Chapter 44: Conflicts within the academy [2]   Inside a dark and damp room, a young individual kneeled on one leg on the floor.

"Matriarch the preparations are complete, the bait has been thrown"

Lifting his head up, a red throne met his sight. Besides the red throne, two large ferocious dog-like creatures sat on the ground. Their eyes were of a deep shade of red, and their teeth were extremely sharp causing his blood to freeze.

Sitting neatly on the red thorny throne, was a gorgeous woman. She was wearing a gorgeous long red dress, whose hem was beautified with marvelous drawings and patterns. Her dress was a deep shade of red and showed off her exquisite body. Her black hair gently fell all the way from her shoulders to her waist. Her red, succulent lips had a cold smile as she tapped the armchair of her throne.

"…good"

Her enchanting voice that sounded crisp and pleasant traveled to the young individuals ears causing him to fall into a slight daze.

Looking at her, the young individual couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva as he tried his best to calm his raging heart.

His eyesight slightly lingered on her gorgeous gown that emphasized her perfect figure. Her sexy figure was extremely charming that it could make any men's heart pound harder. her bare feet seemingly made of porcelain and flawless further increased her sexiness. However if not for the two black horns on her head he would've mistaken her for a human.

Realizing that he had been staring for too long, the young individual forcefully looked down on the ground as cold sweat dripped from his back. Though he couldn't deny that the figure before him was extremely enchanting, if by chance he got on the wrong side of her…death would be the best outcome.

"If it weren't for that idiot Everblood we wouldn't have needed to push our plans this far ahead"

Pouting slightly, the demoness calmly petted the two dogs before her. Soon silence enveloped the surroundings.

"Matriarch when should we initiate the plan?"

Breaking the silence the young youth spoke.

Thinking for a bit, the 'Matriarch' looked at the boy before her before saying

"…mhhh, let's take it slowly. Though Everblood failed we still have some time. You should first try to capture our target"

"As you wish Matriarch"

Nodding his head, the young boy placed his left hand on his right peck and bowed.

"Good boy"

Smiling slightly, the Matriarch looked at the young handsome boy before her.

'Elijah Turner'

That was the name of the young boy before her.

Though she was forced to make a pact with him due to certain circumstances, after having contracted with him for over a year she had taken a liking to him. Though he was not very talented, he was very obedient…and she liked that a lot

Pausing slightly, the Matriarch looked at the young boy as an overbearing pressure bore down on him causing his legs to slightly falter.

"…ah, but I do hope you won't fail me. We can't have another setback interfering with our big plan"

"U-nderstood"

Struggling to move or speak, it took the boy all his willpower to agree with the Matriarch

"ku ku ku, what a cute little boy"

Laughing lightly, the pressure soon disappeared and the young boy was finally able to move freely.

"Here"

Throwing a purple fruit at the boy who was panting heavily, the Matriarch amusingly looked at him who was desperately reaching for the fruit.

"T-thank you!"

Excitedly grabbing the fruit, the boy instantly devoured it.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Soon black veins emerged all over his body, as he squirmed on the ground. His muscles spasmed intensely and his nails grew longer and then returned to normal.

Demon fruit

That was the name of the fruit that Elijah had just consumed.

Because he was not very talented. In order for him to not expose his identity, he had to consume the demon fruit.

The demon fruit, previously known as the world fruit, was a fruit harvested from the world tree which used to belong to the elves. After having conquered the elves' home planet, the demons successfully managed to corrupt the world tree turning it into the demon tree which bore fruit to the demon fruits.

Upon consumption, the demon fruit allowed lower-ranked demons' bloodlines to become purer. That alone went to show how important the fruit was for the demons.

With it, the demon clans managed to drastically increase their strength.

Another function that the demon fruit had was that it allowed contracted humans, villains, to have a boost in talent. Moreover, it also strengthened the bond between the parties. If someone like Elijah whose talent was on the lower end of the spectrum consumed the fruit, then his appearance not only improved but also didn't change like it was supposed to after having made the contract.

Because of the high demand and limited supply, the demon fruit was extremely sought after by the demons. The fact that they were giving it to Elijah went to show how important his mission was.

"Alright you may go"

"Thank you"

Bowing once again, the young boy left the room. Soon after he left, a shadow materialized beside the Matriarch. Because it was dark, its features were hidden preventing anyone but the Matriarch from seeing how it looked like.

"Are you sure it's okay to let him do the mission alone?"

Smiling lightly, the Matriarch looked at where the young boy was and said

"Well if he isn't capable of this much…He's better off dead, though it would be a problem if he died after having invested so much in him"

…

-Riiiiip

Opening the large box that had arrived early in the morning, I excitedly looked through the contents.

"As expected of Melissa"

The box was filled with potions.

Only three days had passed since I requested Melissa to make me the potions, and yet in that short amount of time, she managed to fulfill my request and sent me all of the potions I commissioned her to make for me.

…honestly, I was impressed.

Though what was less impressive was the fact that I had to fork out a total of 6 million U just for the raw materials alone.

But looking at the high-quality potions in the box, the pain I felt from spending so much money instantly disappeared. Soon, I started taking out all of the potions from the box.

"sixteen [Mana recovery potions], eight [Strenght enhancement potions], eight [stamina recovery potions], nine…"

Counting all the potions to make sure nothing was missing, I organized the potions in different batches, each on the type of potions they were.

Because they were all transparent and only had labels with Melissa's writing if I didn't sort them out I could potentially consume the wrong one.

…well, yes I did in fact expect potions to have all different types of colors, but I was wrong. Reality was harsh and all potions looked like water, moreover, they came inside of test tubes and not some fancy flask like in games.

…scam I say!

After sorting out the potions and making sure nothing was missing, I stood up and prepared to attend classes.

Though I couldn't wait to try a potion right now, I could only hold my impulse back and go to class. When taking a potion, if one wasn't focusing enough, then they might hurt themselves. That's why it was better for me to consume them once I had time to spare.

"hm…what am I missing?"

Looking around the room, I noticed my mp3 on my desk and immediately took it with me.

These past few days I had cemented my position as the weirdo in the class.

Not only did the way I trained looked ridiculous to everyone in the class, including teachers, but I also had no friends. A month in, and everyone in the class had pretty much formed their own clique or had at least one friend, yet I didn't even have a person to talk to let alone call an acquaintance. I was a total anti-social loner in the eyes of everyone in my class.

To make matters worse, now that I was using an ancient-looking device accompanied by wired earphones, which had gone extinct since three decades ago, my position as the class weirdo became as stable as Mount Tai.

…Honestly, I wasn't too sure how to feel about this. To me, I looked absolutely normal, but well…I couldn't just go to them and tell them I reincarnated into a novel and back in my previous world this was normal, could I?

Sighing at my miserable life, I took the keys and made my way to the door.

-Click!

Closing the door to my room, I put my earphones on and hurried my steps.

…couldn't afford to be late, else I could kiss graduating goodbye.

…

Today's class lecture had ended later than usual, and after being subjected to Donna's cold treatment I was finally able to free myself from class.

Though I could barely feel my legs, I still had to drag my body to my elective class. After the elective was over, I had to do my daily workout. Just thinking about that made me depressed. If I knew this would happen, I would've asked Melissa to make more [Stamina enhancement] potions. My shoes had already started wearing out from how much I was overworking myself

…In any case, I was currently heading to the elective clubroom. Perhaps because I tended to have bad luck when meeting the main characters, but…Amanda was walking a few meters ahead of me.

Being behind her I could instantly catch a whiff of her rose-like scent. It was a bit of an awkward walk as we were heading in the same direction without speaking to each other. From another person's point of view, it would've looked like I was stalking her. I mean she was stunning.

Fortunately, we soon arrived inside the classroom and sat in the same seats as we did in the previous class.

By the time we arrived, Elijah Turner, the club president, was already standing on the podium going through some papers. Carefully flipping the pages, he seemed to be organizing today's lecture notes.

Not long after, the room was filled to the brim as the rest of the students entered the class. However contrary to the previous class where everyone sat wherever they wanted, today's class was separated into three different groups, first, second and third years.

'…It seems like the relationship between juniors and seniors was starting to get progressively sour with each passing day.'

I thought as I looked at how the first years were being avoided by the senior years.

At eight on the dot, Elijah began his lecture.

"Good afternoon, everyone. It seems like a lot of you ha…"

As he talked, most of the stuff coming from his mouth went into one ear and left from the other. I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to his idle chatter.

Fortunately, I had learned my lesson and held my yawn back. Though the fact that tears started streaming from my cheeks after ten minutes didn't help me hide the fact that I wanted to yawn.

"Today we will talk about the plant kingdom. As most of you know, once mana entered our planet not only did we and beasts evolved but plants did too. Essentially all living beings on this planet started to evolve…Though most plants have no sentience don't look down on plants as some of them evolved into terrifying things that even SS ranked heroes would want to avoid at all costs. For example, if we look at some of the most powerful plants out there, the tree ents, they had evolved from regular trees to A rank monsters that when in groups could cause trouble to some of the most experienced heroes out there. This goes to…"

Though I knew most of the stuff I still paid attention to it as it wasn't as detailed as the information that Elijah was teaching.

"…have you guys understood?"

Looking around the class, Elijah repeatedly asked questions to every student to make sure they were paying attention. Looking around and seeing that everyone nodded, Elijah smiled in satisfaction and said

"Alright then, I guess it's time we call it quits for today"

The lecture had lasted a total of one hour. Unexpectedly, there was a lot to learn like the weakness of some plants, which areas to avoid, and the difference between physical plants and nonphysical plants, e.g. ones that attacked directly and the ones that used poison. I learned in detail about things I had neglected to explain in my novel, all the while I watched cute female students throwing flirtatious glances at Elijah.

Rejoicing at the fact that I no longer had to listen to him, I prepared to leave the class but before I could leave I heard his voice addressing the whole class.

"If anyone is interested since today is our first lecture I will be hosting an after-party. It'll be great if you can come!"

"…eh?"

This wasn't in the novel

There was no such thing as an afterparty in the novel at this point in time.

"…hm? Amanda is not rejecting it?"

Amanda who was usually indifferent to everything nodded at Elijah and verbally confirmed her participation.

What's going on?

Wasn't she supposed to be indifferent to everything? What happened?

As I was looking at Amanda with a stupefied look, I didn't notice that two eyes were sharply looking in my direction. By the time I noticed I found Elijah standing two meters away from me smiling.

"Student are you interested in joining us?"

"…err, sure?"

"Great, we will be leaving in an hour so make sure you go back to your dorm and get ready"

Smiling, Elijah turned around and talked to the other students.

To be honest I agreed to join them on an impulse as I was starting to get worried for Amanda. A scenario that had never happened in the novel was starting right now.

I have a feeling that as of today my peaceful low-key life was going to take a turn for the worst…