Alex officially reached rank 6 prowess (1 Stage = 1 Rank). After the incident, the academy distributed the announcement the next day. It was said that the incident was caused by the new magic that the dean experimented with. Although it showed great power as everyone already saw, it made the dean need to rest for a month. Therefore, the magic was classified as a failure. The dean also would not appear in the academy for one month to make the announcement even more believable.
The dean did something this far to protect Alex. Therefore, he directed all the attention to him. Alex protested to him about this plan. After all, it was because of him that something like this happened. But hearing his protests, the dean only shrugged his shoulders.
Alex felt guilty, but he also felt thankful at the same time. It was really good to have someone who got your back and to have someone to support you as a parental figure.
After the incident, Alex focused his training on the Sanguin Sword Art. Since he became a rank 6, it didn't take too long for him to master the Sixth Slash of the 'Sanguin Sword Art'. This 'rank 6' alone put him to advantage. After a day of practice, he mastered the technique. If he met again with the bear last time with his current ability, he probably would only need a few moves to defeat it. There was no need for him to use his spear.
During the week, he kept practicing the Sanguin Sword Art, but he was not able to use the Seventh Slash yet.
Finally, the start of a new class began. Alicia and Alex came to the academy from Rizertia's house. When they arrived at the academy's entrance, it was already bustling with people. It seemed that the new students who wanted to register were twice as many as the total of the previous year. Well, whether they were accepted or not was a different matter entirely.
Alex and Alicia, along with Sherry walked to the crowd. The crowd immediately noticed them. With Alex's handsome face, he somehow became the spotlight and attracted the crowd's attention. However, most of them noticed Alicia, the ice princess who walked beside Alex. With both looks and power, she was idolized by many, especially men.
"Look... the Ice Princess is very beautiful!"
"She is beautiful and powerful. If I can become her man even only for a day, I will be satisfied."
"Shut up, you monkey! She is not for you to sully!"
"Shut up, you monkey!"
"Shut up, you monkey!" And somehow this phrase became a trend to shut Alicia's admirer up. Well, most of them were male.
***
On the other hand, the female students were focused on Alex.
"The Male God arrived."
"Yes, the Fire Prince is my idol. I came to this academy for him."
"Fire God, let me bear your child!"
"Fire God?"
"He is the Fire Prince and also the Male God of this academy, so he is Fire God."
"He defeated the hero's party easily."
"I heard he is also a gold rank hunter."
"That means he can defeat a rank 5 monster?"
"Fire God! Let me bear your child. I can take care of the house and warm the bed for you!"
"Shut up, you dinosaur!"
"Lose your weight first, you pig!"
The females were hysterical. Alicia who heard all of this commotion immediately linked her hand with Alex and waved toward the crowd.
The male students were crying, "No... our Princess..."
"Kya..."
"A perfect match."
"Fire God, I don't mind becoming your mistress!"
Alex heard that sweatdropped. Alicia still waved toward the crowd, but her other hand that linked with Alex's hand was pinching his arm.
"Look, the fox seems to follow them!"
"The fox is very cute! Look at that pure white fur. With the pinkish fur at the tip, it makes the fox very cute!"
"But, can we bring a pet to the academy?"
"You fool, Sherry is different. At that time, I looked at her exhausted state carrying the injured Male God. I was moved to tears."
"The friendship between human and monster... is it possible?"
"Of course it is possible, look at our Male God and Sherry. A perfect combination."
"Sherry!"
"Sherry!"
After this enrollment test, the 'Sherry Fan Club' was established.
***
When Alex and Alicia passed the crowd, they saw a few teachers handling the enrollment process. They saw a very familiar face among them.
"Teacher Farida."
"You two, can you not bring trouble here... sigh..."
"I'm sorry, Teacher, I won't do this again... no... I don't even know why this happens."
"Sigh... you are actually not aware of your reputation?" Her face looked very tired when she said that. Even Alicia giggled.
"After you defeated that hero and his companions, your reputation went through the roof. They said 'Zircodina might have a hero, but we have Alexander' or something along that line. Well, since you are here, you might as well give a little speech."
"What?!" Alex was surprised.
"Why not?" Alicia said and looked at Alex expectantly.
Alex could only sigh. He looked at the crowd.
"Look, the Male God will deliver a speech!"
"What is talent?" Alex started his speech with this question. The crowd was silent as they looked at him intently.
"Talent... this word gives me a concept of a limit. Your talent is low so you are useless, your talent is high so you are a genius, you should aim high... rank 7? Rank 8? I keep wondering why... you might be a genius here, but in other places... you might be not the only genius or maybe you are only mediocre at best in that place.
Peerless Talent is numerous. But the talent that can take you to the top? There are none. You can only thread it with hard work, determination, and blood. For those of you who have not passed this year, try again next year, prove it to those who judge you as having a poor talent that they are wrong. And for those of you who pass this year, never look down on others. There might be a time when those who you look down upon become someone higher than you. Keep striving, keep challenging, show your power. Show it to the world that you deserve your position. Not because you bully the weak and fear the strong. But because you challenge the strong and become an example for the weak to keep striving."
All of them were astonished, they were shocked. Alex's speech made their blood boil. The ones who already passed secretly swore in their hearts. 'I will keep striving, I'm not giving you my place because I deserve it.' Those who have not passed thought, 'I might not pass this year, but I will keep striving. Next year, I might be the number one genius for the new students.'
"Fire Prince!"
"I love you!"
The crowd kept cheering, Alicia giggled. The teachers could only shake their heads. 'Like the teacher, like a student'.
Alex, Sherry, and Alicia slowly walked away from the crowd and got inside the academy.
The school started the next day, so they walked toward their room first. They were surprised to see Firia was waiting for them at the dorm entrance.
"Ara... our Fire Prince has finally arrived."
Alex stumbled. "What... what Fire Prince? Who is that?"
"Oh right, I'm sorry then. Please forgive me, Male God."
"Gah. Like I said, who is that person? Quit joking," Alex kept denying it both in his mouth and his heart. He never liked that kind of thing.
"Fine... I won't call you that... well, what is it... that new nickname? Fire God?"
"Who... who gives me that nickname? I will beat them."
Alicia and Firia giggled, even Sherry jumped around in joy. They kept chatting around for a while until Alex asked a question.
"What is the schedule for the second year? Will the schedule be similar to last year?"
Alicia and Firia were astonished, they forgot that Alex wasn't their native, so he didn't know anything about the lesson.
"No. It's only first-year students that have classes. We, second year, only have free practice all year. There are only two events for the second year. The first was four-month from now, where we will go to the Bawon Fortress. In that event, we need to kill monsters in the Death Forest. This is the biggest Forest on the continent. It received its name from the huge size and the abundant numbers of monsters residing in it.
The second event will be the same as the first year. It will be held in Maka Town's dungeon. Our requirement is only for us to reach rank 3 in those two events. The purpose of first-year events is for the student to get used to battles as much as possible and to reach rank 2. Now for the second year, we need to keep training our technique, that's why we have free time all year round. We need to polish the power we got in the first year. As for the third year, they will be visiting many places with a mission from the academy. The requirement for a graduate is for them to reach rank 4, although many are graduated as a rank 5. Most of our graduates will reach rank 7 and few of them will become a teacher in this academy," Alicia explained.
"Then... that means, for this year, I can keep practicing all-year-round without a need to go to classes?" Alex's eyes brightened.
Alicia and Firia facepalmed. "This is your conclusion?"
"Wuu! Wuu!" Sherry looked at him, she seemed to say, 'Don't forget about me, Master!'
"Oh right, don't forget the ranking competition one month from now. But for you, it will be easy, isn't it?" Firia added.
Alex nodded. They chatted for a while before finally saying goodbye. The next day, Alex practiced his Sanguin Sword Art. He wanted to succeed in the Seventh Slash first before he practiced the second stage of the Sky Movement.
One month later, Alex still hasn't succeeded in mastering the Seventh Slash. This past month, he kept practicing this technique. Because there were no classes for second-year, he used all the time he had to practice. He sometimes practiced together with Firia and Alicia and sometimes Sherry asked him to spar, or chatted with the dean. He also spent his time helping the dean to make pills.
But most of his time was used to practice this technique. He practiced the technique in the dean's courtyard. The pitch-black burned ground in the courtyard was nowhere to be seen. It seemed like the dean had them fixed in only a few days and finished before the school started. He also reinforced his courtyard wall. Now that Alex kept getting stronger and stronger, there might be a time that Alex would break his courtyard. So he decided to use this time to reinforce them.
Then, a month had passed and the ranking competition came once again.