Extra chapter: The First Time That We Met
Location: Atlantis Time: 11:13 AM
This story dates back to not that long ago in the past.
When the cla.s.s rep and homeroom teacher in our story haven"t yet a.s.sumed their current positions. A small story that happened before.
That year, the homeroom teacher was still very young, and the cla.s.s rep was even younger. At that time, Olivia Skien was only a second year middle school student, who had just entered the school not too long ago.
As the direct descendant of Yellish, one of the seven Fairy kings of the past, as soon as she entered school, Olivia naturally received the attention of various people. Even her cla.s.s teachers were in awe of her too, much less the other students.
Thus, during her first two years of middle school, Olivia was almost always by herself wasting away the boring time in Cla.s.s A. In cla.s.s, those that could talk to her were few. Those that could "hahaha" with her while chatting were few and far between. As a descendant of Yellish, apart from the clan itself providing a variety of basic training, with the excellent bloodline comes the precocious ability to surpa.s.s ordinary people. In the short two years of middle school, Olivia had almost finished acquiring all her credits. With the instructors" a.s.sistance, she started to move toward advanced courses for further education.
She was very clear that she wasn"t the most talented person. After all, this school has strong people everywhere. She heard that there was an explosively strong senior in a grade higher than her, who had already obtained the youngest robe level qualification in a short period of time and was currently continuing to take the robe level exams.
Olivia knew what she needed. Early on, ever since she became sensible, she had already set a goal for herself. Not the glory of the highest robe level, but rather, the goal of making Yellish"s descendants proud of her.
So, someone told her this: "You"re really not like a student." At that time, after the second semester, the teacher responsible for teaching her business writing, told her her thoughts after a few weeks.
"Maybe, but there are many people in our clan that aren"t like students." Flipping the page of the so-called economics of the original world, Olivia twirled her pen as she quickly solved the problems one by one. Numbers, numbers, to her, they"re like little games, only requiring a quick glance before hundreds of methods to solve it appeared in her mind.
"You"re like the a.s.sisting intelligence team. Your mind is always so calm that it"s unbelievable." Sitting opposite of her, the teacher found a few difficult subjects to pa.s.s on to her, and said, "Why don"t you plan on getting a robe level?"
Everyone knows that Yellish"s descendants are very well-known, and that some of them are in control of certain economic powers. But surprisingly, among these descendants, those that become a Guild robe level are very rare. However, there are many robe levels willing to give their lives for them.
"It takes too much time to get a robe level, and after entering the Guild, you"ll have less freedom. I don"t like doing what I want to do under a constraint." Twirling her pen, Olivia swiftly solved the problem, "Of course, if I accidentally do get one, and it"s not part of my plans either, I can tolerate a little unforeseen situation, but I will not specifically go to take the exam for qualifications."
The teacher didn"t say any more, just smiled, and then continued to guide her in even more advanced school a.s.signments.
Olivia once thought about it not long ago: to just simply skip the grade and finish all her credits so that she can leave soon. At any rate, the school doesn"t prohibit them from getting their credits in advance, and those that have the ability can go as far as they want.
"Alright, you have already finished today"s courses. Sometimes you don"t have to be in such a rush to move forward. Just take a little break first." After ending the subject, the teacher patted her shoulder and said.
"Okay, thank you for your guidance, teacher." After the teacher left the individual instruction cla.s.sroom, Olivia began to organize her books and backpack.
Starting in the afternoon, she didn"t have any more cla.s.ses. She thought for a bit; might as well go to the library to pa.s.s the time.
And before she goes to the library, she had to go to the restaurant to find something to eat first. Regardless of whether her inherited bloodline is very capable or not, every race is still the same. As long as you"re hungry, you won"t be able to get anything done.
After walking out of the teaching building, Olivia, who was planning on heading to the restaurant, heard a huge thunderous noise directly sounding at the martial arts arena very close to the middle school. The students who were originally walking around nearby in twos and threes immediately became stirred up.
According to her judgement, that was an advanced thunder* spell. Normally, there would be very few students who would use this sort of attack spell on school grounds; could it be that there was a teacher having an on-site lesson?
[T/N: Pretty sure it"s lightning, but 轰雷 literally means thunder]
The thunderous noise once again smashed down on the martial arts stage, causing a commotion among the middle school students who don"t have cla.s.s at the moment.
"Hurry hurry, I heard that the graduates from high school are challenging a teacher!"
It wasn"t known who shouted that first, but several curious, and with nothing better to do, students quickly headed toward the martial arts arena.
Graduates challenging a teacher?
This piqued Olivia"s interest.
Most of the teachers on the school are experts, and almost all of them have advanced robe levels. There were actually graduates who wanted to challenge a teacher?
She was very curious as to which teacher was so unpopular.
The thunderous noise sounded for the third time.
The descending teleportation charm brought her to an unexpected direction.
"Come on, come on. You weak students can"t be done for after just getting struck by thunder twice, right?"
An arrogant voice straightforwardly rang out after the thunder, reverberating across the whole martial arts stage. Students began appearing in small groups in the surrounding audience seats. A majority of them were drawn here by the thunderous noise. After three thunder attacks, the entire martial arts stage had turned charred black. At the side were several students in casual clothes who had fallen down twitching. The whole outcome was already very obvious.
"Aih, you guys are so disappointing. And to think that you"re graduates from the high school section. A bunch of people can"t even beat one teacher. I think you guys should just stay back and retake the courses. It just so happens that teacher, I, hasn"t sent the list of certificates yet either. I"ll just detain you guys first, to study for another year." The only survivor standing on the stage was a dark-skinned man who arrogantly spoke. Ignoring the angry gaze of the students about to spit out fire on the ground, he opened his hand and a small book appeared on it, "When you guys enter society later on, you"ll thank teacher, me. If no one acts like a bad cop to you, you guys all would"ve thought that there were only good people in the world and no bad. If you guys wanted to beat teacher up, you should"ve found a couple of experts. Go back and face reality before you even think of trying again." Saying that, he quickly recorded down a list of names on the book.
This was the first sound that Olivia heard when she entered the arena.
"Which cla.s.s is that teacher from?" Glancing at the students who wanted to cry but had no tears on the stage, she asked the person next to her, who arrived earlier than her.
"Oh, one of the high school teachers, who"s responsible for managing Cla.s.s C." The person beside her gave her this answer, "His infamous reputation is widely known, and some of the fiercer students hate him. Every year when it"s almost graduation, there would always be people like this coming to fight the teacher one on one or in groups. But I heard that he"s never lost before." Looking at the stage with great interest, the student, who had finished watching the whole match, said.
The students who had been struck by the thunder on stage were very tragically dragged off one by one by the medical team that came later. Then that homeroom teacher, who had fiercely beaten up those students, was currently chatting and laughing with the medical team, with the occasional sound of apologies, but they didn"t sound that sincere.
Probably because there was nothing interesting to see, the crowd that had gathered began to disperse.
That male student next to Olivia was still there.
Suddenly, that homeroom teacher below turned his head toward her and gave a big wave, "Liro, how long did it take this time?"
He was talking to the student next to her.
Glancing at his watch, that student also yelled back, "Ten minutes and thirty seconds! Teacher, you"re getting worse!" Saying that, he turned his head back to smile at Olivia, "I"m also teacher"s student, graduating this year and soon to be moving on to the university section. Nice to meet you, junior." Saying so, he reached out a hand.
"h.e.l.lo, nice to meet you." Returning the handshake, Olivia said very politely.
All of a sudden, a gust of wind blew over, and that teacher, who was below just now, had already appeared beside them, "Really? When I fought just now, it felt like only five minutes had pa.s.sed. Liro, are you lying again?" With a look of suspicion, he picked up that student"s watch and looked over it.
"I"m not lying to you ah. You spent too much time when you fought Lache before, so it took you ten minutes." Smilingly letting the teacher look at his watch as he wished, the young student named Liro said.
"Tsk, that guy really wasted a lot of my time. Looks like he"ll probably become a capable guy in the future." He folded his arms. Then the man finally noticed Olivia"s presence, "Your little girlfriend?"
Olivia raised an eyebrow. She was just about to say something when that student spoke: "Teacher, don"t joke about me. You know that I"m not going to find a girlfriend."
"Aih, if you don"t find one soon while you"re still young, it"d be very hard to find one when you"re old." Meaningfully patting the student"s shoulder, the man turned his head to look at Olivia, "This student, may I ask your name?"
Glancing at the other person, she curved into a polite smile, "Olivia Skien."
The man whistled.
"Yellish"s descendant." The student exclaimed, then immediately came to his senses, "Sorry for the rudeness, I"m Liro Rogeria."
"The a.s.sa.s.sin clan?" Raising her eyebrows, Olivia was a bit surprised that someone from the notorious clan could actually get along with a teacher.
"Uh, yeah." Scratching his head, Liro smiled, "Although I am a direct descendant, I"m not affiliated with the clan itself, so I"m not responsible for "foreign affairs." "
"Liro is part of the faction that isn"t involved in that." Putting his hand on the student"s shoulder, the teacher that didn"t really seem like a teacher said, "But this student, your background isn"t small either. Looks like our school really is full of hidden talents."
"May I ask for this teacher"s name?" Speculating about the other person"s origin, Olivia asked.
"Oh, sorry about that. It"s not convenient for me to reveal my name since I"ve been chased by others for so long." The teacher shrugged as he said this, "You also know the risks of revealing your name. The number of students who want to curse me to death are countless. Sometimes being too popular can also be very troublesome."
If this counts as being popular…
"We"re just about to go to the shopping street to get something to eat. If junior doesn"t mind, want to come along?" The first one to stretch out a friendly hand was Liro, "At any rate, it"s Teacher"s treat, so it"d be a waste not to eat."
It does make sense if you put it that way.
"Then alright." Since she is a little hungry, Olivia replied quite frankly.
"Hey hey, I"m the one who has to pay; you guys could"ve at least asked for my opinion, you know!"
"Let"s go. Let"s go."
"Nn."
"You two kids, don"t try to pretend you didn"t hear me!"
Their lunch was spent inside a restaurant.
If it wasn"t for the other two people leading the way, Olivia might have never realized that there was this sort of place in the depths of the left shopping street.
It looked like a canteen. There were different races everywhere, having simple meals, wine or meat. It was different from the school restaurants or exquisite dim sum houses* that she always visited.
[T/N: They"re shops that serve little bite-sized food like steamed buns and dumplings with tea]
Most of the people who came here to eat seemed to be workers.
A majority of them seemed to be people not from the school. Several beastmen were gathered together drinking, chatting and the like. There were also a few tables surrounded by people making bets, but it seems like the bets weren"t very big; the money on the tables were very little—she had always thought that this was a scene that only appeared in the right shopping street.
The whole store was crowded, with many people going in and out.
Their so-called "treat"…is this kind of place?
Olivia started to doubt the sincerity of their treat.
"You two kids can sit here and wait first." With one hand on each to push both of them down on the empty seats, the teacher, who was threatened into treating them, said, "I"ll go bring the food over."
There was no objection, since the person paying has the biggest say in things.
It was only after he had walked far away that Olivia started to look around. At the same time, she realized that there wasn"t any menus or whatnot in the store.
"You don"t need to keep looking. This store specializes in selling large bowls of rice for workers to eat. It"s always been just chicken with rice, braised pork on rice, egg drop soup, and fish ball soup; these four items, so there"s no menu. When the boss is in a good mood, there"d be some meat jerky added as a side dish. I heard that this shop was opened by someone from original world. In the past, that person specifically sold food to workers in the original world before." Liro, who might have been here more than once, was still smiling as he explained to her, "But the food really is delicious. Other than the environment being a bit too noisy, the prices are cheap, and the food aren"t bad, so people often come. Here, you should know how to use chopsticks or a spoon, right?"
The reason he asked this wasn"t to belittle her, but because everyone came from different places, and had different customs, as well as many different types of food.
"Nn, I know." Having eaten eastern cuisine in school many times before, Olivia was already very skilled at using the utensils, "Do you two come here often?" Looking at the teacher talking and laughing with the person at the food counter not far away, she could guess that they were definitely familiar with each other.
"Oh, Teacher brought me here several times before. If no one"s leading the way, it can be very easy to get lost. After all, it can be difficult to tell the roads in the left shopping street apart since there"s so many of them." Liro seemed to have an answer to every one of her questions.
Nodding, Olivia didn"t continue to ask.
They didn"t need to wait long before the teacher reappeared in front of the two, carrying a large platter with him. Placed on the platter were three big bowls of rice and three bowls of soup. Apart from that was a plate of something black that she didn"t recognize, "We"re in luck, the boss said that he"s treating us to a pot-stewed dish." Breaking into a smile, the teacher put the platter on the table, "Little student, try some." Saying that, he pushed the big bowl in front of Olivia.
That really is a big bowl. Inside the bowl was white rice, with gravy, pieces of meat, an unknown brown triangular thing and a brown egg on top of the rice. At the side were also unknown yellow slices and several decorative vegetables. The soup was a white meatball soup, lined with a bit of green parsley bobbing up and down.
She really has to admit that the big bowl of rice was fragrant, very fragrant.
Obviously, the simmered gravy was emitting a tempting aroma, and there seemed to be a faint hint of a herbal fragrance, causing one to immediately feel hungry after smelling it.
"Here, for you." Liro handed her the utensils. Then he picked up a spoon for himself and started to eat.
All of three of their dishes were the same, not too much and not too little, "Little student, this is usually very hard to stew; eat some more of it." Using his chopsticks to directly pick up a large piece of a long brown thing from the pot-stewed dish, the teacher very cordially added it into Olivia"s bowl.
"Thank you." Starting to eat with a sequential motion, after a bite, Olivia determined that the long thing was probably some kind of bean product. It had the aroma of master stock along with the bean"s own smell. When it entered her mouth, it was soft but the taste lingered for a long time. In terms of a typical canteen, although the food here looks crude, the taste is actually very meticulous.
She quickly ruled out her criticism of this store from before.
That bowl was about the size of half her head. The serving was very big, so big that it resulted in slow consumption.
After Olivia ate a third of it with much difficulty, some kind of shout suddenly rang out from the side.
"Hey, the bets are starting." The teacher, who had finished eating at some point and was currently drinking his soup, glanced at the noisy table nearby. There were about five or six people around the table there. A new set of dice was being tested in the center, and a numeral cloth was placed underneath, as if it had just started.
Having never seen anyone gambling before, Olivia turned her head and saw those people put the dice one by one into the cup that temporarily served as a dice cup, with the dealer as the one to start shaking the cup.
"Teacher, do you want to add a bet?" Liro, who was picking out the fatty meat, asked in a very normal tone.
"No, there"s a little kid here today." Shrugging, the very principled teacher reluctantly refused.
Watching as those people shook the cup until it was upside down on the table, Olivia narrowed her eyes, "Three dice, speculated to be one-three-four."
The two people at the table suddenly froze.
"Little kid, are you practicing perspective eye?" As soon as the teacher asked, he remembered that in order to prevent people from cheating, this place had a barrier. As soon as you enter, any spell-based technique will briefly become ineffective. This is to ensure fairness for everyone.
"No, the order of the three dice falling into a cup plus the noise volume and the sounds of the impact, the angle and force of the person shaking that cup, and then calculating the time, to add to the average prediction." Very used to directly carrying out rapid conversion and planning in her mind, Olivia said, before withdrawing her gaze.
"Seriously? You can calculate this?" The teacher clearly didn"t believe her.
"I don"t know. It"s just speculation." Shrugging, Olivia fiddled with the rice grains and was hesitating about whether to eat the yellow slice or not.
While the teacher and Liro were sharing a glance, the dealer at the other table had already revealed the result, "One-three-three!"
Aih, there was an error. Sure enough, her first time a.n.a.lyzing this sort of thing wouldn"t be that successful. A bit disappointed as she thought, Olivia cautiously took a bite of that yellow thing. Unexpectedly, it actually tasted better than she thought.
"Little kid, the first time is just a coincidence." Not really believing that this could actually be calculated like this, the teacher looked at her with a doubtful expression.
"Teacher, you guys can just continue betting and you"ll know." Still smiling, Liro said.
"Alright, you"re on."
In the end, the second time it was revealed, just like Olivia had calculated, this time they were all correct, without any errors.
The teacher who won the gamble was dumbfounded, "Little student, could it be that you"re the gambling queen"s reincarnation?" Looking at the stack of money, although it wasn"t much, it wasn"t little either. This shocked him for a long time.
"Probably not, it"s just normal calculations and speculations." Completely didn"t feel that there was anything wrong with it, Olivia glanced around, "For example, it can also work for that."
The teacher and Liro turned their heads and saw the table that was gambling with poker cards.
"Seriously?" Holding onto a mixture of half belief and half disbelief, the teacher narrowed his eyes. If this student didn"t have way too good luck, then she must be a mutation of the calculation type. He"s been at the school for so long. Of course, he"s seen all sorts of geniuses before.
"Want to bet?" Curving into a smile, Olivia, who was more or less full, put down the spoon in her hand.
"What are we betting?" The teacher stroked his chin, his interest piqued.
"Let"s try the poker cards. You"ll play a round, and I"ll help you calculate all the cards in each person"s hands, and how they are arranged. If everything is just as I said, you have to answer two of my questions." Olivia, who was very sure about poker cards, said with just as much confidence.
"Okay, but since Little Student helped me make a fortune just now, if you lose, I"ll also treat you to a drink; how"s that?" Purely holding onto a just-for-fun mentality, the teacher agreed to the bet.
"Sure."
Thus, the two of them headed toward the poker table.
Staying in his spot, Liro continued to pick out the fatty meat in his rice.
He stayed there to watch the show. He had a strong hunch…the teacher, who had always been known for never losing a bet, will definitely be done for this time.
Sure enough, after ten minutes or so, the two people came back carrying a pile of money from gambling as well as Olivia"s triumphant smile.
"Liro, your junior really is a mutant…" Pointing to that girl, who had actually calculated all the orders and arrangements just by looking at people shuffle, the teacher felt like he saw a ghost.
"Please stand for a moment of silence." Answering with a smile, Liro happily ate the last bite of his meal.
"A bet is a bet, Teacher. Now please answer two of my questions." Olivia, who achieved a complete victory, said in a good mood.
"Alright, since I lost, I"ll answer your questions." Replying quite simply, the teacher very straightforwardly waited for the questions.
Curving into a smile, Olivia started the first question, "May I ask what robe level Teacher is?"
"Eh? Black, black robe…" Why was it so simple? At first dumbfounded, the teacher still answered anyway.
"What about your black robe rank when you were in the Guild before?"
"Senior frontline combat group."
Oh, sure enough, it was the combat group. It was close to what she"d guessed. No wonder when the students came to beat up the teacher, none of them had ever succeeded before. A senior black robe as well as a combat expert. Perhaps even in the entire Guild, there would only be a couple that can fight him to a draw.
Finally giving answers to the suspicion in her heart, Olivia was very satisfied as she nodded.
"Little student, aren"t your two questions a bit too cheap? It seems like you"re on the losing end with this." Not knowing why she asked about these things that could"ve been easily uncovered, the teacher couldn"t figure it out.
"Oh, not at all. I"m just confirming my suspicions, so any more would be unnecessary." Very naturally knowing where to draw the line, Olivia smilingly said.
Staring at the female student in front of him for a long while, the teacher suddenly laughed.
"Little student, you really are interesting. If we happen to meet when you get to high school in the future, I really would like you to become my cla.s.s representative; it"d definitely be very interesting." He has always liked interesting students, such as Liro, who was also included among them.
The homeroom teacher who is responsible for managing Cla.s.s C…
Olivia started to calculate the possibilities in her mind.
In fact, the possibilities of the future are many, and also big.
She curved into a smile, "Then, do you want to bet to see if I can become your cla.s.s representative?"
"Sure!"
Liro, who was watching on from the side, was still smiling.
He will be leaving soon, but new blood will quickly take their spots.
Time will continue to move forward without stopping.
Maybe he won"t be able to see the outcome of this bet, but he already had a premonition about who will win this bet.
"Liro, you"ll be the witness!"
"Oh, alright." He was still smiling as he replied.
After the canteen, Olivia still returned to the middle school to continue her courses. The other two also headed to their own respective places.
It was said that the teacher later went on a mission, a long-term mission that lasted a year, and needed to be deeply involved with the heart of the mission, unable to leave at any time. Thus, for that whole year, he didn"t take up his job as a teacher.
Later on, Liro seemed to have left the school for unknown reasons, and there was no news of him at all.
After that, Olivia finally graduated from middle school, successfully moving on to high school. On the day of the freshman orientation, she coincidentally b.u.mped into a certain guy who had just resumed his position as teacher after returning from his mission.
"Sorry Teacher, I won again." She curved into a very, very gentle smile, as she took up the job of cla.s.s rep while telling this to the homeroom teacher who lost.
She finally realized that, in fact, the school isn"t so boring.
At least in the next three years, there will be someone entertaining enough guiding them in their cla.s.s.
"Impossible! Let"s make another bet!"
These, are the little moments at the very very beginning when they met each other.