CHAPTER 307: BEFORE HEAVEN AND EARTH, BEFORE GODS, AND MEN [PART 1]

The Solara and Faelarun delegates had been in the Frieden Academy for four days.

At first, the Elves had been arrogant, almost annoyingly so.

The students of the academy tolerated them, considering that they were VIP Guests. However, they weren’t pushovers and made sure to vent during their clashes in the training grounds.

Of course, the students of Faelarun Academy weren’t the only ones actively joining duels. The students from Solara Academy also joined the fray, making the training grounds one of the most visited places in the academy.

Chuck blinked once, then twice, as he looked at Caelum, who seemed to be avoiding him since yesterday.

Instead of challenging Chuck, the other Elves challenged the other students of the academy, as if using them to vent their frustrations.

Serenya, known for her composure, also fought violently, even resorting to using powerful attacks.

This prompted the Professors to activate the arena’s safety feature, which instantly teleported the students about to suffer serious injuries to a safe location.

Ironically, the Elves usually won these duels.

But even though they won, none of them seemed to be happy about it.

"What’s wrong, Caelum?" Chuck asked. "It’s as if you have an itch you can’t scratch no matter what you do."

Caelum ignored the young man as he stepped out of the arena.

"Oi, what’s wrong?" Chuck blocked the elf’s path after being ignored. "Did I do something wrong? Why are you guys ignoring me?"

"Sorry, Chuck, but forget about the duel I requested of you," Caelum replied. "I will still fight Renard since I believe I have much to learn from him. However, I will no longer challenge you in a duel."

Chuck didn’t know whether he should be happy or sad after hearing the arrogant elf’s words.

But he noticed something that he didn’t know before.

Nearly all of the Elves, except for those who didn’t participate in the Battle Choir and stuck to Prince Kaelen as his bodyguards, had all become very respectful toward Alex.

Chuck even saw some of them shudder whenever his roommate appeared to greet them.

There was even someone who started crying when she saw Alex, which made the academy’s troublemaker wonder if his best friend had done something to the elves.

Caelum and Serenya even politely asked Alex to just focus on guiding Prince Kaelen, asking for Astrea to be their guide instead.

Thinking that the Elves might still be embarrassed due to what happened in the Seventh Training Room, Alex agreed and swapped places with Astrea as the guide for Faelarun Academy’s second group.

Just as Chuck was thinking of asking Caelum if his roommate had done anything to them, he heard a loud shout in the distance.

"You! Release her at once!"

Everyone in the training ground shifted their attention to the entrance of the training ground, curious about what the commotion was all about.

The delegation of the Solara Academy, which was already a very common sight in the training grounds, had arrived to enjoy their share of the duels.

But when their gaze landed on the young man, whom they recognized as the Fourth Prince of the Solara Kingdom, Prince Garen, they knew that something wasn’t right.

"How long do you plan to hug her?!" Prince Garen shouted in anger. "Let go of her at once!"

Alex blinked once, then twice, before looking at Vaan, whose arms were wrapped around him, his head resting on his chest.

Ironically, the silver-haired young man wasn’t even holding onto Vaan.

In fact, his hands were even raised in the air as if in surrender, yet the prince was still fuming and insisted that he let go of the pretty boy who was smiling mischievously.

Of course, no one saw the latter’s mischief. His face was covered by Alex’s chest, so to everyone, he was still the pure, beautiful lady.

"Your Highness, I think there’s a misunderstanding," Alex replied. "I’m not hugging him—errr, her. Look, I’m not even touching anything!"

"Do you think I’m blind?!" Prince Garen asked, his glare locked on Alex’s handsome face. "Just a glance, and I can tell that you’re a playboy! Unhand her, or face my sword!"

Everyone wanted to say, "Yeah, you’re blind," but decided to just watch since they found this incident quite entertaining to watch.

"Um... Alex, something hard is touching my stomach," Vaan said with a blush creeping on his face.

Alex wanted to cough a mouthful of blood then and there after hearing the pretty boy speak nonsense.

"Vaan, be good," Alex lightly patted the pretty boy’s head. "Don’t cause trouble for me, okay?"

Vaan stuck out his tongue and reluctantly stepped away from Alex.

However, while his back still faced the Prince, the delicate looking young man pressed his hands together and mouthed, "This Prince has been trying to flirt with me for days. Please, save me, Alex."

No sound came out of Vaan’s lips, deliberately done as he didn’t want to cause a scene.

"I guess this is what you call love is blind," Alex muttered.

Dim Dim, who was perched on top of Alex’s head, nodded in agreement. "Dim."

Before Alex and Vaan could even do anything, Prince Garen stepped forward and wrapped his left arm on Vaan’s waist, pulling him away from the silver-haired young man.

"Listen, I don’t want you going anywhere, Ms. Vaan," Prince Garen stated. "If you do, I will challenge you to a duel!"

Ever since he saw Vaan, the Prince fell in love at first sight.

At first, he tried to be courteous and respectful.

But every time he saw Vaan smile and talk to Alex, he felt the flames of jealousy burn within his chest.

Vaan had always been close to Alex.

Whenever they accidentally met, the pretty boy would give Alex a hug, while the latter would pat his head.

The students of the academy were already used to this scene, but Prince Garen didn’t want Vaan to smile at any other young men aside from him.

Also, the skinship Vaan shared with Alex drove the Prince nuts.

The Radiant Lily of the Solara Delegation, Lady Celestria, frowned. It went without saying that her cousin’s obsessiveness was becoming a problem.

However, since he was the fourth prince of Solara, she couldn’t berate him in public since it would make Prince Garen lose face.

’I need to talk to him in private later,’ Lady Celestria thought. ’This can’t continue.’

Suddenly, Caelum thought of an idea, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"Prince Garen, we are the guests of Frieden Academy, so this kind of behavior will not reflect kindly on us," Caelum stated. "However, I see in your eyes that you have a grudge against Alex, which I think will become troublesome if you bottle it up.

"How about you just challenge him here in the arena and settle it like true men? Isn’t it a knight’s duty to protect the weak and innocent? I see Ms. Vaan seemed to be frightened out of her wits."

"I am?" Vaan blinked.

"Yes you are, Ms. Vaan." Caelum insisted.

Vaan tilted her head to the side, looking very cute, which made Caelum feel his heart skip a beat.

’W-What the hell?!’ Caelum, who suddenly felt like Vaan looked extremely cute for a human, suddenly became anxious.

Ever since the Battle Choir ended, a scar had formed on his heart and refused to heal. As a result, his emotions had been all over the place since yesterday.

The anxiety and blow to his confidence had left him and the other elves itching for an outlet, making them more active in challenging Frieden Academy’s students.

"You’re right." Prince Garen nodded. "Alex Stratos, I challenge you to a duel. If you win, you will break up with Ms. Vaan and never bother her again! In return, I will promise to make her happy for the rest of her life as my wife!"

The girls from Frieden Academy who heard this went "Kyaaah! Kyaaah!" as if a duel to get Vaan’s affection made their hearts flutter.

The guys who secretly had a crush on Vaan cheered and urged Alex to kill the Prince of Solara!

"Go Alex! Kill him!"

"Cut off his PP!"

"Don’t let him steal our muse! Death to the heretic!"

"Death!"

""Death!""

"What the fuc..." Alex muttered because things had escalated to the point where the entire training ground was in uproar.

The young man glanced at Vaan, and the latter acted like a damsel in distress, wiping his crocodile tears with his handkerchief.

It made her look very vulnerable, and the simps who had a crush on her, especially Prince Garen, wished they could protect her smile no matter what.

"I accept this duel," Alex knew that he couldn’t get out of this mess, so he decided to accept the challenge. ’I’ll just concede before the match starts.’

Once the Prince had calmed down, he would talk to him in private and tell him that Vaan was actually a boy, not a girl.

Seeing that Alex had accepted his challenge, Prince Garen smiled with confidence as if he had already won the duel.

As if waiting for that moment, Prince Kaelen also appeared in the arena with his entourage.

Naturally, Lapiz was there.

She looked at Alex as if wanting to help him, but he merely shook his head and told her that things are going to be fine.

Prince Kaelen, who had long felt that his sister was unusually close to Alex, also decided to watch this battle unfold.

He had already marked Alex as someone that shouldn’t be allowed to breathe in the same space as his sisters, whom he loved very much.