A Side Villain…

The first thing that came to his mind while walking in the class was ‘something’s wrong’ and it was corroborated by the fact that when he entered everyone stopped talking and now there was a pin drop silence and everyone's gaze was directed at him. Their gazes were filled with disgust, loathing, aversion and abhorrence, some gazes had a little hesitation and disbelief but they were like drops in oceans.

 

He had a feeling about what was going on but still kept a little hope and walked towards his seat, the bell rang indicating that it was time for the first period to begin but somehow Mr Phillips was running late and when he didn’t come for another minute or so everyone started whispering to each other.

 

‘Hey isn’t that him?’

 

‘Hmm, yeah he is one.’

 

‘So he’s the one who has been harassing and following that girl in A section?’

 

‘Yupp and guess what he’s a pervert, treacherous and an insane nymphomaniac.’ A boy commented. 

 

All the girls in the class shivered at that and their gaze at Akira intensed, they also made up their minds to never interact with him or even go near him. The boys too made up their mind regarding that and as a result the ones that were sitting near him got up and left that place so that now Akira was left alone at the back bench.

 

‘‘I have also heard that a few years ago he beat up our classmate Ryle just because he was talking to that girl.’’

 

‘‘What was her name again?’’ A boy asked.

 

‘‘Ahh I know it is Lily, she is the daughter of that dryad.’’ A girl who lived near Lily answered this question.

 

‘‘The only dryad in Origin city?’’ The boy asked.

 

‘‘Yes I live near them so you can be sure.’’

 

‘‘Hey guys are you sure that the rumours we have heard are true and not just a hoax?’’ A timid bespectacled girl asked.

 

‘‘You don’t know? Prince Richard and Lily were talking about this.’’ Ryle answered with a smirk plastered on his face.

 

‘‘They were talking?’’ The shy girl asked.

 

Now everyone else was looking at Ryle waiting for his response. He stood up from his seat and went to the place where a teacher would stand so that everyone’s attention was now focused on him, Akira too.

 

Since the moment Akira entered in the class the entire scene was following the same route of the game though the intensity was much bigger and that confused him as he had made sure that this won’t happen but all in vain he could stop this nonsense but there was also this curiosity of what’s going to happen next so he endured.

 

‘‘Ahem.. ahem” Ryle cleared his throat then looked at Akira and began speaking.

 

“You guys might have heard the rumours right?”

 

All of them had heard that rumour from someone who was eavesdropping on Richard and lily's conversations whose gist was that a boy in their class had been chasing and harassing a girl from A section and despite her repeated ‘requests’ of not being chased he still continued and she was forced to endure it. At first they treated it like normal, yes they were disgusted but nothing that extreme but when Ryle came forward and began telling everyone his personal experience they were shell-shocked.

 

Yesterday when Akira was in the dungeon Ryle took many of the students to the cafeteria where they 'accidentally' met prince Richard and when asked about Lily’s experiences he denied to speak anything saying that it was a private matter between those two and he had no right to comment on it. His statement which was neutral only made Ryle and other guys believe more in the accusations. They had never met the victim or the accused but believed all the story.

 

And since this was a place where rumours travels faster than anything, most of the people from sections C,D and E of first year now know about Akira and his deeds which have made him quite infamous. As for why the A and B section were excluded, they were simply not interested in the problems of commoners. This was actually in sync to what happened in the game but the scale was limited only to their class but now the entire first year was included.

 

"So what should we do next?” The bespectacled girl asked. 

 

“it's very simple we should stay away from that guy, unless you want the same thing to happen with yourself .” Ryle replied and at that very moment Mr. Woods came into the class, his breath was uneven indicating that he had been running to reach here.

 

“Hey kids, sorry for coming late on the second day itself.” He said with a sigh and removed sweat beads from his forehead then he looked at Ryle who was still standing at the teacher’s place.

 

“Uhh… Mr Ryle, could you step down?” He asked politely.

 

Ryle who was in the middle of his interaction stepped down from the pedestal and went to his seat not before giving Akira a hateful and a smug grin to which the former only shrugged his head.

 

“Let’s skip the formalities and begin our lesson. Today’s topic is mana application.” Then Mr Woods begins telling them the scientific analysis of mana along with how it produces energy and then how humanity re-engineered core stones to power the current civilization.

 

The lesson was quite intriguing and for the students who were learning this for the first time they had their eyes and ears glued to his explanation of course that didn’t apply to Akira. Was the lesson not good enough for him? Nah the thing was he knew almost everything they could teach in theoretical ways, his understanding about mana and the delicate intricacies regarding it were very detailed. Like when Mr Woods was telling about the state of mana depreciation in a body and the consequences like shortness of breath, powerlessness, suffocation, anxiety etc etc he immediately knew the cure to that was circulating the mana present in the atmosphere inside the body and recharge the mana cores.

 

Or when the topic was about mana beast and their evolution, he already knew their history of first being ordinary animals and then through getting in contact with mana rich areas several new changes began developing in their DNA and with a passage of time it made them compatible with the mana and hence the title ‘Mana Beast’.

 

Even after knowing everything he made sure to appear attentive in the class and not act like a certain prick who would never focus on the class as according to him this theoretical knowledge played a tiny role in actual combat so physical training is the best.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Oh so mana understanding can give this much exp?’ Akira thought in mind and put his attention back to class.

 

Meanwhile in section A, Richard who too was sitting on the back bench sneezed a little loud startling the entire class and everyone looked at him which was uncomfortable to say so he stood up from his seat and said,

 

“Sorry everyone looks like I have a cold this morning.” The class looked at him and thought, ‘yeah a person in A section having such a thing is totally believable’.

 

While he muttered to himself, ‘who is talking about me?’ Lily who was sitting near him saw this abnormality and asked in a small voice, 

 

“Hey are you okay?” Her voice was quite tender, unlike what Akira has to listen to.

 

“Ohh it’s nothing, maybe someone is thinking about me hehehe.” He actually laughed in the class and that got the attention of the teacher.

 

“Mr Richard, could you maintain the decorum?” He asked in a stern voice.

 

“I am sorry for such an uncouth display.” He bowed and well that action was quite effective as the teacher smiled and nodded.

 

“So what was I saying? Ah yes the theory of mana beasts.” Then the teacher began telling about the history of mana beasts and how they got acquainted with mana.

 

There was a stark contrast present between section A to that of section E, it was the attitude of students to what was taught in the class. In section E everyone was attentive and listened to the teacher's explanation with great focus while in the A section the teacher who was even better than Mr Woods was not given that much respect and it had to do with the backgrounds of the students. 

 

In section E where everyone was a commoner who made it to the academy with their merit, A section was filled with cream of the talent in the entire continent and since everyone was at a respectable position they were taught many things beforehand and theory being one of them. But since exceptions are present everywhere a group of students led by Aurora who was sitting at the front desk were paying utmost attention to the lecture, they were noting important points, asking questions about things they didn’t understood and all in all it was quite a new thing for the teacher to see this much enthusiasm in the A section.

 

Aurora was a perfectionist and that of course applied to her aspiration of being a topper in the academy, so she decided to get the first rank in both theory and physical classes. Her faction also supported and picked up this habit and were focusing on getting the next best ranks.

 

Factions were a common occurrence in the academy, the top students were expected to collect talent in their faction and keep them until the end of the academy. It not only helps the students to have a sense of security in a faction but also helps them in gaining resources to level up and have a secure future. 

 

Richard too knew the importance of a faction and that’s why he was working hard to make a loyal and powerful faction which could support him not only inside the school but in outside matters too. but since at the moment he was in the class he decided to focus on that. 

 

Akira on the other hand was now completely alienated by everyone else and was sitting alone, the classes were going on but the things they taught were nothing new so somehow his mind wandered off to the protagonist of this game and his backstory. 

 

He was second heir to the throne and let's just say that his relationship with his esteemed older brother was not the best, on the outside the Royal family showed itself like the zenith of how a family should behave and act but the real stuff was always under the covers. The current king had two wives both of which were from important neighboring empires and initially their relationship with each other was cordial but things changed after the birth of two sons.

 

The first born Jason von Astrom was a very talented kid, since childhood he was touted as the 'golden boy' and those were not mere words, he really had extraordinarily aptitude in mana application along with his special innate skill of 'All weapon mastery' which allowed him to wield any and all weapons with excellent skill he was definitely going to be the next king and probably the one who could unite all the empires on origin continent. 

 

But how could fate allow that to happen? So after seven years of his birth the second wife gave birth to the protagonist of this world, Richard. At first like every other kid Jason was elated to have a younger brother, his father who saw Jason being this happy allowed him to name the boy and after thinking for a long time he named him after the ancestor of the Von Astrom family, Richard Von Astrom, second prince of Astrom empire. 

 

Richard like his brother since childhood showed strong affinity to the natural mana present in atmosphere and mind you that was a groundbreaking feat as normal humans rely on their own mana cores before the age of 10 and could not take in mana present in air, even Jason who was termed as golden boy could do that when he was five and yet Richard achieved it when he was merely a toddler of two years, the whole kingdom rejoiced at this feat and he too was given the title of 'golden boy'. Jason was extremely happy for his brother and continued to love and pamper him, it could be said that the Von Astrom empire was blessed by Gods themselves to have such heirs but things began to change when Richard became seven years old. 

 

Jason's growth has started to stagnate. It was no way near to the previous speed, he could beat anyone in his age group but the phenomenal growth that he had shown was nowhere, he used to climb tiers in weeks but now weeks become months and then months become years. Richard on the other hand was getting stronger at an even greater speed than his previous self at just nine years of age he was in sixth tier and Jason despite being 16 was only in fourth tier but his innate of 'all weapon' skill gave him comfort he knew that this was one in a million and would always help him. 

 

That comfort of his was also thrown off when Richard unlocked his own innate skill of 'Spear God' which was also the innate skill of Von Astrom family's ancestor and if Jason's skill was one of the best on planet then Richard's skill would be called divine, Spear God meant that as long one carried a Spear with him and had fighting spirit he won't lose, of course that still depended upon his own strength and other things but still this was a cheat. When Jason heard about Richard's skill it was like the ground had slipped away under his feet and now he was falling into an infinite abyss. He now knew that his dream of becoming the emperor was not going to be fulfilled and he was right to think that as in a society based upon strength why would someone choose the second best? 

 

Jason was sent to the academy when he became sixteen and lived there for the next three years, during that time Richard continued to grow stronger he even became the champion in Royal Rumble. Jason too grew in strength but when compared to his little brother it was not enough and by the time he went home everyone on the Origin continent knew who was going to be the next emperor in the Von Astrom empire. 

 

By this time Jason had started to hate Richard, yes his very own little brother to whom he had promised to keep safe. Human greed is insatiable and no living being is free from it. Jason knew that getting the throne on his own was now a distant dream and he had still not become that much of an evil to harm his own family so he decided to collude with the same neighboring country where his mother came from. During this period he also began giving Richard a cold shoulder and would not talk much with anyone in the family except his mother. 

 

King Arthur noticed this abnormality of his first son and decided to keep a check on him for his own satisfaction and within a week a disturbing news came to him. The shadow that he had appointed to follow his older son gave him the news about Jason's collusion with the neighboring empire. Arthur was furious would be an understatement, he wanted to exile Jason and let everyone in the empire know about his crime of treason but was persuaded by his two wives and Richard who asked him to forgive his older brother. 

 

Jason could not be kept in the capital so it was decided that the first prince would be sent to the southern borders near the Great Ocean where he would stay until recalled, this news spread like wildfire and swept the entire continent. Everyone had their own speculation behind this incident but since there was no news from the Royal family the matter was forgotten by the general public. 

 

But how could Richard forget this? He learnt a very harsh yet true lesson that there is no kinship in kingship and ever since that day he had decided to train even stronger and become the next emperor.

 

Akira's thoughts were brought back to the class when a bell rang and from the looks outside of the window it was the lunch break meaning that, 

 

"Another cliche thing is going to happen."