I Reject Quests

"That's, uh, something…" Famin didn't know what he should say to continue the conversation. Even though he had an interest in the topic, due to his weak social skills, he couldn't properly hold the conversation for long in some cases.

He was too conscious of what he should say if it's appropriate or not; if it's contextual to the matter or not, how he should convey the message without sounding pretentious, and how the other party would take his words.

In the simplest of terms, bad childhood led to this. It instilled a deep-rooted inferiority complex within himself that has yet to rot away. He grew up thinking he was inferior to others. There were some people who had encouraged and told him that he was just as capable as the others but if words could heal, he would have become immortal by now.

He was always in a dilemma about which road should he pick – "man up" or let the time heal. He tried both of these and failed. "Man up" is only possible in a scenario where you have something more than just determination and courage. As harsh as it might sound, that's the reality he had experienced.

And time? How was he supposed to heal with time when he never got the time itself?

Nevertheless, Famin found the "time-healing" process much more palatable, achievable, and believable. According to his beliefs, a person's state of mind is temporary. With the passage of time, he is sure to encounter different events which could restructure the way he thinks.

One could say that he is optimistic and should take active measures. For instance, go out and socialize, and maybe use the system to wash away his troubles. However, this is but a naïve way of looking at things. There needs to be a breakthrough of the mind.

Getting physically stronger would only further his inferiority complex in the mask of superiority complex. It would give him a false sense of superiority that would cover the shining inferiority underneath. The moment he encounters a person who is superior to himself, the inferiority would resurface.

Famin has dreams of becoming successful and strong and he knows that his mindset is the only hindrance on his road to success.

"Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

Suddenly, he was woken up from his thoughts by a female voice. The voice belonged to the person sitting closest to him, Zelic.

"Did… you say something?" Looking at her, Famin asked. He noticed that most of the stress and anger that was emitting from her had faded away.

"I asked… Never mind. You were blanking out. Are you always like that? The Branch Director is about to continue so I thought of…"

"Ah, thank you."

Famin rubbed his eyes and fixed his eyes on the stage.

On the stage.

"Again, if there is a doubt in your mind, which is natural, then you could go through the report that I would post on the academy's official site." The Branch Director paused, then looked through the faces in front of him. He inwardly smiled when he saw that most of them looked convinced.

"The next event happened on the 2nd of April, that is, the day right after. It was night. Rewen had gone out to have dinner and booked an appointment in a restaurant. When he sat down to eat his meal, he was greeted by the woman. The same woman who was drugged on the 31st of March and who was revealed to be a classmate of his.

"At this point, it can be concluded that it is anything but a coincidence. The two of them had an interesting conversation. To summarize the entire conversation, the woman who was drugged asked for Rewen to be monitored on the activities in his daily life. Rewen firmly refused. It was unknown why the woman would even ask such a thing. The most probable speculation is that it was simply for her own self-enjoyment.

"Perhaps she wishes to make his life difficult. The truth is – we can't say for sure. The exchange was weird, to say the least. Everyone might be thinking that it made sense for Rewen to reject such terms but when reading between the lines, it is clear that he had some idea of the background of the person. He knew that he was in an unfavorable position yet he refused. It was a strange discovery.

"The brief encounter ended when he walked away from the restaurant and immediately applied to join the Grand Ultine Kapile Club but that is a topic for another day. For now, there are two main things that must be remembered.

"First, the woman who was drugged was not an ordinary woman. She had a background much larger than you might imagine. It has been verified.

"Second, how did Rewen seem to know about her background? Later, he proves himself to have knowledge of her identity. The question as to why he knew is unanswered and the answer could not be speculated without the speculation being nothing more than a guess."

The Branch Director stopped speaking.

"Huh? This is really weird."

"I'm interested in the conversation that happened between them."

"Looks like the Qiki girl had a hidden aim in joining the academy."

"That shouldn't be possible. The admissions were already closed by the mid of March. Even if she had a good background, there's no way she could just join the academy on a single day."

"Hm, that's true. Maybe the part about her encounter with Rewen Klofar was nothing more than a coincidence."

"Yes. From the looks of it, it seems like it was a coincidence. However, her meeting Rewen in the restaurant isn't."

"Wait. The conclusion, as well as the premise, is wrong. Qiki was a first-year exchange student. She had registered in some other branches of Eastern Dream Super-academy but in the final moment changed the branches."

"What? Is that the case?"

"You could check the admission records. It's certainly not a coincidence that she transferred to our academy."

The students communicated among themselves to arrive at a conclusion.

The same discussion is going on in the middle seats…

"We thought we knew everything." Junar bitterly smiled.

"Of course, you couldn't know everything. I think it's great that we are filling in the gaps with answers to the questions we previously had in our minds." Bianca thoughtfully replied.

Junar didn't argue further and waited for the Branch Director to speak again.

Kesha was about to say something when she noticed something unusual. Shifting her eyes, she saw that the person sitting beside her, Francesca, had her fingers shaking. She had no focus on her eyes and was blankly staring at her front.

"Um, is there something wrong?"

"No, no." Francesca woke up from her daze and hurriedly shook her head.

"Your hands were shaking…? Are you ill?" Kesha didn't appear to be convinced and asked in a concerned tone.

"It's just… too crowded."

"Too crowded?"

"I have claustrophobia."

"Shit!" Kesha's eyes went as wide as possible. Her reaction was similar to that of discovering someone close to her having late-stage cancer. "Let's take you somewhere." She tried to get up with the intention to take Francesca somewhere 'safe'.

Francesca hurriedly stopped her. "I'm more or less okay now. As long as it's not a completely closed space, I shouldn't be much affected. Besides, I don't want to attract attention."

"Are you sure?" Kesha asked.

"Yes." Francesca nodded.

On the last seats.

Famin didn't want to invest much time and effort into making up a hypothesis when he would be hearing facts in the next moment. His interest was towards the blonde-haired girl sitting beside him who was biting off the nails with her teeth with ferocious eyes.

'Her reactions are comedic. If I wasn't seeing this with my own two eyes, I would have believed her to be some cartoonish character who is just there for comic relief. Whatever. I shouldn't look at her for too long.'

He retracted his eyes and looked around the training ground.

The initially quiet atmosphere had turned lively. From instructors to staff, from first-years to third years; everyone was engaged in a serious discussion. When he looked at the stage, he saw the Branch Director looking at them with a slight smile on his face.

'This is certainly a good way to increase the students to socialize with each other collectively on an issue. It's quite rare to get everyone into a discussion about a certain issue. The Branch Director is making use of that.'

Socializing is one of the most important elements for an academy to continue to do better. It increases the feeling of unity among the students and sets up an opportunity for them to know each other better. Not only does it help in the academic curriculum but also outside of the academic curriculum. 

"Ugh! I'm so angry!!"

Zelic slapped her armrests venting her anger.

"If only I had realized her true nature..."