“I’m not giving back anything. Mind your own business.” Kai shook his head as he tried to ignore the weird feeling he was having at that moment. After all, how can he feel fear of some other student? He wasn’t a weakling.
“What is he doing?”
“Is he insane?”
“Wait… Look at his uniform…”
“That color… He’s S-Class?”
The students all around Arthur started whispering and talking about him. It took them a few seconds to realize that Arthur wasn’t just another stupid student trying to be the hero of the hour. He was far from that. Enjoy exclusive content from empire
“Oh no…”
“S-Class and A-Class… This is going be a disaster.”
“*Gulp*”
Immediately, the atmosphere grew even more tense. The last thing these students wanted to see was a clash between two students of the highest ranks possible. It was like watching two monsters ready to eat each other alive.
“S-Class? Who’s S-Class-” Kai heard that and his eyes wandered to Arthur again. That was when he noticed what everyone was talking about and his expression darkened visibly.
‘This bastard is S-Class? What kind of nonsense is that?!’ Feeling his heart rate increase, Kai tried to keep calm. He had already seen many S-Class students and all he could say was that they were all in a league of their own. Whether it was influence, power, or intelligence, they couldn’t be compared with lower classes.
Even though the difference between A-Class and S-Class was just one step, that single step was perhaps bigger than the difference between A-Class and the lowest class possible. It was simply imaginable how terrifying those individuals were.
Now, Kai was standing right in front of one of these people.
“You have exactly 60 seconds to return his points and leave. Don’t blame me for what happens after that.” Arthur said as he looked at his device. His tone and demeanor were so casual that one wouldn’t think he was threatening someone at that moment.
“…” Kai and his friends were completely stunned for a few seconds as they stared at each other.
“W-We really didn’t steal anything. He gave us his points willingly! Come on, tell him the truth!” Kai glared at the boy, nudging him to speak.
The boy was naturally terrified by that glare and quickly nodded his head. “I-I gave them the points!”
Arthur’s eyes shifted to the boy for a second, eyeing his expression. It didn’t need a genius to understand that he was being threatened into saying that rather than it being the actual truth.
“See? You shouldn’t be bothered with him. We are just friends joking around, hahaha…” Kai laughed awkwardly.
But, against what they thought, Arthur looked down at his device and then said. “There are 30 seconds left.”
“Huh?”
“You have 28 seconds to return his points,” Arthur said as he kept counting the seconds going down, not caring the least about what Kai said.
“Hey! Didn’t you hear what I said? We didn’t take the po-”
“23 seconds.” Arthur cut him off as he kept staring at his clock.
“Hey, I’m talking to y-” The boy instinctively tried to grab Arthur from his collar. But, the boy suddenly extended his arm and stopped Kai. His hand gripped the boy’s arm as he fixed it in one spot.
“18 seconds.”
‘Ugh! The grip! I can’t move my hand!’ Kai frowned when he realized the sheer power of his opponent. Even though he was using his entire arm, he couldn’t get his arm out of Arthur’s grip. His bones started shaking from the sheer power of his hand.
He tried to act like he wasn’t in pain, but he couldn’t stop a groan from escaping his mouth when Arthur twisted his arm a little. Kai stared into the boy’s eyes and he felt his entire body freeze from fear. That small feeling he had at first was now taking over his entire mind. He was completely terrified of this short boy and he didn’t know why.
“12 seconds.” Arthur continued counting.
Kai tried to do everything within his power to get his arm out, but he failed miserably. Eventually, all the pain and fear made him give up.
“Ugh! Ok! Ok! Release my hand! I will give him his points back!”
When Arthur heard that, he looked up at Kai and then released his arm. The boy quickly grabbed it in pain, he felt as if his hand was almost crushed right there and then.
‘What is wrong with this guy?!’
“Now, give him his points and apologize,” Arthur said. “You can be in pain later.”
“…”
Kai clenched his teeth angrily as he glared at Arthur before he opened his device. Even though he was extremely irritated and angry, he knew that he couldn’t really do anything to Arthur. He simply cannot offend someone from S-Class.
A few seconds later, Arthur heard a ringing noise from Kai’s phone and then another ringing noise from the boy’s phone.
“There. I sent him his points back.”
“Can you confirm that he returned all your points?” Arthur asked.
“… Y-Yes, I received them.” The boy replied.
“Now, off you go, boys. If I see you doing this again to that guy or anyone else, you aren’t going to be spared easily.” He said as he turned and walked back to Isla without looking another time.
Isla had watched everything that ensued without doing much. She could see that Arthur had the entire situation under his control so there was no need for her to actually intercept it.
‘He seems to have gained way more confidence now.’ She thought to herself with a calm look. Deep down, Isla was quite delighted to see that Arthur was far more assertive than before. She remembers their first time meeting and how timid he was even though he was quite strong. He didn’t have the confidence he had now.
‘It seems he is finally realizing his position. That’s good.’ Isla mused as she closed her eyes.
“Sorry for making you wait,” Arthur said, snapping her out of her thoughts.
“It is fine.”
“I couldn’t just let those idiots be scumbags to someone without any consequences. Though… I doubt that will really stop them from doing this again.” Arthur muttered as he watched the group scatter like scared sheep.
‘They are all like that, cowards in front of stronger people and pretend like they’re wolves in front of weaker people. The absolute worst.’ He thought to himself.
“This place has been built on hierarchy. You won’t be able to get rid of it unless you take this entire place down and rebuild it.” Isla said.
“… Yeah, we can only do whatever we can.”
Arthur was quite bitter that it was this way as he understood what being bullied felt like. It was horrible, soul-crushing and terrifying. It made him afraid of going to school or living his life normally. It made him hate people and despise creating relationships.
Yet, this entire academy, from top to bottom, was built on a system where the strong prey on the weak with no mercy. It was a system that didn’t spare those who couldn’t compete.
An absolute hierarchy of steel.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3