Sniff... sniff...

Low whimpering filled the air as Elaria sat on the wooden floor of a modest room, her deep black eyes glistening with tears. The soft afternoon light caught the moisture on her cheeks.

A single bed was placed beside her, a window embedded in the wall behind her from where the sunlight filtered in, casting warm golden rectangles across the worn floorboards.

"You are crying again, sweetie," Edren sighed, sitting beside her. "You will make yourself sick like this."

"B-but I miss my boy and my baby," Elaria sobbed, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "The house feels empty without them. I keep looking at the door, waiting for the children to enter."

She looked at Edren with her lower lip pushed out and whimpered, "What if my Vlad is being bullied there? A-and what if my Chloe isn’t fed properly?"

Edren pulled Elaria into his embrace, letting her head rest against his chest. His large hand stroked her hair gently.

"Your worries are needless, sweetie. Chloe will never sleep with an empty stomach with Vlad beside her. As for him getting bullied..."

Edren’s eyes turned to the three walls in front of him where more than a hundred longswords with broken blades were hung, pinned like trophies. Each scratch and notch on them carried the story of how they had played a role in turning their wielder into what he was now.

"He is the son of the strongest lumberjack of Grimwood Village. He must be the one doing the bullying."

---

Ting...

The broken blade crashed behind Vlad, ringing frantically across the floor, the only noise echoing in the otherwise silent hall.

"Broke the sword again," Chloe shook her head, lightly tapping her forehead with her palm.

The silence broke into low whispers, then turned into loud gasps and shocked discussions as students tried to process what they had just witnessed.

A teenager who had not even formed a core had pushed a Star Four knight to the edge of the platform with nothing but brute force.

It was then that they realized that he was not the Crownbearer only in name. Vlad had proved why he had received the title. The red coat on the floor seemed almost symbolic now.

"So this is his true strength..." Noah muttered, his eyes widened. "If he had gone all out last night, I would have been forced to use mana."

His lips slowly rose from the corner, turning into an excited smirk as he stared at Vlad on the platform.

"Wh-who taught you such skills?" Victor asked as he lowered his blade, his hand still slightly shaking from the aftershock of the impact.

"My dad," Vlad replied, glancing at the hilt in his hand that had turned crimson. The skin of his palm had torned from the blows of Victor he had faced head on. Tiny beads of blood welled up between the cracks.

"He must be a skilled fighter."

"Nah. He is a lumberjack. However..." A smile formed on Vlad’s lips. "He is the strongest one in the village."

Victor’s brows raised in confusion. He let out a low chuckle as he pulled himself together.

"You have surpassed all my expectations. One hundred credits to Vlad Lumberjack."

"Th-that’s the same amount as the first place received in Orientation," a boy from among the students gasped. His jaw hung open.

"Great. He has become even richer," another retorted, though a hint of admiration crept into his voice. "Still, he deserves the reward. I hate to admit it, but he is rather cool."

"Kyaa!! He is both strong and handsome," a girl gasped, clutching her hands to her chest. "I don’t hate him for extorting us anymore." Her cheeks flushed a deep pink.

"Hey, I would pipe it down if I were you," the girl beside her whispered, pointing at Chloe, who had her lavender eyes fixed on her. "You certainly don’t want to turn a love triangle into a love square." The warning was delivered with a nervous giggle.

While the young students continued with their discussions, Vlad picked up the broken blade and his coat from the floor and moved towards Victor, extending the broken sword forward. "Thank you for the reward. And I am sorry for this."

"Haha, don’t worry about it," Victor chuckled, taking the broken blade and hilt from his hand.

Just as Vlad turned to leave, Victor continued, "Ten credits only."

"Huh?" Vlad raised an eyebrow, turning back.

"A sword is the companion of a knight. Breaking it is a transgression against knighthood. Five credits is the cost of the blade. Five credits for the transgression," he revealed in a calm tone.

"Aren’t swords just tools to showcase your skills?" Vlad asked, genuinely confused. It was what he had been taught by his father.

Victor released a gasp at Vlad’s words. "H-how could you say that? Ten credits for misbehavior." His voice carried genuine offense.

Vlad’s brows furrowed in annoyance. He realized that they were having a difference in beliefs. He decided not to argue with him any longer, or he might lose all the credits he had earned.

Once he moved down from the platform and reached the spot beside Chloe and Noah, Victor declared, "You will receive a message about your allotted section and timetable by evening. That’s all for today. You are dismissed."

The students filed out of the hall in small clusters, their excited chatter fading down the corridor. Meanwhile, Noah approached Victor, who was busy with his phone on the platform. The screen’s glow illuminated his face.

"Professor, how did the weapon racks reached outside the hall?" Noah asked, his eyes narrowing. Suspicion dripped from every word.

"Oh that," Victor raised his eyes from the screen. "I brought them in my storage ring."

A crease of annoyance etched itself onto Noah’s forehead.

"Why didn’t you take them out inside the hall itself?"

"That wouldn’t have looked elegant, would it?" Victor replied with a shameless smile. His eyes sparkled with mischief.

’Cursed snake bastard,’ Noah muttered inwardly, clenching his fists as he pivoted on his foot and stalked away. His silver hair swayed behind him.

Vlad wanted to leave together with Noah, but both he and Chloe strongly opposed the idea. Noah went on his own way, disappearing around a corner, leaving Chloe and Vlad standing outside the hall. The corridor grew quieter around them.

Their phones suddenly vibrated as they received a notification.

[Your account is credited by 80 credits. Current Amount: 6058.8]

[Your account is credited by 60 credits. Current Amount: 3377.6]

"He really deducted twenty credits," Vlad sighed. Nonetheless, he was happy. He had earned eighty credits for a spar that had not even lasted more than five minutes. A small smile tugged at his lips.

"Chloe, you should return to the dormitory and get some sleep," Vlad said, turning to her. "We will go to the market in the evening once you have rested." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

She shook her head. She grabbed him by the wrist and declared, already opening a map on her phone, "You are coming with me before that." Her grip was firm, leaving no room for argument.