61 Boys and Girls

Saramin had a lot on her mind to think about on the next day.

Sabiri's little confession regarding Kurt's situation was a lot to take in and the girl barely managed to sleep after coming home later that night as she tried to process everything she discovered.

At first, all she wanted was to take advantage of the boy's strange habit of attracting attention to himself as a means to further improve her own image and increase her number of followers and supporters. After all, the more people she had by her side, the more powers she could memorize, and thus, she would be better prepared for the inevitable battle of the faction games.

What she didn't expect though, was the amount of baggage she would be dragged into once she discovered the extremely complicated relationship between her newly acquired little brother and his parents, both of which seemed to have quite different plans for his future.

The emperor apparently wanted to turn Kurt into some sort of killing machine to use in the games, much like Anomalia, while the empress wanted to keep him in the dark for as long as she could in order to avoid getting on her husband's bad side.

One wanted to take the kid through a bad path, while the other wanted the kid to take no path at all and just remain still as much as possible.

Saramin began to worry a lot about the boy's future. Compared to her own situation with her mother, Karina, who just wanted her daughter to be the best of the best in the emperor's eyes so she could become his number one wife, Sara felt like her own problems might not be so bad all things considered.

"What a headache..." she mumbled while strolling through the hallways of the academy with her group of friends, a team of four girls who she would usually keep by her side in case she needed some emergency power.

They would usually follow her around in order to have someone related to royalty to be on good terms with, as requested by their parents.

One of the girls, a young lass with twin ponytails and black hair, noticed her restless face and began to worry about her, "Everything okay, Sara?"

"Oh! Sorry... I... Just returned from an awkward dinner with my family last night and am still not all here..."

"Whoa! A dinner with the emperor? Must have been breathtaking!"

"That's one way of putting it, I guess..." Sara mumbled while thinking about Sabiri getting nearly choked to death by her husband.

Another girl approached as well, someone also with black hair but tied up in a long braided style, "So, what happened? You guys all vanished after yesterday's lesson! Everyone is dying of curiosity about what all that was about!"

All of the girls around her suddenly began to gain sparkles in her eyes as they waited for her to spill out some gossips about last night's event. Sara couldn't help but think that at the end of the day, there really wasn't that much difference from humans to dragons when looking at a scene like that.

"I don't think I really have permission to say much, sorry" she replied while trying to kill this conversation.

"Really? But what about the boy that kicked Hugh's ass? He is your brother right?"

"Yeah! What happened to him? Did your father give him some new mission or something? Why didn't he come to school today?"

"Is he gonna play in the faction game? He is, isn't he? He is a guest, just like you! Did you two knew each other in your past life?"

More and more of her friends began to gather and shower her with questions with each step she took. They kept looking at her as if they were hyenas and her replies were some sort of fresh meat for them to feed on.

"Guys, I'm sorry but I'm really tired, can we talk about this later?" Sara begged while holding her forehead.

"Please, Sara!! Just give us something to- Oh!"

One of the girls suddenly froze in the middle of her speech once she saw someone approaching from the stairs, a young lass with short curly purple hair wearing glasses carrying a pile of books under her arm.

"It's her!" the girl with ponytails whispered.

"I heard she was dating the red-haired kid!"

"I heard she was trying to kill the red-haired kid!"

"I heard she was trying to date the red-haired kid just so she could kill him!"

Sara began to feel like she might not have made the best choice while choosing her friends.

She decided to ignore them all and just tried to greet Gaby once she approached them, "Hey, cloud face. Got any luck with the library today?"

Gaby finally noticed the white-haired girl waving at her and stopped before walking right past her, "Oh! Hey, Sara... No, still having trouble with that. "

She then noticed the rest of the girls whispering and glancing at her with a suspicious air as if they were trying to decide between whether or not they should talk to her or just ignore her.

Gaby just rolled her eyes and tried to see if there was anyone else with Sara, "Is Kurt not with you?"

"Ah, no... Little bro got... Sick... last night, and will have to stay in bed for a while..." Sara responded while trying to not say too much.

"Oh... So, he's not coming today?"

Sara began to smirk at her question, "Oho? Why? Could it be that you're missing him?"

Gaby just stared at her with a blank expression, "Well, he is the only one that tries to properly talk to me in the whole school..."

The girls behind Sara started to gossip and whisper again while throwing out words like "couple", "lovers", and for some reason "slave".

Sara felt like she would lose her mind at this rate if she had to spend the rest of the day with this group and keep hearing their endless mumbling, so she decided to use Gaby to ditch all of them.

"Hey, guys, how about we hang out with Gaby for a bit? I felt like my reflexes were getting a little dull and was wondering if she could practice with me a little bit!"

Every single one of them flinched at the same time as they instantly recalled each of their sessions of practicing with Gaby, most of which involved many of them ending up in the infirmary.

"Maybe next time! I gotta study today!"

"I can't, sorry!"

"I have to help the teacher with an assignment!"

"I... I don't have an excuse but I just don't want to, so... Bye!"

And with that, all of them quickly dispersed away, leaving the two of them alone.

"What was that about?" Gaby wondered while staring at Sara.

"I needed some time alone, sorry..."

Gaby's stare changed into an intense glare as she just realized she had been used as a bug repellent, "I see... Well, you're welcome I guess... See you later"

Before she could leave though, Saramin took one of her books, causing her to stop.

"What are you doing? Give it back!"

"I need to talk to you..."

Gaby raised an eyebrow, "Talk? About what? You gonna try and get me into your fan club again?"

"Oh, God, no... If anything I'm this close to disbanding my club altogether... I'm starting to realize having lots of attention is overrated..." she replied while rubbing her forehead, "No, I just wanna ask about how things are going with your little problem..."

The glasses girl started to glare at her again since she knew Sara knew how much she hated talking about that topic.

"Let's go to the roof, don't wanna risk attracting more unwanted attention..." Saramin suggested while moving towards the stairs with Gaby's book still in her possession.

Gaby sighed for a moment and decided to follow her. She didn't particularly need that one specific book, but she was curious about what Sara wanted to say if it was related to her problem.

"By the way, you haven't told anyone about it, did you?" Gaby wondered as they approached the door on the last floor, "You didn't tell... Him... Did you?"

"Well, it's not my place to say anything, is it?"

"Even though you're his sister?" Gaby mentioned, "Which, by the way, still sounds so freaking weird to say... You two are nothing alike..."

"Not really sure how I'm supposed to take that but I feel you're mocking me... Somehow..."

Once the two finally arrived, Saramin opened the door to the roof of the academy where they encountered a pair of individuals outside, almost as if they were waiting for them.

One of them was a large lad with a bulky figure, a relaxed smile, and wild hair of the same color as Kurt, completely red.

He was standing on top of another kid who was crouching on the ground with a face on the verge of tears and shaking from top to bottom. The boy was small and thin and had slightly long dark blue hair that covered one of his eyes.

"Oh! Look who's here!" Hugh smiled once he saw Gaby and Saramin appearing.

Leon also turned around to look at them while still trying to put up with Hugh's foot on top of him.

"Huh..." Saramin then closed the doors and slowly walked back to the stairs, "Seems like the roof is taken, wanna try the library?"

Gaby just gasped at her casual reaction while looking back and forth between the door and her, "Wait, what? We just going to ignore the kid being harassed??"

"I mean... I'm good... Don't really see how this is any of our business..."

"That's your stupid brother out there!!"

Saramin just shrugged, "Half-brother, may I remind you! And we are nowhere near that close for me to care about who he bullies or not..."

"Unbelievable..."

Gaby just shoved the rest of her books into her arms and kicked the door open one more time.

Hugh and Leon had their attentions captured one more time once they saw the girl with curly hair walking towards them with a layer of electricity surrounding her body.

"Oh! Look who's here!" Hugh commented, "Again!"

"Knock it off!" Gaby ordered.

"What?"

"The kid that you're stepping on! Stop it!"

"I can't do that! I need to mess with him to get little dude to show up!" Hugh explained.

"Little dude...?"

"He means Kurt..." Leon explained.

Gaby stared at Leon for a moment and wondered how such a skinny kid was holding onto Hugh's weight for so long without getting squashed.

"Kurt is not coming today! Now get lost!"

"He's not?? Awww man... Then who am I gonna play with?"

"Hell if I care! Now stop bothering this kid!"

"Eeeehh... I don't want to..." Hugh groaned as if he was a little kid being asked to do his homework, "If little dude cant play with me, then I'll have to hang out with little Leon again..."

"Oh, Lord, please no..." Leon cried.

"Unless you wanna take his place that is... Although, I'm not into playing around with chicks..."

Gaby began to pop a vein above her forehead, "You know what? Sure! I've been waiting for a chance to punch you in the face ever since you ruined our moment yesterday!"

"Oh, my God! She said 'our moment!'" Saramin giggled to herself while Gaby was distracted.

"Wait... You..." Hugh mumbled while scratching his hair, "Arent you the number one of the academy?"

"Maybe," Gaby whispered while increasing, even more, the output of energy around her, "You wanna find out?"

"Mmmm... Mmm... Mmm... Girls are usually boring... But you seem to be kind of a big deal..." the large boy considered his options before finally letting Leon go, "Alright, sure! This might be fun!"

Leon dropped to the ground after being allowed to rest and soon tried to roll out of their way like a log after Gaby glared at him with a 'get out of the way so I don't fry you!' look.

"Hey, Gaby, do we really have to do this? Class will be starting soon! We still need to talk!" Saramin reminded her, "Can't you just fight him during the self-defense class?"

"Oh! Sara, sis sis!" Hugh snorted after finally remembering Saramin was there as well, "You are the number two, right?"

"I... Really don't like being called that..."

"Well, that's just perfect! Number one and number two against number three! Why don't the both of you just come at me at the same time?"

"What!?" Leon gasped.

"Excuse me? Are you implying that I'm not enough to handle you? You do know that I beat Kurt and he beat you, right?"

"You beat little dude? Interesting... I wonder if this runs on rock-paper-scissors logic where I can beat you, you can beat him, and he can beat me!"

"The hell is rock-paper-scissors...?" Gaby mumbled.

"Come on!!" Hugh began to stretch his arms and legs, "Let's find out!"

He then began to dash towards Gaby and immediately closed the distance between the two in a matter of seconds.

The girl twitched upon seeing his face suddenly so close to her and almost didn't have time to react to an incoming fist aimed at her stomach.

She dodged it on time by twirling to her left and followed that by pressing her palm against his back and sending a shockwave through his whole body.

Hugh fell on the ground after getting his skin burned but suddenly reacted by using his healing flames to fix the injury.

"Not bad!! This might be fun after all!" he laughed.

Gaby didn't say anything and just assumed a battle stance with her fists raised and one foot in front of the other.

The two stared at each other for a couple of seconds and began to dash towards one another.