Rylan smiled at the orange-haired young man.

"We are indeed," he said.

The towering young man breathed in and opened his mouth to reply.

"They're here!?" a female voice suddenly cut through the building atmosphere in an excited tone.

Rylan blinked and looked at the stairway. A few seconds later, a young woman almost hopped down the steps to come into view. She was short and not as thin as Ophelia, but her expression held the same kind of beaming smile, which only added to her atmosphere. Long azure hair draped over her shoulders, and her flawless face was adorned with golden, sun-like eyes curved into half-moons. All things considered, she was beautiful. Rylan narrowed his eyes. He glanced at Jasmine, then at Hayden.

…Why are most of the people I've come across good-looking?

Of course, there was no point in comparing his appearance to others, anyway. In the end, it didn't matter.

But I haven't seen a woman who's as beautiful as Yue yet.

Because of her identity, Moonlight's weapon spirit had been ethereal and unrealistic, seemingly perfect to a strange degree.

A bit lost in his thoughts, Rylan watched the azure-haired woman approach them with the same beaming smile, the sunlight coming in from the windows shining upon her white robe. The towering young man looked at her and furrowed his brow. In response, she only walked closer to him and patted his back before looking at Rylan again, now looking a bit calmer.

"I'm Louise," she said. "We've been wanting to meet you guys for a long time."

The tall young man sighed and looked at Rylan again.

"And I'm Leonard," he said.

Rylan stared into Leonard's eyes, managing to glimpse the truth behind his reaction once they'd entered the room in an instant.

So that's what this is about.

It was competitiveness. The man wanted to fight.

He grinned. He didn't really mind something like this.

"It's nice to meet you, Louise and Leonard," Rylan replied with a nod.

Next to him, Lucian took a step forward.

"I know you have a lot to say to them, but let the others introduce themselves first," Lucian stated. "There will be time for conversation once that's settled."

Leonard and Louise nodded almost at the same time. Leonard then threw a look at Hayden and Jasmine, slightly nodding to himself. Rylan couldn't resist the urge to smile. Leonard was quite transparent, despite his position as a member of the student council. Truthfully, Rylan preferred people like this. The man reminded him of the soldiers back in Cantavega.

I wonder how they're doing.

As soon as he had the time, he should go back and train them again for a bit. It would also be an opportunity to see Gerard and bring his mother along. He looked at the stairway, where three others were descending the steps. The one in front was a young man with an ordinary build, brown hair and chestnut eyes. His skin was a bit darker than that of the others. Still, underneath his ordinary appearance, Rylan could feel a surprising amount of mana roiling underneath.

He's only weaker than Lucian and Ophelia.

This estimation included the two people behind him. Rylan looked at them. They were two girls, one exceptionally short and the other of average height. The short one was even shorter than Louise, only reaching up to Rylan's lower chest, and she had bright green eyes and brown hair, reminding Rylan of his mother. She waved at him. At the same time, the other girl stared at him, then at Hayden and Jasmine. She had raven hair and ivory skin, alongside dark eyes that looked like obsidian. Rylan gave her a good look.

Both of them are pretty strong, too.

All the student council members in this room were deep into the Third Circle, close to Ophelia's level. The ordinary-looking young man, in particular, was very close to Ophelia in power. Of course, he would only be able to get a firm grasp on their power levels once he witnessed them in battle, but he trusted his senses.

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I don't think Hayden and Jasmine can beat any of them yet.

Despite both of them also being in the Third Circle, it was very likely that there was a considerable difference when it came to Skills and battle experience. Hayden lacked the former, while Jasmine lacked the latter. The student council members had been in the Academy, training and studying, for longer than the two of them. In a way, it was reassuring. Rylan felt like he could relax a bit if people this capable were in influential positions.

He waited for the trio to get close to them. The ordinary-looking young man spoke first.

"I'm Oliver."

"And I'm Jennifer," the short girl said.

The raven-haired young woman gave Rylan a long look before bowing slightly with pristine form.

"I'm Faye," she said calmly.

Rylan nodded at them with a smile.

"It's great to meet you, everyone. I'm Rylan."

Louise smiled at him.

"I think everyone here knows that," she said with a chuckle. "It's good to meet you three, guys. The few remaining members of the council aren't in the Academy right now, so we're everyone."

Lucian stepped forward and walked to the middle of the council members, drawing a few glances. He stopped and turned around to look at Rylan with a grin, then spread out his arms.

"These are most of the people you'll work with," Lucian said, his voice tinged with a proud edge. "We aren't bad, are we?"

"No, you're all strong," Hayden said from the side. Rylan glanced at him. As expected, the boy was smiling. "There's a lot I'll be able to learn."

Rylan couldn't resist the urge to grin.

I'm glad he's like this.

Hayden had neither been crushed under the weight of his own talent or grown up to be lacking in mental strength. Instead of feeling discouraged whenever he faced a situation or person he couldn't yet deal with, he sought to improve and evolve instead of wallowing in his own weakness. It had been like this since the tournament finals. No, it was likely that Hayden had always been like this. From experience, Rylan could tell that this trait had been shaped by his life as a commoner with no close family, but much of it was due to Hayden's perseverance itself.

"There's something I want to say before we even start talking about anything else," Leonard suddenly spoke up. Rylan looked at him, as did the others. He was sporting the same savage grin as before. "Let's fight. There's no better way to get an idea of our levels of power than that."

A bit behind Rylan, Ophelia scoffed.

"Are you really going to do that with every new council member?" she asked in a reproachful tone.

In response, Leonard only nodded with a puffed chest.

"By understanding their power level, we can tell what missions to assign and what they can handle on their own. At the same time, them understanding the strength of the others can also help them as to who they should turn to in a time of need, or in specific situations. There are no downsides to this."

Ophelia only gave him a blank stare. Rylan chuckled lowly.

"Do you have to make up a reason every time?" she replied.

Leonard raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not making anything up."

It took less than ten seconds of back and forth after that for the conversation to turn into a light argument. Faye merely looked at the two of them with a deadpan expression, but Jennifer sighed and shook her head. Lucian scratched the back of his head and Louise only smiled brightly.

"Yeah, he did it with me too," Oliver said from the side, shaking his head. Then, he smiled at Rylan and the other two. "I won, by the way."

In the middle of his argument, Leonard suddenly snapped toward him and frowned.

"We've been through that," Leonard said.

Oliver shrugged.

"I won. Even though I had only been in the Academy for a year."

Leonard frowned.

"Here we go again," Lucian said in a low voice from the side.

Contrary to everyone's apparent expectations, however, Leonard only took a deep breath and looked at Rylan, then at Hayden and Jasmine.

"What do you say?" he asked.

Hayden and Jasmine looked at Rylan almost at the same time, making him sigh inwardly.

"I think it could be a good thing," Rylan replied. "I assume we're going to include everyone?"

The members of the student council smiled at him almost at the same time.

"Of course," Leonard said, donning the same grin as before.

Rylan turned around to look at both Hayden and Jasmine.

"What do you think? Are you willing?" he asked softly.

The two of them nodded simultaneously.

"I've been wanting to figure out how effective Master's training was," Hayden said with a grin.

"…I need more battle experience," Jasmine said, shifting in place.

Rylan nodded at them and turned around again to face the others.

"And that's that," he said.

Lucian sighed.

"Follow me, then," he said.

Together, the group made their way outside the student council building and to the area behind it. It was a wide clearing with short grass and no obstacles, clearly designed with a purpose. Rylan looked around, the warm sunlight shining upon his hair and robe. The empty area was around one hundred meters in radius.

Looks good to me.

Beyond it, trees and small buildings started popping up. Was this the reason why the student council building was somewhat distant from the others? It wasn't as if he didn't get it, but in case of an attack, it meant that it would take the Academy's strongest students more time to arrive at the scene.

Leonard walked to the middle of the big clearing, then turned around to look at Rylan, motioning at him.

"Can I go first?" Hayden suddenly asked from the side.

Rylan looked at him and nodded with a smile.

"Of course. Show me what you've learned."

He was aware of the Skills Hayden had learned, since they trained together, but he didn't know how well Hayden would be able to translate those into power during a fight.

Hayden then walked to the middle of the clearing as well to stand around fifteen meters away from Leonard.

"Are you sure about this?" Lucian whispered to Rylan, who only nodded. Lucian looked back at Hayden and Leonard with curiosity. "Begin!"

The two of them moved at the same time.

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