Nathan was fiddling with his badge. He didn't know why, but Selena had been following him around for some reason.
Even after going to the class, she ended up choosing the seat next to him.
His eyebrows were twitching as he couldn't help but ask, "Why are you following me around?"
Selena glanced at him for a moment before saying with an expressionless face, "We're simply going to the same place. Besides, I sat here during the test."
"Then, how about during the opening ceremony? There were a lot of empty seats."
"You were the only one in that row, so I sat there to avoid other students."
Nathan couldn't refute those words. While it was true that sitting next to a pretty girl was much better than sitting next to an annoying dude, he simply got a lot of stares from other students.
In the end, if he had to say, she would be one of the most beautiful girls in this class. She even came from a noble family, so it wouldn't be weird if they were aiming for her.
While he didn't mind problems, he just didn't want to deal with unnecessary ones.
"Alright. I'll take my seat elsewhere. It's better for you to sit alone since no one can bother you, right?" Nathan stood up.
Selena's body twitched.
Before she could say anything, the 'unnecessary' problem that Nathan mentioned earlier ended up coming.
It was the blond guy who had been mocking him the whole time.
"Yo, lowly farmer. I will challenge you to a Summoners War. A lowly farmer doesn't need an alien core. Give it to me."
'Ah, shit.' Nathan was burning on the inside. He didn't have any memories about him, so he thought there was no way he had humiliated him or something. Why would this person choose to pick a fight with him?
Nathan sighed. "Dude. Let's not do this, shall we?"
"You lowly farmer dare to reject my challenge? You don't know who I am? I'm the third son of Baron Ryzant, Raivan Ryzant. You are merely a commoner!"
"…" Nathan was speechless. He had never thought that it was happening. 'Is this the rumored brain-rot young master syndrome? But Ryzant… If I'm not wrong, the lord of the territory this original body comes from is Baron Ryzant.
'Is he perhaps coming from the same territory? And for some shitty pride, he's planning to crush me or something? It might be, but I guess I should learn more about the political situation of this place as well as how the nobles behave before I draw a conclusion.
'I hope not everyone is like him, or the world would be doomed. Well, I can still use him for something. I don't know how many times I get angry whenever I read this cliche trope in novels. To think it's more annoying when I experience it firsthand… I should probably blame the principal for encouraging him. He didn't have any sign of doing this before that speech.' Nathan contemplated.
There were several pros and cons to accepting this duel. Beating him up should stop some people from targeting him since they would choose a weaker target.
Nathan glanced at Raivan while saying, "According to the rules, you need to put up something for the match."
"Hmph. It's only thirty cores." Raivan snorted.
"I am just a lowly farmer. And the mighty noble son is planning to bully a lowly farmer with just thirty cores? Don't you think it's fair?"
"A lowly farmer dares to negotiate with me?" Raivan clenched his hands into fists.
"This lowly farmer is the one putting in effort to fill your belly. Other commoners are the ones creating the clothes you make, the mansion you live in, or the ones taking care of your place. Once all of us, lowly commoners are gone, what can you do, respected noble?"
"You…" Raivan clenched his hands into fists. He wanted to hit Nathan, but doing it would just prove him right. "What do you want?"
"150 cores. You need to put 150 cores on the line if you want to fight me. That should be enough for the gap between us," said Nathan with a cold tone.
Raivan was trying his best to hold back his anger. He never thought that Nathan would dare to talk back to him.
"If a rich noble can't even afford that much, you can forget about it." Nathan harrumphed, planning to leave his seat.
However, Raivan said, "Fine! We'll fight today!"
"I'll be the referee to that duel." Jason's voice suddenly echoed inside the classroom.
"!!!" Both Raivan and Nathan were stunned. Jason said it in a way as if a duel right at the bat wasn't something unusual.
"Take your seat. I'll be starting the class."
Raivan snorted. Since it had been settled, he had nothing more to say. Still, he would definitely beat Nathan so hard for his insolence against him.
Due to the ruckus they had, their Summoners War had actually garnered the attention of a lot of students in the class.
Most of them thought that Nathan would be the first sacrifice to understand the Summoners War.
Meanwhile, Nathan was slightly annoyed that he couldn't change seats. This challenge might not be related to her, but if he didn't escape from it, he was afraid that there would be a lot of people challenging him because of her.
Jason slapped the table, the sound grabbing the attention of the students.
"I'll be the teacher in charge of this class for the next one year. My name is Jason. Out of 130 people who took the test, 86 of you have been accepted.
"As the vice principal said during her speech, there are a lot of ways to receive resources from the school. One of them is to get a good result in the lessons.
"For the next seven days, I'll be teaching you Ena Manipulation. There will be both a written test and a practical test. 5 people who manage to get the top scores for each test will be rewarded with 20 proto-class cores.
"This is in order to prepare you for what's to come. In two weeks, you'll be going on a field trip. I'll give you the details after this week's material is done, but take this class seriously with that trip in mind. Any questions?"
"Teacher!" One of the students raised his hand. "What does proto-class mean?"
"We have categorized the aliens into several groups according to their physical abilities, intelligence, regeneration, and so on. The weakest is the proto-class alien, which is still in its developmental stage, causing it to have minor strength enhancement and limited intelligence.
"You will be able to find it after you kill the alien. Swallowing those cores will increase your Ena. In the second week, I'll be training your physical abilities for the trip.
"If you don't have any more questions, we'll proceed to Ena Manipulation."