Chapter 19 - Artifact's Demonstration and Announcement

The next day, after the short lunch break, Captain Meld told the students plus Aiko and Rio that there was no training afterward. Some students heaved a sigh of relief while the other seemed deflated. They were curious as to why the training after lunch was stopped.

Captain Meld explained to them, "The royal family and delegations from the Holy Saint Temple will test the new artifact created by your friends. You must know them. They are Hajime Nagumo and Rio Kevin. You all are invited to the testing too." When Captain Meld shouted that, he seemed excited.

Yesterday night, after dinner, Rio had reported the completion of his and Hajime's first product that he promised to them. He also gave them the sample, but the official testing would still happen the next day. The official testing was to show off the finished product in front of the delegation from Holy Church.

The meeting was for the royal family, King's important retinues, Rio, and Hajime. As the Captain of Royal Knight and an important personage of the Kingdom, Meld was involved in the meeting. After watching the product first hand, it was only normal for him to be excited. After all, Rio's and Hajime's creation could be said revolutionary, that it would help in their war against the demons.

When the students heard that, they started a ruckus. They had forgotten Hajime since he had disappeared after their Status Inspection. They never thought Hajime had been doing something interesting. They did not feel skeptical of Captain Meld's declaration because he also mentioned Rio's name. Rio's prestige in the students' eyes had risen up after this week. Of course, not everyone liked Rio. But, let's ignore the jealous and the narrow-minded bunch.

They turned at Rio who was together with Kouki's group. He had become the official member of Kouki's group after what happened yesterday in the afternoon. When Rio became the center of the students' attention, he shrugged his shoulders casually and returned their curiosity with a mysterious smile.

Finally, the students were bring led by Captain Meld, the other knights, and Court Magicians towards the testing field. When they entered the testing field, the say a canopy had been erected in the middle of the field. There were around three dozens of a seat prepared for VIPs, the students included due to their status as Apostles of God.

As an aside, Rio felt Ehit's gaze on him as this happening, but he did not seem to mind the fake God's attention on him. After a week to get familiar with his new power, he was confident that he could crush Ehit and their force residing in Holy Precinct.

As they entered the canopy, Kaori made a beeline towards Hajime who was answering the questions from Ishtar and other delegation from Holy Church and embraced him in front of everyone. The other members of Kouki's group followed after Kaori in a hurry. Only Rio who walked up to the new love birds with steady, unhurried steps. Rio did that to check the students' reaction to this play. And as he expected, they had a face full of disbelief and outrage when they saw the open affection Kaori showered on Hajime was unusual and very different from the past. They were not blind. They could see that Hajime's and Kaori's relationship had changed. When Rio joined Hajime and the others, he motioned to Kouki with his eyes. Kouki then nodded in Rio's direction in affirmation before facing the students.

"Everyone! Please give me your attention for a few seconds!" Kouki's loud voice attracted the students' attention and distracted them from the open display of affection between Hajime and Kaori. Well, it was mostly Kaori fussing over Hajime who had a stiff face as he received Kaori's fussing. After the students focused on Kouki, he continued on.

"I want to inform you that two of our classmates have become an official couple. You may have guessed it, and indeed, these friends of ours are no other than Hajime Nagumo and my childhood friend, Kaori!"

The students, Aiko, and the young Prince Lundel blanked at the bomb Kouki dropped. Some boys had exaggerated reaction as if they heard their beloved puppy was murdered in a cold blood. Kouki realized their strong reaction and shifted his view towards Rio who enjoyed the scene. He had a troubled expression. When Rio saw that, he shrugged his shoulders and silently informed Kouki to continue. Since Kouki did not know what he should do next, he waited for his friends to recover. And recover they did.

"Are you f*cking kidding me?!"

"Oy, this is a joke, right? Amanogawa, tell me that you were joking!"

"This is only a dream, this is only a dream, this is only a dream..."

The reaction was strong as expected. It looked like the reply when the student realized they could not return back to their world. However, it mostly came from the boys. The strongest protestors were Daisuke and his cronies. Meanwhile, the girls were busy gossiping. After all, it was a juicy gossip!

"Everyone, please calm down!" Kouki shouted aloud, trying to calm the outrage. He was taken aback by the boy's strong reaction. In fact, even Prince Lundel joined the strike, dumbfounding his parents and elder sister. However, Kouki calmed down them successfully with his max charisma. It was the reason why Rio and others had decided to make Kouki give this announcement on the previous day.

"This announcement is no joke! Nagumo and Kaori are going out for real, and I, as Kaori's childhood friend, don't have a problem with Kaori's decision! In fact, as her childhood friend, I respect and support Kaori's decision. Ryutarou and Shizuku also gave their blessing for Kaori and Nagumo. As her friends, you all should respect and support her decision too! Moreover, Nagumo is actually not that bad if you get to know him better! So, stop clamoring and give your blessing to Kaori's and Nagumo's new relationship!"

The clamoring students calmed down but not entirely. Though they had stopped making a ruckus, they glared enviously at Hajime, who looked shaken at the boys' glare which was full of jealousy and bloodl.u.s.t. Meanwhile, Kaori was oblivious to the boys' murderous glare due to her tunnel vision towards Hajime.

When Rio saw Kaori, he shook his head in disappointment. Despite he had given those dressing down to her, she kept ignoring the mood and atmosphere around her. However, he allowed Kaori to have her enjoyment for now. After all, she was still over the moon because her d.e.s.i.r.e to be Hajime's girlfriend turned real.

Afterward, they advanced towards the main event of this meeting. Kouki and his group settled near the Royal Family and the Temple's delegations in the front rows. Meanwhile, Rio joined Hajime above the rising ground for the actual presentation.

Finally, Hajime started his presentation and explained the artifact he had created together with Rio. When the students saw the artifact, they gasped in realization. They had the knowledge, or at least, had seen the shape back in their original world. The shape of this artifact was similar to Guns. In fact, it looked like the M1911, also known as the "Government" or "Colt Government", a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge from Earth.

"My classmates probably know the shape of this artifact. In fact, I based this artifact on one model of many firearms in our world. However, this artifact does not shoot a bullet. What this artifact launched is condensed elemental mana that has a different effect upon hitting the target! To understand this artifact's effect better, Rio and I shall show it to you, so you can see it with your own eyes!"

When Hajime mentioned Rio's name, Rio had prepared himself at the other end of the stage. Meanwhile, Hajime walked up towards the opposite end of the stage and nodded at Rio.

'Well, if that fake god takes the bait, then it is good. If not, it is also good. Either way, let's see how Ehit will react to this!' Rio mused silently before tapping into his mana. He did not release his full power. In fact, he only used mana according to his current stats. As an aside, Rio was currently level 6 and had 180 Magic and Magic Defense. Meanwhile, his Strength, Vitality, Defense, and Agility had broken through 30 points. Of course, this information was false. It was just something he wanted others to see while he his his real capability.

The next moment, his body was covered by a platinum aura that gave a majestic impression. He then created several clay disks, floating above him.

Everyone, Hajime excluded, exclaimed in shock when they saw the fast and chantless invocation of spell Rio had done. Furthermore, they realized that Rio had done that without any effort. At the same time, Rio sensed Ehit's gaze on him. It was filled with bad intention. Rio endured the strong urge to smirk victoriously when he sensed that.

Ehit had unwittingly stepped in Rio's carefully laid trap.