That night, the first sparring match was held.

Violet first paired up with Alice while Ethan paired up with Stephan. Violet was not an overbearing opponent and Alice felt like it was a perfect practice match for a warm up. Moreover, Violet's fire ability was naturally against her water ability. It was good for her to practice increasing the strength of her power and withstand other's attacks.

After an hour, Ethan paired up with Alice while Violet paired up with Stephan. Ethan was a little trickier as he has a similar fighting style with Alice. However, she still did not have to go all out with Ethan because he left loopholes in his stances and attacks that she took advantage off. 

After another hour, Stephan paired up with Alice, while Violet paired up with Ethan. Alice knew that Stephan was unlike the other two who would go easy on her, so she decided to use this chance to go all out. Despite that, Stephan looked the most bored out of the three she sparred with. He casually threw a few lightning and ice attacks at her and defended against hers easily. 

Stephan sighed. Her attacks may be tricky to deal with but its intensity was far lower than when he sparred against Ethan and Violet. He could not help but ask her, "I don't get you. You're really weak. Why didn't you go to another school instead of making yourself easy picking here?"

Violet overheard his question and chided him."Stephan! How can you say that?"

Stephan shrugged. "Seeing weak people in strong schools and struggling like that... It's like they're trying to be who they're not. Who wouldn't be irritated?"

Violet scowled. "You never change." 

Stephan grinned widely. He just loved to tease her. He later returned his attention back to Alice to show that he was still expecting a reply.

"If I'm weak, I would die no matter where I go, it's just a matter of when. So why should you bother when I choose to die?" Alice's reply sounded so grave that it disturbed everyone present.

"So if you managed to grow stronger and survive in a strong school, you're more likely to survive after you graduate." Ethan inferred.

Alice nodded.

"So you would be fine if you died in the process of becoming strong in school?" Stephan clarified.

Alice nodded again.

"Let's see how strong you can get then." Stephan looked serious and swiftly encased her in a ball of darkness. He then formed an ice spear and threw it into the ball of darkness. Violet screamed in shock and fear when the spear left Stephan's hand.

Inside of the ball, Alice was thoroughly shocked when she suddenly lost her sense of sight. It was complete darkness. She could not see her hands even when she placed it right in front of her face. Learning from past experience, she had already instinctively maximised the power of the water barrier around her when she lost her sight but quickly felt a deep sense of crisis. It's not enough!

She instantly changed her wall of water to become a thick block of ice surrounding her. This was the fastest she had ever altered the state of her element. At the same time, a loud explosion was heard and a bright light simultaneously surrounded her. It was so blinding that Alice shut her eyes and shielded her face with her arms.

Dead silence filled the room. The trio stood stunned.

Ethan had reacted first and shouted at Violet to use her light ability a milisecond after she screamed. At the same time, he also threw out a water slicer in an attempt to knock Stephan's spear away. Violet's reflexes was not bad after training with Ethan from young. She reacted to his command almost instinctively and dispelled the ball of darkness while he threw his attack. 

That was how they saw everything that happened after that. They witnessed the last part of the water barrier turning to ice and the ice spear shattering into tiny pieces after it's side collided into the ice wall surrounding Alice. If the spear had not been hit off course by Ethan, it would have dealt some damage to Alice instead.

Alice! Alice! They saw everything! BaoBao cried out.

Alice opened her eyes to see the trio staring at her in awe and shock. Ethan was the first to recover. "I didn't know altering your ability was possible. Were you born with it?"

Alice gave up on hiding her newfound ability and decided to convince them to keep it a secret instead. She shook her head in response to Ethan's question.

His gaze turned soft. "You must have worked incredibly hard then." He recognised all the hard work she must have put into making this possible without needing to witness anything.

Alice felt a little twinge in her heart. She slightly nodded and lightly rubbed the top of her nose with her finger.

Somehow, this action of hers made Ethan smile a little.

Alice! Stephan's attacking!

Just as BaoBao said the last word, a barrage of ice shards began colliding into the remainder of ice barrier, which was not a lot after the first collision with his ice spear. The ice barrier quickly wore down and the ice shards made it through. Everything happened in an instant. She could not react in time.

A strong gust of wind blew which stopped the ice shards in their tracks, while Alice was swooped up by something then was deposited behind Ethan and Violet. She looked behind and saw water dissipating. The wind made the shards hover in air for awhile before causing them to drop onto the floor powerless.

"Stephan! What are you doing?!" Violet asked in exasperation.

"I hope you didn't think you're strong enough now just because you can alter your element. There are times when even three abilities users need help to survive. Don't think you're any better." Stephan ignored Violet and directed this at Alice.

Everyone understood what he was implying. His methods may be ruthless and deadly but it was to drive home his point. Violet still did not like it so she gritted her teeth in annoyance. 

Alice looked at Stephan while she consulted BaoBao. BaoBao, was I too extreme?

It seems so...

Alice decided to ease up a little bit. If keeping her guard up against these people only brought her more trouble in the end by coming off as too arrogant instead, the cost for keeping them at bay was not worth it.

"I understand now. I'm sorry." Alice said softly. 

Stephan humphed to show his approval.

Ethan felt a weird sour feeling he has never experienced before. He felt happy that it seemed that Alice will be relying on them a little. However, he did not like the fact that it was Stephan who convinced her to do so. He frowned a little, not understanding his feelings.

For the rest of the last hour, Violet paired up with Alice. Violet and Ethan did not let Stephan spar with Alice again.

"Oh, come on, I won't do anything to her anymore!" Stephan whined. 

Now that everyone knew that she could change her water element, Alice openly maximised her skill in spars. This made Stephan itch to spar with Alice.  She could not win with power so if she used her special ability properly, she would be the most tricky person to fight against. However, the pair did not give in.

Just before they left the battle hall, Alice asked them to keep her abilities a secret.

"Of course! We weren't thinking of divulging such an important trump card to others!" Violet reassured Alice.

The characters in this world seems really nice... BaoBao was really tempted to tell Alice to get chummy and close with them as it may be advantageous.

That's because they were made to be this way. Don't forget that I'm a side character BaoBao. The day will come when I'm ignored by these nice people again. Alice remained unmoved. She had already placed Ethan's earlier recognition of her hard work at the back of her mind.

They bid each other goodbye and separated ways to return to their respective dormitories.

Erm... They're tailing you.

Alice sighed inwardly. Violet still hasn't given up on making sure I'm safe huh. Well, as long as it is not something that the original soul would have noticed.

 

The next day, during practical practice period, something out of the ordinary happened.

Alice dodged the ice ball flying towards her that BaoBao had already warned her of. It came from the class that was always practicing beside her class in the same battle hall. 

A girl with white hair and crystal blue eyes came running to Alice. "I'm so sorry! I missed my target! Are you hurt anywhere? Can I bring you to the doctor?"

This is a crucial development that the original soul regretted. Also, she's the girl from yesterday. BaoBao cautioned.

Hm. She likely introduced this girl to the female lead which contributed to the issue then.

Alice's expression remained flat as usual. "I'm fine." She returned to carelessly tossing water balls without giving the girl a second look.

The girl secretly panicked. She wanted to use an accident to establish some form of connection with Alice. However, she knew it would be difficult once she saw Alice dodge the attack. Tsk, who would have thought that she was so agile when her practices looks so pathetic.

The girl obediently but dejectedly went back to her class. Soon, a fire attack came flying over instead but before Alice moved to dodge it, the girl intercepted the attack early and with her body. The force of the blow threw her body towards Alice, causing her to land heavily in front of Alice.

Everyone's attention was drawn to them and they looked at Alice expectantly. Alice knew what the crowd was thinking however she did not bother.

How desperate. Alice thought to herself while she looked down at the girl lying on the floor in a semi-conscious state. 

She's acting. She's perfectly fine. She defended where she would have been hit with ice. BaoBao reported his observations to Alice.

Her control must be pretty wonderful then. No one saw a thing. 

Her acting is something too. BaoBao said unhappily.

The girl started groaning before clarity returned to her eyes only to see Alice walking away from her to go another target. Everyone was stunned.

"Alice, you should help her up." A teacher who saw everything called out to Alice.

Alice did not want to face trouble with the teacher and gain the class's attention as some defiant student. Since this was a crucial development, it was unlikely that they would ignore her until this was resolved. So she walked back to the girl who was still lying on the floor. However, she made no move to help her. "You're fine, aren't you? Get up then." 

The girl was shocked at how cold Alice was. She expected Alice to feel bad for her and become friendly. Who would have thought that she would remain this unmoved. The same teacher reprimanded Alice for being ungrateful and instructed her to take responsibility and bring her to the clinic. 

Alice sighed inwardly then roughly pulled the girl by her arm and dragged her across the battle hall. After a few steps, the girl quickly stood up and walked along with Alice, not wanting to be dragged the entire way to the clinic.

Along the way, the girl acted cordially, "I'm Leah. It's nice to meet you."

Alice did not respond. Leah continued to try and strike up a conversation, only to be ignored. She felt slightly humiliated. Alice eventually left her at the entrance of the clinic then left. She had not even bothered to knock on the door for her or enter the room together. What did I do to deserve this sort of treatment? I even took a hit for her!

Alice did not bother returning to class. It was about time for it to end so she went straight to the canteen to get her food. Soon after she started on her meal under the cherry blossom tree, BaoBao informed her of the trio coming her way. 

She pretended to not know of their arrival until Violet called out to her. "Alice! Let's eat together!"

Alice looked up to see food in their hands. BaoBao, you got your wish of becoming chummy with them. 

BaoBao blushed. He had entertained that thought the previous night in secret but Alice knew how he was like, so she easily saw through him although all he said was how nice these people were.