Damian's POV:
Do you ever wish you could take back something you said? So badly that you wish a dick would fly and block the words from coming out of your vocal cords?. The aftermath of my careless words was swift and brutal. As soon as the princess heard what I had said, she went on a rampage. She attacked me with a fury that I had never seen before, and for a moment, I thought she might actually kill me. It was only thanks to the quick intervention of Artorious and Leo.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I yelled at her, trying to dodge her attacks.
"Shut up!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face. "Just shut up!"
And even after both of them tried to held her back, Aric put me on the ground and he was about to throw a punch at me. But thanks to the teacher's intervention Elizabeth, she broke us apart and concluded the class.
I was caught off guard by her sudden outburst. "Wait, what?" I asked, my confusion evident.
"Her brother died?"
That's when Artorious stepped in and pulled me aside, asking why I had mentioned her brother. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asked. "Her brother is the late imperial prince. He died two years ago. Are you just coming up with an excuse?"
"No, I really didn't know, I swear," I replied. "Fuck, I should apologize."
Artorious shook his head. "Don't. It's not wise to approach her now. We'll try to calm her down. You should avoid her for this period."
I nodded in understanding. "Right, I'm really sorry. Please let her know that I didn't mean what I said."
Artorious noticed my expression and spoke up, "Its just, you should have been more careful with your words, she is still not over it yet.".
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The scene fades into the imperial princess's bedroom, where she's lying on her bed, her eyes closed. She's lost in thought, her mind replaying Damian's words over and over again. "Why not become a mage? You have the talent for that," he had said. "You're not cut for the sword like your brother."
Anastasia's eyes snap open as she hears a soft knock on her door. "Come in," she calls out, sitting up slightly. The door creaks open, and Katherine, steps into the room.
"I'm sorry, Anastasia," Katherine says softly, approaching the bed. "I didn't think he would say such things."
Katherine was the one who introduced Damian to her group. Certainly she didn't expect him to do anything to harm her friend, Anastasia turns to look at her friend, her expression pained. "It's not your fault, Katherine,", she says, her voice barely above a whisper. "I shouldn't have let his words get to me like that."*
Julian Astaseul, it has been two long years since the day her brother fell in battle against the demon cult. He was the most gifted individual in our entire domain, achieving the A-rank at an age when most were still in training. His valor and strength were demonstrated during the hostage crisis at the mall, where it seems that he confronted a being that exceeded the S-rank level. Despite the enormous disparity in power, he managed to save hundreds of lives before ultimately losing his own.
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It's been two days since my latest statement, and I still couldn't shake off the guilt that was consuming me. Despite wanting to apologize to Anastasia, I ended up avoiding her and skipping classes. Artorious was right; it looked like I was making excuses. And now, as fate would have it, we ran into each other in the hall.
At first, she keeps walking, seemingly not wanting to face me.
"Wait," I called out to her, my voice barely above a whisper. She then stops walking, Anastasia turns to face me, her eyes full of anger and hurt. I averted my gaze, feeling ashamed of myself. I scratched the back of my head, feeling stiff and awkward under her intense gaze.
"About last time, my bad," I muttered.
I sensed a change in her expression, but I didn't want to look up and see it for myself. Without waiting for her response, I turned on my heel and walked away, feeling a mix of shame and anger at myself for the way I had treated her.
As I was walking away, I thought to myself, "Phew, that was awkward, but I did it." Just as I turned the corner, I bumped into someone.
"Hey, watch it," he grumbled.
"Sorry, man," I apologized.
Then I notice the identity of the person, It was Aric from my class.
I immediately tensed up as I remembered the incident. Aric was the most violent one out of all of them, and he had even threatened me before. I tried to keep my cool and hoped he wouldn't start anything.
"Damian, right?" he asked, his tone hostile.
I nodded, trying to keep my voice steady. "Yeah, that's me."
He grabbed me by the collar and said " You must have lost your mind, mentioning Julian"
Honestly, I was exhausted. I didn't see the reason why I should justify myself to him. I took a deep breath and said, "Give it a rest, I already apologized."
He responded with a sneer, "Apology or not, I'm going to make sure you regret it."
But before he can do anything, a teacher showed up just in time to break it up.
As Aric was leaving, he leaned in and whispered, "Better watch your back."
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" yOu bETTER wATCH YouR BacK" I said with a goofy voice.
"What a retard, he will get expelled if he assaults me in the academy" I muttered under my breath. It frustrated me that someone who wasn't even the victim can hold such a grudge. And to make matters worse, I noticed that whenever the princess saw me, she gave me a resentful look. It only added to my frustration, it seemed like my efforts were in vain.
I mean, yes her brother's death was unfortunate. He was probably the most talented swordsman within the human domain, but it bugged me the most that someone with a really low mana capacity wasted an edge like that holding a sword. It was like me being a legless person seeing someone saying I don't need legs. I didn't mean any harm by what I said and, on top of that, I apologized, yet I still have to deal with their nasty attitude.
'fuck nobles' I thought to my self.
Currently, I was at the cafeteria playing Clash of Kingdoms, It's a game I play to relieve myself from tension. It's a popular mobile strategy game, In the game, players build and manage their own village, train troops, and battle against other players.
Players start by building a town hall, resource collectors, and defensive structures to protect their village from attacks. They can then upgrade these structures to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. Players can also train various troops, although this game served as a good distraction, it has a side effect where it sometimes summons the darkness within me. Like now for example, I am being attacked by a psychopath who was only sending goblins.
In order to win, one has to destroy the other's player city palace. Yet, this fucker is only sending goblins to steal my gold and resources. He's just trying to deal maximum damage to my city without any gains.
'Dogman12'
After reading his username I thought. 'Disgusting, must be a descendent of a dog'
I reached my hand in order to drink my coffee, Before I could even take another sip, I was interrupted by the princess.
"What do you want, I already apologized," I said, turning around to face her.
"A duel," she responded, her eyes flashing with anger.
"Huh?" I said, taken aback by her sudden request.
"Let's have a duel. You said I'm bad with the sword, so let's see if you're any better," she said, her hand already on the hilt of her sword.
"No," I replied firmly, not wanting to get into any more trouble.
"Are you going to be a coward?" she taunted.
My eyebrow twitched involuntarily "First of all, I'm busy," I said, showing her my phone where Clash of Kingdoms was still running. "Second, I already said I'm sorry ."
" Do you expect me to believe that empty apolo.." the princess said interrupting me.
" hey, I didn't finish speaking so don't interrupt me" I interrupted.
"And third, I will get executed if I beat up a princess," I added, trying to reason with her.
The princess's eyes narrowed at my third point, and I could tell she was considering my words. But then, to my surprise, she let out a small laugh. I think she caught on what I was trying to do.
"Yeah" I responded, "Now leave I'm busy"
'I have a city to protect'
I could feel the gazes of all students on me, it was no surprise. My last remark made me sound delusional.
I payed her no mind and went back to playing Clash of Kingdoms, but I couldn't focus on the game anymore. I was too angry at the psychopath who kept attacking me with nothing but goblins. "Why the hell is this fucker only sending goblins?!" I yelled at my phone.
After a few moments of silence, I turned to the princess who was still staring at me. "What?" I asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable under her gaze.
"how about this, I won't do anything to you even if I lose the duel, an oath as the imperial princess" she finally spoke up.
"An oath as the imperial princess?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.
'Omg, an imperial oath that I give zero shits about'
"Yes, even though I can't see that happening," she added, with a hint of arrogance.
"I don't believe you," I responded, my tone laced with sarcasm.
"Huh?" she asked, clearly taken aback by my response.
"You didn't believe me when I apologized, so why should I believe you?" I said, my eyes still fixated on my phone.
The princess was speechless, unable to come up with a rebuttal to my logic. However, I could sense her irritation growing by the second.
"Chou chou," I said, waving my hand dismissively in her direction before turning back to my game.
The words coming out of my mouth were getting worse each time I spoke. This is why you shouldn't talk to a person who's completely absorbed in their game. I didn't want to deal with any petty squabbles.
Just as I was about to resume my game, Aric arrived and slammed his hand on the table, interrupting my gameplay.
"God, please grant me patience," I murmured under my breath.
"What the hell do you want?" I asked, my eyes still adjusting to the sudden shift in focus.
"Then have a duel with me. You won't feel burdened since I'm not from the royal family," Aric said, slamming his hand on the table for emphasis.
'Why do they all want a duel with me? Go to Artorious, he's rank one,' I thought to myself.
I rolled my eyes. "But you're still a noble from the Ironheart house. I'll get executed if I beat you up as well."
Aric's irritation was palpable. "You think you can put a scratch on me?"
"I don't care," I replied. I'm now so pissed off because of the game so I couldn't contain the urge to stop my following words, a smirk forming on my lips. "Now can you all kindly fuck off?".
That's when Aric lost it. He grabbed me by the collar, his face twisted with rage. "You want to get beat up so bad, huh?"
I laughed in his face. "Go ahead if you want to get expelled from the academy in the first week," I said, playing with my eyebrows to irritate him even more.
Aric had me by the collar, ready to fight, or more like one sided beating. while the other students looked on in astonishment. But before things could escalate further, Artorious stepped in and pulled Aric off.
"Calm down, man," Artorious said, his voice low and steady. "Don't do anything stupid."
I, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear, my middle finger raised in a defiant gesture. "That's right, run along now, little prince," I taunted.
Aric struggled against Artorious' hold, trying to break free and get to me. "Let go of me! I'm going to kill this punk !"
Aric growled in frustration as Artorious dragged him away, his eyes fixed on me with a burning intensity. I could tell he wanted nothing more than to pummel me into the ground.
But Artorious didn't budge, keeping a tight hold on him. "It's not worth it. Let's just leave."
Nevertheless, I kept squatting down flashing my middle fingers. And as they were leaving I felt my phone vibrating on the table.
A notification popped up ' you have been permanently banned for toxic behavior '.
What followed, is my phone slammed to the ground, shattering it into pieces.
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Leo couldn't contain his excitement as he sat in the toilet, grinning from ear to ear. His phone was in his hand, displaying a notification that made his heart race. He wasn't with the group at the cafeteria, so he missed the drama that just happened.
"Report feedback: a player whom you reported got permanently banned, thank you for keeping our community clean."
Leo's phone vibrated in his hand, the notification from Clash of Kingdoms lighting up the screen. He had poured actual money into the game, amassing a vast army of goblins and finding great pleasure in causing other players to rage and, eventually, get banned. His "city" was more like a chaotic goblin nest, with thousands of the green creatures swarming around in a frenzy. It certainly wasn't the conventional way to play the game, but it brought Leo immense joy to face players like the last one. He had simply bombarded the player's city with wave after wave of goblins, causing massive damage and losses, until the opponent inevitably lost their cool and started flaming in the chat. And that's when Leo would report them for their toxic behavior.
"Ha-ha". Leo chuckled to himself, feeling a sense of satisfaction at his successful sabotage of another player's account. He didn't even know who the player was, but it didn't matter to him.
As he sat there, he kept grinning like a madman.
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"Why am I like this" I sighted.
Only regret came as a result from the interaction earlier, I couldn't contain my anger. I must have had some sort of brain damage for me to speak with the princess and a high noble like that, and on top of that I kept provoking them.
'Don't worry, it's not your fault'
If it wasn't for that skin walker like player, I wouldn't have gotten that angry, and it was because of them poking me that I raged. She should have just accepted my apology and left me alone.
I tried to see the positive in the situation. "Well, the good thing is that the ruckus earlier didn't go to the teacher's ears, more specifically to that teacher Serena who has scolded me recently for leaving the class. If she finds out how stupid I was acting recently, she would scold me once again," I thought to myself.
"Good thing they didn't snitch," I added, trying to find some solace in the fact that my outburst wasn't reported.
"Let's look at this from the bright side. After our last interaction, they would probably learn that bugging me for a duel is useless, and they will ignore me from now on," I tried to reassure myself, even though deep down I knew that I was bullshitting myself. Getting away with insulting high-ranking nobles without repercussions was too wishful.
As I entered my dorm, I was grateful for the privacy it offered. While it was possible to have a roommate, I preferred solitude, especially after the latest event. If I had a roommate, they would have probably kicked me out. I had become someone that all people should avoid since I made two of the most powerful students in the academy my enemies.
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, and jumped onto my bed. Sleep was what I needed now.