Chapter 195: Fourth Year Begins
Seeing Arthur show up after being missing for months caused a buzz amongst the students and in no time, almost everyone knew the whimsical prince had returned.
Arthur expected this and as such, the gazes he was feeling did not surprise him, nor did he try to shirk away from them.
He continued chatting on his phone happily, until he heard a familiar voice, one that he had not heard in a very long while.
"Arthur."
Looking up, he was met with the figure of a girl with above-average height and a slim build. Her fair skin seemed to shine brighter than he last saw it and her long black hair was tied into a side ponytail.
She gazed at Arthur with her almond-shaped green eyes, causing him to break out in a smile.
"Layla, it’s been a while."
Layla nodded and took a seat opposite Arthur. Feeling the gazes of various students boring into her, she clicked her tongue very audibly and tapped her hand on the table twice.
"Sound of the Silence."
A magic circle appeared underneath both her and Arthur’s feet and began rotating with the space in between them as the centre point.
"Hmm...oh, sound magic."
"It’s actually an application of wind magic though."
Layla said as she twirled a finger in the air, looking closely, one could see a small whirlwind spinning around her finger.
Arthur rose an eyebrow, before dropping his phone in shock.
"You’re already intermediate stage?!"
"Why so surprised? You went up two stages in one go."
Arthur picked up his phone and replied to Layla with a tone that was a mixture of surprise and pride.
"You have no idea what kind of cheat existence I am. You are different. The fact that you are already in the intermediate stage is a feat in itself."
Layla could tell from Arthur’s tone that although he was surprised, he was genuinely happy for her. This caused a small smile to creep up her face; however, it left the second after as she asked Arthur in a cold voice.
"My dad told me what happened. You were way too reckless, why didn’t you take the guards your mother assigned you?!"
Seeing the smile disappear from Layla’s face and her suddenly scolding him, Arthur sighed in exasperation.
"Oh please Layla, I’ve already heard that one at least 15 times."
He was tired of people asking him why he kept Lute away, he acknowledged the decision wasn’t wise but that didn’t mean he was cool with hearing people bring it up again and again.
"Really Arthur? Cus it looks to me like you might just pull the same stunt again in the future."
Layla narrowed her slightly glowing eyes at him, Arthur noticed this and spoke.
"Your eyes, they’re glowing."
"Huh?...Tsk."
Layla clicked her tongue and closed her eyes before taking a deep breath. Upon reopening them, they were back to normal.
"When did that start?"
"I just recently advanced, my eyes did too. Now they tend to activate whenever I’m agitated or my emotions are in disarray."
Arthur then chose to play the dense card and ask a very foolish question.
"Huh? Why were you agitated just now?"
Layla, however, realized he was only messing with her and flicked her finger, sending a bolt of Ether to his forehead.
"I was worried about the idiot prince who refuses to act like he has a brain."
"Ouch, that hurts. Like Emotionally."
Arthur was about to block the bolt of ether but Layla’s words hit him hard and stopped him in his tracks, allowing it to hit him squarely.
However, he felt no pain from it. The pain he felt came from the heart, Layla’s words hit him that hard.
The culprit for his emotional damage only looked at the time on her watch and sighed before standing up.
"I got things to unpack, see you later."
She then left the slightly depressed Arthur behind and walked away after cancelling her spell.
◇ ◇ ◇
The depressed Arthur did not spend any longer in the cafeteria, instead opting to return to his room and reflect on his life.
Apparently, Layla’s words hit him harder than he expected.
He was seriously rethinking a lot of his life choices when he sensed a presence in the hallway outside his room.
"Let her in Lute."
Arthur spoke and Lute who was standing guard outside his room, appeared and opened his door for the guest.
The relationship between the two had become quite strained due to the events of the auction night and did not seem like things would be returning to the way they were in the near future.
As for his guest, it was naturally the only godslayer he had ever met besides himself, Esna.
"Why do you look like you are wallowing in self-pity?"
"Because I am."
Her jewel-red eyes scanned Arthur from head to toe, noticing the various changes in his physical appearance that Layla did not comment on.
"Spent two months unconscious and come out looking like a chad?"
"Oh please, I was always a chad."
Arthur chuckled as he replied to her before walking up to his mirror and removing his contact lens. Upon seeing his left blue eye, Esna was surprised to find out that it had become permanent.
The two made small talk before Arthur proceeded to tell her about the changes he experienced and the knowledge he gained. He also told her about the various abilities that his progenitor Authority gained.
Arthur and Esna then changed locations to a private training room to run some other tests. They also tried to find out if she had an affinity for anti-divinity but that did not turn out so well.
The abilities that the Authority of the Progenitor gave Arthur currently were as follows;
Race Command,
Race Creation,
The ability to passively absorb divinity from any divinity wielder within a certain range,
All divinity wielders are weakened by 5% in his range,
He dealt 5% more damage to and are received 5% less damage from divinity wielders,
Then a 50% resistance to soul-based attacks from divinity wielders.
And then in the event that the godslayers are fighting on his behalf, they received a 30% power boost.
However, while he absorbed divinity from divinity wielders while the authority was active, he could not use his own divinity at that time, it was as if there was a dam blocking him from using it.
"Wait, not ’gods’ but ’divinity wielders’ in general?"
Esna couldn’t help but ask as she noticed that Arthur never specified that his abilities affected only members of the god race.
Arthur nodded in affirmation as he tried to move large amounts of ambient cosmic energy around him to no avail.
"It does not affect the members of the god race alone. That is what I found strange, after all, it is possible for members of other races to use divinity too.
It is as if the progenitor dragonslayer has an ability that affected all those with the ’dragon factor’ even if they are not dragons.
That will not be fair for the members of other races that have the dragon factor. Besides, there are too many abnormalities in my situation so I don’t think it’s meant to be like that."
Of course, Arthur could not have known that his little example happened to be the reality. Kelly’s Progenitor Authority did indeed grant her buffs when against beings with the ’dragon factor’ and debuffs for these beings, dragons or not.
That was just how things were, this was one of the reasons why progenitors and their slayers did not exactly get along.
After the two finished their tests, they went over to the cafeteria together. The sight of the two together confirmed the rumours flying around that the third year’s Rank 1 had some sort of relationship with the fourth year’s Rank 1.
On the way, the duo met up with Layla and Nicole and the four ended up making their way to the cafeteria together.
After concluding their meal, the four parted ways in order to prepare for their classes that began the next day.
Like so, Esna’s third year began while Arthur, Layla, and Nicole began their fourth.
Another thing of note was that the realm expedition was supposed to happen in their fourth year, in other words, Arthur would be entering Varona soon.
’Hopefully, Lewis and the rest get the law crystal by then.’
Unfortunately, even after four months, there was still no favourable response from Lewis. He had all four uninhabited planets of the Parmis star system under observation but none had shown any favourable signs.
Arthur passed these four months without getting involved in any high-profile events that gathered attention. He mostly spent his time practising how to use cosmic energy with ease.
The good thing was that he was making visible improvements. Perhaps because he already had high-energy manipulation skills, but with Hades’ occasional tutelage, he was able to make significant progress.
Of course, he still could not compare to Hades or Diablo in that aspect.
On a Friday after the last class of the day, Arthur, Layla, Nicole, and Esna gathered together for a meal, they talked about a fourth-year student who transferred in at the start of the year named Ross who had been challenging his way up the ladder of the rankings.
He was challenging every ten ranks above himself after he had succeeded in defeating the Rank 100 in his first duel. He had also recently challenged and defeated Kian Craig, the Rank 10 who got a beating from Nicole at the end of their second year.
After concluding their meal, they were about to return to their respective hostels when the same student they were just talking about came over to challenge Arthur to a duel.
Arthur who was not expecting a public challenge from someone on the last school day of the week, couldn’t help but sigh in exasperation.
