'Heh!' the Thug Leader inwardly smirked. 'Everything is going according to plan, and with the stage set, I can carry out the Young Master's orders and show all the students what will happen to them if they fancy the Young Master's woman!'
"Die, you stupid bastard—!" he shouted out as he lunged at the calm man. Annabelle went to shield Azmodeus from the incoming attack, but he was far quicker to react. He blurred from his spot, appeared in front of the foolish hooligan, and grabbed onto his hand. He then... pulled back.
CRACK—
An unnerving crack resounded through the cafeteria as the fingers of a Grade 2 Immortal King were bent back where they definitely shouldn't have been.
"Ahhhhh!!! M-My hand!!!" An anguished cry echoed, attracting the attention of every single student in the cafeteria, even those who were originally not interested. They all watched with slack jaws as a Grade 2 Immortal King fell to the ground and rolled around while clutching his hand.
"Azmodeus, this..." Annabelle said with a hard-to-read expression. 'He just did that with the cultivation base of a Grade 9 Immortal Venerable... Unbelievable...'
"Don't worry," said Azmodeus, his posture relaxed. "It was self-defense."
"..." "..." "..."
Not a single person present believed that nonsense, but when they recalled how the hooligan student struck out first, it might actually hold up in case. Still, believing that this was all out of self-defense when he was obviously very strong was—
"Oh," Azmodeus remembered something. "Ow. Ow. It hurts. It hurts so much," he fell to the floor and groaned while holding his right kneecap, all without having a single change in expression.
"So you're actually going to participate in the Duo Tournament!?"
"But I heard that you didn't wish to participate this time around, so what changed your mind!?"
"Maybe it was that man! He seems to have a special relationship with Annabelle!"
"The transfer student?! But how could that be!? Didn't he just get here?! To already acquire the attention of one of the Three Belles..."
Everyone quickly came to understand that Annabelle's changed mind had a lot to do with the transfer student. Furthermore, from what they could tell, she also held a certain level of fondness for the young red-haired man to be talking to him so much, when she usually just feigned a smile and briefly spoke with anyone who approached her. Yet this change in her surely spelled terrible news for anyone in the way of Isaac's destined puff of rage.
Out of fear for what he would do to them when he found out what was going on with Annabelle and the new transfer student, they backed away and left her be. Still, they whispered and conversed among themselves, as they were already very invested in what was undoubtedly going to go down in their academy.
Annabelle sighed. 'I'm glad they finally left me alone,' she thought. 'But what they said about Isaac's certain burst of anger is very much going to come to pass. And although he can do nothing to me due to my status, Amon, on the other hand...'
She knew that he had great amounts of power, but even then, it was still uncertain if he would lose if Isaac called upon his family's backing. If she remembered correctly, the Saberspire Empire still had over a dozen Immortal Gods, even after their war with the Azureflask Empire had concluded in a stalemate. In other words, there were potentially more than ten ancient masters who could give Azmodeus a very good run for his money.
Your next chapter is on m v|l-e-NovelFire
For some reason, this worried Annabelle greatly, far more than she thought it would. However, there was nothing she could do to alleviate this worry, so she put it aside for now and instead thought about how she could go about preparing herself for the Duo Tournament. Unlike in a solo tournament, she had to at least not get herself disqualified for her partner to claim victory.