Chapter 103 - Change In Status
After the incident that happened in the Martial Arts Department, Loki was forced to stay in the hospital for a week. The following morning after he woke up, he was visited by Detective Matsuri.
"So how are you?"
"As you can see in another hospital bed." Loki joking said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know if you're really lucky or unlucky, you've actually met the terrorist group Star of Dawn."
While Matsuri was talking she sat down at the side and started peeling the apples she brought. As she fed Loki the two of them started talking about random things. Except for the start of the conversation, Matsuri never asked Loki what he experienced nor did she talk about the Star of Dawn even though she mentioned it at the beginning. After she was done checking up on him Matsuri left. The exact moment she left the room Harold called Loki and asked if he was doing alright.
After they exchanged some pleasantries Loki asked Harold if he could erase all the footage of him during the incident.
"Oh that, I already did that yesterday. You really got your a*s handed to you. I'm not a fighter so I can't really tell if what I saw was right, but for some reason, it felt like you were holding back as if you didn't want to kill your opponent."
"I have my own rules that I follow, and I do not kill people without getting paid, you know that."
"Alright, I get that you're a professional and all that, but this person was trying to kill you, and nearly succeeded. Surely that should be an exception to your rules."
"It doesn't matter if he was trying to kill me... I might be an assassin but I still have my own code my own rules, If I do not follow them then that would make me feel like I'm no longer human... That I'm nothing more than a killing machine. I can never take that step, despite already being so deep in the darkness... I know it might seem like I'm a hypocrite and a coward for doing these things but this is something I will never go against."
"..." Harold no longer responded and the two changed topics. After a few more back and forth the mood finally lighted and they ended the conversation on a positive note.
...
There were also many from the Martial Arts Department that went and asked some questions about what Loki remembered from the incident. Loki answered by saying that he was saved by a man wearing a white mask and that's all he remembered.
...
A week later Loki was discharged from the hospital and when he got home he was greeted by a lot of paperwork that needed to be done. Now that he and his siblings were officially considered martial artists there were many things that they needed to do and there were many things that were about to change.
The first thing was a change in their public registry, and then they needed to have a talk with the Principal of the school to change Liam's course from the regular one to the martial arts course. As for Alisa, at first, she didn't want to change course, but after a talk with her guidance counselor, she changed her mind.
On the other hand, Loki needed to wait for a few more days before he was able to finish his rank assessment. During the rank assessment, Loki found it very difficult to stop his body from reacting to every attack that was made against him. If it was once or twice it would've been okay, but he needed to do it multiple times during the test.
He also needed to hold back the right amount so that he wouldn't look too weak or too impressive. Still given that he was already considered a rare talent due to having the same amount of inner energy as a rank four martial artist after awakening his inner energy, he wouldn't be able to escape the genius tag. So instead of trying to be mediocre which would look suspicious, Loki decided to be ranked as one of the weakest genius martial artists.
He would try hard enough to be better than the known weakest of those labeled as geniuses but not too much so that others won't take notice of him. In the end, Loki had received the title of a rank three martial artist. Grandmaster Bernard had also given him a special exemption and once Loki was able to fully utilize his inner energy, he would automatically raise in rank into a rank four martial artist.
...
There was also a need to change his status in school, now that he was a martial artist and a rank three one at that, the school felt that him being a librarian was no longer enough. Seeing as the teachers of the Martial Arts Department were within rank three to five, the school decided that Loki be named an honorary teacher. He now had the same status and salary as the teachers but he wasn't required to teach.
Loki's status suddenly rose in the school, as now not only did he look incredibly handsome but even his salary and ability had become quite good.
Unlike his siblings who needed to wait for a month before they're able to go back to school, Loki still went to work, and in the few days since the change in his status the library that was once a quiet place were he could meditate and strengthen his mana supply suddenly became rather noisy.
Before there were only one to two people in the library but now the library was almost always at full capacity. There were also the many irritating students that keep on giving him love letters. For the first time in his two lives, Loki had received not one but several love confessions from different ladies in the span of a few days. Some of those that confess their interest were teachers and most of them were students.
Due to the change, it became rather difficult for Loki to train. Even though the concentration of mana in the library was so much that even without meditating he could absorb the mana into his body, but it wasn't as effective if he actively meditated. Not to mention since many of the students follow him while in school, he was unable to test out some spells that he could now use after his mana supply had once again expanded.
Loki now needed to find a place were he could test his techniques without anyone watching. The only thing that didn't change was Michael who came to the library as usual and would read different books about the occult.
...
After a few more days the hype was finally dying down, and there were fewer and fewer students coming to the library. Also after rejecting girl after girl, the public confessions of love finally stopped, though Loki still received numerous love letters.
There was even one time after Loki told her about the love letters that Detective Matsuri came and was seemingly trying to intimidate the other women that came to confess to Loki. Unfortunately for her, the women weren't intimidated by her and kept on giving Loki love letters.
"Thanks for trying Detective, but it's alright. At this point, they aren't really disturbing me as much as before."
"... That's not why I did that...."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing, so wanna go out for a drink?"
"Sure."
Loki with Matsuri beside him left the school Matsuri then turned her head and smiled at the female students, which made numerous female students infuriated as they followed behind them.