Chapter 47: A Red Haired Idiot
"Fight me next!"
The dust cloud dispersed, revealing a boy with bright red, messy hair and equally bright red eyes.
He wore the same academy uniform as Adrian, though his blazer hung over his shoulders, as if he couldn’t be bothered to wear it properly.
Which he couldn’t.
The red haired boy was pointing at Adrian with a large grin on his face, after he had issued the challenge.
Adrian immediately recognized him, and couldn’t help but sigh. He had been hoping to avoid unnecessary interactions with this particular idiot, after all, he was a troublesome one.
Unfortunately, fate, or perhaps just bad luck, had other plans.
"No," Adrian simply replied, causing a confused look to appear on Darius’s face, but a second later, he hit his palm with his fist as a realization seem to dawn on him.
"That’s right," he started, "you can’t just accept a challenge from a stranger without reason."
One would think that, with that realization, he’d either back down or find a suitable reason for them to fight, but no.
Instead he just stood straighter and said, "my name is Darius Lionheart and since you now know it, we’re not strangers anymore."
He paused as his grin returned, "now, let’s fight."
Darius looked so proud of himself, almost as if he had just solved a complex problem that no one else could.
Even Renelle’s eyes subtly twitched, of course she remembered this idiot from her previous life.
Darius was someone interested in one thing, and one thing only, fighting someone strong, and he had somehow gained access to this private training halls of the academy, just in time to watch Adrian defeat those beasts.
Awakening Darius’s desire to fight him.
Adrian was confident in easily defeating him, but the problem was, this idiot would just keep challenging him until he won.
So to save himself the headache, he answered again,
"No."
Darius looked even more confused, according to his logic, he had already introduced himself, so the student before him should have no issue fighting him....right?
But before anything more could be said, the headmistress interrupted.
"Shouldn’t you be somewhere else right now, Mr. Lionheart?" She said, although she found the interaction between the two amusing, it was still just the first day.
There’d be a lot more time for ruckus.
"Huh?" Darius turned to her, still confused.
"The dormitories," she clarified, "unless you’ve decided to skip settling in on your very first day."
The realization slowly dawned on him as he recalled what he was supposed to be doing in the first place.
"Right," he muttered placing a hand on his chin as he recalled the sequence of events, "I thought this was the dorm rooms and entered, then I saw him defeating those beasts."
"I see," Headmistress Evelina nodded in understanding.
She was not even a bit surprised that Darius had entered an entirely different building from the dorms, even though this was his second year here.
After all, this student of hers was an airhead.
"Alright," Darius said after a moment, "I’ll find the dorms first."
"But, we’re still fighting later, right?"
"No, we are not."
"We are."
"We are not."
Darius grinned wider.
"Yeah, we are."
And with that, he walked out of the arena with both his hands in his pockets, unwilling to hear Adrian deny his challenge.
There was a bit of silence the moment he left, which was broken by the headmistress’s clap, "alright then Adrian, you pass."
"Well, you had already passed the moment he defeated the first construct," she said lightly, "everything after that was simply me satisfying my curiosity."
"I see," Adrian nodded, suspecting as much, since he already knew what the second year placement test was supposed to be, "then did I your expectations, headmistress?"
Renelle frowned at his polite tone, but she didn’t allow it to show on her face as she just silently observed the two.
Not that she was jealous or anything....
It just felt strange hearing him use the same respectful tone he had been using for her, with someone else.
Yeah, maybe she was a tiny bit jealous, because if she wasn’t, she’d have realized that Adrian’s tone with the headmistress was only polite, as compared to the lightly flirty one when interacting with her.
"Expectations?" The headmistress repeated, "you far exceeded them, so much that I wonder if the board will allow me to create a special class just for you..."
That was a joke....right?
"I’d rather remain by my lady’s side," Adrian said, just in case the headmistress wasn’t joking.
"I see, then you’ll be assigned to Class One, alongside Renelle," she stated, turning to Renelle "your schedule will be provided shortly, and so will your dormitory."
The dorms weren’t exactly compulsory, but it’d be uncomfortable for most to commute to and from the academy, so they provided each student with a dorm room.
Choosing to stay or not, was entirely up to the student.
Renelle nodded at the headmistress’s words, Adrian, on the other hand, simply bowed his head slightly.
"Thank you, Headmistress."
"Mhm," Evelina hummed before turning towards the exit, "you’re dismissed."
With that, she walked away, leaving Adrian and Renelle in the training arena.
They silently looked at each other for a couple of moments before Renelle also turned towards the exit.
"Let’s go," she said, but stopped when Adrian spoke up.
"Did I do well?" He asked.
Slowly, she turned back to look at him.
"You exceeded expectations," she answered calmly, "even by my standards."
Adrian smiled faintly at that.
"Then," he began, taking a single step closer, "may I request a reward, my lady?"
A blush almost crawled up her face as the mention of a reward immediately made her recall the previous night.
But she controlled her expression and asked, "a reward?"
"You did say I should achieve the highest result possible," he replied, "I merely intend to collect on that."
"I see," Renelle nodded, "then what would you like as a reward?"
A smile immediately appeared on Adrian’s face as he answered,
"A date."