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Emilia thought it would make much more sense for the hero to transfer schools if his condition was so bad. With the Black Tiger's ability, it would be entirely possible to have some pretty well-known ones completely forge report cards for the boy, but it was impossible to do so in the Imperial Academy.
Had he stuck with class S, it would still be fine, but the hero had already switched away from the 'sponsored' stream before. As such, even if Amos took the end-of-term exams and performed well, he would still end up being at the bottom of the barrel in class C.
Of course, he could always switch back to class S, but had he done so, there would have been a new student promoted up from class B into Emilia's class due to an additional vacancy. Since that hadn't happened, the hero had obviously refused the transfer.
Cynthia almost rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Why are you even trying to understand how his mind works?"
Emilia blinked as she realized that, shockingly enough, her partner's words made sense. 'You're right?! Well… the good thing is this can only hurt him more.'
Cynthia thought there was something strange about the way Emilia said it, but she couldn't quite figure out what was wrong, and could only let Emilia move on from that thought.
There had never been a student who took such a long 'leave' from the Imperial Academy, and whether it was the students from the sponsored stream or the scholars, neither would look kindly on such a person unless their case was confirmed to be genuinely due to medical conditions.
As for Amos… well, his credibility among the students wasn't high enough for them to believe such a thing.
Emilia expected that the class S students would be jealous that he was able to slack off and mess around for months while they were forced to attend school like good little babies, and as for the 'studious' students… it was good enough if they just sneered at him in their hearts.
After knowing of his repeated scandals, blatant disregard for other students, and frequent absence, to say that the hero's reputation was at the rock bottom among the non-sponsored students wouldn't be an exaggeration at all.
Obviously, the news of the hero's rescue wasn't really much of a surprise for Emilia, as she had never planned to keep him for long. Her goal this time had only been to cause as much damage to him as possible without taking any on her side.
And going by the responses she had received, it worked out far better than she expected.
With Mr. Black panicking as he had, not only was the White Deer able to take a lead in a number of ventures, even some of the other, smaller competitors that usually struggled to breathe under the Black Tiger's claws were able to snatch a piece of meat from its mouth.
Noelle and Sam could accept it quite calmly, as they more or less knew all the ins and outs of the situation, but Mr. and Mrs. White were so panicked that they even inquired about it from both Sam and Emilia.
Of course, Emilia had already instructed Sam not to reveal anything to her parents, as she didn't believe they would be so calm after hearing about their daughter having the Black Tiger's heir kidnapped.
Although they also held a grudge against him for snubbing and trying to defame their daughter, Emilia believed that the old couple was a bit too law-abiding to be let in on such things.
Cynthia couldn't help but sigh in admiration. "How lucky! Had the hero's father been calmer and tried to capitalize on his son's kidnapping by looking into the matter carefully, this could have easily backfired on you, you know?"
Emilia just shook her head with a smile. 'Even if he had been more careful, the results would still be in our favor, just not as good.'
The raven-haired girl rolled her eyes, thinking her partner was a little too smug. But considering how she had managed to do what she set out for this time, she decided to let her enjoy her victory.
Of course, Emilia had long since stopped caring about it as she moved on to other things.
With her first mission completed, the amount of energy in her body was no longer so abysmal that she couldn't even feel it, and Emilia was finally able to start understanding how to use it on her own.
The void formula was already directly imprinted in her soul, and Emilia was able to interact with the so-called 'chaos energy' at the same level as Cynthia, but to her surprise, its response to her was far more 'positive'.
If compared to Cynthia, it was the difference between forcing someone to do something and them doing it enthusiastically on their own. Not to mention the energy consumption, Emilia knew for sure that even the efficiency and effectiveness of her moves would far exceed those of her partner.
Of course, although she had already noticed this, Cynthia had not. And Emilia planned to keep it that way until she was ready to give her partner a 'surprise'.
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Emilia's days passed leisurely as she focused on her private 'mission', although everyone, including Cynthia, believed that she was getting ready for a grand performance in the annual events week.
Unfortunately, her peaceful progress was rudely interrupted by Noelle.
Emilia frowned in confusion as she looked at the folder in her hand. "Is this for real?"
Noelle coughed awkwardly. "W-Would I joke around with you like this?"
The crimson-haired girl pursed her lips in thought before shaking her head with a wry smile. "Sorry, I just couldn't believe someone I was considering as a stepping-stone—ahem—I-I mean, 'future rival', would turn out to be like... this!"
Noelle just rubbed her nose in embarrassment. 'Should I pretend I didn't hear that?'
The report in her hand belonged to none other than Alexander 'Steele', though his real name was Alexander Gray.
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