Chapter 32: New Game Rules

Returning to his dorm, he took the remaining time for some slight training with the guards.

As he stood in the arena, two guards were shooting different kinds of projectiles at him, which he tried to evade.

When they were attacking recklessly, it honestly was manageable, but the second they coordinated even a single one, the difficulty increased tenfold.

Side-stepping another one, he simply moved his head to dodge the second one, which barely grazed his cheek.

"Thank you guys for your work." He spoke, signaling them to stop; he couldn’t concentrate on his training at all, his thoughts always drifting back to things he hoped to have forgotten.

But of course he didn’t; he never could. Stepping out of the arena, Steven tried to avoid as many people as possible.

But he could feel the servants’ judging glance at him. "If I find Lucy out there, I will show her a place to lie around lazily just next to Line." He whispered to himself.

Falling asleep dreamless, it wasn’t Irose who woke him the next morning. No, instead he had given June’s clock some money for it to activate even earlier than usual.

Waking up, he already regretted his discussion instead as he jumped to his feet, getting changed into new clothes.

There wasn’t much preparation to do when they weren’t allowed to bring anything with them, and training for a single day was of little to no use for him.

The only thing to do was to sleep enough and get a nice breakfast, and he was going to do that.

Stepping down into the first floor, he ate in the empty meeting room, hoping to speak to Merency before all of this started, but after questioning her maids, she seemed to have been out all night.

Leaving the villa behind, he walked towards the main gate, which wasn’t completely empty. As maybe a third of students were already standing there.

Some were still making or eating their food. While some others prepared some backpacks, probably not knowing they weren’t allowed.

And there was a last group of people, roughly ten guys, going around talking to everyone that had just arrived.

Alliances? Steven thought it was only normal for small fish to stay in groups to boost their chance of survival.

Not that he needed that; that was also most likely the reason none of them dared to speak to him.

Or maybe the myths Lucy had spread finally arrived here too, which would only lead them to underestimate him.

And that would be his weapon in the competition, allowing him to act strong without gaining too much attention, especially because he was sure the fingers were watching him in some way.

As he could feel someone softly tapping his shoulder, turning his head, Merency’s red hair nearly got into his eyes as she had already placed her arms around him.

"Morning, Steven. Did you sleep well yesterday?" As she only got even closer, gaining the attention of the crowd.

As she whispered into his ear, "Just say no."

"Sadly, I couldn’t anymore," he answered just loud enough to catch everyone’s interest.

"Well, to our luck, I have prepared a few bags with equipment so we won’t be standing." Her lies sounded so bad Steven wasn’t even sure why everyone was still listening.

"Oh, that’s perfect." He continues supporting her anyway; she must have some kind of plan prepared after yesterday.

And his prediction went correct as he could watch the group of rich students that arrived without any bags and breathe a sigh of relief, probably knowing about the rules.

They probably thought he and Merency had no clue and would lose all their equipment coming in with no other preparation.

As slowly more and more people filled the place, the groups got even more obvious, with only a small part of them arriving without equipment.

The group is recruiting allies who also have probably stopped either by having already found enough or by not wanting to make it known to everyone.

Until, with a sudden bang, everyone stared in the same direction. Ms. Trellen was standing there smiling a bit too happily.

"I see preparations seem to differ a lot between everyone here, but that wouldn’t be fair, right?" She spoke, but nobody answered. "Exactly, that’s why I will only allow the ration I gave you yesterday." She added, not caring about the reaction.

Even if it was noticeable instantly by the masses of students trying to protest. But she shut them down with just a move of her hand.

As she stared at the group of students who had come without any equipment. "It seems we still have some people prepared here."

As she cast a small spell, creating small symbols in the air for each class.

"We will also be introducing a point system; every jade is worth one, topaz is three, and emerald is five." As she paused for a moment, staring directly at Steven.

"And for the sapphire and diamond students, it’s twenty and one hundred points."

Merency, beside him, wanted to protest about the unfairness of the situation, but Elizabeth only raised her hand, adding another thing.

"Also, you can’t gain points by defeating students lower than your class." Steven froze in place. He could get points from anyone below him?

"For what even are those points?" Lucy asked not to be too far away from him.

"Oh, nothing really, just to buy some equipment and a bit more. Also, did I mention that you need at least as many points as your class is worth to pass?"

She answered as her smile faltered.

As if without any preparation, the floor below them started rising with them still on top.

"Also, did I forget to mention you will be split up from the partner at the start? And if they lose, the whole group loses the points."

Merency stared at him in shock.

But even Steven couldn’t believe it.

He was going to show this demoness the most painful way to die after all this ends.