Chapter 243: I like you.

He quickly put on his clothes and dashed towards the canteen, but on entering, the students in the area stood up and began clapping. In no time, he was receiving a standing ovation from all the students in the canteen.

'What the hell is going on here?' With his mind focused on pleasing his belly, Blake was stunned and confused by the reaction of the students.

[It is quite surprising to see even the nobles applauding your performance.] The system said.

Blake had most likely saved a friend or someone related to the nobles. But knowing how much hate they had for commoners, he hadn't expected them to applaud him.

'So how am I to react?' Blake couldn't help but ask because he was feeling awkward just standing and doing nothing as the students clapped.

(AN: Have you ever been in such a situation and you end up clapping for yourself. Lol.)

[I don't know. It isn't as if you care about them, but make sure not to clap for yourself.] The system said.

'Thank the heavens you said that on time cause I was this close to doing it.' Blake thought as he used the system's detection skill to locate Luciano and the rest.

By the time Blake had gotten to the group's table, the students were done clapping and had continued with their meals.

"What's going on guys…" Just as Blake greeted his friends, Tessie stood up and gave him a tight hug.

'What the hell is wrong with everybody today?' Blake thought.

[How will you react when the person you like risked her life and was unconscious for hours?] The system shook its head.

"You don't have to worry, I am fine now." Blake gave in to the hug and wrapped his hands around her.

After a few seconds, Blake saw she had no plans of letting and their actions were getting a lot of attention. "Well, I won't be alright if I don't get to eat."

His words snapped her out of her reverie, and on seeing the number of students that had their eyes on them, her face turned beet-red.

'Yup, she didn't think of how people will react before acting.' Blake chuckled when he saw Tessie's reaction.

"How are you all doing?" Blake asked as he took a seat and began ordering dinner.

"We are the ones meant to be asking that question." Luciano said.

"Apart from my grumbling stomach, I am fine." Blake said with a smile as he began digging into his ale-glazed beef.

"Are you sure because mana exhaustion is quite serious?" Luciano asked because during all the fights he had noticed that Blake was using almost twice the mana of a student.

He was worried because once one exhausted the store mana in his stars and continued to cast spells. They would be draining energy from their life essence to cast spells and that would lead to complications that might even cripple one's cultivation.

"Yeah, I am sure. I have been through worse so you don't have to worry." Blake said with a stuffed mouth.

The reason he was surprised when he found out that he was knocked out for 6 hours, was because there had been multiple occasions where he was unconscious for almost an entire day.

Most of it occurred when he was in the underground facility. There, he had been pushing both his mental and mana capacity to the limit.

The reason why he had such a grievous headache was that he had used mind boost for a long and was now experiencing the backlash.

That was why Castiel and Brian weren't that worried about him because he had really been through worse.

"So.. who won the survival exercise and why haven't I received any points?" For his performance in the exercise, Blake was meant to receive a chunk of exchange points. But when he checked his exchange points were still the same.

"According to principal Lovren, you were the MVP of the test. So you have to regain consciousness before anything happens." Castiel explained.

At that moment Blake who had his head down stopped eating and looked up. "He said that?" Blake asked in a shocked expression.

"Yeah." Castiel nodded.

"That is new…" Blake said as he continued eating.

…

After dinner, the group had chatted for some time before they all went to their rooms.

When Blake got to the corridor where his room was located, he saw Camilla and it seemed she was waiting for something.

"Were you waiting for me?" Blake was confused because practically nobody had come looking for him in his room. And even if there was someone Camilla was way done in the list.

"Yes." Camilla nodded.

"Alright. So how can I be of help?" Blake asked.

"I came to thank you for saving me and my brother." Camilla said.

"Serhan is your brother?" Blake was shocked.

[Here is an image of the 2nd year rank 1.] The system replayed a memory of Serhan. From the time Serhan had tried to cause trouble till when they attacked him with lightning reinforcement active.

'Wow, I didn't get the chance to notice the resemblance.' Blake thought.

"Yes, he is and I am here to thank you on both our behalfs." Camilla bowed.

"Let's take a walk before passersby begin thinking of something else." With that Blake and Camilla began walking down the long corridor.

"You know I don't care if you thank me or not. Also, by now you should know that I am not naïve and your tricks can't work on me." Blake said. "So, why are you apologizing?"

"Because it is the right thing to do." Camilla answered, but from Blake's expression he sure wasn't buying it.

"Alright, I will say it. For the fact that even though the nobles are against you, and you still risked your life to save them means you don't deserve the injustice from the nobles." Camilla said. "This is why I want to sincerely apologize for every time I have wronged you or your friends."

"Finally…" At this point, Camilla paused and even stood still. "I… I… like you."