SPIRIT SOUL

When the others saw that Kyle ruffled Baroness Selene’s hair as if she was a little kid, they thought that someone was about to be killed at any moment.

Yet, instead of breaking Kyle’s hand, Selene just gave the most radiant smile as her bunny ears twitched and went a little limp at the comforting feeling.

This was an indicator of utmost trust and relaxation, shocking everyone tremendously.

In the end, she even leaned forward a little to let him pat her even more.

Even Merl, who had thought that something was wrong with Kyle and Selene, couldn’t help but freeze in place.

‘Huh? They know each other? How?’

Arriving at the answer was pretty easy, and something that astonished the Head of the student council greatly.

‘So he is the one who helped her?’

Realization struck Merl, and after piecing together the bits of information he had received so far, it was possible for him to conclude more of Kyle’s hidden strength and his mysterious ability.

But even then, Merl couldn’t help but look at them in astonishment as the Baroness’ behavior right now was completely different to how she usually acted.

After months of waiting to see him, he was finally in front of her and Selene didn’t even want Kyle to lift his hand from her head.

Thus, she instinctively reached for it when Kyle began to pull his hand away, only to miss it by a hair’s breadth.

“You’ve become strong, Selene!” He remarked, happy to see a positive change in her after noting that she seemed to be more independent than before.

Her instinctive change of attitude towards him was something Kyle had not expected, but it was not overly bothersome.

It was not as if he hadn’t heard her call him master before, after all.

Yet, when he saw Selene’s teary eyes, he felt extremely confused, wondering what was going on.

He was happy to see Selene, but it was not exactly as if he felt like crying happy tears upon their reunion.

But then again, Kyle realized that she had to enter and stay in a kingdom of a race that had loathed her for being ‘Cursed’ just because her fur was black.

Right now, she might be considered a noble, and a cut above the rest owing to her control over the darkness affinity seed.

However, belonging to the nobility didn’t mean that Selene had forgotten the painful memories and experiences of the past.

Because of that, she had a hard time in the Glory Knight academy, preventing her from making new friends. She had slithered into her shell and rarely interacted with anyone.

The only thought that allowed her to be strong was Kyle’s promise.

Not even once had she doubted that he would forget his promise or her and make her wait for eternity.

Yet, at the same time, Selene couldn’t know how long Kyle would require.

She had no idea where he had been teleported to, let alone if he was able to avoid death due to the dangers he was bound to face.

As such, seeing him in front of her, telling her that she had become strong, made her unable to keep a straight face as she broke down into tears.

Seeing her sob bitterly made everyone feel shocked, and the confused gazes of more than a 100 pairs of eyes focused on the ‘icy’ Baroness.

But it was only a moment later that the jaw of every spectator dropped to the ground as Kyle took a step forward, and hugged her.

He lifted his arms to embrace her tightly, taking away all the pressure of the last year, all the sorrow, and pain that she had suffered all by herself.

After all, it was not only him, who had worked hard to meet again.

Selene had worked relentlessly and given her best to become strong, and her efforts had seen her enter the Mid ranks of the Vitae stage in both of her cultivation paths at that!

Reciprocating the hug, Selene buried her face in Kyle’s clothes that were still dirty from his long journey with Beatrice and Yasmine.

However, that was something she couldn’t care less about.

She was just happy that he was back.

A few minutes passed in the blink of an eye, but she maintained her hold over him, not wanting to let him go.

Kyle was already ready to leave because he felt the eyes that were staring daggers at him.

Sensing this, Yasmine stepped forward before mumbling,

“I think we attract too much attention. How about the four of us speak somewhere else?”

Being the most rational person in the current situation, Yasmine could hide her jealousy well.

This couldn’t be said about Jennifer, who glared daggers at Selene.

But that was not only caused by Beatrice herself but also owing to the subtle and inconspicuous effects of the Blood pact as it pulled both Kyle and Beatrice more towards each other.

However, Kyle didn’t really notice much about the Blood pact’s impact.

He simply nodded his head in response to Yasmine’s proposal, while Selene let go of him in a very slow motion, showing her unwillingness.

Looking around after he was free, Kyle saw Merl, who was staring at their group of four, only to smile wryly when he met Kyle’s.

“I wonder if I have to ask Merl for more information… We still need our uniforms, and he only stated that they’ve been prepared, but not where to get them…

And the schedule of our lessons or what classes we have to attend are still a mystery as well…”

Scratching the back of his head, Kyle felt that it might become a little bit awkward if they were to spend too much time in the beast arena.

As such, it was only fortunate, when Selene suggested something after she got a hang of her emotions.

“I can bring you to the academy’s secretary. She’ll have your uniforms. As for the schedule…that is something every individual has to put together for himself or herself on the first day of the new term.

On that day, every single course will be introduced, and you can apply for them then.

At the end of the term, you’ll write an exam, or be asked to perform some tasks like a practical that replaces a written exam.

The Grades are from A to F, with an A rewarding three points, and B rewarding two points, and so on. D gets you no points and both E and F are minus points.

To prevent being expelled, you need to earn, at least, 10 points!

There are also extra points that can be acquired through specific circumstances, but that shouldn’t be of importance right now.”

From being overly shy to indifferent and then emotional, Selene had quickly become serious.

This astonished Kyle a little bit, only to smile lightly as he nodded his head.

Meanwhile, Beatrice and Yasmine tried to figure out what to think about the Baroness.

She was definitely someone, who would try to stay together with Kyle, during his entire term in the academy.

And even afterward, Selene wouldn’t leave his side.

This meant that their group of three was bound to become a group of four, or five if one were to add Arashi to the equation.

‘He has three beautiful women by his side, without any effort…’ Beatrice could only thin while shaking her head, but what was surprising was that Kyle never intended to gather beauties around him.

Because of that, it was extremely difficult to be angry at Kyle.

After all, he had never done anything improper with them.

And that too, when Beatrice had lunged at him more than once giving him the chance to do so with her.

Upon understanding this, Beatrice couldn’t avert her gaze from Kyle, questioning whether he was a chick magnet or some sort of other unique existence that attracted women instinctively.

However, in the end, she knew that this was not the case and that Kyle was just a sensible, mature and hard-working hard man, which turned him even more appealing, outshining his already handsome appearance.

Thus, she could only sigh as Selene led them to the main building of the Glory Knight academy.

She was hanging right by Kyle’s side, pulling him along, just for the sake of skinship.

Meanwhile, Yasmine stood next to Selene, knowing that Beatrice would love to stay by Kyle’s other side.

Sacrificing herself for others was not really something Yasmine liked to do.

But Yasmine knew that Kyle was not really interested in any of them.

At least not romantically.

Kyle might like them a lot, but that was mostly in terms of comrades-in-arm, and maybe even as an extended family.

However, ever since the day Kyle had not given in to his desires as well that of Beatrice’s owing to her hormones that wreaked havoc, Yasmine couldn’t help but observe him more intently.

‘It is really too comfortable to be around him. He doesn’t think of us as objects, whom he can use at will for whatever reason. Even if he looks at any of us, I cannot really sense overwhelming lust radiating from him…and he treats us well…’

Continuing her thoughts in a similar manner for several minutes, Yasmine didn’t even realize that they had arrived, and that she was walking extremely close to Selene.

Selene felt uncomfortable about that at first, but when she noticed that Yasmine was absentminded, a faint smile emerged on her face.

‘She is also trying her best, huh?’

With that thought in mind, Selene didn’t think much as she linked arms with the Phoenix halfling.

On their walk to the secretary’s office, she heard quite a bit about Kyle’s trip towards the flying island on which the Razkadan castle was located, the Ancient Dekacon tree, whose sentient seedling hung around Kyle’s neck, right up to his journey through the wilderness.

Kyle only summarized everything briefly, leaving out the encounter with the Liad race and so on while mostly focusing on how he met Beatrice and Yasmine.

Selene thus quickly noticed that Beatrice was not only much older but also that there was a reason for her to have acted weirdly upon encountering her- she had just spent a year in the outside world and as such lacked common sense.

Meanwhile, Yasmine didn’t really have any friends before, but only those that wanted to exploit her for being a Phoenix, and one of the princesses in the Anadra kingdom.

She was also the reason why Kyle had been able to reach her so quickly, meaning that Yasmine supported their reunion and that she was not exactly one of her rivals!

“And you entered the Brawl and saved Alice Silvermoon to get the chance to enter the Glory Knight kingdom, is that it?… There is not more behind it, right?”

Kyle was not yet done summarizing the period in which they had been separated, but Selene had already intervened multiple times, asking the things she was the most interested in.

And seeing that he nodded his head without hesitation, Selene couldn’t hide her smile anymore.

His answer was the most important to her, and now that she received it, she was able to fall at ease.

“We’ve arrived. The secretary is right around the corner!”

That being said, they walked around the corner of the big building.

Yet, the words that fell on their years through the voice of a middle-aged man made them go blank for a moment.

“I tell you, the three new students that enrolled through Madame Silvermoon’s special letter are dangerous! They beat up six of our esteemed nobles without reason. I saw it! Expel them right now!!”

It was obvious, who the middle-aged Lohar was talking about, and Kyle quickly recalled the identity of the man.

‘He is the concealed noble Instructor!’

With that realization, he understood that he shouldn’t act too rashly, otherwise, his time in the academy might become quite frustrating.

Yet, it was only a moment later that his plan was shattered as one of his three partners entered the discussion without hesitation.

“Sir, I think you are mistaken. We wanted to prevent a homicide from occurring, and intervened in a cruel crime!”

Yasmine suddenly corrected him.

‘Didn’t Merl say that we should keep a low profile, and avoid the anger of Instructors… why is Yasmine suddenly acting like this?’

Kyle was not sure what was going on in Yasmine’s mind, and he could only shake his head lightly, only for the middle-aged man to turn around, where he saw the four of them.

At the same moment, a young Lohar, who seemed very uncomfortable as well as a very old Lohar turned around, and their gazes were directly drawn to them.

“You guys are Kyle, Yasmine and Beatrice, right?…Oh and Selene is also there, what a coincidence…” The old Lohar said with a faint smile on her lips before her eyes flicked towards Kyle.

“Please ignore the words of Iras. The student council has already reported the incident, and we have found enough evidence about everything as well.”

She said in a reassuring manner, her gaze never leaving Kyle.

‘So that guy just became the entire kingdom’s benefactor?’