The SSS Ranked Villain's Return-Chapter 55: A Friendly Interaction

Neraxis did not dawdle long; shortly after Magnus took his leave, he followed suit.

His direction? The training room.

It contained the outfits Magnus had asked them to wear, and since he didn’t have a custom one made, he’d have to settle for what was there.

Kael had gone the other way—apparently, his outfit was already prepared, and he only needed to pick it up.

Neraxis was the only one heading to the training room; the rest of his classmates stayed behind to chat or eat.

They did have a private cafeteria, but it seemed like his classmates preferred eating in class instead.

He’d already eaten a whole packet of cookies on the way to the academy, so he wasn’t hungry.

Neraxis pushed the door open, revealing the spacious training room, and without wasting any time, he proceeded to what appeared to be the lockers by the side.

He picked one and opened it to find an entirely black bodysuit, which he quickly put on.

The most uptodate nove𝙡s are published on frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓.

It was surprisingly comfortable and didn’t feel tight at all. He decided to do some exercise in the meantime.

Care to teach me some swordsmanship? he questioned, summoning his own sword and holding it straight.

[I would... but...] Evangeline’s words trailed off as footsteps sounded behind him, and when he turned, he saw Celina.

She, too, wore the bodysuit, but hers seemed a bit... too tight.

"Celina... I thought you always stuck around with Aurelia?" Neraxis mused but was met with a chuckle.

"You two have sure talked a lot, haven’t you? But I’ll have you know, I had my reasons for coming here."

Ignoring the clear sarcasm in her first sentence, he spoke. "Oh? And what might that be?"

But before he could get an answer to his question, Celina put on a small smirk and soon completely vanished from his sight.

It was a bit different from the previous time he had caught onto her stealth—since this time, it felt like she wasn’t even present anymore.

However, there were some sound cues—or rather, a lack of them.

Evangeline, dull, Neraxis stated before slashing toward the right.

To his surprise, instead of his sword connecting, it was redirected back into the air. And with a swift movement, he felt a tug on his left leg, causing him to fall.

Looking back at the perpetrator, he could see Celina looking down at him with a small smile before stretching out her hand.

"Rematch?"

"...Sure," he steadily agreed, accepting her hand and standing up.

But before he could let go of her hand, she twisted it, causing his form to slightly waver, while at the same time, an opening appeared.

Unsurprisingly, she took advantage of it, kicking directly at his ribs and nearly shattering them upon impact.

"Urgh..." Neraxis let out a groan, surprised by her behavior.

She wasn’t treating this as a spar—more like an actual street fight, just without the killing.

"Did Aurelia say anything about me?" Celina’s words suddenly rang out behind him, and upon turning around, he could see her head placed on his shoulder.

However, the moment he made eye contact with her, she vanished, reappearing a couple of meters in front of him.

"Did she say anything about me, Neraxis?" Her tone was more assertive than last time, practically giving him no choice but to answer.

Truly a unique attitude... but I don’t hate it.

"She only mentioned that you talk a bit about me between you two," he explained, earning a sigh and a nod from her.

Celina fiddled with the daggers for a moment, seemingly in thought before saying, "Good. I want you to keep it that way. If you want to know something, talk to me instead."

"...Okay?" Neraxis replied, an uneasy feeling welling up in his chest.

Ever since their first encounter, she had always been a tad bit obsessive with him—or maybe he was just imagining it.

[Hmm... I’d say she’s just very curious. Maybe never had a male friend?] Evangeline remarked.

Neraxis shrugged, wanting to put this topic behind him for now. Instead, he decided to bring up the incident not long ago.

"Celina, I forgot to thank you for last time... when you brought me to the infirmary."

She seemed a bit shocked to hear that, but at the very least, it calmed her down, making her sheathe her daggers.

"It’s fine. Seeing you healthy is enough."

Celina’s face had not changed even though she said something so corny, earning a raised brow from Neraxis.

"You really have a way with words, don’t you?" he couldn’t help but comment.

"What’s wrong with what I said?" she replied in a playful pout—a stark contrast to her seriousness just mere moments ago.

But before he could banter further, her serious expression once again returned.

"Did Grandpa give you the skill book?"

"The defensive skill? Yeah," he answered with a tilt of his head, watching as she shook her head to the side.

"Is it the right one? Did you get Mana Barrier?"

Neraxis checked his status screen just to make sure, before stating, "Aegis of Eternity. It’s C-ranked."

Once his words fell, Celina walked closer to him, practically being nose-to-nose.

"Don’t waste that skill. It took me a lot of nagging to get it for you."

Sensing the weird atmosphere going on, he simply nodded in response, unsure of what to say.

She was a strange mix of someone who cared and someone who pretended to.

It was hard for him to determine which category she fell into, since, well, his last one-sided love did not turn out so well.

But even then, he would go with the flow.

"Thank you, Celina."

"Mhm," she replied in a soft hum before falling silent.

However, the silence was soon broken with the swing of the training room door, and Kael charging through, wearing some weird outfit that revealed his bare chest and all of his green tattoos.

Kael looked toward Neraxis confidently, but upon seeing who he was standing with, he froze. "...Did I interrupt something?"

Neraxis sighed before shaking his head, noticing a small frown that managed to form on Celina’s face due to their close proximity.

But soon, the two departed a bit further from one another, and not even a few moments later, the rest of the class walked straight through, Magnus standing up front.

He merely glanced at Neraxis and Celina before walking over to the side where the console was and typing something on it.

Immediately, the training room’s door shot closed as the entire room darkened.

The darkness did not last long, as it was soon replaced by a few blue cubes suddenly latching off the walls and flying to where each of the students stood.

Neraxis tried touching the cube, and the moment he did, it seemingly dissolved before flowing up into his bodysuit, adding blue patterns to the already existing black color.

In Kael’s case, since he did not have anything covering his chest, the blue color went into the belt he had on his waist, while the rest of the blue color traveled into the fancy necklace he had on.

Quickly, the colors assimilated into each student, and soon, Magnus stepped forward with a miniature holographic console on his wrist.

He tapped on it once, and immediately, the surroundings shifted from the darkness illuminated by blue, to a vast arena, where in the distance, there were large mountain peaks.

However, the most surprising detail was that Neraxis could feel the cold breeze as well as the smell, giving it a realistic atmospheric feel.

And before long, Magnus explained what they would be doing.

"I had initially thought of doing one-on-one spars. However, each of you is special in your own right, and the winners would be very clear," he cleared his throat before announcing,

"Therefore, this will be a 20-person battle royale."

A battle royale? Neraxis raised an eyebrow, but Magnus suddenly brought his hand down, catching everyone off guard.

"Begin!"