For I Am A Side Character - 73: Sasha Questions yet again.
Power. Its unclear where Soril stands when he is capable of feats such as killing a High-ranking demon by his own or raiding an entire S-ranked dungeon for his own…
But its clear to his own view that he is much stronger than any of the current characters of the story. Even to Audrey Yagami, he now surpasses her in every turn, either it was speed or strength or even skill, he is far beyond what she can handle.
But since strength always invites danger in this world, Soril made it a point to to keep his power hidden.
At this point in time, Soril realizes that to keep himself away from prying eyes, he should keep his strength hidden in some way or the other. That is why before his test results was revealed in the ranking list after the midterm exams, he used God’s Will to craft a certain limit to his body.
Like a chain that locks his strength in place to keep anyone from being suspicious, he put two layers of seals on his body.
The first seal containing the A-rank strength he held and the second seal which holds his S-rank strength.
And like so, no one would bat an eye to his direction if he were to display his strength.
So currently, he now holds the strength of a B-ranked hunter.
So when the time came when the hunter’s watch was able to showcase his results towards Sgt. O’riley on the midterms, they were non the wiser to see that he has grown to be a outstanding B-ranked. And although it was clear that this was a great achievement for a first year student in the midterms, it was nothing compared to the results shown by the other three characters who surpassed him in ways other than strength.
Jessabelle Surpassed him in magic.
Jason Surpassed him in Power and Skill.
And Audrey surpassed him in Speed and technique.
That was why he was placed on being fourth overall.
And he planned to stay that way.
Now, at the last week before the student’s 2-week break arrives, Soril continued his days like he usually would.
There in the library, as he was looking into the books to answer an assignment left by Professor Morrison, all of a sudden, a certain student came by.
A certain perceptive little club member named Sasha Truth. With her signature orange hair and blue eyes, she came into the library looking personally for the top students who were able to gain attention from the public.
“Hmm, I never expected that you would be here, 4th placed ranker, Soril Remus.” she said as she had this confident smile on her face.
“…its you again, what do you want this time?” asked Soril. This wasn’t the first time she came to meet him or the second, if anything she comes into his space whenever he was alone in the academy. With no one to disturb their conversation, it was perfect for Sasha to get some truth out of the person in front of her. Especially with Jessica out of the picture.
“Oh nothing, I’m just here to get your comments about your rank on today’s midterms.” she said as she pulled out her notepad.
“What’s there to say? I’m really surprised that I got that far in life…I don’t think I can move on forward anymore than I could.” said Soril.
“Hmm, your placing a lot of limits on you, don’t you think you can surpass those three if you tried hard?” asked Sasha.
“I don’t know…from where I’m standing, a class C student like me has nothing to compare to someone like the top three who are all at class A.” he said.
“Are you demeaning the position because you were put in Class C?” she asked.
“No, I’m just saying that my limits are clear for me.” he said.
“Hmm, but that’s not what Jessica said…or even Jessabelle herself.” said Sasha as she pulled out some names that got his attention.
“…What?”
“Before I went to you, I approached two of the hunters who you defeated…and based off of their comments, its clear to say that you’re pretty respected.” she said.
“What did they say in particular?” he asked.
“Although it wasn’t really word for word, but the context is the same.” she said.
“What is?”
“They said that you’re holding back.” said Sasha.
“…Hmm, I don’t think that’s true. You already saw it at the post, I’m in fourth place. I gave my all in my current state.” he said.
“That is a lie. It doesn’t show on the actual fights I saw you with Jessica…and if you want more proof, I also interviewed your friends as well. They too had the same opinion.” she said.
“…”
“So, what do you think?” she asked.
“What?..what are you implying?”
“Well, Do you think you have what it takes to take on one of the top three students head on?” she asked as she had this skeevy smile put on her facade.
“Is this what you were planning to do? You wanted me to invite a fight my way? Why?”
“Oh its nothing, I’m just as curious as anyone else is. How does a person who is highly evaluated handle someone who is evaluated even higher than he is?”
“…You are crazy, and I don’t have any comments on that question.” said Soril as he stood up from the table.
“Would it interest you to know that the top three students as well as Conner O’niel are interested in having to fight you?”
“.…No, it doesn’t interest me in the slightest.” said Soril as he started walking away.
“Do I take that as way of you saying that they are not a challenge for you?”
“No. Don’t twist my words Sasha. I only came into this academy to study, not to fight some childish invitations.” said Soril as he walked out of the library.
‘Hmph, how boring…to think that this was his view on the matter. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I can always put all his words into the paper and it’ll be based on how the people react to it. Either way, my job here is done.’ she thought as she also exited the library.
The next day…
As Soril was training with Jessica on Sgt. O’riley’s time, where with the many obstacles put on the training ground, many were busy.
But on their time, as they trained, suddenly from the corner of Soril’s eye, he found a certain character walking towards the training grounds.
‘Hmm? What is he doing here?’ he thought as from his gaze, he suddenly meet eyes with this student.
From the distance, that student only ever remained staring from the sidelines as he continued to work.
Until finally when the course was done, Soril made his way to rest on the benches. But even after this, from there, the gaze from that student never left. Despite his uncomfortable staring, Soril simply let him be as it didn’t seem to matter.
But soon, as he was wiping the sweat off from his skin, he noticed that all of a sudden, this student was found standing in front of him.
“!?” and to his surprise, the student simply smiled and held out his hand for a shake.
“Hello, you must be Soril Remus.” he said with a gentle soft smile.
“…Hi.” as Soril was hesitant, he slowly took this student’s hand and shook it out of caution.
“I’m sorry for meeting you at this untimely manner, but I really must speak to you.” he said.
“…” but to this request, Soril felt something in the eyes of that student and something else that made him wary.
“…What’s wrong?” asked the student.
“…your hand.” as Soril said this, he found that the student’s hand was on his right side of his stomach. Its position was touching his uniform out to a point that it made Soril think that he was going to throw an attack at a point blank range.
Nervous about this, he turned to the student and gaze down on his intentions, but before he could, the student actually went through with his position.
“!?”
Like a cannon being fired at point-blank range, Soril received such a powerful strike to his side that it made him surge with pain.
And from it, he lost all forms of balance and was thrown to the edge of the walls of the training grounds.
*Boom!*
With such an attack that strong, it caused a ruckus that caught everyone’s attention. Especially with the teachers who went and quickly tried to see what was happening.
Miss Fien and Sgt. O’riley quickly leaped into the scene to find that Soril was found standing with a major wound on his side.
“Khk…damn it.” as Soril felt such a pain from such a focused area, he could feel as if his entire right-side organs had been jumbled, mixed and crushed until they were nothing but mush.
“What’s going on?” asked Sgt. O’riley as he came into the scene.
“I’m really sorry about this. I got too excited.” said the student as he came close to Soril. And from his excitement, a calm but devious smile was put out.
But before he could come any closer, out of nowhere, Jessica came from above and tried to stab this student from the back of his head.
“Rahh!”
But before she could, Miss Fien came and stopped Jessica from going wild on her attack.
Miss Fien could see just how maddened Jessica was…and from her directed anger, this student was clearly the one at fault.
“…” the student was speechless…but he soon turned to Soril and bowed his head.
“I apologize, I don’t know what got over me.” said the Student.
“If I know it right, you must be John Bishop from Class B.” said Sgt. O’riley as he recognized this student.
“Yes, that is my name. Again, I am very sorry, I don’t know why my body moved like it did.” said John who mowed his head apologetically.
With hair as white as snow, with eyes as yellow as the sun and skin as brown as caramel, the student who stood before Soril was none other than John Bishop. A known religious student and a character of the story. Wearing a rather peculiar set of a black uniform and a pair of crosses on his neck, John showed a humble presence in from of Soril despite his recent actions.
“From what I know, Class B should be on their history class right about now. So why are you here?” asked Sgt. O’riley.
“I do hope that you would forgive me, but I would like to speak with Soril in private.” he said as he turned to Soril with the same unsettling gaze as before.
“…haa…haa.” soon, Soril’s heavy breath softens and to it, he turned to Jessica who was not yet calm about John’s apology.
“…Jessica, its okay. Im fine.” he said as he wanted to assure Jessica’s worries.
“But what about him! He attacked you out of nowhere!” she said in rage.
“Its okay, I’ll deal with it.” he said.
“What? Wha- Are you going to do this again? Are you not going to be mad that someone attacked you without reason? Is this going to be Just like what Jessabelle did a few days ago? After punching you for no goddam reason, you’re just going to apologize and let it go?” she asked as she soon turned all her attention to Soril.
“…I am mad…and I’m willing to strike him in the same manner, if he allows me to…” Soril tried to say this since it seemed like Jessica wont let this one go so easily like the last time. So he proposed an idea.
And to it, he waited for John’s reaction.
“Ah…um, s-sure, if you’re willing.” said John as he was now nervous about what was to happen.
“…thanks, I’m really sorry about this one. But she won’t let it go if I don’t hit you back.” he said.
“Ah…Y-yeah.” as John accepted, Soril approached him upfront and placed his hand on his side.
But before he could proceed, Miss Fien called out to them from stop this nonsense.
“o-oy, What are you guys doing!? Sergeant, why are you not stopping them?!” she asked as she was confused.
“Don’t butt in Miss Fien. When a woman calls for a request from her man, it is the man’s duty to comply.” said Sgt. O’riley as he had this stoic face put on.
“What?” and to it, Miss Fien was just as confused as John was.
And so, without anyone to stop them, Soril continued on.
He placed his hand on John side and he whispered into his ear.
“I’m going to do it at the exact same force…so be ready.” he said. But in his tone, a tinge of cold bloodlust was put into it.
And with it, with no caution whatsoever, John suddenly felt pain arrive to his side.
Like a firecrackers that exploded, John felt like he screamed for an entire hour from the pain. But in reality, nothing happened.
“…”
And from this simple attack came whiteness…redness…blackness and all the color once again.
“…!” and from it, John awoke from his unconscious state and he found himself stuck to the wall.
In the distance, he could see that Soril was out far, waving his hand.
“…ahh..” all he could do was moan as the pain slowly started to surge on his body.
And from it, Soril turned to Jessica.
“Happy?” he asked.
“Not really, I’m still mad.” she said.
“…really?”
“Yes. So pamper me when we get home.” she said.
“…” Soril couldn’t do anything but blush in that suggestion.
Soon enough, John got off the wall he was stuck to and he approached Soril once more.
“A-are you willign ot talk now?” he asked as his body still shook with pain.
“Yeah.” said Soril.
And to it, John walked out of the training grounds first and Soril followed.
On their way, John spoke of his experience.
“A-are you sure you struck me in the same manner?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Hnn…then how come I’m still in pain, while y-you’re out here walking like you’re healthy as a fiddle.”
“…I’m ranked higher than you for a reason.” he said as he smirked and followed John.
‘Oh literal God…what did I get myself into?’ thought John as he was sweating in fear.