As Sunny continued his speech snubbing the local youth, he failed to realize that the tone of his voice was not so low, and worse, it seemed to get louder and louder as the conversations around him stopped to hear what sounded like a beggar telling the most prestigious instructor at the White Dove School that his students were horrible.
When he finished his speech, the blond man was struck with a confuse grim, the others around them seemed very offended, for some reason.
'Oh, that's bad, I'm getting too numb about my surrounds without the shadow senses' It was too late to avoid any conflict, but it's not like Sunny hadn't expected it to come to this. The strangest thing about the moment that followed was that the silence was broken by the blond's carefree laughter.
"Wow, kid! It's been a while since a child has entertained me like that!" And then he paused for a moment to laugh just a little more... "It's a shame my students are too old for you! But I'd love for you to come back here to prove your point in a few years."
Of all the things that could really annoy Sunny, mistaking him for a child was one of the most effective.
"Who the hell are you calling a child? I'm sixteen!" For some reason, this seemed to make the instructor more surprised than his speech. At this point, the two's little conversation had already become the main attraction of the street. The student niches crowding more and more around, and most of them were starting to laugh.
"And after defeating the best students, you'll become a Saint right?" A boy of about 16 was the first to open his mouth, and then the entire group burst out laughing.
"Nah! He will be the first one to conquer the Fourth Nightmare!" And it kept coming.
"Do you guys know if there are clothing stores in the Fourth one? He might need some before finishing it!" From all directions, the provocations kept flowing, Sunny was really impressed by the creativity of some of them, so he made sure not to forget the faces of those who had the courage to open their mouths.
"Enough! You've talked enough, if you had this much commitment in your classes then you could keep busy with nonsense like this!" When the awakened man spoke, his voice was serious, different from the cheerful tone from before. "Alex, Welt, and Edward, you three seemed pretty willing to start this game, didn't you? Detention. Until the rest of the week."
The three let out grunts of unhappiness at the news.
"But it was just a joke!"
"Sir we didn't mean to-"
The man's voice spoke out loud again. "I already said it! Now, go your separate ways, all of you! I don't want a bunch of gossipers in my conversation here!"
As the instructor spoke, Sunny hurried to look at who the boys he was referring to were, the first two didn't even turn their faces towards him as they argued with their teacher, however, who Sunny suspected to be Edward was a little different, as the boy clearly directed his anger towards him.
'What does this idiot think he's going to do by blaming me for this? He should be the one blaming himself for being such a wimp.'
As the group dispersed, the instructor resumed their previous conversation.
"Sorry about that comments, even though you should have expected them, i don't think someone who talks like you would be troubled to hear such things! Well, I guess I also had bad manners on my part, after all I haven't introduced myself yet, I'm Awakened Roswald, combat instructor for these brats"
"Don't worry about that, I'm Sunless, and yes, I wouldn't be offended by stupid comments like that."
Roswald seemed to ponder for a while before answering.
"Really? Sunless is your real name?"
"Yes, you see, my mother had a different creativity for names"
"She really had, so, which academy did you learn to fight at? I should know the tutor of someone capable of finishing off my dear students, right?"
"In fact, I haven't attended any gym, and I haven't had any training with a tutor yet, you see, I've never even held a sword in this life." Again, it was good to keep up not lying, and since he hadn't met Nephis yet, it wasn't wrong to say he didn't have a tutor, yet.
"Oh... well, Sunless, it's a shame you got my hopes up too high then."
"How so?"
The blond turned his gaze back to the front of the school, where dozens of students were walking, talking, and laughing.
"There always comes a time when these children think they have already mastered everything they could, they become arrogant, of course, there would be no point in me finishing them off in a fight, after all I am an awakened, but if it was someone their age... Anyway, what I want to say boy, is that if any of them ends up being infected by the nightmare spell, I want them to survive, after all this life is cruel, even more so for those who think it isn't."
Obviously Sunny understood what Roswald was saying, perhaps better than anyone else. Throughout his life he made a point of avoiding becoming arrogant, and yet he found himself in moments of near death due to this feeling of security that slowly builds up within each one of us. With each victory, this feeling, even if unwanted, begins to form little by little, and this poison can be the cruelest thing for any awakened.
"There is no need for all this melancholy, after all, luck has come to you Roswald!"
"Has it?"
"Of course! Let's make a deal, the winter solstice will happen at the end of this month, the week after that, I'll come back here and finish off as many idiots as you want."
The tone of their conversation was much more controlled than when Sunny was shouting about her confidence, still, some tried to hear what the two were talking about, Roswald's reactions probably fed their curiosity, since he was very interested in what the boy was talking about.
"As much as I would like that, I don't see how you stand a chance Sunless, these teenagers have been training since years ago, even some Legacies studied here, so they've been holding weapons for as long as they can remember."
"You don't need to worry about that, in the worst case scenario I'll lose in the first fight and you can continue your class normally, right?"
The blond seemed to think for a few seconds.
"And in that case their confidence would increase even more, which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do."
"Oh yeah, maybe, but who knows, at least that way they would have someone different to train against, right? But okay, if you're not interested, there's nothing I can do. But you know, it almost seems like you're afraid that your precious students will lose to someone who's never held a sword..."
For the first time, it seems like the awakened one felt a little about what Sunny said, and then he decided to answer, although he seemed to be struggling against opening his mouth
"Heavens... Alright, if you want it so much I'll accept the offer, but one thing I don't understand is what you would gain from it."
"It's nothing big, anyway we still have a month until the day, until then I'll let you know what I'll want for the fights, of course."
Sunny's mischievous smile indicated to Roswald that there might be something more to this deal, but now it was decided. With the decision made, the two said goodbye and Sunny went back on his way to the government building. It was time for him to offer his second deal of the day.