My Disciples Grind, I Get 100x Their Progress

—An Invader was spotted by a police officer on night patrol the previous evening. Its current whereabouts remain unknown. Residents in and around the Canelo District are advised to exercise caution. The Invader is believed to be a Liquid-type, ranked at E.

Early that morning, Julian, relaxing with a sandwich and a glass of milk, found himself frozen stiff in his seat.

"...Seriously? That’s close to where I work, right? Or worse, is it actually right around this residential area?"

At first, Julian had assumed the Central region was completely safe from Aliens. But that clearly wasn’t the case, in truth, no place was ever fully safe. Aliens could always find a way to slip through, it was just that Central had far better security systems in place to keep infiltrators like that under control.

Julian was fairly confident about this, having scrolled through plenty of news articles by now, there’d been a fair number of supernatural incidents involving Aliens before this. Just last week, there’d been something similar too, but far enough away that Julian could stay relatively calm about it.

This time, though, was different. Julian couldn’t feel calm or fine about it at all, because this time, the Alien was right here, in the Canelo District itself.

"...This makes no sense."

’Should I just take some time off work and stay home for a while?’

Yeah, that honestly sounded like a solid plan. Because there was absolutely no way he could picture himself working alone at LittleMart until midnight, then walking home by himself afterward.

Just thinking about it was enough to send a chill crawling across every inch of Julian’s skin.

"Whatever happens, I need to avoid this."

Ding!

"....?"

’A visitor?’

Julian’s thoughts were cut short by the sound of a bell outside the house, signaling someone had arrived and pressed it.

That was unusual. Maybe a newspaper delivery, but those usually came on Sundays or Wednesdays.

Julian stepped outside, opened the door, and found an envelope sitting on the ground.

Hesitant, Julian picked it up, opening it carefully. A single sheet of paper appeared, covered in neat, careful handwriting.

"Oh?"

Turned out, it was from Kina. Guessing this might run a little long, Julian headed back into the living room, sat down on the sofa, and started reading.

—Master! How have you been? It’s Kina! Your most beautiful disciple, hehe.

—It’s already been two weeks since we first met and went our separate ways. I kind of miss you.

After that, Kina went on to describe a few things, how she’d started studying, eating lunch out in the garden, training late at night. Everything was written in neat, consistent handwriting, and given this was still a modern era with advanced technology like smartphones, it was oddly impressive just how good Kina’s actual handwriting was.

’...But why isn’t there anything about friends?’

Was Kina just bad at making friends?

But given how cheerful she was, she should still be able to make a few friends easily enough, shouldn’t she?

Julian thought it over, then shook his head, this probably wasn’t a "Kina" problem. Given that she was openly identified as coming from the Slums, her academy life obviously wasn’t going to be easy.

But since this was Kina, she’d probably be fine, Julian was fairly confident of that.

—By the way! Master, I learned a Skill called Flash Step. Apparently, compared to most other F-Grade skills, Flash Step is one of the better ones, with really strong future potential.

—Do you think I made the right call here?

’Of course, that was absolutely the right call. I’m incredibly proud of you, especially since now I can finally run away way more effectively if I ever end up in trouble! You should keep developing this one.’

Julian smiled, thoroughly satisfied, nodding in full approval of Kina’s decision.

—About a week from now, apparently there’s going to be an inter-Academy tournament. Around that time, Master, you’ll be asked to come in and help with the registration process. Eh, ehem, I really want to enter the tournament, I hope that’s not too much trouble for you, Master.

’A tournament?’ Julian didn’t overthink it and agreed right away. He was more than willing to do a lot of things if it meant helping Kina grow further. Especially now that he understood this city hadn’t fully eliminated the threat, only reduced it.

With Kina eventually becoming incredibly strong, all Julian had to do was cling to her coattails. Sure, he’d naturally grow stronger too along the way, but let’s be real, best to avoid actual fighting whenever possible.

He’d only fight if circumstances left him with no other choice.

After that, Kina rambled on about a few more things. Julian finished reading, then wrote a reply and got ready to send it back to Kina.

***

Kina felt her mood lift considerably after successfully learning Flash Step. Sure, it was still early days, but she wasn’t discouraged in the least.

I mean, she’d only received that skill book three days ago, and she’d already managed to master it.

For now, though, she had no intention of showing anyone that she could already use it. Not while they still looked at her with that much open hatred. Kina chose to keep playing weak rather than risk drawing even more bullying her way.

The students bullying her, for the most part, came from backgrounds Kina figured she’d be better off not provoking. One wrong move, and she’d be the one expelled.

She’d decided to hold back and show her full worth only once the tournament came around.

"Oh, look who finally decided to show up to class."

"Wow, now we’ve got two pieces of trash sitting here! What a rare sight, hope you two live happily ever after."

"Hahahaa."

Today felt considerably noisier than usual. The reason for that came down to Kina’s seatmate, someone who’d been avoiding class entirely up until now.

A frail, helpless-looking girl.

’How cruel.’

Kina couldn’t help but feel genuine sympathy. The moment she got a good look at the girl’s condition, she was honestly shocked, it wasn’t just bad, it was severe.

The girl always walked with a cane, her academy uniform covered in dust and kick marks from someone’s shoes. But the real issue, the core of it all, was that the girl was blind.

Yes, completely blind, unable to see clearly at all.

As Kina turned her head to glance at the girl curled up over her desk, her body gave a small, involuntary jolt.

"...?"

Kina blinked, but quickly brushed the feeling aside.

’By the way, when are these people ever going to get bored of this?’

Kina scowled, glancing down at her own desk. The scribbles had multiplied since last time, and now there were even direct insults scrawled straight at her.

"...."

When break time finally arrived, Kina headed toward that quiet garden spot as usual, planning to eat lunch there. She’d grabbed a meal from the academy cafeteria, but before she could reach the spot, she ran straight into her tormentors, right in the middle of the hallway.

"Ugh...!"

"Come on! Come on! Look at this idiot. She really does look like some old hag!"

"Ssstt, keep it down or the professors will hear you, haha!"

"So what if they do? The professors will shut up. My dad’s a donor, after all."

"Wow, that’s messed up, haha. I heard this bitch’s whole family died fighting some weak Invader? Poor thing, why didn’t she just die with them?"

Seeing that, Kina felt her eye twitch. The girl, if Kina remembered correctly, her name was Ilunia Novalin.

A girl from the Novalin family, once said to be one of the more successful Hunter families out there, until it all collapsed after a single incident that wiped out the entire family.

Ilunia Novalin was the only one left.

"What are you looking at?"

"....!"

Kina flinched slightly when the boy turned his gaze on her, then he recognized her and smirked.

"Oh! Well, isn’t this convenient," His smirk widened as he glanced over at the rest of his friends.

"Wow, Roland, you’re actually going to do it? That’s insane."

"Haha, it’ll be an honor for her, really. Besides, it’s not a problem as long as nobody finds out, right?"

"Hmm... alright, we’ll tag along and watch, this should be quite the show."

"I’ll kill any of you if you even think about ratting me out."

"Hahahaha."

"..."

’What? He’s looking at me like something disgusting.’

Kina’s brow furrowed as Roland stared at her, his lips curling in a way that sent a shudder crawling down her entire body.

"Come with me."

Then, without another word, he closed the distance, grabbed her wrist roughly, and yanked her forward.

"Ugh..." Kina winced slightly at the rough handling, uncomfortable with how forcefully Roland was dragging her along.

"Oh, might as well bring this bitch too."

"Sure thing."

But since Kina had already decided to keep her patience, she simply bit down on her lip and followed along, obedient.

They ended up somewhere quiet and dark, more precisely, in a warehouse that clearly saw almost no visitors at all.

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