Chapter 17 Young Elites

The room assigned to me was quite big compared to the outer district apartment that Lucas rented.

There was a bedroom, a balcony featuring the city's view, a bathroom, and an open kitchen connected to the living room.

Not to mention this apartment came with all the furniture and TV too. This place was huge for just one person to live in.

It kind of made me wonder if an ordinary cadet's place was this lavish, what treatment would the Top 16 receive?

Slouching back on my couch in the drawing room, I looked at the smart bracelet in my hand.

Using mana is pretty simple. It's like breathing. I can voluntarily move the mana from my mana core which was located in my abdomen.

So slowly, I focused on my abdomen and started moving the mana from my mana core to my right hand.

From my hand, I started imbuing mana into the smart bracelet that I wore on my wrist.

The bracelet then glowed with a light azure blue hue, and a bow materialized in my right hand out of thin air.

I was stunned, to say the least. That fact that I really was inside a fantasy world was getting clearer day by day.

The bow in my hand felt heavy, not exactly like how I imagined it to be. And this was only a normal bow without any runes or enchantments.

"What would it feel like to shoot an arrow from this?" I pondered while touching the bowstring.

It was a normal recurve bow, yet when I tried to pull the string, I had to use a lot of strength—a lot more than I expected.

Tak—!

A loud tak sound resounded in the room when I let go of the string.

"Amazing…" I remarked.

I had never used a bow in my previous life, but after inheriting Lucas' memories, I knew how to shoot an arrow at least.

It just felt right when I held it in my hand.

Albeit, I'm not at the level of Anastasia or Amelia, as they both have worked all their life to master the art of archery.

But I had a way in my mind to catch up to them.

No, no, I won't be stealing another cheat item from the MC. Instead, I had something different in mind.

Ding–! Ding–!

Shaking me out of my thoughts was the loud chimes of the doorbell. Someone was outside my apartment.

Right after, an electronic, almost robotic voice came from the other side of the main door.

-"Global Military Academy, year 1 batch 27, academy rank 116969, Lucas Morningstar! Take your parcel!"

It was the voice of a robot. That parcel must be the luggage that I left at the outer district apartment.

Since Lucas originally rented that apartment in the outer district only till February 29, which was today, the landlord must be sending me my luggage.

Throwing the bow on the couch, I opened the door and saw a 5ft short humanoid robot holding a fairly big box.

Taking the box from its mechanical hand, I stepped back inside the room and closed the door behind me.

Putting the box on a table, I used my fingernail to cut the tape and opened the box.

There were many things inside—clothes, daily necessities, instant food packets, etc. I also found a few diary journals.

These were all the things I left behind when coming to the academy. I knew I'd get them later, so I didn't waste my time packing everything.

Anyway, most of the things here were useless to me.

The clothes were too flashy for my taste, and I'm not a big fan of instant food. I'm also not a fan of reading someone else's journals either.

Besides, I already knew what was written inside those journals since I had Lucas' memories of writing them.

The only thing worth my interest in this box was Lucas' collection of luxury watches.

Ahh~ To think that I could wear these expensive watches to my heart's content!

Ahem, anyhow, one by one, I emptied all the box's contents on the table.

Nodding in satisfaction, I was about to get up and tidy up the place. But before I could do so, my eyes fell on a shiny-looking red object on the ground.

"Huh?" It must've fallen when I was emptying the box.

Thinking that, I picked up the object and started inspecting it with a frown on my face.

It was a red feathered pen—a very expensive-looking red feathered pen, to be precise.

Frowning deeper in confusion, I put it aside.

I didn't remember seeing this in the luggage I had left behind. Maybe the landlord sent it by mistake?

I flipped the whole box over the table to see if something else was sent by mistake.

And just as I thought, there was indeed something else inside the box. Something fell on the table as soon as I flipped the box.

It was a white envelope.

Narrowing my eyes, I picked up the envelope to see what it was.

But when I picked it up and read the words written on it, my eyes widened in shock.

The words "-From Joe" were written on the front of the envelope….

†

In a very expensive cafe, the kind of which only rich kids can afford to come in, five students were sitting in a group.

They were waiting for the group's sixth member to arrive, but it looked like she was running late.

Although they belonged to elite and high-class households, they were looking nothing short of delinquents right now.

Laughing loudly at even the smallest jokes, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes in a public place.

In the novel's first few arcs, they were basically the group of rich kids known as the Young Elites.

…Yeah, no really. That's what they called themselves. So stupid.

They were a group of cadets consisting of the heirs of big influential, and noble families.

Their head was Kai Wiseman. One of the future antagonists of the novel and a cadet of Class 1-A-2.

Quinn was also present there, but he wasn't socializing in the least.

He was busy digging his mouth into his burger while quietly observing these kids who called themselves "future elites."

Although Quinn was not officially recognized as an elite due to his illegitimate birth, he had a reputation for being a skilled fighter.

In fact, his battle prowess and talent in magic were on par with Nero's, another elite who faced similar discrimination and rejection due to his illegitimate birth.

In the Northern Continent's border, where Quinn had fought on the front lines against the lower class Vampires for the most part of his teenage life, they called him the 'Calamity Bringer.'

Quinn had a long history of fighting, having been sent to the border to fight as a child.

This was a common practice in the North, where he was from from. Orphan children with exceptional abilities were often sent to the battlefield there.

In this case, though, Quinn's own father sent him to the border.

Not because he was his illegitimate son and he wanted him to die or anything. But because Quinn was his 'experiment.'

You see, Major Miles Darkstar— Quinn's father was an estranged practitioner of the spell of the dark element called ‹Necromancy›.

But using ‹Necromancy› to bring the dead back to life and control them as puppets can negatively affect the mage's life as if nature's way of trying to maintain its laws and preserve life.

Due to this natural restriction, Major Miles could never use the full potential of the ‹Necromancy› spell. In fact, no one ever could.

In an effort to overcome this limitation, he conducted a series of experiments on his own illegitimate son, Quinn.

After that, at age 14 he sent him to the border for 4 years. For 4 years, Quinn assisted the soldiers in their missions there and sometimes even faught.

As a result of his father's experiments and the challanging environment of the northern border, Quinn became a formidable force with exceptional control over the element of darkness, as demonstrated by his survival on the battlefield for all these years.

Major Miles' experiment was therefore considered a success.

He had, for the first time in history, created a perfect Necromancer.

Anyway, despite his extensive combat experience, Quinn was required to attend the Academy, as it was mandatory by the law for anyone with the ability to wield mana to receive proper military training.

To summarize, he was a famous figure. There were many articles written about him, and the media hailed him as a war prodigy.

It won't take a genius to guess that Quinn had a bright future ahead of him in the military.

So right now, Kai thought that making a connection with him would be good.

As they say, the best time to make a connection with a successful person is when they are not successful.

-"Hahaha! That's so true!" A boy laughed out loud when Kai made a joke that wasn't even the least bit funny.

Quinn only shook his head and continued eating his burger.

In the next moment, their laughing and joking halted as soon as the cafe's door opened up, and a blonde girl stepped in.

"You are late!" Ella commented when she saw Grace walk into the cafe.

"Yeah, I met a pest on my way here," said Grace nonchalantly before walking up to them and casually sitting beside Quinn.

Quinn shifted a little to his left when his private space was invaded by the blonde girl, to which Grace just frowned.

"A pest, huh?" Ella glanced at Grace with questioning eyes.

She had known Grace for a few years now, so she knew there were only too many people Grace would call names like "pests."

Feeling her questioning gaze, Grace spoke up, "Lucas. That trash was assigned to the apartment next to me."

"Ahhh!" Ella nodded with an arched eyebrow in understanding.

"Lucas Morningstar? The one they call 'Disgrace of the Morningstar family'?" Kai, who had been drinking till now, placed the can of beer down and asked.

"Yeah, that trash. Not only is he disowned now for molesting a commoner girl, but he also has no redeeming qualities to speak of… except for his looks. He is pretty hot, not going to lie." Grace admitted before turning towards Quinn, who was quietly eating.

"Anyway, hello Quinn, I don't believe we have met yet. I am Grace Godwill," she said.

"Mmm, I know," Quinn curtly replied while putting away the burger that he had been eating for the last 10 minutes.

Just how slow was his eating speed?

"So, who is the strongest here?" asked Quinn as he eyed everyone.

It was a strange question that left everyone speechless. That's not the kind of question you can expect beforehand, after all.

But it looked like Kai had already anticipated a question like this from Quinn as he quickly answered.

"I am." He declared. "I believe I am the strongest one here since I am ‹Bronze 2›."

It looked like Ella wanted to retort, but her tier wasn't anywhere near ‹Bronze 2›, so she kept her silence.

"I see," Quinn just nodded and continued eating again.

After a short silence, Ella tried to strike up a conversation.

"Who do you think is the strongest in our class, Grace?" Ella questioned Grace.

"Well, if that boy, what was his name again? Ahh, Nero! Yes, so if that new boy Nero really did kill a ‹Silver› ranked mana beast, then him, or else the strongest one would be Quinn." Grace answered while fiddling with her fingers.

That was an honest answer, and even Quinn knew it too.

If Nero really did kill a ‹Silver› ranked mana beast alone under an hour, then his battle prowess was leagues above Quinn's.

Although Quinn was sure that if he were to go all out, he would still be able to defeat Nero with his ‹Necromancy› and ‹Shadow Pulse› spells.

However, it still hurt his pride a little, but he didn't let it show on his face.

"Yeah, true. And then there is that boy who chose handguns! I bet he was just trying to be different and ended up doing something foolish. Hahaha!" Ella laughed after ridiculing a boy whose name she couldn't even recall.

"Wait, really? I thought it was just a rumor! Haha! Some idiot really did choose handguns!" A bulky boy beside Kai laughed. "What do you think about him, Kai?"

"Meh, I'm not interested in trash," Kai commented. "I'm not very interested in long-ranged fighters in general. Bullets or arrows against my fist, the result is clear."

Quinn couldn't help but roll his eyes. The boy in front of him was clearly not very experienced in real-life battles and was just thinking about 1v1 strength.

Quinn, who fights at extremely close range with his daggers, knew how helpful the covers provided by the snipers were.

"True! Snipers can never climb to the top ranks, especially a gun user." Ella remarked with a scoff.

"Okay, I'm done," Quinn said as he got up from his spot and started leaving… without even paying for his meal.

"Wait, we were thinking about touring the city!" Kai tried to stop him, but the black-haired boy just exited through the door without looking back.

He couldn't endure spending another single second with those stupid teenagers.

"If they really are the next generations of elites, then the world is doomed," he said before getting on his hoverbike and trailing off in the distance.