"Isn't that Royse Frostenden?"
"Oh my, I heard he usually stays at home to handle his enterprise."
"You mean the one he established years ago? To think he was able to at such a young age."
"He looks absolutely beautiful."
"Have you seen his sister? They're quite a famous siblings. To think they're actually adopted."
"But his eyes, did the dean allow him to attend here?"
Royse simply walked, ignoring the eyes and whispers on the campus. It was just the first day and he's already the center of attention. Even earlier this morning when the welcoming assembly took place.
William did his speech and as he delivered it, he only stared at Royse the whole duration of the assembly. Even Henry who stood to the side only focused on him.
"Popular now are we?" A familiar voice states. Royse turns towards the source and sighed.
"You seem to be enjoying the attention though."
Amy smiled and waved her hand, causing the girls to squeal.
"Amy-sama!!" They shouted.
Royse swore he could see flowers blooming in the background. "Are you 'Kashima'?" Royse states deadpan.
Amy brings her hand over her face, looking smug as ever.
"Oh? That's a high praise." She continued with her blinding smile causing more girls to scream. "Thank you Royse~"
The flowers flew by his head as he simply stared at his friend unimpressed.
'She's becoming more obnoxious each year' He thinks.
"So, have you stumbled upon anyone yet?" She asks as they start walking around the campus.
Royse shook his head. "No. I know for a fact that they're busy. Aneki congratulated me earlier before running off to Catherine."
"Tsk."
"Look who's jealous." Royse states. Amy turns towards Royse with a furrowed brow.
"Excuse me but I have tried every tactic to make your sister fall for me but Catherine is a tough one." She groaned as she ruffles her hair. "I may be classmates with her since the 1st year but everywhere I go it's always 'Catherine this' and 'Catherine that'. What am I a third wheel?"
In a sense, Royse had expected this. He started suggesting Amy to show herself before attending school but she denied and continued with her plan.
Of course, he tried to be a wingman and help Amy in whatever ways he could.
Royse knew how deep Rohesia had fallen for Catherine, making him pity his friend.
"I still won't give up. And I'm making progress since Catherine is part of the student council along with the princes. I have time to be with her." Amy states determined.
Royse brings his hand over her shoulder. "I'm rooting for you." He returns his hand. "By the way, did you find any info about the guy?" Royse asked.
Amy shook her head. "Nope. I tried searching in the other section but there's no one who fits your description."
Royse sighed. "As expected. I guess he might've disappeared that day." Royse turns towards his friend and saw her smile.
He rose a brow and looks at her suspiciously.
"You're hiding something."
Amy continued smiling at Royse. "Am I? I don't know what you're talking about."
Royse glared at her. He unleashed a part of his aura, making Amy sweat drop and gave in.
"Ok fine. You win. You see, there's this person who has the same facial feature that you explained. Though the hair and eye colour is different, my intuition says this dude is related to the one you're searching for."
Royse widened his eyes in hope.
"Really? Is he a teacher or something?" He asks.
Amy shook his head. "Nope, he's a student. The same grade level as me. He transferred here just now. He does get attention with his looks, but since the capture targets are at the same grade level, no one pays attention to him. I swear the visuals in our year is different from the rest." Amy explains. "But hey, since you're the only decent looking in the lower level, you have the spotlight all to yourself."
"That doesn't assure me. Also, that's just rude. There're others who look breathtaking." Royse reprimands.
Amy laughed. "Right. My bad."
Royse followed his friend to her classroom in hopes of finding the person. When they arrived, he checks around the room.
Amy pointed towards the guy sitting in the front row.
Royse squinted his eyes and examined his features.
The same moles were there not to mention he was also tan. The only difference was how his hair was shorter and both hair and eyes were colour blue. The guy also looked older, which was no surprise since how many years had passed.
Royse activated his skill and frowned.
The man held a different mana pool and saw how uncontrolled it was.
He shook his head in disappointment. "Nope. Just a look-alike. Guess I should give up." The person he met might've been someone who only stayed here in Estrela for a short while.
"You sure?" Amy asks.
Royse nods. "Yeah. It's fine. The only reason why I needed to know the person was to find out if they're important in the storyline. If they're not here, then that's assuring."
"You sure keep track of everything."
Royse turns towards Amy and huffs. "Obviously. After telling me about how the story will end, of course I'll be alert. I need to watch over how everything's going. It helps that the king is assisting. The amount of information I get from the spies are amazing." He states as he switches his language.
"That's one-sided. You literally eavesdrop on them." Amy remarks.
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine." Royse assured. "Anyway, I should get going to my class. See you around." Royse walked past Amy, leaving her alone to watch his retreating back.
"Ah! Amy-san! You're here early."
Amy immediately turned towards the direction of the voice and beamed.
"Rohesia!" She exclaims as she rushes towards her for a hug. "How are you my little rose?" Amy asks as she nuzzled her cheek over Rohesia's head.
Rohesia giggled and nods. "I'm doing great. Were you speaking with Rosey just now?"
Amy lets go of her hold.
"Yeah. He wanted to see our classmates. He's quite protective of you." Amy explains making the redhead chuckle.
"That's like him."
Just in time, the bell rang. Soon, the main cast appeared one by one.
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He mentally sighed as he listened to the professor. Royse already knew about the lesson and was aware that his level of knowledge was supposedly the same level as his sister and the main cast. But because he decided to enroll just now, he had to make do with it.
'Guess I'll be wasting 3 years.' He thinks. Not like he minds since he could easily finish his seat works and assignments.
He wrote down on his note and felt a gaze.
He glanced on the side and saw a girl gazing at him and blushed when they made eye contact. She hastily looks away and covered her face with her textbook.
Royse lets out a small smile. 'Who would've thought a day would come where I'll be popular..."
He brings his head up. 'Though it's a bad kind of popular that leads to many death flags.' He thinks.
"Well then, we'll test out the fundamentals. We'll head out to the training grounds." With that, the professor leaves the room.
Students stand from their seats to follow after the man. Arriving at the location, the professor starts his lecture.
"Now, I would like one of you to battle me."
Students murmured as some groaned. A fellow student walked to the front with a smug look.
'Ah, the confident type.' Royse thinks. Sadly he knew how strong the man was. From his intel, the professor was a former knight who served the royal family, though you wouldn't guess from his appearance.
The student takes a wooden sword and immediately ran towards the man.
It was evident that the student had experience with swordsmanship. But despite that, you could easily see the difference between the two.
The student kept on moving yet the man simply stood in one place, not budging.
The man finally made his attack, sending the student flying and rolling on the ground.
"Any other volunteer?" The man asks.
Students whispered and didn't want to be in the same shoes as the first student.
Royse strode forward and took a wooden spear. All eyes were on him as the students realize the famous Frostenden was gonna battle.
The rumours that floated around the redhead made everyone curious and wanted to see if it was true.
The professor smiled. "Ready when you are."
Everyone became confused when Royse simply walked towards the man.
Just like that, the redhead moved in a blur, taking the man by surprise.
It was so sudden that the professor was barely able to block the attack. The man grunted as he kept his balance, surprised at the amount of strength the adolescence possesses.
He finally moved from his place and attacked, realizing his new opponent wasn't someone to take lightly.
None of the students was able to follow after the movements of the two. Despite that, they never knew someone could fight so graceful with a spear.
The young Frostenden looked as if he was dancing. The twirls, the jumps, it seemed as if the boy was simply waltzing and knew every step and moved with elegance.
Students became mesmerized at the display while some wondered if they could also battle in the same way.
Royse wanted to see for himself how the man would fare. Seeing he was satisfied with the result, he feigns a mistake and revealed a blind spot.
The man took this chance and attacked, sending Royse's spear flying from his grasp.
The professor panted and was confused with how the boy didn't seem out of breath.
He coughed and smiled. "It seems we have quite a potential student."
They all applauded making Royse awkwardly chuckle. "Thank you for the battle." He bowed before going back to his position.
The professor finally asks his questions noticing how the students were motivated.
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"I must say, it's only the first day yet all I've been hearing are about Royse's battle from earlier." Catherine states as she eyed the students that watched from afar.
Royse groaned from her words. "It already spread huh." He sulks as he took a bite of his food.
"This certainly reminds me of Rohesia, Amy, and Milivoj."
Rohesia chuckled at the mention. "Yeah. It was quite a mess when we 3 had volunteered at the same time back in 1st year. I feel guilty when the professor allowed us to battle him as a team."
"You showed no mercy." Carl commented as he ate his meal.
They laughed as they reminisce the memory of the event.
Milivoj grinned as he looks at Royse. "It seems I have another equal."
"Of course you'd think that. Musclehead..." Amy murmured the last word which by the way went heard by the green-eyed male.
"What did you say?!" He exclaims.
"Ah, they're starting."
Royse chuckled as he became relieved that the male didn't recognize him. He feels a certain gaze from afar and saw the same girl earlier staring at him.
She once again blushed and looked away, focusing on her food.
Royse hummed. He returns his attention to the group and noticed the missing two.
"Come to think of it, where are the princes?" He asks.
They all became silent and sighed. The redhead rose his brow in wonder.
"Seeing how we are in our final year, the 2 have been busy with their responsibilities. Sadly, it seems they won't be joining us for a while." Catherine explained.
A part of Royse rejoiced at the info but at the same time, he pitied the 2 seeing how they'll be busy in preparation once they graduate.
It's not weird considering how they'll be taking over the Kingdom in the future. Their schedule must be packed.
"It's a shame. They mentioned that they wished Rosey enrolled at the same time with us, that way they could've spent more time with you when they weren't busy in the last 2 years." Rohesia commented.
Royse furrowed his brows and glanced at Amy who was silent as she ate her meal.
'Sorry sis, but I had to do this to protect you and the rest.' Royse thinks.
"But since we'll be graduating, we need to spend our time to the fullest then." Carl announced as he grinned. "Right?"
The group nod in agreement.
"That's why Rosey should always join us here! And if you make new friends, feel free to bring them over!" Rohesia states in glee.
Royse chuckled and smiled at everyone.
"I will, don't worry."
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I apologize for the short chapter, I wanted to start the second arc with some sort of impact, I don't know the right word for it but somewhere along those lines.
Sadly it didn't go as planned...
I was supposed to update the story back in May but our situation wasn't the best...
so many things happened in the span of these months and no matter how many days had passed, I'm still coping
That is why dear readers, please take care of yourselves. Keep yourselves hydrated, and make sure you get enough vitamins.
I will post the next chapter soon. That is, if things go according to my schedule, hopefully...
Once again, I apologize and I am grateful to you dear readers for tolerating this Author-dono here.