74 Chapter 74: Dinner Party

Fortunately, not many people glanced in our direction. We were practically ants to them. Insignificant, just crawling by ourselves in the background and not worthy of their attention. If we crawled near them, they would notice us and take offense, and just like normal humans, swat us away because they found us annoying. Otherwise, they couldn't be bothered to deal with the likes of us.

It felt reassuring in a way. You know, unlike typical Chinese or whatever stories where upper-class elites looked for trouble for no reason other than to create conflict with the protagonist, people in reality tended to mind their own business because they didn't want trouble. You probably had one or two who looked upon us with distaste, but they weren't stupid enough to tell that to our faces. These were civilized, educated elites we were talking about here, not unrealistic barbaric martial artists who strut around in town demanding that commoner's prostate themselves and started picking fights or killing people if they didn't. Like who does that? Seriously?

Surrounded by my fellow members of Ultimate Outcast Society, we then proceeded to the food table. By now, more students had arrived, and the main hall of Alicia's mansion was filled out with what seemed like hundreds of people. If I wasn't mistaken, the Black Roses alone had about a hundred members (though it had been whittled down after the casualties they had taken during their missions). The other Great Societies such as the Holy Saints Society were here too, thus adding to the numbers present, but it seemed they too had suffered some losses during the months of missions.

However, far from being somber with grief, the atmosphere of the dinner banquet was surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable. The main hall was decorated with chandeliers, ribbons and accessories, and I could hear gentle, soothing music in the background.

"Oh!"

Wang Fei perked up when he caught a whiff of the food. Our five-man gang then proceeded to a super long table filled with various delicacies.

"That looks great!" Harvey added enthusiastically, his mouth watering.

"Let's dig in!" Wang Fei exclaimed in delight.

"Why hasn't anyone started eating yet?" Stan asked with a frown. He wasn't completely accurate – quite a few students had already helped themselves to the food, but they were far and few in between. Most of the participants were more interested in socializing than feeding themselves. Stan seemed puzzled. "The food looks so good!"

"Yeah!" Harvey agreed, and shrugged. "They seem more interested in talking than eating."

Which sort of made sense, given how the purpose of this party wasn't the free food (since they were rich, upper-class elites, they didn't need to scrimp and save like we poor people did). The hot topic in the party seemed to be this year's tournament.

Actually, that was the only thing I heard.

"I think the representatives this year will mostly be from either Black Roses or Holy Saints. Our academy doesn't really have many promising candidates, other than Jie Bing from Aurora Society. But Aurora only has him, and it's more of a team battle."

"What about Mad Cat? I think they won't be a bad choice. They have several promising members this year. If Instructor Feng Hai is here to teach us, he'll probably be able to improve them tremendously as well."

"What about the Prodigy Society? They aren't too bad. I heard each of their members have special abilities."

Black Roses, Holy Saints and Super Power Societies were three of the four Great Societies in Jing Tian Academy, and as such constituted the core of our school. The fourth Great Society belonged to the research types, and as much as research type societies were prestigious because of their importance to the development of an academy's resources, training programs, equipment, armaments and organization, they fell a bit short when it came to tournaments.

Furthermore, it seemed that this year, the Global Federation had decided to change things up and emphasize more on team-based matches. Though there still would be solo matches, it wasn't wise to depend solely on a single individual. Presently, there was a rush through the societies to come up with skilled squads capable of coordination and strategy. Especially since there would be a ton of elites participating this year, the pressure on Jing Tian Academy to perform had increased immensely.

From what I heard, rumors had it that Feng Hai had proposed a quota, instructing the representatives of the academy to draw up a shortlist containing ten students. While it would be easy to just put the top ten students in the current rankings, the rankings were always in flux, meaning people shifted in and out of the top ten literally everyday. Furthermore, with the focus on team-based matches this year, there was also a strong need to ensure the ten chosen could work well together. Having ten powerful individuals doing their own thing (five of them were substitutes, though) would be detrimental, no matter how strong or talented each of them was.

Fortunately, not everyone was talking about the tournament. While the topic certainly occupied the attention of the majority of the guests present, a few decided to relax, luxuriating in the soothing atmosphere.

"Richie! And…everyone!"

Troy King waved at us as he lumbered across the room, with a girl on his hand. I recognized her as Antonia, his girlfriend. In contrast to Troy's dark skin, she was Hispanic, with olive flesh and curly hair. Today, she was dressed in a white gown rather than the usual gray uniform.

"Troy!" I greeted him. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Hey, my society's the one organizing this. Of course I'll be obligated to attend." Troy pulled a face. "As much as I abhor this getup…"

Antonia scowled and wagged her finger at him. "Come now, Troy. I told you to stop being so antisocial. Mix around with people more often."

"You know I hate people," Troy complained. When Antonia's brow furrowed deeper, he hastily added, "with a few exceptions. You know I love you, honey."

"Then put up with this for my sake, please."

"…okay." Troy swallowed, visibly uncomfortable, then turned to me. "Hey, Richie. I heard you helped out some of my society members the other day."

"Huh?"

"He sure did!"

We turned at the familiar voice, and caught sight of Elliot, Nicholas, Jin Hao, Aoi and a bunch of other Black Roses coming over. I recognized them from being part of the group I assisted against the Fiery Ape a few days ago.

"Good to see you guys are all right." I nodded at Jin Hao. "How's the leg?"

"Fine. Teacher Cure helped heal it." Jin Hao grinned. "Thanks for the help. If it weren't for you, we would be in trouble."

"Ha ha!" Troy chuckled, though he was for some reason trying to distance himself from the group. Antonia didn't look pleased and she had a hand clamped on his arm to prevent him from escaping. "That's Richie for you!"

"I did what anyone else would have done," I replied honestly. Now it was my turn to feel uncomfortable because Harvey, Wang Fei and Stan were all staring at me with admiring eyes.

"We should work together sometime. Both Ultimate Outcasts and Black Roses." Dong Fang Yue Chu's eyes were shining at the prospect. He glanced at the three first year students. "Hmm, maybe next year. But we can arrange something, I'm sure."

"I would be happy to work with Richard again," Elliot agreed. He grinned at Dong Fang Yue Chu. "Mind giving him to Black Roses?"

"Hell, no! He's our ace!" Dong Fang Yue Chu snapped. "And besides, that witch Miranda doesn't want him, right?"

"Ugh…" Nicholas grimaced. "I'm sure we can persuade her, though. The vice-president isn't very stubborn. She'll come around."

"Speaking of which, where's the prez and vice-prez?" Troy asked.

As if on cue, the lights dimmed and the music suddenly stopped. Everyone glanced up, toward the stairs, and caught sight of a single goddess descending to grace us with her presence.

Wearing a snow-white dinner gown, Alicia smiled as she approached the stunned guests. Playing every bit the beautiful lady host, she did a curtsy and bowed her head slightly.

The crowd immediately broke into applause. They were so taken by her divine beauty that their minds had blanked out, especially the guys. But even the girls found themselves mesmerized by her.

"Thank you all for coming tonight." Alicia swept her gentle gaze across the guests. "I'm very grateful to all of you for accepting my invitation. I hope you will all have a great time tonight. Please don't hold back and enjoy yourselves! Help yourselves to the food, to the drinks, mingle around. Let us all work hard together and strive to be the best we can be. Our Jing Tian Magic Academy…"

"…IS INVINCIBLE!"

Everyone cheered, cutting off Alicia's speech. She nodded, not at all offended. In fact, this was pretty much a tradition – the cheer was shouted every year by academy students whenever we held a huge gathering.

I had to say, nobody seriously believed that unless they were delusional. Jing Tian Academy hadn't been invincible for years.

Even so, Alicia wasn't the type to dampen the spirits. She raised a hand and smiled dazzlingly.

"That's right! At least in the hearts of everyone here, Jing Tian Magic Academy will always be invincible! Let the party begin!"

Then she snapped her fingers. The background was suddenly filled with an energetic sound with fast beats and a quick tempo.

The dance party had finally begun. Not that I cared. It had absolutely nothing to do with me.

As the female hostess for the party, Alicia was obligated to lead the first dance. Her dance partner turned out to be Harrison Reed from Holy Saints. The two of them were currently the representatives for the academy, so in the eyes of everyone, they were the perfect match.

Upon seeing them dance, almost everyone's hearts were set aflame. Guys and girls twirled into the dance floor, linking hands and spinning in delight. Antonia tugged a reluctant Troy into the middle, but he smiled and relented, placing his hand on her waist. Jin Hao was dragged by Aoi, and the Black Roses around us dispersed, with only Elliot remaining. He shrugged.

"They don't know what they're missing," he said as he piled his plate with food.

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The five guys of Ultimate Outcast – including me – looked at each other, grinned and nodded. Then we also began stacking up on tons of food. Probably some people, who weren't too busily dancing, laughed at us, but we didn't care.

As long as we had delicious food in our hands and mouths, we were happy.

*

"This is pretty good," I remarked to Harvey and Wang Fei while chomping on some succulent shrimp that was tarred with tartar sauce.

"Oh! I should try that too!"

"So this is where you were all along."

I looked up when I heard Alicia's voice. She was smiling as she sashayed over, having finished her first dance. Naturally, she wouldn't be short on dance partners, but for some reason she headed straight toward my group.

Accompanying her was a tall and beautiful lady with her hair pinned up, dressed in a glittery pink evening gown. Even though she wasn't wearing her glasses, we could still recognize her as Miranda Miriam. She nodded at us, and tilted her head at Elliot.

"Not going to dance?" she asked. He shrugged.

"If you don't mind being my partner, Vice-President Miranda."

"Oh, no. of course not." Miranda seemed a little taken aback by his bold offer, and the two of them went to the dance floor.

Alicia continued to smile at me as she sidled up to the table to take a plate of dessert. A pudding, from the looks of it. Maybe I should try it.

"What a coincidence. I was just getting a little hungry. How's the food?"

"Pretty good," I replied, and then narrowed my eyes at her small plate. "Will that be enough? You should take more."

Alicia giggled, and scooped a small piece of pudding into her mouth. Even when eating, the goddess was still unbelievably graceful, each of her movements elegant and almost precise. She nibbled at her food delicately, but I wondered if she was actually putting on a show, or if she truly ate like this all the time. If it was the latter, then it must be really tiring.

The three juniors at my side were gaping at her in disbelief, wondering if she was real. They never would have thought they would be this close to Jing Tian Academy's goddess.

"Oh, thanks for the invitation." I remembered my manners. Then I approached the table and began getting a new plate, filling it up with seafood. I wasn't sure how much Alicia ate, so I ensured I didn't take too much. If she liked the delicacies, she could always take more of them later. For now, I took a little of everything and handed it to her. "These are really good."

"I appreciate it." Alicia was amazed, but she giggled again and accepted the plate.

"Nah, you seem busy, so…"

"Yeah, you've helped me a lot," Alicia agreed as she took another bite from the plate I had just given her, exuding the same elegant manner as before.

"President Alicia."

This time, an unfamiliar voice drifted over. We glanced in the direction of the source and saw a burly guy wading toward us, accompanied by an entourage. I recognized the huge guy in the center who had spoken up. He was Lin Zhan Long, a third year student who was currently the vice-president of Holy Saints. He didn't even seem to notice Ultimate Outcasts, and just stopped to speak to Alicia as if we didn't existed.

"If you don't mind, my president would like to invite you over to finalize the list of potential candidates."

"Potential candidates?" Wang Fei repeated.

"The ones for the international tournament in a few months," Dong Fang Yue Chu explained in a whisper.

"Sure." Alicia nodded as she lifted her plate higher, intending to bring it along with her. She turned to me. "Richard, please come along."

"…huh?" Lin Zhan Long's jaw dropped. "Why…?"

Alicia smiled in reply. "Because I intend to recommend Richard for a slot in the reserves, so that he can participate in the tournament."

Although she wasn't exactly speaking very loudly, the moment those words left her mouth, the entire main hall fell silent. Almost everyone turned to stare at her. And then…

"NANI!????"