CHAPTER 236: THE AFTERMATH OF THE BATTLE ROYALE

"You traitor!" Chuck glared at Alex, whose only response was to look fed up. "How dare you get kissed while you are sleeping?! Is that what you call a special room service?"

"Dude, get a grip," Alex replied. "I just woke up. I have no idea how this happened to me."

Lavinia, Vaan, Charles, and Nessia were all inside room 13 because they couldn’t talk in the Common Room of the Ironheart Dormitory.

Alex was like a celebrity now, so many people would definitely want to listen to anything about him.

"Confess, Vaan." Chuck glanced at the pretty lady—errr boy who was sitting on the chair that Alex used when he was writing something on his desk. "You’re the one that left that love bite, right?"

Everyone in the room turned to look at Vaan, but he only smiled mischievously.

"Who knows?" Vaan replied.

Lavinia frowned, but she had already secretly talked to Dim Dim earlier, and the little bun had confirmed that Vaan hadn’t done anything of that sort to an unconscious Alex.

Since that was the case, she believed that Vaan was just trying to mess with Chuck, who didn’t know if he should laugh or cry because Alex had gotten kissed while asleep.

"Hmph! And you also didn’t try to hide the evidence of your betrayal," Chuck stated. "You’re no longer part of the Singles Club!"

Alex wanted to say that he didn’t want to be part of the Singles Club anyway, but he refrained.

Instead, he counter-attacked using facts.

"Look who’s talking?" Alex scoffed. "Between the two of us, who is the one with a fiancee?"

"Touche." Chuck clicked his tongue because Alex got him good.

"Okay, let’s stop this silly banter and tell our club president what has happened after the battle royale concluded," Nessia stated.

This was the information that Alex had asked of her upon his return to the dormitory. However, since many other students were also present, he decided to tell everyone that he was still not feeling well and headed back to his room.

When the room finally quietened down, Nessia told Alex the conclusion of the Battle Royale.

"Many complained that the result of the Battle Royale should be invalidated because an outside force had infiltrated the academy with nefarious goals of killing the First Years inside the Mistral Weave Forest," Nessia began.

"Critics from outside the academy were also blaming the Headmaster for allowing the criminal organization of the Demon Worshipers to endanger the lives of the students. Even some Professors asked the Headmaster to reconsider. But Professor Rowan’s declaration shut everyone up."

Nessia smiled faintly as she quoted the exact words that Professor Rowan had said during his press conference.

"The reason why Frieden Academy exists is to train Heroes that will rise up to protect the weak and the innocent from criminal organizations all over the world. What happened in the Battle Royale of the First Years is the perfect example that those with bad intentions can strike anywhere and anytime.

"And you know what? Even in that situation, I was very happy that my students rose up to the occasion and fought against these evildoers. They even won against the infiltrators, which proved that the academy is indeed the place where Heroes are born.

"I’m not here to train greenhouse flowers. If any of the students, as well as the public, think that they can enter the walls of the academy to have a good time then they are very wrong.

"We regularly encourage our students to take on many missions, including the defense against Monster Stampedes, Dungeon Outbreaks, as well as dealing with criminal organizations.

"Facing danger is part of our curriculum. If any of you have a problem with that then don’t bother enrolling here. Lastly, if any noble or those in a position of power criticize how I do things then don’t ask me for help when evil comes knocking on your door because I will just laugh at your suffering."

Rowan Vademont was a Paragon.

An existence that had surpassed the 9th Rank. One of the thirteen true powerhouses of the world.

If he wished for it, he could obliterate an entire kingdom by himself, and no one would be able to do anything to stop him.

Simply put, he was strong, and could say anything he wanted.

Do you dare to go against a Paragon?

Do you have the guts?

Have you paid your life insurance in full?

Have you already prepared your custom built coffin?

After making his statement, the press and the critics all shut up.

This was the authority of a Paragon that no one dared to challenge.

Only a Paragon of equal or greater power could fight a Paragon, and only thirteen of them were present in the world.

As such, nobody who wasn’t a fool or one of the twelve Paragons could challenge Professor Rowan. Background, education, lineage, connections all didn’t matter.

However, Professor Rowan did make a concession. He increased the number of survivors from ten to fifteen.

Alex, Charles, Renard, Chuck, Lavinia, Nessia, Latifa, Vaan, Fran, Finn, Lapiz, Princess Xenia, and three more people became the final fifteen survivors.

They personally received generous prizes from the Headmaster. Each was richer by ten thousand academy points.

"Also, we are getting many member applications since Chuck shamelessly made an advertisement during the award ceremony four days ago." Nessia glanced at Chuck, who was currently admiring the ceiling of their room as if it was an artwork made by a famous artist.

Clearly, the teenage boy was pretending that had no idea what Nessia was talking about.

Instead of getting exasperated, Nessia simply smiled before turning her attention to Vaan. "Although it is presumptuous of me, I accepted Vaan’s application. Of course, if you have a problem with that, you can ask him to leave anytime."

Vaan then looked at Alex as if she—errr he was a lost puppy, who had no owner.

"You did well, Nessia," Alex replied. "I don’t mind having Vaan as a member of our club."

"Yes!" Vaan did a fist pump before running to hug Alex, which made the corner of Lavinia’s lips twitch.

"Thank you, Alex!" Vaan exclaimed with a big smile on his face. "I’ll follow you for life even if you get married!"

"... That’s pretty scary." Alex blinked. "I think that’s a threat."

"It was just a joke." Vaan smirked. "But do not forget. Jokes are always half true."

Alex sighed and lightly patted the teenage boy’s shoulder, making the latter reluctantly take a step back.

"By the way, Alex, there is one more person that wishes to join our club. She is very hard to refuse." Chuck scratched the back of his head."It’s Princess Xenia."

"Oh..." Alex pondered for a bit before nodding. "Sure, she can join."

"Really?" Chuck did a second take because he had thought that Alex would be against the Princess joining.

"Really." Alex nodded in affirmation. "Having her as a club member gives our club many benefits, so why would I turn her away? Besides... I don’t mind becoming your wingman, Chuck."

"Huh?" Chuck blinked. "What are you talking about? What wingman?"

The teenage boy looked really confused, which made Alex roll his eyes.

Whether Chuck and Princess Xenia broke their engagement or not wasn’t really his problem. But, at the very least, he was certain that the two had really taken the step to become friends after wrapping up the fishing competition.

Just as they were about to continue discussing their club activities, they heard someone knocking.

"I’ll get it," Chuck said as he walked towards the door. "It might be one of my fans."

The teenage boy smiled as he confidently opened the door.

However, when he saw the visitor, he slowly shut the door. This time, he made sure to lock it, but his distress only earned amused smiles from his club members.