A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several figures were silhouetted around it in carved chairs.
The common room had lots of low-backed black and dark red button-tufted, leather sofas, skulls, and dark wood cupboards. One of the wooden tables had a few daggers and scrolls on it. The walls were decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous warriors ever to live. It had quite a grand atmosphere, but also quite a cold one.
Currently, five students were occupying the sofas set in the middle of the room and discussing something. One of the three men sitting on the sofa was Elliot Watson, the head prefect of Mazeroth and the man who got Gaya fired. He was not in his silver armor and carrying the heavy sword, he was wearing a linen black full sleeves shirt, black trousers, and a pair of silver boots.
On the opposite side of Elliot, on a couple’s sofa, Elliot’s best friends and also lovers, Deacon Saunders and Bethany White were cuddling. Deacon flaunted his chiseled muscular upper body and his raven black long hair. The callouses and veins bulging out of his tanned skin were common among the blacksmiths like him. Bethany White had striking red hair, an oval face, and shining blue eyes. She was Deacon’s fiance and also a 4-Star runemaster as well as the heiress to the powerful White Family in the Ozer continent.
While Deacon and Bethany were entangled in cuddling and smooching, a blonde girl in a loosely tied ponytail was making tea for everyone in the room. She would remind someone of Alicia as the girl looked cold, unsympathetic, and not at all friendly. The fifth person in the room was Diego Carter, a messy purple-haired young man wearing skinny black leather trousers and a rainbow-colored sparkling jacket. Out of the five, he was the only one standing in the corner of the room, watching them with a tinge of jealousy painted on his face. His eyes particularly focused on Bethany while his hands were rubbing his crotch.
He quickly took his hand off of his crotch when one of his minions entered the room.
”Oh,” the minion was surprised to see the head prefect in the room,
”Hey…Elliot” the minion stuttered. His eyes were desperately searching for Diego until they landed on Diego.
”Boss, you have to see what’s going on in the training grounds” the minion tried to lower his voice but all of them heard him,
”What?’ Diego rolled his eyes, he was quite annoyed by his minion’s untimely entrance,
”There’s an alchemist showing off by breaking the dummies”
”So?” Diego once again rolled his eyes,
”The dummies were put to hardest difficulty”
As soon as the minion said this, everyone turned their gazes at him. Deacon and Bethany stopped smooching, Erica halted brewing the tea and Elliot adjusted his spectacles.
”Are you fucking with me right now?” Diego bore his teeth like a mad dog which made the minion take a step back,
”Of course not, he’s still at it”
”Did I hear you correctly? Is he destroying the dummies which were put on the hardest difficulty or is he getting his ass kicked by the dummies?”
The minion frowned. He was sick of Diego and his attitude. Only because being a friend of Elliot’s friend had some advantages in Mazeroth, he would have stopped putting up Diego’s shit a long time ago.
”Yeah stupid deff motherfucker, he is the one kicking ass ” the minion wanted to speak these words,
”He is destroying the dummies. Until I was there, he didn’t even get a cut from the dummies” Unfortunately he could only speak these words,
”That’s really surprising” Deacon spoke in a thick voice,
”Bullshit” Diego rebuked,
”When was the last time some tried the hardest difficulty dummies and left the place unscathed? Especially lowly alchemists who can’t even fight a wild boar” Diego grabbed the minion’s collars,
”They are not inferior to us Diego”
Elliot’s deep voice made Diego let go of the minion’s collars,
”If anything, they are superior to us” Elliot stood up, walked to the minion, and fixed his robes,
”With training, an alchemist or a runemaster or a blacksmith can become a fearsome warrior” Each word escaped his mouth clear and sounded like a bell chiming loudly,
”Like Deacon here” Elliot looked at Deacon and continued,
”But if history has taught us something, not a single student of warrior house specialized in a rune mastery, alchemy, or smithing” As he was talking, he went to Erika and took the cup of tea,
”To be a warrior, one must respect another”
”Respect is earned Elliot, not asked” Diego rebuked once again,
Elliot just smiled at his snarky comment,
”Yes respect is earned but you have to give respect to get respect”
Diego gritted his teeth,
”Why are we even talking about this? What if an alchemist is beating the dummies? Deacon did it, Elliot did it and for god sake, you did it so many times” Bethany tried to diffuse the situation as usual. They all knew Diego was jealous of Elliot and hated him for his strict principles. If it was someone else, they would have thrown off Diego like a piece of trash but not Elliot. He always tried to teach Diego better no matter how many times Diego failed him.
”Don’t put me and a lowly alchemist dog on the same level!” Diego snickered, raising his voice at Bethany. Deacon did not like the way he talked to Bethany but before he could say something, Erika interjected,
”You are overreacting Diego” Her words were like pouring fuel into the burning fire.
”And you” Erika’s cold gaze landed on the minion. He shuddered to look at her sharp gaze.
”Get out of here, you’ve done enough” the minion immediately ran away from the room.
”Can we go back to what we were doing baby?” Deacon said, kissing her neck. Seeing the girl he loves cuddling and smooching in front of him with the guy he hates the most made Diego’s blood pressure soar through the roof.
Ever since Deacon and Bethany got engaged, Diego lost it. Elliot knew that Diego was in love with Bethany since they were little. However, Bethany chose Deacon and Diego asked Elliot to break off their engagement only to be denied by Elliot. Not only did Elliot refuse to help Diego but also told him to move on.
”I will show you overreact” Diego growled before storming out of the room.
For Diego who craved Bethany’s attention, anger was the only thing that earned him her attention. Hence, he voluntarily picked up fights with fellow students. Elliot was widely respected by the students of all houses and only because Diego was his friend, many did not complain about his behavior to Headmistress Kayla.
Bethany was unable to continue smooching when her friend walked out of the room furiously. She stood up to follow him behind and so did Deacon,
After the three of them left the room leaving Elliot and Erika behind, she came to his side,
”How long you’re gonna put up with him Elliot?” asked Erika putting her hand on Elliot’s shoulder
”Until he sees the errors in his ways,” He said as he walked towards his room to wear his uniform.
”I don’t think it’s time sooner,” she said with a cold face,
”Love is a powerful force, Erika. It can bring out the best or worst version of one’s self. In Diego’s case, its the latter”
************************************
”Oh boy, you are really good at this” Michael was ripping the arms off a dummy when he saw Gilrine descend from the sky beside him. Michael momentarily paused the training to greet the big man,
”They are just too weak” Michael calmly said and rubbed the blood on his knuckles on his robes.
Gilrine was stunned. Somehow Michael’s words didn’t look like boasting. After all, Gilrine could see the mountain of dummies lying on the ground nearby.
”You finished training?”
”For now, I am waiting for someone”
Gilrine saw a light grin emerge on his face. He looked around to see only students gawking at him bewildered. The big man noticed several girls staring at him with blushed red faces. He could tell they were undressing him in their minds. Even the elven girls couldn’t take their eyes off of him.
Strength, power, and skills surpassed the racial thing.
The students didn’t resume training even after Michael finished his training, at least, they thought he finished training. Just when they thought the show was over, they saw Diego arriving at the training ground pushing the students onto the ground who stood in his way.
”Here comes trouble,” Gilrine, who was familiar with Diego’s behavior, mumbled under his breath.
”Finally” Michael was delighted inside. The intel Gaya gave him paid off as he expected. The troublemaker friend of Elliot had come to pick a fight with him at last.
Sometimes he surprised himself when he could manipulate these people so effortlessly. He hated fights with cringe young masters like Diego. Still, the need for badass points pushed him to pick a fight with them.
Michael’s eyes of darkness enabled him to see through Diego’s cultivation level. To be honest, Michael was disappointed to see his Core Strengthening stage 1 cultivation. So even if Diego was to use arch energy, Michael could mop the floor with him without breaking a sweat.
Besides, his purple hair and the sparkling jacket almost made Michael burst into laughter. Diego resembled a clown and it was so funny to see a clown looking at him with murderous intent in his eyes.
”Do you wanna get out of here and have a mug of ale?” Gilrine asked Michael,
”Hand over your training ground card” Diego ordered Michael. The students immediately became excited. They could sense the tension and wanted to witness Michael fight with a warrior instead of dummies. That way they could determine whether he had real battle skills or not.
”I am not finished yet, go back to your counter” Michael pretended not to know Diego and treated him like a servant. Gilrine almost spat out to see Michael shooing him away like a puppy.
Diego’s anger exploded within him. As Michael turned his back on Diego, he growled,
”Don’t you know who I am?”
Michael ignored him as though he did not hear Diego. He was intentionally pissing off Diego for amusement.
”I am talking you asshole” Diego walked towards him bridging the gap between the two.
”Why don’t we all take a deep breath huh?” Gilrine tried to diffuse the situation even though he could tell there is no reasoning with Diego.