The colosseum, just like before, bubbled up with the thrill and eagerness of the audience, making the participants feel the weight of the competition more than before.

It was not just a normal competition anymore.

With this large audience, they had to give their all as this competition would be giving their first impression to the people in this Colosseum, including the high-ranking nobles, kings, and emperors who had come to see the match.

In the group of first-year teachers stood Maleshia, observing the participants, scanning them one by one as she knew that two of them were from her class already.

One of them was Keryu Ivanovich, the youngest son of the demon lord—someone she had expected to be among the top 10, as only the top 10 students are eligible to participate in the election competition.

But the second person came in as a surprise to her as well.

‘Isn’t she the commoner girl I had called to meet with me after today’s classes ended…?’ Wondered Maleshia, bewildered to see that girl on the stage, as she had thought that this girl was just a little fortunate commoner, turns out she was way more than that.

It was then that her eyes caught sight of someone else…

“Huh?”

Making her eyes widen before she frowned, uncertainty clouding her eyes.

‘Is he really that guy…?’

She tried to recall the guy who was snoring in the class, and she was pretty sure that his hair had the same cut and color, but it was not good to judge the guy with just that alone.

But what if he really was the same guy? Was he really a top scorer? Maybe she was misjudging him then. Maybe he wasn’t sleeping because he wanted to, but maybe because she was tired…

“What’s wrong, Maleshia?”

The next second, however, Maleshia’s body jerked in disgust as she heard the voice and felt the hand on her shoulder, but she held it in and tilted her shoulder with a forced smile.

“It’s nothing, Sir Alan.” Spoke Maleshia, turning to look at the fancy-dressed second-year teacher who was, for some reason, standing among the first-year teachers, but no one was saying anything to it. And how could they? He wasn’t someone any first-year teacher would want to provoke…

“Why are you being so distant, Maleshia? I was just inquiring about your well-being.” Spoke the guy with a sly smirk on his face, tilting his head, making his long black hair move aside, his hand going for Maleshia’s shoulder again, making her grit her teeth.

In the end, even as the guy held her shoulder, groping it with obvious intention, “Thank you for your consideration” was all she could say, lowering her head with drops of tears being held back from falling to the ground.

The other first-year teachers simply ignored this, apologizing to Maleshia in their hearts, wishing that she just quit the school, as that was the only way she would be able to save herself.

This little episode, however, wasn’t noticed by anyone other than the first-year teachers. The others were more focused on the students on the stage, cheering for the ones they supported.

Those 10 were still new, and no one knew their abilities, but unlike what is said in philosophies, books are judged by covers, so the ones that looked tough were gaining more support. Especially the girls.

But not everyone was looking at all of the participants. There were people who were looking at only some particular ones, scanning them, and observing them; one such person was Alex.

He had his focus fixed on three people: Keryu Ivanovich, the blonde-haired guy from Maleshia’s class, who himself was staring at Alex with a serious look in his olive eyes, and the last one…

‘Hey there,’ smiled Alex, speaking in his mind, staring at Mira, who, unlike how she was supposed to be, was smiling back at Alex, trying her best to not break her smile. Her blue eyes, shining more than ever, fixed on Alex without blinking.

It was clear that she was happy—very much so—after just getting to see Alex.

It had been a while since she had met Alex after all, and although it was just a month, she felt like it was a very long time.

As days passed, her dependence on Alex only kept increasing and not decreasing. The more she stayed close to Alex, the more she could feel things she had never felt before, making the strange desire to snuggle close to Alex always fill her mind.

The problem, however, was that she could never muster enough courage to do it…

Right now, after not being able to see him for more than a month, she was feeling very jumpy on the inside, as she could finally feel Alex again—she could finally stay close to him for longer.

Alex, however, remained oblivious to all of this. He did know that Mira had this strange attachment to him, and she was very clingy, but the reason for that was still unknown. Even Sophie didn’t know what was wrong with Mira.

[She wasn’t supposed to be like this in the original novel… but well, there was no you in the original novel, so we can’t really be sure as well…]

This was Sophie’s reply, and since then, both Alex and Sophie had thought of many things, only to shoot down each other’s ideas by some hole in it until they decided to just go with the flow.

Alex, for now, observed three of the six most broken-power-holding characters in the whole novel until the chapter Sophie had read.

Just like in the novel, all three of them had joined the academy at the same time.

Mira and Ben Dover, the guy with blonde hair, were both someone who had special condition related to their physiques, forcing them to awaken two years late, but Keryu, the transmigrated villain-type protagonist of the novel, did so just because he wanted to enter the academy at the same time as them.

The funny thing was that, right now, all three of these people were looking at Alex. One with feelings she herself wasn’t able to discover yet, one with caution, and the last one with confusion and uncertainty.

Alex, after a while, shook his head, bringing his head back to the moment and moving the mic closer to his lips.

The strongest ability users or not, they weren’t anything special as of now. All three of them were not much stronger than the other rankers, as none of them were to be looked down upon; all of them were major characters of the novel.

In the early stage, they would be strong enough to give those three a challenge. So he quickly turned toward the audience and began speaking.

“Here we have them, the top 10 scorers of the first-year tests this year.” His voice was heard, calm and slow, but the moment he started speaking, the colosseum got enveloped in the same silence as before, making some high-ranking nobles and royals wonder if Alex really was just a kid.

This type of momentum and commanding air surrounding Alex was something even kings rarely have…

“All of them are going to be fighting for a position in the student council, which would bring them profits, but before we move on to the fight, let me tell you all something about the participants.”

Alex’s voice echoed through the colosseum, and all who heard it listened quietly to him with rapt attention, not wanting to miss a word spoken by him as many didn’t know the names of everyone among the top 10, including the teachers, because Alex had made it so.

He didn’t want people to know who was who, as he knew that would’ve been bad for some of them—the ones who were from common birth. They would be looked down upon by the audience, and that could hit their confidence, which Alex didn’t want.

Alex wanted them to be seen as strong and dependable people regardless of their race and birth.

Or so was what Alex’s actions would seem to old schemers sitting in the compartments, but they would never be able to judge Alex’s real motive as it was way too simple to even be a scheme.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep