Chapter 7: Vicente's Biggest Flaw

Ian and Vice would watch Rory walk away from them without saying why for the next few weeks.

They would try to question their friend on a few occasions, but upon being repeatedly rebuffed or ignored, they slowly stopped pushing Rory.

They still cared about their friend but had decided to give him time and no longer question him about the reasons for his behavior.

In the meantime, Darek's group continued to bother them, but much more Rory.

From what they had seen on a few occasions in these weeks, Rory was closer to such a group, serving them in many ways.

Ian was slowly giving up on his friend, feeling that if Rory himself wasn't looking for their help, he and Vice shouldn't keep running after him to be ignored.

When it came to Vice, he was still interested in what was happening with Rory. Unlike Ian, he had his memories of his previous life. He felt that Darek had something to threaten Rory.

Hence, while continuing to learn at the academy about this world and from his father about the merchant profession, this boy was watching Rory in his spare time.

...

At the Academy of Stars...

Between the morning and afternoon classes, the students had a lunch break.

At this time, many students were around the living areas of this academy, eating, talking, and playing.

But in a less busy corner of this place, Vice hid behind a tree near a corridor leading to a dead end.

There he was, watching Darek's group eating in the place where they usually hang out during breaks.

The group of four boys were sitting on the ground, while a fifth of them held a tray with drinks and snacks.

This fifth one had his trousers down and the trash at his feet.

That was Rory.

As Vice watched in silence, suddenly, someone appeared behind him, but without surprising him.

"Vice, what are you doing?" Lauren asked, seeing her brother once again watching those youngsters. "I already told you to stop doing this.

If you can't do anything, why keep bothering to watch him? Sometimes we have to give up some things, little brother."

But Vice disagreed with that. "No. I need to know what they are using against Rory. When I know that, I'll be able to do something."

She sighed. "Knowing the motive will really help you? How would that be?"

"Depending on what it is, I can approach Rory and say it's no big deal. I can say that he shouldn't humiliate himself with these people for whatever the secret is."

He replied, watching the boys laugh and kick his friend.

Vicente pressed one of his hands into the bark of the tree in front of him.

He was the strongest in class 2, but against class 3 students, he had little advantage.

His martial arts technique even surpassed that of some class 4 students. To get an idea of how skilled Vicente was, he trained twice a month with his sister and was usually not at a disadvantage.

His earthly martial arts mixed with the ones he had been learning in this world, gave him great advantages over the children. But with the weight difference between his opponents and their numbers, anything he could do would have little chance of guaranteeing him a definite victory.

He could make one of those youngsters suffer at most, but he would still have three against him.

Ian might be able to make some difference if he were there.

Ian was the second most talented in class 2.

But this other friend of Vice's had already told him that he would not help Rory without this boy asking for his help.

Unfortunately for Vice, he was dealing with children...

These youngsters didn't yet know the value of friendship and had gigantic pride.

Lauren sighed, shaking her head negatively.

'Poor little brother... Finding out the truth could push you further away from him.'

But then she asked. "What's your plan?"

"Find out the truth, show him it's no big deal, and bring him back into our group.

If he doesn't want to be my friend after that, that's fine. I'd rather he be, but if he doesn't want to after that, I'll be fine as long as he doesn't humiliate himself anymore." He said in a different tone, full of emotion. "I just can't allow that to continue."

Pa!

He punched the trunk of that tree.

Lauren looked at that clenched hand of Vice, seeing her brother's biggest flaw.

Vice couldn't let things go. When he made up his mind to do something, he went all the way, no matter what the consequences.

Once, he had taken a situation so far that even though he knew his parents would beat him, he went all the way, and when he was beaten, he didn't shed a single tear.

Lauren had seen him demonstrate this behavior in other circumstances, usually related to his friends or family.

She knew he was an obsessed person who was hard to convince not to do something.

"Sigh... That's fine. But don't overdo it. If you spend every break watching Rory, you'll lose your friend Ian." She warned him while lightly tapping one of his shoulders.

She could try to help him, but she felt letting her little brother work it out for himself would be better.

That way, he wouldn't regret it!

"Big sister Lauren, can you ask Ian's sister to tell him you are teaching me at break time? I promise to sort it out quickly." He asked.

"OK, I'll do that, but not for long."

"Thanks, big sister." He said before he saw those youngsters move on, and he returned to class 2.

Today he still wouldn't find out the truth about Rory.

However, Vicente did not doubt himself and intended to find that out soon.

Amidst this, he would continue to learn about this world, which he had discovered so far lacked technologies such as the Internet and electricity.

However, other technologies basically replaced these, making possible some things that existed on modern Earth.

There were no cars or televisions, but one could communicate with people hundreds of kilometers away, travel through the skies in flying boats, and so on.

But while some things like this existed, in many other respects, this society was more like that of middle-aged Europe than the modern Earth that Vincent had left.

The customs were more similar, and the way in which those more ordinary to magic was more similar to that of the servants of feudal lords. At the same time, agriculture depended on animal strength and low-level magicians.

In short, if you were poor and lacked magical talent, you would live in Polaris Realm as a poor person on middle-aged Earth. If you were talented in magic, you could have access to things as developed or more than those of the place Vice had left!

Another option to live well in this world was to have so many resources that one could influence relevant magicians.

While he was worried about his friend, Vice was learning about these possibilities and becoming more interested in mastering his father's profession and achieving a good position in the future.

His mafia-style family still needed a lot of work to get out of his plans, but he wanted to use this business model he had learned on Earth to improve his social position in the Seidel Kingdom.

With these plans, his routine would be full for six months until he finally achieves one of his short-term goals!