The Survival of the Third-rate Villain

A week had passed...

And Raye’s schedule was still as hectic as ever.

For the past few days...

He was being trained to the bone by Ramiel every morning to increase his speed and technique’s proficiency.

Raye spars with Ramiel every day.

And after that...

He does leg workouts until his legs give up!

He’s not allowed to use mana to enhance them and he can’t get them healed up!

So he always spends the rest of his day with his legs shaking...

He attends his other classes like that, frowning hard every day.

And after his classes...

Raye studies artifact engineering in the library with Lena.

He has the proper set of knowledge now to work on artifacts, but he doesn’t have the materials to do so.

’Guess I already know what I want for one of my rewards for this secret weapon bullshit.’

Raye thought to himself.

Anyway, after spending a few hours in the library...

Raye returns to the cabin.

And after eating with Old Man Rey, Pyro, and Zephyrus...

He starts his repair of the cabin! 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Jerusha comes a couple of hours later, and when she does...

She and Raye head to the Northern Forest.

And there...

"[Flash]"

Raye will train to increase his proficiency with his special skills and improve them with the help of Jerusha!

Not long after that...

"Yo!"

"Hi, Raye, Jerusha."

Devin and Lycus will arrive.

"I’ll call you guys later."

Jerusha then goes back to the cabin and helps the Old Man make dinner. She’ll call the guys once they’re ready.

And when she leaves...

"Let’s get started."

The three will start their free-for-all training match!

This had been Raye’s routine for a week now, his chores not included.

He suffered a lot for a couple of days, but halfway through the week...

’Hmm, my stamina increased.’

He started doing fine.

...

Now, it’s the first day of a new week...

And the students from the other academies finally arrived at Zion Academy!

*****

Raye is currently in one of the indoor training grounds with his classmates.

Ramiel left them there.

Meanwhile, him... He’s outside welcoming the people that came from the other academies.

’Twenty students came each from three academies, and they’re all elite students. Not including the staff and professors that came with them, there are roughly sixty guests, huh.’

Raye thought. He’s doing squats while carrying a 50-kilogram heavy dumbbell on his back.

’I can already tell how annoyed Ramiel is right now, heh.’

He then added with a smirk.

Raye knows that Ramiel hates attending events like these, but he has no choice because the headmaster makes him do it.

He’s happy to think that Ramiel is suffering because he made him suffer for the past week.

Anyway, inside the training ground...

The others are training as well.

Allen was actually trying to copy Raye’s training for the past days, hoping to increase his speed too.

And Lycus...

"Thanks for agreeing to spar with me during this class, Leon."

He was training with Leon!

"No, I actually like training with you. You’re strong."

Leon said to him.

On the other hand...

"..."

Lena was just in the resting area, meditating to increase her already monstrous mana capacity.

The others were just training on their own, preparing for the competition.

Though, as they were doing so...

"Hm?"

Raye felt a lot of presence outside the training ground.

And it’s not just him...

"Huh?"

"...?"

His classmates felt them too.

The presences were strong, and they were slowly approaching where they were.

’Ramiel’s strong presence is not with them, so it’s probably not the professors... Are they the students from the other academies?’

Raye concluded in his head.

And as soon as he thought of that...

Creak—

The double doors of the training ground opened!

Tap- tap- tap—

Tap- tap- tap—

Tap- tap- tap—

And thirty young men entered the room!

"..."

Raye and the others quickly dropped what they were doing and turned to the people who had just entered.

They were all wearing uniforms—three designs, a blue one, a black one, and a red one.

So it was easy to know who they were...

’Yep, they’re students from the other academies.’

Raye thought.

"Hello, guys."

Someone in the red uniform suit said that with a smile.

He was a red-haired student from the [Crimson Academy].

’Ugh, that smile is so fake.’

Raye said in his head.

And so did his classmates...

"..."

So, they didn’t answer the red-haired guy’s greeting.

"I’m already getting a silent treatment, huh."

The guy said.

And just purely out of impulse and intrusive thoughts...

"Yeah, maybe you should get silent as well."

Raye casually mumbled that!

"Ah."

And he was shocked when he realized he said that out loud!

"..."

The room went totally silent.

And everyone looked at Raye!

Raye, well...

"..."

He just kept a poker face and looked at the red-haired guy.

’Fucking hell, it just had to slip out.’

Raye grumbled inside his head.

"What’s your name?"

The red-haired student then asked Raye.

And while keeping a straight face...

"Why don’t you tell yours first?"

Raye said that!

"Oh, my bad."

The red-haired student replied. He was pissed, but was still smiling.

"My name is Ignis Valefor, a first-class sophomore student at Crimson Academy."

He introduced himself.

And following him...

"Raye, S-Class sophomore, magic course."

Raye introduced himself back.

"So, what are you guys doing here? Because we’re not buying your nice acts."

And then he immediately followed that!

’I already messed up, might as well end this as soon as possible.’

He thought.

And hearing his words...

"Is that so..."

Ignis muttered that with a smirk.

"All of us here are also sophomore elites from prestigious academies. We just want to see you guys."

He stated.

"After all, we want to see the faces of the opponents we’re going to defeat."

And then he added that!

"..."

Hearing him made Leon and the others frown.

"Don’t misunderstand, we won’t be working together. We just thought that Zion’s students are getting weak now as you can enter the elite class just by being rich."

Ignis declared with a smug expression.

His words really pissed off Leon and the others. He was clearly talking about the event where the nobles got exposed for bribing their way up!

Anyway, realizing what he was doing...

"Meh."

Raye shrugged his shoulders.

"You don’t need to provoke us, you know?"

He said.

And then, looking at the students from the other academies one by one...

"We’ll defeat you guys either way."

He declared that casually!

’You guys got destroyed by the main characters in the game, dumbasses.’

’It’s canon event.’

This is what Raye meant when he said that.