I was writing in my notes, yes, that's right, i was revising my course of action after discovering I'd been nerfed.
What about it?
Anyway, the academy trial was over, it had been a few days since then, and classes had been suspended for an entire week.
Pretty neat.
Throwing an incomprehensible slime monster into the middle of an examination wasn't considered particularly conducive to education, now that I thought about it, the early activities were probably related to helping everyone overcome their collective slime trauma.
Fair enough.
There were plenty of things I was curious about, but I'd focus on them one at a time.
First...
Balin.
He wasn't really like the person I'd imagined him to be, i mean, with the context clues I'd had, it should've been obvious, but apparently, my brain still had a habit of putting people into convenient archetypes.
You know the type.
Hardworking, red hair, short-tempered, and probably a Tsundere.
Yeah.
That kind of character, except Balin wasn't really like that, he was much more composed, he spoke plainly, he rarely wasted words, while he still gave off the feeling of someone who could lose his temper at any moment, but it wasn't the loud, explosive kind I'd expected.
With people he barely knew, Balin gave off a pretty cool-guy impression, calm, reliable.
But that made me wonder...
How did he act around people he actually knew?
People he trusted?, people he cared about?, especially Iris.
I paused.
Then wrote the next question,
Does he truly love Iris?
I stared at it for a moment.
Then added:
Or was it just convenience?
The space underneath remained blank.
I didn't have an answer.
I smiled, I was looking forward to finding out.
Balin, your arc was beginning.
And after all...
It was my job to make sure it flowed smoothly.
Well, that was it for now.
I closed my notebook and slipped it into my Inventory.
Time to go to hell.
I quietly made my way downstairs.
Actually...
I changed my mind, I climbed out the window instead, only to find Clary already standing there, waiting for me.
She waved.
"What took you so long, big brother?"
Goddammit, so much for being sneaky.
A few minutes later, I found myself sitting at the table with Clary, staring at a plate of food, Adobo.
She pushed the plate toward me.
"Go on. Eat."
I sighed and picked up my fork, before taking a bite.
...
It was actually good.
Clary immediately grinned.
"It tastes good, right? I told you! I just need more practice."
"Yeah. It tastes really good."
I took another bite.
"Thank God."
She stared at me.
"You're not even religious."
"Thank God I know you were real."
She Chuckled. "Anyway, have you taken the picture of, y'know?"
"Hjördis?"
"Yeah."
I pulled out my phone and showed her the picture I'd taken.
She stared at the screen.
Her eyes widened.
"Holy moly..."
She looked at me.
"I... might be gay."
I raised an eyebrow. "Simp."
"Like you're any better."
"?"
She Froze. "...My bad." clearing her throat she continued. "That was my natural response to that answer. I forgot that doesn't apply to you."
Zero Friend, zero communication skills = zero Bitches.
"Why do I feel like your judging me."
Clary laughed again, before looking back.
"Have you told Grandma yet?"
"Hell nah." Shaking my head "Do you want to give her a heart attack?"
"Absolutely not."
"Exactly."
For a while, we simply ate, the conversation died down, leaving only the occasional clink of utensils against plates.
I looked across the table.
Clary was eating quietly, occasionally glancing at her phone, she looked happy.
Then Clary spoke.
"So..."
I looked up.
"Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
She hesitated.
"Um... so, like... uh... wha-... Why I'm I panicking???"
She stopped, visibly struggling to put the sentence together.
I waited.
"I'm graduating soon from senior high school,"she finally said. "So... can you come?"
She looked down at her food. "I know you don't really have the time and."
"But I do."
She looked up.
"I'll come."
Smiling I said "I don't have to work seven different jobs just to support you anymore, y'know?" Before leaning back. "So yeah. I'll be there."
Clary smiled.
"Yippee."
Yippe?, I looked at her for a moment, well that's a new word I don't know about.
I went back to eating.
For a few seconds, neither of us said anything.
Then I remembered something.
"Hey, Clary."
"Hm?"
"You're still planning to become a doctor, right?"
She nodded.
"Yeah. That's still the plan."
"Still?"
"Still."
She smiled faintly. "It's taking a while, obviously. There's a lot I need to do first, but... yeah. I still want to become a doctor."
I nodded.
"Good."
She looked at me.
"That's it?"
"What?"
"You don't have anything else to say?"
"No. It's your dream. You should be the one deciding what to do with it."
She smiled, then, after a moment, she tilted her head.
"What about you?"
I stopped chewing. "...What about me?"
"What's your dream?"
I stared at her.
Clary waited.
I looked down at my plate.
"I have no idea."
She blinked.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
I took another bite.
"Guess I never thought about it."
Clary stared at me for a few seconds before quietly smiling. "Then maybe you should."
"...Yeah."
It was now nighttime.
If someone were to ask me how I ended my day, I'd probably say I didn't.
I worked 48/14.
Literally.
[Shouldn't it be by 10x instead of 2x]
.... Oh your right.
I spent my days hopping between worlds, taking advantage of the time difference to squeeze as much productivity out of myself as possible.
I was even training myself to get used to the burnout, hoping I could eventually use the difference in time more efficiently.
If a dog were trained like this, it would probably bite the owner responsible for putting it through it.
Unfortunately, I was both the owner and the dog.
Still, things were finally starting to settle down.
I approached my dorm room and opened the door.
Finn was standing right in front of it.
"I was actually about to knock," he said. "Anyway, thanks to you, I managed to sell the gloves."
He paused.
"Then I remembered something."
My expression slowly fell.
"I lent you two Magitech items. The gloves and the staff."
He stared at me.
"Where the hell is the staff, Barry?"
...
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
And I looked at him~
And he looked at me ~
I looked toward the window, right now I was on the sixth floor.
...
That was doable.
"Wait!-"
I jumped.
"Your so goddamn unreasonable." Finn shouted from my room.
It was the first day of classes.
Well, technically.
I woke up early, so I still had another hour or two before I actually had to go anywhere.
I stepped outside and looked around the academy.
There were students everywhere.
Humans. Beastkin. Elves. People from races with wings, floating familiars, magical prosthetics, and probably at least three species capable of turning into birds.
And yet...
Not a single person was flying.
Everyone was walking.
I stared at them for a moment, Why Is that?.
...
Oh... Right.
I'm a loner.
Why fly when you can walk alongside your friends?
Of course this isn't entirely my fault, It's mostly Barry, he's the one with no friends.
I had no friends by choice, it's completely different.
Anyway, it seemed like everyone was finally settling down.
Most of the students, at least, appeared to have gotten over the whole incomprehensible-slime-monster-trauma thing.
Good for them.
As for my little group...
Finn was still trying to find me.
"Where is he?!?!?!."
Apparently, getting attacked by an eldritch slime hadn't scared him nearly as much as the possibility of losing money.
Honestly, I respected the priorities.
Rhea was...
Well.
Rhea was Rhea.
Dorian, meanwhile, seemed far more interested in learning how to control his newly found Phenomenon.
He'd barely stopped experimenting with it since the trial ended.
Then there was Balin.
As always, he was training.
Of course he was.
I watched him from a distance for a moment.
What exactly was going on inside that head of his?
....
At the end of the academy trial...
I knew what was coming, I knew what my result would be, and yet...
I was still distraught when I saw it.
E Rank.
...
I stared at the result for a while, if I hadn't pursued Barry during the third trial... If I had focused entirely on securing a higher score, would I have placed higher?
No.
I already knew the answer, even if I had performed better, there was no guarantee it would have been enough.
Still...
It didn't matter, as long as I worked hard enough, I would eventually prove myself, that was all I needed to do.
Work harder.
Improve.
Climb.
There was no reason I couldn't reach the top eventually, then I noticed something.
The S-Rank benefits.
Barry was holding them.
...
My grip tightened.
Of all people...
Barry.
The reason I could bear talking to him despite him being a noble was because I knew his situation, a baron with little to no money to his name, as far as I could tell, he was practically in the same situation as me, that was why I could tolerate him.
Because unlike the other nobles...
Barry understood what it was like to have nothing.
And yet...
He deserved that rank, i knew he did, he had earned it, so why... Why couldn't I?
My hands tightened around the Zweihänder.
I swung.
CRACK!
The blade slammed into the training dummy hard enough to splinter it.
I pulled the sword back, breathing heavily.
I swung again.
CRACK!
The dummy broke apart, fragments of wood scattered across the floor, i stared at what was left of it.
My reflection barely visible in the polished blade.
Why?
Why was all my effort still worth so little?, gritting my teeth.
"Dammit."
I took a breath, trying to calm my nerves.
It worked, for about three seconds, before I took a step back as I finally noticed a glare from a predator.
Was I scared?
No.
It was more like an instinctive reaction, the kind your body has when it realizes something dangerous is staring directly at you.
Oh...
It's that girl, the one who got punished for breaking the rules, she fought Barry too, didn't she?
Right.
She did, my memory was a little blurry thanks to that incomprehensible monster showed up.
She stared at me.
Then.
"Fight Raksha."
...
"Sure."
I wasn't exactly the type to reject a fight, still, an unexpected question suddenly popped into my head.
One I never thought I'd actually ask.
"Why, though?"
She tilted her head.
"Why?"
"Yeah. Why do you want to fight me?"
She grinned, stretching her arm outward "Because it's fun."
...
I smiled, now that's my kind of answer.
...
Balin and Raksha were fighting.
Naturally, I had to watch.
I'd fought Balin before, so I already knew what kind of fighter he was, he was someone who improved through failure, he'd make a mistake, get punished for it, figure out why it happened, and make sure it wouldn't happen the same way twice.
Raksha was different.
She improved during the fight, i'd experienced it firsthand.
When I'd fought her again, I'd tried choking the living light out of her. But in that short instance she figured out that she could create a frame with her own bones to prevent me from completely controlling her position.
Which was honestly pretty damn clever.
It didn't save her, though, I still managed to choke her unconscious.
So watching the two of them fight now was interesting.
Balin learned from what happened to him.
Raksha learned from what was happening to her.
Two completely different methods of improvement, unfortunately for Raksha, there was one other difference between them.
A rather significant one.
Balin had a Phenomenon.
Raksha didn't.
And the difference was obvious.
Balin's movements were becoming more refined with every exchange, his Manifestations appearing exactly where he needed them.
Raksha adapted.
She changed her footing.
Adjusted her timing.
Changed her approach whenever Balin gave her something new to work with.
But no matter how quickly she adapted, she was still fighting someone who possessed an ability fundamentally beyond what her body could naturally reproduce.
The longer the fight continued, the more apparent it became.
Raksha was losing.
And eventually...
She did.
I approached the two of them as they finished their fight.
Raksha was grinning.
Balin was smiling too.
Well, that's surprisingly wholesome.
"Hey, you two."
Raksha immediately turned toward me.
"Barry."
"Hey."
Balin looked at me.
For a moment, our eyes met.
He smiled.
Then he walked straight past me.
...
I stopped.
Raksha stopped.
We both watched him walk away.
I slowly turned toward her.
"Is he mad?"
"Has Barry done wrongdoing to Balin?."
"I... Don't think so?."
"Then he isn't mad at you."
"That makes sense to me, who is he mad though?."
"Raksha has no clue."