The struggles of rank one

"I challenge you to a duel!"

My hope had been crushed. James hadn't approached me in order to show support or sympathy, it was to regain what should have been rightfully his. Nevertheless, I had to ask,

"Why?"

With a resolved look, he went ahead and spoke loudly, as if to make sure everyone heard the conversation,

"Because everyone will feel threatened if you were to be the highest-ranked freshmen."

'A real hero, huh?'

A tinge of irritation started to grow inside of me, and I also spoke a bit louder to make sure I was heard,

"But you already know about the artifact that didn't activate? Everyone in our class should know that by now! It was an accident, it was even confirmed by the principal himself."

His blue eyes seemed to flinch for a second, but, as if steeling himself, he pressed on,

"That's beside the point. We all saw you that day, that look in your eyes wasn't that of a fighter, it was that of a killer's. You shouldn't be here Miren, this is a place for the future of District 5, and you aren't fit to be regarded as a leader of our generation!"

I could feel myself getting cold. This was someone who had, supposedly, been my friend. Someone who had been wanting to help me, aid me and support me in my struggles, but now he suddenly turned his back on me?

After my brain made a few twists and turns, it became obvious as to what was going down.

"Ha...Hahahaha!"

I couldn't stop myself from laughing. It reminded me of the first dream I had, standing in front of the hero and laughing at his stupidity.

James took a step back, unable to figure out what I was thinking,

"What's so funny?!"

Swiping a tear from my eye, I stabilized my breathing,

"You are the funny one. I get it now. The only reason you wanted to be my friend is because of some disgusting feeling of wanting to be the stronger one, the protector of the weak!"

"You're wrong!"

I signaled with my arm across the room and continued,

"Am I? Isn't that what you are doing now? Protecting these, supposedly, weak little lambs from the big bad wolf? When you thought I was weak you had no qualms being my friend, wanting to help me, but now that I somehow got regarded as the strongest, now you need to show me my place? You are a fucking hypocrite!"

Unconsciously, I activated my Art, beginning to absorb the mana in the air,

At this point, James's resolve had already started to waver, looking as if my words had hit a sore spot,

"You probably always went through life thinking you are the protagonist, some kind of chosen one to lead humanity!"

He finally shouted back at me,

"You are wrong Miren!"

*Crackle*

Purple tendrils of lightning started to float around my limbs, sending sparks flying into the air, and my body started to scream in pain from overlocking myself,

"Then why the fuck are you looking at me like that?!"

Suddenly, he wanted to deescalate the situation, probably finding the situation similar to what happened at the status recording,

"Miren, you have to calm down!"

My blood was already boiling, and my mind was in complete combat mode, ready to eliminate whoever stood in my path.

I just responded coldly,

"Why should I calm down? YOU challenged ME to a duel, wanting to put me in my place in front of all of these people? Let's fight then! Show them your righteous act, defeating the evil little student who tried to kill his classmate!"

The levels of stress I had endured had finally been too much. I couldn't care less anymore. So what if I got expelled, I'll just try to get some blue-collar work or something.

"That's enough!"

Our homeroom teacher had finally arrived at the scene, positioning himself between us.

"Miren, cancel your Art."

I still hadn't realized that my Art had been starting to rampage until Mike pointed it out, so I quickly deactivated it and felt myself falling into exhaustion.

Satisfied with my response, he asked us,

"Now, what are you two doing, acting like savages in the middle of a party? How hard is it to just act like normal students?"

James took the initiative to explain,

"I'm sorry Mr.Borr, I just challenged Miren to a duel. Thinking about it, this wasn't the proper place to do so. My apologies."

He bowed his head, having spoken minimally about the situation to avoid further questions.

"Is that so? So Miren, why are you getting all riled up just because he challenged you to a duel? You have already issued one yourself, you know?"

His words carried with them some truth, but the contexts were completely different. One true thing was that I had acted like a child throwing a tantrum, unsuitable for my mental age.

It had most likely just been a case of too much stress, but that was not a good excuse. Instead of trying to explain myself, I just wanted to be done with the conversation,

"I'm sorry teacher. I acted rashly. I'll take my leave, as my presence seems to bother everyone."

With that, I gave James one last look, turned away, and started walking to a designated room for portals.

****

[James's POV]

'I have to get him out of this situation...'

Unable to listen to the slander coming from my fellow students, I walked up to Miren with the only solution I could think of.

Nothing good would come out of the fact that he held the first place ranking, most likely it would just lead to other students shunning him even more.

The small face in front of me was watching me with expectation.

'I'm sorry Miren, I hope you will understand. You aren't made for this.'

Having already talked to Brad and Sarah, we all had the same opinion; Miren wasn't going to lead a happy life if his only purpose was to kill, thus it would be better to save him from it.

"I challenge you to a duel!"

'I'm sorry, but I have to make sure that the other students feel safe first...'

****

As I took the first step on my way to return to the academy, a large explosion rang out.

*BOOM!*

One of the walls of the ballroom had gotten blown completely open, and dust started to occupy everyone's vision.

"Stand behind us!"

The instructors sprang into action, getting into a defensive line in front of the students.

'It's happening...'

Although it had been sudden, I wasn't particularly surprised. I knew full well that there were bound to be incidents in the near future.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in the best of conditions after having overclocked myself. Shaking legs and painful breathing caused me to feel some anxiety, there would be no way for me to defend myself if it came down to it.

Thomas and Mike were the teachers to hold the front, accompanied by a purple-haired woman who I didn't know the name of. Mike shouted out instructions,

"Students, take out your weapons and prepare yourself! We will try our best to defend you, but there is a chance that you might have to fight!"

Everyone brought out their weapons from their DAD, having been advised to always have them stored in it.

"So this is the students of Kirkegaard..."

When the dust settled, a big group of enemies, all wearing purple, became visible.

In front of them, a huge black-haired woman stood, even taller than Mike. On her back rested a greataxe, most likely bigger than my whole body.

"We didn't come to kill! We just need justice! If you oppose us, we will not hesitate to use force!"

'What does she mean?! Isn't this a blatant act of terrorism?!'

Unable to figure out what lay behind her words, Thomas answered her calmly, fully realizing that we were at a disadvantage against their numbers.

"What do you want?"

Although it could be said that we were almost as many, there were only about eight teachers, with the rest of us being inexperienced students.

It would be nonsense to believe that we would be as adept as their, most likely, trained fighters.

"We need one of your students to use as a bargaining chip. Please cooperate and no one will get hurt."

Thomas's face got strained, trying to puzzle together a way for us to get out of this dilemma.

Instead of Thomas continuing the conversation, the head instructor spoke up,

"We can't do that! Why do you need a bargaining chip for anyway?!"

The woman's eyes pierced the room,

"You know as well as we do about the discrimination of our people... One privileged student will make them be forced to listen to us!"

'Our people? What is she talking about?'

"I know that society hasn't been kind to the mana-less, but you can't bring innocent students into this!"

She brought out her axe, holding it outwards in one hand, showing off some amazing strength.

"I'm tired of this conversation... Either you bring us one of the A-class students, or we will bring one by force!"

Mike's face darkened. He also knew that if they tried to fight like this, a lot of students would die. It would be trading several lives for one.

"We will give you one student!"

Thomas accepted their proposal, to Mike's dismay,

"Thomas! We can't do this!"

"What choice do we have? If they can promise to not harm the student, isn't that the best outcome?"

Mike couldn't refute his words,

"Fine... But which student would we be talking about them?"

Thomas turned his head and looked straight at me.

'You can't be serious...'

"Shouldn't it be the strongest one? As the leader of his generation, he should be able to handle this."

Thus it was decided that I would be the unfortunate student to be held as a hostage.

'Where is the hero now then...'