Chapter 59: Good Mood

"Come on in. I’ll only take a few minutes to get ready." Adam invited the girl inside without thinking, rushing to his desk to get things sorted out.

The pink-haired girl did not immediately step inside the room. She was momentarily taken aback by the sudden invitation. But as she saw how carefree Adam moved and acted, she realised the boy thought nothing of the invitation.

After a few seconds of not feeling her presence around, Adam looked to the door and realised April was still at the entrance, seemingly debating whether to enter, a slight blush on her face.

"You can also go ahead if you want," he proposed evenly.

"Oh, I’ll wait."

April snapped out of whatever reverie she was in and stepped inside the room. She languidly looked around, cataloguing how different and more spacious Adam’s room was than hers.

"Right..."

Adam muttered with a slight shake of his head as he made his way to the bathroom, a uniform set in his hand. The girl seemed to be overthinking the invite, which, in truth, meant nothing. Then again, no one truly knew what went on in a girl’s mind.

While Adam quickly took his bath, April consciously sat in one of the sofas, her eyes darting around. The pile of books at the study desk drew her attention the most. She knew Adam was smart with the kind of class he chose, but never could she have imagined him as a nerd.

With the kind of skills he possessed in terms of combat and exploration, she thought Adam would focus more on his exploration capabilities. But the number of books clearly said otherwise.

’His bed is neatly made.’

Her gaze shifted to the bed next, impressed that Adam was not as messy as her female friends liked to point out about boys. Her mind unconsciously imagined a topless Adam lying on the bed. The image caused her face to heat up in an instant.

"I’m done."

"Nothing!"

April jumped out of the sofa the moment she heard Adam’s voice, her face flushing a deeper red. She quickly turned her face away, frozen in place like a deer caught in headlights.

Adam raised a brow at her reaction, a knowing smile slowly playing at his lips. He looked around his bed area, and a mischievous idea struck him.

"April..." Fixing his tie, he slowly approached the pink-haired girl with teasing steps. "Were you imagining things?"

"What?! Who told you that nonsense?!" April bellowed in mock fury and took several steps back, having become conscious of Adam’s close presence. "I did no such thing!"

"But April... I never said you did something." Adam replied smugly, enjoying the girl’s flustered expression. "Though I am curious... What exactly did you do?"

"Wo-Would you look at the time! We’re gonna be late!"

April turned tail and ran out of the room, leaving a laughing Adam behind. She could not believe Adam would do that to her. He was supposed to pretend he saw nothing. That was a momentary lapse of control.

"Hehe. That was fun to see."

Adam grabbed his phone and other essentials. There was still about half an hour till the very first class. Closing the door behind him, he strode to the elevator, pulled out his phone and opened the academy’s online forum.

He had not forgotten what the pink-haired girl said when she appeared at his door.

’April mentioned something about a duel.’ He scrolled through the various announcements and caught something unexpected. ’Master did that?’

One of the announcements put forth was about Mr Princeton getting a new car. Normally, something like this wouldn’t be making headlines. But the car was the very same one he was driving.

Adam immediately saw through his master’s intent.

’By making it known to everyone in the academy, no one would dare try anything funny on the car. That’s nice...’ He couldn’t help but smile. ’But there are always those who fancy themselves too smart to be caught.’

Then there was the main announcement.

A challenge had been issued against him — a duel, to be precise. One of his badge mates sought to take his rank as the top student from him. While challenges could come from all four badges of first-years, it was uncommon.

A student by the name of James Mardner, a fourth-class type student, issued a martial duel. This duel only allowed the use of martial arts with no abilities involved — just pure skills and technique.

’And I can’t refuse the challenge because it’s reasonable and part of the academy structure.’ Adam let out a sigh, already feeling a headache coming on. ’This is going to be annoying.’

He opened his profile and checked the mail, noticing the one that came from the Combat Affairs of the Student Council. The challenge had been sent to him sometime in the night while he had been busy.

Adam knew very little about the Student Council. At the very least, however, he knew most things pertaining to students went through them. The Council had been the one to judge the challenge as reasonable.

It detailed the rules he needed to be aware of. Adam skimmed through the rules, as they were the standard stuff. As long as there was no intent to kill, no intent to harm the genitals and a few more relating to no use of abilities, everything passed as acceptable.

The duel would take place two hours after their first class. And as he would have it, his first class was a class on Spark Principles and Theories. Adam was far more interested in the class than the ridiculous challenge.

He wanted to see if the instructor would gloss over most of the revelations the manual had revealed to him. That would definitely be an eye-opener.

A few other students joined him on the ride to the ground floor. Most of them wore the light green of the exploration class. No one in a red shirt joined them in the elevator. Adam had come to realise that there was an invisible divide in the dormitory.

Those who fancy themselves truly elite took a different set of elevators. The divide was so apparent that even a blind person could feel it.

The rest of the ride to the ground floor was in silence. Though the occasional stares would be thrown Adam’s way. A few of the students, especially the girls, threw suggestive glances his way, while the boys looked at him with varying expressions.

’Maybe I should start using the stairs.’

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Adam stepped out, joining the crowd of students making their way to the forefront of the dorm. He looked around for his favourite pink-haired girl, spotting her conversing with some other girls.

One of the girls noticed his gaze and said something that made the others turn around. April turned around as well, but looked away a moment later. She was conscious of what Adam had done earlier.

Not wanting the girl to feel any more uncomfortable, he assumed his cool and nonchalant demeanour. He confidently approached the girls, nodded at them and then faced April.

"I’ll be taking my car. Want to come along?" he proposed.

"What is she to you?" One of the girls asked condescendingly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Just so you know, April is not someone you can call on whenever you please."

"Jeana!"

April glared at her friend, not too happy about her comment.

"What?" Jeana did not seem bothered. She shrugged and then added, staring at Adam. "He’s just a nobody who was fortunate enough to catch the vice-principal’s attention. Not to mention, trouble seems to follow wherever he goes."

"I’ll see you later, April," Adam said and turned around to leave.

"A-Adam..."

April tried to say something, but Adam was unwilling to wait. He was not going to stand there and be insulted by some random girl. Regardless, the girl had managed to sour his good mood.

A small chatter broke out as several students saw Adam hop into the very car trending on the academy’s forum and speed off.

"Would you look at that... Even the car he calls his own actually belongs to Mr Princeton. What a sore loser..."