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 card

of the efforts we put in the project would go down the drain. After all, we were bound by

lines, I

Thus, I could pretty much do and say all I wanted without caring about the repercussions...well, that was unless I pushed her

*Tsk*

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

throat and feed it

too graphic with your threats? Either way, there's no way you're going

my taunts, with her chest moving up and down at

you're really

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

Melissa knew full well that she couldn't do anything to me. Therefore, no

for

salty you can't do anything to

"huuu..."

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

"What? I didn't he-"

stopped and looked towards the distance. After noticing something, with

as I would love to continue our conversation, it seems

her head around,

"Where?"

"There"

towards the distance, a group of five students appeared

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

must be from Lutwik academy from Park

their uniform I was immediately able to guess

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

they fully adapted themselves to the water, and from there they had made a name for themselves as the

because they specialized in water warfare didn't mean that they were weak in land warfare. No, rather, they were just

clearer, my line of sight was immediately

male and

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

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

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

Similar yet different.

is Nicholas Leinfall

I as he introduced himself. As he spoke his

a step to the side

Claymore who here is also a

I didn't pay close attention as I already knew the names of

Ivan Dragovic, Lawrence Smith, and Aerin Leinfall, Nicholas's twin

within the top 200 in our academy first years, the two that I had

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

reaper and Nicholas with his twin

two worked togheter, even Kevin would find it extremely difficult to beat them. In fact, there 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

this is my twin

was Nichola's calm

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

masters, I would take them any time of the

"He-"

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

meet you, my name is Melissa Hall and he's Ren Dover. I just wanted to say that we are

at Melissa, Nicholas

"Likewise"

"..."

make sure I was seeing correctly, I glanced