"Maybe you are just nervous about the Silver Moon Academy disciples who are visiting the academy tomorrow," Senior Beldon\'s words snapped Claude back to reality.

\'That\'s right,\' Claude remembered. The Silver Moon Academy and the Trinity Academy, along with the Golden Avarice Academy, was supposed to have combined together to form the Royal Academy of Argria, and yet the three academies continued to operate separately. Until now.

Tomorrow was the day when the disciples of the Silver Moon Academy would arrive for a combined study visit, complete with friendly battles and group practice matches. \'Dayton Palmer,\' Claude thought to himself. He hadn\'t meant him since the Prodigy Summit. \'I wonder how much stronger he has become.\' He thought to himself.

"..You okay there, junior brother Claude?" Senior Beldon asked as he hadn\'t received a reply from Claude. Claude immediately shook his head with a smile, "No, no.. I\'m perfectly fine, Senior Beldon." He clarified. "Just thinking about tomorrow."

"Worried… or perhaps excited?" Senior Beldon asked, intrigued by the response he got from Claude. "A bit of both I guess." Claude shrugged his shoulders.

"I assume you\'re worried about Dayton Palmer?" Senior Beldon leaned forward onto the table and grabbed his cup of coffee as he spoke. Claude\'s eyes shifted to Senior Beldon, his eyebrows raised. "How\'d you know?"

"Oh, it\'s nothing amazing," Senior Beldon let out a short chuckle as he shook his head. "I just knew that you were extremely competitive in nature, and who else could have the ability to grab your attention than the young genius from Silver Moon Academy?"

Claude chuckled in response. "I guess I am a bit too simple in that regard, huh.."

"Nothing wrong with that, you know?" Senior Beldon shrugged and took a sip from his cup. "You need to be competitive if you want to climb higher and higher."

Claude nodded his head. That\'s right, he thought. The martial world is a tough and troublesome world where death can be just around the corner, hiding from our eyes until it\'s all too late. That is true for both the strong and the weak.

One might wrongfully assume that every problem you have can be easily solved if you have enough strength. But by living in this world, Claude had come to the realization that this line of thinking was simply too naive.

If you remain weak, you\'ll be living in fear from the people who are stronger than you. And even if you become as strong as the people who may be giving you trouble, you\'ll eventually become a target to those who are far stronger than them. Like moths to a flame. The brighter you burn, the more they\'ll increase in number.

It just never ends. And the higher you climb, the more powerful and difficult your opponents are going to become. In the martial world, there was only one way to ensure your survival, and that was to never stop climbing up.

\'These people who entered my room…\' Claude narrowed his eyes. \'They probably should have a good idea of me since they figured out my residence.\'

Claude scratched his chin. \'If that is really the case, then the fact that they entered my room regardless meant that they weren\'t afraid of him.\'

So the enemy most likely has to be stronger than him, thought Claude. How strong? He didn\'t know. But he did know that he had to be extremely cautious.

---------------

Soon, it was the next day, and the Royal Academy of Argria was bustling with noise and people.

Disciples were everywhere, whispering to one another, looking around the area, and waiting for the arrival of the Silver Moon Academy disciples.

Many were even waiting in front of the entrance of the academy. Of course, they were mostly senior disciples who wanted to get a good look at the \'new meat\' that were going to be arriving soon.

"Hey Harry?" A man with a turnip shaped head, who was waiting for the arrival of the Silver Moon Academy carriages, turned around after letting out a long yawn. "Are you sure we won\'t end up in trouble for doing this?"

"Of course not, you idiot!" A tall, humongous figure came into view, who answered the turnip head\'s question. The youth had a scary expression, with scars all over his nose and his cheeks, giving him the appearance of a terrifying criminal. The young man, Harry, leaned over to the turnip head kid and placed his hand over his shoulders and whispered into his ear. "Listen here, Linguini." He said. "You really don\'t like the way our juniors behave towards us, do you?"

"I-I don\'t.." The turnip head, named Linguini, answered while stammering. "Y-You\'re right, I don\'t like it." He replied softly.

He, along with Harry and his pals, were part of a senior disciples group who would go around and use their strength and status to extort and bully junior disciples.

At first, they did this for fun and to kill time, but as they spread out their bullying to multiple people and the extortion began to make them a lot of money, the group began to see the method as a viable source of side income, and their methods began to branch out, becoming more and more aggressive over time.

However, that all changed the moment Claude Rayforth became well known within the academy. Stories about the young man named Claude overcoming obstacles, standing up to his bully and defeating him were spreading like wildfire amongst the junior disciples. And it had its reasons.

Claude Rayforth was, like the rest of the youngsters, a junior disciple, and he had never bowed down to any of the seniors, which was going on for so long that it almost had become a tradition within academies. Claude Rayforth proudly stood alongside many of the seniors whom most junior disciples feared to even look at, and he did it with such ease that it was enough to inspire many junior disciples.

At first, it was just a few disciples. They stood up and within seconds, they were beaten into submission. But when one went down, two would spring back up in their place. The bullies, who had thought that their resistance would end after a few failed tries, were quickly proven wrong. The confidence of these junior disciples coincided with the achievements of Claude Rayforth over their senior brothers. And since Claude Rayforth has almost never been kept back by his seniors, neither did the confidence of these juniors.

The bullies didn\'t predict this, and the next thing they knew, there were far too many people that were standing up to them. More than they could handle. The juniors had won, and the seniors had lost. Of course, this failure to defeat their juniors did send a sour feeling through these bullies, and soon, more and more people began to leave the group, eventually disbanding completely.

Most of these people moved on. Found other things to worry about in life. But some of these seniors, like Harry, Linguini, and their pals, were simply too addicted to the feeling of beating down those weaker than them that they couldn\'t imagine a life without it.

"Listen, Linguini." Harry grabbed Linguini\'s checks, causing Linguini to look straight into his eyes, and said. "These juniors, they don\'t respect us. They don\'t respect you. You know that, right?"

He lightly poked Linguini on his chest. "And you know what? I even heard them making fun of your name."

"What?" Linguini stared straight at Harry, except this time, his eyes were burning with hatred. As though he wanted to kill someone.

Linguini didn\'t like his name. But he also didn\'t like people making fun of his name.

"You know why?" Harry whispered softly. "It\'s because they don\'t fear us."

Harry grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him hard. "This is what happens when we leave these juniors alone. They become brave. They think they are invincible. You don\'t want that happening again, do you?"

"No," Linguini shook his head. He definitely didn\'t enjoy hearing that his juniors were making fun of him.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The sound of carriages moving on the dirt road was heard, and a wide sinister grin appeared on Harry\'s face. Good, he thought to himself. \'Fresh meat has arrived.\'

"Look at that, Linguini." Harry said with an urgent tone as he grabbed Linguini by the shoulders and turned him around, and pointed at the group of carriages that were slowly moving in their direction. "The disciples inside those carriages… they probably have never even heard of Claude Rayforth and his victory over his seniors. These junior disciples, they\'ve not learned to stand up for themselves. They\'re weak-minded. Ready to be ruled over by us, the seniors."

POW!

Harry slapped Linguini on his shoulders, and said, "You don\'t want them making fun of your name now, do you?"

"No!" Linguini replied almost immediately with a cold voice.

"Good," Harry nodded his head. "Well then, as seniors, I guess we\'ve got ourselves a job to do."