It was the first time he had his hair cut, he was surprised to see how long they were once they fell from his head. He had not expected them to grow so much in only a single year. No wonder they kept getting in his way.

Harriett was efficient and removed his excess hair with speed and precision. She would not stand for a single bit of his haircut being misplaced or wrongly trimmed. Emp let her do as she pleased, as long as they were short and not in his way, he didn't really care about what the end result looked like.

Snipping sounds were the only things heard aside from the song Harriett was humming as she performed her task. Celtine was standing nearby with a broom and collected all the fallen hair as they were freed from his head.

While the girls were doing all the hard work, he was reading a letter the girl brought back with the scissors. It was a letter from Galana, she was the only one sending him some. Like usual, the first word of it was idiot.

The time it took for the messages to reach each other, even if they always answered the same day they received them, they only sent a few over the year. All of hers started by calling him an idiot while all of his started by presenting some new books he found for her.

In the one he was currently reading, she was mostly complaining about the prices of candles going up. she also complained about a guy who came in looking for a book, found it, browsed through it, pretended the information he was looking for wasn't in the book and left without paying for either the book or the time he spent reading through it.

Emp wondered how she kept getting cheated out of her money like that. Was it really just that guy Balpoisson trying is best to make her miserable?

Another snip and more hair fell behind him. Celtine brushed the broom past his leg.

Emp didn't understand Balpoisson. Even if he did his best, with all the books he was sending, when the time to collect the debt came, she would easily be able to pay back with the books. She didn't even need to sell them, he could just walk in and claim all of them to pay the debt.

He placed the letter back onto the table and the scissors clipped another handful of hair. He felt thirsty now, he was about to ask for Harriett to bring the water pitcher closer when they heard a long series of small knocks on the door.

"Hi Emp, are you there?"

That was Mable's voice.

"Miss Mable's at the door, shall I go open for her?"

"Yes, but leave the scissors here and make sure to tell her you are currently cutting my hairs."

Emp had not forgotten what Aglaya told him about Mable's phobia. It wouldn't be fun at all if he scared her today.

Harriett nodded and rushed to the door to greet Mable. Meanwhile, Celtine took the scissors and placed them in a close-by drawer. Harriett wasn't done cutting his hair but he felt surprisingly lighter already. All that hair weighted a lot more than he thought.

"Hi miss Mable, we were currently in the process of cutting master's hair, you can come in if you want, we are almost done."

Emp couldn't see Mable from where he was but he heard the hesitation in her voice.

"Oh... were you really? It wasn't that important, I can come back later."

"You don't have to worry, I put them away for you. You really can come in if you want." Emp called from his seat.

Mable peeked inside the room, scanned for the scissors and once she had made sure that there were none to be found, she stepped inside. She made a few big steps to get closer to him while she was talking.

"Emp, I came here to make sure you were read/? Pfff, bwa? Gyahahahahahahahaha! What up with your head!?"

The moment she paid attention to his head, she lost her train of thoughts and started laughing loudly. What was so funny?

"My apology master, half done hair isn't the most presentable state one can be. I should have warned you beforehand."

"It's fine, please, prepare a chair for her."

Harriett bowed and pulled back one of the chairs for Mable to sit on. Meanwhile, her two servants walked in as well and closed the door behind them.

She sat down with a big smile and talked joyfully.

"You should keep your hair that way and go beat them up like that. It'd be so funny!"

"I don't think they would be able to see it under my helm."

"Mwu, why are you even cutting them then?"

"It's more comfortable to fight with short hair. Do you want some water?"

"Yeah."

"Harriett, could you please fetch the pitcher and two cups."

The servant didn't waste any time and served them each a cup of water while Mable looked around the room. It was the first time she entered his room, thinking about it, it was the first time anyone walked in here.

"It feels really empty, I can't see you in that room. It's all random stuff you don't care about."

Emp took one of the cups From Harriett and drank the whole thing before answering, he was really thirsty.

"Thanks Harriett. Does it really matter if the room seems empty? I don't know what else to do with it."

"What's up with those books over there? Did you place them here just because Blackbull told you to do it?"

"I did."

"But have you read them?"

"No."

"Then what's the point? You can't even use them as a conversation subject."

Emp had not thought about that at all. Had he misinterpreted what Blackbull asked of him? He had thought he needed them so that visitors could read them but instead, they were there so he could talk to visitors about them. It made way more sense that way.

"I should probably read them then, I had not thought of that."

"Maybe you should present something you are interested in instead, like a sword or maybe your big hammer. You like weapons right?"

Emp wasn't sure if he really liked weapons or if he just knew a lot about them. Either way, it would make more sense to have that kind of things here than the books he had not read. Maybe he could place some sort of trophy from the things he had defeated? That could be interesting to show off or talk about. What about the soul stone? That was important for him as well. Thinking about it, his room in Marcy's house was very empty too, he only had his bed there, he should probably do something about it.

"You are right, I should place some more interesting things here. I'll think about it."

"Great, let me see once you're done."

She took a large gulp of water and then went back to the topic that brought her here.

"I came here to make sure you were ready for today. I don't want to get in trouble because you forgot something."

"I think I'm ready. Once you leave, Harriett will finish cutting my hair and then I'll put on my armor and I'll be all set for the day."

"Everyone trained a lot, do you think they'll be much harder to beat than before?" She asked with a bit of worry.

"Maybe but I trained a lot too so I should be fine."

She took another sip of water and lowered her head.

"I'm sorry to have brought you into this mess. I was having too much fun seeing you beat them all up, I didn't think about the trouble I made for us both. It's all my fault but it's you who's fixing all of it instead of me."

"Isn't it mostly because of what Aglaya told you?"

"I think she's preparing some funny trick or something, she's been in a giggly mood lately, but even then, even if she had not said anything, I would still have been in trouble because of what I did before. She just pointed it out."

"Maybe, if it is to help you or any of our friends, I won't mind something like this at all. Even if she had not said anything, I would have stepped in the way, I'm sure the others would have moved too."

She laughed from his answer and got up from the chair, placing the half full cup back on the table.

"Great then, I won't stay in your way any longer. Get ready and come down there to win me my cake!"

She had quickly turned her mood around. Maybe it was hard for her to seem sad, she had instantly went back to laughter. Her two servants opened the door again to let her through and she waved back to him as she left.

"See you later, don't be late!"

"Don't worry, I'll be there."

The door closed again and Emp took himself another cup of water, he was still very thirsty.

"Should we worry about what Aglaya is planning on doing?" Asked Harriett.

He placed the empty cup back on the table and answered her casually.

"Why? She's our friend, she said she gave up on the name too. Even if we were to worry about it, there is nothing we can do about it."

He felt no apprehension at all to whatever she was planning. The two girls shot a look at each other, came to some sort of unvoiced understanding and Harriett bowed once more. Emp felt she bowed way too often.

"Right, my apologies master, do you want me to resume my work on your haircut?"

"Yes please, I want to go there as soon as possible."

Celtine picked back up the scissors from the drawer and gave them back to Harriett to let her finish her work.

Not too long after, he put on his armor and left his room for the training field. Celtine was on his shoulder again but since he knew he would fight people he didn't really know today, he would drop her off as soon as he got there.

Winfred had him train with her on his shoulder but it didn't mean that if he could drop her off before a real fight he shouldn't. The training was to prepare for the worst case scenario not make it into the normal situation.

The bones of his armor clacked against each others as he walked. He often wore his whole armor for training and he wore it into many fights already so he was used to the way it moved. It was large and clunky but he wasn't disturbed by it at all. He knew what it could do, he had a good idea, by knowledge and by experience, of how much each part could take before breaking down.

Marcy had thought him a lot about armors and weapons made of monster parts. He had come to realize something really simple about them. He could wear those pieces of bones, skin and scales because their original owner died. This was obvious, it should also be obvious then that some things could break that armor. Something needed to do it in the first place to kill the creature.

No armor made out of monster remains was unbreakable. The trick was to know what it could endure and what it could not. As of yet, Emp had not found anything that could break past it aside from the acidic spit of the blood-spittters. The holes were still there to prove its effectiveness.

Him and Marcy had worked hard on the armor to fix the damage it had sustained but she did not possess any more parts of the creatures she used to make it. They were only able to patch the holes with bits of inferior materials. The best would have probably been to replace it entirely but even with a few holes in it, that armor was better than anything else she could make with what she currently had available to her.

His armor should still be more than enough for a few spars with other students.

It didn't take him too long to reach the sparring field. The field had often been used by them before as a training place. It was a thirty meters long by fifteen meters wide area devoid of gra.s.s, plants or rocks. (1)

There was only soft dirt from one end to the other. A bunch of benches forming stairs had been placed all around it to provide everyone a place to sit and watch the spars happening in the center.

there would usually be three or four duels taking place at the same time in that s.p.a.ce but since the whole thing had turned into an event featuring multiple groups, they would probably end up going one at a time.

At the edge of the field, in the middle of its length, the teacher stood with a bunch of people Emp didn't recognize. He guessed they were healers by the amount of medical tools and herbs they had brought with them.

Usually, they wouldn't have needed so many healers but Winfred didn't trust the students for their first spars. That and the fact that the other cla.s.s had an obvious grudge against this one.

Their guys had lined up on one end of the fields while everyone else sat in the benches surrounding the field. Even in the benches, there was a clear cut between the different cla.s.ses, none of the students wanted to sit with the other groups apparently.

Emp walked up to the group C, his own, and removed Celtine from his shoulders. Even those who didn't know him or had never seen him in armor could tell who he was just from how he walked in carrying the cursed-blood on his shoulders.

Mable and Aglaya were sat on the second row of benches starting from the bottom. Mable wore a long colorful dress while Aglaya wore a layered long skirt under an elegant top. Clearly they had no intention of walking down to the training field today. When Emp placed Celtine on the ground They nudged their servants.

"Go help her get up here."

While the servants rushed to Celtines help, those sitting in the front row addressed Emp. They were mostly those who intended to fight themselves later on.

"So, we'll finally see by how much I lord over you all in terms of strength." Odilon said first.

The others simply ignored him and spoke about something more realistic instead.

"I was eager to see who would end up being the best today as well but I guess we will have to wait until Emp gets rid of all those guys from the other group." Norval said.

He had no doubt about who would win between Emp and the other group. Apparently, that belief was shared by mostly everyone from group C.

"How long do you think it will take you? I want to get down there and fight already." Brenia asked him.

"I don't know, last time was easy but there are more of them today."

"You dare mock us again!"

Emp turned his head around to see that one of them had walked up to group C without him noticing. He was a tall guy who wore a steel plate armor over mail and cloth. An arming sword was dangling from his left hip and he wore no helmet. His face had nothing that caught the eyes of Emp and he had blond hair like everyone else, he felt ordinary. Emp was more concerned about his choice of weapon.

"Why are you carrying that kind of sword?"

"What?"

The poor guy had no idea what he was talking about. Seeing that the fun was starting, the spectators of the many groups present quieted and strained their ears to listen.

"You are wearing a complete suit of armor, you should wield a heavy weapon but instead you carry a one handed sword. You do not even have a s.h.i.+eld to go with it. Either you have no idea what you are doing or you are keeping the other hand for magic. Since you have nothing to carry spell components with you, I can only a.s.sume it is the first of the two. Hence my question, why are you carrying that kind of sword?"

Many snorts were heard from group C and Mable simply burst out laughing. Cyril almost choked as he tried to stop himself from bursting too. He had often been on the receiving end of Emp's clueless blunt questions, he was happy to not be the victim of it for once.

"We'll see who doesn't know what he's doing! Just you wait! And you girl, you'll laugh a lot less once we're through with him!"

Somehow, his genuine question just made him more angry than before. Emp was pretty disappointed in his att.i.tude.

"No way, you're too useless for that. Aren't you the guy who got punched in the nose right at the start last time? You were instantly beaten."

Mable had a better memory than him when it came to faces, he didn't remember that guy at all. When they came to challenge her last time, she had no idea who they were but now that she knew when she had first met them, it seemed she could recognize them.

Another round of stiffed laughter resounded through the seats across the whole field. The guy shook in anger while Aglaya whispered something in Mable's ear.

After listening to Aglaya, Mable tried to take on a more serious face and talked again to the young man.

"Uh? Alright, I mean, you aren't in a position to threaten me. Try to not be defeated too hard by my champion and then we'll see if you are worth listening to. Emp is ready anytime. That's it, good job... Wait, I wasn't supposed to say the last part was I?"

The guys in group C started coughing because of Mable's blunder, it took all that they had to not laugh.

"So cute!"

Aglaya lunged towards Mable and caught her in a hug she couldn't escape from.

"Agh! Stop it Aglaya, not right now!"

"Enough!" The young man complained angrily. "You're clearly mocking us now. We're challenging you so come here and fight!"

He pointed Emp with his armored finger and left to their side of the field, stomping the ground in his path. Emp really didn't understand what made him so angry. He could see the rest fuming from the other end of the field too.

Emp looked back to his own group and everyone gave him some encouragement. Since he was acting as her champion, he should have waited for her to tell him to go but she was currently prisoner of her friend so he walked to the center of the field without waiting.

On his way there, he placed his hand in the bag and removed the thunder-chew hammer from it. It didn't feel as heavy as it did a year ago.

The teacher walked to the center of the field, placing himself between the Emp and the rest. he made sure he had the attention of everyone and spoke in a voice loud enough to reach even the furthest benches.

"I will repeat the rules one last time so listen carefully. First of all, this is a spar, not a duel, there will be no deaths here. Killing your opponent is not an option, its simply murder so be careful with them. Same kind of thing for permanent injuries. You can all use nonlethal magic but not bows, crossbows or any sharp ranged weapons. You are not allowed to switch weapons in the middle of a fight, this one is for you Emp. You are all allowed to use your own weapons and choose your own opponents, and sub rules. I will intervene if things go too far so be reasonable. If someone becomes unable to fight, forfeits or is in an obvious loss position such as having a blade to his throat, they will be declared defeated. Remember, the point of this whole thing is to help you learn and better your fighting style not to settle petty grudges. Are there any questions?"

Silence answered his query.

"Alright then, who will go against Emp first?"

"I will." The guy from earlier said.

He stepped up to the designated spot on his side of the field while Emp took place on his own. He seemed determined to win and still quite angry.

"Are you sure you don't want to all go at once?" Asked Brenia, loud enough so that everyone could hear it.

Emp would be rather troubled if they all went at once but luckily for him, the young man just got angrier.

"Shut up!"

He drew his sword and prepared himself to go. Emp readied his hammer and waited for the signal of the teacher.

He wondered how he should defeat the man. Should he just knock him over with a swing of the hammer? He was worried that he might be stronger than he seemed, if he was, he would need to hit harder. If he hit harder but the guy wasn't able to block properly, he was worried he might injure him.

"Go." The teacher said.

He didn't have the time to think about it anymore, the man charged toward him...

Or maybe he did have the time to think about it, with how slowly he ran, it would take forever for him to reach Emp. This reminded him of that time he fought in Red-water. Maybe he should just step up to him and deliver a kick at him to see how he reacted? He would follow up with a true attack once he had a good idea on how he held up.

Emp stepped right in front of the guy and saw his eyes go wide in surprise. Before he could understand what had happened and even less react to it, Emp brought the heel of his foot up to the guy's stomach and gave it a hard kick.

He felt a buzz rush through his leg and a loud clank was heard as the two armors collided. He just now realized that kicking into a steel plate wasn't the smartest thing to do, his leg felt a bit numb.

At least the results were satisfying, he dented the armor and the guy fell backward despite his previous forwards momentum. His legs flew over his head and his back smashed against the ground with the weight of his armor. The chock even sent his sword flying out of his hand.

Emp had expected him to counter somehow or rush back up but apparently, his breath had been cut short and he was struggling to get it back. Worse, his sword flew so far away that there was no way for him to get it back before Emp attacked again.

While Emp watched him fight against himself to bring back air to his lungs, he slowly came to the realization that he had just won that fight.

The kick meant to test him had been the first and final blow. Emp was just as stunned as everyone else. Was that guy truly that weak? He looked towards the teacher to get some sort of advice on what to do but only got a declaration of his victory instead.

"Emp wins that spar. Hortence, what Emp told you before was right, showing up with only a one handed weapon doesn't make you bold it only makes you unprepared. Plus, you had nothing to protect your midsection because of your high stance. Stay on your guard until you reach the opponent or else you're full of openings for someone faster like him. If he had struck with his war hammer instead he would have turned your armor inside out and you would have died. As for Emp, didn't I just say to hold back? Don't put so much strength in a simple kick. You're not meant to win a spar with only a single move."

"..."

Should he say it? He feared that if he told the teacher that he was indeed holding back, he might anger the other side further.

...

It didn't really matter did it? They were already very angry after all.

"But, I was holding back. I just wanted to probe his defense with the kick before attacking for real."

Roaring laughter exploded on one side and undisguised anger on the other.

"Screw it, he's too c.o.c.ky! Let's all go at him together!" One of them yelled as he stepped forward.

"No."

Another one of them blocked his path forward with a hand. He seemed to be well respected by the rest because they all stopped to listen to his words.

The armor of that one was lined with silver and gleamed under the sun. It was more gaudy than the protection worn by most of the others but one could see he was smarter than most as well by the fact he wore his helm.

Or maybe it was unfair for those not wearing any helmets. After all, targeting the face of someone in a simple spar was a bit too much wasn't it? It was really only there because of possibility of an accident happening.

"If we all go together against a single man, even if we win, we will be disdained by everyone else. Our victory will be our shame. He's just trying to anger us, have you not noticed the long delay between the teacher's words and his comment? This is an obvious trap."

Murmurs of ascent spread through the group of hostile students and the one that was about to rush forwards stepped back into the group with a nod.

"Wa, boo! You're all just scared of Emp, I mean, my champion. You don't have to come up with fancy excuses if you want to give up."

Mable's taunt was received by a few grunts as the other side consulted each other on what to do next.

"We don't even know how strong he really is."

"Should we just send in Noirantel right away?"

"Nah, we should get a few of us to test him out in turns, we have to get him to fight with more than just a kick to know what he can do."

"I agree, Jin isn't that bad, we could send him first."

"What, why me?"

"Why not, you're in the old group anyway right?"

"Right then, who votes for Jin?"

Everyone but the guy named Jin raised their hands.

"I hate all of you, it's all because you pick fights with people for no reason."

While he was grumbling his answer, he stepped up to the sparring area. The healers had already removed his friend from there and so the area was ready to house a new fight.

The new guy was wearing a long chain mail, a large kite s.h.i.+eld and wielded a spear in his right hand. He was surprisingly brown haired and had the same kind of expression George showed all the time. The face that said "I really don't want to be here".

Emp backed into his starting area as well and the other expressed his readiness.

"I'm ready when you are."

"I'm ready."

"Then go." Called the teacher.

Emp wasn't really afraid of his spear. This wasn't the sort of weapon that was appropriate to use against the kind of armor he was wearing. In a real battle, the only realistic way for Jin to win would be to plunge the spear into a gap in his armor, the most likely place being the front opening of his helmet.

However, in a small spar like this, his chances of winning were even smaller. Emp did not understand why they chose him to go first.

"I won't be taken down by the same speed trick you used against Hortence. Come at me."

Did he not intend to move? How should he proceed then? Run up to him and smash the s.h.i.+eld with the hammer? That seemed like a good start.

Emp raised his hammer and s.p.a.ce-stepped up to his opponent. Without wasting time, he swung his hammer in a sweeping motion. He expected it to impact his s.h.i.+eld but he surprisingly only caught air with it, making it hiss in complaint.

The man had bent himself backward to dodge the blow and the instant the hammer pa.s.sed him, He sprung back up and trusted his spear towards emp.

The attack punctured the s.p.a.ce in between them with so much speed that the wind made a sound as if it was ripped apart. Jin was barely any slower than the mouse!

There was a loud clank as the steel tip of the spear collided with his breastplate and was bounced off to the side. Both of them felt a chock so hard they were forced a step back each.

"Hehe, I told you that trick wouldn't work with me." He said with pride.

Still, Emp could see sweat forming above his brows. He had obviously not expected his counter to produce no results at all.

Whispers spread through group C.

"How did he dodge Emp's attack?"

"How can anyone be that fast?"

Emp on the other hand was more interested on how he was supposed to hit that guy. There was no way he could compete with that kind of speed. He was stuck in a difficult situation, he could easily lose this match.

The spear could clearly not pierce his armor with the strength the other guy possessed but he only had to trust it at his face and stop before hitting it to be declared winner by the teacher. With his speed, Emp would be unable to block it in time.

Emp did not feel it would take him a long time to figure it out. He needed to find a way to win before this happened.

Emp stepped forward again and swung his hammer low to stop him from ducking under it again.

Jin bashed his s.h.i.+eld downward on the side of the hammer and drove it to the ground as he jumped over it. he was about to trust his spear again but Emp put more strength in his arms and swung the hammer upward from bellow Jin. Since he was balanced on it, the movement raised him in the air, made him loose his balance and almost had him fall over.

It was only thanks to his great reflex and speed that he avoided the fall and ended up on his feet.

He trusted his spear forwards once again and Emp dodged most of the blow with a backward step, only getting a small scratch on the armor. Two more attacks quickly followed and Emp continued to step back.

"Stop going backward Emp!" Yelled Oliver. "His skill in the spear is weak, just rush him!"

Emp disagreed, it wasn't about his spear skill, it was all about his speed instead. It was pointless to rush forward if he could just move out of the way instantly.

Now that he had started trusting his spear, he didn't seem to want to let Emp escape. He kept attacking over and over with no time in between each trusts. His spear was like a blur and Emp could barely keep out of the way by moving backward all the time and placing the hammer in the way. If he kept doing that, he would end up hitting a wall at some point.

His friends all seemed nervous about how the fight turned out. Mable was especially distressed and kept yelling that he needed to win. Celtine and Aglaya were close at her side trying to have her calm down by holding on to her.

Jin's seniority advantage in this school was obviously not just for show. He was fast, relentless and knew well how to corner an opponent. Dozens of loud metallic bangs were heard in rows as the steel point of the spear poked at his defenses again and again.

His side was cheering while Emp was thinking about what to do. He couldn't even strike back because the spear of Jin had the reach advantage over him.

As he was thinking that, an opposing thought pa.s.sed thought his mind. Why was he even thinking about reach, they were so close to each other anyway, he only had to raise his arm to touch him.

His eyes unfocused, he stopped trying to block every spear strikes coming his way and just swung the hammer in retaliation. He put all the speed he could in the attack to make sure that he would not dodge this one. While his hammer was moving, Emp received five spear hits in the chest but ignored them entirely.

From the viewpoint of everyone else present, his hammer should not have reached Jin, it was obviously too short. Still, it pushed back the air in a hiss and smashed against Jin's s.h.i.+eld. The sound it made was like a thunderclap and the man was sent flying backwards.

All cheers and jeers were stopped at once by a wave of gasps as Jin spun five times in the air before cras.h.i.+ng back into the dirt. Immediately after, wails of pain sounded through the yard as Jin clutched his s.h.i.+eld bearing arm.

Emp had won victory and Jin had won a broken arm.

***

"To be perfectly honest with you, I already knew about the financial distress your family is experiencing."

"..."

"I did not mean to upset you, I a.s.sure you. A man in my position learns of a lot of things and your situation happened to let itself be known to me."

"..."

"I will do no such thing, I'm far from being this kind of man. You must believe me when I say this, none of this matters at all to me. You're worth to me lies not in monetary wealth."

"..."

"Was this what was on your mind all this time? Your heart must feel much more peaceful now that you know I am not to be swayed by such trivial matters. Here, drink this, it will appease you further, I made it myself."

***

(1) About the size of a basketball court.