The Competition

*Rowan's continued to wonder what he felt in the morning as a sudden "thump" woke him from his thoughts. Looking around he discovered the Saintess of the Church, Ariya looking at him with her beautiful silver eyes*.

A girl in a nun outfit around my age with giant silver eyes, pearl white hair, beautiful face that makes your heart race and the curiosity of a cat? This has to be the newly appointed Saintess of the Holy Church and the most difficult character to handle before the academy's end and the late game because she attacked the Hero with a giant mace that was more then twice her size, right on the academy's last date ... Thinking back, she was always hostile towards the Hero, does this mean he knew the Hero's evil plans and tried to stop him in the main story, but was treated like a stepping stone for the MC in the main story?

*Rowan continued murmuring to himself only made Ariya more curious, so much so that as a person that tries to speak as less as possible started a conversation with him, "Not to be rude, but this is my second time seeing you today since morning and you seemed troubled by something. I don't want to get into your business, but it's a nun's duty to help troubled ones as you and you must be quite in the problem to be in the church at such late hours on the first day of the academy's new year"*.

Sorry to bother you Saintess Ariya, I... Ah, I was just being a bit distressed so I thought I would feel better if I came by the church before heading back to my dorm room. I am sorry to bother you as such, please pay no attention to me.

*Rowan's answer was clear, but even Ariya could feel that Rowan didn't wanted her to know more about him as if hiding something which only made her more curious of him. Eve said "Do you know that I don't like the Hero or the his behavior. I have never disagreed with the Gods and their decisions, but the Hero seemed not fitting for his title..."*.

I was right, she had caught onto the Hero's fake smile and his plans on world domination, no wonder she was from an berserker bloodline. Not only did she sense the hero's inner evil, but she doesn't just dismisses that thought. I can use her help in talking down the hero for good and help her survive from the cruel faith of being a stepping stone that was decided by the Gods or not, I don't know but I will save her for good.

*Ariya seeing Rowan spacing out in thoughts again called his name and asked "You seem more lively now, come by if you ever feel lonely or need help. This place is for those in need of help, I can't leave the academy for the first year because of official reasons so you can always find me here at least this year". Rowan nodded, thanked the Saintess for the help and left for his room. Entering back to his room, he felt better knowing that he could find allies to fight the hero's evil plans and that not every is decided by the hero's charm*.

Ok, now to find a way to make her join me... Can't think of that right now, I need to work on my magic and swordsmanship before the next event,not to mention I will have to find a way to defeat Cromatius Heather, the Top student and the crown prince's body guard. I am pretty sure that I would have been in deep trouble for doing that, if I wasn't the Duke Evenfall's only son and the young Duke of the Evenfall Dukedom.

*Rowan started to tirelessly work on his personal skills, because even if the system's skills provided him easy access to skill which in game took days to just obtain, he still had to make his personal skills improve as well as his stats. He was able to buy elixirs and rare items from the black market by sneaking out of the academy at night because Rowan remembered the academy's layout flawlessly, because the game was hell if you do get every thing you can obtain after the second year.

The week went by like a blur of training, classes, training, classes and repeat with potions keeping him alive, now resting before the MAS or the test of Hell, "Monster Aspect Student Test" for the nobel families and royals to pick students to join their faction and the power struggle in the Royal Family and the Nobel Families. Rowan had no interest in joining any faction because he was going to make his own faction and hand pick all the extreme talents that were hidden in the academy like pieces of diamonds in a pile of coal, those who had to drop out of the academy even after having extreme talent but no money to back it because of being either commoners put fallen nobels. Rowan did remember most of the extreme talents because their names were shown in the Wiki, but no one found out how to make them join their faction, only thing that could be done was to increase their favoritism towards to MC which affected the late game story and nothing else. I know a lot about them because I tried to make then join the Main story over a hundred times, but the code betrayed me. I can use that information to make then join me this time because this isn't a game, but real life and my actions affects the future with no restrictions like game codes.

*walking into the Training Hall filled with students made Rowan a bit nervous, his human interaction had not been much since he was on bed rest and even after waking up in another person's body he didn't talk much and spent all his time training. Settling down in a seat with a proper view of the stadium to observe every single person and to pick those out who he wanted to join his faction. Rowan didn't wanted to middle with the main story in case things go off road, but he wanted to take every opportunity to grow and become strong enough to take down the hero for good and propose a peace treaty. Rowan didn't wanted any more problems then that were already there.