The Author's POV

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?

the magic

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

lines, I inwardly

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

*Tsk*

my smirking face from the side of her eyes, Melissa clicked her tongue

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

your threats? Either way,

with her chest moving up and down at a faster pace, Melissa slowly

seems that you're

threats, I proudly flaunted the fact that I was her partner over and over

do anything to me. Therefore, no matter what she said, it was all ignored by

for all the previous

you're salty you can't do anything to

"huuu..."

starting to regret making a deal with Ren...the limits of her patience were being tested with each passing

"What? I didn't he-"

stopped and looked towards the distance. After

as I would love to continue our conversation, it seems like

head around,

"Where?"

"There"

a group of five students appeared

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

Lutwik academy from

immediately able to guess

human domain and that directly faced the sea. Because they directly faced the sea and hence sea beasts,

rather than demons, they fully adapted themselves to the water, and from there they had made a

were weak in land warfare. No, rather, they were just as terrifying on land as they

line of sight was immediately drawn towards two members of the

and a

his eyes were bright,

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

before me had an aura of repulsion. Almost like as

Similar yet different.

nice to meet you, my name is Nicholas Leinfall and I come from Lutwik

hands towards Melissa and I as he introduced himself.

to the side and started

Claymore who here is also a first

close attention as I already knew the names of

Joshua Claymore, Ivan Dragovic, Lawrence Smith,

academy first years, the two that I had to pay close attention to

Although individually they were both strong, only when the

Nicholas with

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

specifically for twins...and most terrifying of all was that when the two worked together,

this is my

of my thoughts was Nichola's calm voice

Nicholas, everyone was neither arrogant nor overbearing. Even though Aerin

honestly, compared to young masters, I would

"He-"

my throat and just when I was about to introduce myself, to my bewilderment, I found

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

Melissa, Nicholas

"Likewise"

"..."

seeing correctly, I glanced at Melissa as