The Author's POV

Late night.

After returning from her short shopping trip, Emma laid down on her mattress exhausted. With her short brown hair scattered on the bed, Emma scrolled through her phone. 

Thinking of something, Emma opened her bank account and checked her balance. 

[Account balance : 7,472,060 U]

Seeing the number, Emma ground her teeth and muttered. 

"...what a pig" 

During her small trip, she had planned on only spending at most 100,000 U. She had not expected herself to fork out 750,000U. This was way beyond the budget she had set herself. In fact, spending 100,000 was already too much for her at the moment. 

Normally, she wouldn't have minded. 

...but her current circumstances weren't normal.

Looking at how much money she had in her bank account Emma felt bitter. 

"How long will this last me..." 

She truly regretted betting with Ren. Had she not bet, none of this would've happened. 

-Ring!

At that moment, Emma's phone rang. 

Checking who the sender was, Emma's face darkened. It was her uncle. 

[Hello Emma, how was your day?]

Clenching her teeth, Emma picked up the phone and replied. 

[Everything is fine, thank you, uncle]

[That's great, but Emma...]

[Yes]

[Did you go out today?]

Seeing the message, Emma's face contorted to a frown. 

'How is that any of your business'

Forcefully trying to calm herself down, she replied. 

[Yes, with two of my friends]

Ren was definitely not her friend. 

[That's good, but do you still have enough money? I hope you're still not mad at me for blocking your card. With your dad leaving all responsibilities to me, we have to take precautions]

"Bastard..."

At her father's mention, Emma felt truly enraged. Ever since her father caught wind of a secret plot that the Monolith was brewing in preparations to attack Ashton city, as its city mayor, her father had no other choice but to leave and prevent their plans.

This was four months ago.

Right now, with her father gone, her uncle was the one in charge of the family affairs.

He did not like Emma. 

With Emma being the direct inheritor of her Roshfield family, her uncle was jealous. He too had a son. However, he was only ten years old. 

Given how young he was, he did not stand a chance at inheriting the family's leading position. He was just like him, stuck in his brother's shadow. 

How could he tolerate that? 

Therefore, when the opportunity presented itself. Emma's uncle tried to do his best to suppress her.

One of the first things he did was block her card. With the excuse of Emma spending too much money on useless stuff, her uncle managed to convince the others to freeze her card until her father came back. 

Obviously, Emma knew this, however, with her father gone she could only swallow this bitter pill. 

Suppressing her rage, Emma cut the conversation short. 

[I understand uncle, do not worry about it. I have to go to sleep now as classes start early in the morning, good night]

Without waiting for her Uncle's reply, Emma threw her phone towards the other side of the bed.

Tucking herself inside of her blankets, she cursed. 

"...this fucker" 

...

Same time, the room next door. 

Returning to her room, Amanda carefully walked towards one of her drawers. Taking out a stuffed teddy, Amanda carefully placed the teddy on top of the drawer. Facing her way. 

Looking at the teddy, Amanda nodded her head in satisfaction. She really liked the teddy. 

"..Haa" 

After carefully putting the teddy on the drawer, tired, Amanda buried herself on her bed. 

A lot of things happened today. What seemed to be a regular day like any other turned out into an outing with Emma, Kevin, and Ren. 

She normally disliked such outings as she hated crowds. However, with everything that had happened today, she couldn't say she disliked it. 

It was fun. 

Suddenly her phone rang. 

-Ring! -Ring! 

The caller ID was Maxwell Benson, her personal assistant. 

Amanda picked up the phone. 

"Yes?" 

Maxwell's voice was pleasant to the ears. Neither hurried nor slow. As Amanda listened to what he wanted to say, a look of understanding appeared on her face. A trace of surprise was mixed in it too. 

—Amanda, your father, and the elders want to meet you next week. They have agreed to your proposal and are expecting you soon. 

"I understand" 

Knowing that Amanda did not like to talk for long periods of time, Maxwell kept the conversation short and asked. 

—Is there anything else that you would like young miss? 

"No, this is good for now. 

—I understand, I wish you good luck for next week. 

"mhm" 

Nodding her head, Amanda hung up the call. 

-Tack!

Scrolling through her phone, Amanda opened her chat log with Melissa and clicked on a specific video.

Displayed on the screen was a card held by two pincers as mana was slowly injected into it. Not long after, a massive flame engulfed the video. 

After getting the greenlight from Melissa, Amanda contacted her dad and guild elders regarding a possible business proposition. 

Normally, given how busy most elders and her father were, they would've never have agreed. However, since it was Amanda who proposed the deal, they agreed without asking too many questions. 

This was what the phone call was about. Her father and the elders of the guild had agreed to listen to Ren's and Melissa's plan. 

Although she did not doubt that they would've agreed, she was quite surprised by the fact that they had agreed to meet in a week's time. 

With how busy they usually were, she had expected to even wait as far as a couple of months. This came as a bit of a surprise for her. 

But after a bit of thinking and realizing who the two people in question were, Amanda understood.

With Melissa being the genius that she was, there was no doubt that her guild wanted to form a connection with her. 

On the other hand, there was Ren. Given how influential her parent's guild was, without a doubt that they knew a few things about him. Especially with regards to what had happened a few nights ago when he supposedly aided in the killing of a Viscount ranked demon. 

Given how popular he was nowadays, without a doubt the elders and her father wanted to meet him in person. 

<E+> rank at age sixteen. 

Though Amanda expected this somewhat, she was still shocked. Without a doubt, his talent rivaled that of Jin's and Kevin's. 

Huuu—

-Plack! 

Taking a deep breath, Amanda carefully put away her phone in her drawer and closed the lights. 

Closing her eyes, Amanda suddenly thought of Ren. 

After getting to know him better, her impression of him slightly changed.

Her first encounter with him had left a deep impression on her. 

She could still recall those cold and merciless eyes devoid of any emotions looking at her. At that time she thought that he was an undercover bodyguard that her family had sent to protect her. But after confirming with her father and guild, she knew that this was not the case. 

Therefore, her interest in him piqued a little. 

After meeting him a few more times, Amanda realized that he was completely different from how she thought he was.

Perhaps he was faking it, but from what Amanda figured, he was not the merciless killer that she thought he was in her first encounter. 

He was just like everyone else.  Just a regular youth in his teens.

Silly at times, serious in others. 

If she did have to point out something odd about him, it was his fashion sense. Recalling how proud he was about the clothes he was wearing, Amanda shook her head. 

It was frankly terrible. 

It was so bad that Amanda was left speechless. 

Aside from that, Amanda also recalled the look of despair on Emma's face once he got six teddies in fifteen tries whilst she didn't even get one despite so many tries. 

...it was the first time Amanda saw Emma so depressed. The more she thought about it, the more the corner of her lips curved upwards. Suddenly a strange noise came out of her mouth. 

"ku..." 

With the corner of her lips curved slightly upwards, Amanda slowly lost consciousness.

That night, Amanda slept more peacefully than usual. 

...

Lunch time; 12 : 00 P.M. Class A-25

Standing before me, a student wearing a similar azure-colored uniform pointed in my direction and shouted. 

"Ren Dover, I challenge you to a fight" 

Opening my eyes wide, I glanced towards my left where Kevin sat. He had an all-knowing smile on his face. The smile didn't last for long though.

Not long after someone challenged him too. However, unlike me, he was challenged by an exchange student. 

The exchange students were currently not mixed with us yet as that would start next week after the banquet was held.

The reasoning for this was simple.

The courses between each academy were different. In order for the exchange students to follow our class, they needed a week or so to adapt to what our academy was teaching. 

Given how different some of the materials were, if they were suddenly put in our class, chances were that most of them wouldn't understand a thing. 

This would pretty much ruin the whole point of the exchange. If their students learned nothing from this, what was the point of sending them here? 

Looking down on me, the youth proudly puffed his chest. His voice raised, "So? Are you going to accept my challenge or not?" 

The youth's name was Haris Parra, and he was ranked in the top 50's. 

Ever since yesterday, the youth before him, Ren Dover, had been appearing all over the news. 

He did not believe it. 

He believed that he was just someone that happened to show up at the right place at the right time. Killing a Viscount ranked demon at the age of sixteen? Who was stupid enough to believe that?! 

Certainly not him!

That's when Haris suddenly had an idea 

'What if I use this chance to crush him and make my name famous?'

If he crushed the talk of the city who was deemed the next prodigy, wouldn't everyone think he was the prodigy? 

The more Haris thought about it, the more convinced he was about his conjunction. Staring at Ren with burning eyes, he repeated. 

"What about it, huh? You accept or not?"

Looking up at the youth before me, and more or less understanding what he was thinking, I frowned. 

'Should I reject him?'

It's not like he could force me to fight. 

If I rejected him, the worst that could happen would be him humiliating me in front of everyone in the classroom. Which frankly speaking didn't bother me at this point. 

I did go through this for half a year after all. 

However, I shook my head. 

'No, there is no need for me to run anymore. In fact, I should use this opportunity'

Having come to a resolution not long ago, I knew that I no longer needed to avoid such situations. 

'Use this opportunity to thoroughly set an impression on the others. With the aid of this extra, I should use this chance to thoroughly implant a deep impression of myself to the others. One that would make them not dare bother or challenge me...' 

I no longer needed to remain hidden, and avoid conflicts. With my rank and name known by the most influential people in the city, I knew that hiding was pointless. 

It was about time I revealed some of my abilities. 

Seeing me shake my head, the youth's lips curled upwards as he mocked. 

"Are you refusing? Are you perhaps scared? It's fine I won't bite" 

Shaking my head, I deeply looked at the youth before me. After a while, with a plain smile on my face, I nodded my head. 

"No, I accept"