116: A Protagonist’s Aura

The dueling tournament, in its brilliant show of colors and explosions, ended with a certain Class Zero second-year being crowned the new dueling champion: Conrad. Much to the slight annoyance of his fellow second-year, Celeste, who now sat beside Nyssa with a slight crease in her eyebrows. “Like... good for him, but I hate how he looks so cool. He’s such a dork in real life, but he looks like the true protagonist he keeps hyping himself up to be.”

Having just dispatched the now second-place finisher, Conrad sheathed his sword with a flick of the wrist and a stony expression. The click as his sword slid into place seemed to fill the entire stadium as the last of the shining light it emanated disappeared into the sheath.

With his hair blowing into a messy, but styled manner, he turned to the stands and bowed his head before striding off the stage. His black coat billowed in the air behind him, matching his dark hair to create the image of a hero coming back victorious from a difficult war.

The entire stadium, on the other hand, exploded into cheers. Every passing second seemed to mark the creation of a new fanclub. Celeste held her face in her hands, leaning against Nyssa. Nyssa, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend, comforted her as laughs came slipping out between her words.

“At least he didn’t say something like, ‘dedicated to my female supporting lead, Celeste’ like he has in the past...” Celeste tried to look on the brightside. “So, I’m free from this...”

“Well, that’d subtract from this cool persona he’s trying to build, right?” Nyssa patted Celeste, running a hand through her hair. “If he says anything, it’ll dispel his image. Which is good because he’s... a very different person once he starts talking.”

“You’re very right for that,” Celeste sighed. “At least I’ll be free from all of this.”

Not a second after the words left her mouth though, a group of Class Two students behind them began theorizing aloud.

“What do you think is the reason for the all-black outfit? And the ‘no talking’! It’s like he’s being driven by love!”

“Ohhh, that’s such a good point, I wonder who he’s fighting for! Does he have a secret boyfriend or girlfriend?”

“Well, he’s mostly hanging out with Albion and Titus, and like... don’t those two already have ambiguous rumors between them? Same as Ryker and Electra, right? So like, if those four are already in relationships, then like... who’s left?”

“Are! You! Stupid! Come on, the answer’s right in front of us. Literally!”

“Ohhhhhhh... yeah, she’s a second year too... and ohhhhhh you’re so smart.”

Celeste with dead eyes, looked at Nyssa while grinding her teeth. Leaning in closer, she whispered at a volume only they could hear. “And they act like I have no ears. What’s the point of sitting two rows behind us just to say stuff like this. Nothing I can do with you will make them realize at this point... We literally are always together, holding hands, leaning on each other, hugging each other. What more can we do?”

“I mean, you could just make out in public,” Ryker added from the side with a shit-eating grin painted across his face. His delight in Celeste’s situation practically written across his forehead in all bold.

“... I’m not doing that, I have a sense of decency,” Celeste stared back at Ryker. “I’m not as shameless as a weirdo upperclassman like you.”

“Gehak-” Ryker clutched his chest, falling backward against Electra while a fake aggrieved expression appeared on his face. “Electra! You hear this? Our lovely junior is slandering me. What happened to the cute junior who would only say polite things to us, always greet us with a smile, and was so innocent!”

“I mean, she’s not wrong,” Electra retorted with a slight smile tugging at the side of her lips. “You are the most shameless person in our class.”

“Damn...” Ryker hunched over, shaking his head fore a couple seconds before grabbing onto Nyssa’s shoulder. “You must not become like them. You got it? Treasure your youthful brightness and never let that spark of love leave your eyes.”

“What do you mean?” Nyssa raised her eyebrows. She peeled Ryker’s hand off her shoulder, sending it back to him with a light flick. “Nobody thinks you aren’t shameless, you know that?”

“They already got to you!!” Ryker cupped his face in his hands. “How could Celeste do this to you...”

“I... don’t know,” Nyssa mumbled as Celeste wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. A second later, Celeste whispered a “don’t worry about it” in her ear with a laugh.

---

Once the dueling tournament and its crowning ceremony finished, the very same announcer took the stage once more to announce the next event.

“THE CAMPUS WIDE RACE! OHHH YEAHHHHHHH!” The announcer shouted into the microphone, spreading his arms wide. “As usual, there will be TWO races. One for all of our guests, and one for the students. The starting point will be this stadium and anyone is free to join. We will obviously start the race in two waves, students first, then guests. But everyone, right now, is free to begin coming down to the pitch to pick up a number! YOU MUST WEAR THESE NUMBER TAGS! THEY HAVE TRACKERS IN THEM, and are how we ensure you passed all the checkpoints and didn’t cheat.”

While he spoke into the microphone, the emcee pointed towards the row of booths now set-up in front of the stage. The stadium, still packed from the dueling tournament, began filing down the stairs, jampacking every pathway out of the stadium as they all funneled into the stadium’s giant center area.

“This can’t be safe, once the race starts, you might get trapped for an hour before you can even leave the stadium...” Nyssa trailed off as she and Celeste sat still on the bleachers. Unwilling to do the race, but also unable to leave the stadium, they watched as the race preparations came underway.

“That’s just part of it. The ability to fly really helps in this, but even then, since you can fight people, and because a lot of the checkpoints are in buildings, it’s still quite fair,” Celeste sighed, leaning back and resting her elbows on the empty bleacher behind them. “Both of us would probably do well though. You can transform into something stealthy enough to disappear, and I can just... blast other people out of the sky.”

“Certainly seems like a useful skill,” Nyssa mumbled as she watched the giant mass of people down on the pitch separate into two groups, the guests and the students. “It’s going to be a bloodbath once this starts, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”