Vol 1 Chapter 5 (1/2)
“I was wondering where you’d run off too; so you went off to get food!” said Ezart as he roughly gifted Daren with a punch to the head. The latter was found gorging on a pile of food, large enough that he seemed buried in it.
“Ahm ooo unhgre......” Daren tried to talk while chewing.
“Didn’t you just have a meal?” Ezart grumbled as he unceremoniously ripped open a packet of chips, stuffing handfuls into his mouth as he sat down. He then offhandedly asked, “Hey, where did you run off to just now? I didn’t see you at all. Don’t tell me you’ve been eating here all this time.”
“Noo wey, ah deed goh in!” Daren protested through a mouthful of food.
Ezart eyed Daren. He suspected that Daren was Dark Sun. It seemed too much of a coincidence that the day Daren transferred to the school just happens to be the day Dark Sun appeared. But looking at him now, with his hair parted and combed down the sides, his nerdy pair of gla.s.ses, neatly pressed school uniform and an endless vibe of nerdiness, he seemed nerdy no matter which way one looked at him.
Ezart smacked his head, It was impossible. Daren couldn’t be Dark Sun - they were just too different. Their auras were like night and day. Dark Sun had a chilly, menacing aura, which totally contrasted Daren’s nerdiness.
Ezart sighed and laid down with his arms behind his head, “Who’s this Dark Sun guy? If he isn’t someone from the Academy, then there’s no way to know if he’ll continue to partic.i.p.ate in the mock battles. What if he doesn’t partic.i.p.ate anymore?”
Daren blinked and said, “So what if he doesn’t partic.i.p.ate, does it matter?”
Ezart bolted upright, exclaiming, “Of course it matters! If he doesn’t partic.i.p.ate then I can’t fight him. To think that I actually put so much effort into tailing him just to let that Shain Baylian reap the rewards!”
Daren lowered his head and continued stuffing his face. Because of his unique body composition, he had no choice but to replenish significant amounts of energy used up after every battle for him to continue functioning. He pondered as he ate. Originally, he had no intention to continue fighting, since he had already seen Ezart and Shain battle. However, if he did not fight it out with Ezart, it looked as if he would be greatly disappointed.
“Then again, he could be from the Elite Combat Section. Maybe in a moment of blood-rush he decided to enter the battle simulator for fun.” Ezart considered, now believing it to be more and more likely.
“Elite Combat Section?” Daren immediately raised his head to ask.
“Oh yeah, you’re new here, so you still don’t know.” Ezart laid down again, and lazily began to explain, “Since YeLan Academy is a combat school, cla.s.ses are allocated A to D, based on fighting prowess. Baylain, from before, is from Cla.s.s A, we’re in cla.s.s D, also known as “Let the cows graze” cla.s.s. We’re just borderline pa.s.sers. Shouldn’t you already know this?”
He had no idea. He absentmindedly stuffed another bun into his mouth, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Surely his gege would not place him in Cla.s.s D just to keep him from attracting attention... right?
Ezart’s gaze suddenly darkened. “Elite Combat Section, shortened to ECS; it is said that there are no more than twenty people in that cla.s.s and every single one of them is a monster.”
“Monster?” Daren spun his head towards Ezart in shock, “Monsters can attend human schools too? “
Ezart slowly turned to look at Daren as if he were an idiot. But this kid, with a foolish and shocked expression that made people want to hit him, seemed hopelessly unaware of his own mistakes.
Ezart exasperatedly explained, “Monster is a metaphor... meaning, the people in that cla.s.s are so strong that they no longer seem human.”
“Oh,” Daren nodded, showing that he understood. Strong fighters … Dark Sun’s personality awoke, his dull eyes sharpened. He asked, “Where are the members of ECS?”
“Who knows? It is said that they’re so strong that they don’t even need to attend cla.s.ses... usually they help the princ.i.p.al with high level missions... but that’s just a rumour! No one knows the truth of the matter; the other students are still speculating whether the ECS actually exists or not.
“Even you and Baylian can’t join the Elite Combat Section?”
Ezart stared at Daren. This kid really doesn’t care about other people’s self esteem...
“I don’t know about Baylian, but the headmaster asked me before; I refused though.”
Daren looked curiously at Ezart, he had a.s.sessed Ezart to be someone who just wanted to fight strong people no matter what. Why would he refuse?
“It’s not like there aren’t benefits to joining that cla.s.s, but…“ Ezart grimaced, “before graduation, you‘d have to complete twenty of the headmaster’s a.s.signments. That didn’t sit well with me, so I didn’t bother.”
“Oh.” Upon hearing this, Daren also dismissed the idea of entering the Elite Combat Section. He only needed to listen to gege instructions; no one else’s mattered.
“Alright kiddo, I’ve got something to do, so I gotta go. I’ll walk you to the school gate, or else someone as daft as you will get pummeled by the seasoned dudes as a warning.” Ezart himself had no idea how it happened. He was the type to always get into fights at school, so this was actually the first time he had thought of protecting someone else.
“I’m not Kiddo, my name is Daren Avery.” Daren protested with wide eyes.
“Daren Avery … that’s so hard to p.r.o.nounce.”
“Then just call me Dar, that’s what my gege calls me.”
“Okay, Dar, let’s go. If you don’t hurry up, I won’t care anymore and just let you take a beating. Maybe then you’ll wisen up.” Ezart raised an eyebrow, thinking it a good idea.
“D-don’t be like that!”
Daren stood up hurriedly; if someone wanted to shake him up, he wouldn’t know how to stick to his brother’s instructions. To protect himself, but not reveal his strength - he felt as if he stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Daren hurriedly cleared up his leftovers, while stealing glances at Ezart, as if afraid that he would be left behind. Watching this scene, Ezart could not help thinking how hopeless Daren was. He had no idea why he was going this far to protect this guy. Worse still, he had actually thought this kid was Dark Sun. He must be going crazy!
“Are you done?”
Ezart impatiently urged, to which Daren hurriedly responded, “Okay, okay, let’s go.”
Ezart place his hands in his pockets and went ahead on his own, leaving Daren to catch up.
“Ezart, where are you off to in such a hurry? Dinner?”
Daren pestered Ezart with questions as he walked, the latter raised his eyebrows in response, not bothering to open his mouth to explain. Daren asked some more questions, and as long as they were not about Ezart, they were all answered. When it came to questions about Ezart himself, they were completely ignored.
“Don’t ask about me anymore,” Ezart eventually said.
“Oh, okay,” Daren obediently replied.
The two of them walked in silence until they were at the school gate. Ezart believed that if Daren was seen walking with him, other students would not dare to bother Daren due to Ezart’s notoriety. However, as Ezart turned to bid goodbye to him...
He found Daren foolishly staring ahead. Despite being prodded by Ezart a few times, Daren did not respond and instead blankly raised his finger to point in the direction he was facing...
Ezart gazed in the direction of Daren’s finger. In the shade of a tree next to the school gate, Shain Baylian lazed on a chair. Next to him was the ice queen carrying drinks, the man wielding dual hand guns, and the dwarfish man from before.
“Ezart.” Shain leisurely watched Ezart, as he sat there sipping his drink.
“Shain Baylian.” Ezart raised an eyebrow, a look of disdain on his face.
Shain Baylian’s attire was even more exaggerated than in the simulation. He was still wearing Chinese-styled clothes, but the difference was that this had a pair of dragons intricately embroidered in gold thread, and decorated with gemstones. He was rotating a black diamond ring on his right thumb out of habit, when he nonchalantly asked, “I heard your cla.s.s had a new transfer student today.”