“It’s a pleasure to meet you, I am Stein Rodrich of the Rodrich family.”

  Stein approached them, and glanced at Ric before turning his attention towards Yota and said

  “As your friend said, most noble families are more of an organization than a family, but there are few which are different, like the Crown bells for example.”

  Yota was a little happy and asked

  “Oh, whats the difference? Are they like actually a family?”

  Stein nudged his glasses slightly and exclaimed

  “I don’t know about the head of the crown bells or their internal affairs, but there was situation where Melvin Crown bell annihilated the thief guild branch because a member of theirs behaved inappropriately with his sister. Rumor has it that he defeated more than 40 thieves by using their own skills and techniques.”

  Yota was confused and asked

  “The king of chits did that? And Guild…? What’s that?”

  Ric then explained

  “Yota, you know about the Magic Tower, the Tower of Alchemy, the Healers Hall, the Demonic Tower, and the noble families right?”

  Yota answered confidently

  “Yeah, the magic and alchemy tower make devices and hunt demons, the healers heal others and also help in hunting demons, the noble families also hunt demons and…”

  Yota’s tone changed, his expression turned, as if utterly annoyed and disgusted

  “Those ######## demonic tower pieces of ####!, Those ####### and ###### scumbags, they are nothing but #######, their life’s are worth less than a ######## worm, and-“

  Yota was speaking curses unheard of, Ric hastily grabbed Yota’s mouth and stopped him from speaking any further and whispered to him

  “What are you doing! Didn’t you hear the rules before?! You will get punished if someone reports you!”

  Stein was surprised and bamboozled at the same time, he exclaimed

  “Haha… you’re friend has quite the… unique tongue.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Umph! Umph!” Yota grumbled, he removed Ric’s hand and said

  “Yeah, my bad… but why even is there a rule like that?”

  To which Stein answered

  “There are some nobles, who curse and abuse their servants, but if the said abused raises his voice against them, they either eliminate them or cripple them, but-”

  Ric interrupted him and added

  “But if the same thing happens at the Academy, it either ends up as a duel or a hired assassination, done mostly by the noble. Am I right?”

  Stein nudged his glasses, and slightly nodded in agreement of Ric’s statement as he replied

  “Yes, after this rule was established, the assassination cases dropped by approximately Seventy percent, but…”

  He looked at Ric with sharp eyes, and continued

  “May I inquire the source of your knowledge?”

  Ric replied back with a smirk on his face

  “I not obligated to tell you that, am i?”

  To which Stein inquired again

  “You aren’t, but as a fellow student of the academy, we must share and increase our knowledge to grow stronger together. I have also provided you the information your friend didn’t know about, didn’t i?”

  As Ric was about to reply, but Yota interrupted

  “Come on Ric, just tell him you know that from the books of our orphanage.”

  Steins expression changed, his face serious, and his eyes sharply focused as he exclaimed

  “Books? Must be quite the prestigious place to allo-“

  But Ric interrupted him

  “It doesn’t concern you, we are done here, Let’s go Yota”

  Ric turned around and grabbed Yota’s shoulder, Yota became flustered as Ric dragged him away and complained.

  “H-hey Ric its rude to just walk away like this.”

  Stein was looking at Ric trying to take Yota away and shouted

  “I don’t have any ill intentions! I was just asking, so I can visit you guys after graduation!”

  To which Yota whispered to Ric

  “Hey, looks like he wants to be a friend.”

  And Ric replied

  “Shut up Yota, we don’t need a friend like him, and don’t you dare say anything abou-”

  But Yota being himself, ignored Ric and yelled out

  “Hey! We live near the outskirts of sil-“ ?!

  As Yota was about to tell the location of their orphanage, Ric suddenly grabbed Yota’s mouth, and forcefully threw him on the ground. Yota groaned “Ugh!” as he hit the ground, he looked at Ric and exclaimed in anger

  “Hey! What the heck was that for?!”

  Ric looked at Yota straight in the eyes, his expression turned serious, in a daunting tone he said

  “Were you seriously about to reveal the location of our orphanage to everyone by shouting like that?”

  Yota’s eyes widened as it hit him, a silence swept between them and Yota realized that in the spurt of the moment, he was about to possibly make the biggest mistake he ever could. Upon hearing the murmurs of the crowd

  “Sil? Is he talking about silat village?”

  Another stated

  “Nah, its probably silber village.”

  Yota thought raced, he remembered Ric’s words

  “Yeah, Ric told me before how dangerous the nobles can be, but I still…”

  His head drowned in shame and his fists clenched in anger at himself, he lamented his forgetfulness and became apologetic while exclaiming in a timid voice

  “I-I’m sorry.”

  Ric was observing Yota, seeing him in that state, Ric decided to let it go, he sighed “Haa” and scratched his head while saying

  “Well, forget it, come let’s go.”

  He walked away to collect his reward, and Yota slowly followed behind as Stein observed them with a wicked smile on his face, he uttered to himself

  “Everything is just as he said, then that other information must be true as well.”

  He looked at Ric and Yota with a evil grin on his face and muttered

  "Its time to begin!"