***

This was the first time in years that I stopped thinking about micro-managing the plotline, and started to reflect on what had happened.

In the 'interrogation room', which was just a larger-than-average room with rows of chair in it, students were mourning for the death of their friends.

Of course, they were still treated differently according to their social statuses, even in this room.

However, be it nobles or commoners, there was one thing for sure, and it was that they were traumatized.

Although dying in this world was considered normal, very few students, even those in Avaron, had witnessed someone dying, much less watching their close friends die before their eyes.

'Dammit, I wish I could be like those cold protagonist in the novels Marcos read'

Without [F - Emotionless], my mentality was like any other 16-year-old, albeit with a much more cynical attitude.

Even then, when I thought back to the lives I could have saved while running through the forest, I couldn't help but feel an indescribable amount of guilt creeping up in my very conscience.

Worse still, I had the choice to warn the professors of the attack beforehand. Although I wasn't sure about the chances of them taking my words seriously, I could have at least claimed that I 'tried' to stop the disaster from happening, easing my guilt by even a little.

Normally, I would have justified my action with 'for the good of the world', and activate [F - Emotionless], but I chose not to this time.

I couldn't rely on that damn skill forever. And I was sure that similar situations would happen in the future. Thus, I decided to deal with the guilt myself this time.

"Haaaah", sighing, I walked towards the exit. Hearing the pained cries of students wouldn't help improve my mood.

I showed a knight viscount Nightshade's brooch, and he lets me out with a nod.

Although I didn't want to use viscount Nightshade's status for trivial things like this, I needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

The sooner I calmed down, the better it was for me. 
...

Standing on the edge of the night forest, I couldn't help but to heave a long sigh.

Although I could still see knights carrying dead bodies, it was still better than hearing students bawl their eyes out.

The forest was dead-silent, save for a few birds chirping here and there, almost as if the screams filling the forest a few hours ago was just an illusion.

However, even with this strangely serene scenery, I still couldn't calm my mind down.

That was, until I felt a tap on my shoulders.

It was Krista; As I was about to ask what she was doing here, she just sat down besides me while not uttering a word.

We sat in silence, but it wasn't awkward by any means. After all, during the last 6 years, Krista and I have grown accustomed to being silent in each other's company.

"Haaaah..."

Taking a long breath, Krista suddenly turned towards me with a gaze full of worries.

"Something's bothering you, isn't it?", she asked.

Shaking my head while not breaking my line of sight with the forest, I answered. "Nothing..."

After a short pause, Krista suddenly pinched my right cheek.

"Ow! Wchat are ywou dowing", I couldn't even speak properly. Partly because my cheek was being pinched, but mostly because I was flustered. Asides from my mother, no one had every pinched my cheeks before.

"Punishment for lying~", she said with a playful tone.

Massaging my red cheek, I sighed. "I'm really n—"

"Don't even try to lie", her tone suddenly turned serious. "I've lived with you for 6 years, nothing can escape my eyes"

"...Fine", I eventually gave in as what Krista said was true; She could guess what I was thinking so many times that I often wondered whether or not she had a mind-reading skill.

"Alright!", she clapped her hands together. "Mind sharing your worries with me?"

I pondered for a second before agreeing. Maybe talking to her could calm my mind down, though I doubt it would work since she had been giving me nothing but headaches for years.

But regardless, it was worth a shot.

"It's just that... I feel guilty for not saving students when I clearly could. I was just a coward running away from danger for my own life"

Of course, I couldn't tell her the actual reason why I didn't help the students.

"I see..."

"..."

"Yep, it's totally your fault"

"Wow that definitely made me feel better about myself!"

Giggling, Krista stood up and ruffled my hair. "Although you chose to not help them, what had happened had already happened. You can't change the past, so stop brooding over it"

"So, will you remain stuck in the past, or... will you adapt to the present and look forwards to a better future?", she continued.

Although I was surprised at Krista's mature yet cringy lines, I still gave it some thoughts.

If it were anyone else, they would have cried in despair upon hearing Krista's words. But strangely, I felt comforted.

Mulling over her advice for several minutes, I stood up with a look of determination in my eyes.

I might not be able to get over the past, but I would surely adapt to the present and look towards the future.

I have more or less accepted that the plotline had changed to a certain extent.

Thus, I decided to ignore slight changes to the plot, since if I kept managing every little details, I wasn't sure if I could keep my sanity intact.

Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't still try to make the plot go as it was originally supposed to. It's just that I would only make sure that major events like this don't go awry.

And... if chances to make Arthur more powerful, or at least remove dangers unnecessary for his growth presented themselves, I would surely grab at them.

After confirming my new course of action, the only thing I could say was—

"Thanks..."

In response, Krista gave me a hard smack on the back. "Don't sweat it. Any stop saying in that depressing tone. Have you forgotten about our promise already?"

Scratching the back of my head, I awkwardly answered. "I forgot about that. Thanks again, Kr—"

"And you're a hypocrite¹refer to the time when Theodore walks in on Krista and Raun making out too! You already got a girlfriend but you didn't tell me"

"...", I was confused, girlfriend?

"I saw you being nursed by a pretty girl. Introduce me to her sometimes~", she said with a grin.

Although I knew this was just another prank to get a reaction out of me, I still had to refute her words.

After all, even with me swearing to not get involved with minor changes in the plotline, having this kind of misunderstanding between the main characters was a no.

"It's not like th—"

"Hey!". Suddenly, a voice rang out, interrupting my sentence.

I turned my head towards the source of the voice, only to find the person I hated the most, besides Marcos, of course.

"I've been looking for you everywhere". The owner of the voice, Arthur, said while panting heavily.

Seeing this, Krista chuckled and patted my shoulders. "Ooooh! I didn't know you swing both ways, brother. Well, I'll leave you two love birds alone"

She then stuck her tongue out and ran away.

"WAIT! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!", I screamed; But Krista laughed even harder and quickly bolted out of my sight.

"Haaaah", I heaved a tired sigh. Although I knew she was just messing with me, just imagining me being in that kind of relationship with Arthur was enough to send chills down my spine.

Thanks to Krista's badly timed joke, Arthur and I just stared at each other with awkward silence.

Breaking the silence, Arthur spoke up. "I just wanted to say, thanks. How can I repay you for saving Marie, Eleanor, and Lucy?"

As expected of the protagonist, he put his harem first before anyone.

But I didn't know how to answer him. I haven't even thought of the day when the protagonist of all people would thank me after all.

However—

'Isn't this a good chance?'

—I decided to cement my position as his 'rival'.

Although Arthur pestering me would be annoying at times, it would help Arthur's growth as his competitive spirit only appear when he has a rival.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to get on the good side of the Hero of Light either, since I knew how well he treated his rivals.

Despite defeating Arthur that one time and killing a <B-> ranked cultist, I could only achieve such feats using cheap tricks and deception.

As such, in terms of raw power, I could only be ranked in the top 175. Maybe I could get in the top 100 if I were to go all out.

Although, if I used [S - Monarch of the Storms], getting in the top 20s would be a walk in the park.

That's why despite me not wanting to admit it, having a rivalry with Arthur could help me get stronger. 

Well, that and the fact that I could beat him up anytime I wanted with justifications, at least until he gets his hand on the absolute cheat the Goddess of Light would give him in a few months.

Thus, I decided to provoke him.

"I don't want your thanks", I spoke in an arrogant tone.

"!". Arthur was flabbergasted

"Gratitude from insects like you don't mean shit to me"

"What are you sa—"

"Your gratitude lies with me saving your girlfriends"

"!", Arthur's face turned red at the mere mention of 'girlfriends'.

But I continued without waiting for him to retort.

"You didn't even realize that you couldn't even do anything but to wait for me to come and save your ass"

"...", Arthur was silent, but I could see him clenching his fists in anger.

Of course, it wasn't anger directed towards me, but towards himself for not having realized sooner that he was so useless.

"That's why, if you want to repay me... get stronger"

"S- Stronger?"

"I will accept your thanks only when you defeat me in the Grand tournament"

Arthur would get his cheat right before the Grand tournament. So setting his goal as the tournament was very beneficial for me.

'As expected', I thought as I saw Arthur clenching his fist in determination as he proclaimed.

"You'd better be prepared. I will make you accept my thanks, even if you don't want to!"

He then turned his back on me and started walking away.

But I felt like I was forgetting something...

'....Ah!', I finally recalled what it was.

"Oi, insect!", I called out to him.

Arthur turned around, looking at me with a confused gaze.

"What?"

"You should go find Marie right now"

"Huh? Why?"

Chuckling at the thought of how bad Arthur would have it for the next week or so, I walked back to the Avaron branch to look for Krista and Raun. "Just do it. I can assure that you won't regret it"

There was no harm in what I have told him. In fact, I had just helped the plotline to get back on track, as he was not supposed to be here at this time.

Instead, he and Marie was supposed to have a very awkward conversation with a certain someone right around now.
...

<<Avaron, class 1-1>>

"—and alright! This is the end of the lesson!"

It was the last class of the morning.

I didn't know if headmaster Alan had gone senile or not but even though students of class 1-1 and 1-2 had just gone through a very traumatic experience yesterday, he still made them attend school today.

Hell, some students were still being kept behind at the Avaron branch in Duchess Evien's fiefdom for questionings, so the classroom was weirdly empty today.

However, some of those spots would soon be filled. But I didn't really care about who would take those spots except for a particular beastkin, Evelyn.

Now, how could a slave that wasn't even a student in the first place be in the 'elite classroom', you may ask?

Well, as a reward for his contribution in the suppression of the cultist in Keras forest, Arthur could request the headmaster anything.

And, as you might have guessed, Arthur asked the headmaster to give Evelyn permission to join class 1-1. 

If it were up to me though, I would have chosen one of the many high-ranked artifacts Avaron had in its treasury.

But, I couldn't condemn Arthur too much, as even I would want to have someone as talented as Evelyn work for me.

And also, he would become professor Anna Ferden's personal disciple soon, which would bring him much more troubles than what he might have expected.

Now that I think about it, the incident at Keras forest was the start of many things: incurring <Darkest night>'s wrath, becoming Anna's disciple, making Sylvia get more interested in him,...

There would be many more events in the future that would link back to this incident.

'Heh, even Arthur can get unlucky sometimes', I thought.

Glancing around the classroom, I noticed that almost everyone had gone back to the dorms.

Seeing no use in staying here, I also decided that it was time to head back and rest for the day.

As I was about to leave the classroom, however, my holographic phone suddenly vibrated.

mmmmmmm—!

But, I didn't need to check the phone to know what was going on.

'So I still have to join it after all', I sighed in frustration.

After the incident in the forest, Avaron's faculty board decided that their approach in training students was too lenient.

'As if it's isn't harsh enough already', I grimaced.

Thus, they implemented a special training program with the help of some of the 3rd and 4th years.

Normally, I would have been glad, as this was a chance for me to get stronger. However—

"Shit! It's this afternoon?", I cursed out loud as I read the content of the message.

It hadn't been 12 hours yet, so I was still suffering from the backlash of [S - Monarch of the Storms]. And trust me when I say that no one would want to participate in this hellish training with <G-> rank power.

Thus, I decided to skip the training, at least for this afternoon.

As for the possible punishment, well, maybe headmaster Alan would do something about it.

As I was walking back to my room, I couldn't help but to chuckle to myself. After all—

'Arthur is probably suffering right now, heh'

—He must be dealing with his future mother-in-law right at this moment.

I empathized with him, but that was the extent of it. I could never fully understand the pain he was going through right now, nor did I want to.

It's not like I would be put in the same situation as Arthur's in the future, right?

Right?
***

March 11^st, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

<<Duchess Evien's territory>>

BAM—!

A shockwave swept through the room, pushing Arthur back onto his chair.

"WHAT'S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MY DAUGHTER!"

'How did it come to this...'

Arthur was absolutely regretting having listened to Theodore's words right now.