NOVEL FROG Chapter 19: The Eighth King of Rezen Academy [1]
Sunday morning came quicker than I imagined. I was sitting in my bed, looking through my cell phone. A whole week had gone by since I’d been transported 10 years into the past, and at the moment, things weren’t going as planned. The void that would be left by Dante Eliv would no doubt affect how humanity progresses during the war, but then again, I already had a major advantage that would make up for his absence: knowledge of the future.
Because of this, I’d completely abandoned the idea of using the [Regress] skill to try and reset this whole situation. With little information about how it actually works, it would be a huge gamble to take the leap of faith and end up in an even worse situation. What if I regressed even further back? I wouldn’t be able to live properly knowing the fates of everyone around me while lacking the power to do anything.
Anyway, last night, after Lily left my room at a very late hour, I sent a message to my classmates. I was already laying the groundwork to catch the spy who’d killed Dante, and even Precious, in the future I knew of. Under the guise of being their class leader, I’d asked for a lot of information about themselves, namely: names, attribute, kingdom of origin, and group. Since Rezen Academy accepted a lot of foreign students, it wasn’t uncommon for a few of them to act as spies for their kingdoms. It doesn’t even have to be someone who trained under them for a long time. Any student can be recruited into being a spy after they are already accepted into the academy, making the pre-screening process a bit useless.
I scrolled through the many messages I’d received throughout the night, taking note of the time each of them was sent. With the help of recall, I was both memorizing everyone’s names and trying to associate them with any news or rumors I’d heard of in the future about them.
Although there might be a lot of spies within the academy, exposing them wasn’t really my intention. A lot of these students were going to be very useful assets in the war, so pulling such a stupid stunt would only worsen the situation. International relations, clan relations, and academy relations would affect how humanity as a whole fares against the demons.
Because of this, I even had to turn a blind eye to students I already knew would become future criminals. That’s because those same ‘criminals’ would also side with humanity in the future. What needed to be eradicated, however, were criminals that killed off future high-value war potentials like Dante Eliv. It’s an act of betrayal against humanity.
But there was an exception. [False peace]. The number of budding talents the group would kill in the next 10 years was truly unforgivable. But then again, with how strong their group is, and despite having very few numbers, their war potential was equal to that of a small kingdom. Anyway, I spent most of my day pondering the future and coming up with a plan to fish out Dante’s killer, possibly during the combat classes we’ll be having next week. As nighttime fell, I decided to call Lily over and prepare for the meeting with Tim.
“You’ve been calling me a lot lately. Should I be worried?” she asked with a suspicious gaze after already sitting with me for a few hours. In my past lifetime, we’d spent very little time together because of our difference in classes. The time dropped even more after graduating from the academy and going our separate ways.
“What are you talking about? I always call,” I replied with a confused expression, causing her to sigh as she retorted.
“Yeah, only when you need money.”
Well, in my defense, it’s not my fault that their household was so loaded. As we leisurely talked about this and that, I pondered whether or not I should tell her what happened with the headmaster, but I eventually decided against it. I trusted her enough to tell her about my abilities but I didn’t want to unnecessarily put her in a tough position. As they say, ignorance is bliss.
Aurora’s intuition was scary good, and the moment the two met again, she might accidentally spill the things I tell her. I already planned on meeting Aurora before the Global Summit commenced so it might not be that big of an issue. If it went the same as the future I knew of, she would escort the Emperor as a bodyguard.
“I think it’s getting late,” Lily muttered to herself as she stared out the window. It was already getting dark and it would soon be lights out. I quickly checked the time and it was almost 19:00.
“I want us to go somewhere before that.”
She looked at me with squinted eyes, but I ignored her gaze and started leaving the room. I left my sword behind since Lily was already armed, and we made our way to the first floor.
[Training rooms]
It had a completely different design than the rooms on the upper floors for obvious reasons, and there were a lot of students already going there. Many of them wore full-body tight suits with a combination of shorts or sweatpants. They were likely thinking of training after the meeting with Tim ended. Even on a Sunday, the grind never stopped.
We walked into the large training hall where a little over a hundred students were already gathered in small cliques and chatting among themselves. A few students were sparring with each other on the small platforms throughout the room. A lot of eyes fell on us the moment we entered, and I could see Lily’s uncomfortable expression from the corner of my eye.
“Why are we here? Do you wanna spar or something?”
“Something like that.”
She eventually voiced her concerns, and I answered her without giving it much thought, though my answer seemed to comfort her as she eagerly followed me. I wondered how long it would take her to realize I left my sword upstairs, but her bright expression gave me no hope.
“Ugh. He’s also here,” she suddenly muttered in a bitter voice as she stared at someone over the crowd. I followed her eyes curiously, and my eyes widened in surprise.
So he’s also in this dorm building.
While everyone in the room was enthusiastically training or talking with their friends, the student in question was leaning on a wall with his eyes closed. His plain black hair and average appearance made him blend into the crowd like every other student around him. He was the other student who also beat a professor during the placement exams — Lithe. He was wearing casual clothes, which likely meant he explicitly came here for the meeting.
“Are you friends with him?” I asked Lily out of curiosity, and the face she made answered my question. It was as if I had just insulted her.
“Of course not. He pisses me off.”
“Eh, okay.”
I was curious as to why but held back since it was probably a personal matter. Now that I thought about it, I knew nothing about Lily’s relationships with her classmates and the people around the academy. Since the rumors always talked about how strong she was, I had just assumed she didn’t have any social problems with those in the high classes.
“Why are we just standing around?” She seemed to want to leave as soon as possible as she saw more and more students enter the training floor, either that or she just didn’t want to be in the same room as Lithe.
“Wait just a—”
I felt a strong gaze and quickly turned my head to the side. Lily was already facing that direction, glaring at a certain student. Lithe was staring directly at us, and one of his eyes was glowing red with magic power, while the other had a light blue color to it. He switched targets and turned his gaze toward the entrance, prompting the two of us to do the same. A few seconds later, a group of individuals entered the training hall.
So he can sense mana even while sleeping?
At the front of the group, a boy with handsome features walked in with a smile on his face. His blue hair was tied into a ponytail as usual, and he looked as carefree as ever. The moment people started to recognize him, they all stopped talking and assembled on one side of the hall.
“I hope everyone is having a great day. Thank you for attending.” He spoke kind words to the students, but their stiff expressions made it obvious they were forced to come. Tim looked around at the expressions they made, and his smile seemed to grow even further when he looked at a particular student.
“Ah, Lithe. So you also decided to come, that was a good choice.”
Lithe only stared at him with expressionless eyes as he casually nodded his head and looked away. He wasn’t the type of person to do as people said so easily. Did that mean they fought each other? That was the only reason I could think of, and because he came here today… He lost. But on the other hand, his presence here had its benefits. If I'd known this beforehand, bringing Lily with me wouldn’t have been necessary.
“Oh, and who do we have here?” Tim turned around and his eyes fell on us, or more specifically, he looked at Lily who was fidgeting in front of me. He didn’t wait for an answer and walked directly toward us with calculated steps and stood face to face with Lily. He looked down on her as he asked,
“I didn't know one of the Dragnoks would attend, I should have worn my uniform.” He flashed a playful smile to Lily, who kept stealing glances at me with a confused expression.
“Uh. It’s fine, I think you look fine,” she replied with a flustered expression.
“Haha, I will take that as a compliment.” He chuckled with a smile, then turned his gaze toward me for the first time since entering the room. He took a step forward and placed his hand on my shoulder while speaking,
“Don't you think you could have at least given me a heads-up?” He spoke casually with a smile, but I could feel his fingers digging into my shoulder.
“Let him go.” This didn't go unnoticed by Lily as she gave him a casual warning, but Tim didn't comply.
“Little miss dragon, I think you're forgetting whose territory this is. Did Eve not teach you how we do things around here?” He gave her a side glance, and Lily's shoulders flinched. She likely already promised Eve not to cause trouble with the other kings, so her actions right now might cause a possible war to erupt between the students.
“Well, since you're a guest, I will humor you this one time. We'll talk after I'm done here.” He moved away from us, and everyone who was watching the scene in silence wore confused expressions.
“I hope you all did your homework. It's time for collection.” The moment he said that, his friends started walking around the room collecting brown envelopes from some of the students. These envelopes likely contained information about certain first-year students they were told to keep an eye on. Information was a valuable resource when it came to playing king at the academy.
“Thank you all for the good work. I will contact some of you to work directly under me, so look forward to that.” Tim finally dismissed the students, and when they started going their separate ways, he approached us alone.
“Come with me.” He gave us a casual order and started walking away. Lily looked at me, confused, and I shrugged as I followed. We walked into one of the empty private training rooms, and Tim immediately walked to the other side. The room was about the same size as my bedroom, but unlike my bedroom, it was completely empty, and all the walls and ceiling had white tiles.
“I think we can fight here without any interference,” Tim said, directing his words toward Lily, who furrowed her brow in confusion.
Straight to the point huh?
