Chapter 374 New Goal: First Place

"I'm fine." Olivia looked up at him. Lee Seng helped her up and nodded at her before turning to look at Scarlet standing at Nicole's side and checking to see if she's fine.

"Are you—"

"I'm fine." Nicole swattered Scarlet's hand away. She glanced at her wrist and noticed Lee Seng's grip bruised her. "That brat left a nasty bruise. I swear, I should've—"

"You can't technically expel me, Nicole." Lee Seng told her. She looked up as her nostrils flared. "I haven't done anything wrong. I've been obedient, having broken any rules, technically, and you came in here with a bomb, willingly." Lee Seng knew Nicole was out for him Day 1. He had read all of the Academy rules and made sure to steer away from anything that could get him expelled. Of course, there was a couple of times that he could recall of him almost breaking a rule or two.

"You've broken some rules already. I can just use that to expel you." Nicole told him. "Usage of power outside of designated class. You've broken this one many times."

"If you use that against me then you'll have to dig for every single student who has done it as well." Lee Seng brought up.

"What I says goes."

"You're just a angry old woman who has one of the top roles in this Academy. I know there's one more person who actually stands above you, that's alive."

"Oh? And who's that? Enlighten me, Chang." Nicole took a step forward.

"He technically works for the Adventurers' Guild as a Director, but he did sink a lot of money into the Academy. His Mother lived across from me when I was at the apartment… What was his name again?" Lee Seng tapped his chin. "Oh, Director Fulgrum." Nicole narrowed her eyes at the boy.

? 'How could he know such a big name like that? His mother lived across from Lee Seng? Why didn't I know about that?' Nicole thought.

"To protect his mom from any potential threats, she registered her name under something else entirely. She told me her real name when I visited her for a week when she was sick. She was thankful that she wanted to let me know her son would compensate for taking care of her when she was ill. I didn't know it at the time, but her son was Director Fulgrum. Over the coming years, she talked about her family a lot to me and I figured it out. Even met him while on the Hell Transfer Week: Horde Invasion quest, too."

"You met him while on the job?" Scarlet asked.

"Yup. He was a nice guy. Exactly like Granny said he would be like too." Lee Seng nodded. "But you can't technically expel me off of that single rule I broke. It would bring Academy reputation down even though my reputation is much worst than the school's. There will be a whole thing on why the President decided to use this rule to expel 'Lee Seng Chang' when many, many, many other students have done the same thing, too."

Nicole gritted her teeth as her hands balled into tight fists. Olivia stared at Lee Seng in astonishment.

'He knows he's not wanted here, either, so he uses the rules and even the unruly tactics to his advantage.' Olivia's mouth was open as she continued to watch the situation unfold.

"Plus, I have a lot of things I need to do while I'm here, anyways." Lee Seng told her. "Get good grades, get better and figure out why I even let you in my head in the first place." Nicole took a step back.

'Does he know?' She thought. His eyes looked at her like he knew exactly what she did. 'How would he know? He couldn't possibly know. I wiped everyone's minds, including Numbers. I made sure everyone didn't know except for me and a handful of people the Creator wanted to know. That's why Nine and Ten aren't here. They were put on mission so they couldn't be influenced by Lee Seng… He couldn't know, right?'

"I guess I'll just have to try much harder now…" Lee Seng sighed. "Y'know I wasn't trying that hard with school work. A couple B's in the mix but maybe becoming the top student in Academics won't hurt… Nah, you know what would hurt more." He let out a cheeky smile at Nicole. "Becoming the #1 student at Capitol City Academy in both Academics and Power. #1 Specialist on my name would do well, don't you think?"

"Hmph, you think you can do it in your current state?" Nicole scoffed. "That'll only happen if the dead were to rise and my dead husband could teach you! That would never happen."

"Don't say things you don't want to happen." Lee Seng's tone shifted from a serious-joke tone to a full on serious tone. Olivia, Scarlet and Nicole could feel his DM energy pushing on them. "Don't bring up Number 2, ever. You don't even have that right as his ex-wife especially after what you did to him."

"Lee Seng." Scarlet gulped. "Enough, sweetie, alright?" Lee Seng looked over at her. For a moment, she thought his eyes were purple, but they were simply brown eyes that looked black from afar.

"And do me a favor, Auntie Scarlet." Lee Seng spoke. "Tell your daughter if I ever see her cheating face, I'll crush her and her boyfriend in a match." The pressure dropped and Scarlet and Nicole let out their held breaths. Olivia gulped as Lee Seng turned to look at her.

'I've never seen him so mad before.' Olivia thought. He smiled at her and turned to look back at the Numbers.

"I'm leaving the hospital tonight." Lee Seng told them.

"What? You can't leave. Not until—" Scarlet began to say.

"Dr. Valentin can see me at my new home. I'm pretty sure Manny would love that, too. Put some sense into him. Come on, Liv, let's go." Lee Seng motioned.

"Uh, ye-yeah." Olivia slowly started towards the door.

"We'll take our leave first. And remember what I said, you can't expel me for something everyone else does." Lee Seng waved and joined up with Olivia who nervously looked at him. "What? Come on. I want to grab something from the convenience store before we go home."

"O-okay."

"Are you sure about that?" The front desk nurse asked. "I was told you couldn't leave until Dr. Valentin saw you…"

"It's fine." Lee Seng smiled as he leaned against the counter. He had his winter coat on and was playing with something in his right pocket. "I'm perfectly fine and he wants to see our new place anyways. Number One and Number Four said I could do it as well." It was apparent that he was lying to the front desk nurse to Olivia, but she just wanted to get out of this place.

She felt scared of Lee Seng, but more scared of Nicole getting a small grip in her head. She knew the President had her ways of De-escalating situations with her powers, but she never thought she would use it on a student like her.

"T-they said that themselves?" The nurse asked. Lee Seng nodded.

"Yes, we did." Scarlet nodded. The nurse turned and recognized Scarlet. She was alone and it looked like she was trying to wind down from what just happened.

"Okay, I'll check you out then and let the doctor know you're at home." The nurse told Lee Seng.

"Thanks." Lee Seng smiled. He and Olivia began to turn when Scarlet cleared her throat.

"Can we talk before you leave? Just something small and you can be on your merry way." Lee Seng nodded and they all walked out to the front together. "Look, what you said today will be taken seriously. You better know what you're doing, Lee Seng. Don't drag your teammates down because you don't like her."

"I'm serious about it, too. Don't worry. I'll climb to the #1 spot as a Specialist and she'll have to recognize my efforts. It's a win-win situation for both parties." Lee Seng turned to look at her. Olivia stood off to the side, unsure if she should even be here. Scarlet looked at Olivia before looking at Lee Seng, again.

"I know you had a close relationship with Nikolai, but you should be careful about what bets you make with her. You know what she's capable of."

"I know what you're all capable of." Lee Seng answered, coldly. "And I meant it all. Including Sara and her freshy boyfriend."

"She's dating someone else while dating you?" Scarlet asked, surprised.

"You didn't know?" Lee Seng raised an eyebrow. Scarlet shook her head. Lee Seng sighed and looked away. Olivia could only wonder what was going through his mind. She knew he had his cold moments with other students when they tried to fight him in the past, but he was extremely more serious about everything.

"No, I don't pry into my teenage daughter's life. You don't like it when your siblings or I pry into your life, either. What happens is you and her problem. I'm not a babysitter." Scarlet answered. Lee Seng turned and nodded.

"Good. I'll tell her myself then since you probably won't tell her."

"I'll tell her, but hearing it from her mother might not be the best way."

"I'll call her later. If you're done warning me about what I've done tonight, can we both go? It's cold and we got a problem at home we both need to deal with, right?" Lee Seng turned to look at Olivia.