92 Chapter 92: Conspiring over the Break (1/2)
”Hey, Dad! I'm home!”
I crashed through the door of our house excitedly. Even though Dad went for a mission while I was away at training camp, I estimated that he would be back…soon.
As I suspected, Dad was already home, watching an anime series on television. He had a sour look on his face, but it turned into a delighted smile when he raised his head to glance at me.
”Richie! Good to see you! How was the training camp?” he grinned. ”The instructor is Feng Hai, right? I've heard a lot about him. Let me guess…he worked you guys hard!”
”Yeah, though nothing we couldn't handle. Seems like there will be another training camp next week, but for this week they let us return home for a break.” I grimaced. ”We'll still have to attend classes in school, though.”
”Of course.” Dad gave me a withering stare. ”You think they're just going to let you guys slack off for a week?”
”No.” I glanced at the television set. ”What are you watching, by the way? You don't seem happy with it.”
”Oh…it's the anime adaptation of a web novel about some guy who became the world's strongest despite having a commonplace job.” He scowled angrily. ”They complete butchered it. Random flashbacks instead of having the story take place chronologically, no explanations or anything, and the pacing is all over the place. If I didn't read the original web novel, I would have completely no idea what the fuck the anime was talking about. They completely skipped the summoning sequence and the part that the protagonist was being bullied! Which made the scene where that bastard bully who betrayed and tried to kill him nonsensical!”
”That sucks,” I agreed, making a mental note to give the anime a miss. In the end, I still watched it, but I had to agree with Dad's assessment. The anime was terrible and butchered the source material entirely. But for now, I thought it prudent to agree with Dad.
”Anyway, go get some rest. I'm sure you're exhausted after running around in a training camp for two weeks.”
”Will do. Thanks.”
Waving absent-mindedly, I began to ascend the stairs toward my room while carrying my luggage. After all that physical training, my massive luggage and backpack felt as light as a feather.
*
The next day, I attended school as usual. Looking forward to Teacher Fielding's class, I showed up to learn some new combat magic.
”Vice-president Richard! You're back!”
Harvey waved at me. I nodded as I joined him.
”How was the training camp?” Stan Lee asked. I shrugged.
”Pretty harsh. But…I think we all became stronger.”
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”That's good!” Harvey's eyes were shining in admiration. ”I can't imagine the vice-prez becoming stronger!”
Please, dude. Stop your hero-worshipping. You're putting unnecessary pressure on me.
”I heard quite a few students got eliminated, though,” Stan remarked as he placed a finger on his chin. ”They seem to have pretty high standards.”
”Well, it's concerning who gets to represent the academy in the national tournaments,” I pointed out. ”And after our pathetic performances in the past few years, the school is desperate for us to improve our ranking this year.”
”True.” Stan nodded. ”I bet only the strongest will get selected!”
”Seems like it's not a matter of pure strength,” I explained. ”They also take into account the representative's flexibility, intelligence, experience and leadership capabilities. It's no use being the strongest if nobody respects you and listens to you. There is a strategic component this year, especially since they are emphasizing more on team battles, so it's no longer purely about strength alone.”
”That sounds complicated,” Harvey complained as he held his head.
”Makes a lot of sense, though.” despite seemingly agreeing with me, Stan had a bitter expression. ”A real battle takes into consideration so many other factors, not just strength.”
He was evidently reevaluating his notions of strength and how to best climb the rankings, I was sure. Stan was pretty ambitious, after all. He still hadn't reached the level necessary to compete with the top, but I was sure he would get there eventually.
”Yeah. That's why even someone as strong as Adam Freeman got eliminated.” I shook my head with a sigh. ”It's unfortunate, but it seems that things aren't going to be as simple this time.”
*
Speaking of Adam, there was a scene happening at Holy Saints at the same time.
Harrison Reed was in the president's room, one of the many rooms reserved and set aside for Holy Saints Society. He was brewing some tea and drinking it while working on administrative matters. While he had been away at the training camp, a lot of the documents had piled up, and now he was catching up on them.
Fortunately, most of them were trivial matters. He just needed to read through them, and then signed on the documents to show his approval. There were a few that took up his attention, and he revised them before placing them in a separate tray, to mark them out as documents that were to be returned to the people who submitted them, so that they could finalize the alterations before sending them back to him.
Bang!
Harrison looked up irritably as someone rudely barged into the room without knocking. And of course it just had to be none other than his vice-president, Lin Zhan Long.
”I can't accept this, President Harrison!”