Destroyer of Ice and Fire

Translated by: Reiji

Holy Dawn Academy's Thinker's Stone Forest's, formerly Holy Dawn Academy's old arena. They saud alterations, but in fact, they merely cleared out some superfluous gravel. The damaged circular grandstand had naturally shaped into a perimeter wall. The huge rocks inside had been erected up, naturally dividing the inside into several fields, each hidden from view of the others. Former battles left their vestiges behind, turning the training ground into a complex topography.

No particularly meticulous cleaning had befallen the natural grown weeds and trees inside the fields. The whole stone forest brimmed with a verdant atmosphere.

Moss and his red hair appeared very eye-catching even among the more than a hundred freshmen already gathered inside the Thinker Stone Forest.

“He ate that much? That should be impossible. Even I can't eat that much.”

He looked at the three or four persons around him, seeming extremely skeptical. Now the people around were all spreading a matter: apparently, there was a new student whose appetite surpassed even that of wild beasts from the jungle. He'd eaten ten pork chops in succession, and among those, there was even one chop simply as extra big as half a pig.

Moss questioned the truth when he heard. A thin and tall student beside him immediately said with certainty, “It's absolutely true, I even saw it with my own eyes. On top of that it even ended up disturbing teacher Liszt. Teacher Liszt personally took him away.”

Moss frowned and said, still a little disbelieving, “All the freshmen in our grade come to foundation class all together. Plus it's teacher Huston's class, the one most concerned about face, the one who most dislikes latecomers. No one would dare not come. If what you said is true, shouldn't that guy be here too?”

Right at this moment, Ayrin's and Belo's figures appeared beside a few giant-like white boulders, making their way inside.

“It's him!”

The thin and tall student beside Moss couldn't hold back a low cry of surprise when he saw Ayrin's face. A clamor likewise ran through the whole field. There were obviously quite a few people who recognized Ayrin.

“Little shorty, it's you?!”

Moss join them in shouting as soon as he saw, incredulous.

Ayrin stood beside Belo. He was in the middle of observing the Thinker's Stone Forest's environment, the people inside the field. He also immediately recognized Moss when he suddenly heard his great shout, and said, a little puzzled, “What's me?”

“Little shorty, are you the great belly king from the rumors?” Moss pushed through the crowd of people and walked in front of Ayrin. “You ate ten pieces of giant fried pork chops?”

“Ah? Even you know about it.” Ayrin scratched his head and laughed, a little embarrassed.

“Impossible!” Moss immediately shouted. He stretched out his finger and pointed it at Ayrin. “Even I can't eat so much, how can a little shorty like you eat it?”

All the freshmen inside the field looked at Ayrin's thin and small appearance. All had the same expression of disbelief.

Ayrin merely felt a little awkward. At his side, Belo pushed his glasses and whipped his head around, asking, “This red-haired kid is your friend?”

“Who are you kidding!” Moss had already shouted before Ayrin could even answer.

“It's easier if it's not your friend.” The very refined and gentle Belo immediately laughed out loud. He abruptly leaped in front of Moss, looking at Moss with a feverish expression brimming with excitement, “Dude, little shorty this little shorty that, you're so rude. Also, my great lordly self is standing here but you actually didn't even spare a glance for me, as if this great lord doesn't exist. Hurry up and kneel down, lick this great lord's feet! Or else I'll beat you up until no one recognizes you!”

Everyone was dumbstruck.

Ayrin thought back to the gazes from these people on their way here. He immediately felt as if there was something terrible about to happen.

Moss was also frozen blank.

“Hurry up and kneel down, lick this great lord's feet...”

He could also be said to an arrogant person in ordinary times, but he'd never seen someone have the guts to act so rampant to his face. Someone who could speak these kinds of words, speak them so smoothly and naturally at that.

“It's Belo!”

“Is he the “Impulsive Freshman” Belo?”

Amidst the clamor, Moss also realized the other party was that “Impulsive Freshman” Belo who was rumored to be entirely different from what he looked like. freℯ𝓌e𝚋𝐧𝘰vℯl.𝐜𝚘𝗺

They said this Belo looked very delicate, gentle, and refined, but he was in fact arrogant and fanatical, acting rashly at the drop of a hat. Plus, he would become very excited as soon as he thought of something he felt was interesting, and then not only would he act spiritedly without any care for consequences, he would even incite others to act together with him. Rumors said he used to be a second-grade student, but he'd been retrograded a grade because he did something out of bounds that ended up wounding both himself and a teacher.

It was very easy for new students to injure themselves, but Holy Dawn Academy's teachers were all powerful arcane masters, so a freshman like this who could injure even a teacher could only be described with the word “dangerous.”

Moss finally realized why the gazes of some freshmen were strange when they looked at Belo.

“You actually dare to talk to me like that, you want to die!” He realized the opposite party was a supposedly dangerous character, but Moss still couldn't help shout out loud and make a racket, after a moment of astonishment.

Belo didn't even pay attention to this Moss character that was so angry he'd shouted like a child. He looked at Ayrin at his side instead, excitedly inciting him, “How about we hit this guy together?”

“No need for that, alright?” Ayrin shook his head, sweating a little, very flabbergasted already by Belo's sudden change. “Everyone's a classmate...”

Moss' nose was about to crook in anger. He wildly shouted out loud, “Great, you come try it, you two come together.”

“If you don't then I'll go first,” Belo said to Ayrin, then he bunched his fists, his two eyes already sparkling with the light of feverish excitement, looking as if he could wait no longer.

Someone's voice suddenly came at this precise moment, “Stop fighting, teacher Huston's coming.”

Ayrin turned around and saw a young teacher coming their way, wearing a set of pale blue school clothes. This young male teacher had an average height, a round face, skin very white, and the thing that most attracted the eye was the excessive grease rubbed on his short hair, making tuft and tuft of hair stand erect in shiny black hardened glory.

“Hmph.” Belo snorted when he saw this teacher appear. He pushed his glasses on his nose and transformed back into his usual gentle and refined self.

Moss seethed in anger, but he could also only forcibly hold it in with teacher Houston's appearance.

“There's a lot of energy.”

Houston wiped a handful of hair and glanced at Belo and Moss. He flung his head back and laughed. “I like it best when there are energetic young people.”

Most freshmen immediately felt a burst of evil chill run through them, because before coming here, they'd all heard that the teacher Huston in charge of the foundation course was extremely dangerous even if he couldn't be considered especially powerful. He very much cared about face, and if you're the slightest bit careless and provoked him, you'd be recorded in his small notebook, and then miserable days awaited you. The most critical was, he was also extremely petty. The vast majority of people simply had no idea how they actually offended him before finding their names already jotted down in the small notebook.

Houston flung his head back when he saw everyone looking very adorable. He thought the freshmen were pretty cute this time, so he cleared his throat, let everyone find a place to sit in front of him. Then he began the lesson.

“There are countless dreams under Doraster's starry skies. Our Holy Dawn Academy happens to be a place that empowers you in chasing after your dreams.”

After speaking signboard-like opening words he himself found very classic and very stimulating, Houston's eyes first stopped on Belo. “Classmate, what is your dream?”

“As expected, he's already been noted down.”

Almost everyone's gaze immediately fell on Belo.

“Everyone under the starry skies knows of famous arcane masters,” Belo said, his eyes flashing under his glasses.

“That's only possible by beating many powerful arcane masters, you're ambitious.” Houston laughed. He turned his head in Moss' direction. “Classmate, what about you?”

“I'll be happy as long as I become an arcane master a bit more powerful than him,” Moss said fiercely after throwing a glance Belo's way.

“I very much admire this kind of emulating enthusiasm.” Houston wiped a handful of shiny bright erect hair and laughed out loud. Then he looked at Ayrin, “What about your dream?”

“What's my dream?”

In fact, Ayrin had been thinking on and off about this very question from the moment he saw Holy Dawn Academy's great gates.

Back in Cororin, what he thought of every day was to dig a lot of ores, feed himself and old Ginns. Now he could suddenly go to school without worrying about food, but that actually made him confused. What did he want to do in the future?

The so-called dream should be something he very much wanted to do, but also something very difficult to achieve, right?

Ayrin thought nothing like this had popped into his mind for now.

So he shook his head when faced this question from Huston and said awkwardly, “I don't know.”

“You don't know? You don't even know your own dream?” The corner of Huston's mouth tilted up in a sinister curve.

“Yeah.” Ayrin scratched his head. “I haven't thought of any dream yet.”

A clamor.

“Then wait until you think of one before telling me.” Huston glanced at Ayrin and spoke kind words, but inside his mind, what he thought was that Ayrin was trying to embarrass him on purpose. He already decided he definitely had to record Ayrin in his little notebook.

“No matter what your dreams end up being, in every academy, including our Holy Dawn Academy, the premise of the main program is to guide the students into becoming arcane masters. In the legendary era of the War of the Dragons, it was precisely the mightiest arcane masters of each race who defeated the evil dragons and spared Doraster from their tyranny. In the peaceful present, the amount of arcane masters remains the embodiment of a kingdom's national strength. It's absolutely no exaggeration to say that the power of arcane masters from various countries preserves the balance. An arcane master's power comes from...”

Huston liked his teaching job very much. He became more and more excited along with the unceasing torrent of his words. He started to gesticulate in a flurry of hands and feet, demonstrating the exercises himself.

“This is our Holy Dawn Academy's famous “Explosive Blazing Fist.” It's only an arcanist martial skill, but the power is quite a lot stronger than ordinary arcanist martial skills...”

With a “Boom,” together with a deep shout from Huston, they saw three successive afterimages trailing out behind his figure. His entire right arm ignited with a red flame, and he struck out with a lightning punch. The red flame flowed and exploded out in every direction, forming a fierce blazing cloud of fire around his fist.

Huston maintained the pose, then took his fist back. He looked at the freshmen, astonishment, and veneration engraved on the face of many students. He said, looking as if he hadn't had enough of that feeling yet, “Did you get a good look...”

At this moment, a snore neither loud nor light interrupted him.

Everyone looked toward the source of the sound, full of disbelief. They saw Ayrin with his head lowered, a trail of saliva even flowing down along the corner of his mouth. His shoulders continuously shrugged up and down along with the rhythmic snores.

Huston's face immediately filled with black lines!

“He's actually got the guts to sleep in the Notebook Teacher's class?”

It seemed to all the freshmen that bursts of a chilly breeze were suddenly blowing all around them.