Rising Against Fate

"Dude, you know what happened after the princess joined yesterday?"

It was time for club activities, and as usual, they were running a little late. Razak was late because he had the training, while Kat was late because he didn't want to be alone in the clubroom with Yasumi.

Both of them were walking through the hallway and were almost about to reach the clubroom. It looked like Kat was planning to answer that himself, so instead of replying Razak just looked towards Kat.

"We have 14 new requests from the first-years."

"And did you reject them?"

"Not yet. Though letting them hang out with princess while we do our job doesn't sound that bad."

"Yes, but then our club would appear as an actual joke. And in our current state, that can be fatal for the club."

After they reached the club room Razak scanned his MM to open the door. Both of them then walked in.

As expected, Yasumi was already there waiting for them. By the looks of things, she was probably studying something in her MM.

When she heard them enter, she looked towards them. "Hey, you two. Did you see the tournament bracket?"

Normally at this point, one would ask why they were late, but today there was something else that was a big news. This afternoon, the tournament bracket for the first-year ranking tournament was announced.

"Yeah, we did"—Kat pulled his chair—"though unlike us, you have it pretty easy Princess."

"Yes, but there is Raiden in my group. He is currently ranked as 3rd."

Kat sat in his chair. "Oh, that dude… he has a big weakness."

"Weakness?"

"Yeah, you will know during the preliminaries."

As the two of them were talking, Razak walked inside the lab and checked the equipment. There were several boxes that they needed to unbox and arrange.

After taking a look around, he walked back outside. "For now, I think we have everything we need. We can bring the rest once we finish arranging these."

"Yeah, we aren't starting the real activities before the ranking match anyway. By the way dude, your file says you use shadow magic. Is it the basic shadow magic or the advanced one?"

The shadow magic was classified into two types. Like the name suggests basic shadow magic was the inferior version of Advanced shadow magic. The simplest way to differentiate them was based on the shadow they can manipulate. If they are only able to manipulate their own shadow, it's basic. And if they are able to manipulate the surrounding shadows as well, it's advanced.

"I can use advanced shadow magic."

"Really?!"

Yasumi looked surprised to hear that. Shadow mages were usually from the Kage clan, and even in that clan, only the prodigies are able to use the Advanced shadow magic.

After a brief pause, she composed herself and continued. "But with those abilities, you would obviously come under top 20."

"That's not the point, princess. You don't know the Kage clan well, they even marry cousins and siblings to keep their bloodline from spreading."

Even at this age, there were many traditional clans who believe that they need to prevent their bloodlines from spreading.

In most cases, the person marrying someone from the clan needed to move under the clan. But in the case of the Kage clan, they used a different approach by which they will be able to keep it pure while preventing it from spreading at the same time.

"I… had no idea."

"Well, they do try to keep that a secret, but any decent nerd like me knows the fact."

"Though because of that fact their social reputation has suffered, and now they are looking for a way to resolve this. I don't think they will be able to do anything after I display it on the Ranking tournament. Instead, they will probably try to take me in or act as if they are supporting me."

Now that the nation had started taking a democratic approach, changes were necessary because they knew that those who can't change with time, become history. Even though the elders of the clan were still stuck with the tradition, the newer generations were supportive of the changes.

"Then I guess you will be alright with that. Though, I think that white-haired dude will jump on you like a wild cat as soon as he sees you."

Yasumi lowered her head. It looked obvious that she was feeling responsible for this.

"That won't be a problem. My magic holds an advantage against his, and if he charges at me knowing that then I won't hesitate to use that as an opportunity."

Yasumi raised her head once she heard that. Though it was hard to notice, a faint smile appeared on her face.

"So guys, what will we be doing today?"

"For now, I think we will finish the arrangements. Then, we can study the structural developments in MM so that we can create a prototype of our own."

Even though Yasumi was looking at Kat for the answer, Razak was the one who responded.

"Doing the arrangements ourselves sounded cool in theory, but actually doing it sucks"—Kat stood up from his chair— "Oh well, let's get it over with quickly so that I can do something that suits me."

Following Kat, Yasumi too stood up from her chair. Unlike Kat, who barely looked interested, Yasumi was full of energy.

As they were getting inside the lab Razak realized he had something that he wanted to ask. "By the way Kat, who will be fighting in the demonstration match this year?"

"I looked for it but couldn't find anything. So, I guess the old man is planning to surprise everyone this year. Even though he is old, he still likes playing games like that."

Razak smiled when he heard the response. Though it was obvious that he would be aware of the information leak from the server, what's amusing was the fact that he wasn't doing anything despite being aware.

After the three of them got inside the lab, they started unboxing the equipment. Despite the slothful attitude, Kat was the one who did most of the work with his telekinesis.