Fortunately, the food were all paid for by Vermillion Academy – which meant it was free. That was the main reason why I tagged along.

"This is good!" Dong Fang Yue Chu mumbled as he placed a piece of honey-glazed barbeque meat into his mouth.

"Don't talk while your mouth is full!" Lily chided him, and he shut his mouth, chewed and swallowed.

"Sorry. But yeah, this is really good."

I swallowed my own meat before nodding in agreement. Reaching out for a chicken skewer, I slowly slid the glistening chunks of before placing them in my mouth. Savoring the sweet, tangy sauce on the skin, I smiled contentedly.

"Yeah, this is delicious."

"Are you really that desperate for free food?" Harrison asked me, trying to conceal his annoyance. I shrugged.

"Aren't you?" then I paused. "No, never mind. A rich kid like you will never understand the suffering of us poor people."

"You're not even that poor!" Harrison pointed out with a sigh. Fortunately, he didn't bother to argue and instead chewed on a piece of pork that he had been grilling the entire time. He nodded in approval and turned into some semblance of Michael Fa.s.sbender. "Perfection."

Everyone stared at him, and he shrugged.

"What? Just saying the truth."

"Just make sure you don't turn into an evil android that suddenly has a G.o.d complex and decides to engineer a lethal parasitic alien species."

"Now why would I do that?"

"Don't ask me." This time, it was my turn to shrug. "Ask Ridley Scott."

"Vice-Captain Richard!"

Surprisingly enough, Lilith Porter wandered over to join us, with Riley and Brutus by her side. She gestured toward the few open seats around our table. Each table could seat up to fifteen people, and only ten spots were taken by our Jing Tian Academy team.

"Mind if we join you?"

"Sure," Harrison consented before anyone could say anything. While the three from Vermillion Academy sat down, I couldn't help but blurt out.

"Did you just call me vice-captain?!"

"Yeah. You're the vice-captain of Jing Tian Academy's team, aren't you?"

"No."

"Yes," Harrison and Dong Fang Yue Chu said at the same time. I gaped at them.

"Since when was I ever the vice-captain?"

"What, n.o.body told you?" Dong Fang Yue Chu looked puzzled. Dude, I'm more confused than you are. "Ever since we decided who would represent Jing Tian Academy. The decision was pretty much unanimous."

"We all agreed that you would be best for the role," Harrison agreed. Then he paused for a moment. "Oh, right. You weren't there at the time. You were off on a mission with your father shortly after the monster invasion of our city. We made the decisions then"

"And you guys didn't tell me." I was doing my best not to fume. Craig chuckled at my indignant expression.

"Of course we didn't. We knew that you would protest and refuse if you knew. So we just put your name down and submitted it. Besides, it's not as if you need to do anything concrete even if you're the vice-captain."

"I can handle most of the admin stuff anyway," Harrison added. "You're the guy with the strategic-scale spell and our ace."

Troy should be our ace and the team captain, but he was never around. Come to think of it, I wondered how his chase after his brother, Tyrant King, was faring. I needed to contact him soon.

"So, Captain Lilith," Pearl began, and also politely nodded at Brutus and Riley to ensure they weren't left out. "What business do you have with our vice-captain?"

"Actually, it's not just Richard. It's with all of you." Lilith was beaming brilliantly, which almost took the guys by surprise. Fortunately, Lily was on hand to pinch Dong Fang Yue Chu before he could be mesmerized by Lilith's beauty, while Sheila instinctively clung to Craig's arm. "Your duel with s.e.xton Academy today was pretty impressive. I was hoping to have my team spar against you in another practice match soon, so that we can exchange several pointers."

"Oh! Challenge accepted!" Craig's eyes flashed excitedly. Then he glanced at everyone when he realized he had gotten ahead of himself. "Provided everyone else in the team is all right with it, of course."

"I have no problems with it. In fact, I think this will be a splendid opportunity." Harrison nodded thoughtfully. "I look forward to having a practice match with you. When will we hold it? I'm guessing sometime tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow sounds good." Lilith smiled in satisfaction. "Bring your best lineup. I'm not like Captain Paul. I won't be holding anything back!"

Harrison returned the grin. "Certainly. We plan on going all out against the best team in the northern province of the Federation!"

"Excellent!" Lilith clapped her hands, and then rose to her feet. She s.n.a.t.c.hed up a chicken skewer to nibble on it. "Enjoy your meal, everyone."

"I'll see you all tomorrow," Riley winked at us. "I look forward to learning from you guys."

"Same here," Brutus grunted as he stood up and followed his teammates. I could see the muscles bulging under his s.h.i.+rt. "This will be a great learning experience."

"We feel the same way," Theodore agreed.

We watched the trio depart and join another table, chatting with the students of another school. As the host, poor Lilith and her team had no choice but to socialize. They didn't seem to resent it, though, so good for them.

I personally would have balked at such a task. It wasn't that I was antisocial, but I could think of better things to do with my time than to spend an entire night mingling. Inwardly, I desired to return to my room immediately after dinner to resume my reading or do a session of training. Just like writing, I was loathe to skip even a single day of training, or I would be just as disappointed in my lack of progress as readers would be when they saw a cessation of daily updates on Web Novel.

Speaking of disappointment, I had an appointment with Princ.i.p.al Porter tomorrow. Probably to discuss the archeological expedition that would be held in a couple of weeks, before the actual tournament itself.

"Richard? You listening?"

I suddenly realized that Harrison was speaking to me. Evidently, he had asked me a question, but I was so lost in my thoughts that I missed it.

"Yeah, sorry. I mean, no. You were saying?"

"Oh, no. I was asking you about Lilith. Out of all of us, you're the one with the most experience fighting against her. We've viewed both of your duels against her, the one time in the Spiritual Road, and the second time here, a few days ago. What do you think of her skills and magic? Do you have any counterstrategies in mind?"

"Hmm, not really. I'm of the same opinion as you guys."

I opened up a holographic screen with my smartphone and replayed one of the videos that some guy had recorded in the Spiritual Road. We spent the next few minutes discussing tactics and possible scenarios we might face.

"Of course, I haven't fought against her team members such as Riley and Brutus, so I have no idea what to expect. I know as much as you guys regarding the Vermilion Academy's h.e.l.l Beast Team. In other words, what we've seen from past matches and recorded videos of their fights."

"Fair enough." Harrison rubbed absently at his cheek, then turned off the holographic screen. He smiled tiredly. "I'll sleep on this tonight, but you guys should relax. After all, we all worked very hard today, so all of you deserve a break. We'll discuss this again tomorrow, once I come up with a more concrete strategy."

"Yes, Captain!"

Everyone was glad that we had such a kind and understanding leader. I felt a pang of pity. No doubt Harrison would be burning hours of his sleep trying to concoct some sort of plan against Lilith and her team. That was the burden the team captain had to shoulder.

I was so glad I wasn't the leader, but that didn't make me any less sympathetic to Harrison's plight. Fortunately, Harrison was a natural born leader, and he had taken to his role like a duck to water, so he was more than happy to deal with this. He was the one who actually volunteered for the role, and there was a reason why everyone agreed without protest that he was the best for it. Harrison was held in high regard and deeply respected by all students in Jing Tian Academy.

Unlike a certain one-dimensional, shallow antagonist from another story who obsessed over petty grudges and was arrogant for no reason other than because the protagonist needed a reason to slap his face and humiliate him. It was as if only the protagonist was allowed to be the sole male smart and capable of leading. The moment another talented and genius guy showed up to threaten his position as an "alpha" male, they must immediately transform into sinister villains who used their immense intellect to plot insidious schemes against the protagonist in an attempt to bring about his downfall. Also, the moment a handsome guy who could be a potential love rival appealing enough to "steal" one of the heroines in the protagonist's harem, he would instantly become a one-dimensional villain who discarded all his intelligence and behaved according to his l.u.s.t and desires to one-directionally scheme against the protagonist and abduct the heroine, often justifying the protagonist's "rescue" of the heroine and beating up and humiliation of the formerly "smart" and "talented" good looking antagonist.

Like, seriously, there can exist guys other than the protagonist who were smart, intelligent yet morally upright and virtuous. And beautiful girls can fall for guys other than the protagonist, you know? It wasn't as if he was the only good male in the whole world or something.

"All right, you guys. Now that you're done with your meals, go and socialize." Harrison put on a strict appearance when he issued that instruction.

"Eh?" Craig stared at him dumbly. "Why?"

"No buts." Harrison shook his head. "Don't forget the objective of this exchange session. Yes, getting vital intelligence on rival teams before the tournament, and training with them are important, but that's not all we're here for. We're also here to establish ties and forge connections. They may not seem like it now, but many of these people will surely become your future cla.s.smates in whatever universities you choose to enroll in, or possibly future colleagues, since we're all disciples of the same combat magic field. It's only natural that you try to get to know as many of them as possible."

This guy was even more mature than me, who was supposed to be a thirty-year-old dude reincarnated into the body of a teenager. I had completely lost to him.

"That's true." Sheila nodded, and firmly took Craig's arm to drag him toward one of the mixed groups. It appeared that the other schools had the same idea, and many of the students had dispersed to mingle with students from other schools. Dong Fang Yue Chu and Lily also left, probably to say hi to one of the latter's acquaintances from another school. Harrison and Pearl also went their separate ways, while Cody disappeared as usual. That a.s.sa.s.sin was always sneaking around. Theodore grunted, picked up a plate of food, and wandered over to the counter where they were broadcasting some professional match live on the gigantic holographic screen projected against one of the walls of the restaurant. There were quite a few students from various schools watching the match, shouting and cheering.

That was the most interesting activity in the restaurant, and I decided to join Theodore. After all, if I wasn't able to find anyone to talk to, I could prevent any awkwardness by watching the professional magic matches on the big screen.

Before I left, however, I noted that Bu Fan was the last one remaining at the table. Even Harrison couldn't be bothered to convince the stubborn guy. n.o.body could tell Bu Fan what to do, because he was the Mary Sue protagonist from another story who was always right. Right now, he was wearing an irritated scowl (there's a pun joke here – basically, irritated can also be translated as "Bu Fan" in Chinese, which is h.o.m.ophonic with Bu Fan's name…or maybe I'm translating it wrong and it actually means not irritated).

"What?" he growled, when he caught sight of me looking in his direction. He downed his drink (I doubted it was beer, but it certainly wasn't water or juice) before glaring at me. "I ain't gonna play buddy-buddy with the other students. You sheep can listen to whatever Harrison tells you to do, I don't care, but don't drag me into it."

As amicable as always. I couldn't be bothered to argue with him, so I ignored him and wandered over. Or tried to, but I received a call from Princ.i.p.al Porter on my way there. As the restaurant was pretty noisy, I went into one quiet corner, far from all the other patrons, to take the call.

"Sir? You were looking for me?"

"Yes! Yes, I am! Sorry to disturb you while you're in the midst of dinner, but I just ran into an unexpected archive and I wanted your opinion regarding it. I recall you possess some knowledge of the Edo period, is that correct? And that you read quite a bit of folklore and are familiar with the monsters known as youkai."

"Oh, that's right." I should be. That was my major back in my previous life, after all. "What do you need?"

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It turned out that he had several trivial questions regarding youkai and certain species whose conception came later in the twentieth century rather than in the Edo period. I answered his questions as best as I could, and then hung up after he thanked me.

The moment I put my smartphone back in my pocket, I heard a loud crash in the restaurant. Looking up, I saw Theodore lying on the ground, his arm bruised and bleeding. Another student, from a school I didn't recognize, was standing over him, a sneer curling over his face. For some reason, I could see some ghostly spirit floating above him.

And then he gave some sign, to which the hovering specter responded to by throwing a ghastly fist at the downed Theodore.