Chapter 8: The Amazing Girl (2/2)

“Bang.”

This girl tossed a big pile of things to eat in front of Ayrin and the others. She then immediately sat on the grassy ground beside them, easy and carefree. She casually grabbed some foodstuff and started to eat. At the same time she directed the three still dazed boys, “My treat, let’s eat together.”

“Teacher Huston is deliberately starving us, but now you give us things to eat, aren’t you afraid teacher Huston will see that and give you a hard time?” The three of them were all a little stunned.

“He’s not teaching me now anyway, plus he can’t beat me either.” The girl made a very careless face and brandished her fist. “Why would I be afraid of him?”

“He can’t beat you?” Moss actually sucked in cold air, watched this girl with disbelief. Teacher Huston indeed couldn’t be considered very powerful among all the teachers in the academy, but that was merely comparing them between themselves. Even the worst teacher in Holy Dawn Academy could probably handle at least two or three ordinary arcane masters by himself.

“You guys take your time with the food, I have to go back inside Thinker’s Stone Forest, I still have to practice. I can also help you stall Huston in passing if he’s coming out.” This girl actually didn’t care in the slightest about Moss’s astonishment. She casually grabbed some stuff to eat, then stood up and went in the direction of the Thinker’s Stone Forest.

“Thank you.” Ayrin subconsciously said a couple words.

The girl didn’t say anything and didn’t turn around either. She merely lifted her hand and waved it.

Sunlight shone on her body and made the figure of her back appear very pretty. Ayrin then remembered he hadn’t asked her name yet.

Belo actually forestalled him. He pushed his glasses and yelled to the girl, “Eh, what’s your name?”

Ayrin and Moss didn’t notice the odd solemness that appeared inside his eyes from the moment this girl said Huston couldn’t beat her.

“Chris.” The girl’s voice came to them from far away.

“It’s indeed her, the Amazing Girl.” Belo’s eyebrows shot up, muttering to himself.

“The Amazing Girl?” Ayrin and Moss both stared blankly. “What does it mean?”

“It means her.” Belo looked at Chris’ back and nodded. “I heard she trains harder than anybody, that’s why even if it’s only her third year, she’s already the most powerful among all the students in Holy Dawn Academy. Even some teachers aren’t her match. Only, she’s got severe facial blindness, and even more peculiarly she keeps yapping her slogan of dominating the national school tournament at all times, that’s why she’s got the title of the Amazingly Crazily Girl in our Holy Dawn Academy, or Amazing Girl in short.”

“The Amazing Girl is the Amazingly Crazy Girl?” Ayrin sweated. He watched Chris’ back with great curiosity. “What does facial blindness mean then?”

Belo said, “That means she very easily forgets what someone looks like. For example, just now even if we told her our names, next time she sees us she’d only remember our names but wouldn’t distinguish who’s who between us. Maybe she’ll call you Belo, and maybe she’ll call me Ayrin.”

“Really?” An astonished Ayrin continued with another question, “What’s the national school tournament then?”

“You don’t even know this?” Moss immediately whipped his head around. He felt himself once again on the verge of fainting to death. “Little shorty, you’re really a pig! We only talked for a few sentences, how much stuff have you eaten already?”

Ayrin hadn’t been still during these mere few sentences. The meat pies in front of him had all been cleanly swept away already.

Moss remembered the rumors about Ayrin’s endless stomach. With no time and focus to spare for insults, he immediately sat down and started to gorge himself on food instead.

“The national school competition’s full name is Hegemonical Cup of Starry Skies Academy Braves.” Belo tore a piece of ham and ate it, neither slow nor hurried as he calmly explained, “All the academies in our kingdom of Eiche will participate in the tussle of this competition.”

“Since all the academies participate in this competition, there’s nothing strange about her wanting to snatch the title of champion right? Why would they call her the Amazingly Crazy Girl because of that?”

“That’s because there are really too many powerful opponents out there. Our Holy Dawn Academy hasn’t been able to step out of St. Lauren for four years running. We can’t even defeat the few other academies in St. Lauren, but she actually keeps cycling her slogan of defeating opponents from every academy, that’s why they say she’s an amazingly crazy.”

Ayrin suddenly understood somewhat. He thought about it for a bit. “So that means our Holy Dawn Academy can’t be considered a strong academy?”

“The strength of an academy and a tournament like this are two entirely different things. Our Holy Dawn Academy is one of the academies with the longest traditions in the kingdom. It can definitely be ranked in the front if we’re talking about the entire strength of the academy. Only, in this interschool competition, the most important thing to consider is whether there are powerful students.” Belo looked at Ayrin and continued to say, “Because this is a competition between teams of five. You can say that the strong students in our Holy Dawn Academy have precisely been few in number, that’s why our achievements have been so bad.”

“A competition between teams of five?”

“Right.” Belo pushed his glasses and glanced at Ayrin. “There will be a preliminary match in three days if I haven’t gotten my math wrong. Our Holy Dawn Academy’s opponent is the Southern Monsoon Academy. Our Holy Dawn Academy will only be able to participate in the main qualifiers and fight for a quota from St. Lauren if we win this match. If you’re interested, I can take you there to watch. I’ll talk about it by then, it’s very easy to understand the rules, you’ll see.”

Ayrin said without thinking at all, “Ok.”

…

Huston took the other freshmen out of Thinker’s Stone Forest from another exit, then went back inside the stone forest after the meal, and then lectured a lesson about foundation training. Only after that did he leisurely stroll through the forest of stones and appear in front of Ayrin, Belo, and Moss.

“How is it, are you guys hungry?” Huston felt his mood brighten a little when he saw the three of them looking withered under the sun.

“Gurgle…” Ayrin’s stomach made noises again.

“Remember to respect my class’ discipline next time. This time though, it’s better if you keep standing here until the end of class today. Remember to practice the Explosive Blazing Fist when you go back. You also have to do a full hundred squats, a hundred backward leapfrogs, and one hundred full-speed sprints… Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t practice, or if you don’t do it fully. There will be tests sooner or later during class anyway. If you can’t pass them, you should know the consequences already eh.”

Huston was even more satisfied when he heard the gurgling sounds from Ayrin’s belly. He turned around and went away after saying his piece, all high and mighty.

“Shorty, I couldn’t tell before, you have a talent for scamming people.” Moss sighed in relief when Huston’s figure disappeared for good. He turned his head and told Ayrin, “You can actually even fake the sound of a hungry stomach, now he definitely thinks we’ve really been starving all this time.”

“I wasn’t deliberately faking it.” Ayrin said, a little distressed, “I’m really a little hungry.”

“I…” Moss almost fainted straight away. “You’re really a pig right! You ate even more than both of us combined. How much time has it been since, now you say you’re hungry again?!”