Ari and the others take their seats in the B22 classroom,
'Huh? What's this?'
On every student desk, there's a small device with a screen. Over the screen, there's all the instructors in Sangre De Reyes, from weakest to strongest.
A speaker in the classroom starts giving instructions robotically,
"Students, since the invasion, our development projects unfortunately have been rescheduled. Originally, this stage was supposed to start after the first year's tournament was successfully concluded. But that has been delayed, as you are all aware."
Ari scoffs at the robot's voice.
"Now displayed on your screens, all our trusted instructors present, I request each individual to pick who you would prefer as your "mentor" for the remaining year. Should you be accepted, that mentor will help you develop and bring your genius to life."
Ari scrolls over to the screen to the end of the screen to figure out who the strongest instructor is, and to his surprise, Taiho is number one. Followed up by Beretta in second place, and Brugger in third.
'I wonder how strong Taiho is compared to Beretta and Brugger. I heard Beretta got beaten that day too…'
"Note that if you fail an instructor's exam, you will be expelled from Sangre De Reyes."
The robot voice continues,
"Please choose your mentor, starting now."
Ari sees numbers under each instructor increase at a rapid pace, that must be students voting on their instructor.
'Who should I vote for…'
Ari glances over towards Plaster, Plaster himself is unsure who he's gonna vote for.
'It looks like I have three choices I can use… I'm guessing that's if I fail one exam…"
"Psst, who are you voting for?" Plaster whispers,
Ari scrolls over all the instructors, "I don't know yet, I'm thinking…"
'This is a weird way of choosing… we get three, and we only get one mentor… are they expecting us to fail? Taiho already has a thousand votes… would he really be able to choose out of that many?' Ari thinks with a frown on his face,
"I'm voting for Brugger, I think he matches my style" Plaster presses on Brugger on his screen,
"And then I'll go someone lower…" Plaster scrolls to the left,
Ari's eyes widen as he just realized something,
"Wait!" He stops Plaster from choosing,
"This is a test. Look at the numbers, Brugger is in the five hundreds, what do you think your chances are of getting picked?"
Plaster looks at him confused,
"In all bets I have made, there's no fun if you don't go all in…" Ari smiles,
"You choose who you want as an instructor, with all your three votes."
Ari presses on Taiho three times, the instructor with the most votes with a wicked smile.
…
Back to Mari, Saint and Prince, they just got finished interrogating the priest.
"So what now? He told us there's an auction, but is that it?" Saint asks,
"Slow and steady wins the race…" Mari says teasingly,
"Now we return, although we should probably… you know-" Prince pokes his neck with his finger and points to the terrified priest,
Saint looks at Prince scared and shocked, his jaw dropping,
Prince waves his hands,
"I'm joking… not really though…." Prince says sarcastically,
Mari laughs,
"I'll just drop him somewhere," She drops the priest in a shadow, and he disappears from the scene,
They make their way back to the warehouse the group are hiding in.
…
As they arrive inside, Mari's face lights up cutely and innocently,
"Oh my god, Jane!" Mari lunges and hugs the girl named Jane,
Jane laughs while Mari is rubbing her cheek on Jane's cheek.
"How have you been? I missed you! God, finally you're back, do you know how lonely I've been?" Mari continues while Jane just laughs,
Saint stares at the two, dumbfounded, Prince notices this,
Prince pushes Saint forward, "Introduce yourself,"
Mari stops cuddling Jane for a brief second and takes an exhausted deep breath,
"Jane, this is Saint, Saint this is Jane."
Jane goes for a formal handshake, Saint stares at her hand for a second before shaking it back.
'Wow, she's cute… she's also my age…"
Prince tries to not laugh,
Mari notices too, she grabs Saint by the back of his collar and drags him away.
"Don't you dare." Mari says coldly, but jokingly.
"Jane is precious, she cannot be reduced to the likes of you or Prince over there…"
Mari points at Prince while he's waving back at them, smiling warmly,
"I don't know what you're talking about…" Saint says nervously…
Mari looks at Saint bored,
"Eeeeeeh? I'm still a woman, you know? I know you like her already." she says, with a bored expression.
"Whatever…"
Saint puts his hands in his pocket and walks away from everyone,
'Mari's radar is crazy…' He thinks to himself
Meanwhile, Jane is looking at Saint's retreating form curiously.
'He's my age… I wonder how he ended up here…' She thinks,
"Say, Prince, did that new guy join us?" Jane asks,
"Yeah, he's gonna roll with us. Be nice." Prince says as he lays himself down on a couch,
Jane smiles warmly,
…
Later, Saint is trying to sleep, but he keeps thinking of Jane,
'Her green emerald long hair… her eyes… her smile… she was so cute…"
Saint blushes to himself,
'Alright, stop, I gotta sleep.' And with that Saint drifts asleep,
…
In the morning, Saint wakes up, he takes his time with his morning routine, he takes extra care of himself in the mirror, (For Jane), then he steps out, the group is already assembled,
"What's going on?" Saint asks, he looked at Jane for a brief moment but looked away just as quickly,
"I'm glad you joined us, Saint." Jovi says calmly,
"We are planning our day at the auction, big day coming up." He says, pointing at a whiteboard.
"Prince told me about your feud with the priest's crew. Said you needed training…"
Saint glances at Prince,
"Well, I won so…"
Jovi chuckles innocently,
"Prince will train you, we have a while left until the auction."
'I'm getting trained by Prince? Yes!' Saint thinks,
"Let me set down the three main rules for auction day." Jovi says calmly to the entire group,
…