Calvin's exhausted body slowly awakened.
Where am I?
He stood up and found himself in an unfamiliar room.
He had no recollection of this room whatsoever.
In fact, the arrangement of the bunk beds was completely opposite to the room where he spent the past week on the outside world.
"Wait... Could it be that Grace made a mistake? Could it be instead of overnight, I was actually missing for an entire year?"
Cold sweat formed on Calvin's forehead and it dripped down his back as he stood there frozen.
Fortunately, his theory was crushed as soon as he saw the familiar plump figure on the bed behind him.
It was Fatty Zachary.
"Fuck... So that is where the rumbling I've heard came from. It's this bastard snoring while he's sleeping!" Calvin bitterly smiled.
Staring out of the window, Calvin noticed that it was still in the middle of dawn.
Although the rays of the sun were already visible up above the skies, it was still unmistakably in the middle of daybreak.
Calvin silently walked out of the door.
Activating his Predator Senses, he noticed that he had indeed arrived at the other end of the corridor.
'Why did Grace made me appear here instead of my room? That doesn't make sense.' Calvin inwardly muttered a complaint.
He started walking towards the other end of the corridor and his heightened senses could vaguely make out the sound of his sleeping roommates. The sound of their sleeping was faint, not similar to the rumbling sounds that exited out of Fatty Zachary's mouth as he slept.
Calvin and Zachary were roommates for the first three days of their stay in this training camp.
Unfortunately, Calvin hadn't expected that Zachary had the ability to snore so loud, his snoring could probably infiltrate your dreams and disturb you there. After lodging a complaint, the Instructors honored Calvin's request and gave Zachary his own dormitory.
At first, the Fatty was depressed that he was being kicked out of the room where he was able to talk with the others.
But after the Instructors compromised and told Zachary that he could visit the others as long as it wasn't too late into the night, the Fatty finally agreed with the arrangements and Calvin had another roommate to share his room with.
Legolas Aurum.
This was the name of his roommate for the next three months.
He was a member of the noble Aurum family of Ashmelion.
Calvin could already predict the headache that he would endure staying with the child of a noble family. After all, no matter what age it was, or what world it was—the offspring of noble families would most often be as arrogant as their parents and relatives.
Calvin silently slid into the room and dispersed the dummy that he had prepared beforehand. Placing himself on the bed, he was about to close his eyes and sleep with an ear-piercing sound resounded throughout the training camp.
"Fuck!"
Calvin could only let out a curse as he hurriedly stood up and prepared the appropriate clothes that he had for the morning training routine.
Legolas also woke up from his slumber.
"Who are you?" The blonde-haired young man asked with a frown on his face.
Calvin turned to look at him and saw that the young man truly had the blood of a noble family coursing through his veins. Setting aside his rare blonde-hair, the man's phoenix-shaped eyebrows and his bluish eyes truly made him stand out among the masses.
But Calvin felt a sense of foreboding when he saw the displeased look on Legolas's face.
"Are you deaf? Who are you?" Legolas asked once more.
"My name is Calvin, you should've heard me from the Instructors." Calvin casually introduced himself.
"Calvin. I see, so you're that guy whom the Instructors told me to not underestimate." Legolas snickered. "Granted, I've just joined the training camp and I used my connections to join the training to become an auxiliary police officer, but that doesn't matter to me at all..."
"I only came here for no one else, but Christine Allana."
"I've heard that you're close to her. I advise you to take a step back while it's still too early. Else, if it's already too late, I may not know what I will do to you, and whether I will be able to control myself." Legolas sneered.
He stared at Calvin with the same firm gaze and his phoenix-shaped eyebrows knitted. There was an overwhelming aura coming out of his person, but Calvin was not even intimidated, to say the least.
"I see. So you like Christine?"
"Her name isn't something that you can just casually utter, you commoner!" Legolas immediately exploded into anger.
He stood up and his height seemed to be equal to Calvin as both men stared at each other in the eyes.
"Oh, really? Well, do you like her?"
Calvin decided to ignore his words and go straight for the jugular.
"Wha..." Legolas was astonished. His cold demeanor seemed to have gotten a few cracks there and here as he turned his gaze away and replied, "It's not like that at all!"
"I just want you to stay away from her. A commoner like you will just be a stain on her life if she decides to befriend you." Legolas pointed at Calvin.
Calvin raised his eyebrows and revealed a cold smile. "You know what? I've always hated it when people pointed at me with their fingers. Do I owe you something? What gives you the right to point at me like that? Retract your fingers right now, or say kiss it goodbye to it."
Legolas was dumbfounded.
This intimidation technique of his by glaring at his enemies often worked. But this time, it had obviously failed for not only did he fail to force Calvin into submission, but the other party even threatened and intimidated him instead.
"..." Legolas unconsciously retracted his finger.
"That's more like it." Calvin smiled before he turned around and walked out of the doors.
Legolas, who was left alone in the room stood there frozen until a smile crept up his lips.
"I see... This won't be interesting at all if he doesn't have the balls to talk to me like that."
Legolas memorized Calvin's face and name in his heart before he went out of the dormitory.
On the training grounds, Instructor Lawrence and Deputy Instructor Eutem gathered the newbies for a while to introduce Legolas Aurum to everyone.
"All of you, listen—from today on, you will be having another comrade. Legolas Aurum is his name!" Deputy Instructor Eutem announced.
The other trainees started to whisper with each other. The girls seemed to be delighted seeing Legolas's looks and the way he carried himself as he walked. On the other hand, the boys were irritated by the arrogant and pampered look on his face.
A single glance was enough for them to see that Legolas was an arrogant young master that definitely relied on his connections to get into the training camp a week later after it had started.
Instructor Lawrence was obviously dissatisfied with Legolas. He had always hated nepotism, but as much as he hated this concept...
He knew that there wasn't something that could realistically be done against noble families that often took advantage of their statuses for their own benefits.
But to be honest, this wasn't that huge of a problem. What irked Instructor Lawrence the most wasn't the fact that these noble families were taking advantage of their standing in society—he was dissatisfied with their descendants.
The kids that these noble families birthed were pampered and spoiled to the point that they would often use their status that they didn't even fight for to obtain—in order to take advantage of benefits that should've been given to the masses.
There was a particular incident that Lawrence would never remember. That incident had shaped most of his character for it was dubbed as the Southern Borough's Catastrophic Flood of Stink.
This flood happened in the middle of a typhoon, and it happened after the drainage and sewage systems of the Southern Borough all failed at once, resulting in the accumulation of floodwater that contained all sorts of filth in it.
Back then, Lawrence had the chance to rescue a pair of mother and daughter stuck on the roof of their house close to the Revoir River.
Unfortunately, he was threatened by a relative of a noble family member that if he went ahead and rescued that pair of mother and daughter...
He would make sure that Lawrence would be kicked out of the police force and his career, ruined. Lawrence couldn't afford to lose his job for he had a family to feed.
In the end, he chose to abandon the pair of mother and daughter which remained as a decision that he would deeply regret for the rest of his life.
It was because the person who had threatened him wasn't actually related to any noble family at all!
The pair of mother and daughter died in vain...
Lawrence had the chance to save them, but he didn't do so for he believed the words of that bastard.
Since then, Lawrence would often repeat the scenes of that day in his mind with what-ifs.
What if I didn't believe that person?
What if I went ahead and rescued them?
What would've been their lives by now?
Unfortunately, there were no what-ifs in this world, and what happened couldn't be reversed anymore.
It was after that realization did Lawrence grow to hate arrogant young masters.
"Uh, Legolas. Introduce yourself to your comrades."
Deputy Instructor Eutem's words rang out.
Instructor Lawrence awakened from his trance.
He stared at Legolas and waited for the latter's response to Eutem's words.
"There's no need for me to introduce myself to these people. I am planning on going up the ranks as fast as possible, and I heard that I can challenge those that are at a higher rank than me, and if I won. I will be able to claim their rank for myself?" Legolas placidly said.
His words created an outrage among the newbies.
The girls who had admired her earlier had also awakened from their puppy love and were now staring at Legolas in a glare.
Legolas remained standing there with his holier than thou look on his face.
Instructor Lawrence was immediately angered, but he was quick to suppress it as he cleared his throat and replied, "That is true. However, you've just come to this training camp. Are you sure that you want to fight against your comrades so fast?"
"It doesn't matter. I've been training since I was five-years-old. As for these commoners? I bet that it's even the first time that they've heard about Martial Arts!"
Legolas arrogantly declared.
"What the fuck, you bastard!"
"Hey, take that back!"
"Do you seriously think that we're that clueless? Fuck off!"
As expected, another uproar resounded.
"I see. Then, who are you planning to fight?" Instructor Lawrence asked.
Legolas immediately stared at Calvin and asked, "Is that commoner ranked higher than me?"
"Yes." Instructor Lawrence calmly replied.
"Then, I'm going to fight him."
"Are you sure about that?" Instructor Lawrence's expression turned somewhat weird.
The crowd also stared at this scene with frowns on their faces.
Legolas naturally assumed that they were trying to dissuade him from fighting since Calvin was probably too weak when compared to him.
"It's fine, I will hold myself back. No matter what, I cannot possibly kill anyone here, right?"
Legolas shrugged.
A confident smile was plastered on his lips.
He had bribed a Police Officer earlier to measure his skills, and that Police Officer said that he was strong enough to be able to at least be in the top five among the newbies when it comes to strength.
Legolas was surprised that there were newbies other than Christine that was stronger than him.
But since the world was huge, he thought nothing of it and remained as confident as ever.
After all, being able to enter the top five meant that he could defeat most of the trainees aside from four people.
Speaking of the top fives... Legolas had forgotten to ask for the names of those people as he was basking in his arrogance. But well, it didn't really matter. Legolas only planned on giving one person here a lesson that he would never forget.
And it was to never try to eat the meat of a swan, while he was nothing but a frog in a well.
The newbies quickly formed a circle.
Legolas and Calvin stood in front of each other.
"Legolas Aurum, a member of the noble Aurum family. May the Goddess bestow eyes to our fists and feet, so that there will not be any untoward accident in this sparring."
"In the Goddess's will!" The trainees cried out in excitement.
"In the Goddess's will."
Calvin also softly mumbled into the air as he took a step backward and prepared a stance.
"Are you not going to introduce yourself?" Legolas took a stance and stared at Calvin in disdain, "As expected of a commoner, you don't even know the etiquette of exchanging names and rank before the fight begins? What a joke!"
Calvin simply smiled. "An introduction? Let's do it after the fight."
"Heh, as if you will still be awake to introduce yourself by then!" Legolas barked.
Instructor Lawrence stared at the two and with a shout—the battle officially began!
Right as the final syllable of Instructor Lawrence's words fell, Calvin appeared right in front of Legolas.
"Fast!" Legolas bent his knees and took a step backward, narrowly avoiding the punch.
But before he could even start to think about his next move, Calvin had already appeared beside him and a kick came flying towards his torso.
"Shit, I won't be able to dodge it!" Legolas muttered in horror.
Calvin had perfectly executed this attack and he even yelled out its name.
"Pride Crushing Kick!"
Calvin's body moved and his left fist made contact with Legolas's liver, causing the latter to instantly collapsed onto the floor in great pain.
"AAAH!" Legolas miserably shrieked. "You bastard... that wasn't a kick!"