“That’s it!”-I said to Rachel who finally could imbue her fist in a really dark crimson fire. “You did it!”-I clapped at her.

“Yes!”-She said while beaming a big smile and looking at her fist with a dazed face. “I… I did it!”

“Yes, you did, haha.”-I chuckled at her reaction. “See. I told you. You could start doing basics at the end of the week. Now, it’s just practicing until you can start expanding those basics.”-I smiled at her.

“Yes!”-And she nodded, before extinguishing the fire on her fist.

We’ve been working on the basics since we met at the usual spot. While yesterday she could finally take a grasp of the natural energy of her elemental, which she called Heli, by the way, today we used all our time in using that same energy to let her imbue her fist in fire energy.

It sounds easy at first, but using a third party’s energy as your own it’s quite complicated and even dangerous depending on the case. So, this was quite the step she made.

“Now… You’ll just have to work on using that same theory, with your sword.”­-I said to her. “But first. Let’s give it a chance, what do you say? I still have a few minutes before I have to go.”-I lift my eyebrow while taking a combat stance.

“Um… Are you sure…?”-She asks quite awkwardly.

“Why? Don’t you feel confident in using it in combat? That’s the whole point on this.”-I chuckled at her.

“It’s not that… It’s…”-She started fidgeting with her hands. “I… I don’t want to hurt you… And you told me that Heli’s fire is quite dangerous…”-She finally said while scratching her head.

“Pffft! Hahahahahaha!”-I just had to laugh at her.

“W-what!? What are you laughing at!?”-She turned red and started pouting. “I’m serious! It’s a reasonable worry!”

“Listen, Rachel.”-I said while sweeping the tears that fell from the laugh. “Don’t worry about that. There’s no way you could hurt me with those flames, or any flames for that matter.”-I shrugged.

“What…? Why…?”-She now asked dumbfounded.

“Let’s leave it at the fact that fire barely tickles me. Okay?”-I smiled at her. “And, let’s be honest, even physically you should know by now that I’m not someone you could take on.”-I then smirked defiantly.

“Oh…”-Making her look at me in a daze. “So, it’s like that…”-She nodded. Before smiling herself. “Then, I’ll gladly take the chance to practice.”

“That’s the spirit.”-I smiled and once again took my fighting stance. “I’ll give you a few seconds of chance so you can accustom to using the fire in your punches. Okay?”

“Un!”-She nodded. And immediately from her two closed fists, flames of a bloody crimson color appeared, naturally waving. “Let’s do this, Heli!”-With a shout, she came at me.

***

Inside one of the dorms of the male cadets, Kim Hajin was curiously looking at a Laptop, one he always carries around.

 

“Um… What’s this…?”-I muttered while looking at the screen of the laptop.

[You obtained 253 SP] [An incredible luck applies to your human relationship!] [Narrow Escape from Death (2/9) – A special stat, Accumulation of Luck, becomes partially unlocked!]

“Human… Relationship…? Does this have anything to do with today’s duel with Chae Nayun?”-I rubbed my chin while pondering about the system’s message. “Or is it about something Cristopher did…? Nah… I don’t think it has something to do with him… After all, he has his hands full with Angelica for the moments…”

Right when I was thinking about this, Evandel’s seed started to tremble, making some kind of chain reaction around the room, making everything tremble.

“Wow, wow! I’m going!”-I hurriedly stood up and went towards the table where the seed was. “What? Are you hungry already? Haha okay, okay! I’ll get more for you.”-I took one of Rachel’s bandages from the stigma, retired Cristopher’s bandages, and then covered Evandel with Rachel’s bandages.

“You’re growing so big haha, you, cutie.”-I said while tickling the now not-so-little seed. “You should be close to hatching, right? How much do you want to stay like that?”

The seed trembled a little bit, partially as if trying to answer, and partially as if happy about the food.

“Haha… I can’t wait to see you hatch.”-I said while looking at the little seed absorbing the blood, which could be called quite the view. “I wonder… What type of pet should you transform into while being in here? Maybe a cat? Or a dog?”

While Evandel would normally look like a 2 or 3yo kid, she could take the form of an animal once she’s born, and that would be a great help for me.

We may not be able to have children inside of our dorm’s room, but we sure could have pets, as Cube thinks it actually helps cadets with their mental health.

“Oh well, I’ll get going to the training center. Olivia and Cristopher would sure be there by now.”-I shrugged and stood up, preparing to go towards the training center. “Um? Now that I think about it… Didn’t Cristopher want to bring some leopard cat inside Cube? I don’t think they would actually let him… But maybe I should try asking for him?”-I rubbed my chin while going out of the room towards the training center.

***

Inside one of the girls’ dormitories, in one of the penthouse rooms, Chae Nayun was currently thinking deep about what happened early today, and what she learned from her friend Yoo Yeonha.

“How can these people say this kind of things…”-She muttered while going through comments in Kim Hajin’s social media accounts, where a lot of other cadets left insulting comments, calling him orphan bastard, parentless bastard, and many sorts of things.

Chae Nayun couldn’t even understand why would people try to mock others with the fact that they lost their parents. So, she just decided to stop looking through the horrible comments that made her feel not only bad but also guilty. Resting her head on her bed while looking at the ceiling.

“He quit smoking…”-She muttered after a little while, and before pondering about something for some time, she just decided to stand up from the bed, and then crouch to look under it, quickly taking out a fairly large suitcase.

Opening it, hundreds of photos made their appearance, they belong to Chae Nayun, and were a well-buried thorn in her heart, a thorn she couldn’t stop carrying with her.

“*sob*”-She did as much as possible to stop the tears from falling, sobbing in the process while looking at her mother’s photographs, the only memories she has with her.

Searching through the sea of pictures, she finally found what she was looking for. A short sword. A sword gifted to her by her old master, Yoo Sihyuk eight years ago, a one-meter sword that contained special magic that allowed it to grow while using the swordsman magic power.

“What was my limit again…? I remember it was around 2 meters… And I doubt my magic power control was any good when I was eight years…”-She muttered while looking at her sword.

Right then, holding her short sword, she decided to imbue her magic power in it. Making the sword grow until it reached the ceiling.

“Wow…”-She dazedly looked at her sword. “I grew a lot…”

As if trying to remember her master’s teachings, she enveloped the sword in her magic power, enveloping it in her blue magic power, creating a brilliant sword qi that quietly shone on the sword.

“…”-She just looked at it, before resting her forehead on the blade, remembering all those years back. Saving them in her heart once again.

***

Sunday, currently in Locket of Hope, a group of kids and teenagers were training, some were meditating, while others were simply exercising while being supervised by Cristopher, who was also helping Olivia with her magic power control at the same time.

 

“That’s it. If you want to master quick-step you better learn to control your magic power better than that.”-I said to Olivia, who was currently trying to move four knives in complex formations.

“Wow… Unni is amazing…”-Anne, who was sitting right beside me, muttered while looking at Olivia concentrating to make the knives move.

“Mm? *snort* As if. She can still get better. She just trained the wrong way during too much time.”-I shrugged my shoulders.

“Really!? Then she will become even stronger!?”-Anne, as if surprised for the revelation, shouted at me.

“Of course she will! That’s what all this training is for.”-I flicked her forehead. “Now move on. You have your own training to do.”

“Auch!”-She rubbed her forehead. “Oppa is so mean! I want to rest!”

“I told you all that I wouldn’t be any lenient. So move your lazy ass, you’ve been here for like five minutes already, I don’t see you training over there with the others.”

“But-”-She tried to argue about it.

“I don’t see Antonio saying anything, look.”-I pointed towards the dutifully training kid. “He’s been training non-stop, without whining. He’ll surely leave you far behind.”-I lifted my eyebrow.

“W-wha!!??”-With a weird shout slash question, Anne stood up, and the six-year-old girl went running towards the group of training kids as if dreading being left behind by the six-year-old boy.

“I somehow feel like I’m training an army of little kids…”-I unconsciously muttered.

“Huh!? Did you just notice that!?”-Fran said while walking towards me with a tray full of cookies and a cup of hot chocolate.

“*sigh…* I just thought it would be good for them, you know? But it somehow makes me feel weird.”-I shrugged. “Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I’m not throwing them into some war, so it will be all fine. Thanks for the chocolate, by the way.”-I took the cup of chocolate, while Fran sat beside me, putting the tray on the table I was using to overlook the training.

“No problem! I should be the one thanking you… Really… You’ve been giving so much to these kids, even while being a kid yourself haha!”-She smiled while pushing at my arm.

“It’s not that much… I’ve told you like a thousand times.”-Making me turn my eyes at her.

“E-I-T-H-E-R-W-A-Y, I’m really thankful, we are all around here. Food, clothing, I just don’t know how to say thank you for all that.”

“Just using two words. 'Thank' and 'You'. Easy, right?”-I smirked at her.

“Ha, ha, ha, you’re such a comedian! Haha… Oh well, I’m glad everything’s going well with you back at Cube. It’s not like I can imagine the guy beating the second-ranked cadet to be doing bad, right!?”-She smirked while lifting her eyebrow.

“Oh, come on! I already told you that I’m sorry for lying to you…”

“It’s not the first time I hear that! But, well, don’t worry, I won’t hold a grudge over it haha!”-She chuckled before grabbing a cookie.

“*sigh…* Whatever…”-I shook my head.

*Vrr… Vrr…*

“Mm?”-I looked at my smartwatch.

[Park Soohyuk: Cristopher, we finally have our website up and ready, I put both you and Hajin on the investors’ list, I also thought about whether you would want to be on the affiliate hunters’ list, but decided against that until I confirmed with you, tell me what you think!]

[Park Soohyuk: wmw.shagency.com]

“Ho…? This is quite interesting.”-I muttered while opening the website on my smartwatch.

“Mm!? What happened!?”-Fran asked.

“Oh, nothing much, I was just looking through a hunting agency where I invest constantly. And also, one I use to get some money while hunting.”-I shrugged.

“Oh!? Really!? You didn’t tell me you invested!”-Fran said quite excitedly before picking another cookie.

“The topic never went out after all.”

“Oh… That’s true!”-She chuckled.

On the website, on the investor’s page, three names were marked.

[Kim Hajin]

[Lamas D. Cristopher]

[Yoo Yeonha]

{Mm? Oh, right. Yoo Yeonha also invested in them, I almost forgot that little detail.}-I thought to myself before texting him back.

[Cristopher: Thanks, man! And don’t worry too much about the hunters’ list, I’m not that interested. The website was great, by the way.]

[Park Soohyuk: Thanks! Also, one last thing. I talked with Hajin, and he asked me to put Yoo Yeonha’s name first on the list. I told him that it would be weird, as both your names go first alphabetically, and you also invested first. Still, what do you say? Should I?]

{Mm… Right… Yoo Yeonha would really like it more if her name was first. Either way, I don’t care that much about that stuff, let Hajin decide.}

[Cristopher: I have no problem with it, it’s okay if you leave Yoo Yeonha first in the list.]

[Park Soohyuk: If you say so, I’ll tell Hajin I’ll change it then. Have a good day.]

[Cristopher: You too, man.]

“*yawn*”-I stretched myself after answering him.

“Are you tired? You’re sleeping well, right?”-Fran asked me.

“Of course I am.”-I shrugged. “Still, it never is a bad time for good quick sleeping. Don’t you think?”-I ask her.

“I totally agree with that! Haha… *sigh…* Sadly, there’s not much time I can do that while managing this place. We’re short on hand you see? Haha.”

“You truly love your work.”

“Of course.”-She smiled. “Who would care about a bunch of kids, including you, if I didn’t? Hehe! Don’t worry. I’m quite happy here.”-She turned to look at the kids training while eating more cookies.

“It’s not like I’m worried about you, really.”

“Mhm.”-She nodded with her mouth full of cookies.

*Vrr… Vrr…*

Another text came.

[Kim Hajin: Hey, did you talk to Park Soohyuk?]

[Cristopher: Yeah, why?]

[Kim Hajin: No, nothing, it just surprised me when he told me you were totally fine with letting Yoo Yeonha’s name first on the list.]

[Cristopher: Honestly, I don’t really care about it, it’s the same even if I’m in or not.]

[Kim Hajin: That does sound like you, haha. Oh, by the way, I was in the administration building of Cube.]

[Cristopher: Why?]

[Kim Hajin: They wanted to confirm the rumors about me having a Specialized Gift or whatnot.]

[Cristopher: Huh, okay, just say yes, that way they stop asking stupid questions.]

[Kim Hajin: Oh, I did precisely that. Still, that’s not what I wanted to tell you.]

[Cristopher: Then? Just spit it out. Why do you use such a roundabout way of speaking with me?]

[Kim Hajin: It builds up suspense.]

[Cristopher: You know, I’ve been thinking about dragging you with me to the gravity room while training. It sounds like it will build up things, not just suspense.]

[Kim Hajin: Do you have to be so petty…? Either way, I asked them about the chances of having a domesticated wild animal as a pet.]

“Huh…?”-I opened my eyes wide. “Could it be…”

“Mm? Wats hapeninsh?”-Fran asked with her mouth full.

“Wait, I’ll tell you in a moment!”-I hurriedly answered. “And stop talking with your mouth full of cookies, you’re not some squirrel…”

“Ow, shush!”-She turned back to look at the kids while playing at how many cookies she could have in her mouth at once.

[Cristopher: Do you mean what I think you do!?]

[Kim Hajin: If it’s about letting you bring Shina to Cube, yes.]

[Cristopher: Man, I swear, you’ll have one free favor from me. Whatever you want!]

[Kim Hajin: Huh? I’ll take you on that.]

[Cristopher: Yeah, yeah, whatever, what did they tell you?]

[Kim Hajin: Well… They rejected me…]

{This fucker…}-I clenched my teeth. {You don’t play with someone else's feelings like that, dude!}

[Cristopher: Fuck it. I’ll bring you with me to the gravity room, even if I have to take you out of your room myself.]

[Kim Hajin: What!? Why!? Hey, just listen! They rejected me AT FIRST, but then I told them it was for you! And that you’ve completely domesticated a leopard cat, and that I was a witness on how well it was trained! The hurriedly said yes once I told them that.]

“*sigh…*”-I let a long sigh out. {Why don’t just say that from the start? Jeez, man…}

[Cristopher: Couldn’t you just say that first!? I almost beat your ass inside the gravity room under the pretense of training!]

[Kim Hajin: You were really going to beat my ass!]

[Cristopher: Don’t know what you’re talking about. So, can I go look for Shina then?]

[Kim Hajin: Yes, you can go. They even gave me a permit for you to bring Shina through the portals, and to let you have her as a ‘pet’.]

[Cristopher: Isn’t that something the government should manage?]

[Kim Hajin: This is Cube, man… You said so yourself, they give us a lot of advantages, I mean, you can drink everywhere and be a legal adult just by being a cadet here…]

[Cristopher: That’s true. Well, can you come to Locket of Hope and bring it? I’m training the kids, and the other kid.]

[Kim Hajin: Other kid?]

[Cristopher: Yeah, Olivia.]

[Kim Hajin: You sure like to mess with her.]

[Cristopher: Of course, it’s funny as fuck hahaha.]

“Hey!”-Olivia suddenly shouted at me.

“Mm? What happened, why are you stopping?”

“Are you perhaps mocking me or something!?”-She said while frowning.

“…”-It made me flinch, really. “Um… No…?”

“You are!”-She stood up and shouted at me, before starting to walk at me.

“Yeah, yeah, I am, so? Keep training. If you don’t grasp a good control on your fourth knife by the end of the afternoon, I’m not teaching you quick-step before the finals.”

“W-What!? You, petty loser!”-She said, but still quickly went back to train her magic power control.

“Hehe…”-I smirked.

“Don’t be such a mean guy to her.”-Fran frowned at me.

“Mm? Why?”-I lift my eyebrow.

“She’s been a great kid. Even if you don’t come some Sundays, she still comes and helps the kids with their training, while training herself.”

“Mm… That’s interesting. I didn’t hear about that.”-I rubbed my chin.

“Oh, that’s because she asked me to keep it a secret!”-Fran smiled.

“Then why are you telling me…?”

“Because I want to deepen the bond between you two! She looks like a great girl.”-She shook her eyebrows up and down.

“*sigh…* Forget it.”-I just waved my hand.

[Kim Hajin: I’m on my way.]

[Cristopher: Okay. And thanks for that favor man!]

[Kim Hajin: No problem, I’ll take your word about you owning me a favor.]

[Cristopher: Sure, but remember to think well which one.]

[Kim Hajin: Oh, I’ll make sure to think really well.]

[Cristopher: …]

{I have the feeling he’s going to ask for something weird.}-I shrugged at that thought.

"Sho?"-Fran asked with her mouth full of cookies.

"Oh, Hajin just told me that I would be able to bring Shina back to Cube."

"Shina...? Who's that?"-She tilted her head.

"Oh, she's just a cute leopard cat I found while going with the hunting club to Gangwondo."

"Isn't a leopard cat quite a dangerous wild animal...?"-Fran frowned.

"Pfft! As if. Shina's a love of an animal. You'll meet her soon. The kids sure would love her."-I waved my hand at her worries.

"Well... If you say so..."-Fran shrugged, still with a frown, as if not being totally sure, before picking another cookie.