Chapter 12 - Late Arrival for Training (1/2)

Rio quickened his pace and he arrived in the training field before long. When he arrived, he saw Kouki had a sheepish yet pleased smile when the armored Knight-Captain saying something to him. Rio's sharp eyesight due to his skill caught a small twelve-centimeter by seven-centimeter silver plate in his hand. Rio understood that he was already late and it seems Kouki's hero's stats had come to light.

Well, it wasn't his problem. He had a pleasant time with a lovely young lady and he deemed his lateness worthy as a sacrifice to get know better someone as lovely as Liselotte, who despite her loveliness didn't have significant involvement with canon nor make appearance whatsoever.

As Rio approached the group, his arrival grabbed their attention. The Knight Captain, whose name was Meld-something, and Kouki caught the sight of the approaching Rio first because they were facing in his direction while the other students were showing off their back to him.

Before long, his arrival got known by everyone and they looked at him with a curious, wary or contemptuous look. For the curious and wary look, it was only normal they had that because Rio was a stranger to them. They never met him before. They only knew him after he summoning ritual that transferred them to Tortus from their version of Earth. Meanwhile, those contemptuous looks came from a few boys who were led by a boy with long, reddish-brown hair. They seemed to dislike Rio because of his status as a Gaijin—foreigner—and how Rio acted aloof all the times. These boys were no other than Daisuke Hayama and his thuggish group.

Rio didn't even spare a glance at them, but if they dared to provoke him, Rio swore he would unleash hell upon them. Consequence be damned!

”You came finally! Were you lost?” Captain Meld asked loudly. There was no ill intent behind his question, only honest curiosity.

Rio finally stopped before him and Kouki, and after giving a short nod of acknowledgment to Kouki, Rio bowed in apology towards Captain Meld. Also, he told the truth. He'd strolled around the castle to sightseeing. ”I apologize for my tardiness. I was strolling around the castle to familiarize myself with my new surroundings.”

”Is that so? Anyway, you came after I gave an explanation about the status plate. By the way, here, this is your status plate.” Captain Meld handed over the last status plate towards Rio who accepted it silently. He feigned a confused expression when he accepted the small plate.

”Rio, that artifact is something to check our status. Anyway, artifacts are...” The ever-helpful and deluded wannabe hero began explaining about what were artifacts, what was a status plate, and what was status. It was basically similar to the canon materials Rio knew intimately. Yet, Rio feigned his attention when Kouki helped him to understand the status plate better.

They looked amicable towards each other, and Rio knew why Kouki acted like that around a stranger like him while the rest were wary and curious of him.

Why Kouki was like this? It was in his nature to be unable to see the bad in humanity. Because of the unfinished and incomplete teaching of his late grandfather, who had been an attorney, Kouki's sense of justice was flawed and twisted. He believed that nobody was a bad person and if there was a bad person, they just need help before they can see true justice. His late grandfather could only teach him the good in humanity, but before he could teach the evil humans could commit, he died. It was the cause of Kouki's flawed justice.