The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

NO, Reas was not having fun.  At all.  His clothes were soaked with sweat, as if he just dived into a pool of water.  He was fine standing like this for hours.  But the feeling of wet clothes sticking to his skin was very uncomfortable. 

Ash, who was standing beside him earlier, had already given up and left the training room.  He wasn’t sure how many were left.  But he decided that he would also stop after an hour more of standing.  He had already been standing two hours more than required.  So, even if he stopped now, he would still receive more than 10 points. 

So, he started counting inside his head.  After counting for 3600 seconds, he finally loosened his posture and cracked his neck from left to right.  The moment he did, the room returned to normal.. 

He looked around and realized that he was the only one left in the room.  Well, at least, he’s now certain that he would get the highest point from this.  He was wondering if he should just go out or if he had to wait for that guy to come out and tell him that he could go or something. 

At the end, he decided to just go.  What if that guy and those two faculty members with him had already left and he was actually the only one here?  Besides, he’s already pretty hungry. 

But before he could, he heard a voice said from behind;

“You really are quite tenacious.”

He turned around and saw something flying towards him.  He reflexively raised his hand to catch it.  When he did, he just noticed that it was actually a bottled water.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said before opening the bottled water and drinking a mouthful.  Then, as if he had forgotten, he added, “Sir.”

Wulfric raised his eyebrow.  He was a bit surprised seeing the other drinking the bottled water he just threw.  He thought this brat would say something along the lines of ‘did you poison this?’.  And the other even call him ‘sir’. 

“Did the heat get to your brain?  Why are you acting so creepy?”

Reas almost choked on the water he was drinking when he heard that.  When he decided to be a bit more courteous because of the other’s identity, he was called ‘creepy’.  He suddenly had an urge to throw the content of the bottle he was holding to the face of this annoying prince.

“I just don’t want my points to be affected because I accidentally say something that might offend your highness,” he said.

“Tsk.  Do you think I’m that kind of petty person?”

Yes – Reas answered silently. 

The other really didn’t need to answer because Wulfric could see just from his reaction what his answer was.  “You really are such an unlikable brat.”

“Again, I’ll take that as a compliment, Sir.”

Wulfric already lost interest in bickering with the kid.  So, he just said, “Follow me.  I’ll treat you to lunch.  It’s your reward for being the last one standing.”

He didn’t wait for the other’s response and just turned around to walk out of the room.

Reas stared at the prince’s back and thought of not following.  But then also changed his mind quickly.  If they were not in the academy and the other was currently not one of their trainers, he would really do so without blinking.  But that’s not the case here. 

Not following might be seen as insubordination.  If they were in the military right now, then, this guy could be considered his immediate superior.  Being disrespectful was one thing.  Not following orders was another.  If he didn’t follow along, his points might get deducted.

He wanted to be at the top three at the end of this week-long training.  If possible, he planned to be top 1.  At first, he wasn’t really planning for that.  It was enough for him to pass.  But when he heard that there would be rewards for the top 3, he changed his mind.

Since this was the number one military academy in the Empire, he had no doubt that the reward would not be something cheap.  What if it was something along the lines of allowing him to install a virtual pod in his dorm room?  Something like that was definitely worthy of him working hard to get the top score.

So, he just sighed and followed the prince.

—–

Reas cut a big slice of steak and ate it.  Although it’s only seasoned with simple salt and pepper, this was definitely much better than the food in the cafeteria. 

They were inside a private lounge that seemed to be personally assigned to the prince.  Not really that surprising, considering the other’s identity.

“How is your brother?”

Once again, Reas almost choked because of the other’s question that came out of nowhere. But if he thought about it carefully, it’s not really that out of the blue.  He should have already expected that this guy would ask about Astrid sooner or later.

“I respectfully refuse to answer that question,” he said, before adding, “Sir.”

Wulfric felt his eyelid twitching.  Although the other said the word ‘respectfully’, his tone was anything but. 

“Why are you so against me getting close to Aster?” he thought of asking.  He was really curious about why this brat was so antagonistic towards him.

“If Your Highness had already forgotten how you acted when you first met my brother, then let’s just say my impression of you wasn’t really, well, the best,” Reas responded while cutting another piece of steak.

So, it’s still came back to that. – Wulfric thought.  If he had known he would want to get close to Aster, he would have behaved back then.  Or, at least, as behaved as his personality would allow.

He let out a frustrated and annoyed sigh before also cutting and eating a piece of steak.  Then, an idea suddenly came to his mind.  Wouldn’t it all be okay as long as he showed to this brat that he wasn’t as bad as the other thought he was?

He smirked.  Good thing he had good insight to go here today himself.  Anyway, proving that he’s an ‘okay’ human being wouldn’t be that hard, right?