September 15th, 2014. 8:45 am. Homeroom ß

It's been a little over two weeks since that day. So many things happened that really did affect me, yet so many things that didn't really matter as much. I feel like I'm overlooking a few things. But, at least I'm a bit happier nowadays. Despite being a lot more anxious every day.

"Class, all rise." Elesis's firm voice fills the classroom.

"Bow." Everyone respectfully bows.

"Everyone be seated." Everyone quietly sits in their seats.

"Good morning class." Ms. Asquith spoke clearly to the class.

"Good morning Ms. Asquith." We all reply back.

The homeroom became very quiet and organized after that incident. I'm not sure why. However, the opinions of everyone in the entire school changed unfavorably.

"Hey, it's that group."

"Yeah, they were the kids who interrupted the execution."

"What happened exactly?"

"I don't know, but I remember Principal Xerath intervening as well."

"It seems like those kids are in a special case."

"But, two of them have Conwell and Erendil!"

"What? Doesn't that mean one is cursed and another has dealt with elves?"

"Wait. Humans meeting with elves. Isn't that taboo?"

"Ah. Scary. I should stay away from them."

"But, Chung is so cute!"

"That robot arm of that Raven guy is a bit weird… but mysterious."

Aside from the last one I remember hearing, it seems we've gained a pretty bad reputation around the school despite getting on the good side of old man Xerath. Ms. Asquith also became friendly with us, but just a little bit past teacher and student, not so much as friends maybe.

"I think you should ask Rena that question."

I still haven't really asked Rena about how she found the principal or about that "Erendil" sword she had at that time. She hasn't taken it out for quite a while now actually, although that's probably due to the fact that we haven't really fought much. On one hand, it bothered me because it made me feel a bit anxious about what she did or had to go through. On another hand though, I didn't really care, as long as she would stay by my side. I often times just forget the topic and move on. Honestly, I don't see the bad thing about interacting with elves. Old man Xerath found no harm in it as well, but everyone else in the school opposed it.

Oh well. Rena will tell me if she sees the need to in the future, if not then I'll just not know and that'll be that. Speaking of Rena…

The homeroom class had a seating change today. For some reason, it seemed Rena was the furthest away from me, almost the complete opposite side of me. Raven was behind me, Aisha in front of me, and Chung was to the right of me. I had the window seat on the left side of the room. Eve was to the left of Rena who was on the farthest right side of the room. When this occurred, Rena was actually teary. She settled down, but now.

"Elsword." Chung whispered quietly to me.

"Huh?" I responded quietly.

"Here." He hands me a closed, folded note.

I open it up and read the words "Hi Elsword! (heart symbol)."

At this point, I'm not sure whether to go along with this and respond appropriately, or properly tell her we need to pay attention to school. Oh who the hell am I kidding? I write down "Hi Rena!" and pass it back to Chung who proceeds to slide it all the way to under Rena's desk. Quite some coordination. No longer than a minute, Chung passes me the note again. I open it up.

"You're going to buy bread for lunch right" I look at this question puzzled. I answered and passed it back to Chung who did the same thing.

"Yeah, I was planning to. Why?"

Chung one again passes it to me.

"Alright! Instead of that, just come to the roof of the school. Okay?" Again, puzzled, I decided to oblige.

"Alright. I'll go there after class then." I pass it back to Chung for the last time, and that was the end of our short conversation in class.

One thing to note is, for the two weeks we've been "dating," I'm not sure where the "dating" portion is to be honest. I mean, we have been together for the two weeks doing a lot of things. However, most of them were pretty much related to our training, so we've been dueling each other for almost all the time now. We haven't done anything extra lovey-dovey, so I felt a bit sad and guilty because Rena is always excited when we're together. I've always wondered if she felt lonely because of that. Actually, I do know if she's felt lonely, because she apparently relays it to Aisha and Eve who pulp it out of her and then proceeds to pulp me, verbally. Chung and Raven just tell me to man up and ask her on a date or something, but I thought something like that was just pacing too quickly, so I just remained silent.

It makes sense though. The school has a pretty unique way of how it does its curriculums. The homeroom is only from 8:45 am to 9:55 am. From 9:55 am to 11:00 am, it is mandatory lunch as "lunch is a required time for humans to replenish any necessities in order to function properly." For the rest of school from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, the students are pretty much allowed to do anything that interests them.

This is due to "clubs." These aren't really "clubs" as much as they are "classes." The clubs are basically different styles or techniques of fighting. Swordsmanship, spearmanship, study of magic, archery, whatever you can think of, it's probably a club here. The clubs have many different activities that pertain to the style. There are practice sessions, tutoring, local tournaments, expeditions, missionaries, and the most important for each individual are missions that they are able to take up. Missions affect your ranking in the school. Ranking is just a system to show who is strong and who is not. Right now, the seven of us are ranked around 500~700/12070 students, with Elesis being an exception at rank 1.

There are other activities which are there just to boost your fame and superficial stuff like that, however, all of these clubs aim for one goal, the Champion's Cup. The Champion's War is basically the continent's tournament that decides who is the strongest person in the entire continent of Elrios. This is a tradition that's been going on ever since the Great War ended many years ago. The winner is basically titled the Champion of Elrios. While there have been many Champions over the past years, most of them are unknown. Not many people know why, but the people who win the Champion's War disappear without a trace. For that reason, many people are scared to go, so only the truly strong people actually enter. Elesis entered in it once. She was able to make it to the semi-finals until she finally retired randomly. No one really knows why that happened either, but she just didn't continue.

Aside from that, I entered the swordsmanship and study of magic club. I've always been interested in magic, pyromancy to be specific, since I was young. Swords were my first and only weapons as well. A lot of the members despised me already, but because I was stronger than most of them, they respected me in a way and always asked me for help in whatever activity they were doing. I haven't had much free time because of that. Also because I've been taking extra lessons on magic and other boring stuff like that.

Yeah, at this point, I feel like my life is a bit too lax and unorganized. I'm trying my best to become a great knight, but now I'm at a crossroad. Do I focus on being with Rena, focus on my training intensely, or balance the two equally. Life a happy school life with Rena, get extremely strong and be able to wield Conwell, or try my mental capacity at both.

… I feel like this thinking process is completely flawed.

I feel like you're annoying.

I feel like you spend too much time thinking to yourself.

I feel like you're just being rude and useless right now.

I feel like you're just procrastinating and putting off difficult stuff for later.

What could I be putting off?

Asking Rena the important questions and actually balancing your life correctly.

Ugh.

By the way, you said you wanted to get better at magic right?

Yeah. What about it?

Why don't you ask your sister then?

What do you mean?

Well, it seems you do not use runes. However, Elesis seems to have a mastery over them. If you learn to use runes in accordance with your magic, you should get a pretty big power-up.

Runes?

… Unbelievable.

Well sorry!

By the way, shouldn't you be getting to the roof by now?

I open my eyes and look at the time.

… Oh crap.

10:30 am El High Rooftop.

"Rena, I'm sorry!" I shout out as soon as I opened the door to the rooftop. No response.

I look around and see that Rena was sleeping, leaning on the fence with a blanket laid out and bento boxes, one in her hand and one next to her. I walk up and lower my face.

"Rena?" I asked quietly.

She was sleeping soundly. I felt really scared. What if she woke up and got really mad at me? Would she get mad at me? Although she usually let's a lot of things slide, I'm her boyfriend now. Is there such kindness for being her boyfriend?

But… getting a closer look at her. For some reason, I lock onto her face. It looked so gentle. Her soft expression was melting me. Her lips, I don't know how to describe it, but it started to lure me in. I lean in closer…

Wait.

I slap myself and pull back. Why am I taking advantage of a defenseless girl here? It may be Rena, but it's rude to just do that to her while she's sleeping. I need to wait for her to wake up.

Is what I thought at first, but I couldn't really resist looking at her face more. Eventually, my will gave up and I leaned in closer to her lips. Slowly, I get closer and closer until she was within grass length, until she finally opened her eyes.

"Mmmgh…" She wakes up and widens her eyes more at the sight of me.

"Ngh!" I start to pull back slowly, but Rena stops me.

"You're late..." Rena looked sad.

"S-sorry. I got caught up in something." I sincerely apologize.

"And...?"

"What?" Rena looks up at me with such a winsome expression. Her face was completely red. At first it looked like she was forcing herself, but it seems like she really wanted it.

"Why did you stop?" I blush madly. I sit next to her and lean in again. Our lips touch. At first, it was just a regular kiss, but we kissed for around 20 seconds. I don't know why, but I felt like an empty pit in my stomach was filling up just by kissing her. I wanted more every second that passed by. It felt really warm and fulfilling. There was a lot of moaning and gasps for breathes. We separated after 20 seconds and looked at each other blushing.

"Hah… hah…" Rena put her finger to her lips as she was catching her breathe.

"You're surprisingly good at kissing." Rena gave me another adorable expression. I honestly thought I was going to die of diabetes.

Thinking about it, this was actually our very first kiss together. Yet, it felt like it was just natural for us. Is this what happens when you don't spend time together with someone you love? I wasn't able to get one when I confessed to her. Kissing… felt really amazing. Actually, this feels a bit dangerous now. We shouldn't really kiss for that long while being inexperienced. Right? Actually, how does Rena know how to kiss like that?

Well, she is somewhat older than you. She must have read a lot of mature material.

That... couldn't be true. Right?

You never know. I mean, she did say that she was ready to let you "use her body".

That's... actually true.

My face feels hot.

"Elsword, your face is really red. What's wrong?" She looks at me with concern and gets closer.

"Ah. N-nothing." I inch away.

"Are you... really that embarrassed about kissing?" Rena looks a bit sad.

"N-no..." I said shyly.

"Sorry. It's just that, we don't spend much time together alone. We haven't kissed once... so. I just thought it would be okay." Rena was tapping her fingers on top of each other. She turns towards me.

"But it's fine! We can just keep taking it slowly if you want to Elsword." She smiles sadly. It kind of hurt.

"No! It's okay. I was kind of feeling lonely too. I also think it was time we kissed at least once!" I panicked and tried to reassure her.

"Really?" She asked in a cutesy tone. Ah god!

"Really! I want to spend more time with you and make good memories along the way. So, I'm fine with anything you want to do. Okay?" I smile.

She smiles in relief and places her hand on top of mine. She got closer.

"Thanks Elsword." Our faces were close and so we slowly leaned towards each other again. We kiss again.

This time, she stuck her tongue in my mouth. This feeling felt like electric shocks going through my body. We kissed for a short time, a lot shorter than before. She backed off first and I can see the saliva connected between our tongues.

"H-how was that?" Rena asked me, her eyes wandering a bit.

"Y-yeah..." I was hazed a bit.

"Elsword, you're so cute." Her expression softens. Although, she is 1000x cuter.

"Well. I won't hold back from now on. Okay?" She finally smiles again.

"Alright. I'm prepared." I put both my arms up and smile back.

"Ah. Well. I made you lunch Elsword! Here." She shoves the bento box she had in her hands towards me and I accept it.

"Mm. Thank you Rena!" I smile shyly at her.

"Yeah. No problem" She smiles shyly at me as well.

I open the bento box and see white rice, sour red plum, octopus, and chicken inside. It looked absolutely appetizing. Rena stares at me intently.

"Thanks for the food." I start chowing down. I can feel Rena's stare intensify.

"Delicious!" I smiled at Rena. She smiles back in relief.

"Really? That's good then!" Although, her cooking is always good no matter what. Honestly, it's probably the best food I've ever had. However, she only made me food from time to time. If I think about it, I'll be able to eat it every day from now on, so long as we continue to go to lunch every day.

We ate for fifteen minutes. We have fifteen minutes left until lunch ends.

"Hey Elsword." I look at Rena who plays with her fingers.

"What is it?" I asked curious.

"W-w…" She was getting bashful. She turned her upper torso towards me and signaled to her lap with her hands.

"Would you like a lap pillow?" I promptly place my head down in spite of her shocked response. But she smiled in the end.

I laid down on her lap and she started stroking my hair. It felt nice.

"Your hair is really soft." Rena said peacefully.

"Yours is even softer." I said stroking hers. It was long enough for me to effortlessly touch it.

"Elsword?" She said my name again.

"Yes?"

"Are you okay with this?" She asked. She puzzled me.

"With what?" I answered nonchalantly.

"I never told you about Principal Xerath or Erendil." She looked off to the side.

"Well. If you don't want to talk about it, I won't pry in. If you want to tell me, I'll let you tell me, otherwise, you don't have to tell me." I felt like I said something really cool.

"I-is that so?" She was taken aback a little.

"Yeah."

"That's fine too then." She closes her eyes and smiles.

"Hey Elsword?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

We stay like this for the remainder of lunch. After the bell rings, we both get up and leave to go to our clubs.

*Sigh* time for another painful day at club.

It isn't that bad is it?

Maybe… sometimes.

Well, you gotta do it anyways.

Yeah.

I walk up to the clubroom's door and take a deep breath. I open the door.

"Hey everyone. Huh?" I find a person standing in front of me with her back turned towards me. She turns around and stares at me.

"Red hair…" She slowly says.

"What?" I get confused.

"Ah, forgive me. Good morning sir, would you mind fighting me?" She asks very politely.

"Uh. What's going on?" I look behind her towards the other club members for an answer. The guys look at me with spite while the girls answer.

"This girl came in here asking for a "red haired" person. We think she meant Elesis, but maybe not?" She shrugs.

I take a closer look at the girl who wanted to fight me.

She had black hair with two braided pony-tails tied with a gold ribbon. She had a fox hairpin on. A shrine priestess kind of look actually. A one piece dress with a black and white pleated skirt with gold linings on the edges. A red girdle with a yellow string. She had long white sleeves. She wore white socks with black and red sandles. Finally, she had a black strip of cloth with a yellow bead near the end tied with a white strip of cloth with a yellow bead near the end. Her weapon was a double ended spear, one head was white, and the other was black. She was cute.

"So, why do you want to fight me?"

"Ah. I heard you possess Conwell. Yes?" She had her hands to her chin with a lot of hope in her eyes.

"Um. Yes?" I felt a little uneasy.

"That is why I want to fight you! I've heard you're the strongest fighter here." She smiles innocently.

"What?" I was greatly confused.

"No no no. if you want the strongest fighter here that would be my sister, Elesis." I wave my hand back and worth.

"You called?" Elesis somehow appeared behind me.

"But. She doesn't have Conwell, does she?" The girl said, still smiling.

"I suppose not."

"I want to fight someone strong, especially one who wields Conwell. So please, fight me!" For some reason, it's getting harder and harder to reject her… but.

"Sorry. I don't think I'd want to fight someone like you?" She seemed to have taken offense.

"What? Is it because I'm a girl?" She pouted.

"I mean, I'll be glad to fight… but." I realized I stepped into a landmine. I sound really sexist right now. Honestly, I don't want to fight her because of her innocence. It's just too bright for me. I'll probably end up not being able to fight.

"Sorry, I just can't. You can fight my sister if you want." I signal towards Elesis.

"Sure. I'm ready to take any challenge for my little brother." She pounds her fists together.

"Mm." The girl pouts even more.

"No. I want to fight Elsword."

"Sorry. I won't say yes… now then." I walk past her.

"What are our club activities today?" I ask casually.

The club members hesitated for a second, but went along with it.

"Well. We actually have a little hunting to do today. We're going to the lake in the forest to clear out some beasts that have recently been harming travelers.

I see the girl still pouting at me. Oh well, it's not like she'll follow me around. Right?

30 minutes later.

11:30 am.

She actually followed me…

The same girl was trailing behind our group and staring intently at me.

As we walked along, the girl suddenly jumped in front of me and swung her spear around. A rock that was tied with a string falls to the ground and I can see a loop along the string.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" One of the club members said that, but closed his mouth right after.

"Oi." I look at him with annoyance.

"It isn't nice to play tricks on others." The girl pointed at the guy in a scolding manner.

"Tch." He walks off.

"Thanks for saving me there." I told the girl.

"Hue?" She looks at me surprised.

"Oh. It wasn't that great." She blushes and rubs her head.

We walk along the path a little more. Eventually, we got to the lake of the forest.

"Hm. I don't really see anything here." I look around.

"That's strange. There should be some beasts here." One of the girl members said.

"Yeah… Elsword." A boy came up behind me and pushed me.

"Go check the lake for us!" I fall forward, bracing myself for what was to happen. I close my eyes, but didn't feel any wet particles or impact. I open my eyes and see that the black haired girl grabbed me with a large spectral hand.

"What is that?" One of the club members said in shock.

The hand put me down next to her.

"Are you okay?" She looks at me worried.

"Y-Yeah." I compose myself.

"Ahaha. You saved me again." I smiled at her brightly. She blushes again.

"No. It was nothing." She rubs her head again, but turns towards the boy who pushed me off.

"Really now. Shame on you." Again, she points at him in a scolding manner.

"I-I'm sorry!" Oh. They seem a tad bit scared of her.

"As long as you understand, it's fine." She gives them an innocent smile which seems to have melted that fear.

Grrrr.

We hear growling from all around us. There were a bunch of beasts walking towards us. They were some giant pig mutations with scale armor.

"Everyone, get ready!" We all drew our weapons and prepared to fight. The black haired girl looked at me with a lot of hope in her eyes. I couldn't really understand why. But then she had an expression as if she got an idea and took out her spear.

Before anyone could do anything, the black haired girl went up to the beasts.

She started swinging her spear around and took down the beasts effortlessly. There was a strange way of how she swung her spear though. I've never seen any of the people in the spearmanship club do anything that she does. It was as if she was dancing as she fought. It was gentle, robust.

"Heavenly Strike" She extended her spear outwards and pierced through a few number of beasts which all cried in pain.

She proceeded to jab them repeatedly with her spear until one finally jumped above her. It dive directly downwards.

"Counter Switch" She immediately prepared for a counterattack. She slices horizontally pushing the one beast back and flipped backwards.

"Rock Tiger Smash" She charged forwards and rammed into the beasts in front of her. As soon as they lost contact with her, she used both hands to execute two spins with her spear and proceeds to create giant gashes on the beasts' stomachs. The beasts in front of her run away while the ones behind her advanced towards her.

"Fall" With a flick of her wrist, the beasts floated up in the air and smashed together. Her hairpin flickers and the beasts were chucked down into the ground by gravity.

"Now, the finisher!" She gets all riled up and gets in a stance.

"Restraints Specter" She summons the same spectral hand and drags the beasts closer to her and the hands turn into claws which starts slashing the beasts mercilessly.

"Shadow Knot" As soon as the beasts are knocked back a distance, she throws her spear spinning. It created a sort of whirlwind with the spear and it once again drags the beasts back towards her.

"Darkness Sever" She takes her spear, strikes a stance, and rushed forward with immense force behind her. For a second, I couldn't see her as she dashed.

"Secret Art: Night Parade of One Hundred Specters" She leaped up far to the sky, and crashed down on the beasts with her spear pointing down. As soon as the spear made contact, an eruption of numerous specters was unleashed. The specters savaged the beasts, tearing them all apart.

The club members watched in awe.

"What is this?"

"So graceful…"

I'll admit. Her fighting style is very graceful. All of her movements are precise and seem to flow well with each advancement. She has no unnecessary movements and seems to be free in every technique she does.

Although I'm not quite sure what Conwell said, her fighting style is something to be feared. It looks like she's just flailing the spear in a loose manner, but every swing carries a lot of power.

She took down all the beasts by herself. She stands with her spear planted on the ground. She looks back at me and smirks.

"Oh." Was all I managed to say.

She ran up to me.

"Hey. Did you see that? Am I worthy enough to fight you now?" She asked me as if she was a child who did some great accomplishment.

"What?" Again, she puzzled me.

"Because, you said you didn't want to fight me before because you thought I was weak, correct?" She pouted a bit."

"That wasn't really the reason…" I said a bit weary.

"But. I've proven I'm strong, right? So… I have the right to fight you, right?" She started flickering her eyes in a cute manner and wagged her behind.

Choose:

Accept the offer and fight the girl.

Decline the offer and continue to ignore her.

Persuade the girl to do perverted things for you.

Take advantage of the girl and make her yours.

What the hell are you going on about now? Actually, why does this seem familiar…

I sigh and give up.

"Alright. I understand. I'll take your duel invitation." Her face lightens up.

"Yay!" She starts jumping around waving her arms. She eventually turns to me again.

"Thank you!" I blush and look away.

"Whatever. Meet me at the school entrance at 6:00 pm. Alright?"

"Yes sir!" She salutes to me and runs off in a random direction, but stops.

"Oh. I forgot to introduce myself." She turns to me and curtseys.

"My name is Ara Haan. It's a great pleasure to meet you." She raises her head and gave me, no doubt, the more innocent smile I've ever seen before. She proceeds in the direction from before and disappears.

The club members whisper behind me.

"Hey. Was he flirting with her?"

"What? Is he two-timing with that elf lover?"

"Rena right? Wow, even if it's her, I have to feel bad for her."

Wait… how do they know I'm in a relationship with Rena? Also, are they seriously getting that vibe from both of us?

Well. If I were them, I'd think you were flirting with that girl.

Oh just shut up.

But, if this news gets to Rena or the other six…

…

God, please have mercy.

Credits to SAO for showing me how to make corny and unbearable romance scenes :D.