Chapter 234: Exactly What Kind of Powerful Individual Will Appear?
"Ara, having the A-Rank student Luke-kun come up to strike up a conversation is something I could only wish for~"
Faced with Luke's sudden approach to strike up a conversation, Arisuin Nagi acted very normally.
Well... if a handsome man who is 1.8 meters tall speaking in a young girl's tone can be considered normal...
I have to say, Arisuin Nagi's unique speaking style indeed gave Luke a bit of a headache.
For a split second, he even doubted whether coming up to talk to him was a wrong choice.
This was still his first time encountering this so-called 'okama', and to be honest, it was still somewhat awkward.
However, Luke quickly suppressed these irrelevant emotions to the bottom of his heart.
He sat down beside Arisuin and opened his mouth to ask, "You know me?"
"Of course, Luke-kun's two mock battles from a few days ago have already spread throughout the academy."
Arisuin, who was responding to Luke with a smile on his face, was not entirely so calm in his heart.
'Did he discover something?'
'Or is he purely coming up to strike up a conversation... No, impossible. I must have caught his attention somewhere.'
'Where exactly was it...'
The Rebellion's investment in Hagun academy's plan was not small; it allowed no room for the slightest carelessness.
As a crucial step, Arisuin was the absolute core of it all.
To be qualified to shoulder such an important mission, Arisuin's strength was naturally not lacking.
An elite of the Rebellion had been planted in each of the seven Knight Academies in Japan.
Among them, including Arisuin, a total of six had joined their respective schools as first-year students.
Although Arisuin did not know their specific identities, according to his understanding of the Rebellion's internal elite personnel, there weren't too many people who were of the right age and possessed a certain level of strength.
Among these people, there wasn't a single one who could compare to this 'Falling Star Sword Emperor' sitting beside him.
This kind of combat power that could overturn the entire plan—in Arisuin's intelligence, only the sole plan participant who wasn't a first-year student, someone who possessed the title of Sword Emperor just like Luke, could compare to him.
That was the 'Wind/Gale Sword Emperor' Kurogane Ouma.
But Kurogane Ouma was the Rebellion's secret weapon meant to suppress Stella.
If he were used to dealing with Luke, then the 'Crimson Princess's' impact on the plan would have to be additionally reconsidered.
Moreover, it was still uncertain whether Kurogane Ouma would even be interested in Luke.
The more he thought about it, the heavier Arisuin's heart became.
The pressure Luke brought upon him was simply too immense.
However, on the surface, he showed no changes whatsoever.
He continued to converse with Luke with a smile on his face.
"Especially how Luke-kun could actually effortlessly defeat that genius knight who is also an A-Rank, the 'Crimson Princess'."
"Watching that mock battle really made my heart pound so fast."
"An ordinary student like me will probably never be able to reach Luke-kun's heights in a lifetime~"
"Oh? Arisuin-kun is being too modest."
Luke looked at the male(?) student in front of him with some amusement.
He hadn't come over to converse with the other party just because he was bored with nothing to do.
Luke wasn't considered familiar with this world, but he still knew some basic knowledge.
Especially since Arisuin was one of the original members of the protagonist group.
Combining the keywords of plot, protagonist group, assassin, and concealment, and pairing them with the news about the Rebellion he had learned through the broadcasts over the past few days...
Luke could basically confirm that Arisuin was inextricably linked to the Rebellion.
In a world like this, where the male and female protagonists were the absolute core, the events happening around them were mostly related to large-scale organizations.
Yet, Luke didn't have much understanding of this so-called world's number one criminal organization.
Thus, gathering intelligence became the utmost priority.
Luke's own information wasn't a secret.
Since the other party was a world-class organization, as long as they had the intent to investigate, they would definitely be able to find out all his current public intelligence.
Therefore, he had nothing to lose in this regard.
But the Rebellion was a different story.
For this kind of organization hidden in the dark, every piece of intelligence was classified. Luke had just obtained a large amount of useful information from his simple conversation with Arisuin.
This method of acquiring information in a situation where the enemy was in the dark and he was in the open had been taught to him by Finn when he was in the Dungeon world.
According to Finn's words at the time, 'This is a skill that must be mastered as an upper echelon of the Familia.'
"If an ordinary student possessed your level of strength, then this country would be far too terrifying."
Luke's words made Arisuin heave a slight sigh of relief in his heart.
'So he just discovered that I was hiding my strength... Thank goodness my identity in the Rebellion wasn't exposed...'
But even so, Arisuin still didn't dare to be careless.
He continued speaking on the topic Luke provided.
"Ara, although your praise makes me very happy, I am still nothing more than a D-Rank Knight yo~"
"I don't have much interest in fighting and killing, so could I please ask Luke-kun to keep this a secret for me?"
Arisuin generously and naturally admitted to the fact that he was concealing his strength.
At the same time, he expounded his standpoint and asked Luke to keep it a secret for him.
Under the circumstances of having his true strength seen through, Arisuin skillfully shifted his persona without any hesitation.
He changed from his initially established persona of an ordinary student to that of a powerful knight who hid his strength out of a fear of trouble.
If Luke hadn't known that Ikki and Stella were the male and female protagonists, and that events occurring around the two of them definitely wouldn't be minor matters, he really might have been fooled.
Even so, Luke still involuntarily produced a sliver of thought asking, 'Could I have been mistaken?'
After all, the matter of Arisuin being a member of the Rebellion was ultimately just his speculation; there was no concrete evidence yet.
However, his goal wasn't to expose Arisuin either.
Regarding Arisuin's request for secrecy, he simply nodded in agreement, effectively ending this conversation.
Through this conversation, Luke obtained quite a bit of useful information.
Although Arisuin had always lived in the darkness, as an assassin, he was more adept at work related to killing.
Furthermore, his age was indeed a bit young. Perhaps among his peers, he could already be considered mature, but compared to Luke, there was still a significant gap.
He didn't need to be one hundred percent certain; Luke only needed to assume that Arisuin was someone from the Rebellion.
Through a series of faint reactions from Arisuin in their conversation just now, Luke confirmed the matter he cared about the most.
That was that his unexpected appearance had led to a shortage of combat power in the Rebellion's plan.
As long as the premise that Arisuin belonged to the Rebellion was not wrong, then this speculation was fundamentally correct.
A shortage of combat power would naturally lead to them adding more combat power, and as a world-class organization, the Rebellion would definitely have cadre-level experts.
Fighting against experts was exactly what Luke hoped for, and it was also the fundamental reason he deliberately confronted Arisuin this time.
"Exactly what kind of powerful individual will appear?"
"Let me look forward to it a little bit..."
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