Chapter 7 - 7: The Only Student To Sign Up For The Martial Arts Course
Chapter 7: The Only Student To Sign Up For The Martial Arts Course
The next day, Lake woke up on his bed.
Quickly, he felt extremely uncomfortable as he tried to move his body. After practicing the training method yesterday, Lake fell asleep on the bed covered in sweat causing his entire body to feel sticky.
Slowly getting up from his bed, Lake moved towards the bathroom before taking a shower to remove the sticky sensation on his body.
After a while, Lake got out of the shower as he checked the time on the old clock he had on his desk. Seeing that it was still early, he made breakfast before getting ready for school.
Lake lived a long distance away from the school and after taking a public train, he managed to get to class a little before the bell rang.
As he entered the classroom, the previous chatter slowed down as he could feel everyone staring at him.
Not minding them however, Lake casually walked to his seat in the back as the bell rang.
Soon everyone took their seats as the middle age teacher from yesterday entered the classroom. His gaze swept through the class before lingering on Lake for a while.
Sensing the gaze of the teacher, Lake smiled politely as he nodded in response.
Slightly caught off guard by Lake's simple reply, the teacher coughed before quickly starting class.
…
After class, Lake was about to get up to go get lunch when he saw someone approaching him. Looking at the approaching figure, Lake couldn't help but admire her beauty as he smiled.
The figure had long brown hair tied in a simple ponytail with a cute bunny hair pin on her head. Her sparkling green eyes were hidden behind her thick frame glasses. She was quite tall as well, standing around 175 cm, a little shorter than Lake who was 180 cm tall.
Soon the figure stopped in front of Lake as she awkwardly looked up at him.
Seeing how awkward she was, Lake laughed as he spoke to break the silence, "Well, if it isn't Miss Evelyn. How's your day going? I hope it has been going well."
Hearing Lake's words, Evelyn took a deep breath in to calm herself before replying, "My day has been fine so far."
"That's good. My day has also been fine so far but I wonder what you want with me today?" Lake asked.
"I-Um, I wanted to thank you for your help yesterday. I really appreciated it when you stepped in to save me when no one else did. It meant a lot to me." Evelyn spoke softly as her face turned slightly red, looking unbelievably adorable.
Seeing her cute expression, Lake laughed as he spoke, "It was no problem. I was simply doing what I wanted. Besides, that beast deserved to be put down."
Hearing Lake's reply, Evelyn giggled slightly as she smiled at Lake, "Either way, I wanted to thank you for yesterday personally. Are you free after school today by chance?"
"Oh, you recovered much faster than I expected from yesterday's incident. To think you would already try to ask me on a date, when not even a full 24 hours have passed." Lake said as he grinned.
"Nonsense! I was simply trying to show my appreciation by inviting you out." Evelyn's gaze turned sharp as she looked at Lake, however, her face had turned slightly redder, "So are you free or not?"
"Naturally I'm free, and even if I wasn't, if the beautiful Miss Evelyn developed the courage to ask me out on a date, then I would have to make myself free." Lake said.
"It is not a date!" Evelyn lightly shouted as she tapped Lake on the chest causing him to laugh.
At this point, someone was calling Evelyn from outside the classroom. Evelyn turned around and saw that it was a friend.
Turning back to Lake, she said, "After school, I'll meet you by the front gate. I have to go now, see you later."
After Evelyn left with her friend, Lake smiled as he headed towards the cafeteria to get the school's student free lunch.
…
Evelyn was dragged away by her friend after talking to Lake. Looking at the friend who was dragging her off, she felt confused.
"Leah, what's the matter?" Evelyn asked as she looked at the petite girl dragging her away, "Why did you pull me away so hastily?"
Hearing Evelyn's words, Leah, the small figure, turned around with a frown, "Look, I know he helped you out yesterday but you really shouldn't interact with him much."
"Why?" Evelyn said as she looked at Leah questioningly.
"Huh, don't you know?" Leah asked.
"Don't know what?" Evelyn asked while slightly frowning her brows.
"You really don't know do you?" At this point Leah looked towards Evelyn with concern.
Seeing her genuinely confused face, Leah sighed as she explained, "Look, I know he saved you yesterday and you should indeed thank him for that. However there was really no need for you to interact with him further than that."
"Why? Besides from being a flirt he seems like a decent person. I don't see any reason that I shouldn't interact with him." Evelyn said.
"Did you just say flirt? Never mind, it doesn't matter, you still shouldn't interact with him. I know you don't pay much attention to the rumors in the school so I'll tell you. Do you know that in the entire school, only he has signed up for the martial arts course?" Leah spoke with an extremely serious look on her face.
Immediately Evelyn was sent into a daze.
Seeing Evelyn's stunned expression, Leah finally felt that her words got through to her best friend. In the entire school only Lake signed up for the martial arts course. This wasn't because the test had a high requirement to take, but because the requirements to pass the test were simply too high. Due to the high requirements to pass the test, to prevent just anyone from trying to take the test they divided the exam into a qualifier and the actual exam. The level of martial strength must surpass a certain level for you to barely pass the qualifiers for the actual exam. This one requirement was the reason why most people didn't even try to register for the martial course exam, not to mention the high cost if you were to fail the exam. Even if some people were able to pass the qualifiers, they would still have to take part in the actual test. This test didn't even have a strict standard as the method for evaluation changes each year making it impossible for people to know the contents of it. For Lake to take part in the test would mean one of two things. Either he was extremely confident in his strength to pass the test, or he had given up on himself and was trying to use the Martial Arts Course as a gamble, knowing he would fail no matter which course he chose.
Feeling that Evelyn finally came back to her senses, Leah was about to speak when she was suddenly stunned as Evelyn spoke in excitement, "That's amazing! If he's the only one participating in the test for our school then he must be extremely strong!"
"W-Wait, that's not what I meant…" Leah tried to explain to Evelyn when she suddenly realized something that left her standing in horror. She had been best friends with Evelyn for over 6 years now, yet this was the first time she had ever seen her act so excited about another person, not to mention a man.
"They really did say that love can make a woman blind…" Leah said under her breath as she stared at Evelyn, who had managed to hear her words and immediately blushed in response.
"I-Its not love…" Evelyn spoke weakly as she looked the other way under her friend's gaze.
Seeing her reaction Leah's face darken as she thought to herself, "And it's her first love too."
…
It didn't take Lake long to finish all his classes as he exited the classroom.
Even though people were staring at him, no one had bothered him even after the ruckus he caused yesterday. Thanks to this, Lake had a pretty uneventful day.
Soon he arrived at the front gate where he could see Evelyn standing next to a small figure. Lake remembered the figure to be the girl that had previously dragged Evelyn away earlier today. Slightly curious, Lake decided to read her Fate.
Raising his gaze slightly, Lake was stunned once more as he stared at the strand of Fate above her head. The fate was mostly green but Lake can see a hint of a golden yellow hidden deep inside.
Feeling excited about finding a new type of Fate, Lake quickly read through her past to see what made her fate different from the rest.
As Lake read through the fate he saw that it was fairly simple. Her fate was similar to that of a green tier fate in terms of luck and opportunity. As Lake continued to dig deeper into her fate he finally managed to find something that was different compared to the other green tier fate that Lake had met in the past 2 days. It would seem that this petite figure came from a fairly rich family as she grew up living a fairly luxurious lifestyle.
After roughly figuring out the origin of the golden color, Lake lowered his vision as he observed the petite figure. She was short for the people around her. She stood around 160 cm tall and had long black hair that reached down to her waist. Her hazel colored eyes shined brightly in contrast to her pale skin tone. Her thin eyebrows gave her a unique look as she gave off an elegant aura, one that was refined through a good family background. Honestly speaking, Lake thought he was looking at a doll instead of a person, the longer he looked at her.
As Lake observed Leah, he was also slowly approaching the pair.
Evelyn, who was looking out for him, quickly spotted him as she called him over.
Lake eventually arrived in front of the two as he looked at Evelyn. He pretended that he didn't know Leah.
"Miss Evelyn, I wonder who this may be?" Lake asked as he pointed at Leah.
"This is my best friend, Leah. She said she wanted to tag along as well and I didn't have a reason to reject her. I hope she doesn't bother you." Evelyn said as she smiled awkwardly.
"It doesn't bother me at all," Lake said as he turned his gaze to Leah, "It is nice to meet you Miss Leah, you can call me Lake. I hope we get along from here on."
Lake extended his hand out to Leah, however, all he received in response was a cold glare from her.
Seeing this Evelyn glared at Leah as she apologized to Lake.
"I'm sorry for her behavior. I swear she isn't normally like this." Evelyn said.
Lake smiled as he said, "It's fine, the tantrum of a little child wouldn't affect me."
"Pfft," Evelyn tried to suppress herself from laughing, however it was too late as Leah had heard the small giggle that she let out as she shouted in a rage.
"Bastard! Who do you think you're calling a child?!" As Leah shouted her face turned slightly red causing Lake to laugh as he admired her cute child-like expression.
Lake tried to speak as he suppressed his laughter, "I'm sorry…haha, I just didn't expect your reaction to my insult to be so... extreme," Lake said as he barely managed to restrain himself from saying cute which would have caused her to become even more angry.
"Asshole! You're not even trying to hide that you insulted me!" Leah shouted as she glared daggers at Lake.
"Nonsense. When have I ever said that I insulted you?" Lake said as he turned to ask Evelyn, "Did you hear me insult her?"
"No, not at all. I think you were just having a nice chat from my perspective." Evelyn said as she giggled.
Hearing Evelyn's words, Leah had a look of disbelief. "Y-You traitor! How could you take his side on this! You know how much I hate being called a child!"
"Now, now, I haven't joined anyone's side. I was just stating what it looked like from my perspective." Evelyn said.
Seeing that Leah was about to lose it, Lake quickly changed the subject.
"So, which restaurant will you be taking me to eat at now, Miss Evelyn?" Lake asked.
"Well, I was planning on taking you to an event first, but something has been bothering me for a while..." Evelyn said as she stared at Lake's messy long hair.