serious?" Jennifer side-eyed him with annoyance and nudged towards the gang behind his back.
"What, the first thing you say to me when I'm back is to judge the friends I made?" Nathan complained in innocent sarcasm. "Not even a proper 'welcome back?'"
"Nate, I'm not joking. Some aristocrats just need a beating to learn what respect is." The tallest and skinniest one of the bunch sneered.
"What did you say?" Jennifer looked up coldly, her hand slithered towards her waist.
"Oh yeah? Don't you dare think I'll go easy on you because of Nate." Seeing her threatening stance, the rest of the members held up their wands, pointing at her from different angles.
"Whoa, whoa!" Nathan spread his arms and warned those behind him. He then walked towards Jennifer, stole the wand from her hand, and carefully put it back in its holder. "We are all family, don't make things too ugly for me." Jennifer furrowed her eyebrows but didn't resist.
"Who said we are in the same family as her?" The gang relented, unsheathing their wands. Their eyes, however, still carried the same tone of challenge.
"Who said I'm in the same family as you?" Jennifer ignored them and turned to Nathan in complaint.
"Whatever." Nathan shrugged and signalled the giant at the back to put what he was carrying down. The giant slammed the sack, almost as large as a mountain, onto the ground, nearly creating a small-scale earthquake.
"What's this?" Jennifer asked, still sounding slightly annoyed.
"The souvenirs I bought for everyone," Nathan murmured as he untied the string and ripped the mouth of the sack open. "Holy, Felix, you seriously could run with this thing on your back?"
Felix, the colossal boy, lifted his chin proudly. "Nothing in this world I can't lift."
"Nah, that's clearly untrue." Another boy joked. "Bet you can't lift yourself." Nathan and the other boys laughed out in harmony.
"Alright then, boys, I guess this is when we part." Nathan rubbed his nose and announced seriously. "Next holiday, same old place."
He then farewelled each one of them separately, some with a forceful bump on the edge of their fists, some with a hearty pat on the back.
Waving a final goodbye to their departing shadows, Nathan called out towards them, "Y'all gonna get expelled from your academies if you walk at this pace."
"They dare!" One of the louder boys shouted back, laughing.
"You don't choose your mates very wisely when you are out there, do you?" Jennifer turned around and walked towards the academy, signalling Nathan to follow.
"Don't judge books by their covers. Believe it or not, they all came from powerful families in their cities." Nathan argued.
"And… they all decided to follow you?" Jennifer didn't believe him. "Why?"
"Uhh… maybe because I'm attractive?" Nathan replied, putting his hands on his hips.
"Good one."
"You really haven't changed at all." Nathan sighed and followed her across the front court towards the campus area. "How do you know I'm coming back today?"
"Secretary Terrast told us."
"How does he know?" Nathan hesitated. "Also, what do you mean by 'us'?"
Jennifer didn't answer his question and escorted him across the ring of buildings that surrounded the first-year territory. When she pushed the final door open and revealed the familiar campus, what entered Nathan's eyes was totally not what he expected.
The sound of instruments was the first to greet him; then came the tremendous pillars of different elements that erupted from the ground. The members of the Salvation Club lined up evenly on either side of a red carpet directly underneath him.
A banner floated in midair, carried by a couple of Wind-Element Rune Artists. The handwritten words "Return of the Great and Glorious Man Nathan Modernson" fluttered in the wind.
"Welcome back, Nathan," Jennifer added behind him, arms crossed.
"WELCOME HOME, NATHAN." The two lines of students repeated in the most disorganised way possible, some of them barely able to hold in their laughter.
"Wrong! Wrong!" Daniel Whitedawn condemned loudly. "Wow, those rehearsals were completely useless!"
Nathan's mouth was as wide as the academy gate. He looked around in disbelief, not knowing what expression he should put on his face.
"I knew none of you had forgotten me!"
"Of course we haven't." Ash Robert walked him across the red carpet, accompanied by the other core members of the Salvation Club and the Representative Students. "I guess we don't have to say this so many times, but… welcome back anyway, Nathan."
Nathan was so overjoyed that he seemed out of words. Running up towards him, he grabbed Ash into his arms and exclaimed, "President! I'm so glad to see our club operating well without me."
Among the crowd's laughter, Nathan quietly whispered something into Ash's ear. "No one picked on you during my absence, right?"
Ash paused slightly, letting go of Nathan. He shook his head with a slight grin. Nathan's smile began to vanish, seeing through his lies like glass. However, he didn't dwell further on a depressing topic in a great ceremony filled with happiness. He scanned around for a particular person. Unable to locate her, he called out.
"Monica! Where is Monica?"
"She's here, just wait a second!" Jay Short proclaimed, casting a Rune on the giant rock pillar he had summoned as a watchtower. His mastery of Rune Arts was quite remarkable, but bringing a pillar that high back underneath the ground was taking more effort than he thought.
Before the height seemed safe to jump off, Monica leapt down and landed stably, causing everyone to cheer in admiration. She rushed towards Nathan and hugged him in the same way Nathan had hugged Ash.
Everyone looked at them suspiciously with amusement. Monica didn't seem to notice, but Nathan obviously had.
"What are you guys looking at?" He joked, coughing from the shattering force that landed on him. "Get real, guys, Monica is basically a boy."
Laughter once again drowned the atmosphere. Monica attempted to smack Nathan on the back with an embarrassed smile, which was avoided by Nathan's instinctive dodge to save his life.
"Wait, guys, quiet down. I have something to say!" Nathan lifted both of his arms in the air and yelled. "You all don't stand there like statues anymore! Come gather up."
"What, you bought something for us?" Charlotte grinned, knowing Nathan. "You are not someone to come back empty-handed."
"Charlotte, you are a true genius." Nathan paused in amazement.
"In fact, I bought something specific for every single one of you in the club," he continued, his body wobbling with excitement. "That's why I was looking for Monica. There's too much to carry."
"That's on me!" Monica patted herself on the chest. "Where is it?"
"Just outside the academy gate. Let's go fetch it now."
"Outside? Won't it get stolen?"
"If someone can lift that thing, maybe they deserve to have it anyway."
After a short period of walking, Nathan led Monica to the giant sack filled with presents. Nathan had to say that he hadn't imagined a day when Monica would seem strained dragging something.
"Man, I really don't know what I could've done if you weren't here." Nathan complimented her sincerely. "Trust me, my present to you won't disappoint. I bought you a weapon."
"Weapon?" Monica groaned as she pulled the sack behind her back. "I have… a lot of weapons… at my place… already."
Nathan didn't reply and grabbed a sword out of the sack. Fortunately, it was exposed enough for him to pull it out effortlessly.
"I bet you don't have this." Nathan swung the golden greatsword before Monica's eyes with a smirk.
"HALLOWED SWORD ELDERIA?" Seeing the sword in Nathan's hand, all the pain and exhaustion seemed to vanish completely. She was practically running with the sack, chasing the sword like a wolf that hadn't eaten for days.
"Calm down." Nathan ran backwards to avoid her catching up and let go of the sack. "It's not the real one, of course, but it's the closest counterfeit in the entire kingdom. Even the materials used were identical. It can't cast Rune Arts like the real one, though."
"That's still more than good enough!" Monica chirped. "Can you read minds or something? How do you know I've always loved the Hallowed Sword?"
Nathan shrugged awkwardly. "I guess a bit of luck was involved."
It took them less time than expected to get back to the return ceremony. The moment Daniel Whitedawn saw the sack, he immediately jogged towards Nathan and linked his arm with his shoulder.
"Yo, surely you bought something good for me." He swallowed with greed, looking at Nathan with anticipation.
Nathan tapped the hand that was on his shoulder. "Of course I have. Just look at how impressed this girl is."
Synchronising with his words, Monica let go of the sack the moment she could and grabbed the sword from Nathan's hand, caressing it like a mother with a newborn baby.
"One by one, one by one…" Nathan yanked each item out of the sack rhythmically.
"This is for you, Joseph, a toolbox for all sorts of concealable weapons. I don't know what they are, but you definitely do."
"David! This is yours! I wanted to buy you food, but there were too many perfect choices, so I bought you this secret recipe sauce from the most famous restaurant in Glemence. It adds flavour to anything, trust me."
"Charlotte, you were a difficult one for me to think of. I bought you a hairpin; it pairs perfectly with your current one."
"This is for you… deluxe edition of the most popular novel right now…"
"Ah, come here… your father is one of the headmasters of the Tower of Discovery, right? Then you definitely shouldn't lack a telescope…"
"Finally, Daniel! Yours is a RAPI too, a newly designed one, actually. You see this ring? It can transform into a ring sphere. It could store a limited number of items inside a virtual storage, too…"
"William, ah, William, I'm excited to show you this. This is the journal I've been updating across my journey through the cities of Runalond. I noted many customs, cultures, and many more things that each of them valued. I know you can make good use of it."
"Leo!"
"Wait, where is Leo?"
Hearing Leo's name, everyone suddenly fell into a deep silence, unable to begin. Ash Robert was the first to speak up.
"Leo… he was…"
"He was constrained by Amy Blanc." A familiar voice interrupted.
Nathan jerked his head around towards the voice, and his bright expression darkened.
"Arthur Paradox…" He hissed softly.
"Why the hostility?" Arthur shook his head with arms spread wide. "You think I could tell Miss Blanc what to do?" He got uncomfortably close to Nathan's face, a few words stinging into his skin with menace.
"Also, isn't this what you planned?"
"And you are out here asking me why the hostility." Nathan sniffed. "How long have you been spying on me?"
"Spying on you?" Arthur Paradox froze at his words and broke out in roaring laughter.
"To be honest, I want to know who that person is, too!" He patted Nathan gently on the shoulder and walked towards the academy gate. "Anyway, just so you know, I resigned my position as Student Council President. Good luck, good luck!"
Nathan stared at the back of his fading figure, his eyes squinted thoughtfully.
"What does he mean…?" Daniel murmured.
"This maniac…" Nathan puzzled. "I see it, but why would he ever want that outcome?"
"Matters little to me right now. Let's distribute the remaining quarter of my presents, and then pay a friendly visit to Miss Amy Blanc."