"Congratulations, Soma! You actually got second in the Autumn Elections! That's incredible!" Ryoko Sakaki said to the triumphantly returning Soma Yukihira.
The other friends from the Polar Star Dormitory chimed in with their congratulations as well.
"Not bad at all. You didn't embarrass the dormitory," Lady Fumio said with a smile.
"I'm still pretty annoyed I didn't get first!" Soma Yukihira looked completely unsatisfied.
With his confidence, he naturally didn't want to be beneath anyone.
Never mind Lexon, who had already flown so far ahead he was out of sight, but now even Lexon's cousin had shown up...
*Could it be... that my status as one of Totsuki's Two Tyrants is about to be handed over just like that?*
Soma Yukihira really didn't want it to be that way.
"But why did you guys start arguing during the award ceremony at the end?" Yuki Yoshino asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Uh... I don't really know," Soma Yukihira said, scratching his head.
*Click.*
At that moment, the door pushed open.
"It sounds pretty lively in here," Lexon said as he walked in.
"Yo! Lexon, you're back," Soma Yukihira greeted him.
"Yeah," Lexon replied, followed by, "I heard you took second place in the Autumn Elections. Good job, Soma."
"Right? Pretty impressive, isn't it?" In front of Lexon, Soma Yukihira instantly became smug again.
"Impressive, impressive," Lexon said dismissively.
"By the way, Lexon, what were you up to? Why didn't you participate in the Autumn Elections?" Soma Yukihira brought up the question that had been on his mind.
"Yeah, yeah... where did you go?" Yuki Yoshino was also curious about what Lexon had been doing to miss such an important event.
"If Lexon had participated, he probably would have taken first..." Ryoko Sakaki murmured.
No one questioned that statement, not even the confident Soma Yukihira.
He fully acknowledged the strength of his friend, who was improving at a breakneck pace.
"I was busy with a Shokugeki, so I didn't join," Lexon replied.
"Huh?"
"A Shokugeki?"
"With who?"
"What happened this time?"
The Polar Star crowd reacted as if they had heard a tall tale, their surprised voices overlapping.
"Lexon went to have a Shokugeki with the Ninth Seat, Eizan..." Satoshi Isshiki said with a squinting smile.
"The Ninth Seat?"
"The Ninth Seat!?"
Instantly, their surprise deepened into pure shock.
"Why did you suddenly challenge the Ninth Seat to a Shokugeki, Lexon!" Soma Yukihira pressed.
He suddenly felt a sense of being left behind...
*We agreed to reach the top of Totsuki together...*
*It's one thing for his strength to leave me in the dust... but now he's even having Shokugekis with the Elite Ten without saying a word.*
*Damn it...*
"That's not the point, that's not the point," Yuki Yoshino said. "The point is, did you win? Did you win?"
With that question, almost everyone in the Polar Star Dormitory stared at Lexon, waiting for his answer.
"I won," Lexon replied with a gentle smile and a flat tone.
Silence...
No one in the hall spoke; the atmosphere turned heavy and still.
It took a long time for someone to find their voice.
"Does that mean... Lexon, you're the Ninth Seat now?" Ryoko Sakaki asked hesitantly.
"Not necessarily... it might not have been a Shokugeki with a seat on the line..." Zenji Marui pushed up his sliding glasses with a slightly trembling hand.
"A seat was on the line," Lexon explained.
After all, wagering his own Sixth Seat counted as having a seat on the line.
"A seat really was on the line!!" Daigo Aoki exclaimed in shock.
"Polar Star has another member of the Elite Ten!!!" Shoji Sato shouted.
"It's only the start of the second semester of our first year! Lexon has already become the Ninth Seat of the Elite Ten! He's even a seat higher than Erina Nakiri!" Yuki Yoshino shouted, rubbing her cheeks vigorously.
"Haha, it looks like the Golden Age of the Polar Star Dormitory is returning," Lady Fumio laughed happily.
Gin Dojima and Joichiro Yukihira were once residents of Polar Star who became members of the Elite Ten early on, ushering in the dormitory's Golden Age. Back then, they elevated the status of the dorm so much that countless Totsuki students were desperate to get in.
Now, they had Satoshi Isshiki as the Seventh Seat in the second year, Lexon as the Ninth Seat in the first year, and Soma Yukihira—who took second in the Autumn Elections and was highly likely to join the Elite Ten...
This gave Lady Fumio the feeling that they were gradually returning to their former glory.
"Damn it... he's way ahead of me, becoming the Ninth Seat already... Looks like I need to find a member of the Elite Ten for a Shokugeki too," Soma Yukihira said with a hint of frustration.
"Ah... Lexon isn't the Ninth Seat," Satoshi Isshiki suddenly spoke up.
"Huh? Senior Isshiki... not the Ninth Seat? What do you mean? Didn't he win a Shokugeki with a seat on the line?" Yuki Yoshino asked, confused.
"Lexon..." Satoshi Isshiki explained, resting his chin on his hand. "He's actually the Sixth Seat. Wagering a seat meant that Lexon put his own Sixth Seat on the line..."
"..."
"..."
Everyone was suddenly speechless.
"Are you joking, Senior Isshiki?" Yuki Yoshino asked tentatively.
"I am not," Satoshi Isshiki shook his head with certainty.
"Lexon?" Ryoko Sakaki looked at Lexon, her mind blank.
"Senior Isshiki isn't lying," Lexon replied with a smile. "I really am the Sixth Seat."
"Whaaaaaaat!?"
The moment those words fell, the residents of the Polar Star Dormitory felt like they were about to faint from the shock.
The news of him winning a Shokugeki against the Ninth Seat was already terrifying enough... but now there was the news that he was actually the Sixth Seat!
Didn't that mean Lexon had already challenged the Sixth Seat of the Elite Ten and successfully seized the position!?
Could anything be more ridiculous than this!?
They didn't understand. They couldn't wrap their heads around it.
Their brains felt like they had turned into mush.
"Then if you were already the Sixth Seat, why did you have a Shokugeki for a seat against the Ninth Seat?" Yuki Yoshino asked loudly.
"I can't figure that out either... Lexon hasn't done this just once... Since winning the Sixth Seat, he has consecutively had Shokugekis with me and the Eighth Seat, Terunori Kuga... In other words, Lexon has already defeated four members of the Elite Ten." Satoshi Isshiki also didn't understand the meaning behind Lexon's actions, so he said this hoping for a response from Lexon.
"He's won against four members of the Elite Ten in total..." Yuki Yoshino's jaw nearly hit the floor.
"I don't care! I'm going to challenge a member of the Elite Ten tomorrow! I want to be in the Elite Ten too!" Soma Yukihira, his confidence thoroughly battered, shouted.
"Soma... you can't! You just lost to Erina Nakiri, the Tenth Seat, in the Autumn Elections! You won't win!" the country girl, Megumi Tadokoro, anxiously tried to reason with Soma, who seemed to have lost his mind.
"So, why did you do it... Lexon?" The usually calm and mature Ryoko Sakaki had lost her composure as well.
*Because I need to complete the hidden world mission and turn this restrictive world of the Main God into my own backyard.*
Naturally, he couldn't answer like that.
"To reach the summit of Totsuki, I need to defeat every member of the Elite Ten."
He chose to answer like that.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]