"He won every single battle…!"
"Undefeated…"
"He's so cool…"
A wave of murmurs swept over the gossiping students of the apprentice program. The girls giggled as they stole glances at him with coy eyes, bundling together as they whispered to each other excitedly as Cæ won every single battle, one after another.
Several different cliques of girls began buzzing about his arena enthusiastically as they stole glances, blushing every single time he glanced at the conspicuous girls stalking his every battle.
Strangely enough, a greater majority of the girls happened to be upper-class girls.
The hostility that he had garnered from the upper-class students from the very first day, even before the academic year even began, was in sharp contrast to the infatuations of adolescent girls who began obsessing over his every battle.
They knew they were supposed to dislike him.
They knew that they were supposed to stay away from him as someone from the slums.
And yet, the heart of a maiden could not be trapped by the shackles of class.
The more they knew that they shouldn't, the more they couldn't help but grow ever more attracted to him.
It wasn't just the students, even Professor Lioxin couldn't help but grow fixated on him as they watched him battle.
For different reasons, of course.
'He's strong,' her eyes lit up with delight. 'His movements lack the refinement of training, but his combat is extremely fluid. The kind of fluidity that one can only achieve with lots and lots of practical experience.'
The slums were not a forgiving place.
Brawls and fights were a daily reality.
Cæ hadn't seen even the tiniest speck of training of any kind. He hadn't even been taught how to throw a punch perfectly. And yet, he had thrown countless punches in his entire life.
'Still…' she gazed at him with genuine amazement, 'battles without magic are not comparable to magical battles. How is he this good at combat magic?'
Out of all the reasons she had considered, none were even remotely close to the truth.
She couldn't have even remotely imagined that he was a pure mage.
Regardless of why he was this strong, what mattered most to her was that he was indeed this strong after merely three months of training. His combat magic potential and talent were endless as far as she was concerned.
'I have found a gem,' her eyes lit up with a flicker of excitement. 'I have found a powerful weapon for the Colohen Branch in the next Magic Contest at the Mana Festival.'
The Mana Festival was a festival celebrated in Elendir and several other nations on the Gruonia Continent once every three years. The Magic Contest was a tournament held across the entire nation featuring all the magicademies in the entire country. They would be amassed in an enormous contest of the best talents in the entire nation and have them compete with their magic.
It served as a platform for students to display their talents in combat magic and also several other fields of magic.
The winners naturally gained tremendous benefits, from guaranteed career success to a wide variety of lucrative offers from many interest groups, industries, and powerhouses that were all embroiled in a silent war for talent.
Even simply performing well and making a name for oneself gave one a bright future as a mage.
The competition, however, extended beyond just the students and also encompassed magicacademies.
The thirteen branches of the Elendir Institute of Magic were not friends.
No, if anything, they were rivals who fiercely fought each other for prestige and credit. Performances in the Magic Contest often translated to better talents and more funding. That was why each branch of the Elendir Institute of Magic was constantly scouring its student body carefully for any hidden gems.
It was why Headmistress Lenolia had sought to try and use Cæ as political capital to extend their talent acquisitions into the slums so that they could tap into the untapped magical potential.
In Cæ's case, he wasn't a hidden gem but an open, well-known gem.
He was ranked number two on the magic aptitude test and was the highest ranking student in the entire magicademy.
He was just an even greater asset to the institute than any of them had ever anticipated.
'I must ensure that he is trained thoroughly so that he will be able to ensure that the Colohen Branch wins this time.'
And thus, Professor Lioxin resolved to grind him hard in special combat training. With his vast experience in combat, even if not magical, she could easily get him to become more adept at combat.
"Please go out with me."
Professor Lioxin broke out of a reverie as a prominent voice echoed across the entire combat training hall. A wave of shocked and excited murmurs spread across the students who beheld what had just unfolded with stunned expressions.
They all gazed at the girl who stood before Cæ, gazing straight into his eyes with a serious expression.
It was none other than Melia.
The first student he had fought and defeated in the combat training hall.
The chatter among students only grew as Cæ simply gazed at her with a hint of confusion in his stoic gray eyes.
She had just asked him out in front of the entirety of the batch of students.
"…"
Cæ wasn't even sure what to make of her.
She was serious, but she didn't have any of the bashful embarrassment that one would expect from a teenage girl asking out a boy. It was bizarre, making him even more skeptical of her intentions.
Regardless of if she was sincere or not, the answer didn't change.
She was eighteen.
"No."
He plainly rejected her advance before moving past her, much to the disappointment of the excited students.
"Reconsider."
Her tone was not friendly.
The air grew a little tense as Cæ slowly turned around.
A chilling intensity lingered in the depths of his dichromatic gray eyes, one that caused the girl to flinch where she stood.
"I-I must insist!"
She stood her ground despite her obvious fear of him.
"…Excuse me?"
His tone was sharp.
"Please go out with me!" Melia almost begged him as she lowered her head, her black hair flailing messily at the hasty movement.
Cæ frowned at the girl's unwillingness to back off.
He knew that there were some adolescents who grew overzealous with their infatuations with one another.
However, there was something different to her tone.
This was no hint of affection, the desperation of her pleas.
"…What's this about?" Cæ narrowed his eyes. "This isn't about a date, is it?"
"…Please."
Cæ considered the options.
He could easily reject her then and there and simply move on with his life.
But his cold, calculating side told him that it was worth listening to what this girl had to say.
She was rich.
If she had something to offer that included even a fraction of all the wealth in her name, he was inclined to at least give it consideration. He didn't even mind playing along with certain nonsense if it promised returns worth it.
Of course, there were lines he wasn't willing to cross.
Regardless, he made his decision quickly after weighing the pros and the cons.
"Alright," he replied. "I accept."
Her eyes lit up. "…Thank you. Then, I will send you the details at a later date."
She skipped away with a hum, evidently pleased that her little attempt to drag him into whatever she had in mind had worked.
He simply heaved a sigh as he shook his head, turning around as he spotted the students averting their gaze with a hint of nervousness as if they hadn't been listening in on every word that the two of them had exchanged.
Yet, he didn't miss the fact that, in recent times, the students of the apprentice program had begun slowly treating him differently.
The visceral contempt and hatred had reduced, much to his surprise.
He had expected them to hate him even more and more.
And yet, the more he excelled, the more he worked hard, the lower the intensity of their hatred towards him.
At the very least, the girls started warming up to him while many of the boys were still frosty.
"Wait up, big brother Cæ!" A familiar voice called out to him.
Cæ frowned as he turned around with an exasperated expression.
It was none other than Senthil, the swordsman who trained in the Plum Blossom Style of Mount Hua that Cæ had beaten in a fight.
"Let's train together after school, big brother!" Senthil grinned with an excited expression. "Let us climb the heights of magic side by side!"
"…"
"What do you say?!"
"…"
"Are you in, or are you out?!"
And thus, Cæ had inadvertently gained one more little sibling buzzing about him as he went about his day. The tale of his indomitable dominance in the battles had already begun to spread through the magicademy like a blazing fire.
People began to whisper that the slum honors student was strong, unlike anything that they had ever seen.
It didn't help that a craze had spread among the adolescent girls across the entire magicademy as they grew increasingly open about their infatuations with him. It became more socially acceptable within the magicademy to view him in a positive light.
He began receiving an increasing number of confessions and requests for a date.
This time, the more traditional kind.
"P-Please go out with me!"
"I refuse."
"Uuu…"
He unhesitatingly broke a girl's heart then and there.
"…Scary."
"…but he's so cool."
"…It's because he's scary that he's so cool."
The only date offer that he accepted was that of Melia precisely because he had detected that she had different motives for asking him out.
And soon enough, the day came.
His clothes were casual, a simple over-shirt atop a light blue t-shirt and jeans, along with the best pair of shoes he had at his disposal. He found himself gazing at his magiphone as he waited at the front gate of the magicademy.
"I'm sorry. Did I keep you waiting?"
Her voice was casual, unlike when she requested him on a date.
Her clothes were more fancy than his, leaving him feeling slightly under-dressed. But ultimately he didn't particularly care about such a detail, it was not relevant to why he had agreed to this date in the first place.
"Not at all," Cæ's tone was devoid of affection.
In his eyes, this meeting was already a business meeting as far as he was concerned. He didn't know what he wanted with him, but if it was even remotely transactional, then he could end up getting a lot of money from this deal, among other things.
The two of them took a solitary seat in the cafe at a table for two, quickly ordering simple beverages.
CLACK
She drew a strange enchanted item from her purse and placed it on the table. It resembled a paperweight, its runes glowing with power as it drew power from the mana crystal embedded in it.
VMMM…
The air around them shifted as Cæ felt the heaven element in the magic of the enchants.
"This…?"
"It's an anti-espionage enchanted item," she explained with a composed tone. "It will prevent the magicademy from spying in our conversation."
Cæ's eyes lit up with interest.
He needed to get himself one of those.
"Now then, Mr. Cæ," she began as she leaned forward. "I will simply get right to the point."
Her eyes grew serious.
"As the heir of the Nelnmont Family…" she began with a solemn tone. "I would like to invite you to join our family through the bond of marriage."
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