The sun slowly rose from the horizon, and Ashton City, more specifically, the Lock, basked in the warmth of the sun.

Standing at the entrance of the academy, enjoying the warmth that came from the sun, I glanced towards my right where a beautiful young girl stood.

Currently, Melissa and I were waiting at the northern entrance of the academy. According to Donna's instructions, we would soon meet students coming from one of the four great academies.

Our job was to greet them and bring them around the campus to familiarize themselves with the place. Although I wasn't sure about which academy they were from or who they were, that didn't really matter.

During the past month, I didn't stand idle.

Having learned my lesson from the situation at the Manticore building, after being made aware of the student exchange, I immediately memorized every single profile of the students that were coming to the Lock.

Regardless of the academy, be it big or small characters, I memorized everyone's profiles. Took me a while, but I forced myself to do it.

...I wasn't going to let something similar to the Manticore building situation happen again. From that point on, I learned that I needed to be prepared for everything. Instead of being unaware of what was to come in the future, it was better to proactively seek information beforehand to avoid being caught off-guard and thus lose composure.

On the topic of the dorm situation, for the past month and a half, all I did was observe.

Having learned a lot of lessons with regards to scheming and planning, I knew that haste made waste.

Therefore, I chose to observe them carefully. From their routines, behavioral patterns...everything. I made sure to engrave and memorize every little detail of their lives without missing a beat.

With the aid of Angelica's cat form, I was able to acquire a lot of information..and thanks to her, I could now finally say that they could be eliminated anytime I wished.

With my plans now completed, all that I needed to do was execute them.

But now was still not the right time. After a bit of thought, I had decided to set the pieces in motion after I came back from Immorra.

Since I was going to go there in a week's time, there was no need to overburden myself right now to get rid of them.

...after all, they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. They were merely sitting ducks from my perspective. All I needed to do was pull the trigger and everything would come toppling down.

They were no longer a priority for me.

Either way, those problems aside, I was now presented with another more annoying problem.

Glancing at Melissa who was standing next to me, trying to break the awkward silence that was between us, I asked.

"...so, how's your day going Melissa?"

Hearing my question, without hesitation Melissa responded

"Shit"

"Why's that?"

Looking at me as if I was an idiot, Melissa rhetorically said

"Do you even need to ask why?"

Frowning, I placed my hand on my chin as I pretended to fall into deep thought.

"Mhh, is it perhaps because it's too sunny outside? Understandable, girls like you want to kee-"

"Shut up"

Being told to shut up, I pretended to be offended as I once again reminded her about the fact that I was now her business partner.

"Rude, don't forget that you're now talking to your business partner"

If before I was scared of Melissa because of her influence and sadistic personality, I no longer had a reason to be scared.

Why?

Because of the magic card business

...now that we were partners if anything happened to me all of the efforts we put in the project would go down the drain. After all, we were bound by a contract now.

Thinking along those lines, I inwardly chuckled.

There was no longer a need for me to fear Melissa. Thus, I could pretty much do and say all I wanted without caring about the repercussions...well, that was unless I pushed her too far. If that happened, well let's just say that things wouldn't go well for me.

*Tsk*

Glancing at my smirking face from the side of her eyes, Melissa clicked her tongue as she said

"Speak one more word and I'll skin your throat and feed it to the homeless people outside of the academy"

"I say, aren't you a little bit too graphic with your threats? Either way, there's no way you're going to hurt your business partner right?"

Hearing my taunts, with her chest moving up and down at a faster pace, Melissa slowly spat

"...it seems that you're really asking for it"

Ignoring Melissa's threats, I proudly flaunted the fact that I was her partner over and over again.

Given how much value this project was worth, Melissa knew full well that she couldn't do anything to me. Therefore, no matter what she said, it was all ignored by me.

This was revenge for all the previous abuse.

"Don't tell me you're salty you can't do anything to me anymore"

"huuu..."

Taking a deep breath, Melissa tried her best to suppress her rage. She was now starting to regret making a deal with Ren...the limits of her patience were being tested with each passing second. If not for her rationality still taking over her mind, she would've already done something about him.

"What? I didn't he-"

Just as I was about to tease Melissa again, I suddenly stopped and looked towards the distance. After noticing something, with a tinge of regret, I said

"...as much as I would love to continue our conversation, it seems like our guests have arrived"

Turning her head around, Melissa asked

"Where?"

"There"

Pointing towards the distance, a group of five students appeared on the other side of the street.

Squirting my eyes to get a better look at them from the distance, the first thing I noticed was their uniforms which were dyed in white with the lapel of their blazers striped in blue.

"...They must be from Lutwik academy from Park city"

Noticing the color of their uniform I was immediately able to guess the identity of the students that were coming in our direction.

Lutwik academy from Park city, the city that defended the east side of the human domain and that directly faced the sea. Because they directly faced the sea and hence sea beasts, they specialized in water warfare rather than land warfare.

With them constantly fighting against sea beasts rather than demons, they fully adapted themselves to the water, and from there they had made a name for themselves as the east guardians.

Still, just because they specialized in water warfare didn't mean that they were weak in land warfare. No, rather, they were just as terrifying on land as they were on the water.

As the figures of the students became clearer, my line of sight was immediately drawn towards two members of the group.

A male and a female.

The male had a large stature and short platinum-colored hair with curly sideburns. Both his eyes were bright, and his entire body was emitting a boundless power that reminded me of Jin's.

Next to him was a young girl who similarly to the boy, had platinum blonde hair that gently fell all the way to her back. She had big deep sea-blue eyes and clean white skin devoid of any imperfections. With a silver reaper hanging on her waist, the girl had a rather cold and unapproachable demenour.

...almost like Amanda. However, differently from Amanda who seemed as though she had walls preventing people from getting near her, the girl before me had an aura of repulsion. Almost like as if she was saying 'don't you dare come near me or I'll kill you'

Similar yet different.

"Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Nicholas Leinfall and I come from Lutwik academy from Park city"

Arriving before us, the male extended his hands towards Melissa and I as he introduced himself. As he spoke his voice was calm and composed, neither arrogant nor overbearing.

Pausing, Nicholas took a step to the side and started introducing the others

"These here are Joshua Claymore who here is also a first year...."

As Nicholas started introducing everyone present, I didn't pay close attention as I already knew the names of everyone present.

Nicholas Leinfall, Joshua Claymore, Ivan Dragovic, Lawrence Smith, and Aerin Leinfall, Nicholas's twin sister.

Although they were all each pretty strong individuals that could rank within the top 200 in our academy first years, the two that I had to pay close attention to were the Leinfall twins also known as the 'Silvermoon twins'

A formidable first-year duo that respectively took the first and second place in their first-year rankings. Although individually they were both strong, only when the duo worked together would they become extremely scary.

Aerin with her reaper and Nicholas with his twin short swords.

When the two worked togheter, even Kevin would find it extremely difficult to beat them. In fact, there was a chance he could lose too. That was because of their sword art.

They both each practiced a four-star sword art...however, what made that art special was that it was made specifically for twins...and most terrifying of all was that when the two worked together, their sword art's might could even rival that of a five-star sword art. Frightening.

"...and last but not least this is my twin sister Aerin Leinfall"

Snapping me out of my thoughts was Nichola's calm voice as he finished introducing everyone.

Overall, as I observed everyone before me, I had a good impression of them. Just like Nicholas, everyone was neither arrogant nor overbearing. Even though Aerin was cold, she didn't look down on everyone and it could be seen that her coldness was just her natural demenour.

...they were somewhat quiet, but honestly, compared to young masters, I would take them any time of the day.

"He-"

Clearing my throat and just when I was about to introduce myself, to my bewilderment, I found Melissa approaching them with an amiable and gentle smile on her face as she introduced herself.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Melissa Hall and he's Ren Dover. I just wanted to say that we are glad you guys came all the way here to this academy and hope that you will enjoy your stay here"

Smiling at Melissa, Nicholas shook her hand.

"Likewise"

"..."

Blinking a couple of times to make sure I was seeing correctly, I glanced at Melissa as the gears of my mind stopped working for a second.

...what was going on?

Was this the Melissa I knew?

Where did the Melissa that abused people with words go? Was she okay? Did I perhaps tease her a bit too much?

As millions of questions emerged in my mind, I suddenly felt everyone staring in my direction. Noticing this, with an awkward smile on my face, I waved at them.

"Y-yeah, nice to meet you"

Staring at me from the corner of my eyes, I soon noticed Melissa's lips curl upwards as she smirked.

Noticing this, my eyes shot wide open as the veins on my head bulged.

...this bitch did it on purpose.

She deliberately did this to confuse me and use this as an opportunity to make me look stupid.

I see...no wonder she acted so differently.

Crossing my arms as I secretly clenched my teeth, I secretly swore to myself to get back at her.

"Alright, please follow me, Ren, and I will introduce you to the campus so that you can familiarize yourselves with this place and thus not get lost in the future"

Taking pleasure in my expression, with a faint smile on her face, Melissa triumphantly turned around and led the way towards the entrance of the academy.

Smiling, Nicholas looked at his group and nodded his head at Melissa.

"That would be great"

...and thus, following Melissa, we took the tour of the campus.

As we walked, Melissa did most of the talking as she went through the rules and the layout of the academy. On small occasions, I would add a few things here and there just to get myself involved in the conversation...but most of the stuff I said went to deaf ears as it wasn't really important information.

We explained about the different sections in the academy and also told them in detail about the rules of the academy such as no fighting and stuff like that...not that people actually followed the rules, but that was what was written so we just mentioned it.

After a while, as we were walking and had pretty much toured most of the campus, recalling something, I proposed

"How about we got to the arena grounds in section G?"

Raising her brow, Melissa looked at me as she skeptically said

"Section G?"

Glancing at my watch, I proceeded to nod my head as I said

"Yeah, if I'm not wrong...a good show is about to happen"

Turning his attention to me, Nicholas curiously asked

"What good show?"

Still staring at my watch, and trying my best to recall something, my eyes soon lit up as I nodded my head repeatedly.

"...yup, yup, there's definitely a show that we shouldn't miss"

I wasn't lying when I saw a good show was awaiting us.

With the time skip ending around here, from what I remembered writing in the novel, at around this moment in time, Kevin should be at the arena ground fighting against one of the top students from Theodora academy.

The academy that was filled with arrogant young masters.

...I didn't need to explain what happened did I?

It was pretty obvious. With the people from Theodora academy being famous for their arrogance, it wasn't strange for Kevin to get into an altercation with one of them.

...and thus, a really good show where Kevin was going to pummel his opponent was going to happen. Glancing at my watch, I urged everyone to follow me.

"If we hurry up we can make it in time"

There was no way I was going to miss such a good show.