The Magician of Sound

"…" Evan stared at Kai with a weird expression.

On one hand, he was slightly concerned about his well-being because he heard many things about her training being torture and such. On the other hand, he sympathized with Ria for not having Kai with her, especially with that sound of happiness coming from the call.

Kai shook his head and sighed. "Anyway, I will be calling you when the holiday comes."

"Sure. You can call me whenever."

"Take care of your health too."

"I am not going to drink. Just open up a juice or something and eat cakes. I am in the nice part right now, and your news has made me fired up." Ria laughed and hung up.

Kai then let out a long sigh and rested his head on the table. "Anyway, the problem is fixed now. I realize that the reason why you talk this early is because of my teacher, right?"

"Yeah. I am just afraid that she has gotten a mission for you, so I feel bad if I ask you a bit later and have her change the mission. And there is no guarantee she will change it."

"I just need to say the last piece, and she will change it even if I inform her at the last minute."

Evan raised his eyebrows with a small smile. "Your teacher treasures you well… I am envious."

"I won\'t deny that, but the excitement from earlier probably came from the fact that she could train with me again. Haiz, I feel that this three months holiday will surely kill me a few hundred times, no, more than a thousand times." Kai let out a long sigh.

Evan was shocked when he realized Kai didn\'t lie. He then remembered how Kai actually died more than ten thousand times in the past during the one-year training.

Kai shrugged. "Either way, the plan won\'t change, so there is no need to overthink it. On the other hand, you should also keep practicing, so you can show me what you can achieve in this one month of peaceful days."

"I understand. I won\'t disappoint you." Evan nodded.

Kai nodded back and watched Evan leaving. He then relaxed for a little longer and decided to return to his house.

The next day, the group did their job inside their usual room like nothing happened. Because of the severity of this matter, Kai decided to tell them after they got the mission.

And just like that, three weeks passed by.

A message came to them, telling Kai to meet the council president.

Because this was the first time the two would meet face to face, Michelle decided to accompany him.

"Kai, where do you think the next mission is going to be?" Michelle asked. "This probably won\'t be too big, right? Considering the one handling this is the student council president, not my grandfather."

"Actually, I will probably go with only Evan this time."

"Hm?" Isabelle tilted her head in confusion while narrowing her eyes.

"I had a talk with Evan a few weeks ago and requested my teacher to assign the mission only to Evan and me this time. That\'s why I believe we won\'t get a big mission."

"This is the first time you said this…"

"Yeah. I thought the rest would be against this, so I kept it a secret until we received the mission."

"I see." Michelle nodded with a sigh.

"You are not angry?"

"Nope. It\'s fine to have that, and I am sure you are not someone who accepted something like that without any apparent reasons. Although it\'s true that I want to show you my new fighting style, I will refrain myself after the three months training. At that time, you might lose against me, you know."

"Heh." Kai smiled. "I am looking forward to it."

"The others also have started their training and achieved something from that. Now, I am wondering if the boys are fighting the girls in our group, who will win…" Michelle grinned as if she was trying to taunt him.

"That is a good idea. Maybe we should do that once before the holiday."

"Sure. I will ask the others about this. But make sure you don\'t pull your punches just because we are your girlfriends, you know."

"It will be just an insult to you girls, so I won\'t do that. Well, I will still not attack you in a brutal way, my heart can\'t withstand seeing that." Kai shrugged.

"That is good enough." Michelle nodded. "Considering the timing of this mission, we will hold it on the last day of school. What do you think?"

"Sure." Kai nodded as they arrived at the student council room. He knocked on the door a few times until there was a response coming from the inside, telling them to come in.

He then pushed the door as both entered the room, finding a woman sitting in the president\'s seat. She had light blue hair reaching her waist and sharp blue eyes.

Next to her stood a woman that seemed to have just served the piping hot tea for the president.

"Greetings. This is our first meeting, I guess." The woman smiled and stretched her hand as if asking Kai to take a seat.

"Indeed." Kai nodded. "Still, I have heard of your reputation in school, so nice to meet you, president Laura."

"Yeah. I have gotten the instruction from my grandfather, so I won\'t do anything against you. I think I need to tell you this first…" She sighed.

"Haha… I just don\'t want an extra problem. As long as I don\'t have any problem coming from school, I think I can lead a laid-back school life."

"A laid-back school life huh. I can relate since you have missions far more dangerous than any of us. That\'s also the reason I want to contact you. I simply can\'t see you as a patriot, considering you just came to this base a year ago."

"You—" Michelle wanted to rebuke her, but Kai simply waved his hand and stopped her.

"I know, and I don\'t have any intention in calling me a patriot. I am also not a patriot of United Asia." Kai shook his head.

She narrowed her eyes and sighed. "I see. In that case, let\'s cut to the chase, shall we?"

"Much appreciated."

"Then, this is your mission." She handed a paper to him.

Kai read it with Michelle.

"In the middle of Chile, there is a disturbance caused by magical beasts. To be more specific, it\'s on the west of our Raid Mission. They have spotted around a thousand magical beasts coming from there, and it will go more and more as time goes on."

"The reason?" Kai asked.

"They were hit by a rare typhoon recently, causing destruction in the area. Because of this typhoon, the magical beasts are pushing back. Hence, the new base there wants you to eliminate the leaders of these magical beasts."

"Is there any report about the leaders?"

"No."

"So, they want me to investigate this myself?"

"Nope. But according to them, they are coming from the mountain range, so there is only one place to find the leaders. It\'s hard for the army because the magical beasts will surely attack them, but you are different. They want you to annihilate the leaders while they are paying attention to the army."

"Still, the leaders won\'t be unguarded."

"But it\'s not going to be as much as the ones attacking the army."

Kai stared at her and nodded. "I understand the gist of the mission. I will confirm it again, I only need to take down the leaders, right?"

"Yes. But because we haven\'t identified which are the leaders, you need to check every powerful beast in the area."

"I don\'t mind. It won\'t take too long since I can find them easily." Kai nodded.

"Then, there is one more thing I need to ask you."

"Sure. What is it?"

"The moment your sister, Tasha Carter, leaves the group… What will you do?"

Kai twitched his eyebrows as he thought she wanted to take her away. But he realized that graduation was around the corner. He calmed himself and sighed. "Why do you ask?"

"I mean, your score will be reset to zero because she graduates. You won\'t be in the top one hundred anymore unless you finish a couple of missions."

"I will just ask the government for a mission." Kai nodded.

"There is actually another way to get it back. Do you want to hear it?"

Kai furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Michelle.

"Now that you mention it, I haven\'t checked the rank for a long time." Michelle nodded and opened her device, finding the school rank. And it turned out they had been staying in 5th for a long time.

"Well, those who are in the top four are third years, including me, so I don\'t blame you for getting 5th. When the third years graduate, we will leave the ranking, including you who have Tasha Carter."

"Fair enough. So, what is your point?"

"You will probably reach top rank with this pace, so I know there will be unrest within the students. Because most of us are taking many points from the group battles to stay ahead of you, they will question the ability of your team.

"After all, you got those points from the government itself and never had any other group battle. No one could judge your ability and think that you are just getting everything from your influence. I know you don\'t care, but many will happen to this school because of that.

"So, I am here to propose a plan. This will be a win-win solution. Would you like to hear it?"

Kai glanced at Michelle and nodded. "Sure. Tell us."

"I want you to hold a group battle just once more."