I didn't remember much about what the others told me; the stuck-up blonde-looking guy was named Arthur. Apparently, his parents had high hopes for him, and that's why they chose such a grand name, yet here he was taking remedial classes.
The girl was named Leonora, and I already knew the names of the other two.
After a brief introduction, the teacher began to teach her lesson as usual. The rest of the day was a slog to get through; I was barely awake half of the time. Half of the things explained I already knew, so I could afford to sleep during those lessons.
At the end of the school day I was left starving, barely awake as I dragged my own body towards the exit. The others were still somehow beaming with energy and enthusiasm as the sun was settling down on the horizon.
"Are you sure you can't come?" Leonora asked me one last time in front of the school gates.
"Yeah, probably… I don't know, don't ask; right now I don't feel like talking." I replied.
The maid then suddenly grabbed me by the back of my collar and pulled me backwards to set my back straight, as in front of the gate, my uncle was waiting for me. Leo was patiently standing next to him, constantly looking around the crowd.
As soon as he spotted me, he began jumping in place and calling out my name loudly in front of everyone.
"Oh, hi Leo, what are you doing here?" I asked him as I rushed over to greet him.
"I heard you were looking for me yesterday, so I came here to meet you today! Since you're new here, I wanted to introduce you to a place where you can make some new friends!" He excitedly announced as he walked behind me and began pushing me towards his car.
His father was happily smiling, accompanying us as if nothing had happened between the two of us, as if the events of the other day were nothing short of an illusion.
It was hard to feel something when I was so tired; once we got in the car, it didn't take long before I fell asleep.
I woke up again in a comfortable and warm bath. A bunch of servants were using strange metal tools to scrape away the dead skin off my body, all while treating my hair and thoroughly cleaning my face.
Isn't it a bit… much? To clean this thoroughly every day? This place is spotless; so far I haven't seen a speck of dust anywhere. Is this really necessary?
The vague words of my mother echoed in my head, talking about not getting spoiled… All of them went in one ear and got out the other, even to the servants of the house, as they couldn't help but act as they would in other households.
It's not too bad out here… Not bad at all. I might get used to this with time.
After barely getting accustomed to the warm temperature of the water, I was suddenly splashed with cold water directly in the face.
Argh! What the—
The servants began to scrub with a towel whatever product they had put over my face before I even had the chance to protest, and then, as soon as they removed the towel, I had just enough time to take air in before getting once again blasted with cold water.
Not this. I don't think I'll ever get used to how rough they handle me… A bit more delicacy wouldn't hurt, you know?
After a thorough cleanup, they helped me dress up in a comfortably warm suit, and I was good to go.
"What's all of this? What are you preparing for?" I asked Leo who was waiting for me in the bedroom next door.
He had to lend me some of his clothes because of how urgent the situation feels.
"Don't you know? Today there's a big event that is going to be held at the arena; everybody is talking about it! Apparently someone managed to sneak into the upper city!" Leo explained to me as he began dragging me away.
"Calm down, there is probably a lot of time left before the events start; we can take it easy. I just got out of school; you have no idea how tired I am at the moment." I protested.
As I looked around, I saw that none of his brothers seemed interested in taking part in this event; as we walked past their bedrooms, I saw that none of them had gotten ready to take part in the event.
Haaa, I'm still… Whatever, let's not think about it too much for now; let's just go with the flow.
"Apparently the guy they captured is someone pretty dangerous. They are holding a massive event over there. What do you think about it? Aren't you curious what kind of abilities he could hold?" Leo asked me.
Ah, so that's what you were curious about? Who cares? If he got caught, it probably meant he wasn't that good.
"What about the people you wanted me to meet?" I asked him in return.
"Those can surely wait," he responded.
Hey! That's the main reason I'm going there. How can you disregard it so nonchalantly?… I should've known better; I should've wondered why, for once, you seemed interested in something that wasn't a demon.
"You… haa, nevermind."
He simply smiled back at me with his usual happy face.
He guided me to a separate building located behind the large mansion that contained a variety of different vehicles, and we boarded a limousine. With us there were twelve bodyguards; the uncle was personally driving the vehicle for some reason.
"Hey, hey, want to see the cool power my father gifted me?" Leo was showing off a variety of demonic artifacts, ranging from a small handgun to a couple of knives.
"H-hey, Uncle, if it's not much of a bother, can you tell me why you had to beat up Elvis yesterday?" I asked him. While Leo was trying to show me some more artifacts,
"Ah, that, he couldn't properly control the powers he absorbed, so for now he'll have to stay isolated from everyone else as he is a danger to the others and himself. He'll eventually get used to them." He responded.
Ah, and was that the reason he made out with Ilay's favorite maid? I don't think I should ask this in front of Leo, though. What if he spills the beans? Knowing how clumsy he can be, he could very well tell it to Ilay tomorrow morning… Better stay out of this.
The scenery at night was gorgeous; the tall buildings illuminated the skies, giving shine to the blooming trees that were stuck in that perpetual state, without ever losing flower petals or wilting.
The car took a sudden turn and began driving on an invisible road that showed us the clouds beneath the floating city as we traveled from one floating island to the next.
"Oh, and I've also got to inherit the movement ability of that bastard! Look!" As I turned around, I saw that Leo had disappeared from his seat, yet his reflection was showing on all the windows of the limousine.
A chilling fear traveled through my spine as I was reminded of extremely unpleasant memories.
"I named it blindspot." He whispered in my ear as he appeared behind me as soon as the reflections disappeared.
This almost made me jump out of my seat in fear. Leo seemed to not even be able to notice my discomfort at the moment.
Calm down, it's not what you think; he's not doing it with ill intention, he's just a little too excited, he just lacks a little tact… He's not doing it because he holds a grudge.
"Cool, don't you think?" His eyes brimming with expectation.
"... yeah, that seems… useful."
"I know, right! I wonder how I can combine this with the other abilities I have in storage? I can't wait to start practicing with them." He kept bragging while using the ability to constantly shift between seats in the limousine.
As we got inside the large island, there we found parked a variety of different cars, from sports cars to other limousines, floating cars, and lots and lots of motorcycles.
Every parking slot had a servant waiting in front of it, ready to attend us and welcome us to the large arena.
The large building in which the arena was located didn't look like what I had imagined; what I thought I would find was a large, circular or oval amphitheater. But what was in front of me looked more like a regular mansion standing atop a large grassy plain field.
To reach the arena, we had to take an elevator located in the parking lot.
What the—is it underground? Why?
"Leo, how many times have you been here?" I asked him.
"Not many, probably six at most; most matches are for exhibition; they don't use demonic powers, so they're incredibly boring to look at. Today is one of the few exceptions. That's why it's such a big deal." He explained.
"Ah, what about the warriors?" I asked him.
"What about them? Mhh, I think most of them are slaves; they are the servants that defected, at least some of them are. I don't know much about it, sorry." As he apologized, his father gently patted his head and then did the same to me.
That doesn't sound good.
Once the door opened, we found ourselves in front of a large hallway with a glass window in front of us, showing us the interior of that cubic-shaped arena.
At the center of it sat the intruder, calmly sitting on the ground with both legs crossed, waiting for a challenger to make his way into the arena. As soon as we got closer to the class window, he opened his eyes and turned his head our way.
"What the—" I immediately took a step back, frightened by this sudden change.
"OHHH!" Leo screamed full of enthusiasm with his face glued to the window.
"Calm down, Leo; let's just find our seat for now." His father said as he picked him up and dragged him away from the screen.
What was that?