The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Even though Evelyn thought that it was absurd, she still decided to make it clear, just in case Cecilia ended up misunderstanding her.

"I never said I liked the giant centipede. I was just curious. Got it?"

Cecilia breathed a sigh of relief. "Got it. That's good."

Evelyn raised her hands in exasperation, now sure that she shouldn't allow Cecilia free time to think too much, or she'll surely have many headaches by the time they reached the academy.

The pink haired girl cleared her throat. "You know, I was wondering why those boys from earlier came making trouble for me, even though I've never met them before."

Cecilia blinked. "Ah, you mean those Terran boys?"

Evelyn nodded. "Right. If they wanted to pick a fight here just because of their kingdom's enmity with the Lavinian empire, isn't it too absurd? Do they plan to go around picking fights with everyone from the empire while at the academy?"

The ash blonde scratched her head, slightly embarrassed.

She wanted her friend to come to the academy with her, and had been very excited at the prospect of being here together for the past two years. Perhaps she had glorified the academy too much in her letters, and the pink haired girl thought everything there must be perfect.

Cecilia felt like a scumbag who had scammed an innocent maiden off her money the first time she left home.

"I-It may sound absurd, but actually it's not far from the truth. B-But you don't have to worry about it, I'm here, after all!"

Evelyn tilted her head in confusion. "Really? They fight with us all the time?"

Cecilia sighed. "It's true. While the students of the remaining countries are peacefully studying or practicing, the Lavinian and Terran students spend a lot of their time butting heads."

"That's just…"

Seeing how her friend was speechless, Cecilia groaned. Now that the cat was out of the bag, might as well reveal it all in one go.

"Actually, to make matters worse, the Terrans have recently had far more talented batches, making the Lavinian students easier to bully. With myself as an exception, it's safe to say that most of the Lavinians are either average or worse."

Evelyn frowned. From what she had been able to glean in the past two years, the general level of strength in the Lavinian empire was the highest among the five greater powers of the continent.

"But Lavinia is the biggest empire in the continent. Even if we're going through a lower quality batch of commoners, how can the difference be so huge?"

Cecilia sighed. "Well, you have to realize that while the bullies can often just do their thing and go meditate with a relaxed mood, the bullied will often not be able to get into the right mindset out of frustration and rage. The core of the problem lies with the strong momentum of the Terrans against the Lavinians."

What she didn't say was that the main issue lay with the fact that not only did the Lavinian royalty support complete suppression of the ancient families in the empire, they themselves did not send many descendants to the academy.

This meant that the number of 'true talents' from the Lavinian empire were much lower than the others.

Going by the current trend, even if the war ended today, the next few Lavinian batches would have nothing but commoners. Because the youngest spirit baby in the ancient families, Evelyn, had already entered the academy.

At least in the next eight batches, there would be no one else unless the royal family's descendants had someone among their ranks. The future of the commoner Lavinian students at the academy was grim and dark indeed.

"As a prefect, wouldn't you be able to do something about it? Like you did earlier?"

Cecilia scratched her cheek lightly, looking away shyly. "I mean, I just became one. This is the first time I've punished someone. Do you think I made a difference?"

Evelyn smiled. "Definitely. If not for you, things might have been a lot more troublesome to handle. I could have beaten them up, but it might have led to an even worse situation."

The ash blonde girl nodded happily before motioning her friend to come closer. "It's good that you realize that. Because there's a reason those boys were so confident."

Evelyn blinked curiously as she motioned her friend to continue.

Cecilia leaned closer to whisper directly into her ears. "Past this compartment, the next one is occupied by the Terrans, you know. And their prince is currently the strongest student in the academy, and is also in that compartment as a prefect."

Evelyn frowned deeply. Although she had grown to level twenty two already and was fairly confident in beating up most students, she couldn't be sure of the exact level of this so called 'strongest student'.

"Do you know what his level is?"

Cecilia looked a little dumbfounded at her friend's question. Was she looking to fight someone more than twice her age? Not only was Prince Craig not a nobody, his reputation as a genius preceded his status far and wide.

"Uhm, no idea, honestly. The only way to know would be to use either a probing array or an assessment stone, and the academy uses neither. The rankings are all decided based on real world combat."

Evelyn's eyes were glinting, her curiosity clear for all to see.

"Oh… that's interesting."

Cecilia shrugged.

The pink haired girl smirked mischievously. "Then, how strong is he compared to you? Can he beat two of you together, or ten of you?"

"Ugh…"

While the ash blonde was embarrassedly looking away from her, Evelyn took the time to use her probe skill on the girl.

- Cecilia Fulbright: Level 31 [ Exp: 21,440 / 23,730 ]

Special Physique: Blessed Spirit

—Physique: 220

—Spirit Power: 162

—Soul Value: 159

—Vitality: 482

[ Enhancement (available): Lumineer's Plight ]

[ Affection: Stable ]

[ Unable to view skills, higher level of affection required. ]

Cecilia was certainly quite strong. She must have grown tremendously over the past two years, because there was no way a normal blessed spirit could get to this point at this age with just natural growth.

However, the difference between Cecilia's current level of strength and Evelyn was only around twenty to thirty percent. If Cecilia was the most gifted genius in her year, then Evelyn really had no expectations from her peers.

But she had expected as much. In fact, if she still had to compete with children 'her own age' with all of her numerous advantages, then she would have to really reevaluate what she was doing with her life.

Cecilia seemed to have gotten over her embarrassment at this point, and mumbled something inaudible, even though Evelyn had her sensitive ears fully perked up.

"I didn't catch that?"

Cecilia's eyes were slightly wet as she bit her lip. "I-I said… he can crush me like a bug, okay?"

Evelyn blinked, genuinely shocked. To crush someone like a bug meant it would take him no effort at all, right? Wouldn't that mean she, too, would be completely defenseless against him right now?

"Would you really be helpless, even if there were hundreds of you against him?"

Cecilia's face flushed completely red. "H-He's six years older than me! I've only had two years of training, he's had eight. A-And, and he's even got the best resources of the Terrazyme kingdom! I-I'm not weak!"

Looking at the tears welling up in the girl's eyes, Evelyn felt her heart soften as she pulled the girl into a hug.

She had forgotten that this girl was, after all, only ten years old.

'Poor baby was trying to show off to her friend, but I ended up making her feel humiliated… Sheesh, I guess I owe her.'

"Sorry, Cecilia, I didn't mean to say you were weak. In fact, I think you're super, duper strong. That's why I couldn't believe it when you said he could beat you."

"R-Really?"

"Mhmm."

The girl seemed to have recovered a little, but instead of pulling away, she snuggled deeper into her friend's embrace, ignoring the gloomy glare from the little fox that had been set aside on the table along with the puppy.

"Well! I'll have you know, I can beat him! Just let me grow a little more! Humph, two, no three years! Three years later, I'll kick that Terran toad's butt for you!"

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Meanwhile, the prince, who was inspecting the food in chamber sixteen suddenly looked around in confusion.

"What's wrong, Prince Craig?"

"Nothing, I just felt like someone said that accursed word, hm, but no one would dare, right?"