The novel was written in the third-person perspective and the shitty god also had a severe lack of internal dialogue to let the readers know what the characters were feeling.
Most of the time, it was up to the readers' interpretation.
The entire time, I had been observing him while simultaneously working with my group.
When he would stop for a few seconds and awkwardly stare at each girl, I assumed that he was simp-ish nature was getting the best of him.
He must be complimenting their looks right now.
Too bad there was no way for me to know the exact truth.
You may be asking why I haven't been interfering with the plot even though I'd been doing it the entire time, stealing artifacts and codes away from him and whatnot.
Because of two things.
Firstly, I wanted most of the important scenes from the novel to occur as they did because if they didn't, a lot of things would be altered which could lead to all my knowledge becoming useless.
Secondly, this was the most important part — I really did not want to deal with any more of his harem.
He can keep them all to himself to be truthfully honest. I barely had enough free time in my day to enjoy my life outside of school and training. If I also had to hang out with a different girl every day and encounter new trouble every time because of them, I'd rather put a bullet into my brain.
I already had an inkling that Diana's entire storyline from the novel had been broken by me and I would have to take Arthurr's place to get certain events to occur.
Letting Arthurr do his thing and make the girls fall madly in love with him despite the fact he does the bare minimum was an easy decision for me to make.
Let him be the one to deal with the tedious interactions.
That doesn't mean that I'm going to just stay out of the story completely.
No. That would defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to accomplish.
Instead, because of how complicated this world was, not knowing what was bound to happen regardless of my decision and what could easily be altered by my choices, I decided that the only times I was going to involve myself was on three different kinds of occasions.
One, scenes in the story where my addition wouldn't alter the relationship growth between characters.
Two, the battles. This one was obvious.
And lastly, the times not included in the novel. For example. if hour one and hour three were mentioned, hour two that wasn't mentioned was when I would involve myself.
Yes, I know it's stupidly simple, there are plot holes, it doesn't make sense, blah blah blah.
Yes, there's a chance that my decisions derail the story regardless of how much I'm involved and that I was overthinking it or underthinking it.
At this point, I'll be honest — I didn't really care that much.
Whatever happens, happens. I already made the mistake of relying on the novel too much during the battle with the baron.
If I had to toss the novel into the trash and take over the reins of the plot then I would. I'd just go with the flow of things and adapt as things change.
That is what Quentin taught me to do after all when he continuously battered me during training.
Dominick, what a foolish decision. All this over a mistake that you made. As you would expect from a cannon fodder though. Their IQ and EQ automatically lower whenever the main character is involved.
A good writer would make the other characters smarter instead of making them dumber just to make the main character look smarter in comparison.
What's crazy was that the entire duration I was at the academy so far, there had been zero duels initiated by students.
The main character enters the academy and if things went to plan, he would be dueling at least twenty times before graduation.
Even I... someone who everyone hated at a point in time didn't have a glove thrown at me. Part of that could be attributed to my last name but still... duels are rare for a reason.
Every student in the class had gotten up from their seat and was watching the corner of the room where Arthurr's group was, including myself.
"Right, class," Ms. Morgan turned around to address everyone, "we will be heading to one of the battle rooms to see this duel through. You guys can either stay here... or if you're nosy, you may come."
If a duel were to be initiated in a teacher's classroom, they weren't allowed to prevent other students from going to watch.
It made no sense to me because the other students had nothing to do with it but I guess the shitty god just wanted to ensure that his main character had an audience when he humiliates people.
Obviously, as teenagers with no sense of minding their own business, everyone followed Ms. Morgan as if they were heading out on a field trip — including me.
"Let's freaking go."
"Can't believe we get to see an actual duel. Never thought I'd see one during my time at the academy."
Get ready to see a lot more.
"Who do you think is going to win?"
Arthurr.
"How would I know? I don't know either of them. But... the Arthurr dude does seem like an idiot so probably him."
"They're both idiots, no?"
True that.
All these students were excited like a bunch of kids on Christmas morning.
News flash everyone, Christmas is already over.
They were expecting to see an epic duel between two students who had "beef" with each other; in reality, what they were going to witness was a one-sided beatdown that was going to help spread Arthurr's name throughout the entire academy, even amongst the 2nd-year and 3rd-year students.
We were standing on the outside of the stage where the duel was going to take place.
"You two know the rules?" asked Ms. Morgan who was no longer a teacher but was the overseer of the battle.
She had to be fair and unbiased. Unless someone was knocked out or conceded, she wasn't allowed to intervene.
That's what makes duels so extremely dangerous. You could shut someone's mouth, prevent them from conceding, and torture them, and as long as they don't faint, you can keep going.
Arthurr had gotten a rundown of what a duel was from Grace so he nodded his head.
Dominick also nodded his hand, a sword in one hand, a shield in the other.
Arthurr was wielding a saber.
If you were wondering, the weapons were very much real. Limbs being lost during duels had happened a few times in the history of the academy.
There was even a past death that would play a part in a later arc of the story.
"On your mark, get set... fight!" yelled Ms. Morgan.
Doesn't that sound like they're off on a race instead of engaging in a serious duel?
Did I mention that the shitty god was terrible at dialogue?
Dominick lifted his shield, carried it closer to his body, and began approaching Arthurr with this fierce look on his face.
You're the one who started it. Why are you making yourself out to be the victim?
On the other hand, Arthurr was relaxed, still casually spinning his saber in circles as he awaited his opponent to strike first.
Did I ever say why I kept up with the novel even though it was so badly written?
Part of it was because I wanted to see if the writing would ever improve or if it was going to remain trash the entire time.
But another reason was because of the person on the stage.
Arthurr Dragonpen is normally an extremely friendly, naive, dense, and somewhat of an idiot. As soon as a weapon is in his hand, a lesson he was taught by his master takes over him like a symbiote.
With the saber still lowered, he extends his other hand, showing his palm to Dominick who was prepared for a magic spell to be shot at him.
Wrong choice.
A force that no one could visibly see approached Dominick at a rapid speed; you could see the mana though.
"Wha—"
The force attached itself to Dominick and as if he was tied to a rope and a thousand men were pulling the rope, he was yanked into the air and began flying toward where Arthurr was.
Dominick placed the shield in front of him but as soon as he reached Arthurr's striking range, a saber strike so quick and precise was made that sliced the shield in half.
Arthurr then took the force he had attached to Dominick and used it to elevate him into the air as well as forcing his mouth to remain shut so that was no chance for him to concede.
Was he using gravity?
No.
He was using his spatial magic. What he was doing was distorting the space, manipulating it, squeezing it, expanding it, stretching it, pulling it, pushing it, etc.
It was extremely similar to gravity magic except it was more useful because it could be used for teleportation in the future as well as store items into Arthurr's inventory.
Every true modern fantasy main character needs to have a spatial inventory otherwise are they really a main character?
Dominick looked terrified, he was shivering up in the air, his eyes were begging Arthurr to stop but there was no way for him to speak.
Arthurr dropped his saber to the ground and flipped his hand over to reveal his palm.
Slowly, a small fireball forms in his palm.
But don't make no mistake, this wasn't fire magic. That's too generic. No. It was Sun magic and the sunnier it was outside, the stronger he was.
Everyone in attendance assumed that he was using a code just like they assumed for me when I had been using different magic during the assassination attempt on me and Ichiko.
But that was also wrong.
Arthurr was the only person in the world to have two different magic types in his body.
Did I also mention that he also has a cheat that allows him to get stronger just by simply existing? Every passing second, he's stronger than he was a second before.
He also has a third ability separate from his magic and autogrowth which he will use later down the line during an emergency.
Yep.
Overpowered ass main character.
That's why when I steal his artifacts and codes, I have no worries because it's not like he needed them.
He stares up at Dominick and as if he's pitching a baseball, he throws the ball of flame in his palm.
It barely misses but Dominick is so scared at the possibility of his life being taken that he ends up peeing which leaks down his pants and splashes down onto the stage.
"Ewwwww."