Chapter 118: The duel of- Pineapples?

"What is going on here?" Raea glared at the battlefield. She had hired assassins, men from her father, and even her most trustworthy followers were on this field. But one by one all were giving up.

And not to mention, most of the assassins were now on the floor, unconscious or just rolling around sniffing. 

"This was a mistake." She whispered to herself. But it was too late. "Nadar, where are you!?" She looked haphazardly around her for the boy, but he wasn't here either. 

The very same boy who gave her courage, was not by her side anymore. 

In a matter of a minute, she was alone. She never needed hard work for anything. She was beautiful from the day she was born, inherited bountiful riches and she also had a power that could steal the hearts of men. She could even sway girls to do her bidding. And because of that, she thought she owned the world.

Whenever she went out, everyone just looked at her, and they all did exactly as she wanted. Of course, she knew there were exceptions but, but even the exceptions were affected. 

But then, why was this happening? Why was some random first-year student ruining her life like this? Why was everything failing?

"Don't just stand there, get him," She cried out the orders. There were only three of her fighters left. 

***                                 

All three of them ran for the boy, but two fell before even reaching the boy. The third one however was a bit different. He had little hair and his head was shaped like a pineapple. 

He had countless near experiences with death but this was probably the worst one yet. 

"Pineapple crash!" He even had names for his attacks. "Taste my fists! Tis' the battle of Pineapples!"

"Sorry, I can't eat pineapples, they always cut my mouth." But the boy just knocked the man out with one punch. "I still have nightmares about them."

"Pin-e-appllle!" The man fell but he clung to the ground. "They taste good you know. AH-" He fainted. 

"I know. Mom always forces me to eat them…" The boy reminisced something and shook for a second. 

***

As the last one of her followers gave up, Raea saw a boy coming towards her, a boy furiously glaring at her and grinning at the same time. In his hand was a scythe and it looked like he was death himself, marching towards her. 

"Beautiful." But the girl's legs shook and she finally realized- she didn't have any hope left. 

Cheers came from the sidelines. Prayers came for her too. But it was too late. 

But she had one final trump card remaining. But was it really going to work? 'Surely he can't resist my charm twice?' Needless to say, she couldn't accept reality. 

The crowd was far enough to not see anything. So she took a gamble. 

The boy was now only ten meters away. 

It was now or never. 

"I-I'll become your slave. Let's end this." She started to undress herself, and show off a bit of skin. She didn't have any intention of becoming naked and all of this was a ploy. After all, her greatest strength was her body. And she wasn't going to give up everything she worked (not) so hard for. 

The boy- Helio froze for a second. 

'It's working.' Raea grinned and removed her shirt. Her bra was still on. She didn't need to remove it. Just seeing her feet was enough to fully charm men and here she was showing most of her cleavage to Helio, of course, it had to work. 

Or so she thought.

"You know-" But as the boy started walking forward and speaking, Raea's whole body started shaking anew. It didn't work. "Didn't I say I didn't want bitches like you?"

"S-stay back!" She didn't have a weapon. She was so convinced of her victory that she didn't even carry a saber. She waved her arm around in order to protect herself. 

It was comical if nothing else. 

Helio sighed and picked up a saber from a guy on the ground. He casually threw it at the girl. "Alright, fight me." He had no intention to make this slow. He was going to make this girl pay for what she'd done. 

And Raea knew it. She could see it in the boy's eyes. 'Damn!' She bit her lips and started acting faint.

"Sorry, but I'm not that dumb." Helio dashed forward and sliced the girl. 

The girl's instinct saved her as she jumped back. It was close and the boy was serious. She couldn't pretend now. "I give-"

"Too slow!" The boy swung his scythe furiously! He was very intent on harming this girl, there was no doubt about it. 

Raea tried to deflect and block but nothing worked and the saber broke down. 

"I give up!" Finally, she screamed, taking a solid slice on her left arm. Tears streamed down as she fell on her bottom. 

It was a medium cut, enough to bleed but not enough to warrant emergency action. 

Raea grabbed her arm tight to stop the bleeding. 

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Helio sighed and looked up at the sky. 

The earlier black sky was a bit less black. It was still drizzling a little but it wasn't anything serious anymore.

Rose came down. 

"You know, you should get changed or you'll catch a cold." Helio tried to act nice. He had to show at least some gratitude. 

"Thank you for your concern." But Rose wasn't thinking about something so trivial. "Well done. Now for your prize, I'd assume you don't want her as your slave and just wanted her to confess, right?" She tried to recall something. "OH, and you said you'd make her life a living hell."

Helio sighed again. "Don't know about the living hell part but I do want her to confess." He glared at the girl. "Alright, now fess up."

Rose held her Holo in front of the girl's face. The Holo streamed her face on the academy web page. They were live. 

All of this was too fast for her. "I-I-" Raea bit her lips again. This was the worst day of her life. "I framed him." But she couldn't run right now. If she did, she knew she was going to die. This boy wasn't going to let her go. 

"Why?" Helio was curious if nothing else. It didn't matter all that much anymore. But it didn't stop his curiosity from running wild. Just what merit did this girl have from framing him?

"Because I fell in love with you when I first saw you," Raea spoke innocently. Of course, there was deceit mixed into it, but there was perhaps some degree of truth in it too. 

"Eww!" Helio could almost puke at the sentiment. "Sorry, but I only date humans. Look over there, by that tree, there's a nonchalant girl trying to hide, I only date that type."

As Helio spoke a girl in the distance was trying to hide. Perhaps for a moment, she forgot that she could teleport and hide a lot better. 

"Wha?" Now even Raea was confused. 'So that's why my charm didn't work? Because you were already in love?'

"Anyway," Helio came close to the girl's face and smiled: he was in a good mood. "Don't ever get near me." He slapped her hard, got up. "Thanks again, Rose." He started walking. "I'm done. Be sure to broadcast this thoroughly. 'I'll take any accusations against me, personally.'"

"You could have been a bit more delicate you know, she's a girl after all." 

"I don't discriminate." Helio waved and left the field without looking back. He'd redeemed himself. 

Rose chuckled. "Different from what you thought, isn't he?"

Raea however, just stared towards the distance wide eyes opened eyes, leaking a bit, and an utterly confused stare. 'What just happened?' She didn't even feel the pain of the wound on her left arm anymore. 

***

But Helio really was in a good mood. 

'Marg came to see me.' He almost started squirming as he walked down the road. 

But he controlled himself. He couldn't just run to Marg now and be with her. He had to take this slow and he had to take this steady. 

"Excellent work on the field." Someone walked towards Helio. 

The man had a suit on and looked like a noble of some sort. 

"You are?" Helio's senses tingled. He became too aware. 

"Just a passing poet." He chuckled. "But please-" As the man crossed Helio- "Don't let it get to your head," He whispered. "Success can often lead to arrogance"

Helio turned around. The man was gone. 'Teleportation?' His eyes opened wide. 

But a grin surfaced too. There were only seven people alive who had teleportation and five of them were killers. Meaning, there was little chance this man was a good guy. 'So someone's finally here to kill me?'

But Helio didn't sense any killing intent. 'So, why was he here?'