Chapter 378

378 Infamy and favoritism causes a commotion

“Blemish, go back.” Jun Ye Rim ordered. The floating snake curled into a ball and changed into a wisp. The wisp rushed to her chest and disappeared. It went back inside her Soul Domain.

The elf walked to the far side without minding the gazes of the other students and leaned against the bush wall. She was trying to hide from everyone’s sight again.

Next to show her status window was Clair Reddawn. As she expected, many mocked her for having a cooking class.

Nobles associate her class with a commoner or a servant’s job. A noble doing their servant’s work was humiliating by many’s standards.

After Clair, Nick decided to reveal his stats next, the students moved and opened a path for him to use the Inspection Gemstone.

Vincent, Kazumi, and Lilith felt bad that Nick was being treated like this. Rumors made Nick appear like a beast or a vicious teen. However, it was exaggerated. He only did little as he delivered justice for the mistreated slaves.

Nick walked casually towards the Inspection Gemstone. Unlike his appearance of composure, his heart was racing from the many gazes of disgust, contempt, and mockery. Furthermore, many female students took steps back not to be mistakenly touched.

Nick quickly showed his stats which was on the average side. He walked back past the students and later by Vincent and Lilith. Nick stayed alone in the back to have a breather from the stressful experience.

Not too long after, only Vincent and Lilith remained. Vincent placed his hand on the Inspection Gemstone and displayed his stats.

.....

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[Name] Vincent Lionheart

[Race] Human

[Age] 32

[Condition] Healthy

[Traits] Blood Tempered Body Stage One, Mana Body

[Class] Mutation

[Stats] Strength 19 || Agility 17 || Perception 19 || Mana 26

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[Class Mutation]

*Overheat

.

Vincent and Kazumi were surprised by the little information on the hologram. Even the Mutation Class didn’t reveal everything.

“Is that even a class? I never saw a class like that written in any book before.”

“He’s old enough almost to be my father, but he looks young and handsome.”

“Hey, did you see his stats? Pity he has Mana Body, a weird class and one skill.”

The students didn’t know what exact reaction to show. Vincent was older than them by a lot, yet he looked as young as them. He had a class they never saw before with only one skill, yet he had more stats than them.

“Your class is a strange one, student Vincent.” *Sigh...* “The headmaster informed me this morning how your class can boost your stats for a little while.” Maria started walking and continued, “But, there is no need to use your skill since we will be going to the physical test now.”

“It isn’t fair! Only the cooking class girl couldn’t show her skills because her fate is that of a servant. Why shouldn’t he?”

“Hey, isn’t there another person left? I don’t think she is easy to miss.”

“Yeah, what about her? Is she also going to have better treatment just because she has the same emblem?”

“Isn’t she his wife, right?”

The students started an uproar because of the favoritism. They knew about Vincent and Lilith’s exaggerated and sometimes overblown rumors, yet they weren’t sure they were actually married as every word of mouth changed the truth bit by bit. In the end, only part of the truth remained.

Not all the students knew the same things. However, Vincent wanted to make sure they would know.

“Ahem!” Vincent loudly cleared his throat to attract all the attention to him.

“My ability is time-limited, and it only boosts my stats. As for the other part of everyone’s questions, I have married Lilith Lionheart. She is my wife, so I hope you don’t blame me if I get angry when I hear someone badmouthing my wife.” Vincent warned the students to keep their thoughts to themselves. He could see a few of the students glare and frown at his statement.

Lilith had to look at the ground when the gazes were split between her and Vincent. She clasped her skirt tightly and thought of happy thoughts to ease her restless beating heart.

“So it is true!”

“The commoner married into nobility, and now he dares to threaten us.”

“Yeah, the audacity!”

A cool breeze brushed against everyone’s skin, and a feeling of intimidation rushed down their spine. “Silence, you big babies!” Maira exclaimed while asserting her dominance as the teacher by changing the warm summer temperature to a cool end of the summer day.

“Even if you arrogant little nobles saw Vincent Lionheart’s skill, no one is interested in joining him. Hmm, right?” Maira coldly said with a cold gaze and an annoyed frown.

Maira looked at Lilith and continued, “Regarding Lilith Lionheart, she is a healer. The headmaster saw her stats when she awakened on her wedding day. He said she doesn’t need to show her stats for safety reasons.”

“Safty?” One of the students asked with a frightened tone yet with an annoyed expression on his face.

*Sigh* “You little nobles might need more than five years to learn about what happens in the world.” Maria shook her head with a displeased expression and continued, “Healers are coveted because the Minor Regen spell can help with the body remain a little younger. Was it a one to two ratio, or was it less?”

Maria shrugged her shoulders. “Well, either way, it is about one hour Minor Regen for two hours of age suppression.” *Sigh* “I think I might need to teach children-level education at this rate.” She raised her hand and signaled to be followed go to the next location.

[I don’t know what to say about Maria’s character...]

-She is, how can I say it... confusing.-

Vincent stopped thinking about what happened and looked around for Lilith. All the students were following Maria, and it became somewhat difficult to find her. Soon, he saw Nick standing beside her.

Vincent quickly went beside Lilith and held her trembling hand. The envious gazes and quiet mocking words made Lilith unbearably uncomfortable.

“Lilith. I am here beside you. ” Vincent reassuringly told her.

“Umm. Vincent, is Lilith going to be fine? I can go and ask the teacher where the infirmary is.” Nick asked.

“N-no n-need.” Lilith stuttered while shaking her head. She clenched Vincent’s hand tightly and tried to muster her courage to face her fears. Vincent was beside her, so she kept thinking nothing bad would happen with her knight in shining armor beside her.

[I hope Lilith can overcome her panic attacks soon. I know it is a stretch, but her condition is dangerous around so many arrogant noble teens.]

“Lilith, you tell me when it gets tough. ” Vincent said. He looked at Nick and continued, “I think Nick will also help if I am not around.”

“Yeah. I will help my friend’s wife as much as I can.” Nick offered. He wanted to help. That was the least he could do as Vincent and Lilith were helping him as well.

Shortly, the three of them followed the students to a large open field. The size was similar to a soccer field. The grass was trimmed and well-kept, and a couple of stone paths led to different areas.

One of the paths led to a cluster of trees with a bullseye target hanging on their branches. Another path led to an area with training dummies and a large boulder carved with runes.

Lastly, there was a large stone circular path that felt like it was a running track. It looked dangerous to fall on it. Falling on a hard surface like a stone was far different from soil and trimmed grass less than one inch.

‘Do they train soldiers or students here?’ Vincent and Kazumi thought at the same time.

Three men appeared standing, waiting for their arrival. Upon a closer look, one was a man they had never seen. The other two were Duke Biro Hawkins and Ollie standing beside him with a smile.

[Biro and Ollie are here. At least we can see some familiar faces. But why do I feel like we will have a problem on our hands soon?]

-Don’t jinx it again.-

[...]

“It was true, hehe. We are going to be taught by the famous Hawkins family.”

“I trained extra hard to impress the duke.”

“I wonder...”

*Thud!* Biro interrupted the chatter by slamming his foot on the stone path. “Listen up! You will form three lines! One for physical classes with me. One for mages classes with teacher Maria. The third one support mage classes with Ton Bellus and Oliveros nether with him.” Biro said with a commander-like authoritative voice.

Lilith became afraid to separate Vincent, but she had no choice. She was a grown woman and a married one that. Fortunately, the third line only had two women. Jun Ye Rim and Clair.

Lilith saw that her line was small and she was already somewhat acquainted with Clair. Furthermore, she met with tall, burly Ollie at her wedding. Vincent, Ester, and Lupa told her how he is a good person.

Lilith felt a little more reassured a reliable person was in charge of her tiny three-person line.

Shortly, three lines of students were formed. Twenty, including Vincent and Nick, were in the physical line with Biro as their leader. The second line had twenty-seven mages, including the proud Melissa, in front of the annoyed Maria. The last three were in front of Ton and Ollie.

Vincent became curious about who the man beside Ollie was. He looked in his mid-thirties with a strong athletic build, but he wasn’t very tall. Ton was about five foot five or six.