Chapter 6: The Son of an Influential Merchant

WHILE EVERYONE WAS having their own classes, a ringing bell was heard all over the academy. In an instant, students of Sky Crane Academy excitedly rushed out from their respective classrooms. Ryle was not an exemption from this, the moment he heard the signal, he was the first one to exit thay class — he had grown tired of Kin's voice and everything about the instructor.

However, as the young man was taking his steps to the cafeteria, he suddenly felt a hand behind his neck. Feeling alarmed, Ryle shoved the hand away with his brute force. When he happened to look back to met the person who was daring enough to harass him like that, he met the stares of Oswald.

Oswald Belser was an D- wizard, ranked third in their class, and his background wasn't something to be trifled with. Oswald's father was a merchant who owned the Thousand Lily Shop and Shop held an influence in the Merchant's Alliance. The mentioned alliance, if united, was one of the influences who had the strength to go threaten the royal family — it couldn't be underestimated. Simply put, Oswald was not simple at all.

Contrarily, Ryle's brows met with the sight of Oswald, the reason being, Oswald was known as someone who would prey on the weak. Most of his classmates who were at the bottom of the rankings including him would regularly get bullied by Oswald. As per Jadren's accounts, just recently, Oswald had been targetting him more often than before.

"Thought the act earlier was for a show. It really is that you have grown some balls," Oswald's lips did show an antrocious smile.

Ryle patted his uniform and stated, "Don't you think you should do the same? Grow some balls too and prey on the same level as yours... or it is that you are afraid to challenge your equals?"

Infuriated or excitement? Oswald couldn't tell which among those two emotions he was feeling at the moment... or perhaps it could be both? It was the first time in a while that his prey resisted, so Oswald couldn't contain his feelings right now. In his mind, Oswald was thinking of a couple of ways to torture Ryle.

"I like it when my prey fights back," the moment Oswald's finished his sentence, his mana started turning into lightning particles.

There were students who were watching Ryle and Oswald's confrontation: majority of them were entertained and were0 anticipating what would happen nex0000t, there were those who felt fear, some paid no notice and just passed by, but none of them stopped the two — as if bullying was a normal occurence.

The academy was aware of these bullying incidents, but as much as they wanted to take action, those who were bullied refused to speak up. The reason behind this was the fact that the bullied students were mostly from the military families, like Ryle, and0 ordinary families who were scholars of the academy. Contrarily, the bullies were from noble families or worse, the royal family.

Now, if these bullied students chose to not be speechless, then an unfortunate event could only happen not just to them, but to their families as well. The noble families let alone the royal family had the 0 to deal with Oswald, considering the fact that he was only an F wizard, while Oswald was a D-.

However, Ryle wouldn't dare take the beating for free; the outcome would be the same whether he would retaliate or not. Just as Ryle was preparing to take on Oswald, he saw Kin exited the classroom. A perfect opportunity to escape from the situation suddenly showed up in front of Ryle; he wouldn't dare neglect it.

"In front of Instructor Kin, really?" Ryle pointed his fingers towards the instructor who was now standing behind Oswald.

Oswald took a short glance at the instructor, then nod; the instructor did the same. The next second, instead of the lightning particles around Oswald subsiding, his mana was continuously being converted into more lightning particles. Oswald was preparing to cast an order.

"You bet the instructor would take your side? Dream on." Not only was Oswald grinning, but Kin as well.

"Come on, I know both of you wanted me dead that badly." Ryle raised both his hand up in the air. "Go on... but let us see if the higher-ups of Sky Crane Academy will let this incident slide after I told them to review the recording array, Instructor Kin."

The instructor who was just pridefully grinning was frozen from his position in an instant. The existence of the array should be hidden from the students, so how come Ryle was aware of its existence? Did the higher-ups disclosed the information to Ryle? However, as Kin thought harder about it, his conclusion doesn't make sense because Ryle wasn't someone significant. Perhaps, his student was just bluffing?

"Wh-what recording a-array are you talking about?" Kin cried out a fake laugh after his statement. He was testing if the existence of array was really brought into Ryle's attention.

"Left side." those two words from Ryle made Kin held Oswald on the shoulders.

Afterall, Kin was still a professor; he wasn't dumb enough to not understand what Ryle meant by left side. Left side was the location of the recording array; to be specific, it was installed on the insignia of Sky Crane Academy which was located on the left side of Kin's uniform. Every instructor of the academy had it and its function was to record every action of the instructor and check on the activities of the students.

"O-oh, you really think I couldn't just de-delete it?" there was a hint of nervousness on Kin's words.

"Instructor Kin, I wouldn't be that shameless enough to say that. Are you underestimating the power of higher-ups? They will surely know if the contents of the recording array was altered, modified, or even deleted."

Initially, Kin was planning to let Oswald beat Ryle to death, but later on delete that part in the recording array. This could've have been a perfect plan, since the higher-ups don't regulary check the array. However, it would be a different story if Ryle would request for the higher-ups to review his recording array. Kin was certain that the higher-ups would go through his recordings; they were not that simple to not notice the things that were altered in the array and they would surely not let Kin off because of his negligence.

"Oswald, it stops here," for the second time, Kin could only his defeat.

Whistling while taking his steps to the cafeteria was Ryle; he was victorious for the second time today. The students who witnessed the confrontation were now looking at Ryle with an eyes full of awe. On the other side of the coin, Oswald couldn't help but hold back. Instructor Kin was gripping his shoulders hardly — it was a warning that he shouldn't do anything funny.