A middle-aged man with short white hair and beard. He had white fox ears and tails. He was the principal of the Ladro Institute, Azrim.

Standing in front of him was Bargan and the other teachers of the first year.

Azrim looked at them and opened his mouth. "So how is it?" He asked.

Bargan stepped forward and placed a stock of paper files on the table in front of Azrim.

"Another unusual student showed unbelievable strength," Bargan said.

Azrim looked at it the paper files and picked one file. He read it before he looked at Bargan.

"Souta Ieshi? He's from your class. What can you say about him?"

"He's like Yanagi Shina when she first showed here in our institute. He dominated the special test and fought several rankers at the same time." Bargan replied to Azrim.

"He fought several rankers at the same time? If it's true then he's like her. Fighting several rankers of the first year and could still win." Azrim rubbed his beard. He smiled and added, "The next special test is not limited to year level. It will become a fight between the lower year and higher year. If he still dominated the second year then he's really like her."

Azrim then looked at the other teachers and asked, "What can you say about him?"

Jess, the teacher of the Sword Class 1-A, stepped forward and said, "Just like what Bargan said that Souta is really like Yanagi. He is also brutal to his opponent and didn't have any hesitation to do it."

Yanagi Shina was the current top 1 ranker in the whole institute. It means that she was the strongest student here. She enrolled in the institute two years ago. Back then, she also didn't show interest towards the ranking battles. Her rank back then was lower than Souta.

But in the special test, she showed her power. She brutally beat the rankers alone. It was then that her name shook the entire institute. Since then, she showed an interest in the second year students. She challenged them and brutally beat those senior of hers. She even caused some of the students to drop out of the institute because of fear towards her.

She continued to grow stronger and beat everyone until she becomes the top 1 ranker of the whole institute. A lot of students feared her and isolated her because of this.

In the Grand Tournament, she showed her overwhelming power in front of the whole kingdom and beat the students from other schools, academy, and institute. After that, various nobles proposed marriage to her, even the 5th prince of the kingdom wanted to take her hand.

But the thing that happened next was out of everyone's expectations.

It was then that she was called the strongest student of Ladro Institute in history.

"I understand." Azrim nodded then he asked, "Do you have the orb of the battle?"

"Yes, it's here." Bargan nodded and placed a palm-size black orb on the table.

Azrim took the black orb and looked at it for a while. After a few seconds, he placed it down and asked, "What about his background?"

"Still unknown. We don't know where he came from." Bargan replied.

"Hmm... Just like Yanagi, huh?" Azrim said as he rubbed his beard.

One of the teachers stepped forward and said, "Principal, Yanagi Shina, snuck in the special test area to watch the first year."

"That happened?" Azrim looked at the teacher that said those words.

"Yes, Principal. I saw it too. It seems that she's interested in one of the first-year students." Jess also said.

"That girl..." Azrim sighed and he rubbed his temples. "That girl is at it again and who's the fortunate individual?"

"Hmm... I can't think of a person that fitted her." Jess said.

"I think that it's Souta," Bargan said.

"Really?" Jess looked at Bargan with a surprised expression.

"Yeah, I saw her in the mini-tournament watching Souta's match." Bargan looked at Jess and said.

"If that's true then it will become a problem." Azrim turned around looked at the window. "His strength is currently not enough to defend against her, so I want you all to use anything that you have to stop Yanagi in case she take action."

"Yes." Bargan and the rest of the teachers nodded their heads at his words. They wouldn't let Yanagi approach Souta this soon. They don't want him to meet the same ends as those people. He showed potential and they wouldn't let her broke him.

Azrim nodded and took another paper file. He looked at it and he opened his mouth. "Randolf Fein? Another one from your class? What about him?"

"He defeated the top 3 ranker with one strike. His current strength is still unknown to us. But I could say that he's as strong as Souta or maybe stronger than him." Bargan said.

"Hmm... Another one." Azrim nodded and looked at the picture of Randolf in the paper file.

...

Souta and Bryan arrived in front of Lumilia's apartment.

"Hello, Lumilia!" Bryan said while knocking on the door.

Lumilia went home first. She didn't go together with Souta and Bryan because she said that she wanted to clean her room first. Souta thought that it was natural so he agreed to her without hesitation. If he's coming to her apartment it's natural that she should clean it first before she let him inside.

"I'm coming." A voice of a girl sounded beside the door. The girl sounded happy and excited at the same time.

Souta and Bryan looked at each other. They were familiar to this voice, so they instantly guessed the owner of the voice.

After a few moments, they heard the sound of unlocking the door and it slowly opened. From inside, a small girl peeked outside. When the girl saw Souta and Bryan, she flashed a bright smile.

"Brother Souta and Brother Bryan!" She sounded happy at first but it changed when she saw their wounds. "W-What happened?"

Bryan was about to say something when Cluster quickly rushed inside the room saying, "Sister Mila! Brother Bryan and Brother Souta are injured!!"

"She's just surprised..." Souta smiled at this and he opened the door. He removed his shoes and went inside the room.

"O-Okay." Bryan nodded and he also removed his shoes before he entered the room.

The two of them grew closer to Cluster because almost every day the two of them visited her in the past two months. Although they got closer, Souta could feel that she was still hiding something from him. And that was her background.

...

Lumilia walked out of her room and saw that Souta and Bryan were already inside. She was wearing casual clothes and not her usual uniform.

"Look, Sister Mila, Brother Bryan and Brother Souta are injured." Cluster said as she pointed her finger at Souta and Bryan's injury.

"You're talking about this?" Souta smiled and he lifted up his left hand which was covered in bandages. "I fought a lot of strong people in the institute. We needed to defeat a lot of people in our special test, so I have to fight them."

"That's right, it was exciting!" Bryan said with a hint of excitement in his voice. "I wanted to fight them again."

"Then, why isn't Sister Mila injured?" Cluster tilted her head slightly and asked.

Bryan looked at Lumilia and wondered why she wasn't injured.

Souta looked at Cluster and said, "It's simple. Do you want to know?"

"Yes, yes." Cluster nodded her head.

"Yeah, yeah." Bryan also nodded his head.

"It's because she's weak. I protected her in the special test. I defeated a lot of strong people so that those people wouldn't come to her." Souta said with a smile on his face. He then looked at Lumilia. "Right?"

Lumilia's mouth twitched when she heard this. She wanted to rebut but she remembered that Souta was powerful and her strength was nothing to him, so she shut her mouth.

"Is that right?" Bryan looked at Lumilia and asked with confusion. He thought that Lumilia was strong because she's the leader of the class.

"No, that's not it. Don't listen to what he says." Lumilia sighed and said. She then turned around and went into the kitchen. "What do you want? Tea or coffee?"

"Tea!!" Cluster said as she lifted up her hand.

"Tea!!" Bryan said as he raised his hand above his head.

"Coffee..." Souta said as he stood up and patted his clothes. He followed Lumilia in the kitchen while thinking about something that happened in the special test.