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nAfter the battle between Vicente and Rory, the young Fuller beats his friend, teaching him a lesson.

nBut after Vice finished beating his friend, he heard Rory crying for the first time since he met him.

nRory was not crying because of the injuries he had sustained in the fight with Vice, which, by the way, were no ordinary injuries.

nAlthough this was a child’s fight, mana strengthened the bodies of everyone in this world as they grew up. ｂ𝚍ｎｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏｍ

nRory had cried over his sad reality. He was a son of a bitch!

nHe didn’t know his father, and his mother was currently a pimp who managed young prostitutes in Martell Village.

nDarek’s group had found out about this and used the truth about Rory to threaten him. If he didn’t do as they ordered, they would tell the whole academy who his mother was.

nAfraid of being humiliated even more, Rory had turned away from Vice and Ian and had begun to accept all the recent humiliations.

nWhen he heard this, Vice naturally became furious and promised to help Rory with it.

n“Rory, believe me. I will help you deal with these three.”

n“How? If we do something, it will be worse.” Rory said with tears in his eyes. “At the end of the day, I can’t change my origin.”

nVice said seriously. “We will pretend to be distant from each other. But we won’t do that. We will use the next few months to prepare ourselves. When we achieve enough, we will act against Darek and his cronies.”

n“Will it make any difference?” Rory wiped away the tears in his eyes.

n“You will regain your honor. You’ll be able to show the students at the academy that if they mess with you, they’ll have to take the consequences.

nThey may make fun of your family background, but will they bear the weight of your fists?” Vicente said seriously. “There’s nothing better than violence to settle this. Otherwise, you will forever be a hostage of people like Darek.”

nHearing this, Rory clenched his fists. He was a child, but given the hardships he had already been through, he could understand Vice’s words.

nEither he would face his demons, or he would never have peace!

n“All right.”

nHearing this, Vicente showed one of his hands to Rory and helped him to his feet.

nAfter that, they shook hands with a common goal in mind!

n…

nEight months later…

nVicente, Ian, and Rory had continued their school life and had advanced to class 3 in this period, growing a lot in the last months.

nIan kept his distance from Rory, thinking this former friend was not talking to Vice either. But whenever they could, those two would secretly meet to fight together.

nBut these fights of theirs were much more intense than normally the other students of the old class 2 and current class 3 participated in at the academy.

nVice had greatly improved his skills and could no longer expose his full fighting power to boys of the same class. But he was using the most he had against Rory, who was taking the brunt of the injuries he had had to endure these months to get better.

nLuckily, his mother was rich and could afford the medicines he constantly took to recover his body.

nSo he elevated his strength and improved his abilities beyond normal to be able to more easily handle dancing with Vice.

nIn the meantime, Lauren had graduated from the academy and was slowly forming a body with more advanced feminine features, to the point that she was already attracting the attention of young adults.

nHer parents had already been starting conversations with local families about Lauren’s dowry, but nothing had been decided yet.

nUsually, the engagement was announced at the age of 15, so they still had time to make a good choice regarding her destiny.

nNina was still quite small, so she still spent most of her days at home with her mother.

n…

nAfter months of training together in secret, Rory and Vice finally reached the final point in their plans.

nOn this day, when several tests were being held at the Academy of Stars, they met after the end of some tests of their class.

nAs they met in an empty hallway, one looked at the other with determination.

n“Are you ready?”

n“Yes,” Rory replied, while he couldn’t contain the smile on his lips, and his eyes sparkled.

n“All right, let’s go over to Darek’s group. Class 4 has already finished their tests, and they are in the alley behind the academy.” Vicente said, determined to follow his plans no matter what the consequences.

n“But will it be okay? My mom won’t punish me, but your father is pretty hard to deal with.” Rory knew he could count on Vice, but he wasn’t so selfish as to simply not care what this friend would suffer for helping him.

nVice’s father didn’t want him involved in fights and had already warned him not to participate in anything involved, or he would be punished.

nBut Vice was fine with the risks and smiled. “Don’t worry. Better I get my ass kicked by my father than be unharmed but not be able to do what I wish.”

n“Then let’s get it over with in one fell swoop!” Rory said before starting to run toward his enemies.

nVice smiled back, liking the determination his friend had gained.

nAfter months of working with Rory, Vice managed to get some of his ideas into this boy’s mind and help him overcome his fear of Darek’s group.

n‘Rory will be a good member of my family in the future…’ Vice thought as he ran alongside his friend, confident in his feeling.

n…

nAfter a few moments, Vice and Rory appeared at the beginning of the alley where the group of four children were laughing as they talked.

nThe fat boy among these boys was holding a knife in one of his hands while a chained animal not far from them was trying to fly away.

nMeanwhile, other knives were on wooden targets around that trapped bird, some with a bit of blood on their blades.

nThe other boys in that group were laughing and drinking something as they watched one of them try to hit that bird.

n“Haha, try again, Isaac. Let’s see if you really are the best and can kill the bird!” Darek encouraged the fatty boy while the rest of them were betting.

n“He won’t make it. Even Boss Darek, the best in the class, can’t hit a moving target like that.”

n“Fatty’s not bad with knives. Maybe he’ll hit it. I’ll bet you 20 bronze coins.”

n“I’ll take it.”

nUpon hearing these comments and seeing what these boys were doing, Vice and Rory stopped momentarily, clenching their fists.

nVice put one of his hands into his clothes and picked up a pair of scissors.

nHe then moved and threw it in the direction of the bird flying back and forth, limited by the space of the chain holding it.

nThe scissors gained speed as magical particles increased their speed and strength.

nVice would only learn spells after his magical awakening, as would the children in his surroundings. But like any magical being in this world, he already had mana in his body, and his movements could be affected by this.

nWhen he threw the scissors, he unconsciously covered this thing with magical particles, raising its properties substantially.

nTherefore, when it flew towards its target, the amused boys lost their smiling expressions as they noticed someone standing in their way.

nBut before they looked at Vice, they saw his scissors going through part of that chain and releasing the bird.

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