It has been quite a while since I attended the class.

( Come to think of it… I had been staying on leave for many days. )

It has not even been a week since I continued to come to class after the Gate incident and I have already stayed another 3 days home.

Well, those things were all unavoidable though. I could not just escape from the Gate and I had to deal with the problem right after I came back. It is not like I am intentionally skipping the class.

-CRICK!

Opening the door to the class, I entered the class.

I looked at the faces of my classmates. It was only three days ago that they were glaring at me like they wanted to kill me.

I want to see what they are feeling after knowing the truth. Do they still have that hostility in their eyes?

All the students avoided making contact with my eyes. The moment I laid my eyes on them, they would instantly have their heads down.

( Humph! )

I snorted while watching them make various expressions.

Even I would be ashamed to meet someone whom I have wrongly accused without really knowing the truth. And the problem was that they were fooled not only because Fal created fake stories but because they might want to believe that.

I know that many students at the Ace Academy don’t like me. Primarily because of my sudden rise in rank and becoming somewhat more prominent than them.

Just like how you can’t accept that a person who grades below you all the time suddenly becomes the topper of the class.

So they readily accepted the news when it was criticizing me. They were just idiots who would easily believe something like that.

Anyway, I didn’t particularly hope for any one of them to believe in me. They were just my classmates, nothing more and nothing less.

I headed towards my seat as usual. The student was avoiding me and the student in my way instantly moved away.

I looked like a virus that everyone is trying to avoid, but it worked to my advantage because I didn’t particularly dislike receiving this type of behavior.

It was 10X better to get this type of behavior rather than them trying to make trouble for me.

Sitting down, I fell into deep thoughts. It was about recent events and how some people were looking for trouble with me due to the tournament.

I didn’t expect that I would get into trouble for participating in the tournament. I guess I underestimated the importance of the tournament in the eyes of other people.

It was their chance to rise through the ranks and become the best. Fame will be immeasurable if they are able to break the two-decade record.

While I was just motivated because I might get an Art from winning the tournament, the other school will get much more if they manage to win the tournament.

The recent problem that I encountered was easily solved because I owned TwitFlick and I had people gather information quickly.

If not, things might have turned out just like the Titan Storm Guildmaster wanted. I might have even been removed from the tournament due to my reputation.

After some time, the professor came and took attendance of our class. Unexpectedly, the professor that came to our class was not Professor Mia.

“Professor Mia is tied up with some work. Today, I will be taking her place.”

The professor said,

Though he didn’t really tell us the specifics and just said that Professor Mia had other urgent tasks.

The class continued as usual, and after the theory class, there was a practical class.

This time I was called by Professor Mia to come and train with her. I guess she was finished with her urgent task.

******

“Huff… Puff…”

I heavily breathed as I started to feel the lack of oxygen in my body.

-THUD!

Lying on my back, I looked at the ceiling.

( Did my stamina go down? )

It might be just my imagination but I felt that the training was extra difficult today. It might be because I was planning and dealing with Fal and other people, for which I neglected my training.

Nonetheless, the likelihood of the training being difficult in the first place was more likely.

Two hours ago, professor Mia told me to run in 10X gravity with 400 kg weights.

While it was not that hard at least for the current me, the tiredness had piled up and I was feeling exhausted after 2 hours.

As I thought, the training I was putting myself through was several times more difficult and tougher than what my classmates are going through.

It might even be seen as playing around if people compared the training of mine and the class.

“400 kg in 10X the gravity for two hours, Zero I have to say that I am impressed.”

Professor Mia excitedly expressed her thoughts.

Zero was only Rank-D+ while he could train almost as if he was Rank-C which was absolutely a good thing.

Though in reality, the endurance Zero showed was almost at the Rank of B.

The reason why Professor Mia said Rank-C was because she was comparing Zero endurance to her past self.

Taking a towel and wiping the sweat, I rested for a moment.

“Professor Mia, why were you there in the morning?”

I asked.

It was not that I needed to know but I was quite curious. There are not many times when she would change her schedule without a major reason.

“Oh, this morning? I made sure to warn the Titan Storm Guildmaster to behave himself. Next time he tries to pull a similar stunt, I would make sure to pulverize their whole guild.”

Professor Mia said while fuming with anger.

The reason she didn’t come to the class in the morning seems to be because she wanted to deal with Titan Storm Guildmaster.

She was already angry because Ace Academy had stopped her from getting in contact with Zero ever since the problem cropped up.

She had been given lots of reasons not to interfere. For example, she wanted to prove that Zero would never do the thing depicted in the news but was stopped because they said there was evidence against him.

In another instance, she wanted to attend the conference but was told that she will be biased toward Zero due to her being his mentor.

She believed that Zero would not commit those crimes. She already knows how much the news companies manipulate the news just to get it viral.

She was willing to help Zero deal with the journalist and his bad reputation. Though Zero refused her help by saying that he could handle it.

She could not help but wait since Zero has said it himself.

Anyway, she was frustrated not being able to help. In addition, she was feeling angry because she was aware that some of these problems arises because of her (She created hate between the journalists and herself by using her aura during the Gate incident).

She knows that there are many people waiting for her to get knocked down. The journalist who schemed at Zero, the professor who took the opportunity to bring her disciple down, and also other people waiting for their chance.

“Anyway, you don’t need to worry about the same things happening again. If anyone dares to make trouble for you in the future, I will make sure to let them know who they are facing.”

This time she didn’t say much about the Ace Academy not supporting Zero because it could be said that the opponent has some evidence against Zero. But next time they do the same thing, she will not show mercy just because they were her colleagues.

The professors who tried to make trouble for Zero are not idiots. They should have known that other schools are plotting against the Ace Academy.

Various problems always arise as the tournament days approach. The professors should know this and yet they prioritize their own desire rather than look at the bigger picture.

Professor Mia was truly disgusted by the attitude of the Ace Academy Professor.

Anyway, such negative feelings soon vanished as she trained alongside Zero. Seeing Zero work hard had always made her feel better.

Zero showed impressive endurance for his age and rank. His perseverance and motivation to work harder was something that she as a professor appreciated in students.

Zero had been kept here until midnight. With the tournament just around the corner, Professor Mia wanted Zero to focus on improving himself.

Additionally, she was paying attention to prevent Zero from getting injured. She still worried about his body which was on the verge of death.

She was worried but that was why she was determined. To avoid a similar fate, she had to make Zero stronger.

The training continued with Professor Mia teaching Zero about condensing his mana and regulating his mana. Since both use Ice Art, Zero learned various things from Professor Mia.

She also sparred with Zero to increase his experience. Though the result was always Zero getting beaten down by Professor Mia.

She made sure that she passed down her experience to Zero whether in the form of teaching or combat.

There was not much time left for the tournament and it could be seen from the attitude of the participants.

The students looked exhausted most of the time during the class. Often they would skip the theory class.

Their training time has drastically increased. They were kept in the training ground from 6-10 at a minimum.

Due to the short time left for the tournament, this effort was purely a last-minute attempt to boost the power of the participants.

There is only one week left before the Tournament of Academies starts.