A large crowd had gathered at the Raphael Training Center. The day was sunny and the clouds were clear.

Students from all classes, departments, and majors alongside many professors stood around the elevated arena. Made of white stone, the arena was about four feet off the ground and had green paint on its edges.

The only thing keeping this giant crowd together and quiet was the presence of one person on the stage.

The man tilted his tophat, flared his walking stick with impeccable pizazz, and raised his hand.

“GLORY!” He screamed. “GLORIOUS! GLORENSTEIN!!”

““GLORENSTEINN!””

The crowd of students and teachers together screamed back as Professor Jim, or Glober Loriosus as he liked to call himself, took in the moment.

“He’s popular…” I muttered. Professor Jim was quite something, though he scared me.

“His classes are funny and easy, so he became popular.” Standing next to me was Professor Laura, the blonde-haired professor from the Dahlia classroom. She was the first of my colleagues I had met back when the term had just started and I was put with the Dahlia faculty. She was also the one who introduced me to Professor Jim.

On stage, Professor Jim had started addressing the fight that was about to happen. I noticed quite a few familiar faces. There was Enna and her friend, Jeremy and the other grad students of Black Rose, the three stooges, and Professor Denadis.

My gaze lingered on Professor Denadis for a second too long. She was biting her lips and watching the arena tensely. Did something happen?

I wanted to ask, but that would be too insensitive right now with this crowd.

It was quite an impressive crowd.

“Will the prince be ok?” Richard, standing next to me, asked. “Wilbur Smith… that student is one of the strongest I’ve seen.”

“He’s right. Wilbur is kind so he won’t do anything, but he’s very fearsome.”

Richard had been talking about this student for a while now. However he was, I was confident in Prince Ier.

Even if he fought Elara right now, I was sure that Prince Ier would pack quite the punch before going down. If he went down.

“This is going to be a fun fight…” Someone put their hand on my shoulder. I looked back and nodded at Professor Barnum.

There were now four of us here.

“It shouldn’t cause any problems…” said Professor Barnum.

The show from the Glorious Professor of Glorenstein Academy came to an end with another chant of the three g’s and the man started descending from the arena. His eyes met mine, and we both nodded at each other.

The students were still leaving the Black Rose kids alone, but it seemed like our plan would be working.

“Who do you think will win, Professor Ethan?” asked Professor Laura.

“Hah… I think it doesn’t matter.”

***

Prince Ier took a sharp breath.

He held a spear in one hand and stepped up to the arena.

His friends from the Black Rose Classroom all cheered him from the back, but he couldn’t hear them.

A fleeting thought of why he was supposed to represent the class came into his mind, but the last week had been very intense. Intense enough for him to not think about those things any longer.

It was a fight he had trained hard for. Of course, he would fight.

It may be about Black Rose and Dahlia and whatnot for the others, but for Prince Ier, the battle was proof of his growth.

Prince Ier looked ahead. The student coming up from the opposite side was a boy with scraggly brown hair. His eyes were droopy.

The boy was not carrying any weapon, but he didn’t seem worried in the slightest.

It wasn’t odd to find people without weapons.

Prince Ier considered himself a balanced fighter. Someone who used both short-range weapons and long-range spells to his advantage.

People like Elara Danube or, as far as he had seen, the professors were the ones who focused their spells and magic on their short-range skills. Many of Elara’s spells enchanted her weapons or accompanied them in some way. As for the professor, it was a mystery, but one could guess.

Lastly came mages. The ones who focused completely on spells, like Seren.

“Before we start,” Prince Ier raised his voice and asked. “Have we truly inconvenienced all of you? The Black Rose Classroom was established as proof of the era of peace. If there are any problems for the other students, then we will do whatever we can to find a solution.”

He mentioned the exact public reason and followed with an address of their emotions. It was enough to make the other students quiet down a bit.

“I don’t know… there were problems?” Wilbur Smith answered. “I had no idea.”

“Uh… there are no problems?”

“None.”

“So you’re happy in Glorenstein?”

Wilbur Smith nodded. “Very happy. My mum said it was either this or fishing. And I would rather fight the demon king than fight fishes.”

Prince Ier was stunned.

“What… why…?”

“Have you ever fished? If not, you won’t understand. Fish are the root of all problems in the world.”

Prince Ier bit his lips. He wanted to ask what the fight was for if there weren’t any problems but quickly figured that this weirdo wouldn’t know even if there were problems.

He calmed himself. That Tynor and Professor Glober something, and now even Wilbur Smith. Prince Ier told himself that everyone in the Dahlia classroom was just a weirdo.

“Well, do you want to fight?” Prince Ier asked.

The air around the relaxed opponent changed. His eyes turned sharp as he glared at Prince Ier.

“Fight… of course. You won’t suggest backing off, right?”

Prince Ier raised his spear.

“I was hoping you’d say yes.”

The two sides took their stances, and from the sides, Professor Jim announced.

“BEGIN!”

The battle between the Prince and the Genius started.

Cerealissoup

Tower defense games are pretty fun at times.