Scarlet

Fortunately for me, everyone clears out when three particular students approach me. Carolyne, otherwise known as Rift, the guy I killed before who ended up still in the top one hundred but at a much lower rank due to that, and the other one who I saw fighting the two.

Honestly, I could probably try to leave. But then I’d be at the mercy of the dozens of people who just left due to these three. And I’d rather face three people than all of them, soooo, I’m just gonna see what they want.

“Good idea,” Tar says, agreeing with me.

Oddly enough, Carolyne doesn’t actually look at me even though she’s approaching. She’s actually just looking at the guy who I killed with her hand on the hilt of her sword.

And the guy in question? He surprisingly doesn’t look mad at me. In fact, he looks rather amused as he walks up before saying, “So you’re the one who finished me off?” After seeing me nod he continues with a wide grin on his face. “Good job! I wonder just how fun it’ll be to fight you after you’ve grown a little?”

My mouth parts open in surprise, only for me to be even more surprised by the sight of the girl – Michael and Emily’s sister – smacking the guy across the head and saying, “Please don’t say things like that to people when you meet them.” She then turns to me and says, “Don’t mind him. He’s a battle junky.”

Oh. So he doesn’t mind me killing him then?

I glance at the third of the group to find him not saying a word. But he does nod his head in greeting at me. So, I guess he isn’t mad either.

That’s good.

I open my mouth to speak, only to be stopped when the guy in question – whose name I believe is Nicholas Wright – rubs the back of his head and says, “Nah, she’s just like me. I saw it in her eyes when we fought!” Then he looks directly at me, meeting my eyes as he says, “Right, Scarlet Wolf?”

“Please just call me Scarlet,” I say right away before anyone can interrupt me again. And surprisingly, none of them seem to find the irony of my name and title even remotely amusing. Which I find to be very nice.

“Alright, call me Carol,” the girl says in response with a nod and a faint smile, not introducing her name since the vice-headmaster had already done so to the whole school. And Nicholas quickly joins her saying, “I’m Nicholas Wright, but just call me Nick.”

The two then look over at the third member of the group, and he just looks between the three of us before quietly answering, “Alexander Kuznetsov. Call me Alex.”

Oh? Someone from the northeast? Or at least, judging by his accent and last name that is.

“Pleasure to meet you three,” I tell them with a nod, only to notice the members of my team climbing the stairs to the stage after all of the other top hundred students finish leaving. So I turn to Carol and ask, “When you said to take care of your siblings, did you mean Michael and Emily?”

She nods her head and says, “Yeah,” before glancing behind her to find the two walking up to us with Belle and Denise along with them.

Michael and Emily both look a little surprised at my company – likely due to their sister being here – before Emily shouts, “Sis!” and runs up to hug Carol, making me raise a brow in amusement. Meanwhile Michael just nods his head and says, “Hey Carol. So you’ve already met Scarlet?”

“Yeah,” she says while still hugging Emily, making me take a closer look at their older sister in the process just due to the armor their wearing. Mostly because Carol’s armor really does look like a vastly upgraded version of Emily’s and Michael’s, which makes me wonder if their armor has something to do with their family. Carol also has her hair tied up in a single ponytail with her sword sheathed at her waist on her left side, likely signifying that she’s right handed. “She killed Nick right under my nose.”

That seems to shock every one of my teammates, except for Belle who has no idea who Nick is. But it proceeds to shock her when Denise points out who he is to her.

I just shrug in response.

“I saw an opportunity and I took it,” I answer rather bluntly before glancing at the guy, “and he doesn’t seem to mind. So it’s fine.”

He gives me a thumbs up and I can’t help but smirk and return it.

That guy’s not half bad. I was kind of expecting my sneak attack to put us on the wrong foot or something, but nope, he’s a cool guy. And he understands the draw of battle too!

“You just like him because he’s a battle junky like you,” Tar mutters sarcastically.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not a battle junky.

“You literally just said-” Tar starts but I interrupt him.

I said that he’s a cool guy.

Tar goes silent for several seconds before eventually muttering, “Battle junkies…” and somehow sending me a visual of a tanuki shaking its head in disgust.

How rude.

I glance at Alex, who seems to be rather uncomfortable in this growing group of people before I turn to the others and ask, “Hey, could we talk somewhere that’s not, ya know, in the middle of the stage of a large auditorium?”

The siblings who had all started chatting away along with Nick, leaving Belle and Denise awkwardly standing to one side and me and Alex to the other all turn to look at me before showing slightly embarrassed expressions when they look around the stage.

“Yeah, that’d probably be for the best,” Carol says, having let go of Emily at some point while I wasn’t paying attention. “Let’s head to my suite to chat. And I can tell you of the benefits you get as a Top class student on the way.”

I nod my head in agreement before we all begin to head towards her… suite? Wait, she did just say suite, right?

“Yep.” Tar answers rather shortly.

Huh.

Must be a Top class student thing.