Eventually, the last day of the semester came. Godfrey leaned against the wall, in between two windows, staring at Isolde, Isaac, and Lucy, who looked at the room with different expressions.
One expression that could be found in each of them was surprise.
Isoldeâs was mild; Isaac, on the other hand, even gasped audibly.
"Whatâs this?" Isolde asked, facing Godfrey.
"This is the room the headmaster assigned for our club. Itâs official... but I still donât have a name for it yet," he replied.
"This is good news!" Isaac went to the window while Lucy had a smile. Isolde tilted her head as she saw the tensed expression Godfrey wore after his smile vanished.
"Is there something you want to say?"
Everyone turned to him.
Godfrey exhaled, rubbing his palms before looking at the ceiling for a short moment and then back at them.
"I recently discovered that Iâm a king-tier summoner. At least, I have the potential to be one," Godfrey said, and Isaacâs face morphed into absolute shock.
Isolde blinked while Lucy gasped excitedly. "So youâre really the Shadow King!"
Knowing he had king-tier potential, Godfrey also knew that the next door might be the last door. At least once it was unsealed, he would have four summons!
In the entire world, there were only a handful of them, and most had much weaker summons. It was usually something like a small pack of wolves, and most of them werenât too different in tiers.
"I found a name for the club!" Isaac said, his eyes glowing with excitement at the wondrous idea that just popped into his head.
"Since youâre the Shadow King already, why donât we name our club Shadow Club or Shadow Hunter Club?"
"Shadow Club sounds better," Isolde replied.
"Shadow Club it is!" Isaac finalized without waiting for Godfrey or Lucyâs own idea. "Isolde will be the Shadow Queen, Iâll be the Shadow Knight, and Lucy will be the Shadow Sage."
These were already key positions in the schoolâs hierarchy. Isaac just slapped Shadow at the front and made it theirs.
"How about we make it more balanced? Since weâre going to be accommodating people from the Freshman year to Seniors, it should be: Shadow King, Shadow Queen, Shadow Knight, Shadow Ace, Shadow Sage, two Shadow Rooks, Shadow Joker, and eight pawns. Only the pawns will be numbered. Godfrey, what do you think?"
Godfrey cleared his throat. "Sounds... big."
"Nexus Club handles missions sent to them by the authorities, which are filtered by the school board, but weâre going to be hunting on our own, the underground version of Nexus Club. No one controls us," Isolde said.
"If there was one thing Jon was right about, it was that he did need more hands to handle the burden. He just had rotten hands. For now, we only have the King, Queen, Sage, and Knight. Weâll find people for other positions next semester," Godfrey said, crossing his arms.
Isaac stretched, looking at the bright scenery outside. "Itâs bye-bye to Manhattanâs beauty. Youâre my mentor, Godfrey, but better train. Next semester is the cross-class tournament. We freshmen are going to face you sophomores, and you guys are going to face the juniors. Itâs going to be intense."
"You didnât even complete your exercise yesterday, and youâre blabbering," Godfrey scowled.
Isaacâs eyes widened. "You increased it to two hundred and fifty!"
"I heard the seniors are going to be back next semester. I wonder what it was like living on the moon," Lucy said softly.
"Whereâs Isolde?!" Godfrey suddenly turned and discovered Isolde was gone. Before he could move, she appeared in a violet flash with cardboard paper and paint.
"Letâs paint our clubâs name. What vibe should it have?" she asked as all of them gathered around the table, picking scissors, rulers, and other stuff to begin their craft.
***
Godfrey came out of a taxi with a traveling bag. He walked into a towering structure of glass and metal.Skyline 88!
One of the best luxury apartment complexes in Manhattan. After staying in the headmasterâs second house for a while and almost destroying it during their training, his mother rented a three-bedroom apartment in this complex.
It had security, a pool, and many other things one could enjoy during this one-month break, but for Godfrey, he wanted to spend this month learning how to properly wield a sword and store up enough mana, as much as he could.
And the final goal was to increase Mountainâs tier.
With his goals occupying his mind, he walked into the elevator. As the door began to close, Godfrey sighted Percival racing for it like his life was on the line.
He quickly pressed the "Door Open" button, and the third-year student crashed into the elevator, slamming the metal wall.
âWhatâs his deal?â Godfrey thought, looking out the door until it closed, but he couldnât find who or what he was running from.
"What areâ?!" Godfreyâs voice died, his eyes widening as Percivalâs common brown hair became silky and pale blue. His olive skin became white, giving him looks that rivaled Snowâs angelic face.
"Thank you," Percival said, turning his head to Godfrey, whose eyes narrowed as he spotted the burn mark at the right side of Percivalâs cheek, just before his lips.
All of a sudden, Percivalâs eyes widened. "You! W-What are you doing here? Donât you live in Amazon City?"
"We moved," Godfrey replied, still in disbelief.
"Oh?" Percival turned away. "You played well during the game."
"Thanks," Godfrey replied. That was all. They both stood in a nonchalant silence until the elevator reached its destination.
As Godfrey walked out, he was surprised, Percival also walked out, both eyeing each other from the corner of their eyes.
"Percival!" Valentinaâs eyes widened while beside her, a woman held her mouth. "Is that Godfrey?! Heâs grown so much. Heâs even as tall as my son."
Percival scowled internally. Iâm definitely taller. He was 185 while Godfrey was 183, but the difference wasnât much.
"Whatâs going on?" Godfrey left his bag.
"Godfrey..." Valentina approached her son and held his hand, drawing him close to the other woman.
"This is Mrs. Joy, the doctor that brought you out of my tummy."
Godfreyâs eyes slowly widened in surprise.
...
A/N: Guys, weâre ranked 13th on the Golden Ticket ranking! Thatâs incredible! I really appreciate the love from the gifters, commenters and those that are silent but still reading.
Thank You!