The new student from Bimal Academy was dressed differently. His shirt was red, and his trousers were white. He had an annoyingly handsome face—the kind of face that made you want to slap him instead of admire him.
"No."
Shion Lan rejected the new student's challenge, something the other student hadn't expected.
"Why?! Aren't you the champion of the tournament?!"
"Isn't this the first day of the academic year? I don't want any trouble, especially with our guests."
"Trouble?!"
The student was confused.
Shion said,
"I'm not the best choice right now, so challenge someone else."
Shion had already had his fair share of trouble. If a new foreign student got hurt, he wouldn't be able to move around freely.
The new student didn't know what to do, but he introduced himself.
"I'm Ron Phynex. I'm from a mythical family, equivalent to a first-rank noble family here."
He waved his hand and returned to his group. There was a seventeenth table occupied by students wearing red shirts and white trousers or skirts.
Ron said,
"Lord Lan, I don't understand that guy."
"You won't know what kind of person he is until you deal with him."
A white-haired girl with two different-colored eyes, one orange and the other purple, spoke. Although she was only in the second grade, she seemed to be their leader.
"Princess Sherry, what do you want to do?"
Sherry Fieda, the princess of the Ishtar Kingdom, said,
"Mom told us to stay away from Shion because he's a source of trouble."
"Who are you talking about?"
A noble beauty appeared in front of them. The Crown Princess Jina Joul had approached the group.
"I'm Jina Joul, the Crown Princess of the Ostiferos Kingdom. Greetings."
The group greeted her in return, but Sherry asked,
"Do you know that man?"
She pointed at Shion, who was drinking juice alone, and Jina smiled.
"He's Lord Lan, a third-grade student, the champion of last year's tournament, and one of the academy's most talented students."
Sherry asked,
"I want to take a closer look at him. May I?"
Jina noticed Sherry's different-colored eyes and asked,
"Do you have some kind of power in your eyes?"
Sherry froze for a moment. Jina caught her reaction with her golden eyes, but Sherry said,
"I don't know what you mean."
Jina sighed and said,
"I want to warn you now. If something happens to you while you're using your ability on him, he won't be held responsible."
Sherry didn't understand what Jina was trying to tell her.
'Is she trying to scare me? No. Mom told me to investigate him, no matter what happens.'
Sherry nodded and went with Jina to see Shion.
"He's handsome."
Sherry spoke as she examined his well-defined features and the kingly qualities that made others feel inferior in comparison.
'Now, let's see what you have...'
Her orange eye glowed like the sun, and her purple one glowed like the moon. But the moment passed, and Sherry began to scream.
"AAAAAAHHH!!!!"
Jina had expected this, so she shouted,
"Lord Lan!"
Shion was already moving toward them after hearing the scream. He saw the familiar Aura of Death.
He sighed inwardly.
"What are you doing to our princess?!"
The other Bimal students moved as well, summoning their beasts, but Jina stood in their way and said,
"It was her fault, but Lord Lan is going to heal her."
Ron advanced with his phoenix.
"Her fault?! He hurt her!!"
Jina looked at Ron and sensed something strange.
Ron didn't seem afraid for his princess or enraged at Shion. Instead, he seemed to be watching the situation as if it were the perfect opportunity to hunt his prey. His companions, however, appeared to have different intentions.
"Hmm?"
Jina noticed other students behaving similarly to Ron. There were five of them, all waiting for an opportunity to do something.
"I'm finished. There's no need to fight."
Shion said this after absorbing the Aura of Death from Sherry's eyes. Then he looked at Jina.
"..."
"..."
They remained silent as they remembered their first meeting at the academy's opening ceremony the previous year. She had looked at him then, too, but he had saved her.
Jina felt a sense of warmth, but Ron ruined the moment by saying,
"It's a good thing our princess is fine, or—"
"Ron, isn't it?"
Shion spoke as he walked toward him, then asked,
"Why didn't you save your princess?"
"What?!"
Ron wasn't the only one surprised. The students watching the scene were equally astonished.
Shion said,
"If I'm not mistaken, your phoenix has healing abilities, but you didn't approach her. It was as if you were waiting for something bad to happen to your princess."
Sherry couldn't open her eyes, but she could still hear them. She wanted to defend her comrade, but then she remembered her phoenix's abilities.
'What is he trying to say?! Did Ron not want to save me?!'
Ron shouted,
"Your princess stopped us! We couldn't approach her, so we let you heal her. Do you think that means we'll owe you something?!"
Shion said,
"I don't know much about beasts, but I understand intentions. Your bird wasn't going to help her. It was going to attack the others, and the Crown Princess stopped you."
Ron was about to argue, but a heavy pressure fell upon them.
The presence of a ninth-level time mage dominated everything.
The director, Tim Ayr, said,
"We haven't even begun the academic ceremony, and a battle is already about to break out."
Tim looked at Sherry and said,
"You were warned and healed, yet you haven't shown any appreciation."
Sherry said,
"It's all because of him."
She pointed at Shion and continued,
"I was just looking at him, but he attacked me. Then he came to heal me afterward. I think he had bad intentions."
Shion couldn't tolerate that accusation.
"It's fine if you say I hurt you, but I won't allow you to make accusations about my intentions!"
Shion's eyes turned cold as he continued,
"I don't even know who you are, so why would I hurt you? You were warned about something I can't control, yet you still tried to approach me!"
Sherry had never expected Shion to turn the situation against her like that, but she wasn't worried. She had an advantage over him.
"Grandpa! I didn't do that!"
"...Grandpa?"
No one understood what was happening. They all looked at the director, who remained unmoved.
"Sherry, being my granddaughter doesn't give you the right to treat others unfairly."
"What?"
Shion thought,
'The director is Sherry's grandfather? She's the princess of the Ishtar Kingdom and the daughter of Queen Shauna Fieda? What's going on?!'
Shion wasn't the only one surprised. The others were astonished as well, but Sherry was the most shocked. She couldn't understand why her grandfather wasn't supporting her.
"Grandpa—"
"You disappoint me. I thought I would finally meet my son's daughter, but instead, I found the queen's daughter."
The Bimal students were angry, but they couldn't interfere in a family matter or speak against a ninth-level mage.
"I saw everything, but I'll let this go because it's your first day here. However, the student Shion Lan has the right to demand punishment."
Sherry couldn't believe it, but Shion said,
"As the director said, we're at the academic ceremony. We shouldn't make this matter any bigger."
Shion left without another word.
Jina left as well, and the incident came to an end.
"..."
Most of the Bimal students couldn't understand what had happened.
"Princess, did you really try to provoke Shion?"
It was obvious that not everyone knew what had happened.
Sherry deceived them.
"It was my grandpa's fault. It's a family issue."
"Oh... okay!"
They didn't suspect their princess at all, as they couldn't imagine that she would do something like that.
---
The ceremony matches began. The first-grade students would compete against the two best students from each of the other grades.
Shion was in the preparation room when something unexpected happened.
An announcement rang out across the arena.
"Today, we have exchange students from Bimal Academy, and we will be arranging matches against them!"
Shion heard the announcement and bit his tongue.
"I haven't fully recovered yet!"
He could use his aura and magic, but because of his exhaustion, he needed to wait a little longer before he could fight at full strength.
Shion wanted to give up, but then he thought,
"No. This could be a good opportunity to practice using the wind and earth elements."
Although he couldn't use his water and fire elements effectively because they were too weak to unleash second-level power, he could still use the other elements, which had already reached the third level.
Shion immersed himself in the Stellar Domain and saw the faint, dim red-blue stars. Above him, however, green stars shone brightly, while yellow stars radiated light below.
"Well, I don't have any attacks. How can I use them to win?"
"I have a solution."
Without permission, Shi Yun Lan summoned Shion into the Veins Domain.
"Well, what are you doing now?"
Shion asked Shi Yun Lan, who replied,
"Helping you win."
Shion heard that but asked,
"Before anything else, why didn't you tell me what happened in the hall?"
Shion couldn't get an answer about the Sword of the Sins from Shi Yun Lan because he hadn't been able to reach him earlier. Shi Yun Lan said,
"It's been a long time since I last showed myself. They need to know that you have my backing—"
"Shi Yun Lan, getting closer to each other is dangerous for both of us. Remember?"
Shi Yun Lan realized that and said,
"Let's forget about that and focus on the present. You can use your techniques and spells in different ways."
Shion didn't want to hear any more. He didn't want Shi Yun Lan's words to affect him, so he refused.
"Thanks, but I have to handle this alone."
Shion pulled himself out of the Veins Domain and thought about what he needed.
"I managed to master the spells with the help of the Magic Tower, but my techniques are still ordinary."
Pressure and Condensation had become Stellar Spells, but Shion wanted to incorporate them into his techniques.
"In battle, I can use (Chasing the Wind) for movement and (Solidification) for defense. Is that all?"
Shion remembered something.
"They use their beasts in battle. If I defeat one of them, will the tamer surrender?"
Shion began to think deeply while Braj Torano was defeating a fourth-grade student from Bimal in the arena.
A body lay on the ground beside the student's ox beast.
"Not bad."
Braj made the remark as if it were nothing, but his opponent had been one of the strongest students at Bimal Academy.
"Karath Academy is strong."
Ron couldn't deny the academy's talented students, but that didn't mean all of them were powerful. The following matches proved to be difficult, and Karath Academy ended up with more defeated students than Bimal Academy.
"The overall evaluation is good for us."
Sherry said this while looking at Tim, who didn't seem troubled by the results.
He had expected this and said,
"Bimal Academy is where students learn how to tame beasts. Once they do, battles naturally become two against one."
He shook his head and continued,
"They have weaknesses. The most important one is their inability to perform techniques or spells without their beasts. If a beast is forced out of battle for any reason, its master's chances of winning will collapse."
The matches continued to go badly for Karath until it was Glass Sano's turn.
Glass entered the arena and faced his opponent, Ron Phynex.
"A member of a first-rank noble family against a member of a mythical family. This will be fun, don't you think?"
"I think so."
Glass didn't say much. He unsheathed his sword while Ron summoned his phoenix.
"Begin!"
The referee shouted, and the opponents clashed in an instant. Glass's cold, blue sword was blocked by the phoenix's beak.
"Disappear!"
The phoenix disappeared, and Ron appeared with a flaming punch. However, Glass used his art.
"(Sano Family Art: Ice Age Touch)."
A freezing palm blocked the flaming punch, leaving Ron surprised and then worried.
"Phoenix!"
The beast was summoned again, preventing Glass from winning immediately.
"(Subzero Duel)!"
The cold spread throughout the arena, making both Ron and his phoenix tremble. Glass didn't care and continued attacking them.
Ron had never faced anything like this before. He felt the energy within him beginning to freeze, making it impossible for him to use it.
"(Art of Phoenix)!!"
Ron no longer held back. Glass stopped and watched as the phoenix disappeared and red feathers began to appear on Ron's body, accompanied by a pair of wings.
Ron fused with his beast.