Seeing their terrified faces looking up at me, I was pretty sure they would not bother me for the next few days.
But then I heard the doors open behind me, and a large crowd of students started pouring into the training hall, then stopping abruptly when they saw Lucien knocked out cold on the floor.
"Wow, did the commoner really beat him up?" someone whispered in the back, but it was loud enough for the whole room to hear.
"How cool is that?" another student joined in while pointing at the broken floor tiles.
Cool?
Well, I guess there is really no reason for me to hide my power right now if it actually keeps these rich kids from messing with me during my stay here.
I looked up from the ground and saw Melissa standing quietly in the corner of the room.
Her light blue hair was long and perfectly styled, and she looked way more mature than the rest of the first-year girls sitting in our morning classes.
Her uniform hugged her body in a way that highlighted her curves and made her a perfect figure of noble elegance.
'What is this weird feeling in my heart?' I thought to myself as my chest suddenly felt a little tight just looking at her.
She was looking right at me, and I mean really looking at me with a completely unreadable expression on her face.
Behind her stood Zephyr, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his own expression completely blank as he surveyed the damage I had caused.
Just as I thought I could slip away and escape the growing crowd of whispering students, Professor Gion ran into the training hall looking like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his forehead.
"What is the meaning of this, Newman? Come to my office this instant!" he yelled while pointing a shaking finger right at my face.
Ah, fuck.
The next thirty minutes were a complete waste of my new life.
I sat in a wooden chair in his stuffy office, explaining exactly how I just used self-defence to protect myself from an unprovoked attack, while Gion tried his hardest to blame everything on me because Lucien was a high-ranking noble and I was just a nobody commoner.
I guess that is just how the corrupt academy hierarchy works, but I honestly didn't care enough to argue back too hard, just nodded along and agreed to whatever warning he wanted to give me so I could finally leave.
I managed to walk out of his office without getting officially expelled, and right as I stepped into the empty hallway, a blue screen popped up in my vision.
[Minor Scenario Completed: Defeat the Bully]
[Reward: 800 Coins acquired]
[New Skill Unlocked: Mana Mimicry Lv. 1]
I stared at the floating text and let out a tired sigh of relief.
So that explains how I managed to copy Lucien's lightning magic back in the training hall without actually knowing any lightning spells.
But it's not hard to mimic attacks.
The magic in this world, according to their understanding. If one could bend mana to his thoughts, then he could wield flame or ice affinity as long as he grasped the basics.
I decided to head over to the main cafeteria to calm my nerves and figure out my next move for the day.
The dining hall was big and packed with students eating expensive-looking meals, and I was just trying to find a quiet table in the corner when I accidentally bumped right into someone holding a tray.
"Watch where you are walking," a smooth, confident voice said right in front of me.
I looked down and saw Melissa looking back up at me.
Up close, she was even more intimidating than she was from across the room.
She was the wealthy and elegant daughter of a powerful duke, and she also happened to be the original female lead of the entire novel I was trapped in.
"Sorry about that," I said while stepping back to give her some space.
"I guess I was just lost in my own thoughts after dealing with Professor Gion."
"You are the commoner who just humiliated Lucien down in the training hall," she said, ignoring my apology and getting straight to the point.
"I saw the whole fight from the upper balcony, and it was quite the show."
"I wouldn't really call it a fight," I replied casually, matching her confident tone.
"He swung first, and I just stood my ground until he tired himself out."
Melissa tilted her head to the side and gave me a small smile that made my stomach do a weird flip.
"You are strong for a nobody, Shane Newman. People like Lucien spend their entire lives training with private tutors just to master basic elemental strikes, and you put him on the floor without even breaking a sweat."
"Maybe I just had a really good breakfast this morning," I joked, trying to keep the conversation light so she wouldn't dig too deep into my strange abilities.
She actually laughed at that, and the sound was surprisingly nice.
'Wait, was I always this funny?'
It felt natural, like we were two people who understood a secret joke that nobody else in the loud cafeteria was in on.
"You should probably be careful from now on," Melissa warned me while leaning in just a little closer, lowering her voice so the nearby students couldn't hear us.
"Humiliating a noble on the very first day is a great way to make powerful enemies before the semester even officially begins, and you don't have a family name to protect you."
"I really appreciate the warning, but I think I can handle myself just fine," I told her, looking right into her eyes.
She gave me one last long look, her eyes scanning my face like she was trying to solve a puzzle, before she finally turned around and walked away to join her high-society friends at their table.
I watched her walk away for a second and then found an empty seat near the back window, then looked at my system.
[Time remaining: 2 Days 14 Hours]
This weird scenario to seduce Professor Sianna in less than three days, and I have absolutely zero idea how to even get close to a married faculty member without getting thrown into the academy prison for harassment.
I need to find out her daily schedule, what she actually likes, and where she spends her free time when she isn't teaching classes.
'I need an ally who knows this academy inside out,' I thought to myself while looking back across the crowded cafeteria at Melissa, who was currently laughing at something one of her rich friends said.
'She has the money, the deep social connections, and the political influence to get me anywhere I need to go.'