***

"Arthur Kilvillain! I challenge you to a fight!"

"Huh? Why?"

Arthur was confused. He was just sitting in the classroom waiting for class to start like he normally would, then suddenly a senior came out of nowhere and picked a fight with him.

"Don't pretend to be innocent!", the senior shouted, attracting even more attention than before. "You seduced professor Ferden, didn't you?"

"But I didn't do th—"

"Stop making up lies! I, Axel Gerik, president of the professor Anna Ferden fanclub, will prove that you're not worthy of the professor's attention and love"

Instantly, the classroom was filled with murmurs discussing whether or not the first-ranker would accept the challenge or run away like a coward.

And of course, there were also talks about Arthur's alleged romantic relationship with Anna Ferden.

Meanwhile, I sat in the corner of the classroom with a grin.

'So these types of events will happen no matter what'

Although the plotline was accelerated, incidents that powered Arthur up still persisted, which was weird now that I thought about it.

'But... I should be grateful that some of the plots are still intact'

Pausing my thoughts there, I looked at Arthur, who was seriously considering taking the challenge.

Marie was standing right besides him, looking as if she wanted to shred Axel - the senior - to pieces.

Arthur looked like he was about to turn down the challenge, but—

"Sorry. I'll have to ref—"

—He suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence, and directed his gaze to what could best be described as... thin air?

Arthur then smiled, before looking back at Axel with confidence. "I accept your challenge!"

Marie looked at Arthur with a confused gaze, before readying herself to jump at Axel. "Arthur, you don't have to fight him! If he forced you into doing this, I wi—"

"Marie! Stop!", Arthur said as he held Marie back. "I'm doing this because I want to"

Seeing that Marie had somewhat calmed down, Arthur gave her a warm smile and patted her head. 

"Besides", he continued. "I'm in need of some durable practice dummies anyways"

"How arrogant", Axel spoke with a somewhat annoyed tone, but he still smiled anyways. After all, he had achieved one of his purposes for coming here.

And to complete his last remaining task, Axel started walking towards a certain student, much to the surprise of everyone, except for said student - me.

After all, I knew for a fact that the instigator of this incident was Max Vermillion.

Max only used Axel, and by extension, the Anna Ferden fanclub, which literally worship professor Ferden because of her beauty and talent, as a ruse to humiliate Arthur to lessen Sylvia's interest in him.

And... judging by the fact that Sylvia was basically pestering me everyday for a fight, I would surely be dragged into this as well if I didn't do anything.

Thus, I came up with a countermeasure as soon as I heard Axel blabbering about his fanclub.

<[Authority of fear]: Dread>

"What can I help you with, senior?", I politely asked while giving him a chilling smile.

GULP—!

Gulping a mouthful of saliva, Axel shifted his eyes away from me, as every time he looked at me, immense dread was all he could feel.

"N- Nothing. I must have m- mistaken you for someone else"

He then bolted out of the classroom, much to the students' confusion.

Ignoring the stares some were giving me, I plopped down to my desk and slept through the classes, just like I did everyday.

'I hope the nightmare won't come again...'
...

Good news, the weird nightmare didn't come this time, much to my relief.

And even better news, I was currently sitting in the spectator rows of the arena ground, which was adjacent to the normal training grounds, waiting for the fight between Arthur and Axel to start.

Not just me, but practically every students were getting in the arena to spectate the match. After all, it's not everyday that you can see a first-ranker of the 1st years fight one of the strongest students of Avaron.

Arthur was currently at <D> rank, while Axel, being the top 50 of the 3rd years, was at <C-> rank.

'Could Arthur overcome the distance of 2 minor ranks?'

That was what everyone wanted to find out by coming here.

Although I already knew the outcome of the match, I still wanted to see if Arthur had truly become stronger.
...

-WOW! ARTHUR'S SO COOL!

-I know right? Look at him! How could he even parry that?

-OOOH! HE'S USING MAGIC

-GO ARTHUR!

The students, and even some of the 3rd years, all cheered for Arthur. They were praising even the smallest and most meaningless of his actions.

As for me, well—

"Huaaam... is that all?"

—I merely yawned in boredom.

The way Arthur was fighting was very reminiscence of his fight against me on our first day in Avaron.

To be more specific, he fought exactly like he did when he got his ass beaten by me.

His techniques were unrefined at best, and plainly horrible at worst; Straightforward charges, monotonous slashes that somehow looked really flashy, and ball-type spells.

He was, without a doubt, fighting like how a fucking goblin would.

The only difference was that he had more strength now, being at <D> rank.

'Did he not learn anything in the church of Light?'

That, or Marx Letinum just neglected training him.

Pausing my thoughts there, and wiping the tear in the corner of my eyes, I focused back on the match.

CLANG—!

As expected, Axel was winning. He had the advantage in both power and battle experience.

"AH!", Arthur fell to the ground after receiving Axel's heavy blow.

Using this opportunity, Axel dashed forwards and pointed the tip of his sword to Arthur's neck.

'If the plotline will still go as it is supposed to here... I'll be in for a good show'

"You lose, Arthur Kilvillain", Axel spoke arrogantly and smirked at the pathetic figure of Arthur.

Arthur slowly closed his eyes, and clenched his fists in frustration.

'I'm still too weak', he must have been thinking.

When the referee was about to announce Arthur's defeat, a loud voice suddenly came from the spectator's seats.

"ARTHUR! YOU CAN DO IT! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!"

It was obviously Marie. She was cheering for Arthur on the top of her lungs, all the while glaring at Axel with bloodshot eyes.

'Ah, the power of friendship... or love', I grinned at the absurdity of the situation.

How could I not when something absolutely unfair was going to happen.

Right about now, Arthur must be having a flashback to his childhood.

'And he will receive a powerup in 3... 2... 1'

BOOM—!

'Right on time'

A brilliant golden pillar of light descended upon Arthur, and a surge of Light and Dark Mana exploded out of Arthur, surprising everyone.

However, Axel, with his many life-and-death experiences doing missions for lessons, managed to keep his cool and still kept his sword close to Arthur's neck.

In stark contrast to Axel's cool-headedness, Arthur smiled widely in excitement and arrogance. "Sorry. Now you really have to be my practice dummy!"

Axel raised his eyebrows in confusion at Arthur's words. 'But you were literally losing just mere seconds ago!', he must have been thinking.

However, Axel didn't have time to voice out his thought, as he was overwhelmed by a sense of impending doom coming from none other than Arthur himself.

His instincts screamed at him that if he didn't move out of the way right away, he would surely be dead where he stood.

<[Light ball]>

A ball made of Light manifested behind Arthur, before shooting at Axel with immense speed.

Axel dodged the ball, albeit barely. And the spell—

BOOM—!

—Made a small explosion when it hit the ground. However, that explosion was enough to pulverize part of the ground.

Instantly, there was an uproar amongst the students.

-ARTHUR ALSO HAD LIGHT AFFINITY?

-What? I was sure that he only had affinity for 4 basic elements and Holy element.

-Who cares about that? Look at him! He's so cool. And handsome!

-KYAHHHH! HE'S LOOKING AT ME!

After briefly waving at the cheering students and indulging in the spotlight, Arthur turned his attention back towards Axel. "Sorry senior, but I'm ending it here"

<[Light ball]>   <[Dark ball]>

<[S - Merge]>

A ball made of light, and a ball made of darkness merged together, creating a sphere with the perfect mixture of gold and purple color.

The students went crazy at this sight. Not because Arthur had Dark affinity. Instead, it was because that he could merge two complete opposite elements together without destabilizing the spell.

The sphere seemed to only be growing bigger, as it was sucking in Mana from the air at an alarming rate.

"Senior, surrender right now and I will cancel this spell!"

Axel alternated his gaze between Max, who was speechlessly sitting in the spectators' rows, and the spell Arthur had just conjured.

Anyone could see that even if Axel spent all of his Mana to defend himself against the devastating spell at that moment, he would lose an arm at best, and his life at worst.

Thus, Axel concluded that he must give up. His life is more important than currying favors with Max after all.

"I- I surrender..."

Everyone broke into cheers yet again, marveling at how Arthur won against one of the strongest students in Avaron. However—

-Huh?

-What is he doing?

-Is he crazy?

—Much to everyone's confusion, Arthur was using his fingers to tap on thin air, all the while smiling widely to himself.

Staring at Arthur's supposed display of mental illness, I rubbed my eyes hard, and stared at him again.

He was still tapping on thin air.

'It can't be... right?'

Suddenly, a huge surge of Mana flowed out from Arthur, as if announcing to everyone that he had just—

-DID HE JUST BREAK TRHOUGH TO <D+>?

-OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE MY EYES

-WAHHHH! ARTHUR! YOU'RE SO STRONG!

'Maybe it's a coincident... No, the timing is too perfect...'

Wanting to confirm it as soon as possible, I jumped up from my seat and dashed towards Marie's dorm room, where I knew that Arthur would be at after a few minutes.

Although I would ruin their unimportant kissing scene by doing so, confirming whether or not Arthur had that was much more important.
...

'Here he is', I thought as the figure of Arthur slowly made its way towards Marie's room.

"Arthur"

"Huh? Why are you here?"

"I don't have time, so answer me quickly"

"What are y—"

Cutting him off, I spoke while scrutinizing every changes in Arthur's expressions. "Why were you tapping on the air? Surely, it isn't some kind of systems like in those popular novels, right?"

Arthur's eyebrows twitched uncontrollably, his eyes averted away from me; He was excessively fiddling with his hair, while sweating profusely.

"O- Of course not! Why would you think that? I- It's just umm..."

'He's lying' 

After a few seconds of obviously thinking of an excuse, Arthur continued. "Ah! It's just a new taunt that I learned!"

Nodding, I pretended to accept his explanation. "I see. Sorry for asking something so stupid"

However, I was as happy as I could right now. After all—

'I can't believe he got his System before the Grand tournament!'

—Arthur would only get stronger from now on.

I didn't know what kind of trouble he had gone through for Goddess Lumaria to give him the system this early, but it didn't matter.

Although, I might have to ask professor Misha to speak to professor Ferden on improving Arthur's techniques.

Arthur, oblivious to my thoughts, spoke with a calm tone. "It's nothing. Everyone can make a mistake somet—"

"ARTHUR!"

A loud scream suddenly interrupted Arthur's sentence; And as expected, it was from Marie.

"Ah! Mari—"

She ran up to Arthur at a frightening speed, not letting him finish his sentence by hugging him tightly.

"Arthur~ I was so worried!"

"Is that so Marie?", Arthur smiled sheepishly. "Sorry for making you worry"

Scrunching my face up in disgust, I was about to leave the scene to let these 2 lovebirds do whatever they wanted. However—

"Tch! What are you doing here?"

—Marie just had to annoy the shit out of me.

"Don't mind me, I'm just going awa—"

"You're bullying Arthur, aren't you?", she came to her own conclusions.

Clenching my fists in anger, I cursed her inwardly.

'Yea, Arthur this Arthur that. Just marry him already. Then realize the difference in your lifespans and fucking commit suicide out of despair'

"Jealous of my darling Arthur? I know you are", Marie said with a smug face.

"Why would I envy this pusho— I mean this guy?"

Marie pretended to not have heard my previous sentence, though she couldn't hide the frown forming on her face. "Just look at him! He's the perfect man!"

I decided to humor her and looked at Arthur more closely.

Clear golden eyes with an absurdly handsome face, masculine jawline, and a really well-built body. His firm muscles were shown through his shirt, which was partly torn due to his fight with Axel.

GULP—!¹I swear this is not BL  just keep reading

'...'

'What the fuck is wrong with me!'
...

I laughed like a maniac as I sat in my room.

"HAHAHAH! SO THAT'S WHY!"

I was sighing in relief, as I wasn't attracted to Arthur like I thought I was.

'It's not me who liked Arthur'

Instead, it was Diana Walker - Marcos' identity in his past life - that was attracted to that pushover.

'It's the side effects of using her memories while I was posing as Lyra after all...'

That would also explain why I sometimes get an uncontrollable surge of emotion. That bastard Marcos was messing up my life even from beyond the grave.

'I need to get rid of Diana memories' side effects, fast'

After all, I didn't want to fucking blush at the sight of Arthur.

I then opened my Holographic phone, and tapped on the Avaron grade school's section.

Closing the phone, I couldn't help but to let out a smirk.

I was going to do the manliest thing one could do: Father-daughter bonding.