"Hey, you listening.." Bernhardt said as he shook Rio's shoulder, bringing him back from the trip down horror lane.
Rio opened his eyes, and instantly the sky that was dark red in color haunting him, cleared up and turned to bright blue again. Looking around he noticed he was lying on the rooftop of academy class buildings, their private place.
"Your sister and mine, were looking everywhere for you, saying they needed you for so kind of ga match." Bernhardt said and helped him sit straight. "What kind of dream were you having, your whole mana was just…"
Hearing his words and seeing him showing handsign for an explosion, Rio raised his eyebrows and touched the floor filled with cracks spreading everywhere like spider webs. "Sorry." He said and waved his hand and everything returned back to normal.
"Are you okay?" Bernhardt asked and added. "You know you can tell anything, right!!"
Hearing it, Rio just chuckled and snapped his fingers, as a gust of wind cooled down his body and cleared off all the sweat he'd been drowning in. "I'm fine." He said.
Bernhardt looked at him for a few seconds and then shook his head. After a few monts of silence, he looked up at the sky and said. "I dream about it too, sotis. You know, the dungeon, the deaths, Dahlia."
Hearing his words Rio turned his face in surprise and looked at him. To know this was the first ti he had heard him ntion Dahlia's na ever since he ca back from the dungeon. Even when he asked him if He wanted to join him to visit her grave in the fairy forests, the guy just stayed silent and said nothing.
Ignoring the surprised look of Rio, Bernhardt kept speaking. "I would dream of what happened, and then think about what could've happened if we never entered that dungeon. How different our lives could've been."
"Bernhardt…"
"But there's nothing we can do about it now. She's gone and that's it. lanting on past and thinking about it, won't change a thing." Bernhardt said in a serious tone.
"Wouldn't it?" Rio asked and added, "If you were to drive a sword right through Alfred's heart, wouldn't that make it a little bit better."
Hearing Rio's words Bernhardt stopped for a second, as he imagined the scene, but then he just shook his head and smiled self deprecatingly. "I've long given up on impossible dreams, my friend. We can't change the world we live in."
"Then I will just _ _"
Rio was about to say that he'll just burn it all to the ground, but Bernhardt interrupted him, "I'm really glad that you're back, Rio. That's why I think it'd be a sha to lose you again. Don't let what happened in that dungeon define you. You still have everything left."
Hearing his words Rio didn't know what to say, so he could just smile and slam his shoulder. "Idiot."
"Hey, I was being all nice and kind, so that was totally uncalled for." Bernhardt said, massaging his shoulder, his words only making him smile more.
"You know what, I miss her too." Rio said as he stood up and looked around at the academy and students, which looked so small from up there.
It was a place Dahlia had accidently found, when she was training her flying magic two years ago. A place where he used to co with everyone, whenever they bunked a class or wanted to hide and go late just to tease or annoy so teacher.
This place was special, as it was theirs, away from everyone and everything, sothing filled with just the most perfect and happiest mories of his previous academy ti.
Even more for Bernie , as this is where he proposed to Dahlia and got his first kiss.
That's why the fact that he nearly destroyed it due to his dreams and inner darkness was just making him aggrieved.
Shaking all his thoughts away, he rembered sothing and turned to Bernhardt. "So what kind of ga are they playing?" He said, walking to the edge of the rooftop.
"About that..." Bernhardt's face suddenly turned serious and he walked close to him and told him what he heard.
Turns out his old classmates who were bound by academy's rules till now, finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to act against him openly this ti.
A class match for first year students against the final years.
And the ga these seniors suggested was sothing called Ragball. A stupid ripoff rger of rugby and baseball.
The match is to take place in air, where two teams would be divided and spread into their moving courts in open sky.
The courts here took a little inspiration from football and golf, where to win, the teams would have to track the ball and pass it into the small holes inside their courts. Obviously as football there was a guy similar to a goalkeeper guarding the post to block for points.
It's a 15v15 ga that lasts for 3 rounds with each ga ending with the first team reaching 25 points. Two rounds of victory secures you a win.
Ragball is one of the most brutal and fun gas allowed under the academy walls. Fun, cause the teams were restricted from using their mana and aura at all, and victory just depended on physical strength and skill alone. And brutal, as you could literally wave your bat and beat the crap out of your opponent openly with no sha.
"Alfred, I guess." Rio said after hearing about the ga challenge.
"No, it was Pandya and Millie actually." Bernhardt replied, shaking his head as Rio looked at him in surprise, in response he just shrugged his shoulders, silently saying 'I don't know, man.'
"So what excuse did they pick?" Rio said curiously. Since they prepared a ga like this they would have to have an excuse that could pull him and other 14 people in.
"There was so kind of conflict with Rebecca and Millie, but then Amy chid in, and then one thing to another and things escalated to this." Bernhardt replied, not going into details about how their old fat room partner tried to attack Amy but was stopped by him at the last mont.
Cause he knew, if this guy learned about that, then the academy wouldn't even find the corpse of that fat pig tomorrow morning.
Rio obviously didn't notice anything and focused on other things. "Who's the supervisor?"
"Professor Hakan."
"That fucker." Rio said with a tinge of displeasure in his voice.
"Yeah, so you better be careful." Bernhardt suggested, rembering how professor Hakan's son, who was in a team with them for a training mission, was killed by so 'monsters' in an accident. His corpse never found for any burial or inspection, as it was eaten whole.
"He'll try to get in your way, or tip the scales to annoy you, so just be chill, okay." Bernhardt said, but Rio just shook his head in response.
"He's the one who needs to be careful. These dreams of mine, they ss up my whole anger managent system." He finished his words, and jumped down the roof.
After a few seconds of free falling, a pair of white feathered angelic wings appeared on his back and with a flap of those, his figure turned into a flash of light and flew away, causing bursts of exclamation from the students gathered below.
"Show off." Bernhardt sneered seeing his appearance as 'angel' and jumped down too. His figure turning into a streak of blue lightning, leaving a purple streak of sparks circling the air behind him.
By the ti Rio and Bernhardt reached the open grounds where gas were taking place, a challenge between first years and third years was already getting started. Rio raised his eyebrow and landed in the crowd, his wings disappearing in light particles, as the crowd parted and gave way for him.
After asking a few guys standing around, he finally learned the news about what happened, and couldn't help but shake his head afterwards.
Sohow our protagonist managed to pull the aggro of so seniors who wanted to tease him about the rumors of being a pervert and a rapist.
Though Apollo's minion elder ca forward to clear his na and closed the case legally, but his participation had highlighted the matter and now the whole academy knew about it. After all, it's not everyday when one of the higher ranking staff cos forward for small incidents like these.
(And as the world is, people say and believe what they want to or what's useful to them. Leon being innocent is no fun for anyone, him being a crazy criminal on the other hand, now that's great gossip and interesting. So here we are.)
Before things got heated up between the bullies and our protagonist, a wandering instructor popped out and saved the poor guy.
And as anyone who read more than one cliche novel can guess, the small minions who failed, felt insulted over nothing and went back to fill the ears of a new bigger villain.
In this case, the minion were those bullies and the villain was Nexus Vaidya.
The brother of Sunaina Vaidya, the heroine who was accompanying Leon at that ti and according to rumors got quite a close relationship with recently.
"Trouble magnets," Rio chuckled and ignored their match and started walking towards the place where Amy and others were awaiting him.
'Since you guys have started causing trouble, I should cause a little chaos too.' Rio said as his perception found his old buddies floating in front.
'The whole ordeal with trip down mory lane really flared up my mind, fucking them up should calm down a little.'
[Just tone down their torture a little bit. We're open in public after all.]
"We'll just call it angelic punishnt then. When God gets angry, he smites."
[Rip]
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