Chapter 2: A Couple of Assh*les

"*Groan* How troublesome." I was tired due to lack of sleep, after I took my time in the bath I started studying for the entrance exam for the high school I'm going to.

Since I'm the son of the Andromeda family, everyone expected me to be at the top of the class every single time, which is why all I do is study, study, study, and study without rest.

Right now, it's pointless to study a bit since the principal of my school wanted the students to rest because once we graduated from elementary the students would have a hard time once high school comes.

This is why the principal wanted the student to ease up the students' stress because elementary is already like hell, to begin with. To put into context how tough elementary school is in this era, it's already harder than any normal college.

That's the school children attend in Japan in this era, it may seem hard for the eye of humanity in the past but due to humanity focusing more on science for over 500 years that kindergarteners are taught to solve Diophantine equations like they're ABC.

Because at elementary, every student has to pick their own major immediately to easily hone their talent: some even have multiple majors.

To put into thought how I feel about it, for me it's normal... I don't hate it but I don't like it, either way, I still remember being punished by my father when I was still 5 when I can't do basic math, even to this day I get punished because I can't be like my older sister who's a well-known prodigy in the entire world.

This is why I study every day so that I could be like the son my father wanted me to be, even if I started to sweat blood and get sick I won't stop studying just so my father could say that he's proud of me at least once. That's what I want more than anything else.

"Ohh... Daydreaming again at this early in the morning?" A girl about my age asked. "Seriously, you need to change that habit of yours, Argus."

The one who spoke was walking beside me, she's been one of my classmates and close friends since first grade, she was a very beautiful girl that makes every boy in our school fall for the moment they take a look at her.

She's about the same height as me and her intelligence is on par with mine, she has long indigo hair and has a style of fashion like that of a rich noble, not only that but her purple eyes are what make anyone captivated by her beauty.

Her name is Himiko Takeuchi, 12 years of age, has a charming, mature, and serious personality, she majors in many fields of Computer Science and Mathematics- at the age of 6 she already memorized 8 languages in programming, not only that but she also did Engineering too; particularly computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering.

"Are you dreaming about marrying me?" Another girl excitedly spoke and hugged me from behind.

She's also one of my classmates and close friends, not only that we're childhood friends in fact and we consider ourselves as best friends, though that's what I'd like to say of our relationship, but she has a way different view of our relationship.

She's a bit shorter than Himiko and me, she has short golden hair and is also one of the top students in our school, though not smarter than Himiko and I, she's still able to keep up with us in some subjects, and unlike Himiko, she's just a normal girl who's not interested in wearing clothes that brags on how rich she is.

Her name is Arisu Ueno, she's 11 years old, has a childish, bright, and straightforward; meaning she's the complete polar opposite of Himiko, due to her family being composed of most politicians, polices, and soldiers, it's only natural for her to major in Law and Social Science, not only that but she also majors in Foreign Language. As of right now, she's fluent in 12 foreign languages already, those being Russian, Chinese, Korean, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Hindi, Greek, Danish, Indonesian, and Thai.

"Of course not, idiot!" I replied, mildly infuriated by what she said.

"Don't tell me you're being delusional again about wanting to be the heir of your family." Another person spoke beside me.

He was not our classmate but he became our close friend after he and I became the same team in soccer during the sports festival, in terms of everything about him, we share a lot of things in common which is why we became great friends immediately.

His name is Gareth Thompson, a half-British half-Japanese 13-year-old, he's 3 to 4 inches taller than me, he has a strong-willed, confident, and charming personality, he is basically the popular boy in class that everyone girl has a crush on due to him being athletic and handsome.

Unlike the three of us, his grade is just about average for a normal student in our school. He only majors in Criminal Justice.

The four of us are great friends, we hang out all the time in school and after school, if I can put it into words, this three are like family to me.

Every time I'm down or in a bad mood, they always did their best to cheer me up, even to the point that they threw a party in the Maldives once I was out of the hospital when I got into an accident.

That's just how much we care for each other, even if we're not related by blood, we care for each other as siblings would.

Also, in terms of my major, I only picked History as mine, even though my intelligence is on par with Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawkings, I'm still the type of guy to focus on one thing.

I do admit that I also study other types of sciences when I have time, but nothing can beat my love for history.

To put into ranking how great I am, because of my name being famous as the son of the Andromeda family, it's only normal that I'm one of the known faces in the science world.

Everything science-related from Geology, Archeology, Paleontology, Astronomy, and many more is already deeply engraved in my head.

I know everything about them like I'm an omniscient deity, of course, that's just an exaggeration, but I'm still the smartest student in my school.

Well... That's what I thought anyway...

I stopped walking and looked at the street on our left, which the other three noticed and stopped too to look at what I was looking at.

A young hooded girl was walking down the street, with her face down to avoid eye contact with anyone she sees.

She was the hooded girl with aqua-colored hair, the one I hate more than anyone else, Marine Arona.

She was walking alone as usual; no friends to walk with and no guardians to guide her, she was just all alone in an empty street.

"Ohh... Isn't that Marine?" Arisu let out a mischievous smile as she looks at the lonely Marine walking down the street.

She frolics toward Marine- clearly has something on her mind. "Hey Marine!"

"!" Marine became frightened when she heard Arisu's voice, she looked around to find a way to escape, but it was already too late because Arisu hugged her already.

"Hehe... Where do you think you're going?"

"Uhmm..." Marine was shaking from fear and couldn't respond to Arisu's question.

"Hmm..." Arisu opened Marine's bag without her consent, she grabbed what it seems like a book that was covered with a gold-like badge on it.

Upon seeing it Arisu was surprised. "Isn't this?! The limited-edition Sakai Haku: Sentenced Princess manga spin-off?!" She grabbed it and jumped around in joy as she look at the manga in joy.

"Sentenced Princess? What's that?" I asked Himiko, who was knowledgeable in geeky stuff like animes and mangas.

"It's the current 1st ranked manga as of to date, it's been going for 4 years already, so I can't believe how you don't know about it, since even normies are aware of its existence." She replied to me almost with a disappointed look.

"Well sorry 'bout that!"

"Haha! Wha-" Arisu suddenly tripped but still managed to stand up, but the manga she was holding suddenly landed on the canal. "Oops, I dropped it." She said with no regrets about her look.

Marine looked like she was about to cry, but decided not to due to fear of being teased by Arisu more if she did.

"Hey, do you know what's wet too?" Himiko asked me with a mischievous grin.

"What?"

She opened her bag and showed the two of us what was inside, in there we were surprised to see many water balloons inside her bags.

Himiko grabbed two balloons and gave them to us. "looks like there would be another 'wet object' here with us."

Both Gareth and I smiled when we heard what Himiko said.

Marine looked at us to check what we were doing, and as she raise her head to fully see us, a water balloon immediately hit her in the face.

"As expected from our greatest athlete."

"Yeah, you rock Gareth." I happily said, I gripped the water balloon and threw it at Marine, the water balloon missed Marine's face, and instead, I accidentally hit Arisu.

"What was that for?!" Arisu cried.

"As expected from our greatest loser." Himiko said with a smug smile.

"Hoy! Like, you can do better! You can't even throw a simple fastball!" I angrily responded.

Himiko was pissed off at what I said. "Ha?! You still remember that you idiot?!" She said with a reddened face from embarrassment.

"Of course!" I responded with a quirky voice. "Who wouldn't remember that proud face you were making before throwing a fastball? And after... *Chuckle* was all confident, but the ball didn't even make it to the batter! It just landed near you!"

"You!"

"Okay, okay, both of you are losers all right." Gareth interjected, he grabbed another water balloon and positioned himself like a pitcher in a competitive baseball match.

He took a deep breath and readied his stance, he stretched his arm and took another deep breath- a smile then came out of his face. he looked at Himiko and said. "Now you'll see how to really do a fastball."

Himiko was angry at what Gareth said while I was holding my laughter so that Himiko wouldn't be more piss off.

Gareth threw the water balloon so fast that even the three of us were speechless, as soon as the water balloon got closer to Marine, Marine coincidentally looked at us to see what we were doing, and before she got to take a look at us the water balloon directly hit her on the face.

The impact was so strong that she fell on the ground, fell on her hand, and due to her hand landing first on the ground, the small rocks injured her hand and some of her injuries started bleeding, she didn't cry but I could see her trying her best to hold her tears.

"What a shot Gareth!" I excitedly jumped when I saw her trembling on the ground in fear, but doing her best not to cry. "Ahh..? Seriously? You wouldn't even cry? How boring, come on guys let's go we'll be late for our class."

The other three followed me with satisfied grins on their faces as we leave the pitiful Marine on the road still shocked from the impact of the water balloon.

Marine Arona, she's 12 years of age like me, she's a shy, clumsy, and timid girl who has no friends in our school, nevertheless, people still respected her due to her high intelligence. She sometimes gets scores higher than me and has a natural talent for everything.

From cooking, art, music, and even sports, she can all do it without sweating once. But her main weakness is her personality, that's what pulled her back from getting higher achievements, even in the past when we weren't still bullying her she was already like this; a perfect being on the outside but imperfect on the inside.

Nevertheless, even with those imperfections inside of her she still has the strength to defeat me, which is why I hated her, which is why I want her gone, she's my main enemy in being recognized by my father, and I'll do anything even if it'll harm her just so I could get recognized by him.

It was already a couple of minutes before we left her on the road, she tried her best to stand up even if her hands hurt from her injuries; she didn't cry and only put on a brave face as she stood up enduring the pain.

For a long time now, we've been bullying her severely but even so, she hasn't cried once, every time we left her she would just wait for us to leave and she would just go back to what she was doing as if nothing had happened to her.

Since she was afraid of me because of my family, she hasn't told anyone that we were bullying her for years, every time someone asked her if something happened to her, she always responds with a forced convincing smile and always says that her clumsiness is the cause of her injuries.

Marine walked toward the canal and grabbed her manga, the pages were torn apart and had already been destroyed and eaten by the coy carp living on the canal, but she managed to grab a single page.

The manga Sentenced Princess is a high school romance manga about a girl who's heavily discriminated against in school because of some of her family being famous criminals that the police have caught, the girl (Protagonist) was the daughter of one of the people caught by the police was the one being bullied a lot in school.

But soon a handsome transfer student helped her overcome the bullying and so their romance soon bloomed.

The spin-off manga that Marine has is a limited backstory of the parents of the transfer student.

The single-page she was holding was still in perfect condition so she hugged it in relief that this part of the story was okay.

This single page was one of her favorites part and it's what made her strong from the harsh hard the world gave her.

On the page was the transfer student's father; all beaten up but still standing, he was protecting a woman who has his soon-to-be wife from her abusive father.

He showed no sign of fear and weakness in front of the woman's father, instead, he showed his courage to protect her from harm. "No matter what comes after her, even if it's God or fate, I'll do everything to keep her smile from fading away."

That was what the man said in pride which made Marine strong, even if she knew she hasn't met the prince charming who would save her from this nightmare she still keeps on believing that someone would come to save her.