Last Day of the Competition

Watching the second-year wasn't much different compared to the day before. Then the day after is the competition for the third and fourth year.

Why are they done together? Because by this time the rank is pretty much the same and won't change.

The first year is to set where you are ranked at. The second, third, and fourth is to change it. But what if no one wants to change it? It happened mostly in the third-year. Obvious bullying. Or should I say discrimination? It's the same.

The ones with talents that are being looked down were forced to participate and fight the top rankers while the top rankers won't even compete against each other unless they have made a deal themselves to fight. So now, I'm watching students with supposedly weak talents fighting top rankers of the year.

It's the same between the third-year students and the fourth-year students. And it's finished quickly. That's why they're done in the same day.

And there's not many audience today. Yesterday during the second-year competition, Even Melly and Anne didn't want to watch and wanted to focus on improving themselves. Julian got bored soon after so he left to play with other kids. Leaving only Cornelia and me.

And today, even Cornelia is bored but she still comes with me. The result is obvious. And no one wanted to watch the competition other than those who want to laugh at how quickly the top rankers can defeat their opponents. It's boring.

But not to me. Those students with supposedly weak talents and looked down a lot actually have great talents. That's only if I can open their mind more. They're trapped in their own common senses.

So what I'm looking for are students whom, despite being weak and looked down upon, still tried their best in their fight. Not many of them but I can see some with great potential.

"There are several students I want to recruit. Though if a stranger approaches them out of nowhere, they won't trust me. I guess I have to create a clan and build some reputation first. Then I can recruit them later," I say.

"They should appear on the latter half of next year, right? At least a few of them would appear and then their existence will be public in my third-year. That's when there will be many battles. Shouldn't you hurry it up with the recruitment?" Cornelia asks.

By them that she mentioned is the demons. They should appear next year so when I'm just a freshman in the academy, there will be six months at least until the demons appeared and one whole year until their existence becomes public.

Six months recruiting people and training them? That might be hard. But for the clan, trust is more important. I want to recruit people I can trust instead of just randomly picking people even if they have great potentials.

"At least there shouldn't be any strong ones appearing. And some that I roughly knew have been informed to other guys. We should be safe for now," I say.

We're in public so we can't just say that there will be demon invasion in the near future. And I told Cornelia that we should be fine know because I have informed the other Holy Knights to prepare of events that happened in the game but the protagonist didn't went through them.

For example the fall of a village, city, a random slasher that's actually a demon, and many other things that just appeared in a few words in the game. So it should be fine for a while. The other Holy Knights are stronger than me. At least four of them are. The other three are also capable in their own ways.

The strong ones are obviously Jaden, Keith, Sven, and Rosalinda. The other three are the non-combatant. Felix, Sabine, and Duchess Johanna.

"I haven't met Jaden, Keith, Sven, and Duchess Johanna. I guess they're busy," Cornelia says.

Keith is in Vassel and Duchess Johanna is in Stormwind mainly. I don't know about the other two. Especially since I have gone to the temple, Jaden shouldn't return there anymore unless we're gathering together to summon the Goddess for a long time.

We can still summon her but it's not for long. Doing it in that temple will make the duration longer. And if she brings someone into the Training Zone, she can manifest there whenever she wants. But when the zone was created, until the one training reached a milestone, he or she won't be able to escape the zone.

Looking at the ring in the center, I see another student falls. There's nothing to be proud of for defeating someone who is many times weaker than you. Why is the winner acting so proud?

"What do you think will happen now that the scenario has turned too much from the main story? I mean I even ranked first in my grade," Cornelia asks.

"First, you will get more famous. But with everyone knows your strength, I think they will tread on carefully near you. That doesn't mean they will give up on approaching you. I mean the boys. It's obvious why they're looking my way with hostility even at this moment," I say.

There are many students watching. And Cornelia is extremely famous. She was already famous for her beauty but then she won the competition. So the boys who have a crush on her targeted their hostility toward me who is so close to her right now. Especially since there's just the two of us. Julian isn't even here.

"Even when the three of us worked together we still couldn't defeat you. I think you will be fine," Cornelia says.

I think having a man in the clan is of utmost important. If I only let girls in the clan, I will gain even more enemies.

But why are there more talented girls than boys in this world? There are even more female students than male ones even if the strongest one is the protagonist which is a man.

I thought that it's because the protagonist is a man. But this is reality in another world and not a video game so this is a bit confusing. Are the men just the weaker ones or they're just lazy or they simply thought that going to an academy is a waste of time? All of them could be the answer.

In the game, Roland has several female characters as his capture target. There's no harem route so he can only pick one. So who is the one he's interested in the most?

…Oh, he's staring at me. He's interested in Cornelia now. Even in the game, she's never the capture target and at most just a best friend. My life will be harder just by having her by my side.

"Cornelia, when you reject someone's advance next time, make it clear you don't like them. And also if someone asks you what our relationship is, just say that I'm like an older brother to you and there's no romance involved. It's annoying if they keep being hostile towards me," I say.

"Why an older brother? We have the same birthday. And in our world, wasn't I born earlier than you?" Cornelia asks.

"I haven't asked you when you were born but I'm still the older brother. You died so young after all," I say.

I focused too much in the future I haven't asked her many things about her personal life in the past. I'll do that later. She needs someone she can share her secret with and I'm the only one she feels comfortable doing it with. Well, not all secret. Just that reincarnation secret maybe.

The competition continues and it's finally the last match. The strongest fourth-year student against a weak one.

The strongest one is a girl with punching talent. And with just one punch, she defeated her opponent easily.

It's rather amazing that someone who uses her fists is the top of the rank compared to other students who use sword, spear, or magic. She's good enough at least. She's better at realizing the full potential of her talent compared to other students.

Except that's still not the real full potential of her talent. Even all the way here, I can see her punches. She's not that skillful in her punching. She's just better than others who use swords, other weapons, or magic.

"She's amazing. She's better than other students. What do you think of her, Miro?" Cornelia asks me.

"She's better than everyone else but that's it. But I don't think she knows how to improve even more from there. Her punches are strong and fast but that's it. For me, they're totally predictable. Even if her punches are faster than what normal people can see, as long as it's predictable, I can dodge it easily," I say honestly.

Sven is better at punching. Though he's many times better after I taught him how to throw proper punches. Straight, hook, and uppercut. Just those three punches in boxing but he's already stronger than that girl.

Cornelia knows that I didn't say any lie. But that's not the case with an old man three seats in front of me.

The audience seats are empty. But in this area, only a few people including us. And this old man must have overheard our conversation just now.

"You think you can dodge my daughter's punches?" the old man asks.

"…I would believe you if you say you're her grandfather. But her father? Maybe you're the kind of person who looks older than you actually are. But yeah, I said the truth," I say.

The old man then raises both his fists in the air and then punches them to each other in front of his chest. The impact is loud enough for everyone to hear.

"You, me, let's fight right now. I won't let some nobody make fun of my daughter," he says.

Even her daughter notices something is wrong seeing her father hitting his fists together. She's rushing here.

Then I managed to hear some other people talking. They know this old man.

"That's the Fist King!"

"Oh my God! I can't believe I see him here!"

The Fist King? Now it's interesting. That Fist King is challenging me to a fight because he believes I was talking nonsense.

"In one hour at the latest, outside the city near the forest. I'll be there in less than an hour so wait for me. I accept your challenge," I say just loud enough for him and Cornelia to hear. The others don't need to watch.

This is a battle that I know I will win. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm scared.

"I can tell you're shaking, boy. Are you sure?" the Fist King asks.

"I'm innately a coward. But there are more benefits in fighting you compared to if I don't. Wait for me there. I have some people I need to come to watch our battle," I say as I stand from my seat.

No one else in the Arena knows that we're going to fight. But that's fine. I just need to bring Melly and Anne. They have agreed to join my clan. Maybe I'll bring Felix as well if he's interested. Sabine is busy and Rosalinda is currently not in Dahlia. I guess that's it.

Oh, I should bring Julian as well. I'm sure Cornelia doesn't mind it.