Chapter 232: A Hidden Assassin!
"It's today, right? The opening ceremony."
"Yeah."
"Why does school start in April in this country?"
"Eh? Um... I heard it's because this is when the cherry blossoms bloom, so they set the start of school in this month."
"I see, speaking of which, 'flower viewing' is a custom here, right?"
"Yes, that's right... though I haven't really experienced anything like it, so I'm not clear on the details."
On Hagun Academy's opening day, Luke and Ikki completed their usual morning run.
They were now resting at an outdoor table in a campus park.
As the two chatted, Stella finally caught up.
"Hah... hah..."
"Finally... made it..."
"What are... you talking about? Flower viewing?"
After several days of persistence, Stella could now barely complete the same training as Luke and Ikki.
During these days before school started, the three had spent almost all their time together training.
Beyond morning runs, there was also sword training and other exercises in the morning.
Afternoons were devoted to sparring between the three.
Though called three-person practice, most of the time it was Ikki and Stella teaming up against Luke alone.
During this period, Luke and Stella finally witnessed Ikki's Blazer ultimate technique 'Ittou Shura'.
"Good work."
Seeing Stella gasping for breath, Luke waved to stop her from speaking further.
Gesturing for the girl to catch her breath first, Luke explained:
"Ikki says this is when cherry blossoms bloom, and this country has a 'flower viewing' custom."
"Honestly, I've never seen a large grove of cherry trees, so I'm somewhat interested."
Stella listened to Luke's explanation while taking a few sips from her prepared sports drink.
As her breathing steadied, she joined the conversation.
"Flower viewing? I'm very interested too!"
"Though I researched this country's customs and traditions before coming, I really want to experience it firsthand."
"Let's go together when we have the chance!"
"I'm super interested in foreign cultures!... but... where should we go for flower viewing?"
"The school seems to have quite a few cherry trees planted... but viewing flowers at school feels a bit strange..."
Stella's words made Luke think.
Indeed, he was also quite interested in the culture of different countries.
But as Stella said, where should they go for flower viewing? What should they do during it?
Luke was equally clueless about such things.
So Luke and Stella both turned their attention to the only native resident among them.
Feeling Luke and Stella's gaze, Ikki scratched his head awkwardly.
"Well... that... actually, I don't know either..."
Seemingly embarrassed about not understanding his own country's customs despite being born and raised in the country, Ikki's voice grew increasingly quiet.
"Eh?! You don't know either?"
Stella looked at Ikki in surprise.
"Well, it's somewhat expected."
The one who explained to Stella wasn't Ikki but Luke.
"You know Ikki's current situation, right? In that environment plus the enormous training load."
"Not having time to learn about these 'useless' things is only natural."
Luke's words made Stella understand.
After these days together, Luke, Stella, and Ikki had become friends.
They had gained a relatively clear understanding of Kurogane Ikki's situation.
The Kurogane family was extremely dissatisfied with having a 'waste' like Ikki in their main family.
Under orders from the current Kurogane family head - Ikki's birth father.
Various methods emerged endlessly - spreading rumors, pressuring school leadership, bribing students to bully Ikki, and so on.
The goal was to strip Ikki of his qualification to become a Mage Knight.
As long as Kurogane Ikki remained a Mage Knight for one day, the fact that the prestigious Kurogane family produced an F-rank waste knight existed for one day.
In the present environment of 'power supreme, ability supreme', the Kurogane family, as one of the country's power holders, would never allow someone like Ikki who shook the existing social system to exist.
Ikki's repetition of grades was also a result of the Kurogane family's behind-the-scenes manipulation.
In the previous year, Ikki had struggled through absolute unfairness.
However, this year was different.
The newly appointed Director Shinguuji Kurono wasn't someone to be trifled with, and she paid no attention to the Kurogane family's wishes.
On the contrary, her first act after taking office was to fire all teachers who had colluded with the Kurogane family.
And Ikki finally welcomed his long-awaited opportunity.
"New students~! Congratulations on your official enrollment~!"
Class 1-A was Luke's class.
The teacher now standing at the podium, trying her best to welcome students in a cheerful tone, was their homeroom teacher, Oreki Yuri.
However, her pale face and the dark circles around her eyes made her look completely disconnected from anything resembling 'energetic' resemblance.
Forget energetic, their homeroom teacher gave the impression she might pass away at any moment.
However, Luke's attention wasn't on this 'special' teacher at all.
He wasn't even paying attention to Ikki and Stella sitting beside him.
From the moment he entered the classroom, Luke's attention had been drawn to a particular classmate.
It was a boy sitting in the back corner with an extremely weak aura.
Luke recognized this purple-haired boy whose height was around 180 centimeters.
Arisuin Nagi- in his memory, he was one of the original members of the protagonist group.
His peculiar state of having a female heart in a male body had left a strong impression on Luke.
'If I remember correctly, his Blazer rank evaluation was D?'
Luke sensed Arisuin's true strength, a playful smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
'A D-rank with this level of strength, heh.'
'Didn't expect to find such an unexpected discovery.'
That state of completely concealing one's aura, the ability to blend into the surroundings and reduce one's existence - Luke had only seen these in one type of person.
Assassins!
Most crucially, unlike Ikki and Stella, Arisuin had one key difference.
The scent of 'blood', or what could be called 'killing intent'.
Luke, with nine years of killing experience, was extremely sensitive to such scents.
The moment he saw Arisuin, he clearly recognized that this person had definitely killed people before, and not just once or twice!
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