"What am I afraid of?"
Arckon repeated the words in his mind.
For a mont, it felt like his brain had gone blank as if the question itself had unlocked sothing inside him.
What am I afraid of?
He was the failed son of the Darkheart family, the one his father never bothered to acknowledge and the one his mother forgot existed the mont his younger brother was born.
He didn’t have much talent.
He had entered the academy already prepared for death... so why...
... why is the thought of Eric making afraid?
Eric was just another first-year.
A minor rank higher than him but still a student.
But he had sothing Arckon didn’t. Eric’s older brother was a second-year student and because of that, so of the first-years treated Eric like he was royalty.
While so feared him.
Arckon had chosen to fear him too.
"I don’t know." He answered to the boy, Rael truthfully.
When Eric had ordered him to strip and go find blue underwear, his first instinct was to submit... he never thought about fighting back.
Because that’s what weak people do, right?
They submit before power.
But when Rael asked about what he was afraid of... he just couldn’t understand the answer.
Why am I afraid?
—
"I don’t know."
What kind of shitty answer was that?
Still, I didn’t bother arguing. It was already getting dark and I had no intention of wasting my ti chatting with so naked weirdo when I could have been checking my skills.
I had thought about giving him a bit of motivation but honestly, this guy was too far gone for a pep talk to do anything.
So I skipped the sympathy and went straight to what I wanted.
"Do you have a mana bracelet that leads to the dorm?"
If I got to the dorms now, I might still squeeze in a bit of sleep before class.
Simple request, right?
I even asked with a smile.
Most people would have killed soone for trying to strip them and here I was, graciously forgiving him and instead of being grateful, the bastard flinched.
Can you believe that?
Sure, I had beaten him a few tis with this sa smile, actually but I was trying to help now.
A little gratitude wouldn’t kill him.
Guess goodwill’s been dead for a while for a reason and honestly, I couldn’t bla the world for that anymore.
"N-no?" Arckon stamred. "Eric took all of it from before throwing here."
Eric? Probably his bully.
Never heard of him... so he was most likely an extra.
"So how were you supposed to get back if you actually found your target?" I asked, honestly curious.
I an, those bullies didn’t seriously expect him to navigate this whole maze on his own, right?
Or maybe that was the point, send him in, let him get lost and call it bullying.
"Eric gave his Location Emblem. It could lead back to him." Arckon replied, his voice steady now.
Tsk.
So much for being useful.
Should I just track down this Eric idiot and take the bracelet from him?
I doubted he would be anything special.
Second-years were strictly forbidden from ssing with first-years during the first week, so at worst, I would be dealing with a handful of loudmouthed brats around my level.
Nothing worth losing sleep over.
Still... too much effort.
I an, I would rather stretch out on my lovely bench and go through my skills and the new flaw I had apparently awakened.
But alas, fate being bitchy as always, had no intention of letting enjoy even a mont of peace.
"What the fuck are you doing, huh, rat?"
Arckon froze as an arrogant voice rang out from behind .
I turned slowly... and found six students standing there.
Five of them were low E-rank and the remaining one sat comfortably at mid E-rank.
He was probably the leader of the group—Eric.
But honestly, my gaze didn’t linger on any of them. It went straight to the mana bracelets on their wrists, each one glowing faintly under the moonlight.
Ah. Well.
Maybe this encounter isn’t that bad after all.
I wouldn’t have minded waiting but if these gentlen were kind enough to walk over and donate their precious bracelets, who was I to refuse?
And there was no chance in hell they planned on letting go peacefully or maybe hand over their bracelets either.
Not with the way they were grinning.
As for their ranks, well, not for a single mont did I consider the possibility of losing. I had more than enough advantages to win comfortably especially considering the stored auras I had.
So, I decided to put up a grin of myself.
"Alright," I said, grinning, "which one of you bastards has the blue-underwear fetish? ’Cause I have got a very similar rusty pole here..." I pulled the only gift my sister had given ,"... and I think it’s dying to kiss that pervert passionately."
The bullies froze, their eyes locked on .
Beside , Arckon shifted uncomfortably.
But I didn’t care about any of that.
"I’ve been tossed around enough today," I said lightly. "So, I hope you nice people won’t mind what happens next."
—
anwhile in the residential complex of first year students, outside of one of the dorm villas, a crimson bear sat quietly, looking more like a stray cat than the beast he truly was.
His fur glowed under the dim light.
Bearlo had been waiting there for half a day.
This was his liege’s dorm villa.
And until his liege returned, he couldn’t enter.
The door only responded to his master’s mana signature.
So, he waited patiently and loyally as ever.
In his paw, he held a mana bracelet given to him by that odd professor, who had said that his liege would return soon.
Bearlo didn’t question it.
Young Miss Viola had offered to let him stay at her Villa, she said, it had many rooms and he could rest there until his liege arrived but still Bearlo didn’t want that.
He simply sat there silently without moving. His crimson eyes fixed on the street, waiting for his liege’s arrival.
"When will you be back, my liege?"
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