Path to Transcendence

Chapter 296: Heʼs Got Some Strong Friends

“So this is the famous Julius?” Irene asked with a teasing tone toward Lily.

Julius did his best to stifle the smile when he felt Lily send him an apologetic signal with her aura.

“Yes, this is him,” she said to them before turning to him. “Julius, this is Irene and her friends. I have known them since our first year at Goldencrest.”

Irene extended out the back of her hand to Julius. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Julius. I have heard so much about you.”

“Hopefully, not too much,” he said with a quick glance over at Lily.

He took the hand with his right and gave it a soft shake, well aware that this was not what he was supposed to do with a young noblewoman’s hand. Although he wasn’t in the mood to act like a ‘proper’ noble, plus he was supposed to be a commoner, so him not knowing what to do was quite in line.

He hid a smile when he noticed that this didn’t seem to pass by anyone else’s attention either, because he saw one girl scowl at his actions while two others giggled at him.

Irene, to her credit, took it all in stride.

“Are you enjoying the tournament so far?”

He nodded at her. “I have. It has been much more lively than I expected when I first heard about it when I enrolled here.”

Irene gave him a dazzling smile. “I remember the first time I saw the tournament. I was amazed at how strong some of the students were and couldn’t ever imagine myself standing at the level of those students,” she said with a self-deprecating chuckle.

Lily laughed lightly. “Yeah, and now look at you. One of the strongest people within our class,” she said to everyone, but he believed that she said this more for his benefit than anything else.

Irene blushed. “Oh, stop it, everyone knows that you are right beside the rest of us. We are all aware that your skills can’t be displayed in a setting like this. It’s too bad, because Duncan always tells me how scary you are.”

“Duncan likes to exaggerate,” Lily chuckled.

“Yeah, but I don’t think he is,” Irene said with a much more serious look before shaking her head. “It’s a shame you didn’t choose to participate this year, I would have loved to have a chance to fight you.”

He agreed with Irene on this. He would have loved to see fight Lily, but he also knew that the girl didn’t enjoy combat the same way Aubrey or Edgar did.

Irene looked over at the large clock placed at the top of the arena. “Well, Iʼd better be going. My fight is in a little bit, and I don’t want to be late.”

“Good luck,” Lily said to her with a cheery smile.

“Thanks, I am going to need it. For some reason, I always get so nervous before my first fight,” Irene admitted with a grimace and turned to Julius.

“Well, it was wonderful to finally meet you. I am glad that you were able to come back safe and sound,” the girl said to him with another stunning smile.

“It was good to meet you, too. I hope you win your match,” he replied to her.

“Thank you! It is also never a bad idea to take the time to analyse some of these fights. Trust me, if you do, it is going to help you a lot when you fight in the underclassmen tournament,” she said to him.

“Oh no, he’s actually signed up for the Tier 3 tournament,” Lily interjected.

This appeared to baffle Irene and her friends, all of them whipped their heads to look at Julius for confirmation.

He merely nodded his head and looked over to Lily with a questioning look. He wondered why she felt the need to tell them that. It wasn’t as if it was important for him to let these girls he had just met know.

A brief silence washed over them.

Finally, one of the other girls spoke up. “But he’s only a first year…”

“Yeah, isn’t that a little bit… hasty?” another added.

Irene poked her friends in the ribs. “Don’t be rude. He must have his reasons,” she said while looking at him a little bit differently than she had just moments ago. The smile was still there, but there was this pensiveness to it now.

Previously, it almost felt like she looked at him like he was some adorable pet or kid. But now she was looking at him as if he were a potential opponent.

He didn’t know if he liked this change. She had looked a little more friendly before, and her pretty smile had made him feel good.

Irene looked him up and down for a few moments. “I guess that whole incident must have been quite the adventure, huh?” She eventually said with a knowing smirk on her face.

“A little bit,” he admitted.

She nodded her head and gave him one last look. “Well, if we come across each other in the arena, I wish you the best of luck,” she said to him before walking away, her friends following right behind.

After they were gone, he looked over at Lily with a frown. “Did you really need to tell them that?”

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Lily grinned at him and slung an arm over his shoulder. “She would have found out about it eventually. This way, she won’t dismiss you so easily.”

“That would have been fine with me.”

Lily shook her head. “No, while Irene is a bit too cunning and manipulative for my tastes, at the core, she is a loyal girl with a trustworthy House behind her. It is better for you to get on her good side, and I didn’t like how she was already looking at you like you are our group’s charity pet project.”

“Like I said, I don’t mind that,” he said with a shrug.

“Well, I do. I don’t like it when my friends aren’t being treated with the respect they deserve. And you certainly don’t deserve people looking at you like some stray puppy we picked off the street,” she said with a loving squeeze.

“Isn’t that exactly what you did, though?” He reminded her, recalling how they met. He wasn’t exactly a stray puppy, but he was pretty darn close.

She smiled as she probably remembered the same memory. “Yeah, but people don’t need to know that. Also, didn’t you say you didn’t wish to hide as much anymore? What about that?”

She had a point. He had mentioned that he was trying to stop hiding every single piece of himself from anyone.

“Yeah, you’re right. Old habits die hard, huh?”

She simply smiled at him as the two of them continued to watch other fights and waited until Aubrey arrived.

“Hey!” The energetic girl and recent victor called out to them as she strolled up the stairs.

He waved at her. “Hey, nice fight,” he said to her once she got close enough.

“Thanks, what did you think of it?” She asked excitedly.

He winced and looked away. “It seemed a bit brutal,” he told her truthfully.

“What do you mean? You were the one who told me to take him seriously!”

“You slaughtered him,” he said with a deadpan expression.

She looked away guiltily. “I didn’t think it would be that one-sided.”

He was about to say more, but he held off because he spotted something going on in one of the other arenas. Derek had walked onto the field, about to begin his very first match of the tournament, and Julius wanted to watch.

***

He was quite surprised by how many people suddenly showed up. There were already a good amount of people who were there to watch the fights, but for some reason a large influx of spectators started to flow in.

Soon, they were boxed in by big groups of people.

“Are they all here to watch Derek?” He asked, talking a little bit loudly over the sound of the noisy crowd.

Lily nodded her head and had a big smirk on her face.

“Oh yeah. A ton of people are here to watch him. Most of them had not seen Derek fight for an entire year. If not for some bad luck last year, he would have most likely been in the top sixteen. I suspect that a good number of them are very interested in seeing how much progress he made during this past year. There is also the part where he is the heir of a very powerful House.”

“It’s not like he is going to be joining another organization after school, though, right?”

She chuckled. “Of course not. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t curious about the future Duke Zenith.”

Aubrey scoffed from his other side. “It also helps the girls at school love him,” she said while glancing around the seats.

He frowned and looked around as well. He hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a weirdly large ratio of women to men. Then he shifted his gaze down to where Derek was standing across from another fourth year.

He had to admit that Derek was quite a handsome guy. Tall, strong, with model-like features. What woman wouldn’t find him attractive?

“I can see that,” he eventually muttered to Lily’s amusement, if her chuckle was any sign.

He smiled lightly at her before paying attention to the fight that was about to begin.

Derek held his spear with his right hand and stood quite relaxed while staring at his opponent. Julius then turned to examine the other boy.

The first thing he spotted was that he was not looking very confident at all. The other fourth year was holding onto a two-handed sword, but unlike the calm Derek, he was visibly twitching his hand and had a pinched expression on his face, one would expect from one who had already lost.

Julius felt bad for the guy. It was just really bad luck to be pitted against Derek in his very first match. Not only that, but practically half the school was here watching it.

He could not imagine the other guyʼs emotions at the moment.

“Kick his ass, Derek!”

He turned to look at Aubrey, who had her hands cupped to her mouth, and gave her an exasperated shake of his head. She truly had no shame.

When the official began the fight, Julius was glad to see that the guy didn’t freeze in fear. Derek’s opponent dashed forward with a very noteworthy show of speed, heading straight toward Derek.

It was a very similar skill to [Flash Step] and allowed the other guy to cross the distance in a matter of moments. His sword was already in motion, cutting down toward Derek with some kind of skill that radiated a sense of sharpness.

Julius would not be surprised to learn that this guy had a Sharpness Concept of his own.

Unfortunately, speed was not something the guy would beat Derek in. After all, Derek had a perfect lightning affinity, and people were about to be shown just how potent this affinity was before their very eyes.

Julius watched as Derek sidestepped the sword with ease, lightning flickering around his body. Then, Derek bashed the shaft of his spear into the other student’s chest. The force of the impact blasted the other student off his feet and sent him tumbling to the ground.

While Julius could perceive both of their movements, he doubted everyone in the arena could. The weaker ones probably only saw a quick flash of lightning before seeing Derek’s opponent fly off into the dirt.

Julius had to admit that Derek was still one of the fastest Tier 3s he had come across. That assassin girl he fought on the plains was quite powerful and fast in her own right. She didn’t have the same level of explosiveness and acceleration as Derek.

It wasn’t just that either. But he knew that Derek wasn’t close to using his full strength. He had seen some of the spars between Edgar and him before he had gotten transported away. Derek had been faster than this during that time.

He also expected that in the time he had been gone, Derek had improved his speed.

Unlike Aubrey, Derek didn’t seem to want to destroy his opponent without giving him a chance to fight back. He allowed the other student to stand back up, not taking advantage of the situation.

That didn’t mean the other guy had a chance. Derek proceeded to beat the other boy without looking the least bit ruffled. The only time Julius saw Derek actually try was when the other student tried to use his Concept to pressure Derek.

The way the other fourth year used his Concept seemed a bit… clumsy, but there was a fair bit of willpower backing it, so it was still quite effective.

Still, Derek easily handled it without batting an eye and won quickly afterward.

Although not quite as… passionately as Aubrey, Julius cheered alongside the two of them, happy that his friend won his fight. And while it had been expected, it didn’t detract from the accomplishment. It merely showed that his friends were quite impressive in their own right.