"Enough!"
A cold and stern female voice rang out. "A senior arcane master cutting such a sorry figure when faced with a freshman, our Divine Shield Academy can’t afford this shame. Apologize to him for what you said."
"What!"
Everyone followed the source of the voice and looked in that direction. They saw a girl standing on the net of wire fences on the tall walls surrounding Divine Shield Academy.
Each wire on the fence atop the academy’s perimeter walls was only half a finger thick. On top of that, they weren’t strung tight, but this girl stood very steadily on an iron wire, even looking as if she’d been watching for a long while.
This girl’s figure was somewhat tall and slender, her hair tied in a ponytail behind her. Her facial features were beautiful, but her face was covered in a stern and unwavering expression that was difficult to put into words. Matched together with the straight uniform of Divine Shield Academy, the feeling she gave off was that of a genuine female army officer overflowing with heroic spirit.
"Charlotte!"
"When did she come here!"
"That’s one of the main members of our Divine Shield Academy’s team, lady Charlotte?"
"Why do you call her lady Charlotte?"
"Because she’s already been knighted by clan Lannister, she’s already a formal member of an army in the western territories. She’ll certainly join an arcane team there in two years.
Ringel’s face was still full of violence when he turned around, even looking as if he were itching to brawl with the one who spoke. However, the murderous intent and violence vanished in a flash from his face at his first clear glance of this woman standing on the wall. His features turned incomparably pale.
"He’s the one who came to our Divine Shield Academy and challenged me. Charlotte, you’re actually telling me to apologize to him?"
He still couldn’t resist shouting at the girl on the wall however, "The opponent came knocking at our door but we have to beg him for forgiveness instead? Won’t that be a shame when the word spreads to other academies!"
The heroic girl called Charlotte vanished from the wall, her silhouette appearing not far away behind him in a flash.
"He only came to challenge you because you spoke insulting words about Chris, isn’t it?"
"You have to remember something. The fame of an academy isn’t something decided by someone like you, by a couple scuffles like this. It’s decided by people like Chris, by the academy’s team, by these battles they fight, and these people going out of the school on truly dangerous missions."
"A senior student of Divine Shield Academy like you, someone who can already condense arcane particles, got knocked down by a freshman from Holy Dawn Academy, beaten into such a corner. You’ve already lost."
A cold layer of frost seemed to envelop Charlotte’s face. Her gaze locked onto Ringel like a sharp sword. "Hurry up and apologize!"
Ringel lowered his head. He didn’t dare say anything else.
The ambience stilled for several seconds. Then he opened his mouth and said, "Sorry."
"This girl called Charlotte is a member of team Divine Shield?"
"She’s actually been knighted by clan Lannister already… Only those battlemasters who have the capacity to carry out dangerous missions and complete them can gain clan Lannister’s favors."
Moss looked blankly at Charlotte. He could already ascertain that this girl was one of the members of team Divine Shield through the whispers of the Divine Shield students around him. He didn’t know why, but, although this good-looking girl didn’t give him the same kind of terrifying pressure like Stingham or Ferguillo, he still had the feeling Charlotte’s body was abnormally heavy.
"If you dare say it again in the future, I’ll hit you again!" Ayrin said when he saw Ringel’s apology, almost unable to stand upright. Then he glanced at the wall Charlotte had hopped down from, then looked again at Charlotte. "You’re a pretty good person, very powerful. Mm. Also very beautiful."
Charlotte hadn’t thought Ayrin would say something like this. A strange blush suddenly floated on her healthy skin the color of wheat.
"You’re called Ayrin? A freshman from Holy Dawn Academy?" She asked Ayrin, looking at him.
"Yes." Ayrin heaved rough breaths while watching her. "You’re a member of team Divine Shield? I’ll definitely join Holy Dawn Academy’s team as well in the future, then I’ll defeat you."
"What a strange guy."
Charlotte blinked. Seeing Ayrin’s completely serious appearance, she let out a rare proud smile. "Alright then. If it’s possible, then we’ll see each other again in the tournament."
"Ok. I’m going!"
Ayrin nodded very straightforwardly at Charlotte, then turned around and walked away.
"His momentum and resistance to blows are both very stunning… His improvement during battle is also very stunning, what on earth is this strange guy’s bloodline?"
Charlotte’s brows creased when she saw that Ayrin was unexpectedly still able to walk back on his own. A startled expression that couldn’t be concealed flashing inside her eyes.
"Hey! Your fifty kebabs!" the thirty-something barbecue shop owner shouted, coming back to his senses when Ayrin’s silhouette was soon about to disappear from this street.
Ayrin didn’t turn his head back, he merely waved his hand, and said as if it were an everyday occurrence, "Keep them for now. I didn’t win this time, I can’t eat them yet. I’ll eat them next time."
"I already grilled them, how can I keep them, why are you doing this!" Tears immediately filled the shop owner’s face.
…
"You’re still using that reckless fighting style, trading blow for blow… But at the very least, it’s effective since you can still stand."
"You were actually able to force such a fast arcane master into such a situation, and on top of that you can even walk away on you own. What kind of monster are you."
Leaving the street outside Divine Shield Academy, following behind Ayrin and thinking back to the successive scenes from just earlier, watching Ayrin’s back in front of him, Moss started to feel a little adoration for him.
In front of him, the Ayrin who still seemed to be brimming with fighting spirit suddenly yelled, "Moss!"
"What?" Moss curiously stopped, just as he was starting to feel more and more adoration for Ayrin.
"Ouch, hurry up and come help me walk." Ayrin leaned his seemingly convulsing body against him and kept sucking in cold breaths. "I’m done I’m done, I have cramps everywhere, I can’t continue playing cool anymore."
"That very powerful appearance when you came out of Divine Shield Academy was all for show?" Moss suddenly turned to stone.
"Of course. Even if I can’t walk anymore, I still can’t let the opponent see. You have to make the opponent think you’re powerful in any case, so they’ll be afraid of you in the future, am I right or not?" Puffing nonstop in pain, Ayrin still kept talking. "I probably have a lot of cracked bones. I’ve been beaten to such a state, persevering until now’s already pretty good."
"…" Moss was a little speechless. But then he thought about it a little, and still indeed felt very admirative of Ayrin.
As he supported Ayrin on their way back to Holy Dawn Academy, Ayrin suddenly said, "It’s a little strange."
From his body and bones right now, what Ayrin felt was countless tiny bone cracks. His every muscle seemed out of control under the unbearable stabs of pain that sank deep into the marrow. No matter how he tried to control them, the most he could achieve was to persevere and not pass out. He was thoroughly unable to move normally. But he also felt that, on top of his head, where a door seemed to have faintly appeared back after his Awakening, that door seemed now open, some tiny particles now appearing inside, glittering like little stars. They even gave him a very powerful feeling.
"What’s strange?" Moss immediately asked, his head lowered as he watched his steps.
"Say, did I condense arcane particles?" Ayrin looked at him, uncertain. Their eyes met, staring into each other. "Why do I feel like a door opened on top of my head, and many tiny particles appeared inside?"
"What!" Moss’ body twitched, immediately tossing Ayrin away.
"Ah, go easy!"
Ayrin almost fell on the ground right there.
"You can feel a door opening on top of your head?" Moss looked at Aryin as if he were looking at a monster, his whole body stiffening a little as he said, "There are seven places that can store primordial arcane particles inside the body. The brain near the top of the head is indeed the first arcane gate. In the world of arcane masters, its distinct appellation is the ‘Gate of Essence Perception!’ You’re really not joking with me?"
"Would I pick a time like this to joke?" Hurting so bad his tears were on the verge of flowing uncontrollably down, Ayrin told Moss hurry up and support me, while also saying, "I’m indeed feeling that this first arcane gate seems open, and there are things inside."
"That’s absolutely impossible!"
Moss calmed down ever a little and shouted, "Even if a fight like this really made you progress so much, caused your body and spiritual strength to break through the limit, even if your body and spiritual strength reached the required stage to condense arcane particles, you still need to go through some training and unique methods before you can compress and condense arcane particles. It’s impossible to just naturally generate arcane particles during battle."
"That sounds about right."
Ayrin thought carefully for a while. It seemed teacher Ciaran had also explained to him in details back then that bodies and spiritual strengths were like workshops producing arcane particles. When the workshop wasn’t operating, wasn’t producing arcane particles, arcane particles would absolutely not be created on their own.
He couldn’t resist rubbing his head and said, "But it really feels different compared to before. Before I could only hazily feel something where the first arcane gate is. It seemed like a door but didn’t truly feel like a door either. Now there’s something there that seems like a door connecting the inside of my body with the arcane power outside."
"Impossible. Even those geniuses who can open two arcane gates as soon as they Awaken can’t immediately condense arcane particles."
Moss could tell Ayrin wasn’t playing a prank on him. He was increasingly shocked, increasingly incredulous. In the end he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He immediately let go of Ayrin and started to run. "You go back to Holy Dawn Academy first. I’m going to run back home and get the dwarven indexing tool first, see if your spiritual strength truly reaches the standard for condensing arcane particles or not."
"Do you have any humanity left or what, why did you toss me here. Good or bad you should first help me back to Holy Dawn Academy before anything else!"
Ayrin shouted gloomily, abandoned alone in the corner of the streets. Moss had long run away and disappeared however, his heart seized by an inexplicable shock.
