I WAS The Rank–1 Hero-Chapter 108: A Morning in Nova [1]

"~Yaaawn!"

Rubbing my eyes, I straightened myself up on my bed. I really had a nice sleep yesterday night.

Tapping on my wristband, I check the time, it's exact 08:15 A.M. in the morning, my classes starts at 9 a.m. so I got plenty of time to fresh up.

I know it's not a good habit to just wake up forty five minutes just before the classes starts, but what can I do, it was a perk which come with living in the Academy's dorm.

It makes students lazy.

Climbing down from my bed, I freshen myself up, cleaning my face, wearing the academy clothes, and at last looking at myself in the long mirror which I had brought from my home.

"Perfect." Adjusting the collar, I praised my self.

'What a narcissist comment.' Sera commented.

My eyebrows twitched, but I was in no mood pointlessly arguing with a ghost.

'Rude!' She pouted.

Ignoring her, I locked the door behind me, and headed my way to the academy.

It was a ten minute walk from 'Astral Tower' where my dorm was.

***

Entering the academy building, I was greeted by four guards stationed at the door, each scanning their surroundings, ensuring that no misconduct took place.

'They're really stepping up security.'

I was pleasantly surprised by the increased measures. Turning a corner, I found myself standing in front of my classroom's door.

Class 1A.

Sigh...

Letting out a slow breath, I steeled myself for what was about to come.

—Clank!

The moment I stepped inside, I instantly felt numerous stares directed at me.

As expected.

Ignoring them, I climbed the stairs and made my way toward my seat, which was located at the very back of the classroom.

While walking, I could hear faint whispers coming from my classmates. Some stared at me with curiosity, some with appreciation, and others… with pure disgust.

"Hey... is that really him?"

"Did you see him go head-to-head with Hope?"

"He was so cool..."

"That means... his ranking is higher than mine?"

"Idiots, he's just a cheater. I'm sure he must have used an artifact."

"I think so too."

Ignoring all the murmurs and whispers, I finally took my seat.

'This is going to be such a pain.'

At this moment, I didn't want to get entangled in any kind of conversation with them. Just thinking about all the explanations I would have to give was already stressing me out.

And to make matters worse, I was forced to make some changes in my plans. I couldn't just keep hiding forever. What if, by some stroke of misfortune, I encountered an Authority holder?

After Goddess Ylthea's warning and my encounters with both Nathalia and Lilith, I was certain of one thing, that, I wasn't ready to face an Authority holder all by myself.

'I seriously need to get stronger.'

For that to happen, I needed as much information as I could gather on them.

Stretching my head to the left, I noticed that the seat next to mine was empty.

My eyes drifted across the room as a thought crossed my mind.

"Where is she?"

Anna was the first to leave her dorm today, yet I couldn't seem to find her anywhere.

'Should I text her?'

Just as I was about to text her, the classroom door suddenly slammed open.

—Clank!

"Speak of the devil," I muttered.

Entering the classroom was none other than Anna, my seatmate.

Drenched in sweat, she was huffing for air as if she had just finished running a marathon.

Slowly, she made her way towards me—or, to be precise, the seat beside me.

"Good morning," I greeted her.

wiping off her sweat, and taking her seat, she tilted her head slightly towards me. "Y-yeah, good morning."

Still trying to catch her breath, I asked, "Overslept?"

Nodding, she pulled out her textbook. "Yeah."

"Why?" I pressed.

She froze for a second before narrowing her eyes and fully turning toward me. "What do you mean, _why_?"

"Exactly what I asked," I said with a smirk. Right now, I was in the mood to tease her a little.

"Tsk, I just had a bad dream..." she muttered.

"Oh?" I leaned in slightly. "What kind of bad dream?"

Anna's eyebrow twitched.

"Dude," she gritted out, I can see her forehead veins popping out, "are you for real?"

"Now, now, don't get angry. I was just curious," I said, raising my hands in mock surrender. Maybe if I continued my nonsense any further, she would seriously punch me this time.

But to my surprise, she answered, "It's personal."

Her sudden response caught me off guard.

"Oh... how persona—Ugh!" Just as I was about to ask further, she stomped on my foot.

"My mood is off today. Don't mess with me," she warned, her glare sharp.

I gulped.

'Damn. Scary.'

"S-sorry. I won't ask, for real," I quickly apologized.

"Is the seat next you empty?"

Snapping out of my thoughts, I suddenly heard an familiar voice calling me from my left. Turning my head, I stared at the person who had spoken.

"Aria?" A surprised look appeared on my face.

Smiling, Aria looked at the seat beside Anna, and asked once again.

"Can I sit?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

It was Anna who said this. After spending some time together, she and Aria seemed to be getting closer.

Just yesterday, I remembered Anna as an antisocial girl with no friends except me.

'You're the same.' Sera clicked her tongue.

'For your kind information, my dear queen,' I reminded her, 'I already had Ruby as my friend before her.'

A smug smile formed on my face.

'Yeah... and?' She asked.

"...?"

What does she mean, and? I wasn't a loner. I just didn't like interacting with people without a solid reason.

'...how sad.'

Now she was just being rude. I felt attacked.

Ignoring her, I searched for Julius in the classroom. I really hoped he wouldn't sit beside me like Aria did. After scanning the front rows, I found him, unsurprisingly, he was with his group of fellow nobles.

Well, I couldn't blame him. After all, he was ranked-2 in the first year. He was quite popular, especially among the girls.

I was relieved he didn't follow Aria and take the seat next to her. That would have been terrible for my mental health.

Even with just Aria and Anna beside me, I could already feel a few murderous glares directed my way. I didn't need to check the source. Obviously, it was the boys.

Sigh...

I let out a tired breath.

'I've been sighing a lot these days.'

Unaware of my thoughts, Aria looked at me, her face filled with concern.

"Are you alright?"

"Hmm?"

"You're getting a lot of attention today."

So, she noticed it too.

But what could I do? Because of my foolishness, I had practically exposed a few of my abilities in front of everyone.

Thinking back, I was lucky I only displayed my swordsmanship and not my actual skills or multi-elemental abilities. Otherwise, my life would have been doomed.

Only the Hero Association knew that Hope could utilize all five elements. If I exposed that, it would only be a matter of seconds before they connected the dots and found me.

'You're just dumb,' Sera started yapping again. 'I still don't get how you became Rank 1. What qualities did the Hero Association even see in you?'

What did the Hero Association see in me?

'...it's a long story.'

Anyway, hearing Aria's question, I responded.

"Ah… I'm fine." Then, quickly changing the subject, I asked, "But tell me, how is the Celestial Hall?"

The top ten students of every year resided in Celestial Hall, the most luxurious dorm Nova Academy had to offer.

If my 'Astral Tower' offered that much luxury, then just imagine what Celestial Hall must be like.

Blinking a couple of times, Aria replied.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

"It's decent."

Anna added, "It's nothing grand."

"...?"

I kept forgetting—these two belonged to prominent noble households. Of course, this level of luxury meant nothing to them!

Thinking along those lines, I crossed my arms on my desk and lowered my head.

"I see," I muttered.

I made a mental note to never talk about luxury with these two again.

As I was lost in thought, Anna suddenly poked my arm.

"Hey, we're attracting a lot of attention."

My eyebrow twitched.

Currently, almost everyone in the class was stealing glances at us while whispering amongst themselves.

It was becoming pretty obvious.

I couldn't really blame them. The reason was clear—Aria, the first year Rank 1, and Anna, the Rank -3, were casually chatting with a boy Rank 190, who had displayed such mastery in swordsmanship at demon continent.

At this point, there wasn't much I could do.

Anna leaned closer and whispered, "I am used to it, but this is too much."

Rolling my eyes, I replied calmly.

"...This is why I didn't want to stand out."

"Aww... you'll get used to it," Anna teased, grinning.

For some reason, that pissed me off.

Half of the stares were _because_ of Aria and Anna. I _really_ wanted to smack her tiny red haired-head, but I controlled myself.

Leaning back, I thought to myself.

I still needed to make contact with Nathalia and gain some wisdom from her. Honestly, I was starting to have second thoughts.

Get used to it, my ass.

Looking between me and Anna, Aria spoke.

"By the way, did you know the academy is going to include extra special training sessions for us?"

Raising a brow, I asked, "Are you serious? Don't we already have five subjects? How are they going to fit this into our timetable?"

My question was valid.

We had to attend five subjects—both theoretical and practical, and those alone took up most of our day. Adding another special training session?

At this rate, our classes would last until 7 or 8 at night.

Sensing my confusion, Aria explained, "They already thought of that. To manage time, they're going to cut down on some of our class hours."

What she meant was...

Our usual classes lasted around one hour and thirty minutes each, and we had two long breaks of an hour each. So now, Nova Academy would shorten class durations to make space for the special training.

I wondered what kind of training they were planning to introduce.