‘Who was it, who was it that spoke those words?’ Ricktor thought, his teeth clenched. On the side of his head, a vein was starting to bulge and pulse slightly. All of this hidden under a smile.
‘It was him, again.’ Tensing his fist, Rictor’s knuckles started to go white. His eyes were locked onto Raze’s, and he didn’t look away for a moment.
Being in this situation, Simyon’s heart started to beat louder. ‘How can I calm this situation down? There’s no way, right? Raze was always going to do as he wanted, and I really don’t have the pills.’
“No!” Simyon eventually yelled. “Raze had nothing to do with this. I was the one who took the pills for myself. I used them to try to get ahead so I could have an advantage in the upcoming assessment.”
The students in the dining hall had fallen silent. Almost everyone was able to hear what was being said, and although Simyon had made this claim, none of the students believed it for a moment.
They could just tell by the situation, as one was intimidated by the other. They could tell all of this was Ricktor’s doing, so what had actually happened to the pills?
“Hahah!” Ricktor chuckled. “We all know that you aren’t brave enough to disobey me. We can all tell, from the rebellious voice and the look in his eyes, it was this white-haired no-name right here.”
“Hey!” Raze called out. “I have a name, and it’s Raze Cromwell. I was the one who took your pills, so tell me, what exactly do you plan to do about it then?”
Raze could see the eyes of the teachers in the room looking around at the situation. It was a mix of teachers with different colored headbands, but still no Teacher Lee. They hadn’t intervened yet, which made Raze unsure if they would interfere or not if something did happen.
Raze was more confident that he could catch him by surprise in this situation.
Finally, though, Ricktor had broken eye contact, and he started to walk away. He wasn’t walking back toward his own table, but instead, he walked to one of the other students on the same table and placed out an open hand.
“You should have been given two more Qi pills this morning; hand them over,” Ricktor said.
“What?” the boy answered. “I’m so…so…sorry, you want my-”
“Hand them over now,” Ricktor asked again, changing the tone of his voice to be more aggressive. Almost immediately, the Qi pills were placed in his hand. Ricktor then went up to the next student, and this time, he didn’t even need to say anything; the Qi pills were handed over.
Eventually, it looked like students were already getting the pills out of their pockets and placing them on the table. Ricktor stopped at this point and just started to laugh.
“Are you seeing this?” Ricktor gestured toward the table. “Did you really think that I needed you to do this work for me? I was always doing it for your benefit because I liked you, Simyon.”
“I thought you had potential. For doing such a simple task like collecting these pills on my behalf, you were able to reap some rewards yourself by using my name. It’s very simple, right? Yet for some reason, as soon as your no-name friend returns, you decided to rebel.”
The next person Ricktor had gone to was Safa, and instantly Raze had reacted. He jumped from his seat and was going around to get to Ricktor. But standing in his way was Mada, who threw out a kick right towards Raze’s face. At the same time, Raze shifted backward, almost sliding across the ground, avoiding the hit.
‘He dodged my kick in that situation?’ Mada thought. ‘But he couldn’t do something like this last time.’
It wasn’t just Mada who had reacted from the Main Clans, though. Lisa, Ossep, and Sherry all rushed over, ready to pounce on the no-name for going against them.
Sherry was the fastest of the group, and she reached out, until a plate came flying and hit her right on her wrist. It smashed on impact and caused her arm to swing out.
The others stopped as they saw a tall student standing in front of the group.
“I was going to let Raze handle everything on his own, but I can’t do that if you guys get involved. This is his business, so stay out of it,” Dame warned.
Sherry was still holding onto her wrist; it was throbbing with pain.
‘I didn’t even see the plate get thrown, and he accurately hit it while I was moving. Was it just luck, or is this someone special?’ In the end, Sherry saw the Dark Blue Headbands and thought it was silly for her to even think otherwise.
“I will back down,” Ricktor said, stepping away as a way to calm down the tension in the room. He walked out to an area between where the food was being served and the rest of the dining tables before turning around and looking at all of the students.
“But you should know that this little rebellion of yours is useless. Do you think others haven’t tried?” Ricktor started to speak. “The five main clans have been the same for the last 100 years. All of the clans know this for a fact.”
“All of the clans and students here, it’s all just to serve under us, and everyone knows it. Did you see the teachers getting involved? No, because I am from one of the five main clans, the ones you serve under.” 𝒐𝑣𝓛xt.𝓬𝒐𝓂
“Look at all of you wearing blue headbands. Is a single one of you from a notable clan? Did you think your weakness was a coincidence? You were born to be under us; you were born to be under our clans.”
“So when I tell you to do a job, you better do it.” Ricktor looked at Simyon while saying those words. “When I tell you to go on your knees, you do it. Otherwise, your clan, your whole family, everything might no longer exist anymore.”
Ricktor seemed to be done with his speech as he walked back to eat with the others, but the expressions of those wearing blue headbands were filled with fury. Their hands were shaking; every cell in their bodies was shaking as adrenaline rushed through them.
Pagna warriors had great respect for their clans that raised them, treated them well, showered them with discipline, and taught them how to live in their world. Some of them had nothing until they had been picked up by their clan and turned into a Pagna warrior, so it felt like they owed them a lot.
The words from Ricktor felt like he had trampled over all their hard work, as if he had spat in their clan’s faces.
One of them was shaking so furiously he stood up from his seat. “The assessment!” The student shouted, huffing and panting.
When looking at who it was, they could see it was the kid with the eyepatch, Liam. “You say that everyone here is from a worthless clan, that we were born weaker than you, lesser than you, so if we manage to beat you in the upcoming assessment, doesn’t that discredit everything you said? I’ll beat one of you Red headbands and take it for myself!”
Simyon had a disliking for the Perv Liam, but at this moment, along with many of the other Blue headband students, they thought he was pretty brave because he spoke up and said what they all wished to say.
Ricktor made a fist and held it up in the air. “Do you know how many Red headband students have lost their headbands in the history of the academy?” Ricktor pushed up his fist higher. “Zero, not a single person has ever taken these Red headbands from us. You won’t change anything.”
The rest of the breakfast continued like normal, and the students split ways afterward. All of the different-colored headband groups found it even harder to look at each other afterward.
They were all meant to be from the same faction, but this was the Dark Faction; it wasn’t the Light Faction where they believed in unity or fairness.
When it came time for them all to train, the students had mixed reactions. Some felt like the training was somewhat pointless, as if it was impossible to change their fate, while others were fired up with anger.
“ARGHH!” Liam screamed as he continued to stab his sword at a hay puppet. He stabbed right below on the puppet, on the man’s jewels over and over again. “Arghh, that damned d*ck. I’ll slice his balls off and feed them to pigs so he can’t have any children.”
Liam continued to stab the same spot again and again, hitting it perfectly. If there was one thing the others learned, it was to not get on Liam’s bad side, because they knew where he would aim.
For Simyon and the others, they practiced their techniques, and Dame had decided to start to show Raze a few different moves he could use.
When nightfall came, and the students were asleep, at the top of the Blue headband quarters’ gate, they had a visitor jump up, looking at the base.
‘That damned ant!’ Mada thought. ‘He embarrassed me again, and in front of all those people. The other disciples are already blaming me for not getting rid of him the first time! I have no idea how he survived that fall, but I won’t fail again. This time, I will kill you!’