An Extra's POV: My Three Fiancees Hate Me
Chapter 99: Punishment

Chapter 99: Punishment

The rays of sunlight streamed through the glass windows and onto Riven’s face. His eyes flickered and opened.

"Urghh," he groaned, trying to stretch his hands to rub his eyes, but he felt something on his right hand.

"Huh?"

He turned his head and looked at his arm, only to find Noel asleep while on his hands.

"This would have been far better if it was a girl, but I’ll take what I can get," Riven said. He decided to not wake his brother and simply looked around. He was in the infirmary.

"This academy works fast, a wound like mine would normally kill someone," Riven said.

As he lay there, he recalled the notification that he had gotten before he passed out and tried to open the system screen.

[System is upgrading, 42 hours left]

"Huh? An upgrade? When did that happen? And when was this a feature of the system?" he wondered. The book had never said anything about a system upgrade when Lance used his own system.

"Whatever it is, I’m sure I’ll find out when the system comes online."

"Seems you have woken up." The nurse walked up to him. She glanced at Noel, who was lying down there.

"He has been here since you were brought in yesterday," she said and walked to his side. "This should be our second meeting, right? Last time you came to see that boy. I guess I might as well introduce myself now," she said. She placed her hand on his head and used healing on him; a green glow covered her hand.

Riven felt his body get better and more comfortable. "My name is Ariel," she said with a smile.

"Your name has gone around the entire academy. First years defeat a demonized that appeared in the academy—Riven and Noel," she said. She took her hand away from his head and stood straight.

"So what happened after the demonized was killed?" he asked.

"I can answer that." Quin suddenly appeared there. He walked to the side of the bed and leaned on the wall.

Riven shook his hands to forcefully wake Noel up. He didn’t want to hear it alone when Mr. Quin was here.

But after a few seconds of shaking, Noel refused to move.

’Is this dude serious? There is no way he is sleeping through all that shaking,’ Riven thought.

"I know you aren’t sleeping, Noel Von Grave," Quin said. Noel slowly lifted his head and let out a chuckle.

"Go easy on the kids, Quin. They have been through enough already," Ariel said.

"I’m not going to do anything to them for now. After all, they took down a demonized. That alone is worthy of recognition and reward.

The demonized have become such a big issue that the kingdom rewards anyone that takes even one down," Quin said.

"You mean all the warriors and mages that take down demonized in the war get rewards?" Noel asked.

"Yes, they do, but the question is, can they? It takes well over ten normal knights to take down a single demonized, and elite knights need at least three to four people," Quin said.

Riven already knew that demonized were very strong, but what Quin had just described was not what the story said. In the story, it took two elite knights and five normal knights to kill one.

’What’s wrong? This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. The demonized aren’t supposed to be that strong,’ he pondered.

"You both took down one mutated one. It would take elite knights who know how to use mana to take them down.

The academy had already prepared your rewards. We would have given Noel his own, but the academy decided to wait till you woke up.

Because of what happened, classes were cancelled for the rest of the week. The instructors have been called in as well; we are discussing what had happened.

The appearance of a demonized in the academy means our system has been compromised, and somewhere in this academy is someone that knows what had happened," Quin said.

’If only they knew that Sally was one of them. But even if I told them, there is no way they would believe me—a student—over a teacher that has been here for years and has many merits from the kingdom.

Besides, that demon lady had enough people and resources to bury me in a second. So until I have concrete evidence that she is the one, I can’t tell anyone,’ Riven thought.

"Because of you two, the demonized didn’t have the opportunity to kill anyone. Because if he had taken one life, it would have grown stronger—almost double in strength.

Demonized get stronger as they consume. That’s one of the reasons they are terrifying," Quin said.

’Wait, what? That wasn’t in the book. Demonized didn’t get stronger from eating. What the hell is happening? Frozen Fish didn’t write anything like that,’ Riven thought.

"Do you mean their strength keeps doubling after every person they consume?" Riven asked.

"No, the effect of eating steadily drops after the first consumption, but they have already tasted power, and they want more. So they keep going and going, eating more and more," Quin said.

"The stronger the humans they consume, the more they grow in strength," Ariel chipped in. "If they had eaten either of you with your enormous strength and mana, it would have been bad," she added.

"Riven, all this aside, from what I know, you ran out of the cafeteria during a fight and got to the training ground, as if you knew something was about to happen.

I don’t mean to suspect you, but I am in charge of the investigation, and I want to figure out what happened," Quin said.

’Shit, what do I even say now?’

"Uhm, it’s the mana. I don’t know why, but I felt a sudden surge in mana, but it felt unusual, so I rushed to check it out.

When I looked at the fight, it felt out of place. Then I felt the mana, and I immediately knew that it must have been a distraction for something else," Riven said. It wasn’t a lie, but a heavily sugar-coated truth.

"Hmmm, I see. Then you must have a lot of resonance with mana. If that’s the case, what are you doing as a battle mage?" Quin asked.

"Because I like the sword. I can use magic pretty well, but I didn’t want to follow that path," Riven said.

"Hmm, that much makes sense, because I saw you use a pretty strong spell at the beginning of the fight. Well, either way, that’s fine for now. After all, you risked your life to fight that being and almost died. You are clear of any suspicion," Quin said.

"Thank you," Riven said.

"Now to the issue of your punishment," Quin said. Noel immediately got up and tried to slip out, but he felt Quin’s gaze lock on him, so he froze.

"Regardless of the fact that the both of you defeated a demonized and saved the school a lot, you still went against the rule I gave you—to stick to the basics.

Normally, I would have given a punishment that would hurt a lot, but at the end of the fight, you managed to use the basics to win.

So for your punishment, the both of you will train under me for as long as I see fit. You’ll learn my sword style, the sword style native to the Grimhold clan, as well as my personal style," Quin said.

"Just tell them you want them to be your students, Quin," Ariel said with a smile.

"That’s not it. Their talents will simply waste if they are left to this academy’s curriculum," he said.

"You mean the Royal Academy isn’t good?" she asked, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Teaching large numbers of students will never allow you to push out their true talent. My one-on-one with both boys will make sure their true talent is used," he said and looked at Riven.

"The both of you, that’s your punishment. There is no refusing or thinking about it. I’ll come for you when it’s time to start," he said and walked out. He turned back, looking at them one last time. "You did good," he said and walked away.

"Seems Quin likes you two. It’s really hard for him to take a liking to anyone," she said and left as well.

Immediately the two were gone, the world became heavy, and Noel bowed his head. Riven already knew what was in his brother’s mind, so he spoke first.

"Noel, you did nothing wrong. Your actions were human. I understand why you hesitated, and I hold nothing against you.

The attack I took—I’d take a hundred of that for you without a moment of thought. Because if you died, who would I go out with and banter with?

If you really feel bad for what happened, then let’s get strong together so that nothing like this happens anymore."